The Components of Great Sex

Ubiquitous “sex tips” in popular media evidence an unquenchable public interest in learning how to experience “great sex,” and studies confirm that a great sexual relationship correlates to general relationship satisfaction, which in turn correlates to overall happiness. While studies of great sex or “optimal sexuality” are few, enough is known to conclude that the paths to great sex depicted in popular media are largely dead ends. This lesson plan will help educators (a) dispel inaccurate information about optimal sexuality disseminated in the popular media and (b) inform students about the components of optimal sexuality.     

Diskurs und Sexualpädagogik: Der deutschsprachige Onanie‐Diskurs des späten 18. Jahrhunderts

This article treats the conflict‐laden relation of discourse analysis and the history of sexuality on various levels: at first it is shown how discourse analysis has become relevant for the history of sexuality in the wake of the transformation Foucault initiated. Continuing this discussion, the author outlines the theoretical connection between discourse and sexual experience. He thereby relies on Norman Fairclough's “text‐oriented discourse analysis”, a method that marries linguistic analysis and social theory, and thus facilitates research into the interactive kind of “sexuality”. The author deals with the linguistic, discursive and social practices of the German‐language pedagogical onanism discourse of the late eighteenth century along its respective dimensions. The texts of the late eighteenth century were more strongly oriented towards pedagogy and medicine compared with the religious–transcendental direction of the seventeenth century. Autobiographically infused texts on onanism served to demonstrate “real” case and life histories of onanists. Since the onanist was considered to be completely determined by his disease, one of the first “sexual subjects” emerged. Letters of consultation show that to some extent the consumers frequently adopted the existing model of onanism, but they also produced interpretations of their own. Precisely, those texts by onanists make evident that neither the concept of a passive registration of sexual discourses nor that of a one‐way communication can do justice to social reality. On the contrary, interplay between professionals and consumers developed. The “performance” of the texts could only succeed because scholars and onanists shared a common sociocultural “body” and could, therefore, understand, accept and sense within themselves the importance and meaning of onanism. The German‐language onanism discourse was part of the educationalist discussion throughout Europe in the eighteenth century, and yielded to the professional interests of a discipline on the cusp of becoming established.     

The Components of Great Sex: Sexuality Education for People Who Desire to Scale the Heights of Optimal Sexuality

Ubiquitous “sex tips” in popular media evidence an unquenchable public interest in learning how to experience “great sex,” and studies confirm that a great sexual relationship correlates to general relationship satisfaction, which in turn correlates to overall happiness. However, sexologists have paid scant attention to “optimal sexuality” and have focused instead on sexual dysfunction. While studies of optimal sexuality are few, we know enough to conclude that the paths to great sex depicted in popular media are largely dead ends. This article provides a framework for giving professional guidance to seekers of optimal sexuality.     

Sluts: Heteronormative Policing in the Stories of Lesbian Youth

The power of compulsory heterosexuality regulates the sexuality of adolescent lesbians as strongly as it does their heterosexual peers. Marked with a sexual(ized) identity, young Southern lesbians in this life history study made claim to moral high ground by consistently identifying with the hegemonic good girl construct and by participating in the naming of women whose sexual behavior demonstrated a disregard for the “rules.” The good girl/bad girl, the virgin/slut binaries, played significant roles in their identity claims, in their relationships, and in their choices of friendships. Personal self-control (“just kissing”) is seen by these young women as admirable and sluts are seen as dangerous women who harm others and themselves. This article explores the marking of sluts and too experienced women in the life stories of White Southern adolescent lesbians and the continued social controls imposed on adolescent female sexuality through the devaluing of women's sexual agency.     

“Looking at the Real Thing”: Young men,pornography, and sexuality education

This article examines the sexually explicit comments and references to pornography in young men's answers to a survey about sexuality education. Instead of viewing these remarks as simply impertinent and therefore discountable, I argue that they offer insights into the constitution of masculine identity and an erotic deficit in sexuality education. Many of these comments make requests for the inclusion of enfleshed (female) bodies in sexuality programmes and the use of pornographic materials (i.e. videos, magazines). These responses can be seen to represent a challenge to school authority in the way they are laden with “shock” value and push at the discursive limits of “sexual respectability”. In a school environment that seeks to deny the sexual and contain student sexuality, these statements symbolise an assertion of young men's sexual agency. Young men's remarks also offer a critique of sexuality education that is de-eroticised and which denies them as positive and legitimate sexual subjects. The implications of these comments for how sexuality education might be conceptualised are considered.     

