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

Rad se bavi pitanjem seksualnoga odgoja u odgojno-obrazovnom kontekstu u prvoj polovini 20. stoljeća. Ono što je karakteristično za to razdoblje, ali i čitavo stoljeće, jest postojanje dvostrukih standarda u odgoju i obrazovanju dječaka i djevojčica, prema kojima je ženska seksualnost uglavnom nevidljiva. Prijetnja društvu bio je muški spolni nagon, koji je trebalo kontrolirati, pa se većina propisa, normi, knjiga, uputa i zakona bavila tom tematikom. Dominantan je utjecaj Katoličke crkve, koja je raznim zakonskim i moralnim regulativama određivala granice prihvatljivog odnosno neprihvatljivog ponašanja te zagovarala isključivo apstinenciju. Pogled na seksualnost bio je negativan, barem na deklarativnoj razini, pa se na razne načine provodila politika kontrole, discipline i zastrašivanja. To se potkrepljivalo netočnim medicinskim „činjenicama” o štetnosti pretjeranoga izlučivanja tjelesnih tekućina, što pak dovodi do slabljenja živčanoga sustava i raznih drugih ozbiljnih poremećaja. Spomenuti elementi karakteriziraju prvu polovinu 20. stoljeća te se jasno ocrtavaju u izvorima korištenima u ovom radu.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