ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ubiquitous and problematic treatment of adolescent women's sexual awakening as impetus for social resistance in dystopian novels for young adults. It discusses for the protagonists and many others like them, sexual awakening already a common, complicated aspect of adolescent life and literature takes on new meaning within the questions of control and conformity that inform the experiences of fictional young people in dystopian futures. The chapter also discusses the messages that attempts to link young women's physical power with the possibility of larger social influence are frequently undermined by implicit assumptions about what constitutes "normal" bodies and desires. As a result, the paired emphases on beauty and heteronormativity limit the degree to which these protagonists' sexual awakenings can truly be understood as reflections of and predecessors to social resistance. In the case of the novels, the female protagonists have internalized social expectations regarding sexuality and desire.
