Friendship, sexual intimacy and young people's negotiations of sexual health

Paul Byron*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper examines how young people’s friendships influence safer sexual practices. Through a thematic discourse analysis, interviews with Sydney-based young people (aged 18–25 years) and Australian-based sexual health websites for young people are considered. Interview data illustrate how friendships can support young people's sexual experiences, concerns and safeties beyond the practice of ‘safe sex’ (condom use). This is evident in friends’ practices of sex and relationship advice, open dialogue, trust and sharing experiential knowledge, as well as friend-based sex. Meanwhile, friendship discourse from selected Australian sexual health websites fails to engage with the support offered by friendship, or its value to a sexual health agenda. Foucault’s account of friendship as a space of self-invention is considered in light of these data, along with his argument that friendship poses a threat to formal systems of knowing and regulating sex. Whether sexual or not, many close friendships are sexually intimate given the knowledge, support and influence these offer to one’s sexual practices and relations. This paper argues that greater attention to friendship among sexual health promoters and researchers would improve professional engagements with young people’s contemporary sexual cultures, and better inform their attempts to engage young people through social media.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)486-500
Number of pages15
JournalCulture, Health and Sexuality
Volume19
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Apr 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Australia
  • friendship
  • intimacy
  • sexual cultures
  • sexual health
  • young people

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Friendship, sexual intimacy and young people's negotiations of sexual health'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this