The History of Sex Education in the United States

A Bibliography

Amanda Goodman

Information Sources and Services

2010 April 17
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"We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression--everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way--

everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want--everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear--anywhere in the world."

--President Franklin Roosevelt, 1941

Scope

This paper covers the history of sex education in the United States from 1900 to 2010.

Sex education refers specifically to education that is endorsed by public funding by the

government since it is difficult to obtain accounts of instruction being taught in the home during

this time period. It is important to note that often the federal government did not put their name

directly behind campaigns but encouraged local community groups to take credit even though

the government was funding the projects. Sex instruction was at times heralded as a way to

protect the country’s health while at other times it was deemed intrusive to a family’s morality.

Women’s rights during this period also changed dramatically as women gained more autonomy

over their bodies and reproductive rights.

Lists of subject headings as well as the Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal

classification system are included to aid further research. Resources are arranged by type in

alphabetical order because of the diversity of information provided over the span of 110 years

this bibliography covers. Primary resources are included in the bibliography to give a historically

correct context of the wording and opinions endorsed by the government and public at the time.

Other sources include sex education books written during the period covered, institutions
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associated with the continued studies of human sexuality, as well as more contemporary books

that study the history of sex education.

Introduction

Pre-Twentieth Century

The rigid stance on sexuality in Victorian England reached across the seas and the globe

to influence the sex lives of people around the world. Women of good standing and of any

decency were expected to remain chaste until marriage and then to only concern themselves with

being mothers. They were not to enjoy sex. Men on the other hand, were known to be unable to

resist sexual temptation and society recognized the necessity of prostitutes—fallen women—to

relieve the sexual urges of men.

In the United States, a bias against extramarital sex led to a host of laws and challenges

that affected the private lives of Americans. The first prominent figure was Anthony Comstock

who went on a crusade against what he saw as the lowered morals of Americans. He blamed the

rise of prostitution and promiscuity on the recent influx of immigrants. Comstock eventually

succeeded at getting a law that would come to be known as the Comstock Act passed which gave

the government the power to arrest citizens for the possession of any materials that could be

considered obscene or sexual in nature.

One of the groups that Comstock was involved with early on was the Young Men’s

Christian Association (YMCA). The group focused on the upbringing of virtuous and healthy

young Christian men. In order to achieve this, participants were taught one of the earliest forms

of public sex education which included information on sexually transmitted diseases, or what

they called “venereal diseases” at the time.

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Another government run group in the same period was called the Marine Hospital

Services (MHS). This organization was created to protect the health of merchant sailors who

were then the lifeblood of the United States’ international commerce. The MHS was the first

organization to require their medical doctors to submit to rigorous training in medicine before

they were allowed to practice. This made them the first qualified doctors in the country. Over

time, the mission of the MHS spread inland and covered civilian health issues such as clean

water, vaccinations, and controlling diseases outbreaks through quarantines. With the

government’s support and funding, the MHS eventually rose in prominence to become the Public

Health Services (PHS). As the PHS, the organization began their mission to create nationwide

sex education programs for the betterment of America’s health.

1900s

Coming out of the Victorian era, sex education was still a sensitive topic for the

government and the PHS to address. However, many factors were converging to cause the

increased spread of venereal disease in the country. First, 20 million immigrants arrived between

1880 and 1924. Since the PHS was examining these immigrants as they arrived, they were able

to expand their knowledge of venereal diseases on a large scale. Second, medical professionals

had discovered germs and were beginning to understand how diseases were spread. Third, many

immigrant women came to the United States only to discover that the American dream was

further off than they had hoped and so were forced to turn to prostitution in order to support their

families. This led to a widespread belief amongst native citizens that immigrants were

promiscuous which played into Comstock’s earlier xenophobic remarks. Finally, with the

Industrial Revolution in full swing, both sexes were out working in the cities and for the first

time, free to mingle with one another away from chaperones. This was the beginning of modern
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dating. With these factors combined, venereal diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea were

decried as being real threats to American public health.

As fears grew about the spread of venereal disease the PHS seized upon the opportunity

to promote sex education. Their message was well-accepted because people began to realize that

venereal disease could happen to anyone. This openness allowed the PHS to directly advocate

for sex education. Their first campaigns were focused

on reproduction, child care, the meaning of marriage,

abstinence before marriage, and martial fidelity. By

advocating a focus on the family and abstinence, their

message was very popular at the turn of the century.

1910s

Picking up on the public’s increased desire for

sexual safety, the YMCA created the Keeping Fit

program. The campaign was aimed at young men

between 14 and 21 years of age. The emphasis was that

This poster reminds boys to master self-control
if they too want to grow up to be capable men.
manliness came not from sexuality but from the ability

to be completely self-controlled. This self-control meant that they resisted their sexual urges.

Then in 1914, another group formed calling itself the American Social Hygiene

Association (ASHA). They used the term social hygiene since it was the polite terminology for

discussing sex education. However, this group was just an umbrella name for many smaller

groups which were banding together to fight the rise of venereal diseases. The ASHA’s goals

were to:
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1. End the silence surrounding the discussion of venereal diseases.

2. Have sex education taught in schools and reach the public.

3. Research into the cause of venereal diseases.

4. Bring down the cost of medical care for venereal diseases.

5. Get public officials to talk about the effects of venereal diseases on the United States.

However, opportunities for the ASHA to spread their message did not fully mature until the

United States entered World War I.

Warnings about the health dangers of prostitutes and disease were posted around military bases.

