Bodies and agentic practice in young women's sexual and intimate relationships

TY - JOUR

T1 - Bodies and agentic practice in young women's sexual and intimate relationships

AU - Maxwell, Claire

AU - Aggleton, Peter

PY - 2012/4/1

Y1 - 2012/4/1

N2 - This article contributes to theorizations of agency through a focus on how understandings of power within young women's sexual and intimate relationships connect with their descriptions of feeling, reacting and sensuous bodies, to suggest why and how agentic practice takes place. Drawing on the narratives of 54 young women aged 16-18 years in one secondary school in England, findings concur with other literature which suggests that sensations experienced on or within the body can instigate (agentic) practice. Significantly, however, both physical and verbal practices are drawn on during agentic moments. Young women who discursively position themselves as 'powerful' integrate their bodies within such an understanding, using this integration to shore up the possibilities for agentic practice. Moving away from an understanding of practice as 'accommodating' and/or 'resisting' norms and inequalities, this article identifies four strategies described by the young women (assertive, refusing, proactive and interrogative) for facilitating more sustained agency.

AB - This article contributes to theorizations of agency through a focus on how understandings of power within young women's sexual and intimate relationships connect with their descriptions of feeling, reacting and sensuous bodies, to suggest why and how agentic practice takes place. Drawing on the narratives of 54 young women aged 16-18 years in one secondary school in England, findings concur with other literature which suggests that sensations experienced on or within the body can instigate (agentic) practice. Significantly, however, both physical and verbal practices are drawn on during agentic moments. Young women who discursively position themselves as 'powerful' integrate their bodies within such an understanding, using this integration to shore up the possibilities for agentic practice. Moving away from an understanding of practice as 'accommodating' and/or 'resisting' norms and inequalities, this article identifies four strategies described by the young women (assertive, refusing, proactive and interrogative) for facilitating more sustained agency.

KW - Agency

KW - Power

KW - Sex

KW - The body

KW - Young women

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84859054669&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0038038511419192

DO - 10.1177/0038038511419192

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84859054669

SN - 0038-0385

VL - 46

SP - 306

EP - 321

JO - Sociology

JF - Sociology

IS - 2

ER -