A conference on sexuality was heralded as being a first for Ireland when it opened at Dublin City University this morning.
The two-day Sexuality Studies, Self, Selves and Sexualities conference will include more than 60 speakers who will address issues such as homophobia in the workplace; sexual issues for the terminally ill; de-sexualising sex work and the portrayal of sexuality in art, literature and the media.
Many speakers are international academics and are looking at issues such as Indian feminism, sexuality in Mexican writing and the representation of sexuality moralities in romantic and marital plays in Kenya.
Opening the conference, DCU deputy president Prof Anne Scott said it was ironic that the conference was being at this particular time in our history and it was strange that it had not happened before.
Prof Diarmaid Ferriter of University College Dublin provided a potted history of sexuality in 20th century Ireland and highlighted key moments such as the Kerry Babies case, the deaths of Ann Lovett and her baby and the X case. He said these were not individual tragedies - they were part of the very long history of Irish sexuality.
Prof Ferriter asked if the history of sexuality in the 20th century had to be a history of abuse and a history of what went wrong. "We search in vain for accounts of sexual pleasure," he said.
See www.dcu.ie/salis/conferencesexualitystudies2010
