Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract:

Qualitative research techniques, employed with 9-12-year-old, aid in understanding the (re)production of gender inequalities normalized by the discourse of heterosexuality

Paper long abstract:

The results of our research on sexuality from a gender perspective involving boys and girls have revealed a contradiction between the egalitarian narratives they express and their everyday practices. In these practices, they often unknowingly reproduce gender inequalities. Building upon the reflexive process of qualitative research (Davis, 1998), understood as the acquisition of self-awareness and political awareness through self-analysis, this article aims to demonstrate how qualitative research techniques produce a self-reflexive process that can enhance children’s awareness of the (re)production of gender inequalities.

Alanen (1994) reflected on the limitations of children's involvement within the school institution, in terms of the predominance of power relations between adults and children. Her proposal for researchers to become adult 'allies' aimed to equip children with analytical tools that would enable them to become aware of the gendered power relations manifested within the classroom and normalized by the regulatory discourse of heterosexuality (Blaise, 2009).

Through six workshops conducted with children aged 9 to 12 (4th, 5th, and 6th grades) at a public primary school in a high-middle-class neighborhood in Barcelona, conducted in 2020 and 2021 during the Covid pandemic, this paper describes three ethnographic cases in which the self-reflexive process has been applied. Boys and girls analyze self-produced ethnographic material with the objective of prompting them to question gender through three symbolic elements: skirts, abs, and football. The results demonstrate that participating boys and girls feel challenged by the researchers' questions, gain awareness, and subsequently transform their everyday realities.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

Early access to pornography by children in Spain contrasts the vision of asexual infancies. Our study explored explicit content's impact on children aged 9-11, using drawings to prompt discussions. Findings reject pornography's educational value, emphasizing the need for sexual education programs.

Paper long abstract:

Infancy, historically seen as asexual (Davies & Robinson, 2010), contrasts with recent findings of pornography consumption starting at age 8 in Spain (Ballester & Orte, 2019). This discrepancy has sparked societal concern, as reflected in the Spanish press. Our study's primary objective was to explore the nature, usage patterns, information sources, and coping mechanisms related to explicit sexual content accessed by children aged 9 to 11. Throughout 2022-2023 our research engaged in 27 focus groups involving over 250 children from nine schools in the province of Barcelona. We used drawings as narrative triggers (Eldén, 2013), to encourage discussions and insights among the participants. The collected data underwent a qualitative analysis employing discourse analysis and visuals. Initial findings reveal a significant deviation from conventional literature, which suggests pornography serves as a learning tool for children (Save the Children, 2020; Diputació de Barcelona, 2023). Contrarily, our results indicate that, through family dialogue and guidance, children do not perceive pornography as educational but rather seek it for pleasure. Furthermore, our study revealed children's adeptness at devising strategies to avoid unwanted content and combat online risks like bullying or grooming. However, it also unveiled the perpetuation of gender disparities within accessed content and the methods by which they access it. These findings underscore the pressing need for affective-sexual education programs tailored to children's requirements. Our aim is to advocate for the development of such programs and to offer guidance for parents and teachers on initiating meaningful conversations about these sensitive topics with children.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

This article aims to describe the transmission of knowledge and moral values in the mother-child relationship, intersecting with educational, reproductive, and health policies for women and children in the Amazon.

Paper long abstract:

Contemporary studies on sexual education in Brazil identify challenges based on some demands made by mothers and fathers, supporters of values such as that sexual education should be applied by the family and not by the school. A decolonial perspective is sought through the discourses of these women-mothers, emphasizing the need for educational policies resonating with the challenges and opportunities presented by mothering, such as in Amazonian contexts. The diversity of motherhoods recognized through the Amazonian mothering and many others, guide the conception of worlds that are culturally sensitive to sexual education and reproductive health policies.

This article aims to describe the transmission of knowledge and moral values in the mother-child relationship, intersecting with educational, reproductive, and health policies for women and children in the Amazon. It focuses on how motherhood shapes educational paradigms, promoting values, traditions, and potential gender inequalities and violence in the sexual experiences of girls and boys, in the region. From the perspective of Brazilian feminist anthropology and gender studies in the Brazilian Amazon, this ethnographic article discusses the influences of mothering on sex-affective educational dynamics and sexual and reproductive health.

