‘This Sex Thing Is such a Big Issue now’: Sex Talk and Identities in Three Groups of Adolescent Girls

Pichler, Pia

doi:10.1057/9780230625136_4

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Thus virginity is appropriated and imbued with sexual agency. This finding parallels Pichler (2007), a study which has identified romantic discourse around virginity as sexually agentive (see also Albanesi, 2010). 8 As will be seen in the next section, this active, knowing virginity is also evoked by Kate, Callum and Logan in their separate effort to respond to the same dilemma; however they apply it to a boy.…”

Section: Data Analysis – Dilemmas Of Love and Desiresupporting

confidence: 75%

Inverting virginity, abstinence, and conquest: Sexual agency and subjectivity in classroom conversation

King

2014

Sexualities

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This study examines youth sexual agency during sexuality lessons in a New Zealand secondary school. Employing poststructuralist discourse analysis, examples are highlighted in which girls (and boys) gain access to sexual agency. Through conversation, girls are simultaneously positioned as ‘asked’ and ‘pursuer’ and boys as ‘asker’ and ‘pursued’ whilst abstinence and virginity are imbued with sexual agency for both sexes. This study demonstrates that it is discursive versions of agency which hold central importance in youth sexual development. Thus the capacities for sexual action that are fostered in classroom conversation cannot plausibly be separated from agentive sexual practices of young people beyond the classroom's walls.

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Section: Data Analysis – Dilemmas Of Love and Desiresupporting

confidence: 75%

Inverting virginity, abstinence, and conquest: Sexual agency and subjectivity in classroom conversation

King

2014

Sexualities

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“…This is an active, knowing virginity which locates sexual agency in strategic, temporary abstinence from sexual contact. This finding parallels Pichler (2007), a study which has identified romantic discourse around virginity as sexually agentive: …it seems to me that this romantic discourse, in which first time sex with a loving/loved partner is constructed as a special and worthwhile event, does not highlight the passivity of girls, as some researchers have maintained (Lees 1993;Walkerdine 1984). This romantic discourse allows for a greater degree of individual agency and power than a discourse of premarital chastity…because it encourages the girls to make their own choice about when, where, and with whom they want to have sex.…”

Section: -The Happy Virginsupporting

confidence: 81%

Linguistic Negotiations of Sexual Agency in Sexuality Education

King¹

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<p>The investigative aim of this thesis is to explore the role of language in the construction of sexuality agency during a classroom-based sexuality education programme for adolescents. The thesis begins with an examination of the motivations behind the study of agency in relation to sexuality. Overlapping research gaps in the fields of language and gender/sexuality and sexuality education are identified. Scholars from both fields have pinpointed difficulties with the accessing of agentive sexual subject positions by young people (particularly young women) during conversation. Investigations into sexuality education in New Zealand have suggested that ‘Discourses’ of sexuality in classrooms and broader school communities position students as ‘sexual’ while simultaneously constructing them as innocent and childlike (and thus non-sexual). These ‘large-D’ Discourses have been identified as possible reasons for a lack of decline in the rates of pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease amongst young people despite an overt focus on such topics in sexuality education. The theory is that because they have not developed a sense of agency in relation to sexuality, young people are ill-equipped to navigate the risks of sexual activity. A question which remains is exactly how sexual agency is negotiated through ‘small-d’ discourse (e.g. ‘talk’), by young people in classrooms. This study focuses on language usage during classroom discussions of sexuality in order to shed light on linguistic strategies that young people employ in order to position themselves (or not) as sexual agents during sexuality education, and how they respond to being similarly positioned, both by others and by their classroom resources. In order to gain an understanding of the working dynamics of the school and classroom, an ethnographic approach was employed. The researcher participated in classes for a period of time before the sexuality programme began in order to observe relations between the participants, including the distribution of power amongst teacher and students. These observations were essential to comprehending the understandings that participants bring to the processes and activities under study. This approach also permitted the tracing of the emergence of a community of practice in this classroom. Through close attention to language via poststructuralist discourse analysis, it has been possible to demonstrate how interactants performatively lay claim to (or avoid) sexual agency in this community of practice. By actively participating in discussions of sexuality, the students, both boys and girls, experience being placed in sexually agentive subject positions. They respond in various ways; sometimes aligning, sometimes resisting, other times resignifying those positions in complex interactions of masculinity, femininity, desire, and sexual identity. Finally, the findings of this thesis are assembled in order to consider implications for the study of language and sexuality as well as considering the importance of discursive positionings (by teachers and classroom resources) for future student possibilities in terms of sexual agency development.</p>

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“…This is one of the many examples which show that the girls tend to avoid serious discussions about their private lives, especially about their feelings for their boyfriends or their sexual experience (Pichler 2006). In stave 1 Ardiana expresses her concern that something might be wrong with Rahima because she is so quiet (see translation of Bengali utterance).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, as they only do so in a playful frame such as teasing, which allows them to protect their own and each other's face, they are able to signal respect for this dominant Bangladeshi discourse at the same time. The protection of face, which the teasing offers due to its playful frame, makes it a preferred strategy for the girls to reconcile opposing culture‐specific discourses on love or on sex (see Pichler 2001, 2006).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifunctional teasing as a resource for identity construction in the talk of British Bangladeshi girls¹

Pichler

2006

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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This paper explores how multifunctional teasing is used as a resource for the construction of linguistic identities, establishing a link between previous research on teasing and the field of language/discourse and identity. I draw on a corpus of 38 episodes of teasing contained in 80 minutes of spontaneous talk between five adolescent Bangladeshi girls who formed a friendship group at their comprehensive school in East London. The qualitative analysis of the data reveals that the teasing in this group can serve four main functions: an accomplishment of fun‐based solidarity; a release of underlying tensions; a display of toughness; but also a display of respect for other speakers’ dispreference for taboo subjects. Building on Ochs’(1992) notion of indirect indexicality my discussion of the data will focus on the social meanings of these different functions of teasing which range from maintaining and managing friendship to (re)negotiating class and culture‐related identities. I shall argue that the identity work achieved by and in the teasing needs to be seen in relation to stereotypical notions and ideologies about class, gender and culture‐specific (language) practices which shape the girls’ construction of themselves as British Bangladeshi working‐class adolescents.

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‘This Sex Thing Is such a Big Issue now’: Sex Talk and Identities in Three Groups of Adolescent Girls

Cited by 7 publications

References 11 publications

Inverting virginity, abstinence, and conquest: Sexual agency and subjectivity in classroom conversation

Inverting virginity, abstinence, and conquest: Sexual agency and subjectivity in classroom conversation

Linguistic Negotiations of Sexual Agency in Sexuality Education

Multifunctional teasing as a resource for identity construction in the talk of British Bangladeshi girls¹

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‘This Sex Thing Is such a Big Issue now’: Sex Talk and Identities in Three Groups of Adolescent Girls

Cited by 7 publications

References 11 publications

Inverting virginity, abstinence, and conquest: Sexual agency and subjectivity in classroom conversation

Inverting virginity, abstinence, and conquest: Sexual agency and subjectivity in classroom conversation

Linguistic Negotiations of Sexual Agency in Sexuality Education

Multifunctional teasing as a resource for identity construction in the talk of British Bangladeshi girls1

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Multifunctional teasing as a resource for identity construction in the talk of British Bangladeshi girls¹