Whose body is being educated? Visual norms and subject formation in adolescents’ sexuality education through artistic intervention

Adolescent sexuality education has long been constrained by the dual discourses of biomedicine and risk management, focusing on anatomical and physiological knowledge and the regulation of sexual behaviour, thereby diminishing the diversity of bodily experience and obscuring the role of visual culture in the construction of sexual subjectivity. This article uses work on body politics as its core analytical framework, integrating this with visual culture studies to introduce the concept of the ‘visual norm of sexuality education’ and its role in shaping adolescents’ bodily cognition and sexual subjectivity. The study argues that artistic intervention, as a form of critical visual practice, can deconstruct standardised visual symbols, activate personalised expressions of bodily experience, and cultivate visual critical literacy, thereby providing adolescents with a pathway from the ‘disciplined body’ to the ‘autonomously constructed sexual subject’. The core contribution of this article lies in incorporating visual dimensions, body politics, and art education into the theoretical core of sexuality education, transcending the traditional ‘knowledge–risk’ paradigm, and offering a new perspective that combines theoretical rigour with practical relevance, highlighting sexuality education’s commitment to adolescent dignity and autonomy as part of holistic education.