Sexuality and class: against culture as expressiveness

The moral distinction in the sexuality and affectivity of young people from Montevideo

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to show the ways in which class and gender conditions intersect and constitute differential moralities in affective and sexual trajectories of young people. The affective-sexual is understood as a sphere of inseparable subjectivity of the social conditions in which it is embodied, which at the same time is acted and negotiated by the subjects as their trajectories unfold. The main findings seek to establish that discourses on affectivity and sexuality are mediated by class and gender trajectories and performances. In the youth’s discourses there are moral distinctions to which it is desirable to adapt to distinguish oneself from others. In certain young people with greater social and political capital associated with student activism, this morality and self-practice - in terms of Foucault - is associated with a hedonistic search for experiences that in many cases has political purposes. In others, however, this morality and self-practice works to distinguish itself from disadvantaged social contexts or truncated vital projects.