This week’s campus celebrity at UVic is Charlotte Reading, a professor in the school of Public Health and Social Policy at UVic. Charlotte teaches Healthy Sexuality (HLTH 251), an incredibly popular, entertaining, and informative lecture course.
Charlotte has done extensive research into the Sexual Reproductive Health of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. In her early research, Charlotte was interested in the role of culture, particularly its influence on women’s views of aging and menopause. This led to continued focused research into Aboriginal women’s experience of menopause. Charlotte has also conducted a great deal of research in the area of HIV/AIDS and Aboriginal People. She has explored the stigma, Aboriginal people’s access to health care, and the role of sexual violence in Aboriginal Women. Charlotte also studies the social determinants of health related to Aboriginal People, such as where people had to live (not chose to live), and what kind of jobs were available to them. These social determinants directly relate to the history of Aboriginal People of Canada.
Charlotte came across a Human Sexuality class when she was doing her undergraduate degree at Dalhousie University. She took the class as a student herself, and when she finished her Masters degree, her then supervisor and previous Human Sexuality professor, suggested she take over the teaching of the class as he was retiring. Charlotte applied for the position and got the job. When Charlotte moved to UVic, the school of Public Health and Social Policy was new and in the process of creating classes. They wanted Charlotte to teach a class and HLTH251, Healthy Sexuality, was born!
Charlotte has been teaching the Healthy Sexuality for almost 17 years so she tries to change it up from season to season. She really enjoys teaching students the section on variations in sexual behaviour, which allows people to learn some new things they might have not known about before. However, Charlotte’s favourite section to teach in the course is about sexual authenticity. Not much has been written about sexual authenticity so we were intrigued and asked for more information. Here is Charlotte’s explanation of sexual authenticity, as she says it perfectly!
“Most of what’s been written about sexual authenticity relates to sexual orientation, with whom you’re sexually attracted to or romantically attracted to. That’s usually categorized by gender, which tends to be very simplistic. My interest is in sexual authenticity in all things sexual, so from the time we begin our sexual journey, if you will, until the time when we die. It’s about how do we push back against some of those social forces that shape who we become sexually to the point where people start to feel either inadequate or they feel like they’re not quite doing something right. I believe that anxiety and discomfort that people feel sexually has a lot to do with the fact that we’re not really being authentic in our sexuality; we’re playing a role. We’re told how to behave, what to do, what to say and when to say it and then we try to act that out rather than just being who we are. It’s one of my goals to do some research around that area, particularly with young women because I they are heavily influenced by social factors that shape whom we become sexually.” (Charlotte Reading)
Charlotte hopes that her class will leave students with a broader understanding of the world, particularly with sexuality. It isn’t about being tolerant of people’s differences, but rather embracing the diversity of sexuality.