(Un)romantic Becomings

Girls, Sexuality-assemblages, and the School Ball

in Girlhood Studies
Author:
Toni Ingram Senior Lecturer, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand Toni.ingram@aut.ac.nz

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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0013-0185
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2022.150206
Keywords:
affect; femininities; materiality; more-than-human; new materialisms; prom; schooling
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Abstract

Popular culture and media often portray school balls and proms as romantic spaces and having a date is perceived as the norm. While gender(ed) and heterosexual discourses continue to shape young people's experiences, girls’ understandings of the school ball do not necessarily conform to dominant ideas. In this article, I draw on a new materialist ontology of sexuality to explore the relations in-between girls, dates, and the school ball. I examine ball-girl-date encounters as sexuality-assemblages comprising bodies, spatial-material arrangements, practices, and imaginings. In this frame, sexuality is conceptualized as becoming via an array of material-discursive, human, and more-than-human forces. I consider how ball-girl capacities and desires become emergent and contingent, opening up ways of thinking about girls and the school ball beyond popular cultural constructions.

Contributor Notes

Toni Ingram (ORCID: 0000-0002-0013-0185) is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Aotearoa New Zealand. Her research is situated in the areas of girlhood, gender, sexualities, and schooling and her current work is informed by feminist new materialisms, affect theory, and posthumanist methodological approaches. Email: Toni.ingram@aut.ac.nz

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Girlhood Studies

An Interdisciplinary Journal

Cover Girlhood Studies
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
18
Keywords:
affect; femininities; materiality; more-than-human; new materialisms; prom; schooling
Print Publication Date:
01 Jun 2022
Online Publication Date:
01 Jun 2022
Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022

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