Legitimate Sexpectations

the power of sex-ed
Katrina Marson

‘Beautifully told and realistic … Marson’s compelling argument builds to the realisation that as long as our collective fear allows us to remain gatekeepers of knowledge, we remain complicit in denying our young people healthy and fulfilling sexual lives.’

Dr Melissa Kang, former ‘Dolly Doctor’ and co-author of Welcome to Consent

‘This book made me mourn for all those who didn’t have the chance to read it, while simultaneously filling me with so much hope for those who get to … A guiding light for RSE, shining into the future our young people deserve.’

Saxon Mullins, Director of Advocacy at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy

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‘Necessary and fascinating … Marson shows us how talking about our personal relationships, boundaries, and sex, from a younger age than you’d think, can protect all our kids, and lead to better relationships and a much safer adolescence.’

Daisy Turnbull, educator and author of 50 Questions to Ask Your Teens

‘This is Australia and it’s 2022. We can do better than replicating the same sex-ed curriculum we had as children. Imagine if comprehensive relationships and sexuality education (RSE) was implemented in all our schools — even adopted as our community’s way of thinking. What a gift we would be giving our children, affording them a healthier, safer, and more empowered future. RSE offers an opportunity for our kids to better understand themselves and their relationships with others. Here, in Legitimate Sexpectations, Marson offers a powerful roadmap forward that speaks to the needs of our young people. Politicians and policy makers must take note.’

Gabbie Stroud, author of Teacher

‘Marson’s project is a redemptive and noble exercise. At a time when society has only recently begun to seek justice for those sexually violated by powerful men, Legitimate Sexpectations is a welcome – and, importantly, local – reminder of the need for wholesale sex education reform here. As she argues, it’s only by breaking down social scripts and advocating sexual wellbeing that lasting generational change may be possible.’

Nathan Smith, The Saturday Paper

‘[Legitimate Sexpectations] provides insights that require a complex, manifold response … Marson’s argument that the community needs to collectively agree to prioritise RSE is very compelling.’

Louise Swinn, The Sydney Morning Herald

‘A courageous and well researched book driven by a resolute mission to provoke an important public discussion and to inspire reform in sex education in Australia.’

Judges’ comments from the ACT Book of Year Award 2023

‘Marson takes a pragmatic approach to this complex issue, making this book an approachable read for anyone. Each chapter begins with a fictional case study that illustrates an aspect of sex-ed. At the points in the book that risk becoming slightly bogged down in terminology and statistics, she is able to call back to that narrative and recapture her readers attention, making her arguments feel less abstract … Legitimate Sexpectations pitches a very achievable path to a world with less sexual violence. Marson shows us again and again just how frustratingly within-reach this future is, and readers are left with the understanding that creating this world is the responsibility of the community.’

Ellen Cregan, Kill Your Darlings

‘[Marson] deals with many issues which could be addressed in educating young people about sexuality and relationships. She will provoke debate, about the content, focus, venue and effect of such education - this book opens that debate.’

Mark Thomas, The Canberra Times

‘As a criminal lawyer experienced in matters of family violence and sexual assault, Marson is well-positioned to deliver findings on what is needed to combat the epidemic of gendered and sexual violence … Rather than pointing fingers, Marson asks us to consider society’s unconscious attitudes around power, violence and sexuality.’

Jenny Hedley, Archer Magazine

‘In the hands of a lesser writer-researcher, a book that relies on fictionalised sex scenes to illustrate failure to consent could have been a failure in itself… [but] Katina Marson immerses us in the complex emotional and physical choreography of fictitious sexual encounters as a counter narrative to her research on sex education, and manages not to fall into a Delta of Venus flytrap. This book offers a sustained argument for a national curriculum of comprehensive relationships and sexuality education … One book cannot be all things to all people, but I credit this book for continuing the conversation around human rights and sexuality and the right to a life free from violence.’

Jenny Hedley, Westerly Magazine

‘Urgent, clear, and pragmatic. This book will help you cut through the chaos and confusion swirling around the “consent” conversation right now. It’s required reading — especially for parents and teachers — but I think young people will get a lot out of it too. From the classroom to the courtroom, Marson has heard and seen it all, and has crafted a fantastic resource that anyone can read and understand. It’s a rallying cry for us to stop failing our young people. It’s a beacon of hope for a brighter, safer, better future for all.’

Bri Lee, author of Eggshell Skull

Can we promise future generations a life free of sexual violence, in which their sexual wellbeing will be protected? Is this a promise we can keep?

As a sexual offences prosecutor, Katrina Marson works for an institution that can only respond, one case at a time, to sexual violence once the damage is already done. During a decade of looking back, she kept returning to a single question: what could have been done to prevent this?

In 2019 she stepped out of the justice system to travel abroad on a Churchill Fellowship, where she witnessed first-hand the power of comprehensive relationships and sexuality education to safeguard sexual wellbeing and act as a protective factor against sexual violence. Combining her coalface experience in the criminal law with her international research on sex education, Marson’s perspective is unique, looking in two directions at once.

Legitimate Sexpectations exposes the limits of the criminal justice system and the fault lines in our society when it comes to sex, sexuality, and relationships. Through storytelling that moves between heartbreak and hope, Marson makes the case for a cultural shift towards valuing sexual wellbeing and preventing sexual violence in the first place. In doing so, she calls on us all to play our part to ensure that people can expect sexual experiences that are not just free from violence, but far from violent.

Dr Melissa Kang, former ‘Dolly Doctor’ and co-author of Welcome to Consent

Saxon Mullins, Director of Advocacy at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy

View all reviews

Daisy Turnbull, educator and author of 50 Questions to Ask Your Teens

Gabbie Stroud, author of Teacher

Nathan Smith, The Saturday Paper

Louise Swinn, The Sydney Morning Herald

‘A courageous and well researched book driven by a resolute mission to provoke an important public discussion and to inspire reform in sex education in Australia.’

Judges’ comments from the ACT Book of Year Award 2023

Ellen Cregan, Kill Your Darlings

Mark Thomas, The Canberra Times

Jenny Hedley, Archer Magazine

Jenny Hedley, Westerly Magazine

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 234mm × 153mm

Extent:272pp

ISBN (13):9781922585516

RRP:$32.99

Pub date:2 Aug 2022

Rights Held: World {Ex. North America)

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

2023 ACT Book of the Year Award - Short-listed 2023 ACT Notable Book Awards for Nonfiction - Short-listed 2023 Davitt Awards for Nonfiction Books - Short-listed

CATEGORIES / tags

Family & relationships SOCIAL SCIENCE / Human Sexuality Sexual behaviour Philosophy & theory of education Sex & sexuality, sex manuals FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / General SOCIAL SCIENCE / Children’s Studies PSYCHOLOGY / Human Sexuality

AUTHOR

Katrina Marson

Katrina Marson has been researching the protective power of sex-ed to prevent sexual violence and safeguard sexual wellbeing for a decade. She has been a criminal lawyer since 2013, primarily in the areas of family violence and sexual offences. On secondment for two years, Katrina led the implementation of the Child Sexual Abuse Royal Commission's criminal justice recommendations in the ACT before returning to the ACT DPP as a senior prosecutor in the Sexual Offences Unit. She undertook a Churchill Fellowship in 2019 researching the implementation of relationships and sexuality education overseas. She is the lead researcher of primary prevention at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy and is the President of the Relationships and Sexuality Education Alliance in the ACT.

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We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

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