Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Children’S Rights, Well-Being, And Sexual Agency, Samantha Brennan, Jennifer Epp

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.

Serial Killing Serial Children: Dexter's Counterfeit Families, Steven Bruhm

Steven Bruhm

No abstract provided.

The Counterfeit Child, Steven Bruhm

Steven Bruhm

No abstract provided.

Nightmare On Sesame Street: Or, The Self-Possessed Child, Steven Bruhm

Steven Bruhm

The late twentieth century is fascinated by the phenomenon of the gothic child, the child who manifests evil, violence, and sexual aggression. On the face of it, this evil is “caused” by either medical or social factors: medicinal drugs, radiation, or the corrupting influences of political others. However, this essay argues that the gothic child actually arises from conflicting forces of child-philosophies, the intersection of Romantic childhood innocence with Freudian depth models. These models tacitly point to a child that “is” rather than “is made”, a child that belies contemporary parental attempts to make it be otherwise. Moreover, the idea …

Introduction To Curiouser: On The Queerness Of Children, Steven Bruhm, Natasha Hurley

Steven Bruhm

No abstract provided.

Curiouser: On The Queerness Of Children, Steven Bruhm, Natasha Hurley

Steven Bruhm

Our culture has a dominant narrative about children: they are (and should stay) innocent of sexual desires and intentions. At the same time, children are officially, tacitly, assumed to be heterosexual. Curiouser is a book about this narrative and what happens when it takes an unexpected, or queer, turn—when the stories of childhood must confront a child whose play does not conform to the ideal of child (a)sexuality.

The contributors to Curiouser examine the ostensibly simple representations of children that circulate through visual images, life narrative, children’s literature, film, and novels. At issue in these essays are the stories we …