Abstract
Recent academic and popular conversations regarding #MeToo, sexual violence and harassment, and rape culture have begun to focus on K-12 educational spaces in the U.S., but they rarely examine how educational curricula actually foster or combat these dynamics. In this article, we present a qualitative content analysis of health education textbooks, which explores the following question: What implicit and explicit messages do youth receive about sexual violence, and specifically, sexual violence prevention in health education textbooks? As we explored this question, we analyzed the roles that sex education curricula may play in shaping (e.g., contributing to, intervening upon) rape culture. We found the following messages across textbooks: abstinence is the only way to preserve one’s safety; lack of abstinence increases risks, including the risk of being raped; and girls/women must assume personal responsibility and enact strategies that preserve one’s abstinence and prevent them from being raped. This article concludes by teasing out how curricula can shape interactions, relationships, and culture, and by offering recommendations for improving sex education curricula.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
When we refer to women or girls in this article, we are using the term women broadly. We acknowledge that gender is not binary, and that rape culture affects women, women assigned female at birth, and gender minorities in disproportionate ways.
References
Ambrose, C. E., & Gross, A. M. (2016). Interpreting sexual dating encounters: Social information processing differences in men and women. Journal of Family Violence, 31(3), 361–370.
Bauer-Wolf, J. (2018). A college’s list of alleged rapists. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/01/30/metoo-movement-inspires-similar-campaigns-among-colleges.
Bay-Cheng, L. Y. (2003). The trouble of teen sex: The construction of adolescent sexuality through school-based sexuality education. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society, and Learning, 3(1), 61–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/1468181032000052162.
Buchwald, E., Fletcher, P., & Roth, M. (1993). Transforming a rape culture. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions.
Chiappetta, E. L., & Fillman, D. A. (2007). Analysis of five high school biology textbooks used in the United States for inclusion of the nature of science. International Journal of Science Education, 29(15), 1847–1868. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690601159407.
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Draper, R. J. (2001). How secondary preservice mathematics, science, and social studies methods textbooks support content-area literacy instruction: A qualitative content analysis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Nevada, Reno.
Dworkin, S. L., Treves-Kagan, S., & Lippman, S. A. (2013). Gender-transformative interventions to reduce HIV risks and violence with heterosexually-active men: A review of the global evidence. AIDS and Behavior, 17(9), 2845–2863. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-013-0565-2.
Elia, J. P., & Eliason, M. J. (2010). Dangerous omissions: Abstinence-only-until-marriage school-based sexuality education and the betrayal of LGBTQ youth. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 5, 17–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/15546121003748848.
Elo, S., Kääriäinen, M., Kanste, O., Pölkki, T., Utriainen, K., & Kyngäs, H. (2014). Qualitative content analysis: A focus on trustworthiness. SAGE Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014522633.
Filipovic, J. (2013). “Purity” culture: Bad for women, worse for survivors of sexual assault. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/09/elizabeth-smart-purity-culture-shames-survivors-sexual-assault.
Fine, M. (1988). Sexuality, schooling, and adolescent females: The missing discourse of desire. Harvard Educational Review, 58(1), 29–54. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.58.1.u0468k1v2n2n8242.
Florio, G. (2017). Why some people hide sexual assault after abstinence-only education. Teen Vogue. Retrieved from https://www.teenvogue.com/story/abstinence-only-education-shame.
Grantham-Philips, W. (2018). Here’s how the #MeToo movement is continuing in our schools. Education Post. Retrieved from: https://educationpost.org/heres-how-the-metoo-movement-is-continuing-in-our-schools/.
Hays, D. G., & Singh, A. A. (2012). Qualitative inquiry in clinical and educational settings. New York: The Guilford Press.
Howard, B. (2018). How colleges handle sexual assault in the #MeToo era. U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2018-10-01/how-colleges-handle-sexual-assault-in-the-metoo-era.
Hsieh, H., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277–1288.
Hust, S. J. T., Marett, E. G., Ren, C., Adams, P. M., Willoughby, J. F., Lei, M., … Norman, C. (2014). Establishing and adhering to sexual consent: The association between reading magazines and college students sexual consent negotiation. Journal of Sex Research, 51(3), 280–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2012.727914.
Institute of Medicine. (2001). No time to lose: Getting more from HIV prevention. In M. S. Ruiz, A. R. Gable, & E. H. Kaplan (Eds.), Committee on HIV Prevention Strategies in the United States. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Jewkes, R., Flood, M., & Lang, J. (2015). From work with men and boys to changes of social norms and reduction of inequities in gender relations: A conceptual shift in prevention of violence against women and girls. The Lancet, 385(9977), 1580–1589. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61683-4.
Jozkowski, K. N., Peterson, Z. D., Sanders, S. A., Dennis, B., & Reece, M. (2014). Gender differences in heterosexual college students’ conceptualizations and indicators of sexual consent: Implications for contemporary sexual assault prevention education. Journal of Sex Research, 51(8), 904–916. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2013.792326.
