Sex Education

This collection maps the origins of the Netflix series Sex Education in relation to the genre of teenage high school dramas and comedies, exploring the four-season narrative arc and analysing the principal themes and characters.
The Netflix series Sex Education has been a standout critical and popular success and has featured among Netflix's most watched content in 190 countries throughout its 4 seasons. Its fresh and exciting portrayals of teenagers and their friendships, relationships, identities and sexualities demand new frameworks for understanding gender and genre, as well as the dynamics of streaming and interaction with the audience. This collection considers the aesthetics of the series and its main philosophical, ethical and political aspects. It investigates the creative process behind the ground-and-taboo-breaking series, examining it as a cultural product that is both old and new in that it relies on tried and tested generic formulae while also being responsive to new identity formations.

Deborah Shaw is Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Portsmouth, UK.
Rob Stone is Chair of European Cinema and Professor of Film Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Contributors
Introduction: Utopian Tropes and Troubled Teens
Deborah Shaw (University of Portsmouth, UK) & Rob Stone (University of Birmingham, UK)
1. Genre and Gender: Sex Education in Theory and Practice
Deborah Shaw (University of Portsmouth, UK), Rob Stone (University of Birmingham, UK) & James Walters (University of Birmingham, UK)
2. All the Times in the World: Sex Education and the Televisual Multiverse
James Walters (University of Birmingham, UK)
3. Vulnerable Sanctuaries: The Precarity of Safe Spaces in Sex Education
Andrea Reguiera Martín (University of Zaragoza, Spain)
4. The Construction of Queer Utopian Spaces in Sex Education: A Critical Approach to Cavendish College
Lucía Gloria Vázquez Rodríguez (University College London, UK)
5. Lessons on Love: Emotional Relationships and Attachment Styles in Sex Education
Ania Malinowska (University of Silesia, Poland)
6. "I'm Scared. And I Think I'm Bisexual": Grappling with Bisexuality in Sex Education
Sabrina Mittermeier (University of Kassel, Germany)
7. "It's Like I've Come Home": Race, Queerness, and Hybrid Identities in Sex Education
Anamarija Horvat (Northumbria University, UK)
8. "I'm Trying to Figure Out What Kind of Man I Wanna Be...": Otis and the Nostalgic Struggles of Contemporary Teen Masculinity
Tracey Mollet (University of Leeds, UK)
9. Complex Female Characters: The Makings of Maeve
Rob Stone (University of Birmingham, UK)
10. "Some Sexy Kind of Witch": Representing Modern Motherhood in Sex Education
Louise Coopey (University of Birmingham, UK)
11. Intimacy Coordination and Consent Culture in Sex Education
Susan Berridge (University of Stirling, UK) & Tanya Horeck (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)
12. "We Were Just Havin' A Bit of Fun": Teenagers and Porn in Sex Education
Debra Dudek (Edith Cowan University, Australia), Lelia Green (Edith Cowan University, Australia) & Giselle Woodley (Edith Cowan University and Curtin University, Australia)
13. Sex Education in Sex Education
Deborah Shaw (University of Portsmouth, UK)
14. Fuck The Pain Away: Real-life Counselling Versus its Fictional Representation in Sex Education
Jeremy Schultz (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, UK)
Index