Discursive positions on sexuality, sexual desire and pleasure among Chilean and Mexican young students

Abstract This paper seeks to understand the meanings of sexuality, sexual desire and pleasure among young heterosexual students between 15 and 19 years of Ocotlán, México and Antofagasta, Chile. Although geographically distant, being located in Latin America, both sites share sociocultural elements such as: femininity associated with the Marian model; the Western culture of male hegemony; European colonization processes; influential religiosity in the family and sexual life; and preponderant weight of neoliberalism. The methodology was qualitative, with pos/decolonial and feminist perspectives. The data collection was carried out with through interviews and discussion groups, followed by analysis of discursive inferences. In the findings, we discovered that in both contexts emerge discursive positions classified as sexual essentialism, sexist, mercantilist, romantic and counter sexual.