A woman who wants to remain virgin is virgin, and a woman who doesn't is not, it's a personal decision. [Gisella]
As one might imagine, the preceding responses underscore the degree to which feminist values and principles have been internalized by young women living in Villa del Sol. That is to say, not only do they believe that there should be equality among the sexes, but they are particularly resentful of the hypocrisy and double-standards inherent within macho culture. Should confirmation of this view be required, one need only consider the following statements by female research participants:
I just don't understand, why should a woman be expected to remain chaste until marriage but not a man? [Sophia]
They can go around having sexual relations with girls and all, so why don't girls also have the right to have sex? If later they marry a woman who's not a virgin, that shouldn't matter. [Paula]
It's not fair, because just as a man has the right to have sex with a woman, a woman should have the right to have sex with a man. This doesn't mean the woman is a prostitute or something. [Gisella]
Finally, with respect to female participants' understanding of the concept of adolescence, one might argue that there are both similarities and differences in comparison with the views expressed by their male counterparts. On the one hand, there is general agreement that it is, in essence, a transitional period between one's carefree existence as a child and the burdens of adulthood As Gisella put it,
For me, adolescence is the time when a person has to stop being a child and start being an adult and exercising responsibilities, because when you're a child you practically THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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have no responsibilities, but when you become an adult, then you have to set goals for yourself and decide what you're going to do in life.
On the other hand, many also saw it as a stage when their freedom of action began to be circumscribed by the watchful eyes of their parents and families. Thus, several participants commented upon the fact that they were no longer allowed to go out by themselves, or forbidden from associating with boys. Of course, this in turn is related to the second area in which male and female perceptions differ. While the former tended to associate the onset of adolescence with a particular age, young women identified it instead with their first menstruation or onset of breast development.
Female discourses in Villa del Mar
Given that there are relatively few prospects for socio-economic advancement in Villa del Mar, it should come as no surprise that young women who live in this community tend to see marriage and a devout life as their best hope for the future. Of course, not only does this mean that co -
habitation and motherhood come at an early age for many of the women here, but there is a marked tendency as well to discount or discard any discourse which compromises their chances of establishing a family.
Birth control is a case in point. As the interviews and group sessions made clear, Villa del Mar's young women knew relatively little about the efficacy and types of methods available to them, and few felt that lack of knowledge in this area was especially problematic. Still, it must be acknowledged that family planning does have supporters among those whom we interviewed, with several young women commenting upon their usefulness in limiting the size of one's family.
In the words of Dunia, 'it's good because, without it, all of a sudden you'll realize you've got a whole lot of kids.'
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As for the usefulness of condoms in particular, most female participants were aware that they help prevent pregnancy and STD infection. However, despite this level of consciousness, only a minority reported making regular use of them. Why is this the case? On the one hand, several participants indicated that it was the man's responsibility to decide whether or not one should be worn, since he is typically the more experienced of the two.
On the other, many thought condoms impracticable because of their supposed impact upon sexual pleasure. As Alexandra put it, 'having sex with a condom isn't the same thing ... it's better without one.' Needless to say, this view provides further evidence in support of our argument that young women and men in Villa del Mar attach more importance to physical processes and the body than their counterparts in Villa del Sol. Still, in one respect at least women from the two communities are similar: both groups indicated that they felt very embarrassed whenever they went into a store in search of them.
Turning to questions related to HIV and AIDS, although female participants had a basic understanding of the disease, its dangers and principal modes of transmission, their level of awareness was not as high as that of young women residing in Villa del Sol. In short, not only did their reluctance to use condoms lead them to discount the latter as a prevention strategy, but most did not see themselves as likely victims in any case. Moreover, even in those instances where participants did acknowledge a degree of risk, they generally felt that others, among them prostitutes, playos and men, were in much greater danger of becoming HIV
positive.
Interestingly, however, female participants' tendency to associate homosexuality with AIDS
does not necessarily mean that they are willing to condemn this segment of the population out of hand. That is to say, despite widespread adherence to an essentialist understanding of sexual orientation, few felt that individuals should be rejected solely on this basis. In the words of Wendy, 'I wouldn't spurn them because after all they're human beings.'
If Villa del Mar's young women are prepared to tolerate homosexuality among their friends and family, one activity that they are most definitely not prepared to tolerate is masturbation. In short, while some argued that masturbation is something that women simply do not do, others THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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attacked it in the harshest possible terms, a position that is clearly reflective of the Church's own condemnation of the practice.
Meanwhile, the Church's influence is also evident in young women's views on pre-marital sex.
