Young Chinese Females' Viewing of Sexually Explicit Video: Femininity, Sexuality, and the Politicized Experience.

Contextualized in a transitioning China, this article addresses the complex relations young Chinese females form with sexually explicit videos and its implications for their gender and sexuality. The study shows that young Chinese females' viewing experience of sexually explicit video is strongly informed by the patriarchal discourse of femininity. Differentiating erotic film from pornography, Chinese women take erotic film as a feminine sphere where they belong to. While these females locate their viewing practice in their curiosity, desire to learn, and seeking of pleasure, the perceived personal significance of sexually explicit videos differs for sexually experienced and inexperienced women as it is based on the (in)comparability with real-life sexual experience and the phallocentric discourse on sex that the function of the videos are defined. The viewing practice also raises a dilemma for heterosexual female viewers as their tendency to paying more attention on women's bodies is perceived as "natural" for their heterosexual femininity but "unnatural" for their feminine heterosexuality. In Negotiation with the patriarchal gender discourse, Chinese young females construct sexually explicit videos as a political site for rebellion and subversion while largely fail to take concrete actions to exploit its potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]