“That’s Where I Learned Really How Sex Works:” Asian American and Pacific Islander Men who are Attracted to Men Supplementation of Sexual and Romantic Education through Media

Abstract

Sexual and romantic education fails to provide the needed information for many students who are non-heteronormative or part of the dominant Euroamerican population (Currin et al., 2017; Currin et al., 2019; Elia & Eliason, 2010; Estes, 2016). One such group of nonheteronormative students are men who are attracted to men (MAM) (Albury, 2015; Attwood et al., 2015; Currin et al., 2017; Currin, et al., 2019). For this group, students have turned to peers and media to supplement their formal sexual and romantic education (Bond et al., 2009; Currin et al., 2017; Estes, 2016). This turn to media can expose students to inaccurate and stereotypical views on sexual and romantic acts, affecting practices and expectations (Comella, 2020; Currin et al., 2017; Currin et al., 2019; Estes, 2016; Mok, 1998; Paner, 2018; SIECUS, 2020). Past studies have looked at how this group, MAM, supplement their sexual and romantic education through media, but have drawn from primarily white participants with little data about other racial and ethnic groups such as Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) (Calzo et al., 2018; Currin et al., 2019; Dehann et al., 2012; Downing et al., 2017; Estes, 2016; Ocampo & Soodjinda, 2016). This gap leads to the imposing of past research on the AAPI MAM community. Furthermore, these studies tend to be more prescriptive in what is learned from the media and do not describe what the subjects have learned (Currin et al., 2017; Currin et al., 2019; Hall et al., 2016; Kosciw et al., 2018; Rose & Friedman, 2019; Smith, 2013; Steele, 1999). This study looks to fill these gaps in research by focusing on the AAPI MAM community of the USA and returning to the community to understand what they learned from the media they watched. It was found that AAPI MAM do supplement their sexual and romantic education through media and in so doing learned about racial, anatomical, and mechanical aspects of sex and romance. This study furthers our knowledge on how students, especially AAPI MAM, supplement their sexual and romantic education and allows practitioners to understand, design, and reflect on such curriculum.