Sex Education

Sexuality, Society and Learning

ISSN: 1468-1811 (Print) 1472-0825 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/csed20

Girls debating penises, orgasms, masturbation and

pornography

Joanne Cassar

To cite this article: Joanne Cassar (2016): Girls debating penises, orgasms, masturbation and
pornography, Sex Education, DOI: 10.1080/14681811.2016.1193729

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 Sex Education, 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2016.1193729

Girls debating penises, orgasms, masturbation and

pornography
Joanne Cassar
Faculty for Social Wellbeing, Department of Youth and Community Studies, University of Malta, Msida, Malta

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

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This paper presents findings from a study of students’ writings about Received 25 October 2015;
the erotic. These occurred in the form of graffiti and were scrawled Accepted 21 May 2016
on toilet doors for female students attending a higher education
KEYWORDS
institution in Malta. The study explores how the erotic was defined and Erotic; graffiti; heterotopia;
perceived by students, and how they attempted to create alternative Malta; students; lavatory
spaces to explore their erotic selves through their writing. Foucault’s doors
notion of heterotopia, which refers to spaces enacted for the Other,
informs the analysis. Heterotopias subvert the order of spaces and
mirror other dominant sites that make up the social fabric. This
framework considers the lavatories as heterotopias, through which
students broke silences and taboos about the erotic by challenging
perspectives concerning sexual relatedness and erotic fantasy. In the
absence of sexuality education in the curriculum of the institution in
which the study took place, the study suggests that students may
have sought out and constructed new ways of learning.

Countless graffiti scribbled on toilet doors in a higher education institution in Malta reveal
the eagerness of students to communicate their views, queries and problems related to
sexual and romantic experiences (Cassar 2007, 2009). This paper foregrounds the study of
a number of these graffiti which deal with the erotic. Although the study is located in a
particular social context, it seeks to contribute towards wider debates about sexuality edu-
cation. In particular, it explores how the erotic is defined and perceived through writing on
topics such as masturbation, orgasms, threesomes and pornography and how graffiti writers
attempted to create alternative spaces in which to express their erotic selves. Their written
confessions are considered possible indicators of their social worlds. The erotic element
comes through the writing in the form of sexually explicit descriptions about sexual expres-
sion, desire and fantasies. The erotic involves a combination of aesthetic and visual content,
which is usually directed towards the arousal of sexual excitement and imagination. It encom-
passes a number of intertwined factors, such as the body, lust, sexual activity, intimacy,
emotions, trust, morality and culture. The toilets used by female postsecondary students are
ambiguous and ambivalent spaces, which display an array of discourses and portray different
femininities: discourses here being understood as mechanisms of language, which affect

