College, Sexuality, and Generational Negotiation of Sex Among Low-Income Latinas: AERA Sessions, 11:54 AM

• In Event: e-Lightening Ed-Talk Session 8

Abstract

There is an increasing number of Latinas enrolling in college throughout the U.S., with a large percentage being part of immigrant families. Yet little is known about how undergoing this mobility experience exposes Latinas to new information about gender and sexuality, and the impacts this has on their subjectivities and family dynamics. This is particularly timely given that schools can reproduce and challenge inequalities via sex and sexuality curricula. Research has also found that undergoing a mobility experience can shape generational negotiations of sex and dating. In this presentation, I draw on semi-structured interviews with 53 college-going Latinas and 11 of their migrant mothers, digital and in person ethnographic observations with 7 college-going Latinas, and a discourse analysis of 78 Tik-Tok videos utilizing the hashtag “#hotcheetogirl, to examine how going to university shapes Latina students’ gender and sexual subjectivities as well as how they talk to their mothers about sexuality. Findings reveal that this mobility experience allows daughters to access social networks, sexual health resources, and new discourses of gender and sexuality that challenge their previously held beliefs of sex as negative. These new experiences, alongside sexual violence, inform how they have conversations with their mothers about sexual health, consent, abusive relationships, pleasure, sexual orientation, and queerness. Overall, this study contributes to research on education, sexuality, and gender as it shows that going to college can shape gender and sexual formations across generations.

Author

• Michelle Gomez Parra, San Francisco State University