Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Wallace, Miriam
Keywords
Gender, Sexuality, Young Adult Literature
Area of Concentration
English
Abstract
This English Literature?Gender Studies thesis explores constructions of gender, sex, and sexuality in modern Young Adult Literature published within the last decade. Close readings were performed on six texts, looking to the possibilities offered for adolescent girls and boys concerning their performances of masculinity and femininity, and their enactment of heterosexuality. Analysis of these texts revealed that prescriptive hetero-gendered relations are instilled within characters when they reach puberty; once girls' bodies can be identified as female, they are subject to the social pressures of normative femininity and sexual harassment. Girls' entrapment within femininity, and the social treatment of this femininity, is delivered to readers as an inevitable and individual problem, removed from the realm of systemic gender issues where it actually resides. Masculinity is presented as predatory, and is dependent upon display of heterosexuality. Hetero-romance is delivered as the ultimate solution for normalizing any individual problems.
Recommended Citation
Gregg, Bre, "Opposites (Still Must) Attract Constructions of Gender, Sex, and Sexuality in Modern Young Adult Literature" (2012). Theses & ETDs. 4599.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/4599