Theme 7-8: Teaching Normcritical Sex - Getting Rid of Violence

By Katherine Harrison on 29 Jun | 0 comments

Themes 7-8: Teaching Normcritical Sex - Getting Rid of Violence

TRANSdisciplinary, TRANSnational and TRANSformative Feminist Dialogues on Embodiment, Emotions and Ethics

THEME LEADERS

Prof. Nina Lykke, Dept of Gender Studies, Linköping University
Prof. Barbro Wijma, Div. Gender and Medicine, Linköping University

Themes 7-8 build on the collaborative work, carried out within the framework of GEXcel themes 4-5 "Sexual Health, Embodiment and Empowerment. Bridging Epistemological Gaps."

The main aim of themes 4-5 was to analyse bodies, gender/sex and sexualities from critical feminist perspectives, informed by sociocultural as well as medical theories and methodologies, and based on transversal dialogues between different branches of feminist analysis (queer, sexual difference, post colonial feminism etc.) The research carried out under theme 4-5 led to a focus on three sub-themes, sex education, critical sexology and violence, which all  were  analysed as arenas for both tensions and synergies between sociocultural and medical analytical perspectives.

Themes 7-8 will follow up on this research. It will explore in more detail the struggles and synergies of sociocultural and medical perspectives taking place in the three arenas, sex education, critical sexology and violence. Building on the assumption that new transdisciplinary theories and methodologies are needed in order to grasp the complexities at stake in each arena and in-between them, the research will seek to give transnationally informed answers to questions
such as:

* How to develop normcritical and sex positive sex education, sensitive to intersectional processes of genderization, sexualization, racialisation, ethnicification, dis/ability-construction etc?
* Can normcritical and innovative kinds of sex education contribute to subversion of intimate violence economies, embedded in power differentials based on entangled issues of gender, race, sexuality, nationality, religion, class privilege etc?
* How can sex education worldwide benefit from normcritical approaches to sexological categorizations?
* How to analyse and eliminate violence in intimate relationships and on broader social levels?
Special attention will be given to analysis of transformatory practices, agency and  empowerment within the framework of a focus on the role of embodied emotions (pleasure, shame, hate etc). A rethinking of ethical issues will also be given high priority.