ABSTRACT
This chapter draws from data produced with teenage girls in South Africa about their experiences with sexually explicit materials to argue against a negative effects model that narrowly views such encounters as exclusively within the realm of harm. A new feminist materialist approach suggests the intra-active forces of a range of both human and non-human forces in everyday life which are mobilised relationally to suggest how girls discover and make sense of sexuality, which increases their capacities as sexual beings. Wide-ranging access to devices, technologies, books, media, social networks systems, and television provides particular affordances in girls’ sexual embodiment, opening up potential for new ways of becoming. The notion of the girl at risk from sexually explicit materials falls short of girls’ own perspectives, which are diverse and offer a counterpoint to dominant accounts of girlhood in South Africa.
