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Author’s VersionCC BY-NC V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
The confidence trick: Competing constructions of confidence and self-esteem in young Australian women's discussions of the sexualisation of culture
Women's Studies International Forum, Vol.47(A), pp.23-35
2014
Abstract
In recent years, an explicitly sexualised style of femininity has become associated with the idea that women choose to self-sexualise to signify their empowerment. But alongside these celebratory interpretations, self-sexualisation among young women has been subject to more patronising readings; in particular, the view that women are duped into engaging in thinly disguised sexual self-exploitation, to which they are made vulnerable by low self-esteem. This paper presents a discursive analysis of focus groups with seventeen Australian undergraduate women, in which they discussed young women's engagements with sexualised culture. Participants saw sexualised self-presentations as providing benefits to women, most notably enjoyment and heightened confidence. However, they viewed some self-sexualisation as being motivated by low self-esteem, engaging women in a downward spiral of objectification and decreasing self esteem. These competing constructions of self-sexualisation as both promoting and threatening confidence and self-esteem highlight how young women's engagement in sexualised culture is simultaneously open to empowering and disempowering readings
Details
- Title
- The confidence trick: Competing constructions of confidence and self-esteem in young Australian women's discussions of the sexualisation of culture
- Authors/Creators
- L. Thompson (Author/Creator) - Murdoch UniversityN. Donaghue (Author/Creator) - Murdoch University
- Publication Details
- Women's Studies International Forum, Vol.47(A), pp.23-35
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Identifiers
- 991005545366107891
- Copyright
- Elsevier
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Psychology and Exercise Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article
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- Citation topics
- 6 Social Sciences
- 6.24 Psychiatry & Psychology
- 6.24.1084 Sexual Violence
- Web Of Science research areas
- Women's Studies
- ESI research areas
- Social Sciences, general