Dancing sexual pleasures: exploring teenage women’s experiences of sexuality and pleasure beyond ‘sex’

Abstract

This paper focuses on the affective and sensual dimensions of sexuality, especially on what feels good in and on the body. Drawing on a longitudinal participatory case study of a young Christian woman’s dancing practices, it illustrates how for young women sexual feelings and sexual pleasure are not only pertinent to those practices normatively constituted as ‘sex acts’ (e.g. kissing, intercourse, masturbation), but may emerge within a wide range of practices and contexts. To deepen our understanding of the situated and dynamic movement of a body’s capacities for feeling sexy or sexual, and its capacities for sensing pleasure, the paper draws on Deleuzo–Guattarian theory, especially the concepts of assemblage, territorialisation and deterritorialisation. In so doing, the paper not only makes an empirical contribution to the field of young sexualities, but also offers a contribution to the methodological literature by developing a theoretically informed approach which broadens the range of experiences which may emerge in sexuality research with young women.

Keywords:

• Sexuality
• pleasure
• young women
• Deleuze and Guattari
• dance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under DTC grant number ES/J500197/1.

Notes

1. Jackson (1996) has argued that within dominant discourses that which is considered ‘real’ sex tends to be defined as vaginal intercourse between an active male and a passive female which ends with male orgasm. This understanding of sexuality normalises both heterosexuality and the subordination of women to men.

2. Sarah showed me one of these videos at the beginning of the interview.

3. Sarah’s parents had middle-income jobs and expected their children to attend university.

4. Sarah had long blonde hair, a ‘curvy’ figure, smiled a lot and carried her body with confidence.

5. Deleuze argued that we experience joy when our bodily capacities are enacted, and sadness when we are separated from perceived capacities (Deleuze and Parnet 2007).

6. Holford, Renold, and Huuki (2013) have written about their exploration of pedagogical practices which provide children with safe spaces to hold, stroke and embrace each other, or themselves, with material objects such as massage equipment, with the aim of providing them with the discursive repertoires to communicate what feels good on their bodies. Similarly, Hancock and Barker (2015) have suggested the use of a handshake to practice communicating what feels good on the body.