Picturing Sexual Spaces in Everyday Life: Exploring the Construction of Sexuality and Sexual Behavior among Early Adult Women
Abstract
Despite an increased public and behavioral health emphasis on research which explores the link between individual sexual context and sexual decision making, most studies have yet to adequately explore the needs and purposes that sex fulfills among women. The current project employed photo-elicitation interviewing (PEI) as a means of generating a visual and narrative person-centered understanding of the ways in which women orchestrate spaces for sexuality within their day-to-day lives. Sexual spaces were created by rescripting the ordinary meaning associated with everyday locations, objects, and language to contain sexual meaning; these spaces serve as vehicles to integrate sexuality and sexual behavior within everyday experiences. Spaces also conferred sexual privacy and comfort for women, driving sexual desire and encouraging, as well as discouraging, contraception and condom use in individual and complex ways. PEI provided an effective tool for magnifying this complexity through the women’s eyes and voices, suggesting important information for the correct design of future research, intervention, and education programs.