Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

This paper examines contemporary sexualization of culture debates and postfeminist understandings of sexuality which have framed the feminine as sexual, taking contemporary mainstream music video and social media as a case study. This paper argues that these texts present a version of sexuality that is heteronormative, that reinforces a view of heterosexuality as the normative sexuality, and that normalises a hegemonic heterosexuality which legitimises existing power relations and is frequently linked with (sexual) violence against women. This paper further presents Mediated Discourse Analysis (MDA) as an innovative methodological approach for reception studies. By focusing on “discourse in action” it provides a vehicle to understand how texts are read and interpreted when appropriated by the audience. The paper sets this methodology within a feminist framework of reception studies drawing on literature from feminist theory, media, and cultural studies; it demonstrates how this methodology is being employed in the author’s own ethnographic research to explore reading and interpretation of sexual scripts within contemporary music video and social media and the significance of this intertextual relationship. This paper explores the relationship between ideas and action to understand how sexual scripts are communicated within the current postfeminist sexualised media culture landscape.