This book is a new and exciting resource for teachers, students, and activists who aim to critically examine contemporary sexuality through the lens of sexual literacy and situated social analysis. This original anthology provides shorter cutting-edge essays on theory, method, and activism, including the nature of globalization and local sexuality discovered in ‘glocal’ topics, processes, and contexts. Within the anthology, students, educators, practitioners, and policy makers will find critical conversations regarding a wide array of sexual topics that impact our world currently. These cutting-edge essays inform readers of key moments in sexual history, including areas relating to research, practice, and social policy, and provide a platform from which to engage in rich discussion and forecast the development of sexual literacy in our world within multiple contexts.

Remarkable transformations in critical sexuality studies, sexual science, empirical and humanities-based studies, and human rights in the late-twentieth century reveal many of the complex conundrums of power that drive sexual study in the twenty-first century. Using the multi-faceted characteristics of sexuality literacy to engage critically and situationally across glocal factors, augmenting our ability to forecast sexuality issues, the book attempts answers for the following questions: What are the kinds of problems and solutions does applied critical sexual literacy work engage? How do we value one another and what political stakes are revealed when we do put one person over another? How do sexual identities and behaviors become authentic, meaningful, and important to comprehend in specific times and contexts? How does such work push forward pedagogy and allow forecasting the circumstances of tomorrow inasmuch as we can foresee?

Gilbert Herdt, PhD, is a cultural and psychological anthropologist who specializes in human sexual development, sexual orientation, and sex and gender across cultures. His work in Papua New Guinea and the United States has been published in more than 38 books and 107 scientific papers.

Michelle Marzullo, PhD, is a practicing anthropologist, specializing in critical sexuality studies. She is Chair and Professor for the Human Sexuality PhD Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), leading only the second such fully accredited PhD program in the United States. Her work spans academic and practical applications having engaged a wide range of research and consultancy engagements in the realms of public health, diversity & inclusion, policy, higher education, organizational change, and technology. 

Nicole C. Polen-Petit, PhD, is a developmental psychologist, specializing in human sexual development and sexual identity. She is currently serving as Interim Associate Dean for the College of Letters and Sciences at the National University, San Diego. Her work spans both academic and community settings, having served in both institutions of higher education and within community mental health organizations serving children and families.

Anthem Studies in Sexuality, Gender and Culture

Acknowledgments; Introduction: What We Mean by Critical Sexual Literacy, Gilbert Herdt and Michelle Marzullo; Part One Sexual Literacy in Education and Research; 2 Critical Pedagogy in Sexuality Education: Moving Toward Student Sexual Literacy as a Human Right, Lisa M. Vallin; 3 Situational Analysis and Critical Sexuality Studies, Adele E. Clarke and Christoph Hanssmann; 4 Dispelling the Myths about Sexuality Education, Hon. Helen Clark; 5 Advocating Black Sexual Literacy in U.S. Sexuality Education Efforts, Jermisha J. Frazier; 6 Reading MacKinnon in San Francisco, Rita M. Melendez; 7 Arguing for Sexual Literacy in Fieldwork Preparation, Jerika Loren Heinze; 8 Celebrating Black Sexual Freedom: Prioritizing Accurate Research of Black Sexuality, Ericka Burns; 9 Vnokecetv: Two- Spirit Love at the BAAITS Powwow, Roger Kuhn; 10 White Fragility and Decolonizing Sexuality Research, Satori Madrone and Carole Clements; 11 Doing Critical Sexuality Studies, Michelle Marzullo; Part Two Sexual Literacy in Policy and Social Discourse; 12 Moral and Sex Panics: Barriers to Sexual Literacy, Gilbert Herdt; 13 Sexual Literacy Barriers for Intersex People, Angela Towne; 14 Childhood and Sexual Literacy, Allison Moore and Paul Reynolds; 15 Let’s Cancel the Circular Firing Squad: Arguing against Cancel Culture in the Classroom Toward the Sexual Literacy Journey, Nicole C. Polen- Petit; 16 Sexual Literacy and Sports: Moving Beyond the Binary in Favor of Evidence- Based Policies, Lisa Rapalyea; 17 Navigating Surrogacy as a Gay Man: A Personal and Professional Sexual Literacy Journey, Elliott Kronenfeld; 18 Sexually Fluid and Straight People in the Therapeutic Context, Caroline Paltin; 19 Reconsidering the Sexual Context of Non- Consensual Sexual Interactions, Janna Dickenson and Rebecca K. Blais; 20 The Global Gag Rule Expanded, Caitlin E. Gerdts; 21 A Reckoning: Marxism, Queer Theory and Political Economy, Holly Lewis; Part Three Sexual Literacy in Diverse Communities; 22 Becoming Critically Glocal: Beyond North and South, Individuals and Cultures in Understanding Sexual Literacies, Margaret Jolly; 23 Sexual Risks in Migrations to Reach Western Europe, Lynellyn D. Long; 24 Impact and Expansion of Social Networking on Sexual and Gender- Diverse Young People’s Sexual Literacy, Alexander L. Farquhar-Leicester; 25 Social Media and Sexual/ Gender Diversity among Young People in Thailand, Jan-Willem de Lind van Wijngaarden; 26 Queer Visibility and Recognition Online, Daniel Cockayne and Jen Jack Gieseking; 27 Errancy and Karma in Thailand: Glocal Sexual Health Literacy in the Name of the Aesthetic of Existence, Narupon Duangwises; 28 A Palm Springs Postcard: Understanding Sexual Literacy among Older Gay Men, Brian de Vries; 29 Glocality in the U.S. LGBT Rights Struggle, Sean Cahill; 30 Lifelong Sexual Literacy: A Universal Human Right for Sexual Minorities and Majorities, Gilbert Herdt and Stefan Lucke; Part Four Sexual Literacy in Health, Well-Being and Practice; 31 Sexual Literacy and Health: A Global Challenge, Deevia Bhana, Ekua Yankah and Peter Aggleton; 32 Reproductive Rights and Justice: Thinking through the Connections, Contradictions and Complexities, Elisabeth Berger Bolaza; 33 LGBT Minority Stress through a Glocal Lens, Sean G. Massey; 34 Redefining Sexual Competence, Stefan Lucke; 35 The Medicalization of the DSM: Reconceptualizing Human Sexuality and Gender, Megan Neitling; 36 “Our Body Is Our Own Body”: The Collective Bodies of Public Health, Katherine Lepani; 37 COVID- 19: Sexual and Reproductive Health, Terry McGovern, Kathryn Gibb and Batul Hassan; 38 Advocating for Sexual Literacy, Allison Moore and Paul Reynolds; Contributors; Index.