Not Safe for Work? Teaching and Researching the Sexually Explicit
Abstract
This special issue of Sexualities emerged from a day school in May 2007, organized by the editors and hosted jointly by De Montfort University and Sheffield Hallam University, on ‘Researching and Teaching the Sexually Explicit: Ethics, Methodology and Pedagogy’. Featuring presentations by Martin Barker, Brian McNair and Clarissa Smith, the day provoked valuable discussion about the challenges of academic work in this area at a time of media panics about ‘pornification’ and restrictive legislation about sexually extreme material. This resulting special issue brings together contributions from the UK, Australia, the USA, Finland and Hong Kong to reflect on shared concerns in a field transformed by new paradigms for understanding sexuality, in a context where the media seem increasingly important in the construction of sex and ‘discourse around sexuality at many social levels has focused more and more on visual representations’ (Kleinhans, 2004: 71).