Religious/secular discourses and practices of good sex

This article focuses on the triangulation of sexuality, religion and secularity in Dutch society by analysing two contemporary case studies. We focus on sexual experiences and practices rather than sexual identities to further understand the constructions of what constitutes 'good' sex. The empirical research is situated in the Netherlands, where the binary of religion and sexual regulation versus secularity and sexual freedom has been dominant in both public and political discourse for a long time. Exploring sexual practices and narratives as central to the constitution of both religious and secular selves, we noted these to be fluctuating, inconsistent and subject to discourses. Our first case study discusses sexual experiences of non-heterosexual Protestant women, whereas the second explores the frequently considered 'neutral' notions of secularity in sexual education. Applying insights from both religious studies and queer studies, we bring the empirical study of sexuality together with the theoretical debates about the conceptualisation of the secular and the religious in contemporary Western Europe.This comparative approach to sexuality not only undermines the culturally presumed exclusive opposition of the secular and the religious but it also provides new empirical contributions for understanding the interactions between sexual practices and sexual discourses

The secular body in the Dutch field of sexual health

This chapter investigates the secular body in the Dutch field of sexual health, the setting where the author conducted 13 months of anthropological fieldwork. The chapter explores this body from two different angles. First, it investigates the discursive field in which this body is situated in and constituted by. How do people working for sexual health organisations think the body should look and behave? What kind of behaviour and bodily appearance is advocated by these organisations? Second, the chapter draws on autoethnography to explore this body by examining the author’s experiences as a sexuality educator. On which occasions did he perceive himself to be failing as a sex educator? What do these experiences tell about the body and the expectations people have regarding a sex educator? By combining these two approaches to the body, the chapter explores the embodied configurations implicitly articulated and discouraged in Dutch sexuality education classes. In conclusion, the chapter reflects on what these insights tell us about secularity and the bodies that it seeks to cultivate

The Curious Case of the Condom:How the Secular Matters in the Netherlands

This article argues that the material approach to religion can productively be extended to the domain of the secular, so as to grasp its material dimension. It investigates the Dutch field of sexual health to examine the ways in which the male condom was employed to underscore an image of religion as an obstacle to open conversations about sexual matters. It analyzes how the condom was deployed during sex education classes to evoke discussions about sexuality, but also to demonstrate the organizations’ alleged comfortability with discussing these objects. I argue that, in my fieldwork, the condom materialized secularity because it was key to the introduction of what my interlocutors called “an open attitude” towards sexuality: an open appreciation of sexuality that implicitly references religion as the antithesis of a good sex education class. In doing so, the stereotypical representation of religion as prudish and constrained is reproduced and cultivated through sex education classes.</p

Secular Practices:The Production of Religious Difference in the Dutch field of Sexual Health

Dit proefschrift bestudeert seculiere handelingen in het Nederlandse veld van seksuele gezondheid. Het benadert seculariteit als een collectief van alledaagse handelingen die suggereren wat religie wel en niet is. Dit boek bestudeert deze handelingen en de representaties van religie die ze propageren en trachten te verspreiden. De studie bestudeert seculariteit in de context van seksualiteit, omdat conflicten over religie opvallend vaak ook gaan over seksualiteit. Religie en seksualiteit worden in Nederland (daarom) vaak gezien als onderwerpen die niet goed samengaan. Door zich juist te richten op irreligieuze benaderingen van seksualiteit, verzet deze studie zich tegen de tendens om problematiek op het gebied van seksualiteit zonder voldoende kritische reflectie aan religie toe te schrijven. Sterker nog: het boek beargumenteert dat de vele problematiseringen van religieuze benaderingen van seksualiteit in Nederland vergelijkbare problemen op het gebied van seksualiteit in irreligieuze contexten verhullen.This anthropological study investigates the intersections of secularity, sexuality, and religion in the Dutch field of sexual health. It conceives of secularity as a collection of practices that propose a particular delineation of the religious and the irreligious. The first part of this book examines the normativities that underpin the irreligious notions of sexuality that are advocated in the field. It shows that these notions of sexuality entail gendered assumptions that encourage people to conceive of sexuality as a normal topic that is liberated from constraining taboos. The second part of the book focuses on the secular practices that use religion as a scapegoat to more convincingly promote these understandings of sexuality. It shows how secular practices evoke problematic stereotypical representations of religion to, implicitly, propose particular irreligious notions as a superior alternative. Taking seriously the objects, embodied configurations and sensibilities that these secular practices draw upon, the book renders insight into how secularity happens in everyday Dutch society