Young Women, Class and Gendered Heterosexuality

The Implication of Educational Aspirations and Social Networks for Sex Education Messages

Bibliographic Data

ID2322152
AuthorsSharon Elley (0000-0002-9047-7659, University of Leeds, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume45
Issue3
Pages413-429
Publication date2011-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0385 • E-ISSN: 1469-8684
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0038038511399621
OpenAlexW1969293323
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited26

This article reports findings from an ESRC-funded investigation into the interface between Sex and Relationship Education (hereafter SRE) and young people's experiences as mediated by the interconnections of class, gender and heterosexuality. The article focuses on how young women's gendered heterosexual practices, alongside educational aspirations, are given meaning by the values embedded in classed circumstances, social networks and relationships. Developing a 'relational' approach, the conceptual framework combines different levels of analysis and complicates the idea of a simple workingclass/middle-class dichotomy. The empirical data are drawn from one-to-one interviews and focus groups with 69 young people, aged 15 to 21 years old, although only women's narratives are presented. I argue that understanding how young people draw on normative discourses about gendered heterosexuality, as well as class-related practices and aspirations as embedded in particular social networks, provides greater insight into theorizing the regulation of sexual identities as linked to SRE messages

Epistemology · Focus group · Heteronormativity · Heterosexuality · Homosexuality · Human sexuality · Narrative · Normative · Sociology · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Social Psychology

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