The grip of pandemic mononormativity in Austria and Germany

Abstract

How distancing requirements in the COVID-19 pandemic transformed intimate relationships is under-researched. Against the backdrop of research on the HIV pandemic, the paper departs from the assumption that decreased legitimacy of intimate arrangements and subjective worry about the likeliness of infection may reduce the frequency of multiple sexual contact and intimate well-being during the pandemic. Based on findings from a quantitative study which included measures of risk perception, frequency of contact with sexual partners and communities, concealment, as well as relationship quality in Austria and Germany, this paper examines sexual behaviour in association with relationship status and sexual identity. Analysing data from a convenience sample of 4,709 respondents, of whom 24 per cent identified as LGBQA+, 2 per cent as non-binary, and 6 per cent as consensually non-monogamous, bivariate analysis found significant differences in social distancing, frequency of contact with sexual communities and satisfaction with current sex life. Text analysis of the survey’s open-ended responses indicates monogamisation due to declined legitimacy of less conventional intimate arrangements during the pandemic. Findings point to the importance of the sexual morality that defined pandemic experiences in times of HIV for understanding normative pressure on intimate life during COVID-19.

Keywords:

• Sexualities
• COVID-19
• concealment
• intimacies
• mononormativity

Acknowledgements

Thanks go to Nora Ruck, Emelie Rack, Sophie König, Anna Maria Diem and David Seistock from the Sigmund Freud University in Vienna for their support with the COVID-19 research project. I also thank Amanda Gesselman and the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, for their co-operation in a pilot study in the spring 2020.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 All answers were translated from German to English by the author. Use of small letters as in the original.