Rewriting Romance

This article examines how Netflix teen dramas participate in reshaping the sentimental and sexual norms addressed to young audiences. Mobilising a dual framework that combines the French sociological tradition on gender and sexuality with Anglo-British feminist media studies, we analyse how streaming-era series function as cultural tools of sentimental education. The first part offers a socio-historical panorama of representations, comparing teen dramas from the 1990s and 2000s with recent Netflix productions. We show that earlier series upheld tightly interwoven scripts linking sexuality, romantic love and monogamous heterosexuality, particularly assigning moral responsibility and emotional restraint to girls while framing boys’ desire as spontaneous and inevitable. Contemporary series, by contrast, present more diverse relational configurations, including queer and experimental relationships, and contribute to a shift in the normative framework governing adolescent sexuality. The second part focuses on a case study of the “first time”, understood as the first genital-penetrative intercourse between two teenagers and treated as a “narrative acme”. Through close textual analysis of five Netflix series, we demonstrate how this trope is being reworked: female characters are increasingly granted sexual agency without moral sanction, while male characters are portrayed as vulnerable, hesitant or emotionally invested, destabilising the idea that boys are always ready for sex. We argue that these series operate as transnational media objects that contribute to young people’s sexual and emotional socialisation, sometimes reproducing but often challenging dominant norms, and that they function as informal pedagogical resources with significant cultural and political implications.

Agency (philosophy) · Framing (construction) · Human sexuality · Norm (philosophy) · Normative · Politics · Queer · Romance · Temporality · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media Influence and Health

• Sex Without Love

  Gabriela Jonas Aharoni, Yuval Gozansky•Sexuality & Culture•2026

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