Full 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 digital 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, we conducted a discourse analysis of 55 online articles from self-identified feminist online publications examining constructions of women’s sexual desire. We identified two dominant constructions of desire. The first construction, “desire is diverse”, relates to an expanded representation of who can be sexually desiring and how. The second construction, “desire is political”, locates desire within wider social critique and as a tool for social change. These indicate a potential broadening of women’s sexual agency but ultimately are undercut by neoliberal discourses of individual self-work and self-improvement.主流媒体对女性性欲的再现，通常会限制女性性自主（sexual agency）与具身愉悦（embodied pleasure）的实现可能。其具体体现为：凸显男性性满足的核心地位，优先遵循异性恋规范（heteronormativity），排斥多元身份与身体形象，并将女性的性欲塑造为个体化的自我建构工程。目前学界尚未明确的是：女权主义替代数字媒体是否能够打破并抵制上述关于女性性欲的规范式建构？若能，它们将以何种路径实现这一目标？又能为读者构建能动性性主体性（agentic sexual subjectivity）提供何种可能？为解答上述问题，本研究对55篇来自自标识女权主义线上出版物的网络文章展开话语分析（discourse analysis），以考察其中对女性性欲的建构方式。本研究识别出两种主导性的性欲建构模式：第一种为“性欲具有多样性（desire is diverse）”，其内涵是拓展了“谁能够拥有性欲、以及以何种方式拥有性欲”的再现范畴；第二种为“性欲具有政治性（desire is political）”，将性欲置于更广泛的社会批判框架之中，并将其视为推动社会变革的工具。上述模式看似拓展了女性性自主的实现空间，但最终仍被新自由主义（neoliberal）语境下的个体化自我打理与自我提升话语所消解。