The intimacies of young people’s sexual health and pleasure

Bibliographic Data

ID12600587
AuthorsPaul Byron (0000-0001-6591-3060, ,, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume20
Issue3
Pages332-348
Publication date2016-08-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Youth Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1367-6261 • E-ISSN: 1469-9680
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13676261.2016.1217319
OpenAlexW2480492009
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited47

This paper considers the discourse of intimacy in young people’s accounts of sexual health. In interviews with people from Sydney aged 18–25 years, diverse understandings of sexual safeties are offered, reflecting a range of sex partner intimacies. This is seen in participants’ accounts of having a range of different partners, having different experiences with a particular partner, and having sex with friends. This discourse is considered against Australian sexual health websites for young people. In the websites, connections between safeties and intimacies are not explored, and discussion of safety is limited to condom use, as per the concept of ‘safe sex’. How condom use is supported and/or challenged by sexual and friendship intimacies is overlooked. In considering research claims about the missing discourse of pleasure in formal approaches to young people’s sexual health, I extend this to a missing discourse of intimacy. Connections between pleasure, intimacy, safety, and friendship are explored throughout this paper, and theorisations of intimacy as cultural, public, and intersubjective are considered, drawing upon the works of Lauren Berlant and Eva Illouz. It is argued that sexual health research and promotion that engages with young people’s conceptualisations of intimacy will better engage with young people’s sexual cultures, and hence be more relevant and useful to this population

Condom · Developmental psychology · Friendship · Human sexuality · Pleasure · Population · Reproductive health · Sociology · Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Medicine · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology