Who Gets to Be Sexual and Why?

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Abstract

Many young women embrace sexualized, often nude self-representations to celebrate their own subjectivity. While recognizing certain benefits gained by young women who self-sexualize, this article examines why such self-representations follow sexualizing conventions present in popular media. In conversation with work by feminist social scholars and Christian sexual ethicists, possible limitations of self-sexualization are explored. In addition, it is argued that a more comprehensive definition of sexuality as well as applying principles of justice and mutuality to sexual self-expression could offer a helpful corrective. Contemporary examples of reclaiming women’s bodies as sites of social protest as well as sites of pleasure will be also discussed.