Showing papers on "Human sexuality published in 2009"

Doing Gender, Doing Heteronormativity

Abstract: This article brings together two case studies that examine how nontransgender people, “gender normals,” interact with transgender people to highlight the connections between doing gender and heteronormativity. By contrasting public and private interactions that range from nonsexual to sexualized to sexual, the authors show how gender and sexuality are inextricably tied together. The authors demonstrate that the criteria for membership in a gender category are significantly different in social versus (hetero)sexual circumstances. While gender is presumed to reflect biological sex in all social interactions, the importance of doing gender in a way that represents the shape of one's genitals is heightened in sexual and sexualized situations. Responses to perceived failures to fulfill gender criteria in sexual and sexualized relationships are themselves gendered; men and women select different targets for and utilize gendered tactics to accomplish the policing of supposedly natural gender boundaries and to re...

Dilemmas of desire : teenage girls talk about sexuality

Abstract: Be sexy but not sexual. Don't be a prude but don't be a slut. These are the cultural messages that barrage teenage girls. In movies and magazines, in music and advice columns, girls are portrayed as the object or the victim of someone else's desire -but virtually never as someone with acceptable sexual feelings of her own. What teenage girls make of these contradictory messages, and what they make of their awakening sexuality - so distant from and yet so susceptible to cultural stereotypes - emerges for the first time in frank and complex fashion in Deborah Tolman's "Dilemmas of Desire". A unique look into the world of adolescent sexuality, this book offers an intimate and often disturbing, sometimes inspiring, picture of how teenage girls experience, understand and respond to their sexual feelings, and of how society mediates, shapes and distorts this experience. In extensive interviews, we listen as actual adolescent girls - both urban and suburban - speak candidly of their curiosity and confusion, their pleasure and disappointment, their fears, defiances or capitulation in the face of a seemingly imperishable double standard that smiles upon burgeoning sexuality in boys yet frowns, even panics, at its equivalent in girls. As a vivid evocation of girls negotiating some of the most vexing issues of adolescence, and as a thoughtful, richly informed examination of the dilemmas these girls face, this readable and revealing book begins the critical work of understanding the sexuality of young women in all its personal, social and emotional significance.

Doing Gender, Doing Heteronormativity “Gender Normals,” Transgender People, and the Social Maintenance of Heterosexuality

Abstract: This article brings together two case studies that examine how nontransgender people, “gender normals,” interact with transgender people to highlight the connections between doing gender and heteronormativity. By contrasting public and private interactions that range from nonsexual to sexualized to sexual, the authors show how gender and sexuality are inextricably tied together. The authors demonstrate that the criteria for membership in a gender category are significantly different in social versus (hetero)sexual circumstances. While gender is presumed to reflect biological sex in all social interactions, the importance of doing gender in a way that represents the shape of one's genitals is heightened in sexual and sexualized situations. Responses to perceived failures to fulfill gender criteria in sexual and sexualized relationships are themselves gendered; men and women select different targets for and utilize gendered tactics to accomplish the policing of supposedly natural gender boundaries and to re...

Powers of Desire; The Politics of Sexuality

Abstract: This provocative anthology brings together a diverse group of well-known feminist and gay writers, historians, and activists. They are concerned not only with current sexual issues-abortion, pornography, reproductive and gay rights-but they also raise a host of new issues and questions: How, and in what ways, is sexuality political? Is the struggle for sexual freedom a complement to other struggles for liberation, or will it detract from them? Has the sexual revolution diminished or enriched the lives of women?

Gendered Sexuality in Young Adulthood Double Binds and Flawed Options

Abstract: Current work on hooking up—or casual sexual activity on college campuses—takes an individualistic, “battle of the sexes” approach and underestimates the importance of college as a classed location. The authors employ an interactional, intersectional approach using longitudinal ethnographic and interview data on a group of college women’s sexual and romantic careers. They find that heterosexual college women contend with public gender beliefs about women’s sexuality that reinforce male dominance across both hookups and committed relationships. The four-year university, however, also reflects a privileged path to adulthood. The authors show that it is characterized by a classed self-development imperative that discourages relationships but makes hooking up appealing. Experiences of this structural conflict vary. More privileged women struggle to meet gender and class guidelines for sexual behavior, placing them in double binds. Less privileged women find the class beliefs of the university foreign and hosti...

The sexual double standard and adolescent peer acceptance

Abstract: The belief that women and men are held to different standards of sexual conduct is pervasive in contemporary American society. According to the sexual double standard, boys and men are rewarded and praised for heterosexual sexual contacts, whereas girls and women are derogated and stigmatized for similar behaviors. Although widely held by the general public, research findings on the sexual double standard remain equivocal, with qualitative studies and early attitudinal surveys generally finding evidence of the double standard and more recent experimental vignette designs often failing to find similar results. In this study, we extend prior research by directly measuring the social status of sexually permissive youth. We use data collected from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to relate adolescents' self-reported numbers of sexual partners to a network measure of peer acceptance. Results suggest that the association between lifetime sexual partnerships and peer status varies significant...

Dangerous Discourses of Disability, Subjectivity and Sexuality

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction Corporealities Genealogies Contested Pleasures and Governmentality Sexuality, Subjectivity and Anxiety Transgressing the Law Queer Pleasures Global Corporealities Conclusion: Thinking Differently Notes Bibliography Index

Minority Stress, Masculinity, and Social Norms Predicting Gay Men's Health Risk Behaviors

Abstract: The authors examined the contributions of the minority stress model, traditional masculine gender roles, and perceived social norms in accounting for gay men’s use of alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, and risky sexual practices. Three hundred fifteen gay men recruited from listserv communities completed measures assessing internalized homophobia, stigma, antigay physical attack, masculinity, and perceptions of normative health behaviors, along with health risk behaviors of alcohol use, illicit drug use, smoking, and high-risk sexual behaviors. Pearson correlations supported several hypotheses; social norms and masculinity variables were significantly related to health risk behaviors. Four multiple regression analyses indicated that masculinity and perceptions of social norms predicted health risk behaviors. Additionally, a significant interaction was found between minority stress and perceptions of social norms. The clinical implications of the findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Longitudinal changes in sexual functioning as women transition through menopause: results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

Abstract: Objective: Sexual functioning is an important component of women's lives. The extent to which the menopausal transition is associated with decreased sexual functioning remains inconclusive. This study seeks to determine if advancing through the menopausal transition is associated with changes in sexual functioning. Methods: This was a prospective, longitudinal cohort study of women aged 42 to 52 years at baseline recruited at seven US sites (N = 3,302) in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Cohort-eligible women had an intact uterus, had at least one ovary, were not currently using exogenous hormones, were either premenopausal or early perimenopausal, and self-identified as one of the study's designated racial/ethnic groups. Data from the baseline interview and six annual follow-up visits are reported. Outcomes are self-reported ratings of importance of sex; frequency of sexual desire, arousal, masturbation, sexual intercourse, and pain during intercourse ; and degree of emotional satisfaction and physical pleasure. Results: With adjustment for baseline age, chronological aging, and relevant social, health, and psychological parameters, the odds of reporting vaginal or pelvic pain increased and desire decreased by late perimenopause. Masturbation increased at early perimenopause but declined during postmenopause. The menopausal transition was unrelated to other outcomes. Health, psychological functioning, and importance of sex were related to all sexual function outcomes. Age, race/ethnicity, marital status, change in relationship, and vaginal dryness were also associated with sexual functioning. Conclusions: Pain during sexual intercourse increases and sexual desire decreases over the menopausal transition. Masturbation increases during the early transition, but then declines in postmenopause. With adjustment for other factors, the menopausal transition was not independently associated with reports of the importance of sex, sexual arousal, frequency of sexual intercourse, emotional satisfaction with partner, or physical pleasure.

How sources of sexual information relate to adolescents' beliefs about sex.

Abstract: OBJECTIVES To examine how sources of sexual information are associated with adolescents' behavioral, normative, and control beliefs about having sexual intercourse using the integrative model of behavior change. METHODS Survey data from a quota sample of 459 youth. RESULTS The most frequently reported sources were friends, teachers, mothers, and media. Regression analyses indicated that learning about sex from parents, grandparents, and religious leaders was associated with beliefs likely to delay sex; friends, cousins, and media were associated with beliefs that increase the likelihood of having sexual intercourse. CONCLUSIONS Different sexual information sources were associated with different underlying beliefs.

