Intimate Body Research Articles

Fair Data is the New Black: Online Shopping, Data Leaks, and Broadening the Understanding of Sustainable Fashion

Fashion is an embodied form of culture. It builds on intimate information about the wearer, concerning e.g. body shape, size, age, weight and style. As fashion is digitalized, intimate body data is shared in online environments, which raises novel concerns about the privacy of fashion consumers. This is especially visible in online shopping, which has revolutionized fashion retail and data collection practices in fashion, particularly as concerns the secure and fair use of consumer data. We argue that the datafication of fashion should be investigated as part of sustainability discourse, and data fairness be established as a responsibility criterion. We analyzed 32 popular Finnish online clothing stores. Data management was studied by analyzing the online stores’ network traffic to third parties, investigating the transparency of their privacy policy documents and analyzing possible dark patterns in the website’s cookie banners. Our findings raise concerns over data responsibility and privacy in various areas. The analyzed websites had a high number of third-party services, averaging 5.2. Only 17 online stores out of the examined 32 (53%) clearly mentioned that they collected identifying information and product information in their privacy policies, and only five of the stores (16%) had no dark patterns in their cookie banners. Our results also suggest that several brands that are otherwise considered ethical may need to pay more attention to their fair data processing and privacy. This indicates that a wider discussion about data privacy and data handling practices is needed. Fair management of data must be part of the process of evaluating the sustainability of clothing companies.

Exploring Diverse Madhhabs' Perspectives on Wearing a Veil among Female Students

The increasing prevalence of veiling among female students is requiring urgent examination. Therefore, this study analyzes veiling during prayer, emphasizing four madhhabs to show varying perspectives and implications for student populations in Ambon State Islamic Institute. A comparative analysis of legal principles is adopted to integrate sociological perspectives using an interdisciplinary approach. Data collection includes interviews, documentation, and bibliographic studies, with emphasis on the influential novel turāś (classic book). The results show that there are three main issues, namely concerns regarding prostration perfection in hadith, debates on mouth and nose closure during prayer, and discussions on intimate body part boundaries for women. In addition, Jumhūr Ulamā (the Majority of Scholars) from al-Shāfi'ī, Hanafī, and Mālikī madhhab concur on visibility necessities in specific situations. Veiling is recommended during prayer unless there is concern for slander. In this context, students' awareness of feminist jurisprudence is stated, advocating for a nuanced understanding beyond a singular perspective. Veiling practices should also be comprehended during prayer among Muslims to urge respect for diverse Islamic opinions. This study reports the urgency of addressing the multifaceted issue and advocates for a comprehensive perspective.

Interventions, Barriers, and Facilitators to Address the Sexual Problems of Gay, Bisexual and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men Living with HIV: A Rapid Scoping Review.

Sexual problems are common among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) after diagnosis with HIV. However, these are often overlooked in care and research, where sexual risk reduction and biomedical aspects of sexual health tend to dominate. We conducted a rapid scoping review to investigate which sexual problems of GBM living with HIV are addressed by interventions, and the barriers and facilitators to their implementation. Literature from high-income countries published in English since 2010 was reviewed. Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, and Scopus databases were searched on July 4, 2022. Targeted sexual problems were categorized according to the ten dimensions of Robinson's Sexual Health Model, and barriers and facilitators, according to the five domains of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Interventions focused solely on the dimension of Sexual Health Care/Safer Sex were excluded. Relevant information was extracted from the qualifying documents with NVivo 12 software for content analysis. Fifty-two documents were included, referring to 37 interventions which mainly took place in the United States (n = 29/37; 78%), were group-based (n = 16; 41%), and used counselling techniques (n = 23; 62%; e.g., motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioral therapy). Their settings were mostly primary care (n = 15; 40%) or community-based (n = 16; 43%). On average, interventions addressed three sexual health dimensions (SD = 2; range: 1-10). The most targeted dimension was Sexual Health Care/Safer Sex (n = 26; 70%), which concerned sexual risk reduction. Next, Challenges (n = 23; 62%), included substance use (n = 7; 19%), sexual compulsivity (n = 6; 16%), sexual abuse (n = 6; 16%), and intimate partner violence (n = 4; 11%). Third was Talking About Sex (n = 22; 59%) which mostly concerned HIV disclosure. About a third of interventions addressed Culture/Sexual identity (n = 14; 38%), Intimacy/Relationships (n = 12; 33%), and Positive sexuality (n = 11; 30%). Finally, few targeted Body Image (n = 4; 11%), Spirituality (n = 3; 8%), Sexual AnatomyFunctioning (n = 2; 5%) or Masturbation/Fantasy (n = 1; 3%). Forty-one documents (79%) mentioned implementation barriers or facilitators, particularly about the characteristics of the interventions (41% and 78%, respectively; e.g., cost, excessive duration, acceptability, feasibility) and of the individuals involved (37% and 46%; e.g., perceived stigmatization, provider expertise). The other three CFIR dimensions were less common (5%-17%). The search strategy of this review may not have captured all eligible documents, due to its limit to English-language publications. Overall, most interventions incorporated a focus on Sexual Health Care/Safer Sex, at the expenses of other prevalent sexual problems among GBM living with HIV, such as intimate partner violence (Challenges), erectile dysfunction (Sexual Anatomy Functioning), and Body Image dissatisfaction. These findings suggest they could receive more attention within clinical care and at the community level. They also highlight the importance of cost-effective and acceptable interventions conducted in non-stigmatizing environments, where patients' needs can be met by providers who are adequately trained on sexuality-related topics.

Sex Education in Islamic Curricula: The Saudi Context

The current study aims to identify female Islamic studies teachers’ attitudes towards including sex education concepts and to ascertain how many such concepts are included in the Islamic studies and Islamic culture textbooks for general education at elementary, intermediate, and higher levels in Saudi Arabia. The study also explores how Islamic studies teachers’ perspectives regarding sex education statistically relate to their academic background, years of experience, and level of education. The study uses a descriptive methodology and administers a questionnaire to 450 female Islamic studies instructors and a content analysis card to the texts on Islamic studies and culture. The survey concluded that the applicants favoured the inclusion of sex education as it was taught in Saudi Arabia's general Islamic studies courses. However, the sex education concepts in Islamic studies textbooks are inadequate, and there are very few chapters on the subject. No distinctions were found based on academic standing, but there were differences due to years of experience and educational level. KEYWORDS Islamic studies textbooks, Islamic culture, puberty and intimate body parts, female teachers’ attitudes, rights and responsibilities, sexual intercourse

Guidelines on Photoepilation: Techniques for Intimate Body Areas

General best practice guidelines for safe laser/IPL hair reduction have already been published in peer reviewed professional medical journals. The safe operation of a laser/IPL for hair reduction demands creation of a facility safety protocol, compliance with laser/IPL system set-up, designated client parameters and dosimetry. Compliance with national, regional and local regulations are equally applicable for hair removal prior to gender reassignment surgery. These guidelines briefly review the options for hair reduction and the mode of action of photoepilation but concentrate on classification of birth male and birth female intimate body areas and treatment procedure including planning prior to gender reassignment surgery. There is a dedicated review section on pilonidal sinus treatment procedure as well as delegation of photoepilation, adverse effects, safety precautions, pain control and client aftercare.

Not Just Non-Consensual Pelvic Exams

Not Just Non-Consensual Pelvic Exams

Hold Fast the Reins and Be Guided: Embodied Expressions of Taqwā in Prophetic Hadith and Orations of ʿ⁠⁠Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib

Abstract This essay examines the interplay of form and content in early Islamic expressions of taqwā (translated variously as piety, or fear or consciousness of God), with a primary focus on prophetic hadith and the orations of ʿ⁠Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib. Through this analysis, two major observations can be made. First, expressions of taqwā in these sources are indelibly corporeal, articulated through forms of bodily intimacy, whether between rider and mount, or as the cure for bodily sickness. Second, attention to both form and content and their interstices elucidates a picture of taqwā that expands our notion of embodiment to encompass the realm of the internal. Taqwā involves techniques of the limbs, tongue, eyes, and ears as well as techniques of the heart. To demonstrate this, I explore both the ways that believers are enjoined to seek taqwā as well as how taqwā is articulated as enacting transformations in/on those believers.

