Contextualising the sexualisation of girls debate

Innocence, experience and young female sexuality

Bibliographic Data

ID12231069
AuthorsMary Jane Kehily (The Open University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume24
Issue3
Pages255-268
Publication date2012-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGender and Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0954-0253 • E-ISSN: 1360-0516
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09540253.2012.670391
OpenAlexW2156235256
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited28

This paper aims to contextualise debates on the sexualisation of girls by providing ways of interpreting it from different perspectives – including the perspectives of girls themselves. Asking not are girls being prematurely sexualised but how can this debate be understood as a feature of time and place and how does it relate to the lives of girls as they approach puberty and their first sexual experience? In a parallel approach to other commentaries on sexualisation, the paper takes a deconstructionist approach to recurrent themes of the debate such as the ideal of childhood innocence/protection, to provide an interpretive lens for understanding the emergence of a public concern that places girls at the centre. In doing so, the paper considers four ways of looking: the impact of second-wave feminism; the increased sexualisation of culture; the erotic potential of girls; and the lived experience of girlhood, as perspectives offering some explanatory power for present times

Feminism · Human sexuality · Ideal (ethics · Innocence · Political science · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics