Interview with Claire, 18-19, White British, lower middle class, no religion. Women, Risk and AIDS Project, London, 1990. Anonymised version including field notes. (Ref: LJH40)

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 Claire, who works for a trade union and is involved with socialism and left-wing politics. She has been with her current boyfriend for around two years, and is the first person she has had penetrative sex with (though she had had other sexual relationships in the past) and talks about why she made this decision. Claire seems to be the more dominant one in this relationship and holds more control, though she had been pressured into performing oral sex on him. Otherwise, she is rather enjoying the sexual aspects of their relationship - she comes across as quite confident and knowing in this area, and has some funny anecdotes to tell. They'd started out using condoms, but Claire is now on the pill as her boyfriend didn't like them. She isn't too worried about STDs or AIDS, though if she accidentally fell pregnant anytime soon she would likely have an abortion. Her sex education at school was very basic and biological, and AIDS education was through the media. Claire thinks that girls are more informed on sex education generally than boys, especially with regard to disease, but thinks this is more to do with gendered social norms that allow girls to talk more openly about sex and relationships. She also learnt a lot through the advice columns in teen girl magazines.