(Not) Talking about Sex: Youth, Identity and Sexuality

Abstract

Young people remain inhibited in their exploration of sexuality not only by heterosexual morality and gendered power relations but also by their transitional status, yet the age dimension of youth and sexuality has been relatively neglected in recent research. This paper examines a number of social constraints on young people's opportunities for talk and discussion about sex, with reference to their experiences of sex education and services in sexual health. Based on interviews with 147 young women and young men and a separate survey of 400 clinic users, it emphasises the limited social acceptance of teenage sexuality and the forms of its regulation, which are both normative and relational. Attention to social relations with adults also shows how questions of sexual citizenship are closely connected to wider issues of social equality.