Bodies, pleasures, and passions : sexual culture in contemporary Brazil

Abstract: Originally published in the early 1990s, "Bodies, Pleasures, and Passions" quickly became a classic ethnographic study of the social, cultural, and historical construction of sexuality and sexual diversity. Drawing on extensive field research and interviews, together with the analysis of historical and literary texts, anthropologist Richard Parker mapped out the multiple cultural systems that structure gender, sexuality, and erotic practices in Brazil, and helped to open up a new wave of social science research on sexuality. Using ethnographic methods focusing on sexual meanings as an alternative to traditional surveys of sexual behavior, Parker argues that sexual life can only be fully understood through an analysis of the cultural logics that shape experience. Drawing on the tradition of interpretive anthropology, he focuses on the diverse sexual scripts that have been articulated in Brazilian culture and examines the often contradictory ways in which these scripts shape the sexual experience of different individuals. He highlights the sexual socialization of children and young people, and the changing sexual realities of adults living in a rapidly changing world. He underlines the ways in which complex cultural forms such as carnival can be understood as stories that Brazilians tell themselves about themselves and about the meaning of sexuality in contemporary Brazilian life. The 1991 book was the winner of the Ruth Benedict Prize from the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists.

Stigma of People with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Literature Review

Abstract: The aim of this literature review is to elucidate what is known about HIV/AIDS and stigma in Sub-Saharan Africa. Literature about HIV/AIDS and stigma in Sub-Saharan Africa was systematically searched in Pubmed, Medscape, and Psycinfo up to March 31, 2009. No starting date limit was specified. The material was analyzed using Gilmore and Somerville's (1994) four processes of stigmatizing responses: the definition of the problem HIV/AIDS, identification of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), linking HIV/AIDS to immorality and other negative characteristics, and finally behavioural consequences of stigma (distancing, isolation, discrimination in care). It was found that the cultural construction of HIV/AIDS, based on beliefs about contamination, sexuality, and religion, plays a crucial role and contributes to the strength of distancing reactions and discrimination in society. Stigma prevents the delivery of effective social and medical care (including taking antiretroviral therapy) and also enhances the number of HIV infections. More qualitative studies on HIV/AIDS stigma including stigma in health care institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa are recommended.

Changes in sexuality and intimacy after the diagnosis and treatment of cancer : the experience of partners in a sexual relationship with a person with cancer

Abstract: Changes in sexuality and intimacy after cancer were examined using open-ended questionnaire responses with 156 informal carers who were partners of a person with cancer. Interviews were conducted with 20 participants to examine changes in depth. Seventy-six percent of partners of a person with "nonreproductive" cancer types and 84% of partners caring for a person with cancer involving "reproductive" sites reported an impact on their sexual relationship. Cessation or decreased frequency of sex and intimacy was reported by 59% of the women and 79% of the men. Renegotiation of sexuality and intimacy after cancer was reported by only 19% of the women and 14% of the men. Reasons for changes to sexuality after cancer were the impact of cancer treatments, exhaustion due to caring, and repositioning of the person with cancer as a patient, not a sexual partner. Changes to sexuality were associated with reports of self-blame, rejection, sadness, anger, and lack of sexual fulfillment. Positive consequences of changes included accepting the changed sexual relationship and having increased closeness and intimacy. These findings reinforce the need to acknowledge the sexual needs of partners as well as people with cancer, by healthcare professionals working in cancer and palliative care.

Sexuality: Measures of Partnerships, Practices, Attitudes, and Problems in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Study

Abstract: Objectives. The National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) was designed to examine the relationship between sexual behavior, sexual problems, and health among older women and men. We describe measures of sexual partnerships, sexual practices, sexual problems, attitudes toward sex, and nonsexual intimacy in the fi rst wave of NSHAP. Methods. We compare measures of sexuality for those 57 ‐ 85 years old, by age, separately for men and women. We construct scales of sexual mores, sexual interest, and relationship satisfaction and discuss properties of each scale. Results. Sexuality among older adults tends to vary with age and gender. At all ages in this study, men are more likely than women to have a partner, more likely to be sexually active with that partner, and tend to have more positive and permissive attitudes toward sex. The proportions in a sexual partnership, behavior, problems, and attitudes all differ substantially by age. And these age patterns often differ for men and women. Discussion. Data obtained in the NSHAP can be used to construct key measures of sexuality among older adults; to examine sexuality itself; and to explore the link between sexuality, health, well-being, and other dimensions of the lives of older adults.

