Blog 6: Outline for Teen Sexuality Paper

I. Changes in American society and familial roles and relationships, increasing adolescent independence
A. History of teens: 1750-2010 (use Hine)
1. Role of teen in family
2. Role of teen in society
3. Teen sexuality
B. How do changing societal norms affect sexuality?
1. Age of: sexual maturity, adulthood, independence don’t match (use Fantasia AND Atkins)
2. Marriage later in life; leads to more sex before marriage (personal experience and Hine)
3. Education (including struggles of sex education)
4. Religion vs. sexuality
5. Availability of birth control
C. How does changing human biology affect sexuality?
1. Longer lives
2. Earlier sexual development
3. More STDs (use Fantasia)
II. Cyclical ability of literature to affect culture thus affecting media then culture and so on
A. Literature
1. 1794: Charlotte Temple (Susanna Rowson)
a) Parents
b) Negative role models
c) Pregnancy and abandonment
2. 1959 (setting): Betsey Brown (Ntozake Shange)
a) Crush on Eugene
b) Experience at Maureen’s
c) Social times (race/family)
3. 1974: The Chocolate War (Robert Cormier)
a) Honest depiction of sexuality of teenage boys
i. Jerry
ii. Janza
iii. Fear of being gay
iv. Crush on a stranger
4. 2007: Red (Amy Goldwasser)
a) 21st century social norms of sex
b) Caro Fink (homosexuality, social trauma, cutting, sex with Devin)
c) Eliza Appleton (grinding as sexual expression, fear of parents)
Society today in America allows adolescents more independence thus allowing adolescent sexual behaviors to become more prevalent in the 21st century than ever seen before.
A) Literature moving to represent actual teen behaviors!