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Emmy And Dawn's Case Study

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Then, Emmy steps in and says, “Being open is different than whoring around.” Valerie already does not like Emmy, and her comment only encourages her dislike for her. Emmy and Dawn are comfortable in embracing an untraditional approach to sex and relationships, despite the criticism they receive. They are an example of people who do not believe “that adults who come in conventional pairings are the only ones who truly count,” unlike many others in society (Depaulo 19). Ultimately though, both Emmy and Dawn’s openness to sexual experiences result in consequences. In Dawn’s case, it destroys her relationship with her children. For Emmy, it backfires when her and Valerie do MDMA at the wedding party and end up sleeping together. Alex walks in on …show more content…

In certain moments, she seems mature beyond her years; in others, she holds the same juvenile views as other 16-year-old girls. Dealing with the pains of her parents’ divorce, she seeks validation and comfort through sexual experiences. At the start of the season, she has a boyfriend named Emile, but when he cheats on her and they break up, it only fuels her desire for male attention. She is a hypersexual teenager, which is another common trope in television. While her friends are consumed by thoughts of parties and plastic surgery, her mind is filled with thoughts of her photography teacher Michael. The fantasies are partly due to her inevitable coming-of-age, but they become borderline obsessive—most likely the result of feeling rejected after her parents’ separation and wanting an older man’s attention. From the start, it is clear her relationship with Valerie is honest and open. They speak about sex candidly, but for some reason, she never expresses her feelings for Michael to her mother. In a desperate and immature effort to get Michael’s attention, Laura videotapes her and Emile having sex. Then, she anonymously sends it around school. It is her way of “proving that [she is] hot, worthy of lust, and—necessarily—that [she] seeks to provoke lust” (Levy 33). Her efforts fail, which confuses her since she lives in a society where young girls are taught men want women “imitating a stripper or a porn star” (Levy 4). Upon …show more content…

As a result, people also believe the problems associated with sexual objectification have been entirely eradicated. In reality, one must simply recognize that a shift has occurred in which women are no longer serving as sexual objects, but instead, are being identified as sexual subjects. Identifying this shift “is crucial in understanding the postfeminist sensibility” (Gill 258). But the issue with portraying women as sexual subjects is that people believe women are always interested in having sex, whenever a man wants. In episode 9: “Mars,” this belief is addressed with irony rather than with legitimate degradation and intent. Laura is arguing with Michael outside of an art show. She says, “Denying what you felt doesn’t make you a good guy.” He responds, “You know what, you’re right. Let’s do it right here. Do you want to fuck in the bathroom or go out back and do it in the alley?” He proceeds to explain that the only reason she wants to have sex with him is to tell her friends. This scene is disturbing, but scares Laura into the realization that she wants Michael for the wrong reasons. If she wanted him as bad as she had believed prior to the conversation, she probably would have had sex with him wherever he suggested. The moment of confrontation awakens her from her fantasies, not to say the realization was painless. More than anything, the rejection plummets her deeper into feelings of rejection and

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