{"title":"“Young people are having sex, whether we like it or not”: Youth countering politicized cultural differences in sexuality education in Addis Ababa","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.wsif.2024.102951","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>School-based sexuality education is a globally controversial topic. While adopted as a human right-based international norm and is part of numerous frameworks (e.g., SDGs and Maputo Protocol for African countries), one of the main controversies in the Global South is the question of norm ownership. The case of sexuality education in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is a powerful example of debates around norm spoiling and the so-called (<em>un-</em>)<em>Africanness</em> of sexuality education. In this article, I ask how a generational perspective, influences our understanding of translating sexuality education, which challenges a young generation of actors working in Addis Ababa face and how they counteract politicized cultural differences. Based on my empirical research in Addis Ababa during 2019–2020, I illustrate that resistance to sexuality education is culturized and therefore a transnational challenge for actors striving to enhance school-based sexuality education. Demands to better include youth generations in political decision-making, strengthen bottom-up translation, and to counter the politicization of cultural differences remains largely confined to subaltern counterpublics, particularly within educational settings and NGO-based projects.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47940,"journal":{"name":"Womens Studies International Forum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Womens Studies International Forum","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027753952400089X","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"WOMENS STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
School-based sexuality education is a globally controversial topic. While adopted as a human right-based international norm and is part of numerous frameworks (e.g., SDGs and Maputo Protocol for African countries), one of the main controversies in the Global South is the question of norm ownership. The case of sexuality education in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is a powerful example of debates around norm spoiling and the so-called (un-)Africanness of sexuality education. In this article, I ask how a generational perspective, influences our understanding of translating sexuality education, which challenges a young generation of actors working in Addis Ababa face and how they counteract politicized cultural differences. Based on my empirical research in Addis Ababa during 2019–2020, I illustrate that resistance to sexuality education is culturized and therefore a transnational challenge for actors striving to enhance school-based sexuality education. Demands to better include youth generations in political decision-making, strengthen bottom-up translation, and to counter the politicization of cultural differences remains largely confined to subaltern counterpublics, particularly within educational settings and NGO-based projects.
期刊介绍:
Women"s Studies International Forum (formerly Women"s Studies International Quarterly, established in 1978) is a bimonthly journal to aid the distribution and exchange of feminist research in the multidisciplinary, international area of women"s studies and in feminist research in other disciplines. The policy of the journal is to establish a feminist forum for discussion and debate. The journal seeks to critique and reconceptualize existing knowledge, to examine and re-evaluate the manner in which knowledge is produced and distributed, and to assess the implications this has for women"s lives.