ISSN: 1550-7521
1Department of Sociology of Culture and Communication, Saint Petersburg State University, Russia Federation
2Department of Political Science, Volgograd State University, Russian Federation
Received date: March 02, 2016; Accepted date: March 21, 2016; Published date: April 05, 2016
Copyright: © 2016 Pankratova LS, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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This article analyzes the methods and technologies for civil society participation in the formation and reproduction of sexual culture of the modern Russian youth. As a part of the social and political discourse the sexual culture is treated in the system of sex (physiological) and gender (social-role) value orientations and behavior practices among the representatives of youth cohorts with a focus on the erotic and emotional and sociocultural components. Based on the results of empirical studies (content analysis of statutory and program documents, depth and expert interviews) the specificity of main directions (educative, ideological and political, socialized, disciplinary, monitoring, human rights, and anti-discriminating) for the activities of different social movements types in the Russian Federation (the RF) is defined.
Sexual culture; Youth; Social movements; Russia; Sex discrimination; Gender socialization
The contemporary Russian society is characterized by the contradictory transformational processes in the social and economic, political and legal, and sociocultural spheres, which is reflected both in the group and individual levels of citizens’ vital activity. The qualitative changes affect not only the traditional public, but also the personal (private) space of interaction between representatives of different social groups and generational cohorts. As it was noted by I.S. Kon, the most dynamically “the global process of changing and breaking the traditional system of gender interrelations and gender stratification occurs. The relationship between men and women in all spheres of public and private life are becoming more democratic and equal, and the stereotypes of masculinity and femininity - less polar, than before. Such social and structural and cultural shifts manifest themselves in the sphere of sexual and erotic values” [1]. Since the sexual revolution in the 1960s, the liberalization of sex, gender and family and marriage relations already radically influenced the emancipation of sexuality of different layers in the Soviet society of the XX century. At the boundary of centuries the problem of sexual culture was actively included in the agenda of everyday life, mass media, legal and political rhetoric. At the beginning of the XXI century the sexuality is presented in a motley mosaic of cultural forms, lifestyles, traditions, communities, practices, and discourses.
Changes in the sexual culture of the Russian society deeply touched on the youth environment in which the new forms of intimate relationship and the erotic and emotional behavior occur and are appraised. The sexual culture differentiation of the Russian youth is caused the social heterogeneity of such social and demographic group, variety and polarization of lifestyles, and subcultural variety, including in the sphere of intimate and family and marriage relations. At the same time, sexual culture formation and reproduction of youth is strongly influenced by the different social movements, which are often being at the stage of institutionalization in the conditions of the Russian society modernization. The typological variety of social organizations projects their ideological and axiological and practical and functional differentiation on the orientation, methods and technologies of influence on the representatives of youth cohort, so that requires the scientific study and understanding.
The study of sexual culture formation of youth in the contemporary Russian society is at the intersection of different, but at the same time closely related sectoral scientific discourses. In the Sociology the social and cultural significance of sexual relations was first introduced by Kont [2], Durkheim [3], who paid attention to the norms and deviations of sexual behavior. The mass sociological studies of sexual behavior ("National surveys") were carried out in the USA under the supervision of Kinsey [4]. The variety of sexual relations and behavior in the social and cultural context are also analyzed in the social constructivism [5]. In the social and structuralist approach Foucaulty [6] the most important social institutions (religion, economics, law, government, and family), which broadcast and form the sexuality, specific norms and values, stand out. In the postmodernism Plummer and Wicks) [7] the variability of sexual cultures norms and values, well as the ability to select his own sexuality by the individual stands out. In the concepts of late modernity Bauman and Giddens [8,9] the emphasis is placed on the fluidity and individualization of sexual relations nature, and love (liquid love).
The Russian thinkers have also repeatedly appealed to the study of sexuality nature, expression of love as one of the most important human feelings, specifics of national sexual culture formation and reproduction Berdyaev, Bulgakov, et al. [10,11]. At the same time, the first sociological surveys on the topic of sexual behavior began to be conducted, primarily, among different youth groups Barash and Gelman [12,13]. The scientific comprehension of sexual practices in the USSR refers only to the 1960-1970-s, when the sociological surveys on the study of sexual behavior of different population groups started conducting on a regular basis Alekseeva and Golod [14,15]. At present there are two main tendencies of sexuality study within the sociological discourse in Russia: the sexual behavior of representatives of different age cohorts, including youth Gurko, Denisenko, et al. [16,17] the sociocultural aspects of global and regional (national) sexual practices Zherebkina, Zdravomyslova, et al. [18-22].
