“If I Control the Situation, I’m not Scared”: Young Women's Descriptions of Sexual safety

• In Event: Poster Sessions

Abstract

Young women are consistently encouraged to practice “safe sex.” Using in-depth interviews with a group of young women, we examine the range of implicit and explicit labor required of young women to keep themselves safe and indeed, to feel safe. We analyze these accounts of safety to assess how contemporary safe sex messages intensify personal accountability and construct safety as a set of daily cognitions and behaviors, which largely fall outside of sexual encounters. We use interview material to develop a theoretical critique of the emotional and gendered labor that has become a normal part of young women’s sexual development.

Presenter

• Harley Dutcher, University of Michigan