The role of the lived body during the integration of the traumatic experience of the sternotomy scar: A case study.

Open heart surgery is a potentially traumatic experience for patients, thus posing a real risk to both the patient's physical and mental health as well as bodily integrity. All of these can greatly affect the emotional relationship to the sternotomy scar, the physical aspect of self-representation. Sternotomy scars mark patients for life, yet our knowledge of patients' subjective experiences is unknown. In our case study, we explore the embodied experiences of a woman (42) who underwent open heart surgery with the method of interpretative phenomenological analysis combined with drawings. The body and the bodily experiences play a prominent role in the formation, healing process, and symbolism of a scar. The central core of the traumatic experience of open heart surgery is the attack against the patient's sensation of bodily integrity. The interviewee experiences the surgery as abuse committed on her body, a memory that is deeply etched both in the physical memory and in the form of a scar on the skin. Based on our study, it seems that the corporeal dimension of posttraumatic growth may develop after the traumatic experience of heart surgery, in which bodily intimacy with oneself and Significant Others plays a major role. In this case study, the objective reality of the heart as "sick" flesh and the "broken, pierced" bone (Körper), as well as the dissociation-and then its integration-of the lived, living body experience (Leib) are outlined. Our case study was analysed in the theoretical framework of phenomenology and psychoanalysis.

Doing Piety through Care

This article takes the practice of elderly care as a starting place to discuss how Muslim men and women “do” piety when doing elderly care in their everyday lives. It introduces and analyses central passages in the Qur’an and the Hadiths that deal with birr-al- walidayn (filial piety), ‘awra (the intimate body parts that must be covered), and ‘ayb (shame/shamefulness) since they all appear as central concepts in the Islamic tradition of elderly care. With a focus on the embodied enactment of these concepts, the article turns to the analysis of two ethnographic cases to look at how Muslims “do” care for their elderly parents and at the same time strive to embody their sacred text, the Qur’an, and the Hadiths in everyday life. The article aims to show that “doing” elderly care enables a domain of pious doings that matters to how Muslim men and women perform and understand gender.

Care, a place of affectivity and emotions

Joy, fear, disgust, anger, sadness, surprise, emotions are fleeting and natural affects that catch us off guard. Care, as a face-to-face encounter with others, in a sometimes difficult context of serious or chronic pathologies, can become a place of affectivity, all the more so as care crosses the barriers of bodily intimacy. What to do with one's emotions in care?

Bringing sex toys out of the dark: exploring unmitigated risks

A majority of American adults report having used sex toys, which, by design, interact with intimate and permeable body parts yet have not been subject to sufficient risk assessment or management. Physical and chemical data are presented examining potential risks associated with four types of currently available sex toys: anal toy, beads, dual vibrator, and external vibrator. A standardized abrasion machine made real-time breakdown of products into microplastics and nanoplastics. The microplastics from the sex toys were then solvent extracted and analyzed using GC–MS. Rates of microplastics and nanoplastics released during abrasion testing from most microplastic release to least was the anal toy, beads, dual vibrator, external vibrator. Both micro- and nanoplastics particles were generated following the abrasion test, with the 50 percentile diameters (D50) ranging from the anal beads at 658.5 μm, dual vibrator at 887.83 μm, anal toy at 950 μm, and external vibrator at 1673.33 μm. The material matrix of each product was analyzed using ATR-FTIR, with results identifying the anal toy as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the anal beads as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the external vibrator as a silicone blend (polydimethylsiloxane [PDMS]), and the dual vibrator as a rubber mixture (polyisoprene). After extraction, phthalates known to be endocrine disruptors were present in all tested sex toys at levels exceeding hazard warnings. Analogous findings have been reported for similar materials that, when incorporated into other product categories, are subject to regulatory scrutiny in both the US and EU. This data set is not intended to be representative of sex toys as an entire class of products, nor are the abrasion experiments claiming to simulate exact use conditions. However, these exploratory data frame potential concerns, highlighting research questions and the need for prompt prioritization of protective action. Therefore, future studies and multi-stakeholder action are needed to understand and reduce risk for this class of products.

