The Aesthetics of Sexualisation: A Study of Gendered and Classed Discourses through the Co-creation of Representations of Sexy Selfie Takers
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2022
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This thesis takes a practice-led approach to co-creating sexy selfies of young women, using these as data for a compare-and-contrast approach that makes clear the discourses that are employed to judge women’s sexual self-representation.
As women’s sexy selfie making practices have burgeoned, so too have popular and feminist discourses of concern about them. A growing body of important work in the field of selfies is beginning to highlight the gendered and sexist nature of these discourses and to demonstrate that much selfie critique belongs to a history of paternalistic discourse which polices and shames the female body. I build on this tradition by focusing on the aesthetic elements of these critiques, and their relationship with discourses of class, to demonstrate that many of these discourses of concern reinforce long-standing, classed ideals of feminine sexual presentation which marginalise some self-representations and legitimise others.
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