Showing papers on "Heteronormativity published in 2011"

Navigating the heteronormativity of engineering: the experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students

Abstract: While much is known about the experiences of women and racial/ethnic minorities in male-dominated fields such as engineering, the experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identifying individuals remain unstudied. Our article breaks this silence with an exploratory study of the ways LGB students at a major research university in the western United States both experience and navigate the climate of their engineering college. Based on interviews and focus groups, we find that both pervasive prejudicial cultural norms and perceptions of competence particular to the engineering profession can limit these students' opportunities to succeed, relative to their heterosexual peers. Nevertheless, through coping strategies which can require immense amounts of additional emotional and academic effort, LGB students navigate a chilly and heteronormative engineering climate by ‘passing’ as heterosexual, ‘covering’ or downplaying cultural characteristics associated with LGB identities, and garnering expertise to ma...

The Lies We Have Been Told: On (Homo) Sexuality in Africa

Abstract: In this paper, I explore the waves of homophobia that seem to be sweeping the African continent. I present evidence that homophobia is not only publicly approved by African leaders, but relies on unsubstantiated claims of an imposed homosexual identity, contradictory ideas on morality, and the use of outdated laws. I argue that these claims represent a facade that serves to entrench patriarchy and heteronormativity as legitimate and fixed in African societies. I show that the key difference between the West and Africa is not the presence or absence of same-sex desire, but its different social construction. Finally, I argue for an intersectional approach, which recognizes the intersections between sexism and homophobia, and assert that the situation calls for more focused organizing by Africans themselves in addressing the recent increase in expressions of homophobia.

Views from both sides of the bridge? Gender, sexual legitimacy and transgender people's experiences of relationships

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine whether transgender people's experiences of relationships are influenced by heteronormativity, the related concept of sexual legitimacy, and gender as a binary construct. Data from an Internet-based study of transgender people in the USA was used. Findings seem to indicate that participants were strongly influenced by heteronormative discourses. However, less rigid gender beliefs are associated with lower levels of internalised transphobia, which, in turn, are associated with higher levels of self-esteem. Transgender people can therefore find themselves in a double-bind where, on one hand, conforming to gender and sexual norms leads to validation by mainstream US society, but could possibly entail diminished psychological well-being.

Shady Characters, Untrustworthy Partners, and Promiscuous Sluts: Creating Bisexual Intimacies in the Face of Heteronormativity and Biphobia

Abstract: This article explores the question: what kind of relationship problems do bisexual people experience as a result bi-negative attitudes? It explores stereotypical representations of bisexuality focusing on bisexual identity, intimacy, and sexuality. Bisexuals are often cast as highly problematic or risky lovers or partners. Bisexual intimacies face erasure through invisibility, misrecognition through distortion, or condemnation through moral devaluation. The article locates the origin of common discourses on bisexual people's psychic deficiency, personal incapacity, and lack of loyalty in heteronormative and bi-negative conceptualizations of sexuality.

Taking Queer Linguistics further: sociolinguistics and critical heteronormativity research

Abstract: This article provides an overview of the young discipline of Queer Linguistics and discusses how it may be fruitfully applied in sociolinguistics as a contribution to critical heteronormativity research. After locating Queer Linguistics historically as a reaction to earlier essentialist approaches in the field of language and sexuality, its theoretical underpinnings are outlined. Queer Linguistics is not to be equalled with a “gay and lesbian” approach to language. It rather transfers ideas from Queer Theory to linguistic research, building on the integration of work by poststructuralist scholars such as Foucault, Butler and Derrida in order to provide a critical investigation of the discursive formation of heteronormativity. Three potential criticisms against Queer Linguistics as a poststructuralist approach are addressed: its supposedly low relevance, issues of political agency, and its alleged lack of empirical applicability. Finally, methodological suggestions are made as to how sociolinguists may proceed from a Queer Linguistic point of view, focusing on ethnographically oriented studies of local identity negotiation, critical approaches to Discourse Analysis and Contrastive Sociolinguistics.

