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Full-Text Articles in Film and Media Studies
The Search For Agency: Female Sexual Desire In U.S. Sex Education And Coming-Of-Age Cinema, Mckenzi A. Vanderberg
The Search For Agency: Female Sexual Desire In U.S. Sex Education And Coming-Of-Age Cinema, Mckenzi A. Vanderberg
Honors Program Theses
The following essay provides an analysis of the gendered ideologies present in coming-of-age cinema, as well as a critique of heteronormative, patriarchal concepts that hinder female sexual agency and adolescent empowerment. More specifically, this essay will critique the harmful portrayal of female puberty as romantic, passive, and emotional in comedic coming-of-age cinema. This essay will be split into three primary segments. The first segment will consist of a literature review discussing the correlation between sexual desire and autonomy, as well as the importance of portraying female sexual agency rather than passivity in media and sex education curricula, in order to …