Abstract

This article aims at describing different paths of masculinity construction by analysing sexual experiences of young migrants from Morocco in Italy and France. By exploring the outcomes of a comparative research on a group of Muslim men - based on a two year period of ethnographic observation and semi-directed interviews - the article will analyse the impact of heteronormative scenarios in shaping the experiences of these young men during their transition to adulthood. First, the article will show how masculinity is constructed in relation to different sexual scripts elaborated by these men and described by themselves in their accounts. Then it will analyse how inter-cultural and intra-cultural dimensions shape this construction of masculinity in various social interactions by reproducing the heteronormative scenario. In the second part of the article, the author will deal with the importance conferred, by the interviewees, to the moment of marriage in order to define their heteromasculinity. Particular attention will be paid to family relations, intra- and inter-ethnic dynamics, revealing how these different dimensions play a decisive role in shaping sexual scripts. The con- clusions will try to analyse the role of (hetero)normative references in the account of the interviewees, showing how sexual conduct is a field where the experiences of these young men are defined and redefined abroad on the horizon of the transition to adulthood.