Imagine taking a medieval chastity belt or a Roman phallic pendant into a classroom of 15-year-olds. What kinds of conversations would ensue? How might such conversations help achieve the goals of school-based sexuality education? How might such activities contribute to promoting healthy sexual development? These are the activities and questions driving research at the University of Exeter, UK. The Sex and History project uses intriguing, surprising, and often beautiful historical artefacts that either depict an aspect of sex or sexuality, or had a sexual significance or purpose in their original historical context, as a tool for generating open conversations with young people about sex.
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