Quite simply, most felt strongly that one should 'save' oneself for one's future husband, arguing that a woman's virginity is one of her most valuable assets. As Daisy put it, 'ever since I was a little girl I knew I should remain virgin until marriage, because you're supposed to remain clean, free of sin.' Significantly, in spite of the fact that a minority of participants did defend their right to engage in sex outside of marriage, very little criticism was heard concerning men who failed to remain celibate. In explaining this silence, one might point either to the relative weakness of feminist ideology in Villa del Mar, along with women's willingness to tolerate sexual double-standards for the sake of their relationships with men.
Finally, with regard to young women's understanding of the significance of adolescence, most expressed an opinion similar to that of their male counterparts in Villa del Mar, and associated it with a particular chronological period in their lives, stretching from the onset of puberty to their late teen years. Although a small number of participants did make reference to the opportunities that adolescence affords for dances, trips and the like, most did not see it as a particularly special time in their lives. Indeed, some went so far as to say that their adolescent years were even less enjoyable than those which had preceded them, given that they were now faced with all manner of restrictions on their movements and activities.
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IX
Learning and Imposition of Discourses
Background
It need hardly be emphasized that discourses have neither agency nor the capacity to reproduce themselves. While it is true that they are vigorously promoted by the groups that derive greatest benefit from their existence, they also depend upon the active collusion of society members in general, who reinforce and sustain them through any number of discursive practices. For example, in the case of patriarchal gender discourses, they are reproduced through practices as diverse as the tendency to elect far more men to Congress than women (equally true for Costa Rica and the United States), or parents' tacit encouragement of aggressive behaviour among their male children.
However, even if the benefits associated with a given discourse are not spread evenly across all segments of society, their expanse is usually wide enough to ensure that most people prefer to sustain the status quo rather than risk engaging in practices that might undermine it. Still, the complexity of the social fabric is such that no discourse is able to command absolute hegemony, providing individuals with an opportunity to disregard, reject or reinterpret specific elements without calling into question the entire discursive edifice.
As for questions related to sexuality in particular, young people assimilate dominant mores and values through a feedback mechanism in which a dualistic world-view produces polarized sexualities which serve in turn to promote and reinforce the internalization of dualistic sexual discourses. In this way, young people's capacity to operate within a compartmentalized sexual culture turns crucially upon their successful adoption of an internal control system that arranges, controls and censures contradictory information.
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Transmission of messages
In Foucault's estimation, power is wielded rather than possessed, necessitating forms of analysis that are focused less on institutions themselves, and more on the means by which the latter are capable of producing 'docile bodies' that are amenable to discipline and control (Foucault 1977; 1978). Sexual discourses are one of the key fields of knowledge through which this is accomplished, and thus it is our purpose in this chapter to explore how they become
'anchored' in young people's minds.
Of course, in embarking upon this project, we do not wish to suggest that institutions such as the Church, state or mass media are somehow unimportant. Indeed, given the resources they command, they are anything but irrelevant in the dissemination of messages about sexuality.
For example, churches play a key role in the lives of community members, especially in Villa del Mar, where they distribute food and clothing to the poorest families and organize social, cultural and educational activities for young people. In similar fashion, universities are able to shape individuals' views and outlook by virtue of their monopoly over the distribution of diplomas and degrees. For those who wish to become accredited as 'professionals' in their field, they must prove themselves willing to operate within the bounds of the dominant paradigm; otherwise they risk mediocre grades at best, and expulsion at worst.
Needless to say, this latter point is crucial, revealing as it does the multi-faceted nature of disciplinary power. While one might argue that coercive force is the ultimate sanction imposed upon those who fail to conform, other methods are no less effective. These include the threat of job loss for workers who refuse to become complicit in their supervisor's sexism, or girls' fear that they will be thrown out of their home should their parents discover that they are sexually active.
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However, it should be noted that, in most cases, these threats need never be carried out, since individuals learn from an early age to accept the tenets of dominant discourses and adapt their behaviour to them. As one might imagine, the preeminent site for the imposition of such discourses is the home, where mother, father, siblings and the extended family all have a part to play in the inculcation of appropriate values and norms.
Thus, with respect to religion in particular, it is generally the mother or grandmother who teaches the child basic principles and requires him or her to attend mass, catechism classes and other church-sponsored activities. This was confirmed in the group and interview sessions, where young people such as Maria and Aaron indicated that they went to church principally on account of parental pressure. While a number of participants went on to describe their fear of being denied intimacy by family members should they fail to live up the latter's expectations, by the same token it is clear that many also used religious devotion as a means of building power alliances with particular relatives, or of attacking those who did not live up to community expectations in matters of faith. How so? To cite but one example, Isidro reported to us that he has continued to attend mass regularly in the two years since his mother left his abusive father for another man, despite the fact that she no longer goes to church regularly herself. In short, he saw this as a way of publicizing his disapproval of his mother's 'immoral' conduct.
