Feminilidade llíquida: a escolha de objeto não binária entre as adolescentes contemporâneas

Abstract

The present research sought to reflect on the choice of non-binary objects among contemporary adolescent girls. The investigation sprang from concerns in clinical practice, as an increasing number of young women, between the ages of 13 and 21 years, claimed to be bisexual. Professionals from other fields working with the same population were consulted, and they corroborated this impression, alluding to the possibility of a characteristic movement in that direcction for the current generation of young women. In a thorough bibliographic review - using databases and research indicators - nothing significant was found. For this reason, it became necessary to resort to other elements of culture, such as newspapers and magazines. Market research from 2015 carried out by the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson involving young people between 13 and 21 years old (known as generation Z) from Brazil, the United States, and England with significant results. Overver 1,500 people were interviewed and, of these, 48% defined themselves as completely heterosexual, and the other 52% as either homosexual (6%) or bisexual (46%). Such definitions can have great impact on the construction of sexual identity and on the object choies of the current generation, as we see a change in the norm. Hence, the question arises: are we observing a genuine movement toward greater sexual freedom or an imprisonment into new cultural ideals? Considering that part of the cultural contexts affect the psychical apparatus of individuals, we find that the contemporary scenario leaves its marks on subjectivity and, consequently, on the sexuation (the taking on of a sexual gender) in contemporary children and adolescents. New technologies, new questions, new enigmas have changed the way in which sexuality is experienced. This context and its impasses and anguish is a common theme in a psychoanalysts’ offices and, in that sense, through the intertwining of theory and practice (through clinical vignettes), we sought to reflect how cultural factors influence sexuation and object choices in contemporary teenagers. How does the issue of bisexuality and post-binary logic relate to femininity from a Freudian and post-Freudian perspective? How do pressures in the constitution of gender performance operate? What are the psychological mechanisms involved in the incorporation of the identity models that are present in social discourse? And, finally, what is the role of the psychoanalyst working with this population?