GENDER DOES MATTER:


FRAMING RISK SEXUAL BEHAVIOURS


AMONG CROATIAN ADOLESCENTS

 

 

Summary:

The question of Croatian adolescents' construction of their gender identities in the context of sexual relations is explored. More specifically, the focus is on the ways gender-based sexual agendas, articulated in different norms and expectations for young women and for young men, contribute to risk sexual behaviours. Analysis is based on the data from six focus groups discussions with young people aged 15-17. The addressed issues are media representations, concepts of gendered sexuality, communication patterns and content, and negotiating pressures. It is argued that young people's perceptions of femininity and masculinity significantly influence their attitudes to sexual issues, and that these gender-different expectations, again, are likely to assist in reinforcing adolescents unsafe sexual behaviours. It is suggested that educational/prevention programs in the area of sexual health and safety should include sessions on communication skills and raising gender awareness.


Key words: gender, risk sexual behaviours, adolescent sexuality, Croatia

 

1. Introduction

2. Background

3. Data and methods

4. Findings and discussion

5. Conclusions and implications

6. Bibliography

7. Appendix

 

1. Introduction

This paper aims to analyze gender differences in perceptions, attitudes and sexual behaviours among Croatian adolescents. More to the point, the question is how existing attitudes to gender construct youth culture norms and expectations about sexual experience and activities, and how this normative gender disparity, prominent in assumptions about natural feminine and masculine sexual roles and behaviours, contributes to unsafe sexual and reproductive practices of young people. In other words, the focus of this paper is to explore the ways young people's attitudes and beliefs about gender and gendered sexuality inform and shape risk sexual behaviours (RSB) .This analysis is based on the data recorded during six focus group discussions (FGD), conducted as a qualitative part of the action/research project "Urgently Claiming the Future: Focus on Gender for Safer Sex Relationship". The project also includes a quantitative part, a questionnaire that will provide additional information on young people's view on gender in relation to their sexual beliefs, practices, and risks. Following the preliminary analysis of the questionnaire data, participative workshops will be organized with young people from the sample who wish to explore what the outcomes from the survey mean to them, and to consider the implications of findings for their own behaviour. The project as whole aims to produce a report on the interconnections of gender and sexual behaviour issues, utilizing findings both from FGD and from the questionnaire, as well as the main issues raised by young people during the workshops. Therefore, the scope, and the limits of the analysis presented in this paper should be viewed in the light of the above mentioned research context.

 


2. Background

This investigation of adolescent heterosexual RSB is framed by theoretical guidelines within the context of gender systems, as social, cultural and historical organizations of difference between women and men, manifested in economic, legal, and political divisions. This wider social positioning of gender inequality, often assumed to be natural and normal, is reflected in sexual behaviours and relations that take place between (young) people shaped by the cultural narratives and assumptions about the ways men and women should be sexual. What people do sexually, also depends on what they think and believe about differences between women and men. Consequently, the system of unequal power relations between men and women informs the gendered norms and roles in the context of youth sexual relationships. Adolescent sexuality is the site where the notions of femininity and masculinity, as culturally constructed gender identities, map sexual subject positions in different ways for girls and boys.Recent research and analysis in feminist and gender studies indicates that sexual experience is intimately connected to gendered power relations. Normative mechanisms of gender system, within the institution of heterosexuality, construct and maintain (adolescents') sexual scripts in the way that privileges the masculine social position (the male in the head) . Thus, for the most of girls their gendered sexual identity means resigning from their own wishes and desires in favor of boy's needs and preferences. Consequently, young women's understandings of femininity, embodied in gendered attitudes and expectations, often limit their control over sexual activity and their ability to protect themselves against RSB, allowing young men to define the risks of their sexual behaviour. On the other hand, social conventions defining male sexual identity require that boys initiate, and be in control of, sexual activities, proving that they are real men for whom sex is just doing it, without emotions, caring only about their own pleasure and not taking the responsibility for consequences of sexual intercourse. Moreover, young men frequently interpret their masculinity as a mixture of sexuality, power, and aggression, acted out in various forms of pressures and coercion on girls (from manipulations to physical violence).
Accordingly to the above presented arguments, the interpretative framework for this analysis of the adolescents' deliberations emphasizes the active role that traditional terms and structures of gender inequality (reproduced by both young men and young women while negotiating and engaging in sexual practices) have in affecting and reinforcing RSB. This theoretical perspective is informed by gender research and qualitative analysis undertaken by the Women Risk AIDS Project during the 1990's and published as "The Male in the Head" (Holland et al., 1999). The same terms of reference were applied in the project "Living for Tomorrow: Youth, sexual health and the cultural landscapes of gender and sexuality in Nordic/Baltic/N.W. Russian times of transition. An HIV/AIDS era initiative" that was, again, the starting point for this research.