Critically visualizing that family environments shape moralities towards sexuality implies that "home-based sex education" reproduces gender inequalities, contrasting with the equity values of sex education in schools, even in an Amazonian city. Two ethnographic cases, of women-mothers of young people, will allow us to analyze accessibility and awareness of public health care policies for women and men - daughters and sons.

Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract:

We present the dynamics of the lives of young people in situations of sexual exploitation in Manaus, Amazonas, presenting the network of sexual exploitation in which these girls are inserted, discussing gender, heteronormativity and feminine ideals.

Paper long abstract:

This paper presents research on sexual exploitation of adolescents in the Amazon. We analyzed this complex phenomenon based on two social networks that operated in the lives of girls in situations of sexual exploitation. One of them, known as a protection network, where professionals linked to the state and NGOs worked to remove these girls from situations of sexual exploitation. The other exploitation network, called by them the “rede do babado” presented itself as a crucial native category for understanding the sexual exploitation of young people. We emphasize the description of the " rede do babado" in this text, since this is the "exploitation network", and offers an in-depth analysis of the "solidarity" networks present in the logics related to sexual exploitation in the Amazon region. Using an ethnographic exercise, we seek to highlight the importance of adopting the perspectives of adolescents to name and understand this network, contributing to a broadening of perspective on the topic. Additionally, explores gender theories considering the place of adolescents, conducting a critical analysis of the heteronormative representations that shape feminine ideals. This research highlights the relevance of apprehending the "rede do babado" as an intrinsic native category, thus enriching our understanding of the complexity of adolescent sexual exploitation in the Amazon, through an anthropological lens. By fostering a culturally contextualized understanding, this study seeks not only to expand academic knowledge, but also to problematize the topic with a more sensitive approach that can get closer to the reality of young women.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

Disabled children and teenagers sexual opportunities are constrained by normative interpretations. Seen as assexual or unfit for parenting roles they face a discrimination, ranging across different disabilities, affecting possibilities to live sexuality or to unbecome from the disabling patterns.

Paper long abstract:

Disabled children are one of the less represented subjects in research and many aspects of their lives are still unknown. There is an increasing need to bring the diversity of their voices into research.Capturing their agency and individuality (Goodley & Runswick-Cole, 2012) can highlight research with disability-specific views. Regarding sexuality, children are often socialized to become asexual and unattractive and considered to be unfit for the future role of having a sexual marriage or to become partners or parents ( Addlakha, Price & Heidari 2017). This discrimination is based on normative ideias of sexuality and social roles and ranges across different disabilities shaping children and teenager's life experiences. Moreover, children are often interpreted by the lens of the vulnerability paradigm and in need of social protection. Seen as an homogenous group they are viewed as passive and unable to have agency. This renders the sexual dimension of children and teenager's lives to an invisibility, also in research.

Using this springboard for discussion we expect to challenge this invisibility. Exploring our ethnographic research, with disabled children and teenager's, we will bring out some data showing how sexuality is produced and restrained to normative ideias and targeted to a strong surveillance. Preventing disabled children and teenagers to unbecome - to come otherwise- from the normative disabling patterns and having the chance to live a sexual life.

Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract:

Our research presents the sexual initiation of young girls living in a countryside town of Amazonas state, in Brazil, and discusses gender, sexuality and sexual abuse.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper we present the research carried out in the municipality of Presidente Figueiredo, a countryside town in Amazonas (Brazil) about the sexual initiation of young girls who graduated from a public educational institution, which offers professional education integrated with secondary education. The research was developed with girls who are currently over 18 years old, who had graduated from the institution, with the aim of understanding how they describe their first sexual experiences, their affections and their role in these experiences. There were several stories in which young women participating in the research experienced sexual abuse in childhood and adolescence, as well as situations in which their first sexual relationship occurred with a teacher, emphasizing the relationship of hierarchical inequality between those involved, which made it difficult for the researchers to work, because it was an ethical issue about reporting the teacher, since sex with minors under 14 is, by law, presumed rape. However, what caught our attention the most was how young women dissociate situations of sexual abuse from consensual sexual initiation. By broadening our view of sexual initiation to the processes involved until the culmination of sex, we realize that several situations that precede sexual interaction are abusive but ignored or naturalized and when talking about sex, gender, affections and choices, girls disconnect sex by their own choice due to the abuse they suffered during their lives. And in this context, sex with a teacher is described as a personal choice.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