CONTACT  Joanne Cassar  joanne.cassar@um.edu.mt

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
 2    J. Cassar

how we think, how we view the world and how reality is constructed through the ways we
talk and act (Foucault 1972).
The location where the graffiti were written is considered a constructed space, which
gave particular meaning to students’ written conversations. Emerging literature on the geog-
raphies of sexualities (e.g. Allen 2013; Browne, Lim, and Brown2007; Oswin 2008) emphasises
the connection between locations, spaces and sexualities and demonstrates how socio-spa-
tiality is central to understandings of desire, sex and love. Female toilets constitute a gen-
dered site, which offered space for the erotic to be explored, questioned, challenged and
contested. The toilets that housed these graffiti, may be considered a form of heterotopia
or ‘in-between’ space (Foucault 1994). The lavatories in question formed part of the buildings
and were frequented by female students in-between and during lessons, providing in their
own way additional ‘lessons’ about the erotic. The closed, marginal spaces of the lavatories
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displayed different forms of writing and the many written questions asked indicate that the
readers and writers could not have known for certain what they conveyed and what the
motive for writing them was. These uncertainties constituted the very essence of the writers’
heterotopia, which acted as a repository for the erotic and sexual content. This heterotopia
was familiar as a normal lavatory but could also have been regarded as a strange, ambiguous
space, through which the queries and affirmations were communicated. More generally,
heterotopias ‘have the curious property of being in relation with all the other sites, but in
such a way as to suspect, neutralize, or invent the set of relations that they happen to des-
ignate, mirror, or reflect’ (Foucault 1994, 178). In this study, I regard the lavatories as intriguing
places, which in their own unique way ‘mirror’ the silenced treatment of sexuality education
at the institution. One of the presumed reasons why the students created spaces for them-
selves in the lavatories is because they could not find any other space in the curriculum or
elsewhere to discuss personal issues pertaining to sexuality, romantic relationships and the
erotic.
Heterotopias also ‘have a function in relation to the remaining space’ (Foucault 1994, 184).
The study explores the dynamics that could have taken place amongst students to bring
the written experiences of their ‘outside’ world into the remaining space located within the
hidden confines of the lavatories. Cultural differences are brought together in heterotopias,
through ways that juxtapose desires, longings and ideals against the imperfections of the
‘real’, material and social world (Foucault 1994). Students’ sexual and erotic fantasies, as they
come across in their writings, provide a colourful contrast to the rigid routine of their daily
life inside the institution. The student body, lecturers, administrative and technical staff may
have been unaware of the mechanism of this group of writers, and therefore, the writers’
activity could have been largely ignored. This could be one of the reasons why the graffiti
community flourished. Lack of interest in the writings by ‘outsiders’ may have encouraged
the graffiti writers to contribute towards more debates.
The graffiti were forbidden and considered deviant, since they were banned by the higher
education institution, in which they appeared. Heterotopias of deviation refer to ‘those in
which individuals whose behaviour is deviant in relation to the required mean or norm are
placed’ (Foucault 1994, 180). The promotion of deviancy, however, was however accommo-
dating complacency, because in some ways, the writings reflected and reproduced female
voicelessness. They also, however, brought the girls’ voices forward, even if restrictions were
in place. The girls’ disclosure is understood as possibly having granted them some form of
agency to communicate.
 Sex Education   3

In contrast with utopias, which may be defined as abstract locations or portrayals of ideal
or perfect societies that might not exist, a heterotopia is located in literary or physical spaces
which interrogate knowledge and problematise its grounding by juxtaposing and combining
different phenomena that could normally be considered incompatible (Foucault 1994).
Heterotopias can be real emplacements, which simultaneously represent and contest other
places (Foucault 1994). Heterotopias also constitute mythic and real spaces simultaneously
(Foucault 1994, 183). The content of some writings may have been fictitious. The debates
may have trespassed boundaries demarcating what is real and unreal, with what was, what
could have been and what could be done. The writings may have compensated for the girls’
lack of sexual experiences.
The graffiti were cleaned up three times a year: during the Christmas, Easter and summer
holidays. The day after I acquired permission from the institution to conduct the study, the
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graffiti in question were all removed by the cleaners, but they started to appear again soon
afterwards. I am not sure what the motive for wiping them off was exactly, but from the
response of the administration it was clear that the ‘written rubbish’ was not worthy of
attention. This lack of engagement with the erotic in the curriculum is not unique to this
particular institution and has been reported in a number of studies (Alldred and David 2007;
Allen 2008, 2011). The erotic is rarely allowed space in formal school curricula, and sexual
dialogue and critique are often silenced and/or rejected (Allen 2004; Fine 1988; Fine and
McClelland 2006; Tolman 2002; Walkerdine 1990). Young women’s sexual desires form part
of a discursive silence (Ringrose and Renold 2012, 341) and are made invisible in educational
institutions. Much of the learning that takes place in schools is de-eroticised and representa-
tions of the body depict it as sanitised (Scholer 2002). Scholarly debates on the politics of
pleasure in sexuality education (Allen, Rasmussen, and Quinlivan 2014) intended to coun-
teract ‘the missing discourse of desire’ (Fine 1988) have taken place in research on sexualities.
Such debate, spearheaded by Fine (1988), has placed emphasis on the value of creating
more space in the curriculum to talk about pleasure and desire in ways that are relevant and
meaningful to young people.