In the Croatian context, recent surveys undertaken on issues of adolescent sexuality are mostly based on quantitative methodology and missing the gender perspective (Hiršl-Heæej, Šikaniæ-Dugiæ, & Dobravc-Poljak, 1998; Štulhofer, Jureša, & Mamula, 2000). The findings from these surveys that are relevant to the issues explored in this paper reveal that:

In the Croatian society gender difference is often understood as biologically rooted sex differences and, as such, natural and necessary. In the last ten years conservative attitudes towards gender and sexuality were part and parcel of the dominant fiction characterized by strong patriarchal values, the Law of the Father, and the unity of the family. This pro-family ethos based on traditional female and male roles was in addition reinforced through the discourses of war, nationalism and Catholicism. Likewise, significant for this context is the sex industry explosion, as well as oversexualization of media, as two influential forces in shaping sexual scripts of Croatian adolescents. Moreover, the lack of sexual education has resulted in an incomplete understanding of one's sexual behaviour, undeveloped communication skills, and a fragmented knowledge of sexuality issues. What this means for young people is exposure to RSB
as well as unrealistic expectations and distorted views of their own sexuality.

 


3. Data and methods

The data used in this analysis are the outcome of six FGD conducted in the period from 12.03. to 22.03. 2001. at CESI premises in Zagreb, as an exploratory qualitative investigation of the issues lacking from the questionnaire, as well as an inquiry in the current terminology used by adolescents while talking about sex. The discussion was structured around four sections (see Appendix):

The discussions lasted for 2 to 3 hours, depending on the size of the group (3 to 9 participants). The participants were 15 to 17 years old volunteers from 3 secondary schools (one grammar school, one technical school, and one craft school) in Zagreb, selected randomly. From 44 volunteers who signed the consent form, only 33 actually participated, 17 girls and 16 boys. Separate sessions were organized for girls and for boys, bearing in mind the gender dynamics of
mixed group communication, with boys often taking up the space for themselves, talking more and louder, and interrupting girls, for whom, sometimes, could be hard to talk openly about sexuality in the presence of boys. The facilitators were CESI research team members and 5 volunteers experienced in working with adolescents on gender and sexuality issues and trained on conducting FGD. All discussions were tape-recorded and then transcribed. The basic strategy was to identify distinct themes and issues expressed by the young people in their answers and to use these as categories for systematically analyzing the textual material. The categories used in analysis were devised through the interaction of several levels of a conceptualization: the particular terms and phrases expressed by young people; the questions serving as guidelines for FGD; the discussions and interpretations of CESI research team members. Afterwards, the categories devised were applied independently by three team members. Gender differences in the particular categories were analyzed, and theoretical understandings on the gender issues in relation to sexual behaviours and risks were applied to the principal ideas and noticeable trends in the adolescents' deliberations. In some cases it was more appropriate to base the analysis on specific words or expressions used, in others, comments were
categorized and meanings and interpretations attached. As mentioned earlier in the text, the limitations to this analysis are marked by the missing data from the questionnaire survey that would make the findings more comprehensive. Besides, as all of the FGD's participants live in Zagreb, the capital of the Republic of Croatia, we should be aware that the notions of gender and sexuality outside the urban environment could be different, and probably tend to be defined within more rigid and traditional terms. For the purpose of this paper the findings are presented, together with illustrative quotations from the young people themselves, in four sections:

