Group sex has a long, global history, ranging from Roman bacchanals to modern gay and bisexual men’s circuit parties. Today group sex remains an important cultural and health phenomena. Group sex is currently analyzed from a sociological perspective as play and leisure, or from a social epidemiological viewpoint as risk environments that feature concurrent sexual partners, polydrug use, and condomless sex.
Regardless of academic lens, group sex analysis almost exclusively focuses on only one sexual community. In contrast, we consider group sex a phenomenon that allows us to work with multiple sexual communities simultaneously, enabling a deeper understanding of the contemporary meaning and purpose of group sex. We first address this challenge by combining risk and leisure theory to understand group sex communities in a sex-positive, non-stigmatizing perspective that still recognizes sexual risk.
Our research project has three objectives: 1) determine how Canadians discover group sex and understand their motivation for participation; 2) assess how group sex participants from different sexual communities conceptualize risk, leisure, and pleasure; and 3) identify group sex harm-reduction practices, with particular emphasis on sexual consent and STI disclosure.
This is a four-year mixed-methods study. First, we have assembled a community advisory board to help define group sex among different sexual communities and help construct a guide for longitudinal in-depth qualitative interviews across Vancouver and Gulf Islands and a questionnaire for an anonymous online national survey. Our research plan takes a “learning from the margins” approach that promotes construction of an inclusive emic, or internally conceived view of GS, rather than an etic or externally imposed model. Our longitudinal approach allows qualitative data analysis to inform both subsequent national survey development and contextualize quantitative findings, while quantitative surveys can refine and inspire new interview questions.
Partners: Local Community Advisory Board
Methods:
Mixed Methods: Longitudinal Qualitative Interviews, and Online Quantitative Questionnaire
Funder: Social Science & Humanities Research Council
Current Status: First round of qualitative interviews completed summer 2021.