Along somewhat similar lines, several female participants referred to the distinction made between 'good' and 'bad' girls, with the former enjoying a measure of moral superiority over the latter. Needless to say, public demonstration of one's faith plays an important role in this regard, with sexual promiscuity closely associated with an irreligious outlook. Thus, while Anna believes that her personal devotion places her in the camp of those who enjoy an unsullied reputation, she is well aware that there is another group of 'misguided and headstrong' girls in her community who have failed to develop a fear of God.
As for gender-centred discourses, the observations of project ethnographers show quite clearly that both mothers and fathers are involved in the teaching process. On the one hand, male siblings are forced to compete for their father's approval by acting in a suff iciently masculine fashion, for example by being successful in sports or having many girlfriends. On the other, mothers are also complicit in the reproduction of a patriarchal gender order, to the extent that they teach their daughters to be submissive while expecting their sons to be domineering and THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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aggressive. While many women engage in such practices simply because they have themselves come to accept patriarchal relations of power as 'normal', others do so in order to protect their daughters from what they perceive to be the dangers inherent in a man's world.
Learning and repetition
Although there are a number of ways in which young people internalize hegemonic discourses, including most notably autos da fé, dissemination of essentialist or dualist precepts, and repetition, the latter is by far the most common. For example, in the Roman Catholic Church, the same interdictions are touched upon by the priest in almost every mass, with both Hilda and Santiago commenting upon the repetitive nature of the sermons and how bored they feel each time they go to church. In similar fashion, Maria, who goes to a denominational school run by nuns, indicated that she is exposed to religious exhortations and prayers on a more or less constant basis.
As one might imagine, repetition is also important in ensuring that individuals behave in a manner that is 'appropriate' to their gender. Thus, while girls are continuously reminded of the dangers of going out alone or after dark, boys are similarly pestered if they do not wish to go out, since masculinity demands that they be independent, self-reliant and street-wise.
Moreover, if by some chance parents are not teaching their offspring appropriate gender behaviour, other institutions, among them the mass media, advertisers, the educational system and the Church are only too willing to make up for this deficit by offering children and adolescents constant reinforcement as to what is and is not acceptable.
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Meanwhile, autos da fé are another important means through which young people are taught not to challenge or question the status quo. How so? In short, if individuals are to become good Christians, they must show themselves able and willing to rein in their common sense and accept the tenets of the Church on the basis of faith alone. Moreover, once they have done so in matters of religion, it becomes increasingly easy for them to suspend their critical faculties in other areas as well, such as human relationships and biology.
Of course, the question of essentialism is highly relevant in this regard, since it is yet another area in which a divine plan or mandate is invoked to explain the Church‟s position on any number of issues, from women‟s supposed weakness in the face of temptation to the requirement that priests abstain from all sexual activity. Again, once individuals have learned to accept precepts such as these without question, they are far more likely to assimilate other forms of essentialist thinking as well, for example in matters of gender role differentiation or sexual orientation. Significantly, this understanding was confirmed in our in-depth interviews with young people, with the latter proving entirely unwilling to challenge essentialist perspectives on a wide range of issues, including those cited above.
Along similar lines, the Church is also involved in fostering a manichaeist world-view among its followers. While this is not to suggest that it is alone in doing so - after all, the modern age is to a large extent founded upon dualistic thinking - its influence is particularly pervasive. At the pulpit and in the Bible, human beings are divided into any number of categories: good and evil, men and women, believers and infidels, saved and sinners. As one might imagine, this emphasis upon dichotomies serves to encourage fragmentation of the personality at an individual level, while lending credibility to the binary oppositions inherent within other hegemonic discourses.
Proselytism
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Without wishing to downplay the importance of the assimilation techniques described above, this does not alter the fact that there is a near-constant need for recruitment campaigns designed to attract new followers. In both of the communities under study, project ethnographers identified several individuals who devote themselves, on a more or less full-time basis, to the task of convincing others of the verity and power of dominant discourses.
Not surprisingly, Church officials stand out as particularly prominent in this regard, with priests, parishioners and young people themselves called upon to convince others of the importance of attending mass or participating in Church-sponsored activities. However, as active as the Roman Catholic hierarchy may be in attempting to disseminate its message among the Costa Rican population, its efforts pale alongside those of fundamentalist Protestant Churches, which enjoy a well-deserved reputation for mounting aggressive proselytizing campaigns. Indeed, they have even gone so far as to democratize the recruitment process, calling upon all members of the congregation to go door-to-door in a concerted effort to win over new converts.
