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Women are surrounded by sexualized imagery as well as cultural narratives that dictate their sexual behavior. These diverse cultural narratives include: women are sexually passive, women should desire sex and be sexually empowered, and women are expected to navigate ambivalent societal messages regarding their sexuality. In our study, we explored how college-aged young women describe and understand their first exposure to a sexual image. This mixed methods study, guided by critical feminism, addresses how young women, reflecting on their experiences since girlhood, have navigated changing cultural standards for female sexuality in light of complex negotiations among varying expectations. We examined 445 young women’s written reflections on seeing a sexual image for the first time. Most of the women reported that this experience occurred when they were in elementary school, and at …