 

 

.4. Findings and interpretations

Today, young people's individual perspectives are significantly influenced by the inclusion within the system of mass education, by the processes of globalization, and by the strong impact of mass culture and media. Media representations and messages relating to sexuality are mostly received by young people from television series, movies, and teen magazines. Their content and their meanings are often interwoven with gender differences reflecting wider social stereotypes. While discussing how media represents women and man when it comes to sexuality, almost all of the young people, both boys (B) and girls (G), located these images of femininity and masculinity within the traditional system of gender-power relations. In their deliberations, the social category of masculinity, as seen portrayed in the media, is mostly linked with the notions of superiority, sexual permissiveness and prowess, and understood and meaningful only in relation to what it is not, to femininity:

A man in media is good-looking and proud of himself, and a woman is good-looking so she can seduce him, she is more as an appandage to him. (G)
 
A man is presented as rougher, prominent, physically and psychologically stronger than woman, he protects her, and she is sophisticated, a lady. (G)
 
Men are pictured as more important, more superior, more sublime than women. (B)
 
For boys the message is: you are macho, so you can do whatever you want to. (G)
 

On the other hand, the young people's interpretations of the media representations of femininity mainly included three characteristics: occupying subordinate, dependent position in gender dichotomy; being valued by attractiveness, by outward appearance (looks); and defined by more regulative and restrictive sexual norms.

Women are presented more like objects, things, sex symbols. (G)
 
For girls these messages are warnings: don't do it, not too soon. (B)

Messages for girls are: you are mommy's little girl and be careful about what you are doing. (G)
 

At the same time, the dominant media images of female sexuality embodied in the (very often out-of-reach) ideal of flat stomach, big breastes, you must be perfect, are percieved (mostly by the girls) as having a neggative effect on young women's self-confidence:

I don't think I have seen a girl on television who weighs more than 70 kilos. It turns out that if you are overweight you can't find yourself a boyfriend. (G)
 
As fashion models are very popular, boys look at girls in that way, and this is very depressing and limiting for girls, and they can have low self-opinion, and they can start thinking that they are not worthy enough. (G)
 
This is media influence, movies, magazines, models, beauty queens, many girls will do anything to achive that ideal, they are becoming dependent on their looks. (G)
 

In addition, in many adolescents' accounts the popular media discourse is viewed as oversexualized, inviting young people to construct their gender identities by investing in particular subject positions:

In media everything revolves around the question of how many persons did you sleep with, and, maybe unconsciously, many young people are asking themselves, when will I finally do it? (G)
 
It is presented as a normal thing that everyone has already slept with everyone, like it is just like that, to go to bed with someone, and to sleep with that person, no emotions, nothing. (G)
 
For girls there is emotional side of the message, for boys it's technical issue. (G)
 
When you are watching film scenes, some girls could think that everything about sex is nice and perfect. (G)
 
For example, a movie, this boy is seventeen, he has a party for his birthday, they all get drunk, and the oldest man says: we will get you a whore and you will become a man, and he sleeps with the whore, and the old guy says: now, you are a real man. (G)

 

Discursive ties between sexuality and gender become even more apparent in the words and phrases used by the young people while talking about their expectations in the context of sexual relations. The analysis of these accounts reveals that the experience of heterosexuality is often different for girls and for boys. The key-questions of power and control in heterosexual relations are informed by socially constructed gender identities, femininity and masculinity, that
convey the notions of female sexuality as subordinate (to male). For the most part, the adolescents' expressions associated the female sexual position with the following traits:

On the contrary, the young people's interpretations and understandings of male sexuality, of being a real man, were mostly situated within the range of characteristics, almost complementary to the ones defining female sexuality:

 

