Heterosexual Characters Research Articles

Towards an Inclusive Society: De-Centering Heteronormativity in Tendai Huchu’s the Hairdresser of Harare and Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees

The portrayal of queer sexuality in African literature is something that is getting more and more attention, as a way of highlighting what happens in various societies in the world. This paper explores the portrayal of queer individuals in two African novels: Tendai Huchu’s The Hairdresser of Harare and Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees. Having observed that in the two novels queer individuals are forced to mask their sexuality and adopt heteronormative public personae in order to fit into mainstream society, this paper observes the two authors have used diaries and letters to accord agency to their repressed queer characters. The paper argues that diaristic and epistolary writing, in which individuals of queer sexuality reveal their intimate feelings for each other, are strong tools which the authors have used to accord agency to their repressed queer characters. The paper also uses Andy Alaszewski’s idea of “social suffering versus the diary.” Alaszewski (2006) observes that diaries provide a way of avoiding some of the moral dilemmas created when researchers solicit narratives of suffering and represent accounts which contextualize suffering within a personal biography. This study also observes the authors’ representation of heterosexual characters who accept the presence of queer individuals in their societies. It is in this line that this paper argues that the two authors offer a glimpse into a possibility of an inclusive society which accommodates people’s sexualities that are considered non-normative.

Hypnosuggestive Therapy and Sexual-Behavioral Training in the Correction of Homosexuality. A Case From Clinical Practice

Patient V., 16 years old, studies in the 10th grade of high school. He consulted me in order to correct his homosexual desire on the initiative of his parents who, unlike him, regarded his sexual orientation as pathology. Under their strong psychological pressure he agreed on conversion therapy, since it, in his opinion, would not deteriorate him but would be better for his parents. On the moment of his visit the heterosexual component of sexual desire was entirely absent. His platonic (romantic) libido to girls was awakened at the age of 8-9, and the erotic one at the age of 10. His erotic desire to males was awakened at the age of 12-13, and the sexual desire a year later. At the age of 13 he arrived at the conclusion that he was a gay. When the patient was 14 he liked his classmate of the same age, whom he did not confess in it. They had companionship and “friendship”. He interacted with that boy during 1-1.5 years. At the age of 15 he had his first homosexual contact with a 36-year-old male. The patient had more than 20 sexual contacts with men aged 17-36. Any manifestations of gender incongruence had never been observed. His andrological status have no pathology. The provided correction was as follows: 1. Cognitive influences targeted at formation of the patient’s beliefs about advantages of the heterosexual lifestyle. 2. Hypnosuggestive correction. Programming was targeted at suggestion of futility of the homosexual lifestyle, removal of the homosexual desire and saturation with the heterosexual one, formation of associations between homosexuality and unpleasant sensations and landscapes, negative social consequences of homosexual relations, mental disorders and somatic problems observed in homosexuals. Hypnotic suggestions were also carried out aimed at changing the aesthetic and sexual perception of female and male persons, increasing sexual attraction to girls and women. A normal course of heterosexual masturbation was programmed. Besides, we performed modelling of the normal course of sexual intercourses with persons of the female sex in the hypnotic state. 3. Sexual-behavioural training (sex therapy) using masturbation of the heterosexual character with involvement of porn resources from Internet. Naturally, any use of homosexual plots during masturbation was strictly prohibited. 4. Also the patient was charged with a task to form an ideal of female beauty by focusing his attention on persons of the female sex both in the real life and in Internet. Twenty-one sessions of hypnosuggestive corrections were conducted. In the process of the provided therapy the homosexual component of libido was decreasing, while the heterosexual one was increasing. After the 18th session of hypnosis the heterosexual desire was expressed by 100% and the homosexual one by 0%. Then 3 more sessions of hypnosis were conducted in order to secure the achieved results. An inquiry of the patient 4 months later after the performed correction demonstrated their stability.

