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Abstinence is currently taught as the only form of sex education in a third of public schools. Although most Americans oppose federal funding for abstinence-only education, the federal government has spent more than $1 billion on Title V and community-group programs that promote abstinence before marriage as the sole healthy and moral choice. Studies show that students in abstinence-only programs are no more likely to abstain from sex than their peers who are in comprehensive sex education programs. Moreover, argue Doan and Williams, abstinence-only programs perpetuate gender stereotypes that disproportionately constrain women, retail medical disinformation, and violate the separation of church and state.
Doan and Williams detail what abstinence programs teach students, expose the political and religious agendas behind them, and analyze the damaging effects to women of the resurrection of the chastity belt: including sexual disempowerment, distorted power dynamics in relationships, increased vulnerability to sexual assault, increased emotional vulnerability, increased risk of unintended pregnancy, and STD/HIV infection. By focusing on the marriage of morality politics with gender politics and of ignorance with chastity that underlies abstinence-only education, the authors fill a major gap in the literature of reproductive politics and policy.
List of contents
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface
Chapter 1 Under the Radar: The Advent of Stealth Tactics in Morality Policy
Chapter 2 Tightening the Sexuality Noose: Title V and Abstinence-Only Education
Chapter 3 Good Girls or Dirty Whores? Images and Behaviors of Adolescent Women
Chapter 4 Resurrecting the Chastity Belt: Lessons from Abstinence-Only Curricula
Chapter 5: In Their Own Words: Sexuality, Knowledge, and Power
Chapter 6 Whom and What Are We Saving? Morality, Sexuality and Abstinence
Appendix
Endnotes
Bibliography
Selected Annotated Bibliography
Tables
Figures
Index
About the author
Alesha E. Doan is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas. She is the author of
Opposition and Intimidation: The Abortion Wars and Strategies of Political Harassment.
Jean Calterone Williams is Associate Professor of Political Science and Department Chair at California Polytechnic State University. She is the author of
A Roof Over My Head: Homeless Women and the Shelter Industry.