When young men were away from the eyes of their parents, they were free to experiment

with their sexuality in ways that they would have been unable to at home. As soldiers, men had

the capabilities to discover sex for themselves. However, the price of sex came with the risk of

contracting venereal diseases from the prostitutes they encountered near their bases. The rise of

syphilis and gonorrhea in the ranks forced the creation of the Commission on Training Camp

Activities (CTCA) in 1917. This program promoted abstinence among soldiers. Sex education

was also being taught through propaganda films. These films often had the plot of a solider
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contracting syphilis from a prostitute then passing it onto his wife, who would later give birth to

a deformed or dead child thanks to the infection. An impressive number of these films were

made and shown at the time.

Another way for the government to try and stop the spread of venereal diseases was the

1918 Chamberlain-Kahn Act. This act allowed the government to round up women suspected of

being prostitutes and test them for disease. This led to the detention of 18,000 women during the

war. Thirty-two states also created their own laws stating that suspected prostitutes had to be

tested too.

Indiana launched a program called, “No Armistice with Venereal Disease.” The high

medical cost of fighting the diseases promoted their actions. A series of laws were also enacted

that outlawed prostitution, shut down red light districts, and allowed local governments to shut

down locations suspected of being used by prostitutes as places to meet Johns. Private and public

programs also stressed that sex education needed to be done in the home by the parents instead

of allowing children to learn misinformation from older schoolmates or malicious adults. Sex

education was stressed as a means to protect the family structure.

A notable development during this period was Margaret Sanger opening the first birth

control clinic in the country. She opened it in October 1916 in Brooklyn. Within two weeks her

clinic was raided and she was arrested. However, Sanger was not to be dissuaded from her

mission. She had witnessed her mother die after becoming pregnant nineteen times. Sanger fled

the country and waited for the political climate to change.

1920s

After the war, people were encouraged to take the newly developed Wasserman Test which

allowed doctors to diagnose syphilis through laboratory testing. However, the test was not yet
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perfected and led to a lot of false positives. This led to some hysteria as people began to fear that

syphilis was everywhere.

The PHS jumped at this opportunity and led the crusade against venereal disease by

playing on racist fears. They issued dire warnings that whites were in danger of going extinct if

they contracted syphilis by sleeping with

immigrants. Since syphilis leads to infertility,

white people were soon going to be unable to

reproduce at all if they did not stop sleeping with

immigrants.

However, racism was nothing new to the

PHS or other sex education advocacy groups.

The prevailing assumption of the era was that

African-Americans were more sexually

promiscuous than whites. A rallying cry went up

that the chastity of white women had to be Young women were warned to guard their chastity
against seductive men.
protected against black men. In reaction to this,

the black community rejected sex educations efforts by the PHS, as they saw it as genocide to

their people. This fear along with the general lack of concern towards minority health allowed

venereal diseases to increase in these communities. As for the PHS, by the end of the 1920s, their

budget from the federal government was sharply cut as the Great Depression approached, and

sex education lost priority in the eyes of the public.

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1930s

In 1930, the Supreme Court ordered condoms illegal if they were used for the purposes of

contraception. However, they could be purchased if they were used to prevent the spread of

venereal diseases. Condoms use became widespread as they became available for sale for the

first time in 1936. The Supreme Court’s ruling caused a reemergence of the idea that sex was the

domain of the federal government. During this decade, the government became a centralized

force for sex education as they government promoted it through pamphlets, newspapers,

luncheons, radio broadcasts and even PTA meetings. The reason for this renewed interest? The

fear of venereal diseases was back on the radar.

Partnerships between local and the federal

governments allowed for the dissemination of sex

education information in communities. College students

were one of the most vocal supporters of sex education and

at first they were supported, until it was discovered that

they had one of the lowest rates of venereal disease in the

country. This discovery led to them being dropped as a

target audience. This poster highlights how you cannot

detect venereal disease by just looking at a
By 1938, a Gallup Poll showed that 90% of person.

Americans wanted information about venereal diseases. They got their wish when the National

Venereal Diseases Control Act of 1938 was passed. The act set aside funding for the rapid

treatment of syphilis in local treatment centers.

Two other legal events also took place during this decade. The first was the Tuskegee

Syphilis Experiment. African-American men’s cases of untreated syphilis were studied to

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discover the different stages of the disease as it progressed. This deadly experiment would not

become publically known until 1972. The other legal event was the passing of the Hays Code.

This code made it illegal for films or any other medium to have frank discussions about sex.

Hollywood by this time had progressed to erotic films which was the target of the code.

However, it also meant that fully informed films about sex education were barred from

production. The Hays Code put a damper on the widespread advancement of sexual health

knowledge.

1940s

Soon into the 1940s, the United States was forcefully dragged into World War II after the

bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In a moment that mirrored the spike of venereal disease

during World War I, many soldiers were found in their health inspections to be infected. Red

light districts also emerged again near army bases which magnified the problem. The May Act in

1941 for the first time gave the federal government the ability to regulate prostitution near

military bases. This led to mandatory government sex education for all soldiers, which came

along with fifty million condoms being distributed to U.S. soldiers each month during the war.

The PHS and ASHA also responded by creating the Eight Point Agreement in 1940. The

purpose of this agreement was to fight off venereal diseases amongst the troops. Using the earlier

stated goals of the ASHA renewed efforts to track the spread of infections; they created a

successful campaign to inform the public of their work. They also partnered with Hollywood

PHS to produce dramatic radio shows and short films about the dangers of venereal diseases for

a new generation. The silent films of the past were no longer effective tools in educating a more

worldly population.
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Meanwhile back home, young women were also getting a government funded sex

education program. Reports of teenage promiscuity had gone up as local girls entertained

themselves by spending time with stationed soldiers in their hometowns. Parents demanded

more vigorous sex education that taught morality and chastity in the schools. The PHS and U.S.

