The need for inclusive relationships and sex education (RSE) to respond to ‘risky’ youth online practices: groomed with cisheteronormativity

Kerpen, S.D ORCID: 0000-0002-5365-5268 (2024) 'The need for inclusive relationships and sex education (RSE) to respond to ‘risky’ youth online practices: groomed with cisheteronormativity.' In: Bustillos Morales, J.A, ed. Questioning gender politics: contextualising educational disparities in uncertain times. Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 199-214. ISBN 9781032502298

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Abstract

This chapter builds on longstanding calls for reliable, relatable and relevant gender, sex and relationship education against an increasingly uncertain hostile and exclusionary media and political landscape. It challenges re-surfacing moral panics around childhood innocence in need of protection from a predatory dangerous queerness, demonstrating how such efforts to ‘protect’ children not only marginalises LGBTQIA+ youths but also contributes to making such youths vulnerable to actual grooming and sexual exploitation. Drawing on two case studies from a participatory research project in the United Kingdom – a gay male and a trans female youth – it considers how efforts to contain children’s desires are futile, resulting in young people seeking validation wherever they can find it. Critically engaging with questions of online risk, the chapter considers opportunities emerging through risky and exploitative encounters online, enabled by cisheteronormativity limiting age-appropriate opportunities for validation, information and support for safer explorations of bodies, identities and desires.

Item Type:	Book Chapter or Section
UN SDGs:	Goal 5: Gender Equality Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities
Keywords:	cisheteronormativity, online risk and exploitation, LGBTQIA+ youth, gender and sexuality education
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races L Education > L Education (General) L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
Divisions:	School of Sciences
Related URLs:	https://www.routledge.com/Questioning-Ge...
Date Deposited:	22 Aug 2024 09:34
Last Modified:	09 Oct 2024 19:31
URI / Page ID:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/16423

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