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238their experiences in negotiating heterosexual liaisons in a peer culture of compulsory male-dominated heterosexuality is presented. A focus on peer influences on the development of a masculine identity is particularly important during adolescence as masculinity may be referenced by virtue of career success and one's capacity as a breadwinner in adulthood and in a more flexible way in older years (Diamond, 2006). In particular, what Measor, Tiffin, and Miller (2000, p. 101) have coined "the price [men] pay for their dominance," that is, the vulnerabilities and pressures that young men face in trying to live up to ideals of gendered normative expectations, is foregrounded in this article. Male vulnerabilities are accentuated in the course of the analysis in an effort to move away from traditional notions of male dominance and to lay bare more complex notions around male sexual perspectives that include uncertainty, apprehension, disquiet, and rejection. One of the themes that will be explored is the way in which the young men's quest to be adept at sexual technique is not merely rooted in self-serving motives to achieve sexual mastery but is linked to an aspiration to please a sex partner.Sexual health is inherently connected to gender and sexuality. It is not only concerned with the physical . . . but also with the social/cultural (for example, how young people behave with each other and with the opposite gender; how they negotiate their sexual and relationship desires) and with the emotional (for example, how young men and women develop in their social context and how they feel about themselves). (Blake, 2004, p. 155) With this broad definition of sexual health in mind, a qualitative analysis of young men's accounts of Young Men's Vulnerability in Constituting Hegemonic Masculinity in Sexual RelationsAbbey Hyde, BSocSc, MSocSc, PhD, RGN, Jonathan Drennan, BSc (Hons), MEd, RMHN, RPN, RGN, RNT, PhD, Etaoine Howlett, BSocSc, MSocSc, and Dympna Brady, BNS, MSc, RSCN, RGN This article reports on a qualitative analysis of the accounts of young men on their experiences of heterosexual encounters. Based on data collected in Ireland using 17 focus groups with 124 young men aged between 14 and 19 years (a subsection of a wider study), the manner in which intricate peer group mechanisms acted as surveillance strategies in regulating the young men toward presenting themselves in ways consistent with hegemonic manifestations of masculinity is explored. However, there were also elements of resistance to such a culture in the way in which sexual pleasure for some young men was derived relationally through giving pleasure rather than merely through mechanical, emotionally detached sexual acts that characterize hegemonic masculinity. In emphasizing male vulnerabilities such as uncertainty, fear, and rejection in the realm of sexuality, it is proposed that one must not lose sight of the broader context of male sexual dominance for which, as data indicate, men themselves pay a price.

This article reports on data from a wider study on adolescent sexuality in Ireland and focuses particularly on the topic of heterosexual experiences and how these experiences relate to sexual coercion. Data were gathered from 29 focus group interviews with 102 young women and 124 young men, and were analysed using a qualitative research strategy. Drawing on the concepts of social coercion and interpersonal coercion first introduced by Finkelhor and Yllo (1983), we argue that both female and male participants reported a general sense of social coercion to lose their virginity by a certain age. However, narratives of interpersonal coercion were far stronger in the case of the young women compared with their male counterparts, while the young men reported a particular type of social coercion that propelled them to subscribe to expectations of conventional heterosexual male behaviour. We argue that while the distinction between social coercion and interpersonal coercion is far from watertight, it is a useful conceptual tool in identifying broad variations in women's and men's sexually coercive experiences.

Conventional approaches to menopause tend to contrast the biomedical position on menopause with women’s actual experiences of it. Rather than focusing primarily on the tensions between these perspectives (biomedical vs. lay), our emphasis here is on the impact of biomedicine in shaping participants’ perceptions of their status as menopausal. Based on interview data gathered from 39 women in Ireland, we argue that the cultural authority of biomedicine shaped participants’ experiences of the body and how they constituted their health identity. We assert that, ironically, this was particularly the case among those who most strongly contested biomedical definitions of their situation. In addition, biomedical practitioners’ definitions had a strong normalizing power in how the body was experienced. We conclude by noting that our analysis problematizes the notion of privileging “women’s experiences” as advocated by some feminist perspectives. The heavy influence of biomedical discourses in shaping participants’ embodied experiences demonstrates the pervasive impact of prevailing discourses on women’s experiences.

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