Between chaos and the cosmos: the imaginary of traditional climbing

ABSTRACT The imaginary is constituted as one of the bases of human desires. The images created in us when in contact with the environment sometimes drive or hinder human actions. A study on the climbers’ imaginary can help in understanding the impulses that move them to this activity. Thus, the objective of this article is to develop a reflection on the imaginary of traditional climbing, seeking images that inspire climbers in their relationship with the world. The analyses were elaborated through the following research process: search in historiography and mythology about representations that reveals the climber’s imaginary through time; dialogue with authors of imaginary studies and research on climbing and adventure sports; ethnographic field research with interviews conducted at famous climbing points of the Chilean and Argentine Patagonia. The image of the traditional climber is configured beyond the ascending movements in the cliffs. It has a dynamic structure guided intimately in the relationship of the body with the mountain environment. To clarify these reflections, we coined the expression “intimate body”, in line with the thoughts of Yi-Fu Tuan, Merleau-Ponty, and Ian Heywood. Such elaborations highlight the importance of the body-environment relationship in the human imagination and its influence on human impulses.

Perceptions of intimacy and integrity in formal home care

ABSTRACT Sweden has a long tradition of providing social care and support to its citizens in their own homes through formal home care, delivered either by home care services or personal assistance. A majority of people given support by formal home care need assistance with personal and intimate care. The focus of this interview study was on exploring care recipients', care workers', personal assistants' and care unit managers' perceptions and experiences of intimate and personal care in the context of formal home care in Sweden. In total, 57 interviews were conducted with 42 persons. Three themes emerged in the analysis: Personal Hygiene, Personal Sphere, and The Contextual Variability of Intimacy. Interviewees described intimate care as being inseparable from a person's service needs as a whole. Highlighted was how caring for and washing intimate body parts, intrusion into recipients' personal spheres, and the need to preserve integrity vary depending on situational, temporal and relational aspects. To safeguard the care recipient's influence, integrity and dignity in the reception/provision of care work, home care services and personal assistance, it is important to raise awareness of the variation in perceptions of intimate and personal care in education and inhouse training.

Intimate geographies of virginal blood.

Feminist scholars, activists, and artists have long addressed the topic of virginity and have dismantled it as a powerful, globally circulating, and gendered myth. It affects how many woman-identifying people experience how their bodies become (a)sexual. Centrally, the myth of virginity has been shown to be mobilized in support of colonial, ethnonationalist identity projects. In Kyrgyzstan, disciplining women through policing their sexual behavior co-constituted nation-building projects after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Drawing on data collected since 2017 (qualitative interviews in Bishkek and Osh and qualitative research on Instagram), I examine intimate geographies of the virginity myth in Kyrgyzstan. Building on geographic scholarship on intimacy and body parts, I discuss the ways in which virginal blood works both to submit to and to reclaim one's intimate body spaces and sexual practices. I argue that people affected by the virginity myth create the foundations for intimate justice in Kyrgyzstan. On the one hand, people are reclaiming authority over their intimate bodies through subverting sexist systems of sexual control and through expanding discursive horizons of virginity performances. On the other hand, activists on Instagram are supporting digital public spaces that allow to author virginal blood narratives and provide resources on intimate body knowledge. Analyzing the scalar doings of virginal blood, the paper contributes a case study on intimate justice and the geographies of the body in Kyrgyzstan. My analysis encourages further examination of the capacities of the body to better understand how certain body parts turn into key sites of (geo)political struggles and can transform them.

Crafting the Intimate Body

The intimate body—essentialized in Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, complicated in Helen Chadwick’s Eat Me—is revisited through discourse on intersex, debate around trans identities and contemporary feminisms, via the subversive actions of radical crafting and visual, textual, material and performic queering.

