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Casual sex has been defined in many ways but is mainly seen as one-off or brief sexual contact in an ‘uncommitted relationship’(see Paul et al., 2000), increasingly visible among young adults. Whilst one-off sexual encounters have most likely been part of western sexual history for a long time, the term ‘casual sex’itself is a relatively new construct, situated within a permissive sexual discourse (Hollway, 1989), and part of a broader shift in the ‘sexualisation of culture’1 (Gill, 2008; McNair, 2002). Contradictory constructions of heterosexual casual sex exist in the West. Based on traditional discourses, casual sex (particularly women’s) is seen as ‘wrong’and the appropriate site for engaging in heterosexual sex is seen as within a monogamous relationship. However, based on permissive, post-feminist and liberal discourses, it is assumed that men and women are sexually ‘liberated’and free to pursue and engage in …