Sexting in a post-feminist society: Balancing agentic empowerment and the sexual double standard

Abstract

This article uses qualitative data to examine sexting practices as a form of empowered agentic behavior for young women within the context of American collegiate hookup culture. Focus group data from a diverse sample of American college women (n = 22; 18 % white) demonstrates their engagement with the sexual double standard and choices about sexting. Situating sexting within cultural narratives emerging from hookup culture and post-feminism, young women appear to receive contradictory messages that complicate their decision-making. Young women are simultaneously exposed to hookup culture, which promotes the expectations of sexual experimentation and self-objectification in college, as well as post-feminist ideologies encouraging them to freely enact their sexual choices. The juxtaposition of these discourses becomes complicated by lived experiences with the double standard, where women see gender-based obstacles in their decision-making that do not extend to their male peers. For these young women of color, the sexual double standard operates prominently in their decisions, so they make choices to protect their privacy, reputation, and relationships while choosing to engage in sexting.