ABSTRACT
The explosion in studies of sexuality, and its journey to a more central position in the social sciences began with the AIDS crisis when it became clear how little was known about contemporary sexual behaviour and the implications this might have for the AIDS epidemic. Many studies at this time took an epidemiological or quantitative approach to sexual practices, what, how often, with or without condoms (Johnson et al. 1994). Initially gay men were the main target of concern, seen as a group at risk, but the emphasis changed from risky groups to risky practices as it was realised that no one was immune. Similarly the sensitive nature of the enquiry and the search for meanings to understand behaviour led to increasing use of qualitative approaches, as the field broadened to encompass a widening range of sexualities. The large field of youth studies encompasses an array of perspectives, typically breaking young lives into segments – psychological development, family, education, work (although more recently a holistic approach has been advocated, e.g. Henderson et al. 2007) – or regarding them as problems. Young people’s sexuality has often been ignored or marginalised in these studies, entering through the focus on problems and the need for control of their behaviour. Among issues pursued here are youth subcultures, drug use, smoking, drinking and becoming sexually active too young or in ways regarded as inappropriate by adults. From a policy and research perspective teenage mothers have been a typical concern reflecting a media exacerbated moral panic and a history of societal concern over young women’s sexuality (Duncan et al. 2010). In addition, building on a long history of school ethnography, a large number of studies have examined the behaviour of young people in relation to sexual values, beliefs and practices and the concomitant construction of sexualities in schools. Those who research and write about young people’s sexual lives and sexuality stand somewhat apart from the mainstream of youth studies, which draws on social theory generally, and draw particularly on feminist and sexualities theorists (e.g. Connell 1995; Foucault 1979; Sedgwick et al. 1993; Butler 1997; Rubin 2011). They operate with a broadly social constructionist, or a deconstructive, postmodern or queer approach. Following feminist gender work and masculinity studies, many look at young men and women separately, but others grapple with both, just as they grapple with the relationship between sexuality and gender. This chapter draws
largely on studies in Anglophone and European countries to examine how the sexual lives and sexualities of young people have been studied and understood, pursuing five intersecting themes: the relationship between sexuality and gender; hegemonic masculinity and male power; institutional reinforcement of heteronormativity; change; and continuity. The studies have taken place in and contributed to a growing concern that western society has become increasingly sexualised. Feona Attwood describes the sexualisation of culture:
a contemporary preoccupation with sexual values, practices and identities; the public shift to more permissive sexual attitudes; the proliferation of sexual texts; the emergence of new forms of sexual experience; the apparent breakdown of rules, categories and regulations designed to keep the obscene at bay; our fondness for scandals, controversies and panics around sex.