Bureau of Education took it upon themselves to

further their objective of getting sex education

in the schools by further spreading rumors of

promiscuous immigrants. It was proposed that

the way to end these perceived lifestyles would

be to directly teach sexual morality to

immigrant children in the schools. So, as the

decade ended, sex education was back in the

schools right where the PHS wanted it to be.

1950s

Unlike the students of the 1930s with

their low venereal diseases rates, the spread of

disease in teenagers of the 50s was spiking. During this era, it was believed that parents should be the
first educators about sex for their children.

When the nation’s attention was distracted by the

war, teenagers had become accustomed to the freedom of having sexual partners. As teen

pregnancies began to climb, American society looked for a solution. What they choose was

radical: encouraging teens to marry. The mindset was that the sooner a teenager was safe within

the confines of marriage—seen as a healthy and safe place to let their sexual energy loose—

America’s moral high ground could be regained.

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Society was accommodating to this idea of young marriage. The G.I. Bill allowed soldiers to get

an education, a year of unemployment, as well as affording them low interest on loans. At the

same time, mortgage lending practices were eased which made it easy for young couples to

afford a home. Together these circumstances saw that by 1959, half of all brides were under the

age of nineteen years old. Sex education in the schools became focused on family life and

training girls how to manage a household instead of worrying about disease.

These early marriages led to increased birth rates and what we call the Baby Boomer

Generation. Young couples were completing their families at an early age which then led to a

demand for a way to prevent further pregnancies. The government heard their complaints and

allowed condoms to be sold over the counter for the first time. Other contraceptives that also

came out during this period were douches and spermicides.

Alfred C. Kinsey’s reports on the Sexual Behavior of the Human Male (1948) and the

Sexual Behavior of the Human Female (1953) also revealed that the sexual morals endorsed by

society did not match their actual sex behaviors. Promiscuity, sex before marriage, as well as

other controversial sexual behaviors like homosexuality was made public for the first time.

Homosexuality was considered a mental illness that needed to be cured. As for minorities, they

were continually left out of the sexual health arena as in all other areas of public concern.

1960s

President Johnson presented his Great Society plan in 1964 which had a component to

end poverty in America. He believed that birth control methods were an important way to

eradicate poverty since too many children strained a family’s budget. His support smoothed the

way for contraceptives and more widespread support of sex education.

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Then in 1960 the revolution that Margaret Sanger had been waiting for arrived: the birth

control pill. Initially tested in Puerto Rico, the pill was the first orally taken contraceptive. The

arrival of it proved prudent as unwanted pregnancies were a hot topic thanks to President

Johnson and women were looking for ways to control their fertility. By 1968, a national trend of

unmarried couples living together was picking up. However, as the decade began to close out,

distrust of the government was growing thanks to the Vietnam War. The government and the

PHS began to lose their ability to teach comprehensive sex education in the classrooms across

America.

1970s

In the 1970s, Americans were still unwilling to accept that teenagers were having sex.

The government responded by creating the Teenage Pregnancy: Everyone’s Problem pamphlet

which discussed six methods of birth control: the pill, IUD, diaphragms, condoms, spermicide

foams, as well as the withdrawal method. The pamphlet was groundbreaking in its depth of

knowledge but there was a problem: you had to mail a request in to receive it. Therefore, the

pamphlets had an obstacle to overcome in reaching the intended audience. It is unknown how

many copies found an audience.

The court case that changed America was decided in 1973 when Roe vs. Wade legalized

abortion. Abortion had been happening all along, but now that it was legal, it could be regulated

and made safer for women everywhere as standards were set. This gave women greater

reproductive freedom.

The later years of the decade were focused on fears of overpopulation thanks to the Baby

Boomer Generation. Two government acts were created to deal with these fears. The first was

the Family Planning Services and Population Research Act which formalized President
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Johnson’s earlier warnings that

unwanted pregnancies led to

poverty. The public also believed

that these unwanted children

were more vulnerable to child

abuse than their wanted

counterparts. The act also

allowed for greater contraceptive

education. The second move by

the government was the creation

of Title X. This program allowed

all citizens access to sex

education and contraceptives.

1980s

With the election of

Sex was no longer the forbidden topic it had been previously and laws had
President Regan, sex education in been relaxed, allowing Hollywood to resume making motion pictures that
would have been considered lewd in earlier times.

America came under scrutiny as

the conservative movement took over the political scene. Regan’s election led to the passing of

the Adolescent Family Life Act of 1981 which called for abstinence-only programs. It would

become known as Title XX, a sharp contrast to the previous sex education encouraging Title X.

Funding was directed toward the Religious Right’s sex education programs as the country tried

to fight the increase in teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (the modern term for

venereal disease). Another clause included in this act was the “squeal rule.” This rule stipulated
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that if a teen sought contraceptives, their parents were notified. This turned teens away from

securing information about sex education. The rule was in place at any clinic that accepted

federal funding.

Regan was fighting what he believed to be a moral battle against the evils of extramarital

sex. The Religious Right conservative movement was against the more European based model of

sex education as a preventative measure in the battle against diseases and unwanted children. By

making the issue of sex education a moral issue, each side was able to demonize the other.

People began to see the government as an entity involved in their health care, and instead looked

to private organizations such as SIECUS, Planned Parenthood (founded by Margaret Sanger),

and the Guttmacher Institute for their sex education needs.

The government was also downsized under Regan’s presidency which led to many PHS

hospitals being closed down. The closing of the hospitals greatly diminished the PHS’s ability to

reach out to the community to provide comprehensive sex education. Regan’s downsizing of

hospitals came at precisely the wrong time as the AIDS crisis began in 1981. The president

refused to allow government officials to speak about the sexually charged issue until 1986 when

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop broke the silence.

