Feminist Approaches to Youth Sexualities

Anonymised transcript of an interview with Carol, 20, who is training to be a nurse. She has had some long- and short- term heterosexual relationships, but feels she is too old to be dating anymore, and that perhaps she is 'very choosy'. She often finds herself disappointed, as she tends to have unrealistic expectations of potential partners. She feels she wouldn't be too bothered if she never had a relationship again, but would like to have children at some point. A previous partner had been violent and abusive towards her, and had raped her. Carol thinks this experience has changed her outlook on sex and relationships in that she is less likely to trust others, but it has made her more aware of others who may be vulnerable, misogyny, and victim-blaming attitudes that are prevalent in society. She has learnt a lot about AIDS through her nursing, but doesn't think public health campaigning is doing enough to express the significance of AIDS protection and awareness, other than creating initial mass hysteria. She does think that advertisements have been good, though, as they are 'quite realistic', but should do more to target low-risk groups than perceived high-risk groups. She would like to think she would protect herself sexually in any future relationships, but would be too embarrassed to carry condoms or to initiate discussions around protection.

Title	Interview with Carol, 20, White British, working class. Women, Risk and AIDS Project, Manchester, 1989. Anonymised version (Ref: NUR06)
Description	Anonymised transcript of an interview with Carol, 20, who is training to be a nurse. She has had some long- and short- term heterosexual relationships, but feels she is too old to be dating anymore, and that perhaps she is 'very choosy'. She often finds herself disappointed, as she tends to have unrealistic expectations of potential partners. She feels she wouldn't be too bothered if she never had a relationship again, but would like to have children at some point. A previous partner had been violent and abusive towards her, and had raped her. Carol thinks this experience has changed her outlook on sex and relationships in that she is less likely to trust others, but it has made her more aware of others who may be vulnerable, misogyny, and victim-blaming attitudes that are prevalent in society. She has learnt a lot about AIDS through her nursing, but doesn't think public health campaigning is doing enough to express the significance of AIDS protection and awareness, other than creating initial mass hysteria. She does think that advertisements have been good, though, as they are 'quite realistic', but should do more to target low-risk groups than perceived high-risk groups. She would like to think she would protect herself sexually in any future relationships, but would be too embarrassed to carry condoms or to initiate discussions around protection.
Identifier	NUR06/O
Subject	Career Expectations (romantic) Relationships Domestic violence Sexual assault (rape) Victim-blaming attitudes Feminism/Women's movement Aspiration AIDS Condom use Risk White British Working class No religion.
Date	17/05/1989
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

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