Dangerous Girls or Girls in Danger?: Questioning Narratives of Girls' Sexuality

Girls' sexuality has long been a site of intense parental, pedagogical and public concern. Even today, the question of how (or even if) a girl might be sexual without being passively 'sexualized' continues to resonate, as evidenced by the American Psychological Association's 2007 Report of the Task Force on The Sexualization of Girls.

This proposed panel for the Society of Cinema and Media Studies 2016 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia seeks to explore conflicting narrative representations of girls' sexual desires and behaviors, in hopes of drawing out the divergences, presumptions, and anxieties regarding the sexuality of girls.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Girls' sexual consent and agency
• Film depictions of 'bad' ('dangerous') girls
• Censorship and film ratings in relation to girls' sexuality
• Feminist movements and shifts in representations of girls' sexuality
• Media representations of girls' sexuality across cultures and time periods
• Sexual objectification of girls in media
• Narratives of rape, sexual abuse and sex trafficking
• Girls' sexuality in specific genre films such as horror
• Girls' sexuality in relation to race, ethnicities, class
• Media representations of LGBTQ girls' sexuality
• ..and so on.

Please submit a title and 250-word abstract, 3-5 bibliographic entries, and a brief biography to Michele Meek at mm@michelemeek.com by August 5, 2015.