Exploring the use of a facebook page in anatomy education

Facebook is the most popular social media site visited by university students on a daily basis. Consequently, Facebook is the logical place to start with for integrating social media technologies into education. This study explores how a faculty‐administered Facebook Page can be used to supplement anatomy education beyond the traditional classroom. Observations were made on students' perceptions and effectiveness of using the Page, potential benefits and challenges of such use, and which Insights metrics best reflect user's engagement. The Human Anatomy Education Page was launched on Facebook and incorporated into anatomy resources for 157 medical students during two academic years. Students' use of Facebook and their perceptions of the Page were surveyed. Facebook's “Insights” tool was also used to evaluate Page performance during a period of 600 days. The majority of in‐class students had a Facebook account which they adopted in education. Most students perceived Human Anatomy Education Page as effective in contributing to learning and favored “self‐assessment” posts. The majority of students agreed that Facebook could be a suitable learning environment. The “Insights” tool revealed globally distributed fans with considerable Page interactions. The use of a faculty‐administered Facebook Page provided a venue to enhance classroom teaching without intruding into students' social life. A wider educational use of Facebook should be adopted not only because students are embracing its use, but for its inherent potentials in boosting learning. The “Insights” metrics analyzed in this study might be helpful when establishing and evaluating the performance of education‐oriented Facebook Pages. Anat Sci Educ 7: 199–208. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

社会整合:议程、动员与互动——云南传统媒体在“桥头堡”形象建构中的功能探析

关于媒体在云南"桥头堡"形象建构中的功能研究暂时是一个空白。"桥头堡"本是一项政府战略,本文主要探析云南传统媒体如何通过社会整合将其转化为社会共识和社会合力。笔者从议程设置、社会动员、交流互动三个阶段分析云南传统媒体在"桥头堡"形象建构中的社会整合路径,同时这也是媒体发挥社会整合功能的三种主要方式。     

“The Nation Stands Behind You”: Mobilizing Social Support on 38pitches.com

This research explored social support expressions to and for Boston Red Sox pitcher, Curt Schilling, in response to troubling events he disclosed on his blog, www.38pitches.com. An interpretive analysis of 514 comments posted by blog readers to Schilling's blog entries was conducted. The analysis revealed that, via their supportive postings, blog readers emerged as a mobilized support group who authenticated Schilling's identity as a sports media critic and active sports media participant while also cementing his legacy in Red Sox culture. The analysis suggests that blogs possess valuable public relations utility for professional athletes, particularly for those who have combative relationships with sports journalists, as social support is covertly obtained, enabling professional athletes to preserve “face” while simultaneously garnering support for their views.     

Passing by Proxy: Collusive and Convulsive Silence in the Trial of Leopold and Loeb

Despite unfolding as it did during the sexual revolution of the 1920s, Leopold and Loeb's “trial of the century” elicited a deluge of constitutive discourse that struggled against overt articulation and circulation of the boys’ queerness. In this essay, I argue that those discourses—dominant reportage, in camera courtroom conferences, and Clarence Darrow's famous summation—manifested what I label “passing by proxy,” a collusive and convulsive act of straight closeting that speaks queer sexuality despite concerted effort to silence it.     

Chastity for democracy: Surplus repression and the rhetoric of sex education

Moving from opposition to participation, the Adolescent Family Life Act (1981) and the development of abstinence education marks the conservative movement's pivot to a rhetorical strategy of tolerance that enabled it to coopt the public culture of sex discourse. Working from Herbert Marcuse's theory of “surplus repression,” I argue that the New Right seized the liberationist argument for open public discourse about sexuality to sublimate libidinal desires into a national project of familial (re)productivity. The AFLA is significant in the rhetorical history of sex education because it demarcates the transition to a productive form of biopolitics that sought to manage sexuality by instrumentalizing rather than censuring bodily desire. Conservative sex talk illustrates how Eros—transgressive, creative, and erotic desires—is channeled into the discursive production of hyper-functional subjects invested in their own subjugation.     

