Abstract
[Truncated] A pedagogical moment is a moment in a text that disrupts expectations or creates discomfort, encouraging the viewer to respond in some way. In this thesis I explore representations of intimate interactions from film and television that provoke an understanding of the messiness of young people’s relationships. Messiness is traditionally excluded from conceptualisations of sex education. While comprehensive sex education has been critiqued for its focus on risk and the prevention of STIs and pregnancy, at the same time, the more liberal alternative—a focus on prioritising pleasure and particularly the pleasure of young women—has been questioned by authors such as Mary Lou Rasmussen, and Louisa Allen and Moira Carmody, who note that a focus on pleasure may itself reinforce heteronormative forms of gender and sexuality. In this thesis I am interested in the moments of incoherence represented in young people’s intimacies that question expectations of appropriate behaviour and current discourses of sex education. I argue for attending to the present (rather than the implied futures indexed by both sex education or pleasure discourses) in these intimate pedagogical moments of confusion and conflict.
| Original language | English |
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| Qualification | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Publication status | Unpublished - 2014 |