“S-T-R-8 Up” Latinas: Affirming an Alternative Sexual Identity

Abstract

For young women, being “aggressive” is generally viewed as a negative identity and associated with bullying and interpersonal violence. Especially in a heteronormative context, sexually aggressive identities are not commonly associated with young women. Resulting negative perceptions or silences surrounding this possible sexual identity are directly consequential in the development of comprehensive sexuality education curricula. Taking a narrative approach and applying a Photovoice elicitation strategy to prompt discussion, the data presented in this article show how young Latinas, when given the opportunity, critically construct aggressive identities in contrastive terms, affirming the identity to befit a counter-intuitive understanding. Implications of considering subjective complexities in sexuality education curricula are discussed in the conclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• “Being aggressive”
• Latina girls
• narrative analysis
• Photovoice
• sexuality
• subjective complexity

Acknowledgments

This work was supported through the National Institute of Child and Human Development R03 Partners in Research Program (A00000000005685). We would like to acknowledge the help of our research assistants, Amy DiCaprio and Kenia Gonzalez, in helping us to conduct the focus group sessions and to all of the youth participants for their enriching contributions to this research project. Thanks also to the support provided through our academic affiliations, University of Massachusetts-Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences and University of Massachusetts-Boston Mauricio Gastón Institute.