Adolescent Safety on the Internet

The article examines the opportunities and limitations of the coping behavior of children and teenagers on the Internet and the assistance that they receive from significant adults (parental mediation) in the context of the new developmental social situation, which is mediated by modern information and communication technologies, and in particular the Internet. The study was conducted on the basis of the EUKidsOnline II methodology in 11 regions in seven Russian federal districts (1,025 “parent–child” pairs). The study discovered that the most common risks include sexual and negative content, fraud and theft of personal information, as well as meetings with online acquaintances. The features of experiences and mechanisms used to cope with online risks depend on the predominant activity that a particular teenager pursues online, so that if children are focused on their studies online, they are less exposed to this risk. However, they are more deeply disturbed by such situations and remain so for longer periods of time, and they more frequently employ passive strategies to cope with them. So-called “content consumers” are at the greatest risk of encountering sexual content on the network. These users actively pursue various activities online, including search engines. They experience fewer negative emotions, and they often actively try to cope with the problem while rarely using offline support. There are few opportunities for parental mediation; these include blocking content and reducing the probability that children, and in particular the teenagers that are focused on their studies, will encounter risks. The strategy of explanation and encouragement is effective for teens who pursue various activities on the Internet, and is associated with a more realistic assessment of risk and young people's active use of coping and social support strategies. For the modern teenager, the Internet is a complex psychological “tool,” which he appropriates by probing its capabilities and opportunities for self-regulation, including coping with difficult life situations.     

Popular culture and moral panics about ‘children at risk’: revisiting the sexualisation-of-young-girls debate

In an attempt to resist moral panics over children's media consumption, and especially girls' consumption of hyper-sexualised popular media, this paper aims to offer a more positive account of popular culture and young children's, especially girls', engagement with it. By adopting a historical approach to modern childhood and the moral panics associated with it, I argue that the consumption of entertainment media and popular culture is a leisure activity which, rather than facilitating or reinforcing female subordination and youth vulnerability, can be seen as a possible source of knowledge about sexuality, about the self and the social world. I draw on findings from qualitative research conducted in Athens with young schoolgirls aged 10–12 years about their favourite popular icons in order to examine the variety of their engagements with, readings and practices of popular culture. Their discursive accounts reveal the intricate ways in which pre-teenage girls make sense of fandom and stardom, discuss taste, fashion and body aesthetics, and construct notions of attractiveness and ethical selfhood.     

Banaji,Shakuntala & Buckingham,David (2013) The civic web MIT Press (Cambridge MA & London) isbn 978‐0‐262‐01964‐4 185 pp £20.95 https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/civic‐web

With the sub‐title “Young people, the internet, and civic participation”, The civic web recognises that youngsters are now well along the path to fully and seamlessly integrated offline and online lives. How can we ensure these young people become and remain fully engaged in their wider society and worlds now and throughout their lifetimes? It applies to teachers insofar as “digital media are part of the taken‐for‐granted social and cultural fabric of learning, play, and social communication”. There is some relevance to formal learning technology here, but the recommendation is that you borrow a copy for thought‐provoking “spare‐time” reading. Eric Deeson     

A critique of neo-Hahnian outdoor education theory. Part one: Challenges to the concept of “character building”

Abstract

Within the diverse and sometimes amorphous outdoor education literature, “neo-Hahnian” (NH) approaches to adventure education are exceptional for their persistence, seeming coherence, and wide acceptance. NH approaches assume that adventure experiences “build character”, or, in modern terminology, “develop persons”, “actualise selves”, or have certain therapeutic effects associated with personal traits. In social psychological terms NH thought is “dispositional”, in that it favours explanations of behaviour in terms of consistent personal traits. In this paper I critically review NH OAE in an historical context, and draw on Ross' and Nisbett's (1991) seminal review of dispositional social psychology to argue that OAE programs do not build character, but may provide situations that elicit certain behaviours. For OAE research and theory, belief in the possibility of “character building” must be seen as a source of bias, not as a foundation. The conceptual analysis I develop provides not only a basis for critique, but also offers a way forward for OAE.     

