Interview with Angela, 22, White British, middle class. Women, Risk and AIDS Project, Manchester, 1989. Anonymised version including fieldnotes (Ref: MAG50)
This interview is part of the Women, Risk and Aids Project (1989-90) archive which was created as part of the Reanimating Data Project (2018-20).
Anonymised transcript of interview with Angela 22, who is studying Drama at university. She is from an artistic family who are very open about sex. She went to an all girls, private secondary school, which pushed science subjects but otherwise had no other feminist ideology. There was very limited sex education at this school, which invited a prominent anti-abortion campaigner to deliver its sex education. Angela has a very high awareness of AIDS which comes largely from being part of a play about AIDS and working with gay men who were directly affected by AIDS. Angela s very concerned about the risks of HIV and AIDS and this has affected her decision making around sex. Angela has had a few short term relationships, which did not involve penetrative sex and is currently in a relationship with someone where she does have penetrative sex, although she would quite like this not to be the case. She prefers having relationships with younger, les sexually experienced men as they feel 'safer'. Her first experience of intercourse was rape, by a friend from a drama course. This was a difficult experience that she is still processing. Angela describes her experiences of taking part in drama courses as a teenager and being part of the drama scene in her early twenties and meeting older men who were 'really explicit' in their sexual pursuit and exploitation of younger women. Angela has mixed feelings about the drama world, which she has found to be liberating but difficult to handle. She has liberal, feminist values around her own sexuality, a lot of this influenced by the drama scene, but has lots of contradictions between her values and her practices. Is using the diaphragm as main contraceptive method, as she didn't want to use the pill. She is aware that she will still need to use condoms for higher level of protection, and is worried she is being 'over-protective'. She thinks they have a strong level of communication between them, which she thinks is an important factor in having safe sex and using contraception effectively. She thinks there is a lot of societal pressure to be in a steady relationship, especially as a woman, but doesn't see the appeal when she thinks about her friend's romantic relationship.