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`Hot Lesbians': Young People's Talk About Representations of Lesbianism

Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, sue.jackson{at}vuw.ac.nz

Tamsyn Gilbertson

Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Media representation of heterosexual alternatives is particularly salient for young people negotiating sexuality, more so for those with limited access to other cultural resources to inform their homosexual understandings. With the centrality of media as resource in mind, we present in this article findings from our focus group research with 25 high school students aged 16—18 in which we invited them to discuss representations of homosexuality in the media. Our analyses, which focus here on lesbian sexuality, used a thematic discursive approach. We found constructions of lesbianism as `heteroflexible', `hot' and experimental to be common patterns in participants' talk, whereas notions of lesbian desire were largely silenced. While most of the talk drew on heteronormativity, we found small pockets of its deconstruction in mobilization of alternative discourses and rejection of sexual categories.

Key Words: discourse • lesbian • media • sexualities • youth

Sexualities, Vol. 12, No. 2, 199-224 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1363460708100919


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