Surgeon General Koop was a vocal but religious man who skillfully used his position to

advocate for better sex education and wrote a widely read report on the AIDS crisis. The

Surgeon General's Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome advocated for the use of

condoms in preventing sexually transmitted diseases. He also warned against the sharing of

needles which was known to be a means for AIDS to be transmitted. His report was written in a

frank, jargon-free style which allowed many people to understand his message. The report was

followed in 1986 by the “Understanding AIDS"--The National AIDS Mailer which was the first
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time the government sent out information about a sex related issue to every household in the

United States. This report and the increased awareness of the spread of AIDS led to a demand for

comprehensive sex education as the decade ended.

1990s

In 1990, the United States Congress began to plan for a government backed sexual

behaviors study akin to the one Kinsey had done in the 40s and 50s. However, word got leaked

out to the Religious Right whose outrage caused the study to be cancelled. Funding was instead

directed to more abstience-only education for students. Total funding per year for these programs

reached $50 million. Surgeon General Antonia Novello, under President Bush, Snr., expressed

her support that sex and AIDS education should be taught in the home instead of in the schools.

Contrary to this, President Clinton’s Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders pushed for the teaching of

contraceptives in school and therefore became a controversial figure to the Religious Right.

When she was reported to have described masturbation as a natural part of human sexuality, she

was forced out of office due to the public outcry. The 1990s were characterized by this pushing

back and forth of sex education as each Surgeon General handled the issue in their own way.

2000s

Surgeon General David Satcher released The Surgeon General's Call to Action to

Promote Sexual Health and Responsible Sexual Behavior report in 2001 under the second

President Bush. His report added no new information as he spoke of the continued spread of

sexually transmitted diseases in the United States. He did however assert that there was no

scientific backed knowledge that sexual orientation could be changed. Homosexuality was a

topic back on the radar following the murder of Matthew Shephard in 1998 because of his sexual

orientation. Towards the end of the decade though, several states passed laws legalazing same-
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sex marriage though Proposition 8 in California overturned a law allowing California same-sex

marriages in November 2008.

By 2005, the United States had the highest teenage pregnancy numbers of any

industralized country. This led to an examination of the abstience-only sex education curriculum.

It was revelead that 80% of the information being taught in these private but federally funded

programs was false or misleading information. To further compound the issue, 67% of

Americans believed that condoms distribution should be allowed in schools by 2007. However,

the issue of sex education was not a major concern in the life of most Americans between the

economic recession and worries over terrorism and war.

2010s

In March, the 2010 Health Care Reform Act allotted $250 million for Title V abstinence-

only sex education programs. This monetary extension will allow for another five years of

conservative sex education. Despite the government’s stance to fund abstinence-only education

programs, several states have decided to opt out of federal funds and teach their own more

comprehensive programs.

Conclusion

The role of sex education in America has been focused on preventing sexually

transmitted diseases, preventing pre- and extramarital sex, the rights of women to choose how to

manage their own reproductive health, and a battle of morality versus medicine. Each decade

since 1900 has seen fluctuating opinions on the place of sex education in society. The effects of

war called for policies that gave the government the means to enforce mandatory sex education

on soldiers. Since the policies were against the spread of disease, Americans embraced them. Yet

when the issue was sex outside of marriage, Americans reacted by pushing for young marriages
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or refusing to acknowledge that people will have sex despite their marital status. This negligence

helped lead to the AIDS crisis since people were poorly educated in preventive safety measures.

The future of sex education is uncertain in America, though the Internet has allowed

more people than ever before to gain access to materials that would have been impossible to have

obtained prior to online accessibility. Laws are often slow to acknowledge societal changes but

as today’s youth grow up in a more sexually accessible culture, the role of sex education may

finally evolve to allow comprehensive sex education for everyone. It will be federally funded, of

course.

LOC Subject Headings:

Below is a list of the Library of Congress subject headings which may be helpful in

finding further information. Since sex education is such a controversial topic in the United

States, not only is the topic of the history of instruction useful, but so is considering different

aspects of sexuality, hygiene, medical policies, diseases, as well as including political points of

view. All of these fields have influenced the teaching of sex since the Victorian era.

Contraception—United States—History
Family life education—United States—Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Homosexuality—United States—History—20th century
Hygiene, Sexual—Study and teaching—United States—History
Medical policy—United States—History—20th century
Motion pictures in sex instruction—United States—History
Public Health
Religion and politics—United States—History—20th century
Religious Right—United States—History—20th century
Sex—United States—History—20th century
This poster came out after the
Sex customs—United States—History—20th century first child contracted AIDS due
to a blood transfusion.
Sex educators—United States--History
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Sex instruction
Sex instruction—United States—History—20th century
Sex instruction for children—United States
Sex instruction for girls—United States—History—20th century
Sex instruction for teenagers—United States
Sexually transmitted diseases—United States—Prevention
Syphilis--Prevention
Video tapes in sex instruction—United States—History

Classifications

As shown with the LOC subject headings, the topic of sex education includes several

different areas. The “Family. Marriage. Women” classification yields the most results in the

LOC system. However, is important to not only look at the social customs, but also the religious,

health, and education areas to find more resources about sex education.

