The Curious Case of the Condom

How the Secular Matters in the Netherlands

Bibliographic Data

ID4317607
AuthorsJelle Wiering (0000-0001-6082-3680, University of Groningen, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume19
Issue3
Pages236-258
Publication date2023-05-27
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMaterial Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1743-2200 • E-ISSN: 1751-8342
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17432200.2023.2249391
OpenAlexW4386478064
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited15

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

Aesthetics · Antithesis · Art · Condom · Epistemology · Human sexuality · Political science · Representation (politics · Secularity · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Social Psychology

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