Secular Practices: The Production of Religious Difference in the Dutch field of Sexual Health

This anthropological study investigates the intersections of secularity, sexuality, and religion in the Dutch field of sexual health. It conceives of secularity as a collection of practices that propose a particular delineation of the religious and the irreligious. The first part of this book examines the normativities that underpin the irreligious notions of sexuality that are advocated in the field. It shows that these notions of sexuality entail gendered assumptions that encourage people to conceive of sexuality as a normal topic that is liberated from constraining taboos. The second part of the book focuses on the secular practices that use religion as a scapegoat to more convincingly promote these understandings of sexuality. It shows how secular practices evoke problematic stereotypical representations of religion to, implicitly, propose particular irreligious notions as a superior alternative. Taking seriously the objects, embodied configurations and sensibilities that these secular practices draw upon, the book renders insight into how secularity happens in everyday Dutch society.