specific gay culture, one in which there are clear values which structure their new social
world, shaping their relationships and their sexual behaviour’. Therefore, Flowers et al.
asked the question ‘How do the social norms and values of the gay community influence
gay men’s sexual practices?’ They interviewed 20 gay men from a small town in
northern England about their experiences of becoming gay within a gay community. The
results provided some interesting insights into the norms of gay culture and the impact
of this social context on an individual’s behaviour. First, the study describes how men
gain access to the gay community: ‘through sex and socialising they come to recognise
the presence of other gay men where once... they only felt isolation’; second, the study
illustrates how simply having a gay identity is not enough to prepare them for their new
community and that they have ‘to learn a gay specific knowledge and a gay language’;
and third, the study describes how this new culture influences their sexual behaviour. For
example, the interviewees described how feelings of romance, trust, love, commitment,
inequality within the relationship, lack of experience and desperation resulted in having
anal sex without a condom even though they had the knowledge that their behaviour
was risky (Flowers et al. 1997, 1998). Therefore, sexual behaviour also occurs within
the context of specific communities with their own sets of norms and values.
Discourses about sex, HIV and illness
Sex also takes place within the broader context of theories and discussions about sex,
HIV and illness. This literature is beyond the scope of this book, but includes discussions
about HIV as a metaphor for concerns about sexuality and death in the late twentieth
century (Sontag 1988), the social response to HIV as a moral panic (Weeks 1985) and
the social construction of sex through theory and practice (Foucault 1979). Many of
these discussions about sex challenge the traditional biological reductionist approach
to sex and argue for an understanding of sex within a context of social meanings and
discourses.
TO CONCLUDE
Since the beginning of the twentieth century sex has been studied as an activity rather
than in terms of its biological outcome. Recently, sex has also been examined in terms
of it being a risk to health. Psychologists have contributed to this literature in terms of
an examination of sexual behaviour both in the context of pregnancy avoidance and
HIV/AIDS. These behaviours have been predominantly understood using cognitive
models, which emphasize individual differences and individual cognitions. However,
sex presents a problem for psychologists as it is intrinsically an interactive behaviour
involving more than one person. Therefore, cognitive models have been expanded in an
attempt to emphasize cognitions about the individual’s social world, particularly in terms
of the relationship. To further the understanding of sex as an interaction, qualitative
methods have been used to examine the process of negotiation. However, sex also occurs
within a broader social context. Social cognition models have also been developed in an
attempt to address individuals’ representations of this world – their normative beliefs.
SEX 207