Gendered power relations in women-to-men interviews on controversial sexual behavior

Author: Prior, Ayelet & Peled, Einat

Abstract: This article explores gendered power relations in studies of stigmatized sexual behavior, through a poststructuralist feminist theoretical perspective. Interviews conducted by a female interviewer with twenty men who pay for sex were analyzed using the interpretive constructivist method. We applied the concept defended subjects to suggest that the subjects – both interviewer and interviewees – defended themselves against three major threats that characterized the gendered power relations in the interviews: the threat of forced intimacy, the threat of deviancy, and the threat of objectification. We then propose a new heuristic concept – defensive interactions – to discuss these interview dynamics as they relate to three key aspects of gendered power relations in qualitative interviews: the establishment of intimacy, identity management, and objectification.

Keywords: Qualitative interview, feminist methodology, gendered power relations, defended subjects, defensive interactions