The Fight for Sex Ed: The Century-Long Battle Between Truth and Doctrine - Hardcover

$29.95

The Fight for Sex Ed: The Century-Long Battle Between Truth and Doctrine - Hardcover

Name: The Fight for Sex Ed: The Century-Long Battle Between Truth and Doctrine - Hardcover
Brand: BooksCloud
SKU: 9780807008065
Price: 29.95 USD
Availability: InStock

by Margaret Grace Myers

$29.95

Book Overview

The first comprehensive trade history of sex ed in American schools--and an impassioned call to reform sex ed into a powerful tool for reproductive justice and social equality

The U.S. has some of the highest rates of STIs and teen pregnancies in the industrialized world. A comprehensive sex education curriculum--which teaches facts on contraception, prophylactics, consent, and STIs--has been available since the 90s. Yet the majority of states require that sex education stress abstinence, and 22 states do not require sex ed in public schools at all.

In The Fight for Sex Ed, writer, advocate, and historian Margaret Myers shows us how we got here. While the earliest calls for sex ed came from a coalition of religious leaders and doctors at the turn of the century who sought to control the prevalence of STIs, the advent of antibiotics and modern condoms meant that abstinence was no longer good public health policy. The religious right, however, continued to frame it as such, using its impressive machinery to replace scientific facts with conservative Christian values.

Because sex ed is not mandated at the federal level, these battles have played out locally throughout the decades: through rigged school boards, administrative oustings, court cases, unjust firings, scare tactics, and threats. Myers also shows how the religious right has worked to narrow the discourse around sex ed, often dictating the terms of debate almost entirely.

What we teach young people has serious ramifications for reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, and public health. Sex education lies at the intersection of these hugely important cultural forces, yet it has been largely invisible. This book illuminates its potential--and its power.

ISBN	9780807008065
Author	Margaret Grace Myers
Publisher	Beacon Press
Genre	History and Education
Format	Hardcover
Published	August 2025
Language	ENG- English
Pages	288
Weight	1.0 lb
Target Audience	Adults
Print Size	Standard Print

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