Flirting with danger: A study of multiple meanings of male aggression in women\u27s hetero-relations

Women in western culture develop hetero-relational subjectivities in a context of powerful, yet conflicting messages about hetero-sexuality, love, and domination. Normal hetero-relations are portrayed as distinct from those which are aggressive or exploitive, yet cultural images of hetero-sexuality also confound consent/coercion, pleasure/danger, agency/objectification, and seduction/domination. Although these contradictions thread through women\u27s daily lives, social science and feminist literatures tell us little about how young women understand such messages, how race and class influence those understandings, and how those understandings fold into their developing identities. This study explored how young women make sense of, resist, and negotiate discrepant cultural messages about sexual agency, responsibility, aggression, and desire. It examined young women\u27s often contradictory understandings of the lines between normal and abusive hetero-relations within a culture which simultaneously blurs and creates artificial distinctions between these categories. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with a diverse sample of thirty college-aged women. Data collection also included ongoing group interviews with six women. Six participants collaborated in qualitative analysis of individual interviews. The findings suggest that, amid complex and powerful cultural discourses, developmental dilemmas, and gendered power assymetries constraining women\u27s entitlement, young women construct a range of psychological strategies to facilitate their entrance into, management within, and exit from their hetero-relations. The data reveal that these women actively resist naming their own violent and exploitive encounters as victimization . Equating victimization with personal failure and sexual immaturity, these women form attributions for their own painful encounters which allow them to preserve a sense of agency and personal integrity. This study argues that, lacking a discourse of male accountability and a discourse of female entitlement without repercussions , young women are left to form individual strategies and internal attributions which privatize their experiences of exploitation and excuse men from responsibility for their aggression. Implications for research, politics, and pedagogy are explored