From 'Puritanical Goosebumps' to the Nostalgic Longing for Heterosexual Harmony: The Emotional Organisation of Sexuality in Relationship Education in the 1970s and 1980s

Overview & Synopsis

Comprehensive approaches to sex education emphasise an integration of the mind and the body via emotions. Drawing on the historiographical shift towards the study of emotions, this paper explores cognitive, bodily and emotional dimensions of sexuality education and social relations. By analysing the institutionalisation of sex education in Luxembourg, the paper examines often neglected sex education material as well as political reform debates in a Catholic-conservative context. The analysis demonstrates that in the mid-1980s, and despite public disputes, reform opponents shared a common horizon in sex education: they promoted emotional education to channel sexual practices in the direction of family formation. As a consequence, emotional education marginalised bodies, sexualities and forms of relationship that were not conforming to the ideal of a happy heterosexual dyad in which 'love and sexuality belong together'. It is argued that the prohibition was part of a twofold emotionalisation of sex education in the 1980s.