Shaping Sexual Behaviors & Sexual Scripts
The Culture of Romance as a Factor Associated with Gender Violence in Adolescence.
Open Access: No.
Abstract
Despite extensive prevention strategies in Spain since the 1980s, gender-based violence, including among adolescents, remains prevalent, as observed in the Romance SUCC-ED Project (R&D&I Operating Programme ERDF Andalusia 2014–2020). This research study investigates the dimensions, meanings, relationships, and practices shaping the culture of romance in digital Andalusian adolescence (12–16 years) and its potential impact on school trajectories in Compulsory Secondary Education. Based on the premise that equality-focused relationship education is key to preventing gender violence, the study employs an ethnographic methodology with 12 Andalusian school case studies (4 out of them are located in rural areas) and 220 in-depth interviews (126 girls, 57.3%; 94 boys, 42.7%). This article aims to empirically explain gender violence in early adolescence by analysing the culture of romance as an explanatory factor. Findings reveal an interconnected model where dimensions (love, couple, sexuality, pornography, social networks, and cultural references), meanings (constructed by adolescents within each of them), relationships (partner), and practices (control and jealousy) reinforce romanticised femininity and dominant masculinity, thus explaining the high incidence of gender-based violence among students in the study.
Relevance
This study found that “pornography influences how adolescents perceive sexuality, gender inequality, and ultimately, sexual violence. A fundamental aspect that emerges from the testimonies is the constant representation of women as passive figures, subordinate to men, and of idealised and violent sex scenes.”
“Pornography, frequently depicting violence and the subordination of women, help to generate unrealistic expectations and even reinforce the replication of power and coercion dynamics.”
In the culture of adolescent romance, young women, more than the young men, understand pornography as “offering a model of sexuality based on violent practices against women.” Some of the young women in the study reported “experiences of being treated as if in pornographic film, lacking respect, emotions, or the affective dimension of sexual relationships, and devoid of dignity.”
Citation
Venegas, M., Paniza-Prados, J. L., Romero-Valiente, F., & Fernández-Langa, T. (2025). The Culture of Romance as a Factor Associated with Gender Violence in Adolescence. Social Sciences, 14(8), Article 460. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14080460
