Sexual Stratification and Sexual Agency Among Low-Income Girls in an Andean City

Abstract This article analyzes the results of ethnographic research into the ways in which sexuality and social hierarchies and inequalities interact in the experiences of low-income female youth who participated in a sexual and reproductive rights project in poor neighborhoods in Ayacucho, Peru. Following Gayle Rubin, it studies sexuality as a structure that organizes relationships with their own particularities and forms of oppression, a structure that in turn interacts with those of gender, age, social class, and ethnicity. The study also explores forms of gender agency, as well as female teenagers’ cultural logics related to sexual risks and sexual rights. It follows conceptual orientations of practice theory, seeking to contribute to discussions of female youth agency.