Flipping the heterosexual script: representing girls’ positive sexual health on Netflix

Abstract

ABSTRACT Studies have documented how U.S. teen television programmes perpetuate a dominant heterosexual script in which girls are instructed to deny their sexual desire and to passively wait to be chosen by boys. This project explores how Netflix’s reputation for producing ‘quality television’ provides space for girl-centric programmes to flip conventions of genre and intervene in considerations of girls’ sexuality. We argue the Netflix shows I Am Not OK With This (2020), Trinkets (2019–20), Never Have I Ever (2020–2023), and Teenage Bounty Hunters (2020) flip the long-standing heterosexual script. Main girl characters are shown initiating heterosexual activity, understanding the importance of their own pleasure, demanding protection from pregnancy and STIs, and refusing to be victimized by cultural stigmas. Moreover, while earlier studies examined teen characters who were overwhelmingly white, middle-class and heterosexual – the Netflix girls (and boys) we study are much more diverse in terms of race, class, and sexuality, and the programmes open spaces for Black and Brown girls, in particular, to express and act on their sexual desires without being sexualized.