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ERIC Number: EJ1409959
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1468-1811
EISSN: EISSN-1472-0825
Birds, Bees and Hippies: Sex Education on TV and in "Oz" Magazine in Britain of the 1960s-70s
Ya'ara Gil-Glazer
Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, v24 n2 p172-187 2024
Despite the much-touted 'sexual revolution', during the 1960s-70s, at the time most Western education systems avoided sex education. This article identifies contradictory discourses about sex as manifested in two distinct cultural expressions that co-occurred in those years in the UK. The first represented mainstream social conservatism - in the form of short sex education films produced for schools and colleges. The second, more radical alternative was the British-Australian underground magazine "Oz," which expressed the sexual freedom of the counterculture. Both are discussed from the perspective of visual cultural history as competing agents of sex education - one reproducing the conservative paradigm, and the other aiming to dismantle it. While the films took a biomedical and preventive attitude to sex and embodied a patriarchal heteronormative approach , Oz supported sexual freedom and shattered taboos about such issues as abortion and sexual diversity, as well as celebrated women's sexuality. Nevertheless, male-dominant culture was also reflected on its pages, particularly in gratuitous images of female nudity. Despite this visual sexism, the article highlights the magazine as a countercultural entertainment medium educating for sexual pleasure and offering a creative, nonconformist perspective on sex that was way ahead of its time, and also of our own.
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia; United Kingdom (Great Britain)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A