“We Want Them to Be as Heterosexual as Possible” Fathers Talk about Their Teen Children’s Sexuality

Abstract: This article examines heterosexual fathers’ descriptions of conversations with their teen children about sexuality and their perceptions of their teen children’s sexual identities We show that fathers construct their own identities as masculine and heterosexual in the context of these conversations and prefer that their children, especially sons, are heterosexual Specifically, fathers feel accountable for their sons’ sexuality and model and craft heterosexuality for them, even as many encourage their sons to stay away from heterosexual relationships and sex until they are older Fathers are more accepting of homosexuality for their daughters yet question the authenticity of teen lesbian identity and do not recognize their daughters’ sexuality as agentic They instead construct their daughters as sexually passive and vulnerable and position themselves as their daughters’ protectors The findings illustrate the complexities of heteronormativity in a context of shifting, frequently contested gender and sex

Perceptions of ‘coming out’ among British Muslim gay men

Abstract: The cultural processes of heteronormativity and compulsory heterosexuality are acutely active within Islamic societies. The present study explored perceptions of ‘coming out’ among a group of British Muslim gay men (BMGM), focussing upon the potential consequences for identity processes and psychological well-being. Ten BMGM of Pakistani descent were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. Interview transcripts were subjected to interpretative phenomenological analysis and informed by identity process theory. Four superordinate themes are reported, including (1) ‘social representational constraints upon “coming out”’; (2) ‘ “coming out”: a source of shame and a threat to distinctiveness’; (3) ‘fear of physical violence from ingroup members’; and (4) ‘foreseeing the future: “coming out” as a coping strategy’. Data suggest that BMGM face a bi-dimensional homophobia from ethno-religious ingroup members and the general population, which can render the prospect of ‘coming out’ threatening for i...

Moving (in) the heterosexual matrix. On heteronormativity in secondary school physical education

Abstract: Background: Studies on heteronormativity in PE either appear to have explored the experiences of and conditions for non-heterosexual students, or adopt a retrospective point of view. Further, the r ...

‘It’s Not Like We’re Going to Jump Them’: How Transgressing Heteronormativity Shapes Police Interactions with LGBT Young People

Abstract: This paper explores how visibly transgressing heteronormativity shapes police interactions with LGBT young people. While research provides evidence about how sexually and gender diverse bodies can ...

‘It’s not like we’re going to jump them’: how transgressing heteronormativity shapes police interactions with LGBT young people

Abstract: This paper explores how visibly transgressing heteronormativity shapes police interactions with LGBT young people. While research evidences how sexually and gender diverse bodies can be abused in schools, policing is overlooked. Interviews with 35 LGBT young people demonstrate how bodies transgressing heteronormativity (that is, non-heteronormative bodies) mediate their policing experiences in Queensland, Australia. Drawing on Foucault, Butler, and others, the paper suggests police interactions and use of discretion with LGBT young people was informed by non-heteronormative bodies discursively performing queerness in ways read by police. The paper concludes noting tensions produced for youthful LGBT bodies in public spaces.

‘As long as they keep away from me’: the paradox of antigay violence in a gay-friendly country

Abstract: Considering the tolerant and gay-friendly image of the Netherlands, antigay violence is a remarkably grave problem. By combining a broad survey of Amsterdam youth with in-depth interviews with smaller groups and individual attackers and reviewing recent cases, we conclude that traditional norms of gender and sexuality present in broader society form the breeding ground of the violence. The gay-friendly narrative that dominates discussions on citizenship in the Netherlands – opposing the liberal ‘Dutch’ to the Muslim ‘Other’ – coexists next to traditional norms of gender and sexuality, thereby not challenging the roots of homonegativity. Even perpetrators duplicate the prevailing gay-tolerant rhetoric of Dutch society, but do not refrain from all sorts of violence as soon as they are confronted with aspects of it that collide with traditional norms of gender and sexuality. Peer pressure and the fear of seduction often function as triggers of the violence. However, these situational factors can only be unde...

Same‐Sex Relationships and Dissolution: The Connection Between Heteronormativity and Homonormativity

Abstract: A queer feminist lens is used to present a selected review of the demographic and descriptive literature related to how same-sex couples in the United States begin and dissolve relationships We argue that despite research suggesting a uniformity of same-sex coupling that reflects a heteronormative nuclear family, there is actually great diversity in same-sex relationships As legal recognition of same-sex couples increases from state to state, however, the dissolution of same-sex relationships has become as challenging as legally establishing them This review explores several current cases representing the difficulties experienced by couples who marry or have a civil union in states requiring residency prior to dissolution and try to dissolve a relationship when they reside in a state that does not recognize same-sex unions Key Words: dissolution, feminist theory, heteronormativity, policy, queer theory, same-sex couples In the past two decades there has been a marked increase in the study of the family relationships of same-sex couples (Biblarz & Savci, 2010; Patterson, 2000) One line of research has focused on comparing relationship processes (eg, Kurdek, 2004, 2006) and examining parenting and child outcomes between gay, lesbian, and heterosexual couples (eg, Patterson, Sutfin, & Fulcher, 2004) This research has demonstrated considerable similarity across most areas of family functioning between groups For example, Kurdek (2006) generally found minor differences in effect sizes between groups; that is, predictors and processes of commitment, stability, and relationship quality were comparable between gay, lesbian, and heterosexual couples with or without children Similar findings have been reported by researchers using observational techniques (eg, Gottman et al, 2003; Julien, Chartrand, Simard, Bouthillier, & Begin, 2003) The underlying assumption of this comparative research, however, is that gay families are all generally the same (cf Lewis, Derlega, Berndt, Morris, & Rose, 200 1 ) This assumption not only masks the complexity and diversity of same-sex families, but it also limits our understanding of their unique experiences and needs, including our understanding of experiences not considered ideal from a heteronormative standpoint, such as nonmonogamy A second line of research has focused on perpetuating the notion that same-sex families possess heightened harmony and adaptiveness, an ideological type similar to the nostalgic first marriage nuclear heterosexual family (Malone & Cleary, 2002) Strategically, these studies are important and needed, as they have proved useful in advancing law (eg, same-sex marriage) and policy (eg, partner medical coverage options in the workplace) that support gay and lesbian-headed families (Brower, 2009; Stacey & Biblarz, 2001) The reasons for these two approaches to the study of same-sex couples and families are understandable We assert, however, that the insights gleaned from the family lives of gays and lesbians and the policy advances garnered using these two lines of research also create bias (Oswald, Blume, & Marks, 2005; Stacey & Biblarz, 2001) by implying that same-sex families are situated within heteronormativity, an ideology used to promote the normality of the traditional heterosexual marriage in the larger US culture through law, policy, and enactment (Duggan, 2003) This ideology demands the acceptance and internalization of heteronormative ideals to create families within the gay and lesbian community and represents what is called homonormativity, or the assimilation of heteronormative structures, such as the nuclear family, into the relationships of lesbians and gay men (Duggan, 2003) By positioning gay and lesbian couples and families as just like heterosexual couples and families, the ways in which these couples may have experiences different than those of heterosexual couples are made invisible and unexamined …

“They Didn’t Have Out There Gay Parents—They Just Looked Like Normal Regular Parents”: Investigating Teachers’ Approaches to Addressing Same‐Sex Parenting and Non‐normative Sexuality in the Elementary School Classroom

Abstract: In this article we draw on queer theoretical and critical literacy perspectives to investigate elementary school teachers' pedagogical approaches to addressing same- sex parenting and non-normative sexuality in the elementary classroom. Through undertaking case study research, we examine two Australian elementary school teachers' reflections on using literacy resources in their classrooms which include representations of same-sex families/relationships. Our overall aim in reporting on this study is to provide further insight into the pedagogical potential for interrupting heteronormativity in the elementary school classroom and within the broader context of English education. Implications of the research for pre-service teacher education and for the professional learning of teachers more generally are outlined.

Why is development work so straight? Heteronormativity in the international development industry

Abstract: International development work has both reinforced and challenged inequalities related to sexuality and gender. The concept of heteronormativity is a promising frame for understanding these dynamics. This article starts with a description of the history of the concept and an exploration of its possible applications. It goes on to consider heteronormativity in development work, in relation to three areas in which struggles based on sex and gender orders have been most visible: in household models and family forms; HIV/AIDS; and efforts to combat violence against women.

Questioning heteronormativity: using queer theory to inform research and practice within public mental health services

Abstract: Queer theory is often maligned as being inadequate for advancing social justice. So, how might queer theory guide research and practice in public mental health services (PMHS)? Within the research on mental health issues for lesbians, gays and bisexuals (LGB) there are calls for making mental health services more LGB affirmative. Mostly this scholarship is from the field of ‘lesbian and gay psychology’. This tends to have an individualistic, positivist and essentialising focus. As such, it is limited in exploring how heteronormative cultural discourses impact on research, mental health systems and clinical practice. For example, common recommendations include separate LGB services and matching clients and clinicians along sexual orientation lines. Utilising a queer perspective on the homo/hetero binary, this article argues that such strategies are minoritising, in that they make homosexuality relevant to only a minority of clients and staff. When applied to mental health practice, minoritising strategies ...

Mothers, fathers or parents: same-gendered families in South Africa

Abstract: Advances and changes in globalised culture are responsible for a wide variety of ways in which families are formed and in which children grow up. Although members of the gay community have in the past been associated with a childless lifestyle, gay people are increasingly opting for motherhood and fatherhood by creating families of their own or by continuing to live with their children from former heterosexual relationships. This article addresses the concept of same-gendered families as an example of the changing face of families, relating it to the heteronormativity that is embedded in Westernised societies. The dichotomies of sexuality are confronted and used to illuminate the cultural assumptions embedded in the concept ‘family’ from a postmodern perspective. Special attention is given to a postmodern and social constructionist perspective on the concept of family, by examining the gendered and sexualised perceptions that underlie same-gendered families. The interfaces between parenting, gend...

Tackling femininity: The heterosexual paradigm and women's soccer in South Africa

Abstract: Sport is a social institution that perpetuates gendered ideologies in the wider society through appealing to discourses of the naturalness of men's privilege and domination in society. Heteronormativity regulates the roles, behaviours, appearances and sexualities of, and relationships between and among, women and men. Moreover, heteronormative discourses normalise a particular relationship between sex, gender and sexuality that posits woman/feminine/heterosexual (and man/masculine/heterosexual) as a natural order from which variance is considered a punishable deviance. This paper outlines the effects of heteronormative discourses in the lives of women footballers in South Africa, through drawing on interviews with a wide range of women footballers. The paper shows how heteronormative discourses nurture homophobic attitudes that serve to regulate the appearances and performances of South African women.

Maternal Instincts, Biological Clocks, and Soccer Moms: Gay Men's Parenting and Family Narratives

Abstract: Drawing on an integrated theoretical framework of symbolic interaction and queer theory, I analyze how forty-one mostly white middleclass gay men accomplish their parenting and family identities. Findings reveal how gay active and prospective parents are influenced by the normative family ideal and implicate themselves in dominant discourses about (hetero)sexuality, gender, family, and parenting. Data suggest that in order for gay men to understand themselves as parents, many identify with female-familial roles and frame their parenting experiences in maternal terms, using such terms as maternal instincts, biological clocks, and soccer moms. I argue that these patterns emerge because these men inhabit a rather liminal space that lacks any definitive models or guidelines. These men make sense of their liminality by framing their identities and experiences within established gendered and heterosexual parenting scripts, resulting in a narrative hybrid of heterosexual men's family and parenting trajectories and discourses about women, femininity, and mothering.

Even if you say it three ways, it still doesn’t mean it’s true: The pervasiveness of heteronormativity in early childhood education:

Abstract: Heteronormativity, the concept that heterosexual sexuality is an institutionalized norm and a superior and privileged standard, is held firm when discourses of gender, sexualities and family form converge. In a study of heteronormative discourses in the context of early childhood education, teachers shared accounts of practices where genders, sexualities and family form were troubled and troubling. An analysis of these showed the repetitive distribution of the statement, heterosexuality is/as normal, and therefore illuminated the pervasiveness of heteronormativity in work with young children and families. This article makes visible the ways heteronormativity is achieved in early childhood education along these trajectories and asks, in whose interests is the (hetero)norm being preserved?

Feminism at the movies : understanding gender in contemporary popular cinema

Abstract: Introduction: "Re-Vision"?: Feminist Film Criticism in the Twenty-first Century, Hilary Radner and Rebecca Stringer I Masculinity in Question 1 "The First Bond Who Bleeds, Literally and Metaphorically": Gendered Spectatorship for 'Pretty Boy' Action Movies, Janet Staiger 2 Queer Memories and Universal Emotions: A Single Man (2009), Michael DeAngelis 3 "Lad Flicks": Discursive Reconstructions of Masculinity in Popular Film, David Hansen-Miller and Rosalind Gill 4 Transamerica (2005): The Road to the Multiplex after New Queer Cinema, Gary Needham II New Feminine Subjects: A Space for Women? 5 Enchanted (2007) by Postfeminism, Yvonne Tasker 6 Neoliberal Femininity in Miss Congeniality (2000), Yael D Sherman 7 Girls' Sexualities in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Universe: Feminist Challenges and Missed Opportunities, Sarah Projansky 8 Michael Clayton (2007): Women Lawyers Betrayed - Again, Taunya Lovell Banks 9 Crossing Race, Crossing Sex in Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham (2002): Managing Anxiety in Multicultural Britain, Mridula Nath Chakraborty 10 Speaking the Name of the Father in the Neo-Romantic Comedy: 13 Going On 30 (2004), Hilary Radner III Consuming Culture(s) 11 No Country for Old Women: Gendering Cinema in Conglomerate Hollywood, Rob Schaap 12 Music and the Woman's Film: Sex and the City: The Movie (2008), Peter Stapleton 13 Independence at What Cost? Economics and Female Desire in Nicole Holofcener's Friends With Money (2006), Michele Schreiber 14 The Feminist Poetics of Sophia Coppola: Spectacle and Self-Consciousness in Marie Antoinette (2006), Christina Lane and Nicole Richter IV Relationships, Identity and Family 15 "Eggs in Many Baskets": Juno (2007), Baby Mama (2008) and the New Intimacies of Reproduction, Jane Maree Maher 16 Temporarily Kissing Jessica Stein (2001): Negotiating (and Negating) Lesbian Sexuality in Popular Film, Kelly Kessler 17 "Die, Bridezilla, Die!": Bride Wars (2009), Wedding Envy and Chick Flicks, Heather Brook 18 Extreme Parenting: Recuperating Fatherhood in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (2005), Hannah Hamad V Gender and Violence 19 Kinship and Racist Violence in Gina Prince-Bythewood's The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Ewa Ziarek 20 From Victim to Vigilante: Gender, Violence and Revenge in The Brave One (2007) and Hard Candy (2005), Rebecca Stringer 21 "When the Woman Looks": High Tension (2003) and the Horrors of Heteronormativity, Barry Keith Grant

Queer Politics and Sexual Modernity in Taiwan

Abstract: Examining the deployments of gender and sexuality over the past five decades in Taiwan, this book chronicles a queer historiography that illuminates the production of sexual identities and the formation of sexual modernity. Through primary research and historical investigation, Hans Tao-Ming Huang offers a contextualised study of Pai Hsien-yung's Crystal Boys, one of Taiwan's first recognized gay novels, as he critically engages disparate discursive fields of dominant legal and medical discourses of sex, lesbian and gay activism, as well as mainstream feminist politics. He shows that the construction of male homosexuality as a term of social exclusion is historically linked to the state's banning of prostitution, further delineating a moral-sexual order that has come to be buttressed by the hegemonic rise of anti-prostitution state feminism since the 1990s. In exploring the imbrications of male homosexuality, prostitution and feminism in Taiwanese national culture, Huang boldly ventures a politics of sexual dissidence that contests state-inspired heteronormativity.

Queering the birthing space: Phenomenological interpretations of the relationships between lesbian couples and perinatal nurses in the context of birthing care

Abstract: As health care institutions continue to promote diversity initiatives within the context of Family-Centered and Woman-Centered Care, the taken-for-grantedness of heteronormativity and homophobia remain pervasive in health care practices, including those of perinatal nurses, to the extent that nurses’ relationships with lesbian birthing couples are often thwarted. Attending to the complexities of queer (lesbian) orientations embedded in the philosophical tenets of feminist and queer phenomenology, this article draws upon experiential findings derived from interview data to understand lesbian couples’ relationships with perinatal nurses in the context of birthing care in eastern Canada.

The cool, the bad, the ugly, and the powerful: Identity struggles in schoolboy peer culture

Abstract: Drawing upon a one-year-long ethnography of boys' constructions of their gender and sexual identities in one South African high school, this paper seeks to empirically explore and theorise how 58 grade 10 and grade 11 working-class boys create and seek out spaces among their male peers from which to cultivate their masculinities through heterosexual discourses, including being 'at risk' of getting AIDS. In this study, boys' daily struggles of trying to straddle the divide between hypersexual versus homosexual/effeminate versions of masculinity both subverted and reinforced hegemonic gender/sexual relations in the school context. Being caught up in this restrictive grip of heteronormativity meant that there were few spaces in male peer culture to resist hegemonic masculinity. The 'responsible male/controlled' position is indicative of one such space in which boys attempted to resist forms of hyper-sexuality. While this position cannot really be viewed as progressive, it nevertheless allowed boys to re-position themselves as moral agents through an assertion of control over their sexuality. Given the presence of these identity struggles, this paper, in general, suggests that interventions with boys need to cautiously explore these tensions/contradictions in identity making as opportunities to cultivate more gender sensitive and less violent discourses on masculinity.

Challenging the Heteronormativity of Marriage: The Role of Judicial Interpretation and Authority

Abstract: This article considers three recent court judgments that resulted from challenges by homosexual men and women to laws that prohibited them from contracting civil marriage. In examining these judgments, my focus is on the different ways in which courts interpret the social, cultural and legal heteronormativity of marriage. Whilst the issue of judicial interpretations of heteronormativity has not been a significant cause for concern in either lay or academic discourse, I argue that judicial ‘ways of thinking’ about heteronormativity are vitally important in both the reproduction and disruption of heteronormative law. To demonstrate this, I show how the standpoint of sitting judges in respect of heteronormativity was a key factor determining the outcome of the cases considered here. In contrast to popular accounts of these standpoints, which focus on the ‘activism’ of individual judges, I argue that judicial standpoints that are critical of heteronormativity reflect social, rather than personal, ‘points of view’. In conclusion, I argue that current debates about judicial diversity must acknowledge the importance of these interpretative standpoints within the law and the social processes through which they are both produced and maintained.

LIBIDINOUS POLITICS: Heterosex, ‘Transgression’ and Social Change

Abstract: Heterosexuality is simply rarely examined nowadays in Gender/Sexuality scholarship. It is largely taken to be of little critical interest, as simply to be equated with heteronormativity. The present conflation of heterosexuality with heteronormativity presents dominant practices as monolithic, as all of a piece, and unchanging. In other words, the conflation over-determines this sexual mode as a source of domination and under-theorises it as a site for social dissonance or even a potential source of subversion. This paper, by contrast, considers the term transgression in relation to heterosexuality and in particular to heterosex. It is asserted that transgression might be intrinsic within dominant practices like heterosexuality (rather than necessarily always external to them). In the process the potential of the term transgression is compared with other terms like subversion/dissent/protest. The term is explored in the context of heterosexuality by drawing upon a range of resources such as analy...

Caribbean Literature and the Public Sphere: From the Plantation to the Postcolonial

Abstract: “For a North American audience, Faith Smith‟s Sex and the Citizen offers new persuasions. This volume of essays goes the mile in showing us how the „citizen‟ is neither a „natural‟ category nor a forgone conclusion but is predicated on well-defined norms: heteronormativity takes its place alongside the classic ones – race, class, gender, colonial subjectivity, and geopolitical situation. Treat yourself to this epistemic feast!”

‘Walking yourself around as a teacher’: gender and embodiment in student teachers’ working lives

Abstract: This paper considers the psychic and social dynamics reported by student teachers when learning to embody their teacher persona in the secondary school environment. Focusing on gender dimensions of embodiment and drawing on qualitative interview data from a UK study of postgraduate teacher‐training students, teaching is examined as a physical experience. The paper conceptualises findings under two related headings: the appropriately gendered body, signified by heteronormative readings of gender and sexuality; and the gendered authoritative body, conceptualised as male. The ‘teacher body’ emerges as an important element of student teachers’ stories of trying to fit with the new professional environment and the paper concludes by arguing for a consideration of gender and body politics in the practice and training of teachers, thus challenging the assumption that professional occupations are essentially ‘disembodied’ and gender neutral.

Ambivalence Surrounding Elderly Widows’ Sexuality in Urban Uganda

Abstract: The elderly are commonly stereotyped as asexual beings. Alternatively mainly negative images abound about the sexual activities of elderly people. Based on ethnographic data this article explores diverse sexualities of elderly widows and widowers in an urban periphery of Kampala city. Widowhood is socially constructed as an asexual period in this patriarchal society where heteronormativity and marriage prevail as the accepted norms. While widowers are generally encouraged to remarry after observing proprieties of mourning, sexual activity among elderly widows is heavily proscribed against particularly because it is not procreative. Adult children control the sexuality of their elderly parents, often by discouraging sexual liaisons. Adult children may also arrange for new spouses with utilitarian value such as providing healthcare for ill elders. Post-menopausal widows have less sexual appeal than younger widows for whom reproduction is a viable outcome of sexuality. Widowers and younger widows are more likely to remarry than elderly widows. Consequently for some older widows, the cultural institution of widow inheritance provides an opportunity to resume sexual activity, and benefit from the levirate guardian’s support. However other older widows rejected inheritance by levirate guardians because of fears of catching HIV/AIDS. HIV does infect elderly Ugandans, although prevention and care interventions generally exclude targeting the elderly. Loneliness was widespread among elderly widows. Many felt isolated, dislocated from former social circulation and missed being relevant. However there were a few elderly individuals who were actively engaged in providing sexual education, advocating for sexual health promotion, and defending the sexual rights of the younger generations in their immediate environs. There is an urgent need for more research about the realities of elderly people’s sexualities, sexual health and sexual rights particularly in resource-poor contexts.

Regulating girlhood: Evaluative language, discourses of gender socialization and relational aggression

Abstract: Placing the discursive psychological analysis of sexuality at its centre, this article considers a number of overlapping fields of linguistics: women's language, construction of gender identities and language and sexuality. By encompassing these fields, in spite of potential differences in terms of theoretical stance and foci of analysis, the present study suggests a wider stance in the analysis of language, gender and sexuality. The study considers two important post-structuralist concepts: performativity and heteronormativity. More precisely, the analysis shows how the sexual identities of British heterosexual female teenagers are discursively constructed and regulated via language use when aggressively relating to other girls in Facebook. The analysis is based on the assumption that sexuality is but one aspect of identity. Although on the surface these British teenagers' constructions present masculine 'negative' mean girls, a closer analysis reveals that more subversive and challenging interpretations can be applied.