The study
In Malta, the association of sex outside marriage with ‘sinful’ and immoral behaviour has
produced a discourse in which the context of the study is embedded (Cassar 2009). Taboos
surrounding sexuality and the erotic are held by a number of Maltese people. These are
manifested through feelings of embarrassment when uttering the Maltese language words
for sperm (liba), penis (żobb), vagina (oxx) and make love (taħxi). These terms are considered
rude and vulgar and are normally avoided in formal conversation (Cassar 2014, 199). The
sociocultural context of the study is also imbued with confessional and moralising discourses
related to sexuality and the erotic. A strict adherence to the Catholic faith has traditionally
influenced sexual norms in Malta. Legislation, which permitted divorce, was only introduced
in 2011 following a referendum, which resulted in a 53% vote in favour. Abortion remains
illegal and Malta is the only country in the European Union, where it is banned. With regard
to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex rights, however, there
has been a radical change following the passing of The Civil Unions Act, which grants the
legal right to persons of the same sex to register their partnership as a civil union, with a
registered civil union corresponding to a civil marriage in terms of legal rights, including the
 4    J. Cassar

adoption of children (House of Representatives 2014). There is clearly a departure from

traditional sexual morality, even though the process of dismantling sexual taboos is still
underway.
The data described here were generated through digital photographs of the graffiti taken
at random between 2005 and 2009 in a state-funded, secular higher education institution
I was teaching in at that time. This secondary data consisted of a corpus of 191 digital photos.
These dealt with general topics about sexual attraction, dating and romantic encounters
and covered issues such as cheating, monogamy, commitment, pregnancy, birth control
and abortion (Cassar 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015). Out of these photographs, 14 were selected
for the purpose of this paper. The selection criteria aimed to foreground writing of an erotic
character. The individual themes of masturbation, orgasm and pornography were not chosen
in advance but emerged a posteriori and graffiti texts relating to them were chosen at ran-
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dom. More writing could have been included because the writers scribbled over other exist-
ing words, but some words and sentences were illegible, as Figure 1 shows.
Male and female students attending the postsecondary school were aged 16–18 years.
Records obtained from the institution show that the majority of students were working class.
Migrant students constituted a very small minority. The students attending this institution
lived in different parts of the country, and therefore, it was not a regional postsecondary
school. A wide variety of subjects ranging from the humanities, sciences, languages, arts
and technical subjects were offered, and despite coming from working class backgrounds,
most students aimed to further their studies at university, since higher education is free and
students are also provided with state-funded stipends. Prior to studying at this institution,
students had received some sexuality and relationships education at their respective schools
(state, church or independent) – mainly through science, religious knowledge and personal,
social and career development, with each of these three subjects tackling the topic in dif-
ferent ways (Camilleri 2013).1
The graffiti were presumably scribbled when the female students were inside the toilet
cubicles. They may not have been written all by female students, as some boys might have
also sneaked into the female lavatories (Cassar 2009, 46). During data collection, male

Figure 1. The slut concept.

 Sex Education   5

lavatories in the same institution were, however, devoid of any graffiti. The whole corpus of
graffiti photographs shows that none of the graffiti writers had identified themselves as
transgender, intersex or queer. Numerous writings, however, were attributed to writers who
described themselves as lesbian and bisexual. None of the graffiti authors were interviewed
for the purposes of this study, since it was difficult to identify who they were, given most of
the writings were anonymous. It is therefore difficult to know for sure what the authors’
intentions were or what they really meant to convey through their writing. Consequently,
my interpretations of their texts are suggestive and exploratory. It was also impossible to
quantify the number of graffiti writers and to gain their consent to represent their writings
in this study.
It was common to see drawings depicting male and female genital organs and breasts.
These images and the writing accompanying them gave every impression of having been
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produced spontaneously. Their occurrence was not dictated by the restrictions of a research
agenda. Despite this ‘authentic’ quality in the data, I still felt caught ‘between’ different pos-
sible interpretations of the graffiti texts. This was, however, regarded as a form of enrichment
contributing to the analysis, rather than as an entrapment in a web of meanings.
Acknowledgement of uncertainties in the interpretation of data provided a higher level of
engagement with the informants and with the research (Mercieca 2011).
Foucault’s notion of heterotopia (1994) informed the data analysis throughout the study
on the assumption that the girls’ written exchanges may have created textual heterotopias
and offered them unconventional spaces in which to reproduce, resist and deconstruct
dominant views on the erotic.2 Different possible interpretations of the graffiti texts are
presented. The analysis of the graffiti also indicates the possible presence of competing
discourses that may have operated in the girls’ surroundings, as they are reflected through
their writings. A formal discourse analysis (Jorgensen and Philips 2002) of the texts, however,
is not offered, because preference has been given to an analysis based on the notion of
heterotopia.