(026) Perceptions of Sexual Consent for Diverse Sexual Orientation and Gender Identities

Abstract Introduction The literature has not examined the perceived differences of sexual consent across people of diverse social groups in great depth. Objectives This study explored how sexual consent communication is perceived for people across various gender identities and sexual orientations. Methods College students were recruited to participate in a survey by which they were asked to respond to a cisgender, heterosexual version or a sexual minority version of vignettes based on ambiguous sexual consent themes. Participants were asked to identify the degree to which they believed the sexual encounters in the vignettes were consensual, the degree by which the aggressors consented to the sexual encounters, and the degree by which the victims consented to the sexual encounters. Results The study findings indicate that five of the sixteen vignette themes showed statistically significant differences in participant perception. Participants perceived the retraction of sexual consent theme differently between the cisgender, heterosexual and sexual minority vignette version, in that the sexual minority characters (gay) were perceived to have consented at a higher degree than the cisgender, heterosexual characters. In looking at the characters in the aggressor role in the vignettes, the cisgender, heterosexual characters were perceived to have consented to the sexual scenarios at a higher degree than characters of sexual minority groups in the emotional dysregulation (male to female transgender), retraction of sexual consent (gay), bribe or blackmail (lesbian), and rape fantasy (queer) themes. In looking at the characters in the victim role in the vignettes, the character of a sexual minority group (questioning sexual orientation) in the fully consensual theme was perceived to have consented at a higher degree than the cisgender, heterosexual character. Conclusions College students’ expectations of sexual consent communication may differ depending on the sexual orientation and gender identities of the individuals involved. Self-identification with a particular social group may indicate a higher expectancy for that group to communicate sexual consent with less ambiguity. Disclosure No.

“Consent Is Sexy”: exploring the portrayal of prosocial sexuality messages in youth-oriented series

ABSTRACT Content analyses on sexual messages in youth-oriented series have traditionally focused on the distribution of negative or antisocial sexual messages. As such, the potential of youth-oriented series to promote prosocial sexual messages (PSM) has been neglected. Grounded in the 3AM model, this content analysis fills this gap in the literature by examining the occurrence of PSM in youth-oriented series (e.g. Elite) on Netflix. A total of 126 characters (52% male, 48% female) and 3,151 scenes in 65 episodes were coded. The results indicate that PSM were promoted 4 times per episode (i.e. average length was 36 minutes) and were distributed by more than half of the characters. PSM also significantly co-occurred with antisocial sexual messages (ASM) in scenes, suggesting that sexual messages may operate as a “mixed” socialization agent for adolescents’ sexuality development. Further, characters in comedies and non-heterosexual characters more often distributed PSM than respectively characters in dramas and heterosexual characters. The promotion of PSM did not vary by characters’ gender. Implications of these findings in terms of audience effects and suggestions for future research are further discussed.

Looking heteronormatively good! Combining story completion with Bitstrips to explore understandings of sexuality and appearance

ABSTRACTThis study sought to develop knowledge about understandings of sexuality and appearance by using a story completion task combined with an innovative visual methodology. Fifty-four (mainly female) participants were randomly assigned to complete a story about a fictional bisexual, lesbian, or heterosexual character who is going on a date, and then asked to build a Bitstrips online avatar of their character. Our social constructionist thematic analysis identified that looking good was a common feature of the stories and that this was understood in largely heteronormative terms. This imperative was also clear in stories of the date, which relied on traditional notions of gender and heterosexuality. Finally, individuality and authenticity were rewarded in participants’ stories, yet this was simultaneously constrained by (dominant) heteronormative narratives. We conclude that combining story completion with visual methods enabled deeper insights into representations of appearance, dating, and relationships, than a textual method alone.

Sexual References and Consequences for Heterosexual, Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Characters on Television: A Comparison Content Analysis

A content analysis was conducted to examine sexual references and consequences among lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB), and heterosexual characters on television. The sample was composed of programs portraying an LGB lead or reoccurring character. Results showed that heterosexual and LGB characters engaged in sexual talk and behavior in similar contexts. When discussing LGB sexualities, however, heterosexual characters were disproportionately likely to make jokes; LGB characters were disproportionately likely to discuss coming out. LGB characters depicted in sexual references were more likely to be in dialogue with a heterosexual character than another LGB character. Sexual consequences were more common for heterosexual characters than LGB characters. No gender differences existed in frequency of sexual references or consequences among LGB characters, evidence that the sexual double standard found in previous research may not apply to LGB characters. Results are discussed in terms of potential effects of exposure.