Empowering teenagers to prevent pregnancy: lessons from South Africa

Abstract: Reducing rates of teenage pregnancy is an important part of the agenda of action for meeting most of the Millenium Development Goals. South Africa has important lessons for other countries in this regard as the rate of teenage pregnancy is high but has declined very substantially over the last twenty years. The country experiences waves of moral panic about teenage pregnancy, with assertions that current problems are rooted in accepting or even encouraging the sexual appetites of young people rather than sternly disciplining them. In this paper, we argue that the key to success in teenage pregnancy reduction has been an empowering social policy agenda that has sought to work with young people, making them aware of their rights and the risks of sexual intercourse. Furthermore, family responses and education policy have greatly reduced the potential negative impact of teenage pregnancy on the lives of teenage girls. There is tremendous scope for further progress in reducing teenage pregnancy and we argue that this lies in paying more attention to issues of gender and sexuality, including the terms and conditions under which teenagers have sex. There needs to be critical reflection and engagement with men and boys on issues of masculinity, including their role in child rearing, as well as examination within families of their engagement with supporting pregnancy prevention and responses to pregnancies.

Role of parents in adolescent sexual activity and contraceptive use in four African countries.

Abstract: Data were collected in 2004 in nationally representative surveys of 12- to 19-year-olds in Burkina Faso Ghana Malawi and Uganda. Bivariate analysis was used to compare gender differences for two outcomes among unmarried 15- to 19-year-olds having had sexual intercourse in the last 12 months and among those who had had sex in this period having used contraception at last sex. Unmarried adolescents reported moderate to high levels of parental monitoring and low levels of parent-child communication about sexual matters. In all countries adolescent males who reported low monitoring were at elevated risk of having had sex in the last year as were their female counterparts in three of the countries. Communication with parents was positively associated with sexual activity among Malawian males and Ugandan females. Parental monitoring was not associated with contraceptive use at last sex whereas parent-child communication was associated with such use among Ghanaian females and among Ugandan adolescents of both genders. The authors conclude that programs to improve adolescent sexual and reproductive health should include dimensions of parental involvement.

The Impact of Aging on Human Sexual Activity and Sexual Desire

Abstract: This article empirically studies how much aging modifies human sexual activity and sexual desire, and what the most important determinants in this change are. The analyses are based on 2 representative national sex surveys conducted in Finland in the 1990s. As a result of female widowhood, aging men had a higher incidence of sexual intercourse compared with aging women; and in relationships, women were more likely than men to report lack of sexual desire. In regression analysis, age was a predictor of sexual activity but not of sexual desire, when controlling for the impact of other factors. Relationship duration did not play an important role in sexual activity or sexual desire when controlling for a number of other variables. Sexual desire, valuing sexuality, and a healthy partner were important to female sexual activity; and high sexual self-esteem, good health, and active sexual history were important to male sexual activity. To keep up their sexual desire, both men and women needed good health, good sexual functioning, positive sexual self-esteem, and a sexually skilful partner.

An observational study of how young people search for online sexual health information.

Abstract: Little is known about the quality of online sexual health information, how young people access the Internet to answer their sexual health questions, or an individual's ability to sort through myriad sources for accurate information. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine how college students search for online sexual health information and whether they retrieve accurate answers to sexual health questions. Participants: In fall 2007, the authors recruited 34 first-year, first-semester undergraduates to participate in an observational research study, using Camtasia Studio. Results: Most students found accurate answers to the 12 sexual health questions posed. Finding local information and resources online proved more difficult than finding answers to general sexual health questions. Conclusions: The Internet has become the leading source for sexual health information. Based on their findings, the authors argue that young people must be educated about how Web search engine results are p...

