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Abstract
This thesis presents a discursive analysis of young people’s sexual health in contemporary Australia, engaging with data from health promotion, social sciences, and interviews with young people. Data comprises: Australian sexual health websites for young people (N=3); research papers on young people and chlamydia in Australia, published from 2005-2009 (N=18); and interviews with young people aged 18-25, from Sydney (N=12). Using Michel de Certeau’s theory of everyday practice (1988), I explore young people’s experiences and knowledges of sexual health and how these exceed formal health understandings. I demonstrate how risk-based approaches typically deny young people’s sexual health competencies and dismiss the value of friendship and social networks. I propose revision of this deficit understanding of young people through an everyday practice based approach to sexual health. This differs from behavioural science approaches that can abstract young people’s sex practices from the context of their socio-sexual relations. Considering young people’s competencies and tactics in negotiating sex, I argue that these can inform health promotion strategies, making them more relevant and useful to young people. Early chapters analyse discourses of young people’s experience, risk and knowledge in these data, as key terms that justify young people’s inclusion in Australian sexual health policy. Later chapters explore discourses of pleasure and intimacies, including friendship intimacies. These commonly feature in interview data where participants’ stories highlight the spatial aspects of sex practices and negotiations. These often extend beyond sexual scenarios and into friendships. My thesis demonstrates how young people’s negotiations of safety encompass and exceed formal notions of ‘safe sex’, and draws a parallel between negotiations of safety and pleasure. I argue that a focus on safety is more useful than risk-based approaches, as it incorporates shared values of young people, health promotion, and sexual health research. Young people do not share a deficit understanding of their skills and practices, but are invested in sexual safeties, with common interview discussions of intimacy and its affordances. Finally, a case study of young people’s social media practices is presented, further highlighting friendship’s value to young people’s sexual health negotiations.