Sexuality and Sexualisation

Why is there a ‘moral panic’ about girls and sex? Are girls really prematurely sexual? Can/should we see sexuality as empowering or objectifying? How does feminism/postfeminism frame the questions of girls and sex? What about comparisons to different historical periods?

Key Films

Further Reading

  • Game of Thrones Finally Let Arya be a Teenager https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/game-of-thrones-arya-gendry-sex-scene.html
  • R. Danielle Egan, ‘What is Sexualization?’ in Becoming Sexual: a critical appraisal of the sexualization of girls(Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity, 2013).
  • Angela McRobbie, ‘Top Girls? Young Women and the New Sexual Contract’ in Angela McRobbie: The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change(London: Sage, 2009)
  • Catherine Driscoll, ‘Little Darlingsand American Pie: The Problem of Virginity’, in Teen Film(London: Wallflower, 2007), 70-76
  • Katherine Farrimond, ‘The Slut that wasn’t’: Virginity, (Post)Feminism and Representation,in Easy A’,  inPostfeminism and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema, edited by Joel Gwynne and Nadine Muller (New York: Palgrave, 2013), 44-59.
  • Vicky Lebeau, ‘Child, Sexuality, Image’, in Childhood and Cinema (London: Reaktion, 2008), 86-134.