How do youth, parents, and educators use discursive sexual scripts to make sense of youth engagement with internet pornography

Bibliographic Data

ID13086227
AuthorsSiobhan Healy-Cullen (0000-0003-3843-4966, Massey University, corresponding author), Tracy Morison (0000-0001-9088-1662, Massey University), Kirsty Ross (0000-0003-3744-8143, Massey University), John E Taylor (0000-0001-8502-3452, Massey University)
Year2022
Volume9
Issue4
Pages445-463
Publication date2022-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePorn Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2326-8743 • E-ISSN: 2326-8751
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/23268743.2022.2125898
OpenAlexW4309622921
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited53

In this article, we explore how culturally available sexual scripts are drawn on to make meaning of young people’s engagement with internet pornography (IP). We draw on a version of sexual scripting theory developed by feminist discursive scholars to perform a critical thematic analysis of 24 interviews with parents, educators, and young people. We identify three main scripts commonly drawn on by participants to make sense of youth engagement with IP, namely: a script of harm, a heterosexual script, and a developmentalist script. These scripts, often interweaving with one another, were deployed in various ways, firstly, as ‘risk talk’ and, secondly, as ‘resistant talk’. While both adults and youth engaged with dominant (‘risk’) and alternative (‘resistant’) talk, adults primarily positioned youth within ‘risk talk’. We show how alternative ‘resistant talk’ disrupts common, scripted ways of accounting for youth engagement with IP in a way that demonstrates more nuanced sexual subjectivities – particularly among youth – than the traditional media effects paradigm acknowledges. Importantly, our findings show how, within discursive restraints, essentialized gender constructions can be resisted to position youth as agentic sexual subjects

Harm · Pornography · Psychoanalysis · Qualitative research · Scripting language · Sociology · Thematic analysis · Youth studies · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology

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