Debating penises, orgasms and threesomes

The graffiti forum carried forward debates which suggested that some students were delib-
erating about whether to explore and experiment with new forms of sexual activity. The
onset of sexual activity did not seem to be regarded as a normal, straightforward and auto-
matic progression in the encounters with persons they were romantically involved with.
Some the writers mulled over the possible consequences of initiating sex and seemed to
take into consideration the realisation that they could be taking their relationships on
another level and towards a new heterotopia by treading on new ground in the sexual terrain
of their adolescent life. Questions about whether to have sex appeared frequently and pos-
sible consequences were contemplated:
Hi peoplez. I have a problem- ITS SO HUGE LIKE!!! I’ve been with this BOY for a month and now
he wants to fornicate (f**k) but I’ve always been taught its wrong b4 mariage. WHAT ON EARTH
CAN I DO?? OMG??
Three answers to this question were provided (signalled through arrows pointing towards
the question), followed by a response by the author of the initial question:
Do what your Heart tells you to do not what other girls tell you!!
 6    J. Cassar

let guys who wanna fuck for others Im terribly depressed about my past experience!!
isn’t it a matter of removing your panty and get it on*3
but then do i have to confess to da priest?*
This writing captures a state of ‘in-betweenness’ marked by opposites, namely one’s heart
vs. what friends say; feeling excited and enthusiastic vs. feeling let down and depressed; and
agency (‘get it on’) vs. regret. Defining the written situation as a ‘huge problem’ could be
considered a hyperbole. Questions about whether to have sex were not necessarily moti-
vated by the idea of seeking advice. The episode described could also have been invented
to create a ‘mythic space’ (Foucault 1994, 179). It could have been intended as a joke or else
as a means to provoke a reaction and attract attention. Whereas the word ‘fuck’ was used
frequently by the writers, a preference for ‘(f**k)’ was indicated to also imply the word ‘for-
nicate’; a word which links closely to a Catholic morality discourse, which not all readers and
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writers may have understood. The reference to the prohibition of sex before marriage indi-
cates the presence of an abstinence discourse of which it forms part, and in which students
could have been immersed during their secondary schooling (Cassar 2009). The concern
with the prohibition of premarital sex could also have resulted from the influence of the
discourse of childhood innocence and the censorship of particular knowledge for adolescent
girls on sexuality (Robinson 2013). The final remark may have been intended to ridicule the
church’s teaching regarding this matter, or else the writer really wanted to know whether
having sex was sinful. This remark resonates with ‘the obligation to confess’, which is ‘so
deeply ingrained in us, that we no longer perceive it as the effect of a power that constrains
us; on the contrary, it seems to us that truth, lodged in our most secret nature, “demands”
only to surface’ (Foucault 1978, 60). Yet, another possibility is that the author could have
wanted to know the reader’s views, even if she might not have been in that situation
herself.
Students asked questions about new possibilities for erotic pleasure and perhaps
also to showcase their own sexual experiences. These questions could have served as a
pleasure-seeking mechanism, or intended as reading for fun. Some girls described strat-
egies about how to initiate sexual moves displaying an eagerness to share their advice.
Information about new heterotopias was sought: ‘Hey listen anybody knows of some
good places of where you can go and have sex? Cause me and boyfriend are getting
bored of the usual places!’ Other girls asked about how to achieve higher levels of sexual
pleasure, to which they claimed entitlement. In doing so, they deconstructed stereo-
typical notions that girls are passive in responding to sexual desires and that boys express
more interest in sex than girls. In general, the writer’s emphasis was on giving pleasure
to their boy/girlfriend and to themselves, such as when they asked about the best ways
to turn guys on and ‘blow jobs’ were recommended (Cassar 2007, 180). The writers indi-
cated that sexual pleasure was considered an important aspect of their experiences
during sexual encounters.
A number of graffiti were phallocentric: ‘I love Penises’ (includes drawing of a heart shape).
Penis size was presented as an issue and a ‘bigger is better’ discourse was implied: ‘I’m dating
this guy and his dick is small and not giving me orgasm. What should I do?’ Sexually explicit
answers were provided about what could be done to physically enlarge the penis. These
queries describe new possibilities with an emphasis on feminine sexual pleasure: ‘When me
and my boyfriend have sex, he comes rly quick His penis is barely in my vagina. And ders no
 Sex Education   7

