The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how health and relationship education teachers describe their teaching experiences with students learned cultural narratives and personal experiences while teaching health and relationship education in the public school classroom. The two main research questions were: RQ1: How do…

Whereas most sociologists consider sexuality a social construct, the general public tends to view it in more essentialist terms. This tendency is commonly manifested in the idea of sexual drives as internal overpowering biological forces guiding human sexual behavior. To counter this narrative, sociologists William Simon and John H. Gagnon…

Issues surrounding gender and sexuality are fundamental determinants of either a liberated or restricted human experience, and comprehensive sex education has been recognized as an essential mechanism to help youth process their gender and sexuality in a standardized, open, safe, and healthy atmosphere. In the absence of such education, Y novels…

This study focuses on interviews with fifteen writers of real person fiction -- a type of fanfiction -- about British boy band One Direction. Most interviewees began writing these romantic, often sexually explicit, stories between the ages of 12 and 16. Results indicate that many writers learned how to write about sex by reading other explicit One…

Condom use among Australian adolescents has been shown to be variable, despite good knowledge among this group about sexual health risks and the promotion of condoms as a simple way to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections. This study explores dominant constructions of condom use within two Australian lifestyle magazines targeted…