Power and Desire: The Embodiment of Female Sexuality

• Published in: Feminist review Vol. 46; no. 1; pp. 21 - 38
• Main Authors: Holland, Janet, Ramazanoglu, Caroline, Sharpe, Sue, Thomson, Rachel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Feminist Review 01-04-1994
• Subjects: England; Females; Femininity; Heterosexuality; London, England; Power; Sexual behaviour; Sexuality; Social Constructionism; Women; Youth
• ISSN: 0141-7789; 1466-4380
• DOI: 10.1057/fr.1994.2

Sexuality is both gendered & embodied, but poststructural & postmodern critics of essentialism construct an opposition between theories of a natural, stable, material body, & those of a shifting, plural, socially constructed body. Interviews with 150 young women in London & Manchester, England, regarding heterosexual encounters are used to challenge this dualism by arguing that the material body & its social constructions are closely entwined, leading to problems both in theorizing & managing bodies. Socially constructed femininity is disembodied in ways that put pressure on young women to regulate their bodies, silence their desires, & define sexual encounters in terms of men's needs. Women lose control of sexual encounters to men through self-surveillance of their bodies. This makes it difficult for young women to practice safer sex consistently. Sex connects bodies & so allows some space for disruption of male power, but most young women lack a critical consciousness of this space. 38 References. Modified AA