Scaramuzzo, P. (2026) ‘Silence as erasure: incorporating party-and-play (PnP) and hookup app education into queered health curriculum’, International Journal of LGBTQ+ Youth Studies, pp. 1–18. doi: 10.1080/29968992.2026.2657861.
Abstract: The opioid and stimulant overdose crisis has increasingly intersected with queer sexual cultures, particularly through party-and-play (PnP) practices embedded within hookup, dating, and companionship apps (HUDCAs). While public health research has documented elevated risks associated with app-mediated, substance-involved sex, health education in secondary schooling has largely failed to address these realities. This conceptual article examines how curricular silence around HUDCAs and PnP functions as structural erasure, rendering queer adolescent youth – especially BIPOC queer youth – hyper-visible in risk surveillance yet invisible in curricular care. Drawing on Foucauldian analyses of power and silence, queer theory (QT), and critical race theory (CRT), the article argues that omission operates as a biopolitical mechanism that displaces sexual learning into unstructured digital spaces without guidance or harm-reduction support. Through historical parallels with HIV/AIDS education, the analysis demonstrates that educational discomfort has often preceded survivability-oriented intervention. The article concludes by proposing a queered, harm-reduction-centered framework for secondary school health education that integrates HUDCA literacy, PnP-informed harm reduction, and attention to racialized inequities, reframing education as anticipatory preparation rather than abandonment.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit necropolitics.substack.com