Library of Congress

BC Practical Theology
BV652.95 – 657 Mass media and telecommunication in religion
BV900 – 1450 Religious societies, associations, etc.
BV1000 – 1220 Young Men’s Christian Associations
BV4625 – 4780 Moral theology
BV4625 – 4280 Moral theology
BV4625 – 4627 Sins and vices
BV4630 – 4647 Virtues
HQ The Family. Marriage. Women
HQ1 – 2044 The Family. Marriage. Women
HQ12 – 449 Sexual life
HQ31 - 64 Sex instruction and sexual ethics
LC Special aspects of education
LC65 – 245 Social aspects of education
LC71 – 120.4 Education and the state
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LC251 – 951 Moral and religious education

LC321 – 951 Religion and education. Education under church control
LC1390 – 5160.3 Education of special classes of persons
LC1390 Men. Boys
LC1401 – 2572 Women. Girls
LC2574 – 2576 Gays. Lesbians. Bisexuals
RA Public aspects of medicine
RA421 – 790.95 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive medicine
RA639 – 642 Transmission of disease
RA643 – 645 Disease (Communicable and noninfectious) and public health
RA646 – 648.3 War and public health
RA773 – 788 Personal health and hygiene
RG Gynecology and obstetrics
RG133 – 137.6 Conception. Artificial insemination. Contraception

Dewey Decimal System

173 Ethics of family relations

176 Ethics of sex & reproduction
306 Culture & institutions
613 Promotion of health
649 Child rearing & home care of children
973 General history of North America; United
States

This 1922 American Social Health Association and United

States Public Health Service strongly illuminates the
dangers of gonorrhea for unborn children.
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Resources

Due the variety of formats used between 1900 and 2010, resources are grouped by type and then

listed in alphabetical order. Below is a list of the different formats included in this bibliography:

Associations and Research Centers

Biographical Information about Professionals in Field
Contemporary Books
Current magazine
Dissertations
Encyclopedia and Hand Books
Films and TV
Government Documents
Periodical Articles
Periodicals
Play
Publisher

Scholarly Books
Soldiers were reminded in this 1940s
Websites poster of the importance of seeking
medical care if they contracted syphilis.

Associations and Research Centers

Center For Sexual Health Promotion. Center For Sexual Health Promotion. 2010.

http://www.sexualhealth.indiana.edu/index.html (accessed April 8, 2010).

The Center focuses on creating a network of scholars at the Indiana University of

Bloomington campus as well as globally who seek to advance the field of sexual health.

They advocate including local communities and health experts in collaborating in their

research efforts.
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Guttmacher Institute. Guttmacher Institute. 2010. http://www.guttmacher.org/ (accessed April 7,

2010).

This institution was looked upon in the 1970s as one of the leading organizations for

comprehensive sex education. Today, the Guttmacher Institute advocates for changes in

sex education policy as well as providing information on a variety of sex related issues

from abortion to men’s reproductive rights.

National Institutes of Health. National Institutes of Health. 2010. http://www.nih.gov/ (accessed

April 7, 2010).

The research arm of the Public Health Services that studied, developed, and promoted

information against venereal diseases. Later, NIH would become the leader in the fight

against AIDS.

National Sexuality Resource Center. National Sexuality Resource Center. 2010.

http://nsrc.sfsu.edu/ (accessed April 8, 2010).

The NSRC is a group that publishes and promotes information that not only covers sexual

health and reproduction, but also gender issues.

Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood. 2010. http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ (accessed

April 7, 2010).

One of the leading organizations within the United States, Planned Parenthood has had a

pivotal role in the sexual health and education of Americans for nearly a century. They

provide valuable educational resources about sexual health, reproduction, and disease

prevention and testing information. They have partnered with many government

initiatives to increase the sexual knowledge of all Americans.

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Population Council. Population Council. 2010. http://www.popcouncil.org/ (accessed April 7,

2010).

In the 1950s, Population Council helped fund research into new contraceptive methods.

They partnered with Planned Parenthood during this time period to advocate

contraceptives in order to ease the overwhelming baby boom following World War II.

From their website, they seek to “improve the well-being and reproductive health of

current and future generations around the world and to help achieve a humane, equitable,

and sustainable balance between people and resources.”

Capitalizing on vernacular language spoken by youth, this poster promotes condom usage.

SIECUS. Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States. 2010.

http://www.siecus.org/ (accessed April 7, 2010).

SIECUS was one of the leading organizations that Americans were getting

comprehensive sex education from in the 1970s. Today they continue with their mission

of teaching about human sexuality, sexual rights, sexual health, and sexuality education.

They are a valuable source that as stated on their website, seeks to “make sexuality

education available to all.”

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The Kinsey Institute. The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. 2010.

http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/ (accessed April 8, 2010).

The legacy of Kinsey’s work is his institute located at Indiana University. The Institute

continues to do research into human sexuality and provide information on the latest

studies in the field.

Biographical Information about Professionals in Field

Beisel, Nicola. Imperiled Innocents: Anthony Comstock and Family Reproduction in Victorian

America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

This work discusses Anthony Comstock linking recent immigrants to the United States to

what he believed was sexual moral corruption. Beisel writes that Comstock’s motives

were heavily political as he worked to portray minorities as negatively as possible.

Gathorne-Hardy, Jonathan. Sex The Measure of All Things: A Life of Alfred C. Kinsey.

Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000.

This book is written as a reaction against the homophobic judgment in James H. Jones’

book, Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life. Gathorne-Hardy instead focuses on careful

researched documents he obtained from the Kinsey Research Institution while also

criticizing the earlier work’s interpretation of Kinsey.

Koop, C. Everett. Koop: The Memoirs of America’s Family Doctor. New York: HarperCollins,

1993.

The memoirs of the former Surgeon General Koop discusses his life and the

controversies he faced in office.

