Monday, July 30, 2012
Final Project
The prevalence of casual sex and sexting has taken the act of dating and hooking-up to a new frontier. At younger and younger ages girls are faced with overwhelming messages that they need to be sexy to be desired. I am interested in exploring how the increase in texting, media and photo sharing affects girl’s romantic relationships. How does constant and viral contact affect girls’ abilities to navigate sex and sexuality? What kinds of pressures do social media and texts exert on girls and the ways they behave in their romantic relationships? I am going to be focusing on heterosexual relationships.
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This sounds like a great topic. You know, I always wonder about the relationship between sexual abuse and girls’ overt sexuality. Of course, this isn’t to say that *all* girls who display sexuality at a young age were abused, but there is definitely a sign of abuse. Similarly, I wonder about the relationship between sexting and abuse, because (in a lot of instances) it seems that sexting involves a lack of appropriate boundaries, and victims of sexual abuse struggle with boundaries, many throughout their whole lives. (You know – this is more tangential, but I feel so bad for women who are abused and in turn grow up and work in the sex industry. Even today, people are *so* judgmental of call girls / strippers (like, do people really think a woman turns to prostitution for the fun of it???), and at least in my experience, the vast majority of those women are survivors of childhood abuse. And almost all are substance abusers. So, they have been victimized in childhood and re-victimize themselves in adulthood. It’s a horrible cycle and it’s so, so sad.)
ReplyDeleteDidn’t mean for this response to be so … depressing.
Hayley! I love all your points! You should do a paper from this angle!!!
DeleteRoxy, this sounds like a solid topic to me. The proliferation of texting and photo sharing and the advent of sites like Facebook really have put girls in a new arena when it comes to relationships. No other generation has ever navigated these waters before. So,these girls really are on the frontier, as you say. I am just wondering out loud but what is the counter balance to all the various new media bombardment? Is it time away from all your gadgets? Just visiting with friends at the mall? I think what I'm getting at is is the counterbalance real life human interaction? As far as dating and relationship matters are concerned, I would think some of that still falls on the parents of these children to guide them and to explain the reality of the situation. At least if we are talking about younger girls in this scenario then I think parental involvement is key.
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ReplyDeleteHi Roxy,
ReplyDeleteMy topic is similar to yours but I am taking it in a different direction-how girls are still being socialized in regards to their sexuality at adolescence or before.
What an interesting topic, I wish that I had thought about that topic myself.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great topic, which is one that is an issue in girl and in womanhood. These same behaviors are not only taking place at the adult level, but are being expected at the adult level, as a part of dating (from what I understand ; ) ). If the parents and elders in the family are doing it, it would seem that it would be much more difficult to explain to a teen why they should not be posting provocative photos as profile photos, or sending pics of "parts" to boys as lure. I am glad you chose this topic. It is so relevant and is definitely an issue!!
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome topic! I would love to see some kind of poll done with girls/women about who has sent a sext or picture. I think this would be fascinating! You might also want to look into (if you haven't already) the campaign that MTV has put up--urging kids not to sext because it can circulate and be detrimental psychologically....
ReplyDeleteGreat discussion here! One of the things I always wonder if how much relationships and sexuality performances have changed. I mean is sexting changing how young people think about sex or is it just a new channel in which to perform one's sexuality? Maybe both? I don't have the answers - just many questions. Can't wait to read your annotated bib, Roxy!
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