ABSTRACT

Research suggests that intimate relationship violence and coercive control are prevalent in young people’s relationships. Furthermore, young people often fail to recognise such behaviour as abuse. While such findings indicate the normalisation of controlling and coercive behaviours amongst young people, there is little focus on how these behaviours are normalised. This paper presents findings from a study exploring young people’s experiences and expectations of intimate relationships. Focus groups were conducted with young people (aged 13 to 18 years) in schools in the West Midlands, England. Young people talked of navigating precarious and competitive heterosexual relationships. Their expectations and negotiations of these relationships often upheld and reinforced gender double standards around dating practices. Young people’s discussion also highlighted how they came to accept and rationalise controlling and coercive behaviours as ‘love’, ‘care’ and ‘protection’, legitimising these practices as reasonable. Heteronormativity remains a dominant discourse shaping young people’s experiences and expectations of relationships with coercion and control being defining features of this discourse. Supporting young people to critically examine constructs of heterosexuality and gender norms should be a key component of England’s forthcoming statutory Relationship and Sex Education.

摘要

研究表明，亲密关系中的暴力行为和强制性控制在年轻人际关系中十分普遍。此外，年轻人经常没有意识到这种虐待行为。虽然这些发现表明年轻人中控制和强迫行为的正常化，但很少关注如何这些行为是规范化的。本文介绍了一项研究的结果，该研究探讨了年轻人的经历和对亲密关系的期望。在英格兰西米德兰兹郡的学校与年轻人（13至18岁）进行了焦点小组讨论。年轻人谈到了pre可危和竞争性的异性恋关系。他们对这些关系的期望和谈判常常维护并加强约会实践中的性别双重标准。年轻人的讨论还强调了他们如何接受并合理化控制和强迫行为，如“爱”，“关怀”和“保护”，使这些行为合法化。异性恋依然是塑造年轻人的经验和对人际关系的期望的主导话语，而强迫和控制是该话语的特征。支持年轻人批判性地研究异性恋和性别规范的构成，应该是英格兰即将出台的法定关系和性教育的重要组成部分。