Feminized sexual consumption has gained increasing legitimacy in the marketplace. Despite calls for critical, feminist perspectives, extant research in marketing continues to prioritize its emancipatory implications. In this article, we draw on the cultural theory of “postfeminism” to critically analyze the sexual narratives of young women. Tightly bound with neoliberal ethics, a postfeminist orientation encourages women—purported to have achieved equality thanks to past feminist activism—to work on, invest in, and manage their sexual lives. This discourse manifests in women’s sexual and intimate experiences in two key ways: first, through their attempts to establish authority and control in their relationships, an endeavor thwarted by neoliberal and patriarchal logics; and second, through an implicit submissive sexual positioning that privileges masculine meanings of sexual pleasure. These findings suggest an inherent contradiction between participants’ understanding of themselves as free, able, and equal, and the constraining, subjugating experiences shaping their relationships and (sexual) lives. Our key contribution to feminist critique and theorizing is to illustrate how postfeminist discourses operate to mask and deny oppressive patriarchal discourses, which paradoxically increases their strength under the guise of female emancipation and consumer choice.

女性化的性消费在市场上正变得越来越合法。尽管呼吁批评，女权主义的观点，但市场营销方面的现有研究仍将其解放性的工作列为优先事项。在本文中，我们借鉴“后女权主义”的文化理论来批判性地分析年轻女性的性叙述。后女权主义取向与新自由主义伦理紧密相关，鼓励妇女（据称由于过去的女权主义行动而实现了平等）从事，投资和管理其性生活。这种话语体现在女性的性和亲密经历中，主要有两种方式：第一，通过尝试建立权威和控制自己的关系，新自由主义和父权主义逻辑阻碍了这种努力。其次，通过隐含的，顺从的性取向，使男性具有性快感的特权。这些发现表明，参与者对自己的自由，能力和平等的理解与塑造他们之间的关系和（性）生活的约束性，屈服性体验之间存在着内在矛盾。我们对女权主义批评和理论化的主要贡献是说明后女权主义话语如何掩盖和否认压迫性的父权制话语，这在女性解放和消费者选择的幌子下反而增强了其实力。