Condoms in context: women's condom decisions and negotiations

Abstract

This thesis investigates women's condom decisions and negotiations. It is argued that these are located within discourses of heterosexuality which serve to maintain male control through disciplinary power. Semi-structured interviews are used to explore the reasons why heterosexual women do or do not use condoms and how they then negotiate for this with men. Discourses of love, trust and spontaneous pleasure conflict with current meanings attached to condoms. Issues of trust, risk evaluation, power and control are discussed within a Foucauldian feminist analysis. The focus of analysis is how everyday meanings of sex and sexuality shape the way we behave in bed and how these impact on possibilities for women to enable condom use. Condom decisions and negotiations constitute dynamic processes, which vary between women and within their own sexual encounters. I argue that women both accommodate and resist cultural ideals about sexual behaviour. A positive outcome of the research is a recognition of ways women empower themselves within sexual relationships, given the power differences which exist within the institution of heterosexuality.