"Sex education" extends beyond the classroom and beyond childhood. As this collection of seven new essays shows, many kinds of texts have tried to shape their audiences' sexual understanding, from 19th-century erotica to 20th-century sermons on abstinence, marriage manuals to feminine-hygiene pamphlets, Hollywood comedies about sexual coming-of-age to picture books validating homosexuality. Together, the essays in Sexual Pedagogies seek to illustrate the many responses that Anglophone culture has had to changes in sexual mores. Focusing on three nations, this anthology examines the interplay of radical and conservative ideologies of sex, noting the influence of market forces, cultural beliefs about childhood and gender, and in some cases geopolitics. The competing agendas and assumptions of sex educators past and present have much to tell us about the society in which we live.

Understandings of sexuality and sex education have changed dramatically, and in this collection, the authors explore the various texts that were used to teach, to entertain, to sanction and to form a sexual standard for a nation. According to Nelson and Martin, these include a puberty education, sermons on abstinence, medical writings promoting sexual fulfillment, Hollywood comedies about sexual coming of age and picture books validating homosexuality. The essays included here are designed to illustrate the many responses that Anglophone culture has had to such texts for over a century.