Sex education in Croatia in the first half of the 20th century

Sa？etak The paper addresses the issue of sex education the educational context in the first half of the 20th century. What is specific to this period, but also for the entire century, is the existence of double standards in the education of girls vs. boys, where female sexuality remained mostly invisible. The male sexual drive was considered a threat to society which needed to be controlled, so most regulations, standards, books, instructions and laws addresses this topic. The Catholic Church exercised a dominant influence – using different legal and moral regulations, it defined the limits of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors and advocated pure abstinence. Sexuality was viewed as something negative, at least declaratively, so a policy of control, discipline and intimidation was enforced in different ways. This was supported by inaccurate medical “facts” concerning the adverse effect of excessive secretion of bodily fluids, which results in weakening of the nervous system and various other serious disorders. These elements marked the first half of the 20th century and are clearly reflected in the sources used for this paper