In this paper I report some results of my ethnographic research in Italy on sexuality education. I have researched with teenagers and parents to find out the different ways in which sexual knowledge is transmitted and negotiated in families and in different educational settings.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I report some results of my PhD research on sexuality education in Italy and the different ways in which sexual knowledge is transmitted and negotiated in families and in different educational settings. Sexuality education is not mandatory in Italy and only a few people have access to educational programs on sexuality. Right-wing parties and anti-choice associations advocate against sex education and, generally, it’s very difficult to talk about children’s sexuality at school. Children and teenagers get information about sex on the internet or talking with friends and (sometimes) with parents, and often, when they are having their first sexual experiences, they don’t have the spaces to talk about this with adults. However, in recent years, more and more people believe it is necessary to introduce sexuality education in schools; feminist movements claim it as a tool to fight gender-based violence and patriarchal culture. During the fieldwork, I collected the voices of the teenagers to understand their point of view on this issue and investigate how they lived their early sexual experiences. Interviews with young and adult people showed how adolescents accept, negotiate, and subvert the dominant sexual culture, and how the categories of sexuality are negotiated and given new meaning in intergenerational relationships.

Send message to Authors

Paper short abstract:

Currently, gender and sex are subjects of debate in society. Our study explores how children understand gender and sex. Some results vary, showing a greater awareness of gender, sexual, and bodily identities, politically correct discourses, and the reproduction of the sex/gender system.

Paper long abstract:

In the current context of Spain and Catalonia, gender is under trouble. The debate over the trans and LGBTQI law (Law 4/2023) has fostered the use of terms that define orientations, performativities, corporealities, and identities, socially located on the periphery of the hierarchy of the sex/gender system that prioritizes heteronormativity (Rubin, 1975). Previously there was silence around these identities ensuring conformity to the norm (Flores, 2010) and the production of normality (Foucault, 1975). However, currently, the marker of difference is named, whereas what is considered "normal" does not need to be mentioned.

This paper shows how children between 9 and 11 years old understand sex and gender. Considering that the same distinction between them as biology/culture assumes that gender itself constitutes sexual difference as a natural fact (Butler, 1999). Some preliminary results, generated within the context of the SexAFIN project, show a greater awareness of terms to define gender, sexual, and bodily identities among children, although not necessarily for labeling what is considered "normal." However, as the binary sex/gender system is a part of the social structure, it continues to reproduce itself when discussing and understanding sexuality. Simultaneously, politically correct discourses on equality are also present.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

This paper challenges the highly fictionalized and politicized notion of children’s innocence by comparing it to the erotic folklore of children, while also looking at traditional Romanian practices to normalize the sexuality of girls and boys.

Paper long abstract:

For many years now, Romania has been holding the record for the highest number of teenage (15 to 19 years old) pregnant girls, but also that of underaged (under 15) pregnant girls. UNICEF, who identified poverty and poor education as important causes of this phenomenon, recommended national campaigns of sexual education. This never happened in Romanian schools due to the opposition of the Church and of other organizations attached to what they call “traditional values”, claiming that, by prohibiting access to that information, they actually protect the innocence of the children. This paper examines the Romanian erotic folklore of children while also looking at the traditional practices of adults to normalize the sexuality of girls and boys. Besides offering a clue about how this “innocence” really looks like, my paper points to the fact that much of the traditional ways of controlling and shaping the sexuality of children reflect local adult fears and old superstitions. However, the idealized and fictionalized innocence of children has become a rhetorical spear head in the euro-skeptical discourse, and also a cardinal theme of local far-right politicians.

Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

This proposal focuses on discussing the repercussions, moralities, and interpretations surrounding gender in the context of different ways of treating girls and boys in situations of sexual abuse, based on a case of sexual violence addressed at a social center in Manaus, Amazonas (Brazil).

Paper long abstract:

During my fieldwork, where I collaborated with a support group for men accused of sexual abuse at a public psychosocial care center in Manaus, Amazonas (Brazil), I encountered a case of familial sexual abuse. In this case, a man sexually assaulted his four daughters (two teenagers and two children) and exposed his sons (two boys) to the assaults. In sessions with psychologists and social workers, the girls were promptly referred to protective shelters. However, the boys were treated as "potential perpetrators." This article focuses on the outcomes, moralities, and interpretations surrounding gender in the context of how different girls and boys are treated when it comes to sexual abuse.