From vulnerable to responsible youth? Indonesian youth resisting the dominant discourse of sexual health

ABSTRACT

Contemporary critical studies have identified that the dominant discourse of sexual health has positioned youth as hormone-driven, vulnerable, uninformed, and in need to be ‘saved’ by sexuality educators. The current article aims to explore possibilities to destabilise such positioning by examining alternative sexual subjectivities among youth in an Indonesian context. As many as 22 participants were interviewed through the Internet (e.g. email and instant messenger interviews) and the data were analysed using a discourse analysis method. Their narratives demonstrate that youth are not simply hormone-driven, uninformed, and vulnerable. Instead, they are agentic subjects who – within their limited discursive access – actively, creatively, and subversively learn about sexuality in order to take care of their well-being. The implications are discussed in relation to how sexual health education may accommodate the complexity of youth’s sexual subjectivities.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual health
• sexual subjectivity
• discourse
• youth
• Indonesia

Acknowledgments

This work was made possible by the Indonesian Directorate of General of Higher Education (DIKTI) under Beasiswa Luar Negeri (BLN) scholarship scheme.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Direktorat Jenderal Pendidikan Tinggi, Indonesia.

Notes on contributors

Teguh Wijaya Mulya

Teguh Wijaya Mulya is a lecturer in psychology at the University of Surabaya, Indonesia. He is a graduate of the University of Surabaya, Monash University, and the University of Auckland. He specialises in research in the areas of sexuality, gender, and religion. His work is inspired by the work of Michel Foucault and post-structuralist feminism.