Sex And The Children's Book Analysis

When a person thinks of reading a children’s book, themes of sex, desire, and gender differences do not often come to mind. However, analyses of favorite children’s books such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the fairytale “Sleeping Beauty”, and L.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, have proven that these themes actually do occur but in a hidden manner. It is only by critically reviewing these “children’s” texts do these so-called inappropriate themes appear. Lissa Paul wishes to address this theme of sex in her article “Sex and the Children’s Book,” which is based off a seminar she gave at CLISS 2. In her article, she begins by describing the evolution of sex education over time, then moves into addressing how countries handle the issue of sex
She shows the evolution of instruction books that were provided to young girls in order to show them the “proper” method of behaving in society. One strength of this article is the use of various historical “manuals” for girls in order to support her proposed hypothesis of the evolution of sex education. In addition, the comparison between the countries’ sex education programs shows that some countries, such as Russia and even the United States have “out-dated” programs whereas countries like Spain have modern and interactive programs. (1) This comparison further supports the idea that sex education is a controversial curriculum and should be updated. Since the seminar was directed to women, the information collected provided the needed insight for changes that are desired to improve the modern day sex education programs as well as a uniform method of teaching sex
The first section of the article does refer to three historical instruction books that provided information about the role of “sex education” in a woman’s life; however, as the article continues, the author refers to only one other book. The title of this article is “Sex and the Children’s Book,” however the book part is limited. The author’s argument would be supported if she addressed the history of sex education in the countries, that she later discusses the current sex education programs in, by using historical texts for those countries. A second weakness of this paper was the author’s lack of using children’s books other than those whose purpose was to instruct. Lissa Paul quickly mentions the theme of sex in the fairytale Sleeping Beauty, but that is it. By analyzing other favorite childhood stories, her argument would be further