[Review of the book The male in the head: young people, heterosexuality and power]

Review for Journal of Education Policy. Review of a book titled "The male in the head: young people, heterosexuality and power" by Janet Holland, Caroline Ramazanoglu, Sue Sharpe and Rachel Thomson, Tufnell Press, London (1998), ISBN 1 872767 95 8. This is an electronic version of an article published in Journal of Education Policy is available online at: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/02680939.aspThe Male in the Head is an account of how young people in England construct heterosexual sexual relationships, and an argument that the process, for both women and men, is controlled by male interests. The book is based on two major interview projects carried out in London and Manchester between 1989 and 1992 and these, in turn, arose out of a concern to investigate ‘risk-taking’ in sexual relationships in the wake of concerns about AIDS. The authors argue that the privileging of male bodily pleasure and the lack of a speaking space for an ‘independent female sexuality’ not only reproduces the power inequalities of men and women, but contributes to a culture of sexuality in which ‘safe sex’ is difficult to consistently enact