time for me to orgasm too! You know of anything we can try out?’* The advice was: ‘try to
have more foreplay before intercouse.’
The significance of orgasm is based on personal situations and contexts, which often
‘resonate strongly with widespread discourses of sexuality that prioritize heterosexual coitus,
orgasm, and orgasm reciprocity’ (Opperman et al. 2014, 503). Writers in the study seemed
to have found a language with which to articulate their thoughts and feelings about sex.
For some, this might have been the first time that they had written about such issues. In
doing so, they could have questioned existing notions of female sexual pleasure: ‘… it is not
that women’s bodies are in some way essentially less easily pleasured than young men’s, but
that language constitutes our experience of them as such’ (Allen 2004, 157). Heterotopias
create new possibilities and generate new knowledge (Foucault 1994). The writers’ hetero-
topia may have enabled students to recognise themselves as learners about sex and to
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experience a shift from being unknowing subjects to becoming more knowledgeable ones.
The data indicate that those who identified themselves as lesbians and bisexuals generally
did not delve so deeply into questions about sexual pleasure. The majority of the former
may still have been grappling with coming out and may not have arrived at the stage when
they had established romantic attachments. Explicit descriptions of lesbian sexual activity
were nevertheless put forward:
HEY fellow lesbians we have a problem which is rly bad. Me and my best friends r lesbians I tink
we can’t get our hands off each other and during lessons we feel rly desperate and horny! We
love 2 finger and lick each others pussy! How do you think we should relax a bit from all our
horniness? All we think of is sex!!! LUV U GALS!
Such accounts could be regarded as an erotic performance in themselves (Butler 1999). A
number of other girls described that they had been swept away by their sexual experiences
with a male lover and declared that they were consumed by the sense of euphoria they felt.
Advice on how to restrict ‘horniness’ was framed within a discourse that positioned lesbians
as having little control over their sexual passion, with the situation being contextualised as
‘a problem.’ This could have been part of a strategy for lesbian students to present themselves
as ‘sexual beings’ and assert themselves as such. The question posed, addressed as it was to
‘fellow lesbians,’ suggests that some girls may have conceived the graffiti community as
being made up of different subgroups. Lesbian students may have wanted to establish a
sense of solidarity with each other. Affection towards lesbian students was shown through
the last phrase ‘LUV U GALS!’ The lesbian sex described in this narrative may not have taken
place within a monogamous setting as ‘me and my best friends’ were mentioned. The notion
of monogamy is also challenged when threesomes are mentioned and bisexual acts were
hinted at: ‘Anyone find threesome exciting?’ answered by ‘Yeah, especially with the girl.’
Heterotopias of regulation, moral questioning and approval seeking were constructed
constantly. Students interrogated each other and themselves: ‘Is it slutty to have sex after a
few times you been together or?? ’. Answers were in the affirmative: ‘yes → yes ← yes.’ The
word ‘slut’ seems to be used here to advocate restraint. The question of what constitutes
‘normal’ surfaced frequently and was often framed within discourses that determined what
was considered morally right and wrong. Asking about standards of normality in relation to
sexual behaviour and attitudes implies that measures of self-regulation could have been
taken. These standards often reflect expectations and cultural norms, established within
particular social environments. Some girls may have felt controlled by the discourse which
positioned them as ‘sluts’ and may have found it difficult to reciprocate sexually, out of fear
 8    J. Cassar

