'Slippery stuff': handling sexually explicit materials in the HE classroom

In this paper we examine key issues arising from the inclusion of sexually explicit materials on two final-year undergraduate modules in criminology and sociology. Contextualised through critical self-reflection, we outline and interrogate the strategies employed for sensitively handling the dissemination and discussion of sexually explicit materials. In so doing, we discuss the ethical and legal implications of employing such materials, and highlight some of the problems and paradoxes students face in opening up for critical scrutiny their own opinions, beliefs and embodied experiences of erotic and/or pornographic materials. Finally, we reflect on the extent to which strategic exposure to such materials allows students to develop political and academic critiques that sharpen their understanding of the contested terrain upon which erotica and/or pornography is situated.