- Title
- “Peer pressure” and “Peer normalization” : discursive resources that justify gendered youth sexualities
- Creator
- Macleod, Catriona I, Jearey-Graham, Nicola
- Date
- 2015
- Type
- Article
- Identifier
- vital:6312
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019877
- Identifier
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-015-0207-8
- Description
- “Peer pressure” is associated in the scientific literature with a range of risky sexual behaviors and with undermining public sexual health messages. Interventions are instituted encouraging young people to resist peer pressure or to model positive peer norms. Taking a discursive psychology perspective, we show how young people themselves use the discourses of “peer pressure to have sex” and “peer normalization of sex” to explain and justify youth sexual activity. Using data from focus group discussions about youth sexualities with students at a South African further education and training college, we show how participants outlined a need for young people to be socially recognizable through engaging in, and talking about, sex and how they implicated peer norms in governing individual sexual behavior. Both discourses pointed to a gendering of peer-endorsed sexual norms: masculine virility, the avoidance of shameful virgin or gay positions, and multiple sexual partners were emphasized for men, while the necessity of keeping a boyfriend and avoiding a “slut” position were foregrounded for women. These discourses potentially undermine the aims of public sexual health programs targeting youth. Nuanced engagement with peer group narratives, especially how sexual activity is explained and justified in a gendered fashion, is indicated.
- Description
- Full text access on Publisher website: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-015-0207-8
- Publisher
- Springer
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Macleod, C., & Jearey-Graham, N. (2015). “Peer Pressure” and “Peer Normalization”: Discursive Resources. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, doi:DOI 10.1007/s13178-015-0207-8 Available:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13178-015-0207-8
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Gender Action Forum (GENACT)
SDG 05. Gender Equality
RU Department of Psychology
Macleod, Catriona Ida (Distinguished Professor)
RU DST/NRF SARChI for Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproductions Research (CSSR) Programme
SDG 10. Reduced Inequalities
SDG 03. Good Health and Well-Being