CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Youssef, Rowan |
|---|---|
| Title | The Social Construction of Women's Sexual Selfhood in Contemporary Egypt |
| Summary | In the 1960s, sociologists John Gagnon and Bill Simon proposed that sexual behavior is profoundly social. Building on this theory, Gagnon and Simon argued that the social construction of sexuality occurs through what they called “sexual scripts”. Drawing upon this theoretical framework, this qualitative study argues that the social construction of sexual selfhood of Egyptian women can be examined through three main thematic categories of analysis: tracing sexual themes in upbringing, negotiating the boundaries covering and uncovering of the female body, and finally scripting sexual experiences. In-depths interviews were conducted with ten Egyptian women aged 25-35 who are either from Cairo or Alexandria, the biggest urban areas of the country. The results demonstrate how the construction process of women’s sexual selfhood operates within stringent sociocultural mechanisms of control. To attain agency over their own sexuality and female bodies, women have to constantly learn to navigate and negotiate the normative sexual scripts of subjugation that are enforced on them. |
| Supervisor | Loney, Hannah |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/youssef_rowan.pdf |
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