For this study the special importance have the works of foreign and domestic scientists, directly devoted to the sexual culture analysis: Abramson, Jackson, et al. [23-25]. The impact of social institutions such as religion, family, law, government, and media on the sexual socialization of different population groups, including youth, was analyzed by Arthurs, A. Nikolos, et al. [26,27]. The specifics of sexual culture of youth is studied by foreign and domestic sociologists Irwin, Parker, et al. [28,29]. The features of sexual behavior among the domestic youth were revealed within the international comparative sociological studies Dalla-Zouan, Specher, et al. [30,31]. The intergenerational sexual culture analysis of representatives of different age cohorts Zaitseva, Pichugina A, et al. [22,32] allowed to reveal differences in views and values of the Russian youth generations of the XX century and the turn of the ХХ-XXI centuries.
The analysis of publications shows that despite the significant amount of accumulated theoretical and empirical material, the system sociological studies devoted to the problems of influence of directly different social movements on the Russian youth sexual culture formation and reproduction in the contemporary Russia are presented insufficiently.
The study object is the sexual culture of the Russian youth. The subject is the factors and features of impact of different social movements on the characteristic features and types of youth sexual culture in the contemporary Russia. The article’s purpose is to analyze the methods and technologies for civil society participation in the formation and reproduction of sexual culture among the representatives of youth generational cohort in the RF. Against the background of traditionally declared common heterosexual culture of the population, including youth, the main hypothesis of the study is that in the contemporary Russian society the regime of coexistence, confrontation and combination of different types of sexual culture is formed. The additional hypothesis is that the role of institutionalized sexual practices, education, enlightenment of the population in general, and youth in particular, the impact of social movements remains insignificant, and the key role in the sexual cultures formation of youth groups play the individual life path, personal experience of romantic and erotic mutual relations, interpersonal and family communication, and inclusiveness into the information flows.
The theoretical and practical significance lies in the development and improvement of youth sexual culture concept in the conditions of sociocultural transformation of the modern Russian society, well as the inconsistency of institutional influence of social movements on the formation and reproduction of its axiological and behavioral elements. Findings of the study may be used to improve the work effectiveness of state authorities, local government bodies, institutions of civil society with different youth groups, and to optimize the regional youth, demographic and gender policies.
Subject of the scientific analysis
The subject of study is characterized by the specificity of factors, methods and the direction of impact of different social movements on the formation of youth sexual culture in the contemporary Russia. At the same time, the statutory documents and practice of activities of both youth political organizations (“Young Guard of United Russia”, “Nashi”, etc.) and non-political public associations (“Russian Union of Youth”, “Children and youth social initiatives – DIMSI”, etc.), Human Rights organizations (“New Perspectives Foundation”, “Youth Human Rights Group”, etc.), religious associations (Interuniversity Association "Pokrov", etc.), LGBT organizations (St. Petersburg LGBT organization "Coming Out", Russian LGBT Sports Federation, etc.) were subjected to the study. As the important characteristic of the subject acts a dynamic uncertainty of institutional design of social movements’ inconsistency in the conditions of the RF political system democratization, undeveloped civil society institutions.
Empirical base of the article
As the information sources served: statistical data of the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) for 2000-2015 yrs; secondary data analysis of sociological studies, conducted by: the Public Opinion Foundation - "Gay pride parades: prevent or allow?", 2011 (a survey in 100 settlements, 43 territorial entity of the RF, 1500 respondents); "On Youth Policy", 2009 (a survey in 100 settlements, 44 territorial entity of the RF, 2000 respondents); "Generation-XXI: structure and "environments" of strategies for achievement", 2008 (a survey in 203 settlements, 63 territorial entity of the RF, 1500 respondents); the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center - “Sexual education of youth: should you talk to children "about this?" 2009 (a survey in 140 settlements, 42 regions, territories and republics of Russia, 1600 respondents); the Study Group of the European University in St. Petersburg and the Center for Independent Social Research under the direction of A.A. Temkina, N.A. Nartova “Sexual and reproductive practices in Russia: freedom and responsibility (St. Petersburg, the beginning of the XXI century.)” (2005-2006); Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation; periodical press materials; and Internet resources of social movements, RF state authorities and local self-government bodies. We interpreted the results obtained during the studies conducted with the direct participation of authors: interviews with domestic and foreign experts engaged in studies of modern youth sexuality (Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint Petersburg State University, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, European University in St. Petersburg, Center for Independent Social Research (St. Petersburg), European University in Minsk, University of Chicago (the USA), University of Sheffield (the UK)); depth interviews with representatives of different groups of national youth. The unit of selection is a youth stratum, which has a relatively low intra-group dispersion (on the level of life experience, personal financial welfare, education, nature of activities); content analysis of social movements’ documents (charter, regulations, mission, manifest, programs), selected according to several criteria (sphere of activities, status/level, task group).
