*Note* This scheduling program was not designed by folks who do a lot with APA Style and unfortunately it defaults to listing authors in alphabetical order. We cannot fix this for this online schedule, but the author orders are posted in the order submitted in the printed program available via pdf here.
Based on the depth interviews with 13 heterosexual men, we studied masculine sexual subjectivity through exploring the discourses that men draw on during sex. The rationale of our study is based on the theory of “voices of the mind” of Wertsh (1991), work of Hollway (1984) and Wetherell and Edley (1999) on masculine subjectivity and discourses of masculinity employed by men while talking about sexual experiences. Our approach to studying male sexual subjectivity is based on the idea that men engage in an active process of positioning themselves as masculine and reflecting on their subjectivity during sexual experience. We also see subjectivity as constructed through the interviews that we conducted. The themes that appeared in our analysis also reflect the ways men make sense of their subjective experiences. We asked men questions relating to three descriptions of sexual experiences with another person: recent, adolescent, and troubled. The questions included one specifically on masculinity: “Did any thoughts and feelings you had during sex relate to your being a man?” The discursive themes we found are: “sex as performance,” “knowing without communicating,” “male desire is natural,” “control over the female and the sexual act,” “others in the head,” and that “intimacy is not masculine”. Of interest to women at this conference, may be insight into the way hegemonic masculinity ideals as well as the social demands of adjusting to contemporary views on gender equality produce “voices in the mind” that determine and reproduce heterosexual sex. We offer insights into how this knowledge can be used to inform social change to benefit women and men.
