Social implications

an analysis of verbo-ideological forces acting on female bodies in the series Sex Education

Abstract

The British series Sex Education stands out internationally for addressing themes related to sexuality in a manner that is both accessible and critically engaged, resonating with the lived experiences of many contemporary young people. This study focuses analytically on the characters Ola and Lily, aiming to examine how the social environment influences their choices and practices throughout the first two seasons. The objective is to understand how the series reflects and refracts the social fabric through fictional constructions shaped by hegemonic discourses. The research is situated within the field of Applied Linguistics and is theoretically grounded in the Bakhtin Circle (2011, 2015), particularly in the concepts of centripetal and centrifugal forces. These are complemented by the theoretical contributions of Louro (2000) and Butler (2003) regarding discussions on the body and sexuality, and Morin (1997) concerning the influence of mass culture on contemporary audiovisual media. Employing a qualitative-interpretative approach, the study analyzes utterances from the selected characters and their discursive interactions with others. The results reveal a continuous tension between forces of normalization and resistance that (de)center the characters’ actions, opening space for the emergence of dissident subjectivities within symbolic regimes of control.