Youth political organizations in the sexual culture formation
For the all studied youth political organizations the key field of activity is the enlightening, socialized activity among the youth. The traditional directions of their work are supporting the development of labor, culture and education, patriotism, confessional and ethnic tolerance, etc. In the statutory and program documents of such organizations the issues of sexual life (sex and/or gender relations), as well the respective tasks and directions of activity are not directly articulated. Meanwhile, for example, in the "Program" of “Youth Yabloko - Young Democrats” organization (hereinafter “Yabloko”) one outright point associated with gender issues is underlined. It comes to purpose of the association to contribute to the fight against sexual assaults of young women: “… to deal with violence against women in public and private life, against all forms of sexual assault” (Program of the Youth Association of the political party "The Russian Democratic Party "Yabloko", 2014). No other specific provisions of the purposes, areas of actions in respect of the formation of sex, gender or sexual culture were declared. This can be explained by a high sensitive of sexual problems for the Russian society, careful and very conservative discourse of regulatory and official documents relating to the sexual culture, rather modest place allocated to various problems of intimacy and eroticism in the agenda of many political actors: state and municipal authorities, parties, and movements.
In practice, however, some youth political organizations show their activity aimed at the formation of certain aspects of youth sexual culture. The declared by them objectives and directions of work, in our opinion, outline the reference points of sexual and gender education, but still are little involved in the discussion and resolution of such problems. The support in the family development and strengthening is spelled as one of the main objectives in almost all program documents, and manifestos discussed by the youth organizations. Traditionally, the support of family is understood as a kind of material (monetary payments, housing, etc.) subsidy. But the modern family and marriage union is, first of all, the human relationships, which are fairly easy contracted and dissolved. The specificity and strength of erotic and emotional ties established between the partners and determined the success and longevity of marriage are out of the question studied by the youth political associations. Their participation is limited, for example, by carrying out of celebratory city actions in honor of "Day of Family, Love and Loyalty" (July 8), publishing of news about the large families on their Internet resources. That activity is caused by the demographic government policy over the last decade – birth rate stimulation with material means by the Government and giving a special status to large families in the media and political discourse.
Another promising, but little used direction of activity for the sexual education of youth is the promotion of healthy lifestyles. “A sound mind in a sound body!”; “Healthy Nation - strong Russia!” –the key formulas that reflect the essence of postulated objectives. Physical education and sports activities assume not only the physical development of young people, but also rejection of bad habits by young people (tobacco smoking, consumption of alcoholic beverages). For example, the issues of sexual and reproductive health are actually outside of interests of the youth movements, except for the issue of HIV/AIDS. In different cities the action against HIV / AIDS are held periodically, the information about the initiatives and proposals on this issue is published by representatives of the relevant parties in the legislative bodies. No systematic outreach activities, sexual health programs are carried out by the youth political organizations alone or in conjunction with other noncommercial organizations specialized on these issues.
Assistance in the protection of rights and freedoms of young citizens, compliance with equality under the RF Constitution is one of the key objectives declared in the program and statutory documents of youth political organizations. According to the liberal doctrine of modern developed countries, the civic consciousness is constructed, including by means of sexual rights and freedoms of their members enshrined in the appropriate legal documents, realized with the support of a number of social institutions. The scientific revolution, well as the public discourse of many Western countries uses the appropriate term "Sexual Citizenship" [33]. Its relation to the Gender Citizenship is beyond doubt. However, the Russian citizenship, as noted by researchers, is constructed via the dominant heterosexual discourse. The gender issue, for example, is included in the program documents of only one of the organization under consideration – the youth association "Yabloko". The liberal ideology, in our opinion, has contributed to the nomination of women's issues on the agenda of this organization. For example, on its website "The discussion on equality of rights and inequality of opportunity" of men and women was posted, a campaign on sending parcels to female prisoners was conducted. There is no information on activities in the given directions on the websites of other studied organizations. Ensuring of equal rights and freedoms assumes simultaneously the protection of legal and institutionalized rights of all citizens, well as promotion, upholding of interests and needs, practices and values of other social groups (including sexual) not either visible or previously recognized.