Preventing Sexual Abuse of Children in the Twenty-First Century: Preparing for Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract: Child sexual abuse is a widespread social problem that negatively affects victims, families, communities, and society. This article briefly describes the scope and consequences of child sexual abuse and briefly critiques child-focused personal safety educational programs designed to prevent sexual victimization. The final section offers suggestions for expanding the focus of child-directed efforts and also includes recommendations for alternative approaches to primary prevention.

The harms of pornography exposure among children and young people

Abstract: Exposure to pornography is routine among children and young people, with a range of notable and often troubling effects. Particularly among younger children, exposure to pornography may be disturbing or upsetting. Exposure to pornography helps to sustain young people's adherence to sexist and unhealthy notions of sex and relationships. And, especially among boys and young men who are frequent consumers of pornography, including of more violent materials, consumption intensifies attitudes supportive of sexual coercion and increases their likelihood of perpetrating assault. While children and young people are sexual beings and deserve age-appropriate materials on sex and sexuality, pornography is a poor, and indeed dangerous, sex educator.

The Sexuality of Migration: Border Crossings and Mexican Immigrant Men

Abstract: Acknowledgments Foreword by Lionel Cantu, Jr. Editors' PrefaceNancy A. Naples and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz Editors' Introduction Nancy A. Naples and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz 1 Sexuality, Migration, and Identity 2 Border Patrol: Sexuality, Citizenship, and U.S. Immigration Policy 3 Border Crossers: Seeking Asylum and Maneuvering Identities 4 De Los Otros: Mexican Sexual Borderlands 5 De Ambiente: Queer Tourism and Shifting Sexualities 6 A Place Called Home: Mexican Immigrant Men's Family Experiences 7 Entre Hombres/Between Men: Latino Masculinities and Homosexualities 8 Toward a Queer Political Economy of Sexuality: Places, Spaces, and Shifting Identities Editors' Conclusion Nancy A. Naples and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz Afterword by Dissertation Liberation Army Notes References IndexAbout the Editors

The dilemma of safe sex and having children: challenges facing HIV sero-discordant couples in Uganda.

Abstract: Background: Sixty percent of new HIV infections in Uganda occur in stable relationships between HIV discordant couples. Given the importance of fertility in Uganda, we hypothesized that unsafe sexual practices may be used to found a family/replace a dead child. Thus, we explored sexual practices to understand to what extent these are influenced by the desire to have children and the implications for HIV transmission among discordant couples. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 114 HIV discordant couples in Kampala, and in-depth interviews with 15 purposively selected couples. Quantitative data were analysed using STATA. Multivariate logistic regression analysis done to identify factors associated with consistent condom use. Thematic content analysis of qualitative data was done using NVIVO 2. Results: Participants wanting children and those with multiple sexual partners were less likely to use condoms (Adj OR 0.51, and 0.36 respectively). Three of the five types of sexual practices used by couples do not allow pregnancy to occur. Main reasons for wanting a child included: ensuring lineage continuity and posterity, securing relationships and pressure from relatives to reproduce. Challenges included: risk of HIV transmission to partner and child, lack of negotiating power for safer sex, failure of health systems to offer safe methods of reproduction Conclusions: HIV sero-discordant couples with strong desire for childbearing have a dilemma of risking HIV infection or infecting their spouse. Some risk transmission of HIV infection to reproduce. We need to address gender issues, risky behaviour and reproductive

Sexual Politics in Modern Iran

Abstract: Part I. Pre-modern Practices: 1. Formal marriage 2. Slave concubinage, temporary marriage, and harem wives 3. Class, status-defined homosexuality, and rituals of courtship Part II. Toward a Westernized Modernity: 4. On the road to an ethos of monogamous, heterosexual marriage 5. Redefining purity, unveiling bodies, shifting desires 6. Imperialist politics, romantic love, and the impasse over women's suffrage 7. Suffrage, marriage reforms, and the threat of female sexuality 8. The rise of leftist guerrilla organizations and Islamism Part III. Forging an Islamist Modernity and Beyond: 9. The Islamic revolution, its sexual economy, and the Left 10. Islamist women and the emergence of Islamic feminism 11. Birth control, female sexual awakening, and the gay lifestyle Conclusion: toward a new Muslim-Iranian sexuality for the twenty-first century.