Kody Keplinger's The DUFF

Abstract

Although young women claim sexual freedom and purport to re-signify the word slut as being a positive definition of sexual agency, sexuality studies show that they often lose control of this signification in the broader community, and the social consequences remain detrimental. In this article, I trace the feminist project of re-signification of the slut back to Judith Butler and apply it to Kody Keplinger's contemporary young adult novel The DUFF. I show that this novel illustrates what can be a hard truth for feminists and feminism to accept—the tension between the feminist imperative to re-signify discourse as a sign of personal empowerment, and the reality that changing discourse relies on others (particularly men) to become allies.