Working Out Desire: Women, Sport, and Self-Making in Istanbul

Working Out Desire: Women, Sport, and Self-Making in Istanbul

Women and Animals: Culinary Dilemmas and Karmic Entanglements

Abstract The primary focus of this article is the gendering of Buddhist karmic culpability presented in the extra-canonical Buddhist essay, “Quan funü jiesha wen” (On exhorting women to refrain from killing). This mid-1650 work written by the Ming loyalist Chai Shaobing (1616-70) was subsequently reprinted in the Republican era Buddhist periodical press. “Quan funü jiesha wen” offers an extraordinary entry into a Buddhist moral universe in which women who kill animals are subject to various levels of karmic retribution. The bodily intimacy of such retributions is experienced in the form of complicated pregnancies, difficult childbirths, and a myriad of diseases unique to the female reproductive body. The first half of this study provides a full translation and detailed analysis of the Buddhist tropes and exemplary stories Chai employs as he sought to change women’s culinary choices. The second half of this study shifts attention to the essay’s historical context, first through a consideration of its early publication history and the seventeenth-century milieu in which it was created, and then through an examination of how the essay’s ideas on gender fit within the changing world of Republican era China.

Foetal Images on Political Posters: Bodily Intimacy, Public Display and the Mutability of Photographic Meaning

Prenatal images on anti-abortion campaign posters in the Irish referendum of 2018 were an overwhelming presence in the ambient spaces of Irish towns and cities, and generated a strong public reaction. This article examines this aspect of the visual and material ephemera of the referendum campaign in order to critique the continued use of in utero images within conservative reproductive politics. The article places existing accounts of the uses and abuses of foetal imagery into an Irish context. Referencing feminist critiques of prenatal images, ethnographic studies of ultrasound, Peter Paul Verbeek’s discussion of these photographic practices as complex imbrications of the human and technological and paying attention to a striking, oppositional use of a sonogram by the Spanish photographer Laia Abril, this article will interrogate the assumed stability of meaning which motivates the adoption of prenatal images by anti-abortion campaigns.

Skype or Skip? Causes and Consequences of Intimate Self-Disclosure in Computer-Mediated Doctor-Patient Communication

ABSTRACT Advances in computer-mediated communication have created both opportunities and challenges for online doctor-patient communication. Based on the privacy calculus and objective self-awareness theory, we examined the causes and consequences of intimate self-disclosure in video consultations. We performed a 2 (verbal intimacy) × 2 (physical intimacy) online experiment among a large representative sample of the Dutch population (N = 2,251). Structural equation modeling confirmed expected relationships between benefits, privacy concerns, communication barriers, trust, and self-disclosure. Generally, when people were more willing to self-disclose, they reported more positive (e.g., relief) and less negative (i.e., stress) emotions. However, when it involved revealing physically intimate information (e.g., showing an intimate vs. non-intimate body part), people were less likely to self-disclose and reported more negative emotions as a result. Our findings suggest that people weigh benefits, costs, and trust in their decision to self-disclose and consider the potential negative intrapersonal effects of intimate self-disclosure.

“Body Work” in Home‐Based Substance Abuse Care

This study examines “body work” in the context of home‐based substance abuse care in Finland, which is provided to adults with intoxicant problems and needing short‐ and long‐term support in their everyday lives. This article is concerned specifically with body work, which can be defined as care work focusing directly on the bodies of others. Through a twofold analysis of 13 audio‐recorded home visits and ethnographic field notes, it examines what body work is in home‐based substance abuse care, how close body work is and how workers and clients negotiate about it. The study shows that home as a site of care has an impact on substance abuse care. The worker’s home visit settles into a tension relation between private and public even if the care is a part of weekly routine. Body work is holistic care work necessitating slight, medium, and extreme bodily intimacy in taking care of and supporting client’s well‐being. During the home visit, worker and client negotiate the body work and its content. Worker and client communicate verbally and non‐verbally by gaze and body movements. Often the workers have to balance between disciplinary, participatory, and caring approaches to support the client living in the best possible way.