WHEN YOU CARRY CONDOMS ALL THE BOYS THINK YOU WANT IT - NEGOTIATING COMPETING DISCOURSES ABOUT SAFE SEX

With the advent of HIV, sexual health campaigns and formal sex educati on in schools have worked to instil the concept of safe sex into the c ollective minds of Australia's youth. However the concept in its prese nt guise is a fairly limited one. We argue in this paper that the pred ominant emphasis in education programmes on safe sex as condom use may be counter-productive for some young heterosexuals for two reasons. F irst, this strategy is male-focused and may not extrapolate well to yo ung women who face special risks around pregnancy and rigid societal g ender norms which govern sexual behaviour. Second, health promotion st rategies aimed at young heterosexuals are based on an assumption of ra tional decisionmaking in sexual encounters and obscure the non-rationa l nature of arousal and desire, and the unequal power relations that e xist between young men and women engaging in sex. Five hundred and twe lve senior rural students participated in the study which included gro up discussions about sexuality and survey items which focused on the m eanings of safe sex and the accessibility and use of condoms. The resu lts showed that though most students identified condoms with safe sex, many were ambivalent about using them. Reasons given related to probl ems of negotiation, difficulties of access, and the risks which condom s gave no protection from, such as a sullied reputation. Perhaps, part ly because of this, some students were looking to less secure methods of protection such as informal history-taking and monogamy. It is argu ed that successful sexual health promotion strategies must address the broad spectrum of concerns facing young men and women when they becom e sexually active and that consideration be given to the social contex t in which young people conduce their sexual lives. (C) 1998 The Assoc iation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents.