Description: Continued public outcries over such issues as young models in sexually suggestive ads and intimate relationships between teachers and students speak to one of the most controversial fears of our time: the entanglement of children and sexuality. In this book, Steven Angelides confronts that fear, exploring how emotional vocabularies of anxiety, shame, and even contempt not only dominate discussions of youth sexuality but also allow adults to avoid acknowledging the sexual agency of young people. Introducing case studies and trends from Australia, the United Kingdom, and North America, he challenges assumptions on a variety of topics, including sex education, age-of-consent laws, and sexting. Angelides contends that an unwillingness to recognize children's sexual agency results not in the protection of young people but in their marginalization.
Brief description: Steven Angelides is affiliated with the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health, and Society at La Trobe University and is an honorary senior research fellow in the Department of Modern History, Politics, and International Relations at Macquarie University. He is the author of A History of Bisexuality, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Review Quotes: "[The Fear of Child Sexuality] serves as a courageous and powerful effort at forging a more ethical and equitable administration of sexuality against the manufactured silence that insulates current norms."-- "Journal of the History of Sexuality"