Representation of racial and sexual 'others' in Afrikaans popular romantic fiction by Sophia Kapp

This article provides a feminist critique of representation, analysing the way sexual and racial others are represented in the work of the Afrikaans popular romantic fiction writer Sophia Kapp. Comparing her first three novels to the latest one, the article points to a development in her writing and tracks the changes it has undergone over the course of the almost ten years of Kapp's writing career. Starting off with exclusively white and heterosexual characters in her first novels, her latest novel includes a number of black and homosexual secondary characters. However, while these characters appear to be equal to the white hero and heroine, an analysis of their representation shows that they are rendered in such a way that they support the white heterosexual marriage as the unquestionable standard, and it becomes clear that the inclusion of sexual and racial others appears for the most part to be in the function of "surrogate and enabler" for the white heterosexual marriage ideal.

Perspectivas de las (in)visibilidades del cuerpo queer/heterosexual: el cuerpo travesti en La novela Plástico cruel

This article aims to represent perspectives of the travesty body appropriation, due to the body normativity transgression and the duality of masculine and feminine identity. The notion of the travesty body is considered as denaturalized body, while the heteronormative body represents the natural gender because of the reproductive capacity from their naturalized body. In order to question the relationship between transvestitism and body, Plastico cruel (2011), the Argentine novel written by Jose Sbarra, represents the (in)visibilities of body, which reinterpret the body dimensions of heterosexual and travesty characters in the consumer society, surrounded by the materialism and the body obsession.Referring to the heterosexual normalized body and the travesty non-normative body, the concept able-bodiedness is appropiately applied to the heterosexuality. On the contrary, transvestites are labeled as unable body. The concept reinterpretation of “able-bodiedness” applied to heterosexual characters reveals that heteronormativity, in spite of their functional body, does not succeed in love and stable relationship.

Marginalized Identities and Spaces

James Baldwin’s stories concentrate on racially and sexually marginalized identities placed within cosmopolitan capitals (Paris and New York). In such novels as Another Country, Baldwin explores antonyms, contrasting ideals and ideologies, and the formation of nonconforming relationships. Individual desire and external social pressure create a complex tension that pulls white and black, homo- and heterosexual characters toward and away from each other. Space repeatedly appears as reflective of the inner landscapes of the characters who are intricately linked to the space in which they act. Similar tensions that characterize their inner conflicts appear also in the concept of cosmopolitanism that defines the cities they inhabit. Indeed, a cosmopolitan world citizen, who is at home everywhere but not belonging anywhere, is torn between opposing forces, between inclusion and exclusion. Similarly, Baldwin’s fiction examines inclusion and exclusion, steering, however, away from simplified constructions of centrality and marginality.

La representación de la diversidad afectivo-sexual en la literatura infantil y juvenil de América Latina

En el siguiente trabajo se pretende analizar la literatura infantil y juvenil publicada en América Latina que muestra la diversidad afectivo-sexual. Se estudian los distintos modelos de familia formados por dos padres o dos madres, así como las historias que son protagonizadas por personajes no heterosexuales, y se comparan con publicaciones similares en otros lugares. Se puede concluir que las familias homoparentales son retratadas de un modo muy similar en todas las partes del mundo, sin embargo, en cuanto a la representación de lesbianas, gais, bisexuales y transgéneros, América Latina destaca por mostrar una mayor variedad de personajes, opciones, gustos y tendencias.

Dressing Commander Shepard in pink: Queer playing in a heteronormative game culture

This article explores the strategies of queer playing of video games and their relationship to the heteronormative game culture. Its premise is that most video games are, either implicitly or explicitly, heteronormative and the inscribed player of such games is in the majority of cases a heterosexual male. In order to achieve the same level of identification with an avatar and to enjoy a similar gameplay experience as the heterosexual player, the LGBT player may have to deploy various strategies to challenge the game and work around it, or to find the LGBT content which some more progressive games offer. The study is based on in-depth qualitative interviews with six players (5 males and 1 female) who identified themselves both as homosexual and as players of the Mass Effect or Dragon Age series, games that include several opportunities to initiate same-sex romance. We have identified three different queer playing strategies: imaginative play (queer reading of unspecified or heterosexual characters), stylized performance (the use of gay stereotypes to mark one as queer) and role-playing of a LGBT character. However, players do not seek sexuality in games to the same extent as they do in film or TV, and they tend to use these strategies, and especially the latter two, reluctantly or with reservations. These reservations may be linked to our finding that LGBT players consider their gay (or lesbian) identities disconnected from their identities as players or gamers. This can be explained by the mutual exclusivity of gay communities and the heteronormative game culture.

