Sexual socialisation in Life Orientation manuals versus popular music: responsibilisation versus pleasure, tension and complexity
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Date
2015
Authors
Macleod, Catriona
Moodley, Dale
Young, Lisa Saville
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
This paper compares two forms of sexual socialisation to which learners are exposed:
the sexuality education components of the Life Orientation (LO) manuals and the
lyrical content and videos of popular songs. We performed a textual analysis of the
sexual subject positions made available in, first, the LO manuals used in Grade 10
classes and, second, the two songs voted most popular by the Grade 10 learners
of two diverse schools in the Eastern Cape. Of interest in this paper is whether and
how these two forms of sexual socialisation – one representing state-sanctioned
sexual socialisation and the other learners’ chosen cultural expression that
represents informal sexual socialisation – dovetail or diverge. Against a backdrop
of heterosexuality and an assumption of the ‘adolescent-in-transition’ discourse, the
main sexual subject positions featured in the LO manuals are the responsible sexual
subject and the sexual victim. A number of sexualised subject positions are portrayed
in the songs, with these subject positions depicting sex as a site of pleasure, tension
and complexity. Although these two modes of sexual socialisation use different
genres of communication, we argue that learners’ choice of songs that depict fluid
sexual subject positions can help to inform LO sexuality education in ways that takes
learners’ preferred cultural expression seriously and that moves away from the
imperative of responsibilisation.
Description
Keywords
Sexuality education, Popular music, Sexual socialisation, Life Orientation
Citation
Macleod, C., Moodley, D., & Young, L. S. (2015). Sexual socialisation in Life Orientation manuals versus popular music: responsibilisation versus pleasure, tension and complexity. Perspectives in Education: Life Orientation sexuality education in South Africa: gendered norms, justice and transformation, 33(2), 90-107.