ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that educational materials commonly recommended to children and adolescents do not, in fact, promote central liberal values. Many contemporary advocates of sex education ground their position in liberal theory. Sex education is seen as a necessary means to responsible sexual self-determination and is accorded high instrumental value. In North American culture full social approval goes to men who are sexual initiators in an overt, public sense. The expectation of male initiation is manifest in widely available sex education materials that can be found in liberal households and schools. To reinforce the devaluing of clitorally based sexual pleasure, sex education materials warn girls about masturbation. In many cultures, heterosexual sex is the only approved form of sexual experience even when a culture is striving to reduce its population. Sexuality serves as a supportive microcosm of larger social dynamics that involve the systematic use of the power of men over women.
