Bre Gregg

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.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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