Feminist Approaches to Youth Sexualities

Anonymised transcript of an interview with Julie who is studying theatre studies, dance and English Language at college, but isn't enjoying it too much. She would like to form a band with her current boyfriend. This her first serious relationship and they have been together for three years. She describes him as nice and sensitive. Her girlfriends are dating casually a lot, but she is happy settling down in her long term relationship. Some distance has grown between her and her friends, in part due to her romantic relationship and also because of political and cultural conflict regarding their Irish heritage and identity. In terms of sex education, Julie's mother has attempted to be open about discussing sexuality and contraception, but Julie has found this to be embarrassing and considers herself to be a private person. Instead, she has gained sex education from friends and Jackie Collins novels. With regard to formal sex education, her Catholic school provided a very limited amount in a PSE lesson that was taught by religious teachers. Julie identified this as a factor that limited her sex education, especially surrounding aspects of sexuality such as sex before marriage and access to contraception. AIDS education was through public health campaigns on TV and in newspapers, but Julie did not consider the risks of AIDS to be relevant to her and does not position herself as a risk as she has only had one sexual partner. This is with her current partner, which she says is not a very sexual relationship, due to their lack of privacy while both living at home. She has considered contraceptive methods, but isn't fully informed of the different options available to her and would go to the family planning clinic to discuss this. Her boyfriend is moving to Scotland for a year, but she is not too worried about this and thinks they will be able to work through it.

Title	Interview with Julie. Women, Risk and AIDS Project, Manchester. Anonymised version (Ref: SS310)
Description	Anonymised transcript of an interview with Julie who is studying theatre studies, dance and English Language at college, but isn't enjoying it too much. She would like to form a band with her current boyfriend. This her first serious relationship and they have been together for three years. She describes him as nice and sensitive. Her girlfriends are dating casually a lot, but she is happy settling down in her long term relationship. Some distance has grown between her and her friends, in part due to her romantic relationship and also because of political and cultural conflict regarding their Irish heritage and identity. In terms of sex education, Julie's mother has attempted to be open about discussing sexuality and contraception, but Julie has found this to be embarrassing and considers herself to be a private person. Instead, she has gained sex education from friends and Jackie Collins novels. With regard to formal sex education, her Catholic school provided a very limited amount in a PSE lesson that was taught by religious teachers. Julie identified this as a factor that limited her sex education, especially surrounding aspects of sexuality such as sex before marriage and access to contraception. AIDS education was through public health campaigns on TV and in newspapers, but Julie did not consider the risks of AIDS to be relevant to her and does not position herself as a risk as she has only had one sexual partner. This is with her current partner, which she says is not a very sexual relationship, due to their lack of privacy while both living at home. She has considered contraceptive methods, but isn't fully informed of the different options available to her and would go to the family planning clinic to discuss this. Her boyfriend is moving to Scotland for a year, but she is not too worried about this and thinks they will be able to work through it.
Identifier	SS310/O
Subject	Students (college) Sex education AIDS disease Catholic schools Faith schools Marriage Contraceptive devices Sexual behaviour Relationships Cultural identity Religious practice Political issues Aspiration Family planning clinics Catholicism.
Date	16/08/1989
Creator	Women, Risk and Aids Project (WRAP, 1989-90)
Publisher	The Reanimating Data Project
Type	Text
Temporal Coverage	1989
Spatial Coverage	Greater Manchester, UK
Rights	CC BY-NC 4.0

Item sets