Muted resistance: The deployment of youth voice in news coverage of young women’s sexuality in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Youth sexuality is typically constructed as a social problem, and associated with a range of negative consequences for larger society and for young people themselves – especially young women. The media play a role in perpetuating this dominant construction, but may also offer a space for resistance. In this article, mainstream news media reportage on youth sexual and reproductive issues in Aotearoa (New Zealand) is discursively analysed to identify instances of resistance to oppressive discourses. Taking a feminist poststructuralist perspective, the aim is to connect news reporting, as a representational practice, with broader relations of power. The focus of the analysis, therefore, is on whether and how young people are allowed a voice in news reportage, and to what effect their voices are deployed. The analysis demonstrates not only that youth voice is relatively muted in comparison to experts, but also that it is frequently used to reinforce the dominant constructions of youth sexuality (as problematic and risky). Yet, instances of resistance are also evident. These are assessed in relation to their impact on gender power relations, and possibilities for amplifying resistance are discussed.

Reproductive governance and the affective economy

“…These two articles thus show how in normative discourses of teenage reproduction, certain affects stick to and circulate around young motherhood and young mothers to stigmatise both and to construct "good" motherhood as the preserve of adults, whilst pathologising black and indigenous people's reproduction. In contrast to these dominant representations, pride, competence, and satisfaction featured in young mothers' resistant talk in Morison and Herbert's (2020) article. However, as the authors argue, the framing of this affect within a "redemption narrative" wherein the young mothers are "fallen subjects" who (must) "redeem" themselves through responsible motherhood, offers limited resistance to the repronormative framing of young motherhood/mothers as "bad" and young women as "unruly".…”

“…Shifting to the ways in which ageism and racism interact to shape the regulation of motherhood, both Macleod (2001) and Morison and Herbert (2020) critically analyse representations of cisgender teenaged reproduction in scientific literature and news media in South Africa and Aotearoa New Zealand, respectively. In their articles, the authors show how a hyper-focus on young motherhood, which is constructed as indication and cause of social and individual problems, a "natural" cause for fear, concern, alarm, and pity, and as shameful, holds young pregnant women solely responsible for reproduction and problematises their reproduction whilst invisibilising fathers.…”

“…In their articles, the authors show how a hyper-focus on young motherhood, which is constructed as indication and cause of social and individual problems, a "natural" cause for fear, concern, alarm, and pity, and as shameful, holds young pregnant women solely responsible for reproduction and problematises their reproduction whilst invisibilising fathers. Their analyses demonstrate how racism interacts with ageism to mean a hyper-focus on black young motherhood in South Africa (Macleod, 2001) and Māori young motherhood in Aotearoa New Zealand (Morison & Herbert, 2020).…”

“…In terms of the normative affect expected of young mothers, shame and regret emerge as intelligible in much of the news coverage in Morison and Herbert's (2020) article, in a narrative that constructs this kind of affect as a requisite for young mothers to "redeem" themselves. And in the scientific literature analysed by Macleod (2001), jealousy, resentment, and a lack of maternal affection emerge as "characteristic" of young mothers.…”