“You Enjoy Talking about It More than Doing It”: Fake Narratives in Disdainful Relationships

Abstract

Research has found that the coercive dominant discourse (CDD) can have a negative impact on girls’ sexual pleasure. In this vein, a previous study found that girls who described relationships under the CDD as exciting also recognized a lack of sexual pleasure in these. One of the elements underlying this apparent contradiction was an identified mismatch between what the participants had experienced in such relationships, characterized for being disdainful, and what they had told their friends. Nonetheless, more research is needed in order to better understand how girls’ narratives about their sexual-affective relationships differ from the ways in which they experienced them. The current study aims at identifying and analysing the presence of fake narratives in the interactions girls have with their peers regarding sexual-affective relationships. To this end, 10 communicative interviews were conducted with girls between 18 and 21 years of age. Results show that while participants recognize feeling a lack of pleasure in those disdainful relationships, they portrayed these as exciting when telling their peers about them, suppressing the negative feelings around them. These findings corroborate the presence of fake narratives in relation to disdainful relationships and bring new insights into the aspects these fabricated stories are built around.

Keywords

• coercive dominant discourse
• gender violence
• fake narratives