Snyder, Lynne Page. "New York, the Nation, the World: The Career of Surgeon General Thomas

J. Parran, Jr., MD (1892-1968)." Public Health Reports, 1995: 630-632.

 25

Dr. Synder’s article discusses the life and he challenges Dr. Parran faced in his lifetime.

The lingering impact of Dr. Parran’s work is also discussed.

Sanger, Margaret. Margaret Sanger, An Autobiography. New York: W.W. Norton, 1938.

A nurse who advocated women taking control of their life and health, Margaret Sanger

opened the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn in 1916. She was a controversial figure

that sought to improve the lives of women by freeing them from the inability to control

their reproduction. She went on to found Planned Parenthood.

Contemporary Books

Bristow, Joseph. Sexuality. London: Routledge, 1997.

This work covers the lingering influence of Victorian morals on modern society. Bristow

also discusses Freud’s impact, queer sexuality and other contemporary issues.

Eberwein, Robert. Sex Ed: Film, Video, and the Framework of Desire. New Brunswick: Rutgers

University Press, 1999.

Eberwein explores the history of film that has been used as a vehicle to teach sex

education for nearly a century. Originally used by the army to inform soldiers of the

dangers of venereal diseases, film was eventually used to teach children about basic

reproduction, then marriage manuals and finally the art of pleasure for adult viewers.

Fields, Jessica. Risky Lessons: Sex Education and Social Inequality. New Brunswick, New

Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2008.

Set in the middle schools of North Carolina, Fields explores how schools, teachers, and

students interpret sex education policies in the classroom. She asserts that students do not

merely want to be told about the dangers of sex, but also how to deal with their own

powerful and confusing feelings.

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Freeman, Susan K. Sex Goes To School: Girls and Sex Education before the 1960s. Chicago:

University of Illinois Press, 2008.

While modern sex education classes struggle with teaching abstinence versus

comprehensive sex education, Freeman explores how it used to be about conforming to

social norms and promoting the family in the 1940s and 1950s. She further writes

specifically about the education girls were being given in the schools which were more

interested on how to raise a family rather than preventing sexuality.

Herdet, Gilbert and Cymene Howe, ed. 21st Century Sexualities: Contemporary Issues in Health,

Education, and Rights. New York: Routledge, 2007.

In the 21st century, there are many publically acknowledged facets of sexuality. The

series of essays in this book covers the issues of sexual literacy, homosexuality, rape,

transexuality, and race.

Herzog, Dagmar. Sex in Crisis: The New Sexual Revolution and the Future of American Politics.

New York: Basic Books, 2008.

This book explores how politics has entered the American bedroom from both the Left

and the Right wings of political ideologies. Herzog explains how conservatives have

gained the upper hand in this war.

Luker, Kristin. When Sex Goes To School. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.

Luker studies four communities’ views on sex education in the schools. Each group has a

different perspective on who teaches sex education to their children and at what depth.

Luker also reflects on the past movements that have created the modern disagreements on

sex education.
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Current Magazine

Lewis, Matthew, ed. SeXis Magazine. Berkley, California:

Eden Fantasys.

A recently started magazine by an adult erotica

store, SeXis Magazine publishes articles aimed at

educating the public about contemporary sex

education. They include articles about sex related

topics, answer reader’s questions, and have a

website at http://www.edenfantasys.com/sexis/.

Dissertations

Vescolani, Megan Jane. “Ethical and effective sex This LA County AIDS awareness poster from
1984 reminds men to wear a condom.
education to prevent teenage pregnancy.” Master’s

Thesis, Georgetown University, 2009.

Vescolani compares comprehensive versus abstinence-only sex education programs and

their effects on teenage pregnancy. She also considers the home environment that

students come from and that effect it has on teen pregnancy rates.

Kaestle, Christine E. and Carolyn Halpern. “Sexual health of young adults and age at first

intercourse.” PhD diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Public

Health, 2006.

Kaestle and Halpern investigate the age of first sexual intercourse of young Americans,

their risks of sexually transmitted diseases, and their later sexual activities. They used

information from the Waves I through III of the National Longitudinal Study of

Adolescent Health in their research.

 28

Webster, Nicholas. “What are teens really learning from blogs?: bridging the gap between sex

education and the internet.” Master’s Thesis, Ohio State University, 2007.

Webster explores the way that American teenagers really learn about sex in the era of the

Internet when their schools are only teaching them abstinence-only sex education. He

also discusses how students communicate about their sexuality through the use of blogs.

Encyclopedia and Hand Books

Arcus, Margaret E., Jay D. Schvaneveldt, and J. Joel Moss, ed., Handbook of Family Life

Education: The Practice of Family Life Education. Vol. 2. Newbury Park, California:

SAGE Publications, Inc, 1993.

Listed as a manual by the Library of Congress classification system, this book is a

grouping of articles about the practice of family life and sex education. It includes

extensive bibliographies to use for further reference.

Beigel, Hugo G. Encyclopedia of Sex Education. New York: Stephen Daye Press, 1952.

Beigel’s goal in writing this encyclopedia was to teach all aspects of sex education rather

than just the biological facts. He wrote about the confusion of young people who needed

questions about the social and mental answers aspects of sexuality rather than just how

their parts worked.

Campos, David. Sex, Youth, And Sex Education: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara,

California: ABC Clio, 2002.

This reference book lists general facts about the history of sex education in the United

States. Campos also includes articles, references, and lists organizations that can assist in

teaching about sex education.

 29

Cornog, Martha and Timothy Perper. For Sex Education, See Librarian: A Guide to Issues And

Resources. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1996.

