"I provide the pleasure, I control it": Sexual Pleasure & "Bottom" Identity Constructs amongst Gay Youth in a Stepping Stones Workshop

This paper explores the meanings attached to gay sexuality through the self-labelling practices of a group of young gay-identified students in focus group and individual interviews in Johannesburg, South Africa. These meanings include constructs of the dynamics surrounding safe sex negotiation and risk related to "top-bottom" subject positioning as well as the erotics of power and desire that are imbued in these practices and positioning. 

Using performativity theory as a theoretical tool of analysis, I argue that constructs of "top-bottom" subjectivities can be seen to meet certain erotic needs for LGBTI youth, including reasons related to physical safety for LGBTI people living in dangerous spaces. The performance of "bottom" identities in sexual intimacy and behaviour is further deployed in the expression and performance of power that the participants construct as erotic. 

The implications for sexual health intervention include understanding the gendered performance influences of sexual behaviour including safe sex, exploring creative ways that practices of sexual health can be engaged with this population group in a way that accommodates the erotic pleasure interfaced with sexual identity identifications and performances of "bottom" identities.

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By:   Kiguwa P¹.

¹Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Electronic address: Peace.Kiguwa@wits.ac.za.

Reprod Health Matters. 2015 Nov;23(46):117-26. doi: 10.1016/j.rhm.2015.11.016. Epub 2015 Dec 17. 

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Attitudes Towards Power in Relationships and Sexual Concurrency within Heterosexual Youth Partnerships in Baltimore, Maryland

Sexual concurrency may increase risk for HIV/STIs among youth. Attitudes about gender roles, including power balances within sexual partnerships, could be a driver. 

We examined this association among Baltimore youth (N = 352), aged 15-24. Data were collected from February, 2011 to May, 2013. We examined whether index concurrency in male-reported partnerships (N = 221) and sex partner's concurrency in female-reported partnerships (N = 241) were associated with youth's attitudes towards relationship power. 

Males with more equitable beliefs about power were less likely to report index concurrency. Females with more equitable beliefs were more likely to report sex partner's concurrency. The relationship was significant in main and casual partnerships among females and main partnerships among males. 

The strongest associations were detected among middle-socioeconomic status (SES) males and low-SES and African American females. Implementing interventions that recognize the complex relationship between socioeconomic context, partner dynamics, gender, and sexual behavior is an important step towards reducing HIV/STI risk among youth.

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By: Lilleston PS1, Hebert LE2, Jennings JM3, Holtgrave DR4, Ellen JM5, Sherman SG6.

• 1Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA. plillest@jhsph.edu.
• 2Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
• 3Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
• 4Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
• 5Department of Pediatrics, All Children's Hospital, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, St. Petersburg, FL, USA.
• 6Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.  

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