While a grass-roots approach is also used in the popularization of other discourses, most notably those associated with machismo and a patriarchal gender order, such tactics are a far cry from the professionalism that characterizes most state-run reproductive health campaigns.
Typically, these revolve around the mobilization of physicians, nurses, social workers and volunteers in carefully-orchestrated drives to promote and disseminate approved messages on a range of health topics.
Social instruments of control: punishment
Reference has already been made to the coercive tools available to upholders of the status quo should the reinforcement techniques described above fail to prevent 'inappropriate' behaviour by young people. In the paragraphs that follow, we will touch upon some of the most common forms of punishment deployed against transgressors, including censorship, reclusion, categorization, exile, violence and abandonment.
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Censorship
As one might imagine, the capacity to suppress or silence alternative perspectives is a powerful weapon in the armoury of dominant social forces, and the latter do not shrink from using it. For example, frank discussion of topics related to sex and sexuality is strongly discouraged in most homes and schools, thereby giving the Church broad scope to communicate its own perspective to young people without fear that they will be contaminated by 'illegitimate' sources of information.
Discouragement takes several forms. With respect to female sexuality in particular, our interviews with young women pointed to the existence of what might be called a conspiracy of silence, in which mothers, aunts and grandmothers (let alone male relatives) simply refused to discuss any issue related to this topic. Thus, not only did most of the participants receive absolutely no emotional support when they began to menstruate, but many felt so uncomfortable with this development that they postponed telling their mothers for as long as possible.
In this way, one might argue that families' reticence to discuss menstruation is indicative of their fear of adolescent female sexuality. How so? Quite simply, mothers (and other relatives) associate their daughters' period with the risk of pregnancy, and hence feel that any discussion of it will only increase the likelihood that they will become sexually active. Interestingly, young men face no such taboo in discussing their own sexuality. Though this is certainly not to suggest that families are more likely to provide their sons with sex education than their daughters, it is generally assumed that boys will learn all they need to know on the street, thereby obviating the need for secrecy.
Of course, it should be emphasized that sex is not the only area in which the effects of censorship manifest themselves. Priests and others in the Church hierarchy (both Catholic and Protestant) routinely deploy warnings concerning the dangers inherent in entertaining beliefs that run contrary to Christian morality or dogma. Moreover, should these threats prove insufficient, Costa Rican law includes anti-blasphemy provisions whereby individuals who THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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criticize the personage of Christ could find themselves facing a lengthy prison sentence. Given this state of affairs, it is not particularly surprising that research participants had for the most part come to accept religious censorship as normal, with individuals like Hilda admitting to feelings of guilt whenever she disparages the Church for its misogyny.
Significantly, censorship is also invoked in defence of Costa Rica's dominant reproductive health discourses, with physicians taking it upon themselves to ensure that interventions in this area do not pursue 'inappropriate' ends. For example, when the medical establishment first awoke to the danger posed by the AIDS epidemic, by no means did it wish to embark upon a prevention campaign that could be perceived as being tolerant of homosexuality. Thus, when a local NGO took it upon itself to fill this gap by working directly with the gay community around issues of awareness and prevention, the Ministry of Health ordered it to cease and desist, on the grounds that it was engaged in activities that fell outside of its jurisdiction.
What does all of this mean for young people themselves? According to Jorge, censorship has prevented him from 'imagining alternative ways of doing things.' That is to say, the suppression of alternative perspectives and approaches leaves young people with the sense that there is only one answer to any given problem, and that those who fall outside of the mainstream are not only wrong-headed, but evil.
Seclusion
As project ethnographers have made clear, seclusion is a strategy employed in both Villa del Mar and Villa del Sol to control or police young people's behaviour. Needless to say, its use is particularly widespread among adolescent girls, whose movements outside of the home are carefully circumscribed so as to prevent them from falling prey either to boys' advances or to their own sexual urges.
Moreover, it is also used to punish young people who fail to abide by the tenets of dominant discourses. Thus, 'unruly' children are often sent to denominational schools as a way of THE SEXUAL CONSTRUCTION OF LATIN YOUTH
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enforcing strict standards of behaviour upon them, since the latter are known for their disciplinarian approach and ability to restrict students' access to the outside world. Among those who do not wish or cannot afford to send their children away to a religious school, other forms of seclusion are used, including physical confinement or relocation to the home of another family member elsewhere in the country. As one might imagine, the most common reasons why young people are subjected to these forms of punishment are 'promiscuity' (in the case of young women), and drug