Dataset - Resisting normative sexual subjectivities: A discourse analysis of how feminist alternative media re-shape constructions of women’s sexual desire

Mainstream media representations of women’s sexual desire typically limit possibilities for sexual agency and embodied pleasure. This occurs when they foreground the importance of men’s sexual gratification, prioritise heteronormativity, exclude diverse identities and bodies, and frame women’s desire as an individualised project of the self. What is not known, is if feminist alternative media disrupt and resist these normative constructions of women’s sexual desire, how they might do so, and with what possibilities for readers’ agentic sexual subjectivity construction. Addressing these questions, a discourse analysis was performed on 55 online articles from self-identified feminist, alternative publications examining how women’s sexual desire was constructed within them. We identified two dominant constructions of desire: desire as diverse, and desire as political. The former speaks to a significantly expanded understanding of who can be sexually desiring, and how, in comparison to  mainstream media. The latter refers to a reframing of desire away from a purely embodied individual experience, to a tool for collective liberation and social change. We argue that texts in this alternative feminist media space have promising potential in broadening possibilities for women’s sexual agency, but are limited in the reproduction of neoliberal discourses of individual self-work and self-improvement.<br>