Pompomed vulvas & glittered penises: exploring gender through play

This paper focuses on a single lesson created as part of a year-long comprehensive sex and sexuality programme for youth (9–12-year-old) of refugee and immigrant backgrounds. Utilising the concept of youth agency, we analysed the process of art-making with the students and its product to explore how the creation of penises and vulvas out of craft materials allowed young people to interrogate stereotypical assumptions about their bodies and about gendered expectations. We contend that although gendered engagement with the project reflects societal expectations of how boys and girls relate to their genitals, the activity created a space in which to imagine sexed and gendered symbols differently and explore a world outside of the traditional cis-hetero construction of their meanings Our findings reflect the importance of centring sex and sexuality education on ideas of pleasure and playfulness in order to engage young people’s full selves in the learning process.