ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the key debates in sex and sexuality. Broadly speaking these fall under the umbrella of ‘sexualisation’. This refers to the panic that our culture has become ‘sexualised’ and that this has had a detrimental impact on people. Sexualisation has been a concern of successive governments, with several attempts to review the evidence on the potentially damaging impact it has, particularly on young people and/or women. The sexualisation reports and debate often make a cultural assumption of childhood innocence which can be tainted by media and products. This is a problem because it can mean that childhood sexuality is denied or regarded as inevitably problematic. The chapter presents few questions: What are we talking about here? How is it defined? Is it one thing or many? If it is many things then we need to separate them out and address each element separately. Finally, the chapter presents some closing thoughts on concepts discussed in this book.
