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Thinking Allowed: Odd couples, student drinking

12/09/2012

Odd couples, student drinking

BBC Radio 4 - Thinking Allowed, Odd couples, student drinking

Gay-straight friendships, and how students approach alcohol. With Laurie Taylor.

Laurie Taylor hears about friendships between gay men and straight women, and between lesbians and straight men. Also, the importance of alcohol to student identity.

'Odd Couples' - friendships which cross the boundaries of gender and sexuality. A new book challenges the widespread assumption that men and women are fundamentally different and can only forge significant bonds within romantic relationships. It charts the deep friendships between gay men and straight women, and also between lesbians and straight men. Laurie Taylor talks to the sociologist, Anna Muraco, who claims that such 'intersectional' friendships serve as as a barometer for shifting social and sexual norms. The UK sociologist, Brian Heaphy joins the discussion. Also, an in depth study of the centrality of drinking to student identity. Its author, Maria Piacentini, discusses the ways in which young people neutralise feelings of guilt and stigma regarding their alcohol consumption. 
Producer: Jayne Egerton.

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