Layli Phillips

Freaks, gold diggers, divas, and dykes: The sociohistorical development of adolescent African American women’s sexual scripts

The development of a sexual self is based in an understanding of the messages and meanings an individual is given about sexual roles and behaviors. To understand how meanings become scripts unique to adolescent African American women’s experiences, it is important to look at how their images have been framed within a racialized and sexualized sociohistorical context. The remnants of the foundational Jezebel, Mammy, Matriarch, and Welfare. Mother images of African American womanhood remain today, as exemplified by similar, yet more sexually explicit scripts that include the Freak, Gold Digger, Diva, and Dyke. This paper explores the sociohistorical development of current sexual scripts for African American female adolescents through an interpretation of Hip Hop culture documents, and the available empirical research. The relevance of these current sexual scripts to sexual identity development, sexual risk-taking behaviors, and interpersonal relationship dynamics are also addressed.

Integrating Black feminist thought into conceptual frameworks of African American adolescent women's sexual scripting processes

This paper integrates Black feminist thought with Simon and Gagnon’s (1986). Sexual Scripts: Permanence and Change. Archives of Several Behaviour, 15, 97–120.) framework of sexual script development to illustrate ways in which sexuality socialization, messages, and meanings are internalized and are manifested through sexual scripts among African American adolescent women. The influence of the media, peers, family, and racial and gender identity factors in this process are highlighted. As blueprints about sexual norms, behavior, and experiences, the sexual scripting processes identified through this new paradigm have implications for research and programming that target human sexuality issues within this population.

Fitting In and Feeling Good

Abstract This study examined self-evaluation (self-esteem, perceived physical attractiveness, and perceived social competence) and indicators of psychological stress (physical and somatic symptoms of depression and substance use) among 463 adolescent biracial girls from three different backgrounds: Black-White, Hispanic-White, and Asian-White. Patterns of self-evaluation and psychological stress were examined as a function of both parentage and self-identification as either White or non-White. Biracial girls were compared with nonbiracial girls on all variables. Results indicated that outcomes vary as a function of parentage and ethnic self-identification and that there is broad variability among biracial girls from different backgrounds.

Experiences of Two-Spirit Lesbian and Gay Native Americans: An Argument for Standpoint Theory in Identity Research

Reviewing the literature by and about 2-spirit lesbian and gay Native Americans from the perspective of standpoint theory, we detail 5 differences in their social locations as compared to those of Euro-American lesbians and gays that may contribute to differences in identity experiences and knowledge. We explore these through a modified form of grounded theory analysis of the identity experiences of 6 self-identified 2-spirit lesbian or gay Native Americans, recounted during in-depth interviews. We present the resulting 5 themes with quotes from participants for clarification and support, along with a discussion of their contribution to the development of a detailed knowledge regarding the experiences of members of this population. In addition, we present our findings as empirical support for the incorporation of standpoint theory, with its potential to focus on such identity interconnections within identity research as a whole.

Decentering Gender: Bisexual Identity as an Expression of a Non-Dichotomous Worldview

The study of bisexual identity has undergone a number of theoretical shifts in the past several decades, moving from the dismissal of bisexuality as a transitional period to the treatment of bisexuality as a legitimate sexual identity based on gendered desire (or attraction to men and women). A third tradition understands bisexuality as an identity that contests the dichotomous sex/gender structure. Working within this third tradition, we present the results of two studies that conceptualize a bisexual identity as the expression of a non-dichotomous worldview. The concept of world-view is imported from the field of ethnic studies and examined in relation to bisexual identity. We present nine themes that emerged from our qualitative data analysis and consider the relations between these themes and worldview. We conclude with potential directions for future research in the arena of worldview and sexual identity.