The success of liberal initiatives and projects on issues of sex, gender and intimacy largely depends on the dominant ideology in the society and government. The sharp debates on the issue of tolerance can serve as an example of double standards. While the fight against any kind of discrimination (ethnic, religious, racial, etc.) is a common program point of Liberals and Conservatives, and in respect of issues of sexual orientations their opinions and actions are different and even opposite. The headline in one of the publications of the observer “Youth Guard of United Russia” reads: "Tolerance is harmfully!". The reason of the author’s dissatisfaction is too active, in his opinion, propaganda of sexual "deviations" by the LGBT communities in Russia. The activists of this youth political association within the project "MediaGvardiya" assist the Prosecutor General's Office in the fight against Internet content of LGBT communities (websites closing), especially those ones, which is targeting the minors, due to the adopted in 2013 in the RF Federal Law banning the gay propaganda among children. Despite the liberal ideological precepts of political party leaders supported by the youth movements, in the Russian political environment the conservative views on nonconventional sexual orientation dominate. Thus, in February 2012 during the vote on the issue of law banning the gay propaganda in St. Petersburg only 5 members of the "Yabloko" faction made "against", and Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the faction, abstained, although later he expressed criticism. In the roll-call vote mode the representatives of Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), and party "Fair Russia" refused to participate. The law was passed in the third reading with the full support of deputies of "United Russia".
The youth political organizations that support the official line of state authority conduct the offensive ideological work, set themselves the tasks all-round education, development, training of young people, increasing their political and legal culture, "preserving and strengthening the ethic, moral foundations of family and society, maintaining its traditional cultural values" (Charter of the All-Russian Youth Public Organization "Justice League", 2007) [34], including in the field of sexuality, erotic and emotional relations. They demand the approval of official conservative discourse in respect of traditional sexual culture. Unlike them the liberal-oriented organizations adhere to the pluralism principle on issues of sexual culture.
The activities of all youth political organizations on the issues of sexual and gender culture, sexuality education is very limited. The paucity of events and active actions in this field, in our opinion, is due to:
- Oriented focus and concentrating efforts on other issues. The primary task of the said associations is to promote the supported Parties and their members to the political victories (in elections, etc.). Websites of a number of organizations, for example, "Justice League" and "NASHI", actively operate only during the election campaign, full of speeches of party leaders ("Time of the Young," "Justice League");
- Legal and regulatory restrictions of actions in the field of sexuality education, adopted in the RF on issues of sexuality education and propaganda of same-sex relationships among minors, and state Youth Policy strategy. Peripherality of sexual issues in the political agenda of the Russian government;
- Sensitive and sharp reaction of the Russian society on the theme of sexuality.
No organization specifically deals with issues of sexuality and sexuality education. The declared in official documents directions of work of youth political organizations actually include the issues of sexual, gender and erotic and emotional relations, which only partially reflect the theme of sexual culture formation. However, the youth political organizations have the required capacity to participate in the implementation of modern sexual politics among the youth. This requires a new scientific understanding of sexual culture, which includes a revision of prevailing traditional approaches to the interpretation of sex, gender and sexuality, where to date no clear boundaries between them were not conducted, or their properties were mixed. The amorphousness of theoretical concepts on sexuality, primarily as a manifestation of sexual desire, leads to the poor agenda in the youth political organizations’ work on the sexual culture formation.
Non-political Public Associations in the Field of Sexual Culture Formation
According to our content analysis the domestic non-political public associations that consolidate different social groups of youth or work towards solving the problems of youth are also trying to take part in the enlightenment of boys and girls. The range of issues covered, working methods, and organized events are largely determined by the purpose, objectives and field of the organization activities: human rights activities, patriotic and spiritual and religious education, support of youth social and cultural initiatives, development of physical health and sports, etc. However, the issues of gender, sexuality, family and marriage relations, and gender are often directly, purposefully, or indirectly, accidentally, touched during the operation of public associations. Many organizations, in our opinion, have the resources to participate in one degree or another in the sexual culture formation among children, adolescents, and youth.
