Sexual culture from the viewpoint of male college students

Abstract

The sexual culture of young people has changed rapidly in recent decades. This article discusses young Icelandic men’s experience and perception of the prevailing sexual culture of upper secondary students in Iceland today. We look at this experience through the lenses of sexual health and sexual script and social factors which inf luence how sexual culture manifests itself. We look especially at the role of hookup culture and porn as well as the effects of sex education, or rather, the lack of sex education. Individual and group interviews were conducted with 11 boys aged 18 to 21 from ten secondary schools in the capital area and beyond.Results indicate that social pressure has a significant impact on the sexual attitudes and practices of young men who were subjected to a very tangible insistence to have lost their virginity and to be able to participate in casual social interactions where sexual experience is considered normal and lack of that experience is ridiculed. Also, the participants referred to the dominant discourse that men should always be willing to have sex if the opportunity arises. A strong theme in the interviews was about different social standards as to how women should look versus how men should look. Although there was a shared theme on some issues such as shaving of genital areas that most boys and all girls are “supposed to” do, the young men were unequivocal in maintaining that there is a stronger pressure on young women to fulfil certain beauty standards and have a certain desirable body type. The role of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Tinder was brought up and connected to their perceived increasing focus on unrealistic beauty standards. All interviewees were in accord that pornography was heavily used by their male peers and if you did not watch porn you were considered abnormal. They spoke frankly on the effects of porn on their sexual imagination and what we consider to be the prevailing sexual script of young people in Iceland. They believe that porn consumption has a negative effect on people’s sex lives and that it suggests unrealistic standards about what sex should look like and what can reasonably be expected from your sexual partners. They also knew that porn wasn’t real and that it was ridiculous to compare real sex with what was on the screen but nonetheless they could feel the impact of porn on their sexual imagination. Concerns were raised as to what would happen if women started to consume as much porn as men and how that could lead to them evolving unrealistic standards towards their male sexual partners in terms of stamina and body/penis shape and size. The young men believe that different rules apply to the sexual behavior of men and women, and that boys are allowed more in sexual matters. They are also aware that those double standards are quite unfair. Although a large proportion of boys take part in a dominant sexual culture, many of them find the experience problematic and distressing. When compared to the findings of another research project on what young women in Iceland have to say about their experience and perception of sexual culture, it is clear that both young women and young men have a strong perception of sexual culture and what it entails. Sexual culture is obviously a significant aspect of their lived lives and they are ill equipped to deal with it. The participants in both researches find they have had insufficient sex education which has failed to address motifs that they felt were important, such as emotions, communication, boundaries, the difference between porn and sex, and sexual health in a broad perspective.