More than Jezebels and Freaks: Exploring How Black Girls Navigate Sexual Coercion and Sexual Scripts

Abstract

Expanding on Black feminist scholarship and sexual script theory, this study explored the sexual negotiation strategies of Black adolescent girls. Specifically, in this study, I sought to understand how Black girls confront sexual coercion and ways that racialized and gendered sexual scripts influenced their resistance. Two focus groups were conducted with 17 Black American high school girls. Using thematic and dimensional analysis, four themes of individual and collective resistance emerged from the data including Personal Responsibility, Finding Sexual Autonomy and Desire, Media Transformation, and Giving Voice. Themes replicate and extend existing African American sexual scripts as reported by Stephens and Philips (Sexuality & Culture 7:3-49, 2003). Implications for future research and psychological interventions are discussed. © 2012 Springer Science + Business Media, LLC.