Discursive Analysis of Sexual Life Quality in Antofagasta, Chile, From the Standpoint of Social Psychology.

Discursive Analysis of Sexual Life Quality in Antofagasta, Chile, From the Standpoint of Social Psychology, Jimena Silva Segovia, Universidad del Mar, Chile; Jaime Eduardo Barrientos Delgado, Universidad Catolica del Norte, Chile

This study described sexual discourse about quality of sexual life in Antofagasta, Chile, from the standpoint of social psychology and gender theory. We studied changes in sexual behavior, sexual attitudes, and AIDS through analysis of 52 interviews about sexuality under transversal axis on sex-gender relation using a life-course perspective. We classified participants in four categories: sexual restraint, sexual revolution, dictatorships, and gender equality. The discourses were organized around intrapsyque, sociocultural, and interpersonal experiences, all of them linked to sexuality. The discursive analysis showed symbolic violence in participants' erotic lives, especially in the age group that belonged to the dictator period (the sexual generation who was young between 1973 and 1990) and the restrictive generation (the sexual generation who was young between 1950 and 1970). The results showed an important cultural change in gender relations in Antofagasta city and in intimate life, mostly in women. We found that women accepted a decrease in quality of sexual life in order to sustain their relationships, justified male infidelity, and were overloaded in their daily life because of gender differences in socialization and education.