TY - JOUR
T1 - Middle-class young women: Agentic sexual subjects?
AU - Maxwell, Claire
AU - Aggleton, Peter
PY - 2013/1/1
Y1 - 2013/1/1
N2 - There are a number of gaps in current understandings of the links between young femininities, agency and social class. Building on recent work, we examine how closely young middle-class women in one fee-paying school in England take up so-called top girl discourses and explore whether and how such discursive positions are linked to agentic practice within sexual and intimate relationships. Only one young woman in our study appeared to relatively successfully embody the idea of a ‘top girl’ and, through the use of an ‘I am powerful’ narrative voice, appeared also to demonstrate the most sustained, agentic approach to her sexual and intimate relationships, as well as many other parts of her life. Although other young women also drew on this idea of themselves as powerful, their narratives demonstrated fewer moments of agency, largely because they desired equally confident, assertive men as their partners (whom they understood would be dominant to them).
AB - There are a number of gaps in current understandings of the links between young femininities, agency and social class. Building on recent work, we examine how closely young middle-class women in one fee-paying school in England take up so-called top girl discourses and explore whether and how such discursive positions are linked to agentic practice within sexual and intimate relationships. Only one young woman in our study appeared to relatively successfully embody the idea of a ‘top girl’ and, through the use of an ‘I am powerful’ narrative voice, appeared also to demonstrate the most sustained, agentic approach to her sexual and intimate relationships, as well as many other parts of her life. Although other young women also drew on this idea of themselves as powerful, their narratives demonstrated fewer moments of agency, largely because they desired equally confident, assertive men as their partners (whom they understood would be dominant to them).
KW - Agency
KW - England
KW - Social class
KW - Top girl discourses
KW - Young femininities
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84911991151&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09518398.2012.705044
DO - 10.1080/09518398.2012.705044
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84911991151
SN - 0951-8398
VL - 26
SP - 848
EP - 865
JO - International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education
JF - International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education
IS - 7
ER -