Mar 30
Film Screening: The Miseducation of Shelby Knox
What was sex education like in your school? Far too often, sex education emphasizes danger and leads with misinformation, resulting in alienation, confusion, and social inequalities amongst young people.
In this award-winning documentary, Shelby Knox—a 15-year-old teenager in Lubbock, TX—explores the impact of abstinence-only sex education policy in her school and community. Noting the high rates of teen pregnancy and STIs, and widespread stigma against LGBTQ youth, Knox begins to question the teachings of her church and community elders. The film offers a firsthand, if partial and incomplete, look at the vociferous cultural wars over sex education in American public life.
Join us for a screening of The Education of Shelby Knox. The film will be introduced by Dr. Jayne Swift (Visiting Assistant Professor, Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies program), in conjunction with her GWSS Capstone course, Schooling Sex: History of Sex Education and Instruction
Jayne Swift is Visiting Assistant Professor in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies. Jayne’s manuscirpt in progress, Lusty Ladies: Sex Work and Sex-Positive Politics, 1970-2013, analyzes the history and politics of sex-positivity through a cultural history of sex worker social movements in the late 20th-century United States. Her work has been published in South Atlantic Quarterly, Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, Affilia, and online at Sexuality & Society. A public-facing scholar, Jayne has worked as a producer for the non-profit podcast Sexing History and as principal organizer of the Minneapolis chapter of the Sex Worker’s Outreach Project