Developed communication skills, as an important aspect of adolescents' sexual relations, could contribute to more satisfactory relationships. These skills include expressing one's own needs and desires, establishing personal boundaries, avoiding misconceptions, negotiating pressures, trying to understand partners' position, and making responsible and informed decision. On the other hand, talking about sex and/or contraception about sexuality in mixed groups or in a relationship, could also trigger a discussion on issues of trust and responsibility and often could bring on the feelings of uneasiness, fear, and doubts about one's own sexuality. What could happen if the assumptions, described by the young people as inherent to the particular gender identity, actively serve as the guidelines for adolescents while discussing and negotiating their sexual relationships? Operating in a mutually reinforcing system, these attitudes and beliefs about appropriate gender behaviour are likely to significantly reduce the possibility of an open and equal communication about sexual needs, risks, and safety. The following accounts reveal that before mentioned gender (mis)conceptions inform communication problems between girls and boys:

With boys we talk realy rearly, because then it is thought that girl is easy, that she is too forward, too presumptuos. And if a girl mentions sex first, if she says she likes it, or that maybe she would like to try, then she is looked upon as different, easy. And boys who had more sexual experiences are percieved as real guys, and a girl in the same situation, she is called easy, and whore, and all bad names and bad reputation. (G)
 
It is hard to discuss these kind of things in a relationship, she could think that you want to sleep with her at once, and you just want to know what and how she thinks about it. These kinds of questions can interrupt a confidence. You can't just come and ask a girl: what do you think about sex, she would instantly think: why are you asking me this right now and what do you want, you just want that, and she could think that I would leave her afterwards. (B)
 
With a girlfriend, in a relationship, it's not so easy to talk about these things, you think about her reaction, if she would think that I just want to take advantage of her, that I am initiating this issue just because I want something to happen. It is hard. (B)
 
A girl can take off her clothes, but maybe she doesn't want to do it, maybe she wants something else, no one knows what she thinks. A big mistake is that we don't talk about it It's better to say everything, to express it verbarly, it is much more clear this way. (B)
 

In addition, the adolescents' accounts on the communication issues within only-boys peer group also echo the dominant norms of appropriate gender behaviour, in this case the restriction and denial of emotions, as the constitutive element of the traditional version of masculinity. It becomes very difficult to reveal vulnerabilities and sexual difficulties to other boys, and at the same time constantly trying to create and maintain an image of acceptable masculinity:

They keep their problems to themselves, because they must be proud and strong and they are not allowed to show their feelings, but there is that soft part inside of them that they are showing to their girlfriends. (G)
 
Boys are more constrained, they keep their things and thoughts to themselves, they just state some facts, what it was and how it was, and that's all, and they don't talk about things that bother them, or what they liked or didn't like. (G)
 
If someone wants to ask something or express some feelings, he would be ridiculed and made fool of. And if someone has a girlfriend, no one asks him how it's going, how do you feel about it, what do you do with her. (B)
 

The differences between girls' and boys' attitudes to the responsibility for the consequences of sexual encounters are evident in their deliberations on the issues of contraception:

We very rearly talk about contraception, it is generally understood that everyone knows about it, and that is a wrong opinion, girls can probably get some advice from their gynaecologist, but in group of boys there is no talk about it at all, they think it is normal, and obvious that everything is known and understood by everyone. (B)
For girls it is somehow more important, they think about it carefully and in details. (B)
First, in one small group, we tell each other everything, and then we go to another girl and talk more with others. Girls are more open, they talk about the things that are bothering them. (G)
The prevailing opinion is that a girl thinks and cares more about it, because it is her body, and she would have to give birth or go for an abortion, and he can leave at any moment. (B)
 
Girls are afraid of getting pregnant, and they talk about contraception because they have to bear the consequences. I think that girls are more informed about sexuality in general because they are more intrerested, they have to take care. (G)
 

It can be argued that gender differences in adolescents' accounts are connected to the demands of prevaling gender norms regulating (hetero)sexual relations. For girls, accordingly with the social category of female sexuality, this means being more concerened about the possibility of negative outcomes of sexual intercourse. This could be problematic with respect to the idea that woman should be in passive and subordinated position in the processes of controling and/or influencing actual sexual practices. Moreover, the combination of this assumption with the image of men's (sexual) wishes and preferences being more important, could suggests that in the context of sexual negotiation, boys needs and desires will be given greater priority. In the situation where condoms are often percieved as spoiling a pleasure for a boy, many girls may find it difficult, or might be afraid to ask a boy to use a condom:

