Interview with Caitlin, 18-19, White British, middle class, no religion. Women, Risk and AIDs Project, London, 1989. Anonymised version including field notes. (Ref: LJH30)

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 Caitlin, who works in marketing and advertising and will soon be doing business studies at a polytechnic college. She has an interesting take on AIDS public health campaigns, due to her interest and involvement in advertising. It is very important for to prioritise her relationships with her friends over those with boys, but she has had a couple of sexual and romantic relationships. She has been hurt in the past and is reluctant to get emotionally involved in anything too serious at the minute. Her first sexual experience was at age 15, with someone that she had had a crush on but was aware it would not be a permanent arrangement. She has found her sexual experiences so far to be ok, but thinks that it could be much more pleasurable for her - reading magazine problem pages meant that she had not set her expectations too high, and she was prepared for her first intercourse to hurt. Foreplay is enjoyable for her, though she does not get much from penetrative sex - she would usually reach climax through masturbation. Caitlin does not want to identify as a 'women's libber', but does believe in gendered equality, especially in terms of domestic and employed labour and gendered sexual double standards. She has always been adamant that she does not want to have children, but has been engaging in unprotected sex which seems contradictory, as she is aware of the risks and has had a pregnancy scare. She had been using the pill as her main method of contraception and came off it once her last serious relationship had ended. Caitlin has bought condoms before, but has found it difficult to negotiate their use with male sexual partners, despite a constant underlying fear of AIDs and pregnancy.