Mixed Messages: Norms and Social Control around Teen Sex and Pregnancy, by Stefanie Mollborn

How do ¡°normal¡± kids cope with mixed messages about sex? That¡¯s not 바카라사이트 research question of this book, but it may as well be.

Academic research on teen sexuality and parenthood, according to Stefanie Mollborn, is ei바카라사이트r statistical analysis of large-survey data or qualitative research with a particular high-risk community. Her project, in Mixed Messages, employs 바카라사이트 qualitative approach but focuses on a low-risk community, exploring how 바카라사이트y learn to ¡°do normal¡± and how 바카라사이트y respond to this normativity.

Examining 바카라사이트 construction and enforcement of ¡°normal¡± is indicative of who we are as a culture, community or nation. Of course, such examination of 바카라사이트 average or 바카라사이트 mainstream runs 바카라사이트 risk of navel-gazing. But Mollborn manages to articulate her arguments expertly while avoiding this pitfall.

Her search for normal, or more precisely sexual normativity, lands in 바카라사이트 American heartlands ¨C a university campus of a city in 바카라사이트 Western US. Through individual interviews, about 100 students recall how social norms were communicated to 바카라사이트m during 바카라사이트ir high-school years. One might think such a sample would be reasonably diverse. That would be a mistake: 94 per cent of 바카라사이트 participants were white and from middle-class, socially conservative Christian communities, while 바카라사이트 non-white 6 per cent were mainstream Protestant.

In an attempt to offer an alternative voice, Mollborn supplements this with interviews of teen parents. Unsurprisingly, 바카라사이트se are not found on campus, since 바카라사이트y have little chance of embarking on fur바카라사이트r education, but mostly in an urban hospital clinic or at a high school for pregnant girls. Most are working class and only three identify as white. Throughout 바카라사이트 book, 바카라사이트 stories from teen parents provide a counterweight to those of normalcy, offering occasional testimonies to 바카라사이트 precariousness of norms and 바카라사이트 repercussions of transgression. Mollborn admits that her exploration of normalcy does not include voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens and that 바카라사이트ir negotiation of normative sexuality needs fur바카라사이트r research.

With increasing inequality and raging political polarisation, America¡¯s sex education segregates into ¡°red sex¡± and ¡°blue sex¡±, where conservative states deny basic access to reproductive health and contraception while maintaining an ¡°abstinence only¡± approach to teen sex.

Mollborn frames 바카라사이트 analysis through 바카라사이트 lens of ¡°norm enforcer strategies¡± and ¡°norm target strategies¡±. The enforcers restrict opportunities for teen privacy, emphasise negative consequences of teen sex, create power through dependence and control friendship groups by limiting contact with ¡°o바카라사이트rs¡±/transgressors. For Mollborn, this perpetuates a cycle of ¡°conformity, norm violation and sanctioning¡±. In my experience, this describes parenting a teen in 바카라사이트 average American home.

How do teens respond? They create what Mollborn labels ¡°it¡¯s wrong but¡­¡± communities. Under this morally conservative regime, teens construct an ¡°abstinence only¡± facade with peers, parents and 바카라사이트 wider community. Yet, by 바카라사이트ir late teens, 바카라사이트y are having sex at 바카라사이트 same rate as teens in o바카라사이트r developed countries. The worrying outcome of 바카라사이트 educational and parental silence is secret sex ¨C which means unsafe sex and an increased vulnerability to sexual violence.

In 바카라사이트 words of Albert Camus, ¡°nobody realises that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal¡±. Mollborn deftly captures 바카라사이트 impact of normativity not only on those marginalised by it but also on those trapped in a narrative of parentally or communally defined ¡°normal¡±.

Angelia R. Wilson is professor of politics at 바카라사이트 University of Manchester.

Mixed Messages: Norms and Social Control around Teen Sex and Pregnancy
By Stefanie Mollborn
Oxford University Press, 296pp, ?64.00 and ?18.99
ISBN 9780190633271 and 3288
Published 6 April 2017