of being labelled: ‘Displaying too much interest in the physical pleasures of relationships
(without emotional investment) puts young women in danger of being a “slut” and gaining
a negative sexual reputation’ (Allen 2004, 162).
Graffiti writers’ ‘deconstruction’ of the idea that sexual pleasure is sought by men only
seemed to have produced a number of doubts about their own sexual agency and, in par-
ticular, about their adherence to moral codes which they questioned. In a number of writings,
their enquiry was not so much about how they felt about particular sexual behaviours, but
rather about what other people might think about them: ‘Would you be considered a whore
for letting 5 guys finger you in the span of 2 years?’ Underlying numerous accounts, there
was the request for validation and assurance that the writers’ sexual activities were legitimate
and justified. Whilst challenging discursive spaces which frame erotic desire and sexual
expression as necessarily dangerous and in need of resistance, ‘heterotopias of purification’
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(Foucault 1994, 183) were created, possibly to deal with a sense of guilt, embarrassment and
shame.

Masturbation and pornography

Girls' writings on toilet doors demonstrate that advice was sought about masturbation and
pornography: ‘HELP Look, i have a problem … I don’t know how to mustarbate a guy’s
penis … any suggestions!! Thank you!’ The advice suggested that one has to experiment, let
go and learn through experience: ‘Go wit d flow.’ A number of answers referred to pornog-
raphy as a source of learning about sexual pleasure: ‘Lol go watch some porn and you’ll
know’. The writers suggested that ideas derived from watching pornography could be repro-
duced. Pornography was regarded as a way through which sexual experimentation could
be promoted and sexual fantasies encouraged. Some girls showed a positive attitude towards
pornography and described it as ‘nice’: ‘I masturbate, I only watch porn if i happen to go on
a channle where there is. I don’t mind it it’s nice, but i don’t look 4 it.’
The narratives did not acknowledge how the porn industry constructs perspectives on
sexual pleasure. I never come across any graffiti that stated that pornography offers demean-
ing portrayals of women and that transmit the message that they are the objects of male
desire (Allen 2004). Neither was the commodification of sexuality through pornography
questioned. The widespread availability of Internet pornography was, however, a cause for
concern for some girls and brought up issues of trust within a relationship, as the following
question shows.
I’ve been with my bf for 2 years. Sometimes I’ve found porn on his PC but he says its his brother’s
(who has been single). He says he’s never watched porn + he loves me too much to do that to
me He promises he’s not lying and that he likes me the way I am. Should I believe him? Thanks.
No
It’s v. normal 4 guys 2 watch porn so don’t worry!
No. Don’t worry but anyway all guys are the same! *
come on be a bit creative
Many of the narratives were surrounded by uncertainties. Here, the situation could have
taken place within a heterotopia of illusion if the boyfriend did not watch pornography, but
it seems to have been difficult for the writer to know this for sure. The interplay between
reality and illusion manifests itself through a dual function.
 Sex Education   9

Either the heterotopias have the role of creating a space of illusion that denounces all real
space, all real emplacements within which human life is partitioned off, as being even more
illusory … Or on the contrary, creating a different space, a different real space as perfect, as
meticulous, as well arranged as ours is disorganized, badly arranged, and muddled. This would
be the heterotopia not of illusion, but of compensation … (Foucault 1994, 184)
Both types of heterotopias may have operated simultaneously within the graffiti community.
The girl, who was concerned with the presence of pornography on her boyfriend’s computer,
might have tried to compensate for her perceived lack of information about the situation
by writing down her thoughts. For her, pornographic websites functioned as the ‘other space’
and as heterotopias, which could have created new spaces in which her boyfriend’s sexual
imagination could flourish. The potential cultivation of his attachment with pornography
on the other hand seemed to open up spaces in her imagination that haunted her. His pos-
sible engagement with online pornography seemed to have made her fearful of displaying
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any sexual agency that could eventually have made her feel betrayed. Feelings associated
with not being good enough or of being compared to other girls, in spite of the affirmation
that ‘he likes me the way I am’, may have arisen. None of the answers remarked that this
writer was being intrusive by checking her boyfriend’s computer. Instead and in general, the
advice given emphasised the normality of watching pornography. It seems possible that
the same writer rewrote this query a year later, because another narrative written with a
different pen on another door about the same situation, which also mentions a brother has
been found amongst the data, but this time, the story says that the writer had been with
her boyfriend for three years, instead of two. The answer of the second situation provides a
different perspective from the previous ones and suggests: ‘Try watching it together and
imagine you were the ones do as they do it’s great fun. It’s never to late to experiment
something new.’ This advice suggests that pornographic heterotopias should not be regarded
as an exclusive male domain, but as an ‘in-between’ space, which both parties could explore
and enjoy, through an intersection of each other’s mental, physical, erotic and emotional
selves. Rather than preventing the boyfriend from watching pornography, the advice sug-
gests an ‘opening up’ to new experiences. The girlfriend is encouraged to make use of por-
nographic sites to imitate the sexual moves rather than fuel her mind with negative thoughts.
Once again the erotic is privileged and made to appear as an aspect of life which offers the
possibility of rethinking sexual desire and belonging.
Girls’ discussions often contained shifts in discourses: in this case from a discourse which
framed pornography as ‘bad’ and ‘unloving’ to one that promoted mutual pleasure and shar-
ing. It is not known whether the girlfriend considered this view appealing or appalling, or a
bit of both. Heterotopias may take the form of contradictory sites, ‘which always presuppose
a system of opening and closure that both isolates them and makes them penetrable’
(Foucault 1994, 183).