Field Instruction and the Mature Student

Abstract

As increasing numbers of mature students enter schools of social work, it is a challenge and an obligation for field instructors to discover ways to recruit and sustain them in the educational endeavor. Building upon three theoretical perspectives-Freire's pedagogy of the oppressed, Knowles's andragogy, and Schon's reflective learning and teaching, this paper highlights ways in which field instructors can build upon the strengths of mature students to enhance their development as professional social workers. It discusses “parallel process”, “learning styles”, and “contracting” as proactive strategies to fully engage mature students in attaining a graduate degree.     

Advice on life? Online fan forums as a space for peer-to-peer sex and relationships education

Previous research has pointed to the potential of entertainment media as a source of informal sex education for young people. New social media may offer additional potential in this respect. In this paper, we consider the pedagogical possibilities and limitations of online fan forums, via a case study of the forums of the controversial British teen drama series Skins. We analyse discussions of the realism of the series' representation of teenage life, and of specific issues (virginity, attractiveness and gay sexuality). We compare participants' discussions of their own experiences – in a section of the forum entitled ‘advice on life’ – with their discussions of the series and the characters. We find that the presentation of issues to do with sexuality sometimes challenges young people to engage in debate, and to move beyond established discourses. However, the value of the series in this respect depends crucially on its ‘openness’ – that is, its avoidance of fixed moral positions – and on its perceived plausibility and authenticity. The forum emerges as a new space for non-formal, peer-to-peer education that has limitations as well as new pedagogical possibilities.     

Predicting Web 2.0 use among US teens—Expanding the power of the skill,will and tool model

There is a need to understand antecedents to US teens’ use of information and communication technology (ICT). Research on the “digital divide” for access to ICT reports conflicting findings based on gender and demographic factors of parent income and education. This study expanded the “tool-will-skill” framework to examine how demographic factors, access to ICT tools, teen will factors and social networking skill explain variation in Internet use among US teens. The study analyzed national data from Pew Research Center’s survey of 1,060 US teens. Principal component analysis (PCA) identified six latent variables for teen will. A pre-diagram depicts a conceptual framework and causal assumption of relationships between demographic factors, tool factors (ie, Internet access, smartphone access and tablet access), will factors (from PCA) and skill factors (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter). Multiple linear path analysis was conducted, and results reported. Recommendations are suggested for instructional practice, educational policy and future research.     

Questioning The Aloha in a Multicultural Teacher Education Course

Hawaii is often perceived as the “Land of Aloha”, a racial paradise where everyone gets along. But do we? The author explores Hawaii's distinct cultural dynamics with pre-service teachers in a multicultural education course that problematised race and ethnicity. Using an inquiry approach and culturally relevant activities, the class examined the social inequity that exists between privileged “non-minorities” like Japanese, Chinese and Whites, and “disadvantaged minorities” like Filipinos, Native Hawaiians and Samoans. This study found that living among diversity in Hawaii made recognising racism and social inequity difficult. Patterns of student engagement reflected one's positioning in Hawaii's racial and socioeconomic hierarchy. Students from privileged groups minimised and deflected their role in contributing to racism, while students from disadvantaged groups assumed a more critical stance towards society. This study reframes the dialogue on race in education and provides implications for multicultural teacher education.     

Striving for empathy: affinities,alliances and peer sexuality educators

Peer sexuality educators' accounts of their work reveal two approaches to empathy with their students: affinity and alliance. ‘Affinity-based empathy’ rests on the idea that the more commonalities sexuality educators and students share (or perceive they share), the more they will be able to empathise with one another, while ‘alliance-based empathy’ is an analytical process of considering the social contexts that shape others' lives. We assess the potential for each source of empathy to equip peer sexuality educators to counter hierarchical models of teaching and learning, effect social change and promote the interests of youth. Because shared identity categories prove difficult to manage and sustain, we find affinity alone does not offer peer sexuality educators lasting opportunities to work with young people. In contrast, developing alliance-based empathy prepares peer educators – indeed, all sexuality educators – to identify inequalities or barriers that others face and seek ways to foster social change. We conclude with recommendations for future research.