In this book that deals with the censorship of sex education materials in the library,

Cornog and Perper explore the history of denying the public access to materials that

others deemed inappropriate for them to read. They discuss how to select and evaluate

sex education materials, how to deal with retaliation vandalism, and the moral, legal, and

ethic concerns of librarianship in the realm of sexual censorship.

Films and TV

Damaged Goods. Directed by Thomas Ricketts. USA: American Film Manufacturing Company,

1914.

One of the most popular silent films of the era dealing with the dangers of syphilis and

the damage it can cause the family. A young lawyer contacts the disease from a prostitute

and then goes on to marry a senator’s daughter despite warnings to the contrary. He

passes it to his wife and later their daughter is born with the disease.

Fit To Win. Directed by Edward H. Griffith and Lewis Milestone. USA: American Social

Hygiene Association, 1919.

This silent film originally titled, Fit To Fight, was used by the U.S. military as a sex

education tool. It is a form of propaganda that in one case shows a solider contracting

syphilis after only kissing a prostitute. One of the messages of the film was the

widespread belief that all prostitutes were carriers of disease and also that anyone could

become a victim of catching a venereal disease.

James at Fifteen. Directed by Marc Daniels, Ernest A. Losso, Joseph Hardy, Ernest Pintoff, and

James Sheldon. USA: 20th Century Fox Television, 1977-78.

 30

This short lived TV show was very controversial in a time where in other shows,

adolescent characters were saying no to sex. The characters tackled issues the American

public did not discuss yet like teen sex, abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, and

pregnancy.

Kinsey. Directed by Bill Condon. USA: Fox Searchlight Productions, 2004.

This film follows the career of Alfred C. Kinsey in his work of studying human sexuality

as well as the struggles as he deals with exploring his own sexuality at the same time.

Know For Sure. Directed by Lewis Milestone. USA: Research Council of Academy of Motion

Picture Arts and Sciences, 1941.

This black and white film reuses the plot of a father unknowingly passes syphilis onto his

unborn child. However, unlike the other films, this one was very popular and played

nationwide. It discussed using prophylaxis as a method against venereal disease which

caused some controversy for critics believed that teaching prevention encouraged

promiscuity.

Sex Hygiene. Directed by Otto Brower and John Ford. USA: U.S. Army Signal Corps, 1942.

An army released film discussing various types and treatments of venereal diseases. This

movie can be seen watched online at http://www.archive.org/details/SEX.HYGIENE.

The End of the Road. Directed by Edward H. Griffith. USA: American Social Hygiene

Association, 1919.

The Solitary Sin. Directed by Frederick Sullivan. USA: New Art Film Company, 1919.

A silent film endorsed by the secretary of the Iowa Board of Health about a man who

kills his after due to his obsession with masturbating. The film was shown free of charge

to Iowans.
 31

The Spreading Evil. Directed by James Keane. USA: James Keane Feature Photo-play

Productions, 1918.

This silent movie was geared towards servicemen in reminding them about the dangers of

contacting syphilis from sex with European women. It also discussed the consequences

syphilis could have on unborn children of men who participated in “immoral conduct.”

Government Documents

Davis, David. "Understanding AIDS"--The National AIDS Mailer." PubMed Central. 2010.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1580336/pdf/pubhealthrep00187-

0058.pdf (accessed April 7, 2010).

In 1988, the United States government mailed out 126 million copies of “The National

AIDS Mailer.” It reached approximately 60% of the population. The purpose of the

mailer was to publically and directly address the AIDS crisis to the American people.

Gruenberg, Benjamin. High Schools and Sex Education: A Manual of Suggestions on Education

Related to Sex. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1922.

This pamphlet discusses the sex education programs that should be implemented at the

high school level. It was first published in 1922 and then again in 1940. Gruenberg wrote

from a xenophobic perspective that venereal diseases, high divorce rates, and illegitimate

pregnancies could be blamed on new immigrants.

Public Health Service. 1937. Gonorrhea: Its Cause, Its Spread, and Its Cure. Washington, D.C.

This pamphlet described gonorrhea frankly and warned of its many dangers for all

members of the family. It would remain in circulation for decades.

 32

Public Health Service. 1937. Syphilis: Its Cause, Its Spread, and Its Cure. Washington, D.C.

Released at the same time as the Gonorrhea pamphlet, it reached the same audience and

taught about venereal disease in the same frank manner. Graphic pictures were used as a

scare tactic that showed the effects of the disease on an infected person’s life.

Surgeon General's Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Surgeon General's Report,

Washington, D.C.: Office of the Surgeon General (DHHS/PHS), 1986.

This report written primarily by President Reagan’s Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop,

was the first major document produced by the government discussing AIDS. Koop writes

in a frank, jargon-free style about exactly what AIDS is, how it is transmitted, what was

being done to contain and stop the disease.

Surgeon General. "The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Promote Sexual Health and

Responsible Sexual Behavior." Publications and Reports of the Surgeon General. July 9,

2001. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=hssurggen&part=A321

(accessed April 7, 2010).

This report written by Surgeon General David Satcher was scientific based with the

assertions that there was no evidence that sexual orientation could be changed or that

comprehensive sexual education led to promiscuity. He did write that the United States

continued to suffer from sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancies. His

report was criticized for bringing nothing new to light but the majority of Americans

agreed with him.

Periodical Articles

Isaacs, Harold. “Youth: Shall Our Schools Teach Sex?” Newsweek, May 1947: 100-102.
 33

This article informed late 40s readers that sex education was already being taught in

many American schools.

Parran, Thomas, and Paul De Kruif. "We Can End This Sorrow." Ladies Home Journal, August

1937: 88-90.

