Sex may be deeply personal, but it has always been shaped by public rules, beliefs and pressures. This course explores how Australian attitudes to sex have changed over time under the influence of law, religion, morality and social expectations.

You’ll examine changing views about women, children and gay people, and consider how shifts in what was permitted, forbidden or encouraged reflected wider struggles over rights, responsibility and social values. A lively and thought-provoking course on intimacy, history and cultural change.

DELIVERY MODE

Face to face

COURSE OUTLINE

Dimensions of sex in society

• Marriage, adultery, divorce
• Consent: rape, age
• Prostitution
• Homosexuality
• Censorship and pornography.

Over eras of Australian history

• Convicts
• Gold Rushes
• Late Victorian
• Early 20th century
• Between the wars
• World War 2
• Post war
• Late 20th century
• 21st century

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Outline the key events and shifts in attitudes in the history of sex.
• Describe accepted behaviours at different times by heterosexual and homosexual, men and women, adults, teenagers, and children.
• Evaluate some of the causes of changes in behaviours, legislation, and media, over time.
• Recount some sex scandals in Australian history.