Discussion
This study demonstrates that young people create their own spaces in which to learn, nego-
tiate meanings and struggle over their understandings of sexuality, the erotic and romance.
This space within a space is not accessible to everybody, because as is typical of heterotopias,
certain criteria are required for admission into it (Foucault 1994). Girls involved in this study
take advantage and make use of their accessibility to this space to make sense of the erotic
 10    J. Cassar

and discuss its relevance to their lives or even make fun of it. Heterotopias work around a
system of ‘in-between’ spaces, a concept which when applied to this study suggests multiple
layers of meaning surrounding the written accounts. The choice to write about one’s inti-
macies in a secretive, reserved, secluded, but shared space demarcates boundaries surround-
ing the public/private. Girls’ positioning of themselves as sexually deviant on the one hand
and sexually innocent on the other locates them within the in-between dictates of sexual
morality. Such spaces denote the unpacking of binaries of what is right/wrong and what
turns you on/off, by moving through discrepancies between young women’s desires and
stereotypical perceptions about the erotic, which very often frame girls as ‘sluts’. Through
their shared understandings, the writers might have tried to grasp the meaning of this sense
of this in-betweenness as they strove to come to terms with their emerging identities as
sexual beings.
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This study confirms that ‘the erotic does sneak into schools’ (Bettis and Adams 2006, 124)
and that the acquisition of sexual knowledge by young people occurs outside formal school
curricula (Kehily 2002). Writers’ attempts to foreground their ways of thinking about topics
that might not have been spoken of in formal classroom interaction can be considered
creative and diverse forms of agency directed at an exploration of the erotic. The study
suggests that students’ cultures are capable of transforming themselves through their
detachment from rigid representations of sexuality. For a number of female students, topics
related to the erotic and to sexual intimacy may have been rendered invisible and unimpor-
tant by their families, peers and former educational institutions. Explicit descriptions of sexual
expression contained in the graffiti may have constituted a heterotopia of deviation in reac-
tion to existing sexual taboos within the students’ other social contexts. The graffiti forum
may have created a sense of curiosity amongst these students, through the discreet ways
of communicating the erotic.
Relatively few studies have examined writings in educational institutions that disclose
highly explicit erotic content by female students. The study throws light on this intense
discourse of sexuality and on the type of questions students asked in relation to the erotic.
Findings question the regulative contexts and the cultural imperatives that constrain wider
communication about sex in educational institutions. They provide an alternative perspective
on the ways in which adolescent girls can discuss and explore their emerging sexualities.
Through their ‘deviant’ narratives and requests for support, some girls seem to have embarked
on an exercise of self-inquiry. They did not, however, interrogate how and why certain knowl-
edge at their institution was subjugated and they did not question the implications that this
might have had on their life.
Questions about right or wrong featured in most of the writing. Girls actively policed one
another’s sexuality as has been found in other studies (e.g. Kehily 2002). Articulations of the
personal and private self were subjected to scrutiny and self-surveillance. As a result, the
graffiti spaces functioned as a heterotopia of regulation, based on reciprocity through the
giving and receiving of advice. A hierarchical relationship seemed to have been formed
between those who gave advice and those who received it, with the former being positioned
as being more knowledgeable about the morality of erotic. In spite of concerns related to
what is right and wrong, a shift from a conservative view of sex, associated with strict moral
rules of conduct, to a more liberal embodiment of the erotic seems to have nevertheless
occurred. Heterotopias break new ground and ‘function at full capacity when men (sic.) arrive
at a sort of absolute break with their traditional time’ (Foucault 1994, 182). This process was
 Sex Education   11

