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The Pressure to Perform: Understanding the Impact of Masculinities and Social Exclusion on Young Men's Sexual Risk Taking
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This paper draws on the narratives of 46 young men from the NW of England to explore the interrelationship between social exclusion, masculinities and sexual risk. Using hegemonic masculinities theory as a framework the paper explores how social exclusion impacts on the construction and performance of masculinities such that those young men who are unable to access the broader tenets of hegemonic masculinities construct marginalised masculinities over reliant on sex and sexual performance. These sexualised masculinities are seen to value sexual risk taking and position young women as subordinate and vulnerable. A framework for understanding how young men conceptualise and respond to risk in this context is presented alongside discussion of the implications for policy and practice.
Keywords: masculinities, sexual health, risk taking, young men, social exclusion
Steeply rising rates of sexually transmitted infections; stubbornly high under 18 conception rates; reports of coercion and pressure in sexual relationships; and concerns about early sexualisation all point to a troubled context for young people's sexual health in the UK in the early years of the 21st century (Bailey, 2007; Barter, McCarry, Berridge, & Evans, 2009; Office for National Statistics, 2011). Within this context there are strikingly gendered discourses that position young women as vulnerable and passive, in need of protection and empowerment; and young men as predatory and powerful, in need of control and sanction (Knight et al., 2012; Prohaska & Gailey, 2010). Intersecting the discourse of gender inequality is a further discourse of social exclusion which seeks to position some young men as additionally problematic on the basis not only of their socio-economic status but also their exclusion from key social institutions, processes and aspirations (Barker, 2005). An exclusion for which they themselves are perceived to be largely responsible (Gelder, 2002; Social Exclusion Unit, 2001).
The problematizing of young men...