A boy has an excuse that sex with condom is not comfortable for him, and the whole responsibility falls on a girl. (G)
 
When a boy says: I don't want to wear condom, it annoys me, many girls would accepted it that way. (G)

 

When discussing about the various forms of pressures concerning their sexuality, many young people clearly expressed that these experiences are different for girls and for boys. Their accounts could be interpreted within the concept of double gender-standards of sexual freedoms, reflecting the features traditionally associated with male and female sexuality. According to adolescents' statements, young men are mostly oppressed by peers, and by the demands of their
gender identity, forcing them to become real men through engaging in sexual relations:

Parents, mostly dad, they bring up their son in a way that he must prove himself, he must sleep with a girl. (G)
 
For girls it is: don't, are you normal, you are young, only seventeen, look at yourself, why now, it is too early for you, and for boys, and in their groups, it is: you had a chance, why didn't you, and then he feels guilty. (G)

A girl is pressured by a boy, and the boy is pressured by a society, by peers, and this joint pressure could lead to the break of a relationship. (B)
 
For example, a boy is together with a girl for a year, but he thinks he is not ready for it yet, but there will be always someone who would say: but you are together for a such long time and you didn't sleep yet, and then it starts to bother you. (G)
 

On the other hand, many young people indicated that, for girls, the pressures mostly come from a boy, a partner in a relationship, forcing her to sexual intercourse, using manipulations, threats, (emotional) blackmail, and/or physical violence. In many cases, young women disscused sex in terms of boy's needs, or their feelings for a boy or a relationship, pointing out to the already mentioned assumption that boy's preferances are given more importance. Likewise, a salient issue is their belief that sexual intercourse is the price of a continued relationship:

There are manipulations, blackmailing: we will not be together anymore, I could start looking at the other girls, and a girl tries to convience herself. And maybe she starts to think: I'm not normal because I don't want to sleep with him, and then she does it, and then she is disappointed. (G)
 
She thinks she has to do it after six months, she thinks that she should, but maybe she is not really ready, she thinks that he would leave her. (G)
 
Most often she gives in, as to please him, and it is always like this. She doesn't think about herself in that moment, but mostly about him, how he would feel, what he would say? (G)

A girl is afraid that if she rejects him, he would break up with her, and then she sleeps with him only because of him, to please him. (B)



Based on their deliberations, the strategies for negotiating these kind of pressures, for young women are often concealed by the notions of love, emotionally framing their sexuality and (cor)responding to the requests of femininty.

Girls are mostly blinded by that love, she doesn't know if a boy is well or ill inclined to her, and she doesn't realize it is also a pressure on her. (G)
 
A boy can say: you don't love me, that's the reason why you don't want to sleep with me. (G)
 
Because she loves him, she gives in, but she doesn't have to, she can say: not now, but when I will be ready. It can also be some kind of fear not to lose this boy, because she is not sure if he would stay with her after it. (G)

 


5. Conclusions and implications

By exploring the issues of young people's constructions of their gender identity in the context of sexual relations and behaviours, this analysis has sought to bring questions of gender more actively into discussion and research on adolescents RSB, and consequently to emphasize the need to address these issues in educational/prevention programs on sexual safety/risks. The main idea underpinning this claim is the notion of gender as socially constructed category, culturally and historically changing, and therefore changeable. This locates the possibility and significance of questioning and changing social traditions and expectations about (gendered) sexual behaviours that could lead to negative outcomes such as unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and sexual victimization. The analysis revealed that the dominant social assumptions and media representations of what women and men are, and how men and women should act and behave in sexual situations, have significant meaning for young people's own behaviour. Moreover, when activated, these expectations associated with particular gender identity are likely to contribute to unsafe sexual behaviours. This is especially evident in the young women's accounts on negotiating and discussing condom use and in their explanations of ways boys use to force girls to sexual intercourse. Many of the young people clearly expressed their needs for information and advises concerning their sexuality, as well as the importance of building self-confidience and raising awareness related to social influences and pressures, and in this way pointing out to the possible educational strategies and interventions:

