This article interrogates gendered ideologies of sexuality in two teen magazines, Seventeen and YM. The method of analysis involves a close reading of written texts and images relating to sex or sexuality. The patterns that emerge from this analysis reveal tensions that center around sexual decision making versus sexual signification via costuming, cosmetics, and body image. The analysis uncovers a representation of sexuality that parallels sociocultural norms of contradiction and antilogy in the characterization of girls' desire.
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