Where ‘angels’ and ‘wusses’ fear to tread: sexual coercion in adolescent dating relationships

Abstract

Sexual coercion of female adolescents is a major ongoing concern of feminists. This article provides a comparative analysis of a sample of New Zealand and British adolescents' narratives concerning sexuality, sexual practices and coercion within heterosexual dating relationships. The narratives suggest that sexual coercion operates through ‘normal’ heterosexuality which employs discursive dichotomies of femininity and masculinity. ‘Slut’/’angel’ and ‘wuss’/ ‘stud’ dichotomies provide an oversimplified grid from which adolescents are required to negotiate complex feelings towards their own sexuality and the expectation to engage in various degrees of heterosexual sexual activity. Heteronormativity presents heterosexual sex as different for females and males, and that these supposed differences are ‘natural’, immutable and based on biology.

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