Seksualitet mellem risiko og chance. Svingninger i senmoderne værdiorienteringer

In: Dansk sociologi: tidsskrift udgivet af Dansk Sociologforening, Band 18, Heft 1, S. 55-74

Abstract

Marie Bruvik Heinskou:
Sexuality between Risk and Chance: Oscillations in Late Modern Value Orientations

This article examines how young people can seek sexual experiences that intensify their existence to such an extent that the experience itself is not assigned any meaning. It is merely perceived as a moment having its own temporality and its own internal experience, often called chance. For example young people often take a chance and refrain from using a condom during sexual intercourse, while using the concept of risk as a means to navigate in a world characterized by contingency and ambivalence. The balance between these two value orientations, risk and chance, is crucial for determining whether or not young people use a condom. This outlook is often ignored in both campaigns concerning, for instance, sexually transmitted diseases and in studies on sexuality. The risk side of (deviant) sexualities is frequently overemphasized in these campaigns and in theories on sexuality, while chance is neglected. The article argues that there is need for a broader approach to sexualities both in sexual campaigns and in general analyses. Examining the power of risk and the power of chance as oppositional categories, as well as the traces of risk in chance and chance in risk, is one way of broadening the approach.