Nowadays in Russia, in our opinion, the human rights organizations are most active in the issues of sexual culture development of different social groups of youth, focusing on the rights of discriminated groups in the field of sexuality. Fight against all forms of discrimination and promotion of ideas of tolerance is one of the basic and priority tasks of human rights movements. Countering the sexual discrimination, social exclusion based on differences of preferences in sexual, erotic and romantic relationships is reflected in the implementation of such projects and events as: holding "A Week Against Homophobia" in Russia (Report on the results of A Week Against Homophobia in Russia, 2007) [35], "Rainbow flashmob" organization (Balloons against hatred, 2010) [36], the implementation of "Monitoring of discrimination based on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity in Russia" (2008-2009 yrs.) (In Karelia they started the registration of discrimination cases on grounds of sexual orientation, 2008) [37] and other. The human rights defenders establish contacts and cooperation with the LGBT groups on the issues of education in human rights, fight against xenophobia, homophobia, manifestations of hatred and hostility towards sexual minorities, including among the youth, provision and protection of activities of the LGBT communities in a growing and tightening of political and legal limitations of their activities. The representatives of human rights movements avoid the excessive focus on some special rights of sexual minorities as a completely separate category of people and traditionally call to consider such kind of problem in the overall context of human rights. Various activities, joint training schools, and meetings are considered by their participants as the possibility of exchanging points of view, achieving a better understanding of the situation and studying ways to work on interesting issues (“No need to revolutions, riots, intergalactic gay pride parades…”. A participant’s comment of the Second Summer School of Human Rights, 2009) [38].
Information and analytical and educational materials on the subject of sexual and gender-based discrimination, HIV/AIDS situation, and children sexual abuse published by the human rights associations in Russia often gratuitously distributed to the representatives of major target audiences (from "victims" to governmental structures) or freely available online. Many publications are prepared by the human rights defenders during the ongoing social, educational and monitoring projects. For example, following the results of project for combating various forms of national (anti-Semitism), religious (Islamophobia) and sexual (homophobia) intolerance among boys and girls "All Different - All Equal" of the Karelian branch of "Youth Human Rights Group" a brochure "Islam and Tolerance" was published (For the first time in the history of Karelia a brochure against the homophobia was issued, 2008) [39]. Those publications received the opposite ratings and comments. Their impact is purely informational and educational and superficial. Those publications do not always evoke an unequivocal response in the readers. It depends on the material quality, feasibility and objectivity degree of opinions and conclusions.
The human rights associations, in our opinion, have an important experience in studying the social position of people with different sexual and gender identity in Russia, well as other features of sexuality. Over the last decade they have made a number of monitoring projects, such as: "Monitoring discrimination based on the sexual orientation and gender identity in Russia" (the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG) [40] in conjunction with a regional branch of "Youth Human Rights Group" in Karelia (MPG) and Russian network of the LGBT organizations) in 2008 [41], "Preventing the spread of HIV/ AIDS: monitoring the situation with observance of rights of persons with HIV/AIDS " (the Moscow Helsinki Group) in 2004, "Monitoring the situation of discrimination against women in Russia" (the Moscow Helsinki Group) in 2002. Based on the results of monitoring studies, for example, the following reports have been published: "The situation with lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people in the Russian Federation (the last quarter of 2011 – the first half of 2012) [42]", "Human Rights in the Russian Federation. Collection of reports on the events in 2011", (The situation with lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender people in the Russian Federation (the last quarter of 2011 – the first half of 2012), 2012; Human Rights in the Russian Federation: Collection of reports on the events in 2011, 2012). They provide an analysis of the Russian and international laws on the issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, and also discuss the facts of gender and sexual discrimination. Despite the specificity, narrowcasting (fight for the rights, fight against discrimination) of the existing human rights discourse and its focus on a limited number of issues on sexuality and gender, the materials provided to the wide public range are an important and one of the few sources of systematized and updated information on this issue.
