Articles on Sexuality

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A page from a 1934 sex education manual that, like many of its era, managed to be less about sex than about policing racial boundaries. RPH West, Facts about Ourselves for Growing Boys and Girls (Public Health Department of the City of Johannesburg and the South African Red Cross Society, 1934). Wits Historical Papers, South African Institute of Race Relations Collection, AD 843 RJ/NA 18.

Let’s talk about sex education: race and shame in South Africa

Sarah Emily Duff, University of the Witwatersrand

In South Africa’s segregated pre-apartheid state, even sex education was racialised. Christian missionaries had very different lessons for black and white children.
Studies of a reclining male nude: Adam in the fresco ‘The Creation of Man’ on the vault of the Sistine Chapel. c. 1511. Michelangelo. © The Trustees of the British Museum

The truth about sex in ancient Greece

James Robson, The Open University

Here are the facts behind four commonly held beliefs about Ancient Greek sexuality.
What is it that makes Venus a hottie? Is it her hip-to-waist ratio, or just her slenderness? "The Birth of Venus", Sandro Boticelli c1486.

Is there really a single ideal body shape for women?

Rob Brooks, UNSW

Is there an ideal body shape that is universally attractive? A recent study shows that beauty is more complex, and diverse, than that.
BDSM gear at Eros Pyramide shop. Manu2560/Wikimedia

Re‑imagined power: BDSM as Utopian fantasy

Elizabeth Dori Tunstall, Swinburne University of Technology

The BDSM-themed movie, Fifty Shades of Grey, is the number one movie in Australia. Its success means that a lot of people are titillated by the idea of sex beyond “vanilla sex.” Controversy about BDSM…
Fifty Shades of Grey creates a minefield on the issues at play in consensual acts of violence. Universal Pictures

Fifty Shades of Grey and the legal limits of BDSM

Thalia Anthony, University of Technology Sydney

Christian Grey knows exactly his hard limits in sadomasochism and he may also know a thing or two about his legal limits. The Dominant character Grey in the fantasy fiction Fifty Shades of Grey is bent…
We can’t talk about “consensual” BDSM without considering the levels of violence against women. Universal Pictures

Violence dressed up as erotica: Fifty Shades of Grey and abuse

Meagan Tyler, RMIT University and Laura Tarzia, The University of Melbourne

This Valentine’s Day, why not ditch the roses and celebrate by watching some sexual violence? That’s a more honest marketing pitch for the Fifty Shades of Grey film. It’s astonishing that, in 2015, sexual…
Baby boomer women are dressing differently and rejecting a look they associated with their mothers. Pedro Ribeiro Simões/Flickr

Ageing gracefully: how women steer the line between inauthentic and old

Rachel Thorpe, La Trobe University; Bianca Fileborn, La Trobe University; Gail Hawkes, La Trobe University; Marian Pitts, La Trobe University, and Victor Minichiello, University of New England

It doesn’t matter how old you are, you can still look fabulous. This message is sold to us by magazines, newspapers, the cosmetics industry, fashion labels and dating agencies. Think of the recent movie…
Why is it that women can retain their heterosexuality if they kiss, but if men do the same they’re labeled gay? David Shankbone/Wikimedia Commons

It turns out male sexuality is just as fluid as female sexuality

Jane Ward, University of California, Riverside

If women can kiss women and still be straight, what about men? Some scholars have argued that female sexual desires tend to be fluid and receptive, while men’s desires – regardless of whether men are gay…
Baby Boomer women are challenging ideas around what it means to grow old. Cesar Vargas/Flickr

Sex, desire and pleasure in later life: Australian women’s experiences

Bianca Fileborn, La Trobe University; Gail Hawkes, La Trobe University; Marian Pitts, La Trobe University; Rachel Thorpe, La Trobe University, and Victor Minichiello, University of New England

Older people, and particularly older women, are often thought of as being asexual or sexually undesirable. Although the particular age this is believed to happen varies somewhat in the popular imagination…
Our culture tells women there’s something wrong with them if they don’t orgasm. Gustavo Gomes/Flickr

Female sexual dysfunction or not knowing how to ask for what feels good?

Sally Hunter, University of New England

The recently published Italian study suggesting women can only have clitoral, rather than vaginal, orgasms raises important questions about the medicalisation of female sexuality and sexual dysfunction…
Unlocking the secrets of the chastity belt. Science Museum / Science and Society Picture Library

Hunt to discover the ‘secret’ of sexuality is far from over

Richard Cleminson, University of Leeds

“Undress your mind” shouts the promotional material for the Wellcome Trust’s latest exhibition, The Institute of Sexology. It’s an apt tagline, encapsulating how sexology – or the science of sex – has…
Australian couples had sex an average of 1.8 times a week in 2003, this has dropped to 1.4. benik.at/Shutterstock

Australians are having sex less often than a decade ago

Fron Jackson-Webb, The Conversation

Australian couples are having sex less often than a decade ago, the latest national survey of sexual activity reveals. People in heterosexual relationships have sex an average of 1.4 times per week, down…
Technology has done away with the need to insert swabs into the male urethra and speculums into the vagina. Instead, blood and urine are tested. In Tune/Shutterstock

Health Check: the STI check‑up – warts and all

Melissa Kang, University of Sydney

Sexuality is a means of pleasure, fulfilment and intimate connection with other humans. But it can also be a source of anguish. So it’s perhaps no surprise that of all the areas in health care, the “STI…
The extraordinary synod of bishops on family is meeting for two weeks at the Vatican. EPA/L'Osservatore Romano

Pope sets off a ‘gay earthquake’? No, the church has hardly moved

Timothy W. Jones, La Trobe University

A report of debate from the first half of the extraordinary synod of Catholic bishops meeting in Rome has been described as a “pastoral earthquake” and a “seismic shift in Rome” for praising gay relationships…
Brooke Hemphill’s book Lesbian for a Year has stirred new conversations about what it means to be a lesbian today. Purple Sherbet/Flickr

Be a lesbian for a year if you must – but what about lesbians for life?

Shirleene Robinson, Macquarie University

I recently found myself at a bookshop at Sydney’s domestic airport with less than ten minutes until my plane boarded. Scanning around frantically for something to read, my eyes were immediately drawn to…
Women’s Liberation was a worldwide mobilisation that paved the way for powerful critiques of conventional thinking about gender, sexuality and identity. Warren K. Leffler, 1970/Library of Congress

Four decades of thinking gender: the gains, struggles and debates

Raewyn Connell, University of Sydney

The past four decades have produced gains around the world for women and girls in literacy, formal education, life expectancy, workforce participation and access to some professions. We have also seen…

Related Topics

  1. Bisexuality
  2. Feminism
  3. Gender
  4. Homosexuality
  5. LGBTQI+
  6. Pornography
  7. Relationships
  8. Sex
  9. Sex education
  10. Sexual health

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