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Learning Bodies pp 141–156Cite as

Girls and Sexting: The Missing Story of Sexual Subjectivity in a Sexualized and Digitally-Mediated World

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Part of the book series: Perspectives on Children and Young People ((PCYP,volume 2))

Abstract

For girls coming of age in a sexualized and digitally-mediated culture, sexting is not uncommon. While self-sexualizing through technology tends to be framed as risk behavior, not all girls are affected in the same way. For some, creating sexualized content using digital media provides opportunities for sexual exploration. However, among feminist scholars, debates concerning girls’ sexual empowerment persist. Many argue that despite professed empowerment, girls’ participation in creating sexually-explicit material reinforces gender/sexual scripts borne out of a male gaze. Others contend that self-sexualization may be necessary for girls’ sexuality development in a world that magnifies concerns over female sexuality and circumscribes its expression. Missing from debates is consideration of girls’ embodied sexual experiences, including theorization of sexual pleasure as a holistic force that merges body, mind and culture. Using feminist new materialist and embodiment theory, this chapter unpacks dominant narratives shaping girls’ sexualities and presents an alternate conceptualization of sexuality as an emergent force that materializes through the interactivity of biology, psyche, and society. Applying an intersectional lens that reveals how “the girl” in this discourse operates as an unmarked (white, heteronormative) category, we argue for the need to focus on diversely-located experiences of sexual pleasure, including sexting and self-sexualizing generally, as stepping stones to sexual empowerment in a digitally-mediated, sexist climate.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Carla Rice

  2. Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Erin Watson

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  1. Carla Rice
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  2. Erin Watson
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Correspondence to Carla Rice .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

    Julia Coffey

  2. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Shelley Budgeon

  3. University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Helen Cahill

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© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

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Rice, C., Watson, E. (2016). Girls and Sexting: The Missing Story of Sexual Subjectivity in a Sexualized and Digitally-Mediated World. In: Coffey, J., Budgeon, S., Cahill, H. (eds) Learning Bodies. Perspectives on Children and Young People, vol 2. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0306-6_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0306-6_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0304-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0306-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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