The important and challenging task for the human rights defenders is to change the legal bases regulating the sexual culture in the contemporary Russian society. A number of the RF modern laws is considered by the activists as discriminating against some social groups, first of all, against people with nonconventional sexual and gender identity. They call for the abolition of laws banning the homosexual propaganda among minors on the regional and federal level, as well as the federal law banning the children adoption by the same-sex couples (Draft Federal Law "On Introducing Amendments to the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences", 2013; Federal Law of the Russian Federation on July 2, 2013 [43,44] No.167-FZ "On Introducing Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation Russian Federation on the issues of placement of orphans and children left without parental care", 2013). The representatives of Karelian public organization PGM proposed to complete the RF Constitution: to prescribe in the second chapter the need for compliance "the principles of equality and non-discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity" (Amendments of the Constitution, 2008). At the address of legislative bodies the demands on the adoption of law for permission the same-sex marriages and the introduction of legal liability for the discrimination against homosexuals, lesbians, and transgender people put forward (The marriage must be reformulated from the "union of a man and a woman" to "the union of two people", 2008) [45].
The significant support (financial, methodological, ideological, organizational, and other), as we see it, to the Russian human rights movement is provided by the international and foreign organizations of various levels (for example, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Commission for Democracy of the US Embassy in Moscow and others). The declared purpose is the assistance in the human rights movement development in Russia. We mentioned above the attention of such supranational organizations, to the issues, including sexual violence and exploitation of women and children worldwide, and sexual rights. With their assistance to the domestic noncommercial organizations a number of social projects were implemented in the given direction. For example, in 2007-2009 by the Regional Public Organization "Stellit" the preventive project "Prevention of commercial sexual exploitation and protection of child victims of commercial sexual exploitation in Russia" supported by the OSCE and the Principality of Monaco was implemented.
The international and domestic networks and associations, which include the Russian human rights organizations, are working intensively on the study and development of sexual culture in the society, including among the youth. The organizations considered herein are a part of human rights networks as regional offices (MPG), members of the official international human rights networks (MTD - "International project - Youth Human Rights Movement"), and build their own partner networks (MHG). This helps to consolidate the efforts of many experts and activists with various work experience for the implementation of joint activities, projects, and programs; allows you to act based on the knowledge about the peculiarities of local political and administrative, cultural (religious, ethnic, etc.) situation, local problems in the sexual sphere [46].
The main complexity of work of the human rights organizations on the issue of sexuality we see as follows: many of human rights defenders, including the young, have little understanding of sexuality as a social phenomenon, its role and importance in the social and political life; traditionally "a narrow" understanding of the issues of sexuality prevails, in a typical for the human rights defenders discourse of "human rights and freedoms": fight against discrimination against people with different sexual (sex) and gender identity, countering to sexual exploitation and violence against women and children. The sexual rights are recognized as secondary to the general human rights.
Thus, the Russian human rights associations often try to take an active part in the tolerant sexual culture formation in Russia. The work is not systematic in the form of regular educational and awareness activities, targeted and long-term programs to overcome the social hatred based on the differences in sexual preferences, but "single acts" (participation in the flash mobs and "a week" against homophobia) or short-term projects (monitoring, publication of studies and news on the Internet). In this regard, we have no confidence in the effectiveness of participation of the human rights movements in the development of sexual culture of boys and girls at the present stage.
Further study prospects
Thus, over the last decade within the sociological discourse the key trends, forming the sexual culture of the population, related to the peculiarities of the Russian society transformation are designated. It is noted that the sexual perceptions and practices of modern Russian youth in many respects correspond to the common perceptions and practices among their western European peers. Based on the number of foreign approaches and concepts the new aspects of intimate life are brought under: homosexuality, masculinity and femininity, transactional sex, etc. At the same time, the impact of social movements and other civil society institutions on the value orientation and behavioral practices of youth remains minimal. Moreover, the sociological studies and the data obtained are mostly occasional and fragmentary. Many problems and facets of sexuality, well as various social groups remained out the focus of studies conducted, opening up the perspectives for further searches and works. An important task is to study the discursive, institutional and everyday aspects of sexuality in their interconnection with other spheres of social life and within the overall socio-cultural context. It is therefore necessary to further conduct both the theoretical and empirical studies aimed at studying of general and specific characteristics, forms, methods, technologies of social movements influence on the sexual culture of various groups of the Russian youth.
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