Bodies, cultures and health: young people constructing and contesting gender and sexuality through design and digital technology

Abstract

Digital technology holds a pivotal role in the construction of young people’s gender identities and sexualities. Concern revolves around adult fears associated with risk and danger, yet digital technology can also radically reconstitute how young people construct and contest gendered and sexual identities. In this thesis, I use a method pioneered in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and design, Design Workshops, to explore empirically young people’s talk around gender, sexuality and digital technology, analysing this workshop data in a thematic discourse analysis informed by Discursive Psychology. First, I analyse a body-mapping activity, where I examine how young people collectively constitute the sexual body with socio-cultural scripts, arguing that young people rehearse traditionalistic scripts of sex, sexuality and appearance, yet navigate mature (visual) gendered and sexual identities through notions of self-authentication, individuality and rebellion. Second, I examine how young people navigate gendered and sexual cultures through their talk about digital technology, finding that young people use this talk to assert positions of a mature sexual self, make judgements about correct/incorrect sexual conduct, and make inquiries of sexuality, particularly in relation to marginalised sexual practices. Finally, I look at strategies of designing for sexual health with young people through two prototype interventions, where I illustrate the importance of acknowledging young people’s positionality. This thesis expands on the method of Design Workshops, and of research around young people’s sexual identities, arguing that the interactional analysis of collaborative sense-making activities in this context provides a lens to analyse for, and design around, young people’s positionality as sexual agents. My conclusions discuss the value of analysing workshop data from a discursive standpoint and, using this, indicate culturally relevant ways of introducing a ‘discourse of desire’ around young people’s sexualities for UK sexual health contexts