Pleasure, Pain, and the Power of Being Thin: Female Sexuality in Young Adult Literature

Analysis of Young Adult literature spanning 1975-1999 reveals an imbedded link between body image, weight, and sexuality: thinner young women are portrayed as powerful and in control, while larger women are depicted as sexually passive and irresponsible. Young Adult fiction, often maligned or ignore...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNWSA journal Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 45 - 56
Main Author Younger, Beth
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Baltimore Indiana University Press 01.07.2003
Johns Hopkins University Press
Subjects
Adolescents
American literature
Anxiety
Blume, Judy
Body Image
Body Weight
Childrens literature
Empowerment
Female sexuality
Females
Feminist perspectives
Fiction
Fictional Characters
Foot
Human sexual behavior
Life
Lifetime
Literary criticism
Literature
Novels
Overweight
Personal appearance
Pleasure
Protagonists
Romance languages
Self evaluation
Self image
Sexual behavior
Sexuality
Social conditions & trends
Society
Stereotypes
Teachers
Teenagers
Textual criticism
Thinness
Young adult literature
Young adults
Young women
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Summary:Analysis of Young Adult literature spanning 1975-1999 reveals an imbedded link between body image, weight, and sexuality: thinner young women are portrayed as powerful and in control, while larger women are depicted as sexually passive and irresponsible. Young Adult fiction, often maligned or ignored by literary critics, is an important body of work that should be studied by women's studies scholars, literary critics, and educators.
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ISSN:1040-0656
2151-7363
1527-1889
2151-7371
DOI:10.2979/NWS.2003.15.2.45