In the journal Sexualities, Jackson and Scott (2004, ‘Sexual
Antimonies in Late Modernity’, Sexualities 7[2]: 233-48) express
scepticism that current mores in relation to sexuality are increasingly liberal and
‘open’; instead, they suggest there are a number of antimonies
or contradictions evident. One of the themes they raise relates to parental
intentions (and ‘failures’) to be ‘open’
about sex with their children. I explore this antimony via data collected from
parents about the sex education of their young children. I first describe responses
to young children’s verbal questions about sex; the second section
considers parental responses to questions raised by ‘protosexual
play’. As the negotiations that take place between parents and children
reveal, many interventions in this area are actually interesting inversions of a
straightforward educational endeavour. Instead of ‘openness’,
the forms of parental disclosure and foreclosure of sexual information enact a
series of closures or enclosures in relation to the exchange of sexual information
in the family. The article goes on to consider possible explanations and effects of
these antimonies.