Gender and Sexual Agency

How Young People Make Choices about Sex

Heather Powers Albanesi author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Lexington Books

Published:12th Nov '09

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Gender and Sexual Agency cover

Gender and Sexual Agency considers how heterosexual Latino American, Asian American and white youth negotiate sexual encounters. In particular, the book examines sexual agency: exploring the question of why some young people assertively pursue what they want in a sexual encounter, while others go along with sexual activity they do not want. By comparing both young men and young women, Albanesi offers a unique perspective on how an individual's emotional experience of gender informs his or her willingness to exercise sexual agency. Using interviews to support her theoretical argument, Albanesi describes 11 different types of sexual agency, ranging from having strong convictions about their sexual decisions to abdicating responsibility to their partner. As the expressers of sexual agency, the voices of these youth from primarily working-class backgrounds come through to take us into their sexual decisions as they understand and experience them within the context of their lives. Ultimately, regardless of the decision, the book shows that youth are well aware of the decisions that they are making, even if they can't always express those reasons clearly.

Gender and Sexual Agency will be of great interest to those in sociology, psychology, and women's studies, particularly those who specialize in gender and/or sexual behavior. This book also has the potential to generate debate among genders scholars….Albanesi's overall theoretical argument and subsequent analysis is totally engrossing and convincing….a This book will likely become a favorite among many scholars and students. * Psychology of Women Quarterly, June 2010 *

ISBN: 9780739134986

Dimensions: 241mm x 162mm x 17mm

Weight: 404g

174 pages