Parran created a firestorm with this article that was directly focused at reaching American

housewives about the dangers of syphilis. Of the hundreds of letters written to the journal

in the weeks following, only one was negative. The impact of the article was further

expanded upon by a short story by Nancy Hale entitled, “The Blue-Muslin Sepulchre”

that also appeared in the same issue. Hale’s story told a fictional account of a mother kept

in the dark by the family physician about her husband’s syphilis which led to the birth of

two infected daughters.

Associated Press. “Parents Blamed in Sex Problems.” Holland (Michigan) Evening Sentinel,

June 15, 1949.

Fritz Redi, a member of the Public Health Services, is quoted in the Holland that sex

education should begin in childhood. He advocated that questions asked by children

should be answered frankly before children start picking up incorrect sex education from

their peers.

Periodicals

American Sexuality Magazine. Online. Published by the National Sexuality Resource Center

http://nsrc.sfsu.edu/american_sexuality (accessed April 2, 2010).

This online magazine covers sexual rights, education, lectures and sexual health issues that

matter to the American public. They also include contemporary sex related court cases

including the Roman Polanski rape case.

 34

American Journal of Sexuality Education. Published by Routledge. New York.

This journal covers contemporary sex education, research, and reviews new materials

related to the subject.

Sexuality Research and Social Policy. Online. Published by Springer Science+Business Media,

LLC. http://ucpressjournals.com/journal.asp?j=srsp (accessed April 7, 2010).

From the parent website: “The official online journal of the National Sexuality Resource

Center (NSRC) publishes multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art empirical research on

sexuality, theoretical and methodological discussions, and the implications of this

evidence for US and international policies regarding sexual health, sexuality education,

and sexual rights in diverse communities.”

Play

Blue Denim: A Play in Three Acts. By James Leo Herlihy and William Noble. New York:

Samuel French, 1959.

This imaginative play is written about the grandson of George from Damaged Goods by

Upton Sinclair. The play reflects the time period in that instead of Arthur being unaware

of the dangers of syphilis, he has no sex education about contraceptives which results in

an unwanted pregnancy.

Publishers

Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. New York. http://www.routledge.com/ (accessed April 10,

2010).

This publishing company focuses on academic research and publishes several books on

human sexuality and education.

 35

Rutgers University Press. Piscataway, New Jersey. http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/index.html

(accessed April 17, 2010).

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey publishes many academic and trade

publications. On their website they describe themselves as publishing “from humanities

to the sciences, diverse subjects, [and] dynamic authors.”

Scholarly Books

Brown, Lorna, ed. Sex Education in the Eighties: The Challenge of Healthy Sexual Evolution.

New York: Plenum Press, 1981.

This selection of contributions discusses the difficulties of teaching well-rounded sex

education in the United States at the beginning of the eighties. It covers such topics as

marriage, children, and the legalities of sex.

Bullough, Vern L. Sexual Variance in Society and History. New York: John Wiley & Sons,

1976.

This fascinating book covers the known history of human sexuality from ancient Biblical

times to contemporary society. For the current era, it deals with the impact of religion,

Victorian morals, laws governing sex, and sexual ethics.

Kinsey, Alfred C., Wardell B. Pomeroy, and Clyde E. Martin. Sexual Behavior in the Human

Female. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1953.

The second volume of Kinsey’s studies caused more outrage than its predecessor when it

revealed that American women of the 1940s were far more sexually active than what

society was ready to believe at the time. The study’s method was doing personal

interviews with the subjects.

 36

---------Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1948.

The first of the two volume report, Kinsey’s studies revealed for the first time that

Americans’ sex lives did not reflect the purported social norms that society claimed to

embrace. Kinsey’s interest was to find out what people actually did in their sex lives, not

the ideals they espoused.

Parran, Thomas. Plain Words About Venereal Disease. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1941.

Written by the United State’s Surgeon General, this book charged that the United States

military leaders were endangering the country’s safety by not promoting sex education.

Soldiers were creating this weakness by contracting venereal diseases which was

maiming and killing them and their families when they returned home.

--------Shadow on the Land. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1937.

Written by the United State’s Surgeon General, this book led the fight against syphilis

under President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration. Parran argues for a medical based

approach to fighting the disease. His book became a best seller.

Sanger, Margaret H. What Every Girl Should Know. Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius Company,

1922.

Written as a series of articles, Sanger writes about the reproductive cycle of women. It

covered topics such as menstruation as well as adolescent sexuality.

Websites

New York University. Margaret Sanger Papers Project. 2010.

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/index.html (accessed April 7, 2010).

This website lists updates about the editorial project to publish Margaret Sanger’s papers.

So far two microfilm series have been released as well as two books. Only a few excerpts
 37

are published on this website, but there are links to where to purchase the books and

microfilms.

Pros and Cons of Controversial Issues. Historical Timeline. August 3, 2009.

http://prostitution.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000117 (accessed April 5,

2010).

This timeline starts in 2400 B.C. and goes to the modern era on the history of prostitution

around the world. The easy-to-read chart highlights several movements in the United

States as citizens in different times took varying stances on the legality of prostitution.

SIECUS. SexEd Library. 2010. http://www.sexedlibrary.org/ (accessed April 8, 2010).

From the website is “the most comprehensive online sex ed resource in the nation.” They

include lesson plans on many different aspects of sex education as well as information on

sexually transmitted diseases and contraceptives.

The Free Library. Sex Education. 2010. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sex+education-s17838

(accessed April 8, 2010).

This website contains a list of recent articles about sex education.

University of Minnesota Libaries. American Social Hygiene Posters. May 14, 2007.

http://special.lib.umn.edu/swha/IMAGES/home.html (accessed April 8, 2010).

This online archive contains social hygiene posters from 1910-1970.