267 - Thematic Session. Feminist Debates about Sexuality: "Hooking Up" as Capitulation or Empowerment?

Session Submission Type: Invited Session

Abstract

Feminist debates about sexuality in the 20th Century focused on danger versus pleasure, pornography and violence. Those debates continue today, but the “hooking up” culture on today’s college campuses have led to a series on new questions. Is “hooking up” submitting to male desire, empowering female pleasure, or about sexual exploration? Do today’s young women have to engage in casual sex instead of the relationships they would prefer because men have won the war of the sexes? Or do young women now feel empowered to seek sexual pleasure for its own sake, outside of the confines of relationships? What’s the meaning of the sometimes very public same-sex erotic experiences of young women with heterosexual identities? Are they performing for the male gaze or exploring their own sexual boundaries?

Sub Unit

• Thematic Sessions

Session Organizer

• Barbara J. Risman, University of Illinois-Chicago

Presider

• Rachel Catherine Allison, Mississippi State University

Panelists

• Kathleen Bogle, LaSalle University

• Leslie Catherine Bell, Independent Scholar

Discussant

• Rachel Catherine Allison, Mississippi State University