Learning and Teaching Unit
Flood, Michael 2000, Lust, trust and latex: why young heterosexual men don’t use condoms, PhD thesis, The Australian National University, Centre for Women’s Studies.
Problem/issue: Heterosexual men play a crucial role in the heterosexual transmission of HIV/AIDS, and are therefore an appropriate target for education and research. However, little research attention has been given to the sexual cultures of young men.
Field of literature: Masculinity studies, feminism
‘Gap’ in the literature: Existing research theorises heterosexual men’s condom refusal in relation to dominant masculinity. In these explanations men see risk-avoidance or condom use as feminine and resist women’s efforts to use condoms in order to remain in control. There has not been empirical research to test these assumptions.
Question: To what extent does condom use among young heterosexual men and their understandings and practice of safe or unsafe sex comply with dominant masculinity? What kinds of understandings constrain or encourage their use of condoms?
In-depth interviews with 17 heterosexual men between the ages of 18 and 26 were conducted in order to explore the interplay between men’s personal experience and the social relations of sexuality and gender.
Young heterosexual men emphasise five themes in accounting for their non-use of condoms.
1. Young heterosexual men emphasise sex as risky in terms of pregnancy (not HIV), and rely on their partner’s use of the pill in accounting for their non-use of condoms (chapter 4).
2. Young heterosexual men emphasise decrease in penile sensation and difficulties with condom use in accounting for their non-use of condoms (chapter 5).
3. Young heterosexual men emphasise preserving the spontaneity of the moment in accounting for their non-use of condoms (chapter 6).
4. Young heterosexual men emphasise sex as ‘relationships’ and therefore as trusting and monogamous in accounting for their non-use of condoms (chapter 7).
5. Young heterosexual men emphasise the relative ‘safety’ of heterosexual sex compared to gay sex in accounting for their non-use of condoms (chapter 8).
Discussion: Heterosexual men’s non-use of condoms is not explained in terms of the themes of risk or control within dominant masculinity. Key emphases in young men’s accounts of their sexual lives include: a narrative of sexual skill or the ‘good lover’, an emphasis on trust, relationships and love, a construction of sexual eroticism in terms of ‘the heat of the moment’, and a concern about premature fatherhood.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that, contrary to assumptions within the existing literature, young men may be persuaded to use condoms not as a result of a preoccupation with issues of risk and control evident within dominant masculinity, but by raising apparently 'feminine' concerns about trust and love and associating these with safe sex.