Kalmus, K. (2004). What do pupils and textbooks do with each other?: Methodological problems of research on socialization through educational media. Curriculum Studies, 36(4), 469–485. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220270310001630670.
Klein, V., Imhoff, R., Reininger, K. M., & Briken, P. (2019). Perceptions of sexual script deviation in women and men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 48(2), 631–644. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-018-1280-x.
Kumashiro, K. K. (2000). Toward a theory of anti-oppressive education. Review of Educational Research, 70(1), 25–53. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543070001025.
Lamb, S., Graling, K., & Lustig, K. (2011). Stereotypes in four current AOUM sexuality education curricula: Good girls, good boys, and the new gender equality. American Journal of Sexuality Education, 6(4), 360–380. https://doi.org/10.1080/15546128.2011.624477.
Luker, K. (2006). When sex goes to school: Warring views on sex—And sex education—Since the sixties. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Moran, J. P. (2000). Teaching sex: The shaping of adolescence in the 20th century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Nakkula, M. J., & Toshalis, E. (2006). Understanding youth: Adolescent development for educators. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Nowell, L. S., Norris, J. M., White, D. E., & Moules, N. J. (2017). Thematic analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847.
Osman, S. L. (2011). Predicting men’s rape perceptions based on the belief that “no” really means “yes”. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33(4), 683–692. https://doi.org/10.1088/1009-0630/13/1/22.
Phipps, A., Ringrose, J., Renold, E., & Jackson, C. (2018). Rape culture, lad culture and everyday sexism: Researching, conceptualizing and politicizing new mediations of gender and sexual violence. Journal of Gender Studies, 27(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2016.1266792.
Planned Parenthood Foundation of America. (n.d.). Consent. Retrieved from http://plannedparenthood.tumblr.com/post/148506806862/understanding-consent-is-as-easy-as-fries-consent.
Prouix, N., Pepper, C., & Schulten, K. (2018). The reckoning: Teaching about the #MeToo moment and sexual harassment with resources from The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/learning/lesson-plans/the-reckoning-teaching-about-the-metoo-moment-and-sexual-harassment-with-resources-from-the-new-york-times.html.
QSR International Pty Ltd. (2014). NVivo. https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo-qualitative-data-analysis-software/home.
Ravitch, S., & Carl, N. M. (2015). Qualitative research: Bridging the conceptual, theoretical, and methodological. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Re(thinking) Schools. (2018). #SCHOOLSTOO: Educators’ responsibility to confront sexual violence. Rethinking Schools, 32(3). Retrieved from https://www.rethinkingschools.org/articles/schoolstoo-educators-responsibility-to-confront-sexual-violence.
Rosengren, K. E. (Ed.). (1981). Advances in content analysis (Vol. 9). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Saldaña, J. (2015). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Sanday, P. R. (1996). Rape-prone versus rape-free campus cultures. Violence Against Women, 2, 191–208. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801296002002006.
Santelli, J. S., Kantor, L. M., Grilo, S. A., Speizer, I. S., Lindberg, L. D., Heitel, J., … Ott, M. A. (2017). Abstinence-only-until-marriage: An updated review of U.S. policies and programs and their impact. Journal of Adolescent Health, 61(3), 273–280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.05.031.
Santelli, J., & Ott, M. (2006). Abstinence-only sex education policies and programs: A position paper of the Society of Adolescent Medicine. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38, 83–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2005.06.002.
Simon, W., & Gagnon, J. H. (1984). Sexual scripts. In R. Parker & P. Aggleton (Eds.), Culture, society and sexuality (pp. 31–40). London: Routledge.
Tolman, D. L. (1994). Doing desire: Adolescent girls’ struggles for/with sexuality. Gender & Society, 8(3), 324–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124394008003003.
Ullah, H., & Skelton, C. (2013). Gender representation in the public sector schools’ textbooks of Pakistan. Educational Studies, 39(2), 183–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055698.2012.702892.
Van Craeynest, F. (2015). Gender representations in EFL textbooks: A quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Unpublished master’s thesis. University of Ghent.
Vance, C. (1993). Pleasure and danger: Exploring female sexuality. New York: Harper Collins.
Waxman, H. A. (2004). The content of federally funded abstinence-only education programs. Washington, DC: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform.
Acknowledgements
Funding was provided by Cleveland State University, Office of Research (Grant No. USRA Grant).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
This was a qualitative content analysis of textbooks, and no human participants were involved. Thus, approval from our Institutional Review Board (IRB) was not needed.
Informed Consent
This was a qualitative content analysis of textbooks; no human participants were involved and informed consent was not needed.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Clonan-Roy, K., Goncy, E.A., Naser, S.C. et al. Preserving Abstinence and Preventing Rape: How Sex Education Textbooks Contribute to Rape Culture. Arch Sex Behav 50, 231–245 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01816-6
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01816-6