possibly marked by girls’ defiance of a silenced approach towards sexuality issues in their
curriculum.
Some graffiti claimed the right of girls to experience sexual pleasure and defied the
socially constituted notion that women possess lower levels of sexual desire than men.
These graffiti imply that their authors may not have considered themselves the passive
recipients of sexual activity initiated and expressed only by their lovers. In carving out
spaces for their subjectivities, some graffiti writers may have tried to change the norms
for how gender could be lived out by reframing the morality surrounding the erotic.
Whereas the writers in general show that they felt confident to express themselves within
the boundaries of the lavatories and that they sought sexual pleasure, there was less
emphasis on the sexual acts they did not wish to experience during sexual encounters.
Some girls might have lacked assertiveness in this regard or they may not have known
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what their preferences, needs and beliefs are when it came to having sex. Girls’ notion
of sexual pleasure was not homogenous.
The study has implications for broader debates in relation to the ‘erotic deficit in sexuality
education’ (Allen 2006, 69). Students’ perceptions and experiences of the erotic are not to
be ignored or dismissed as trash. Educational institutions shape and are shaped by discourses
and embodied performances of sexuality. The notion of the heterotopia provides a critique
of sexuality education in higher education. Space accessibility for sexuality education in the
curricula of higher education institutions is recommended so that students’ sexual desires,
their need for intimacy, their romantic relationships and their total well-being is acknowl-
edged, discussed and positively integrated as part of their whole education. The notion of
heterotopia may also serve as a ‘useful pedagogical tool’ (Bondy 2012, 81) in the sense of
providing students with ‘other’ and different notions of pleasure and different representations
of the erotic. In this study, graffiti writers requested detailed knowledge about specific issues
such as masturbation and pornography. Topics such as masturbation and other forms of
sexual pleasure are rarely mentioned in research on sexuality education and almost never
mentioned in the classroom (Ingham 2014). This could be partly because the erotic carries
enigmatic connotations, as the study demonstrates.
There seem to have been some attempts on the part of the graffiti authors to take things
forward and establish new contacts beyond the spaces in the lavatories. Numerous writers
requested to meet in person through invitations scribbled on toilet doors. A few writers
wrote mobile telephone numbers or email address, requesting further advice and even
asking for sex. Girls’ attempts at creating new heterotopias beyond their familiar habitus
may have provided them with other opportunities through new connections. Heterotopias
are transitory and ‘are not oriented toward the eternal [instead] they are rather absolutely
temporal’ (Foucault 1994, 182). Within and outside their constructed spaces, the writers
embarked on a learning journey, marked by a quest, which appears simultaneously restless,
demanding, transgressive, captivating and unquiet.

Notes
1. 
Sexuality and relationships education is not offered as a specific subject in any type of
secondary school in Malta, nor in higher education institutions. Sexuality issues may, however,
be discussed during lectures of sociology, literature, psychology, history, human biology and
religious knowledge.
 12    J. Cassar

2. 
The ways in which Foucault’s accounts of heterotopia have been used as an analytical tool
are ‘bewilderingly diverse’ (Johnson 2013, 2). Notions of heterotopias ‘are most productively
understood in the context of Foucault’s insistence on “making difference” and their adoption
as a tool of analysis to illuminate the multifaceted features of cultural and social spaces and to
invent new ones’ (Johnson 2013, 2).
3. 
Texts marked by * have been partially or completely translated from the Maltese.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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