If you are smart enough you can decide what is good and what is bad in media, and make your own opinions, or maybe we sholud ask for help or advice at some youth center, or if there would be sexual education in schools. (G)
 
I want to know more so I would be informed and acquinted with some things, not because I would immediately go and ckeck if it is true. (G)
 
Only persons how are very determined, and self-confident, the ones who really know what they want, are able to resist these pressures. Weak and unstable girls can't do it, they feel less worthy. (G)


If we understand adolescents as actively involved in the construction of their gendered identities in that there is an inter-relationship between an individual's action and social practices, the question is how can we enable young people to actively challenge the gendered aspects of RSB and in that way to rescript their sexual practices more safely. Acknowledging that girls and boys are not homogenous groupings, and that each group has an enormous range of individual
difference and diversity, we should revalue the traditional gender system that assign greater power and status to masculinity and lesser power and status to femininity. In order to change behaviour, information about sexual safety, risk, and pleasure need to be better linked to information and critical analysis/debate about traditional gender positioning. Likewise, we should look for educational practices that facilitate more active and collaborative dialogues, and better ways of communicating and listening between girls and boys. Interactive learning, that combines concrete experience with reflection and active experimentation in the form of participative workshops, could be one of the key strategies in programs aimed at lowering the risks of adolescents' sexual behaviour. This kind of training enables adolescents to bring their own experiences and feelings into the discussion and to freely examine the attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs framing their behaviours. This educational model serves as a powerful tool for changing attitudes (and consequently identity formations) and raising gender awareness.

 


Bibliography:

 

 

Appendix:

 

THE LIST OF QUESTIONS FOR FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS

 

 

Through what kind of media do young people get messages concerning their sexuality?

Is there a difference between young women and young men (where do young women usually get messages and where do young men get them)?

What kinds of messages do young people get through the media?

Do media send different kinds of messages to young women and men?

What are the messages for young women and what are for young men?

What is the content of these messages (information, warnings, advises...)?

How do media portrait women and men?

What is your opinion how do young people feel when receiving messages from the media?

In what way media messages can influence young men/women?

In your opinion, what media sources are the most influential? Why?

What are the "media idols /types" of/for young people? Differences/ similarities between young women and men?

 

(for young women)

Do young women of your age talk about sex with friends (male/female)?

Wiith young men or young women?

With one person or in a group?

How/in what way do young women of your age talk about sex (as a joke, showing off, serious,mockingly, counselling, exchange of information ...)?

What are the themes of conversation? Does one talk about ...(homosexuality, sexual violence, contraception, pleasure)?

Do you think it is similar for young men of your age?

How is it similar?

How is it different?

Do you think that men talk about sex in a same way that women do?

 

(for young men)

Do young men of your age talk about sex with (male/female) friends?

With young men or young women?

With one person or in a group?

How/in what way do young men of your age talk about sex (as a joke, showing off, serious, mockingly, counselling, exchange of information ...)?

What are the themes of conversation? Does one talk about...(homosexuality, sexual violence, contraception, pleasure)?

Do you think it is similar for young women of your age?

How is it similar?

How is it different?

Do you think that women talk about sex in a same way that men do?

 

What percentage, in your opinion, of young men and women of you age are sexually active?

At what age do young people become sexually active?

What are the issues discussed/negotiated before engaging in sexual activity ?

In your opinion, how much is the first sexual intercourse planned or not?

Who makes decisions about the first sexual intercourse (time, place...)?

Who is usually responsible for contraception / protection?

Who makes decisions about contraception?

How do young people feel while talking with his/her partner about contraception?

What do you think, would be the possible development of a hypothetical situation where a young woman gets pregnant? (young people are your peers, they attend secondary school in a big town)

 

In your opinion, are there pressures on young people concerning their sexuality?

What are the sources of these pressures?

Do young women and young men experience any differences in pressures?

Are young women and men able to avoid pressures? How?

By what extent are young men and women aware of these pressures?

What do you think, how young people negotiate sexual consent?

How and in what ways can a person avoid sexual pressures?

 

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