The Impact of Raunch Culture on the Development of an Autonomous Female Sexuality in Ireland

Provided by the author(s) and NUI Galway in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title The Impact of Raunch Culture on the Development of an Autonomous Female Sexuality in Ireland Author(s) Stokes, Sara Publication Date 2012-05-31 Item record http://hdl.handle.net/10379/3064 Downloaded 2021-09-26T12:19:37Z Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. The Impact of Raunch Culture on the Development of an Autonomous Female Sexuality in Ireland Sara Stokes Supervisor: Dr. Vesna Malesevic School of Political Science and Sociology National University of Ireland, Galway June 2012 1 Acknowledgments To my supervisor, Dr. Vesna Malesevic, who for three years has gone above and beyond the call of duty and has provided me, not only with academic guidance but with a level of emotional support and care that her job did not require of her. I would also like to thank Dr. Nata Duvvury for her advice and guidance, and the Global Women’s Studies Centre at NUI, Galway for their support throughout. Thanks also to my tiny hero Hailey who, even when she could fit in the palm of my hand, managed to help me put everything into perspective. To my one and only Jay who helped keep me sane and continued to love me even when I wasn’t. Thanks to Richie, Maria, Lia and Rachel for decades of endless love and support and to Ciara and Harvey for their interest, dedication and fantastic proof reading skills. Finally I would like to extend a special thanks to the group of over 2000 young Irish women who took part in this study, without whose experiences this thesis would never have been. 2 Abstract The Impact of Raunch Culture on the Development of Female Sexual Autonomy in Ireland Raunch Culture is the relatively recent term given to the mainstreaming of sexualised images, language and messages within popular culture and the popular media over the past two decades. This thesis seeks to expose the ways in which this mainstreaming has resulted in media-led sexualisation processes that, despite appearing ‘pro-sex’ have actually succeeded in hindering the development of an autonomous Irish female sexuality. Using the joint methodological lenses of feminism and social constructionism, two distinct research methods were employed to achieve this aim. The first of these involved a quantitative questionnaire with 1764 young Irish women and the second involved a series of 12 face-to-face interviews with a voluntary sub-group of that sample. These methods resulted in the generation of a significant body of data which has lent itself to the argument that Raunch Culture has the potential to inhibit the development of female sexual autonomy in Ireland. Central to this argument is evidence within the study of Raunch Culture’s institution of a ‘sexual rulebook’ that normalises certain sexual attitudes, identities and behaviours as ‘good’ and rejects those which do not fit the same criteria as ‘bad’ or ‘other’. The importance of adhering to this ‘rulebook’ is palpable within the study’s findings and manifests itself in the reported experiences of its participants, through their fear of being labelled as ‘other’, a pressure on their part to be ‘good’ at sex and, in its most inhibitive form, through a form of sexual self-regulation that affects their mode of dress, their sexual behaviour and, in extreme cases, their sexual choices, including consenting to unwanted sex and the refusal of sex that is wanted . These fears, pressures and self-regulatory behaviours provide evidence of the ways in which Raunch Culture has and continues to have a profound impact on the development of an autonomous female sexuality in Ireland. 3 Table of Contents Page Introduction 5 1. Saints and Sinners: An Introduction to Irish Sexuality since 1845 7 1.1 Ireland from Famine to Free State 7 1.2 Irish Womanhood 14 1.3 Irish Sexuality from 1960 22 1.4 Ireland and Raunch Culture 28 2. Secret Diaries, Kiss-and-Tells and How to Make Love like a Porn Star 40 3. Patriarchy, Pleasure and the ‘Pseudo-empowerment’ of Postfeminism 83 3.1 Female Sexualities: Power, Tradition and Patriarchy 84 3.2 Irish Female Sexuality and Raunch Culture 109 4. Methodologies 127 4.1 Background to Methodologies 128 4.2 Research Design 135 4.3 Further Methodological Considerations 144 5. Research Findings 150 5.1 Survey Findings 150 5.2 Interview Findings 160 6. Discussion 177 6.1 The Prevalence of Raunch Culture 177 6.2 The Impact of Raunch Culture Sexual Rulebook 178 6.3 Evidence of Self-Regulating Behaviour 187 6.4 Barriers to Autonomy Posed by Raunch Culture 195 Conclusion 201 Bibliography 205 Appendices 212 4 Introduction Introduction The initial motivation behind this research project was to explore the sexual messages communicated by Raunch Culture, the ways in which Irish people interpret and consume those messages and ultimately whether or not this exchange impacts the lived sexualities of young Irish women. The central research question of the project’s thesis, then, is ‘To what extent has the recent expansion of Raunch Culture posed barriers to the development of an autonomous Irish female sexuality?’ This is a question which encompasses a range of extremely broad conceptual areas such as Irish sexualities, the sexualisation of culture, feminism and autonomy, and has in turn prompted a series of sub-questions that have been devised to best inform the central thesis. Among these are questions such as: • What characterises ‘Irish Sexualities’ and what social, cultural and historical factors have contributed to this characterisation? • What are the social, historic and cultural features of female sexuality in Ireland? • What characterises ‘Raunch Culture’ and what social, cultural and historical factors have contributed to this characterisation? • How visible, present and relevant is Raunch Culture in Irish society? • To what extent does this culture impact the lived sexualities, sexual attitudes, sexual behaviours and sexual treatment of Irish women? Each of these questions contributes to building a greater picture of what Irish female sexual autonomy might look like. Given the presence of patriarchy and of a gendered habitus that, even at a pre-conscious level limits the scope of female choice and freedom, the concept of ‘autonomy’ within the context of this thesis can be seen as an ideal that is ultimately unattainable, but which can be extremely useful as a yardstick against which existing practices can be evaluated. The broad scope of ‘autonomy’ as a concept which incorporates freedom of choice, action, thought and behaviour, therefore, lends itself to a detailed discussion such as 5 Introduction this one which incorporates, not only the wider sociological concepts of habitus, discourse and symbolic violence but also the significance of individual women’s experiences of sexual expression, choice and freedom in twenty first century Ireland. 6 Chapter 1 Chapter One Saints and Sinners: An Introduction to Irish Sexuality since 1845 In order to best place this thesis within its socio-historic context, the opening chapter provides a brief overview of Irish sexuality and the cultural, historic, social and legal forces that have shaped it from the Great Famine of the 1800s to the height of Raunch Culture in the early twenty-first century. It discusses the key milestones within Ireland’s socio-sexual history and aims to provide a cohesive background to the study and its central research questions. 1.1 Ireland from Famine to Free State The great Irish famine of 1845 brought with it such immense changes that they are still resonant in the country’s collective memory in the twenty first century. In fact, so significant was this watershed period, that today Irish historical narrative is now frequently divided between pre- famine Ireland and post-famine Ireland. The famine itself and the death toll it incurred, however, merely served as catalysts to the already palpable social, political and economic unrest that existed within the country at the time. Ireland had been directly governed for seven hundred years prior to the famine and under the Act of Union 1801 was ruled by Westminster as part of the United Kingdom, a hierarchical system which favoured landowners and imposed restrictions on the economic development and political mobilisation of tenants, cottiers and small farmers who were in the majority. The result of this system was an impoverished and dependant population heavily reliant on the land, and in particular on their staple crop, the potato. When this crop failed in 1845 due to severe blight, it ravaged not only their primary source of nutrition but also their primary source of revenue. The British government, however, failed to see either the urgency or the extreme gravity of the situation in Ireland and their poor response to it was a devastating blow to the country’s chances of combating the effects of famine and of making a strong recovery from it. In fact, so apathetic was the feeling in Westminster towards the disaster that former Chief Secretary for Ireland and then Prime Minister Robert Peel was quoted at the time as remarking that there had always been ‘such a tendency to exaggeration and inaccuracy in Irish reports that delay in acting on them is always desirable’ (Woodham-Smith 1962, p41) . The reality for 7 Chapter 1 Ireland, however, was that approximately one million of its people died from either starvation or from famine-related illness during the period, while a further million, the majority of whom were women, were forced to emigrate to England, the United States, Canada and Australia. The government, however, could not be said to have washed their hands completely of Ireland and its crisis.

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