Cutting off Mediation. Agamben as Master Thinker

Agamben’s Homo Sacer turns centrally upon “bare life”. However, the following subjects are not thematized: natality, gender, sexuality, the relation of the sexes, the heterosexual character of the symbolic order and political culture, the interest of women in the reproduction of life. The entire question of sexual difference —like that of the difference between victim and perpetrator, between witnesses and those born afterwards— is banned from Agamben’s horizon. Thus a deep unease remains, which this paper is intended to explore. It will first present the methodological and theoretical inspirations, which Homo Sacer owes to the thought of Carl Schmitt. Secondly it will show that Schmitt’s concepts of nomos and the state of exception cannot provide a suitable basis for rewriting Foucault’s concept of biopolitics.

Związki partnerskie (konkubinaty) – postulaty instytucjonalizacji

The aim of this study is to consider the issue of the institutionalisation of cohabitation. This is a current problem discussed both in Poland and abroad. Opinions of jurists and politicians vary and there are different models introduced in different countries. Some governments allowed homosexuals to get married (e.g. United Kingdom, Spain). Others decided to preserve heterosexual character of marriage and created non-martial unions legally recognised only for homosexuals (e.g. Germany). Lastly, France stated both forms available for everyone. The Polish legal system recognises only heterosexual marriage whereas the cohabitation is not institutionalised. The Polish jurists represent various views on this problem. Some of them argue that only marriage should be respected by Polish law. Others state that the institutionalisation of cohabitation is necessary and connected with human rights. Finally, many jurists claim that non-martial couples are well protected by Polish law and there is no need of creating another type of legal union.

Disciplining the Vernacular: Fair Use, YouTube, and Remixer Agency

Disciplining the Vernacular: Fair Use, YouTube, and Remixer Agency

When the heterosexual script goes flexible: Public reactions to female heteroflexibility in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books

The phenomenon of heteroflexibility, wherein a heterosexual character engages in same-sex intimacy, provides a good example of how modern narratives of sexuality can contain promises of subversion yet also shore up heteronormative schemas. To fully understand how the notion of heteroflexibility functions to broaden and/or restrict our understandings of (female) sexuality, we need to examine how these narratives are taken up by the audience. This article explores this tension by analysing how readers reacted to a heteroflexible storyline featured in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books. By examining how this story was interpreted, rejected and/or embraced by readers, I show that readers who disliked the heteroflexible storyline as well as those who enjoyed it draw on liberal discourses that obscure how heteronormativity operates. This in turn limits heteroflexibility’s potential for disrupting dominant heteronormative discourses.

Acting Gay: Male Actors Shift the Frequency Components of Their Voices Towards Female Values When Playing Homosexual Characters

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether actors playing homosexual male characters in North-American television shows speak with a feminized voice, thus following longstanding stereotypes that attribute feminine characteristics to male homosexuals. We predicted that when playing homosexual characters, actors would raise the frequency components of their voice towards more stereotypically feminine values. This study compares fundamental frequency (F0) and formant frequencies (F i ) parameters in the speech of fifteen actors playing homosexual and heterosexual characters in North-American television shows. Our results reveal that the voices of actors playing homosexual male characters are characterized by a raised F0 (corresponding to a higher pitch), and raised formant frequencies (corresponding to a less baritone timbre), approaching values typical of female voices. Besides providing further evidence of the existence of an “effeminacy” stereotype in portraying male homosexuals in the media, these results show that actors perform pitch and vocal tract length adjustments in order to alter their perceived sexual orientation, emphasizing the role of these frequency components in the behavioral expression of gender attributes in the human voice.

T03-P-04 Pilot research about sex scenes in motion pictures

Objecitives The hypothesis is based on significant differences between films classified as “heterosexual” love stories and “homosexual” ones, in relation to length of the sex scenes, to the level of nudity of characters (during the sexual scenes) and to the kind of location where the sexual scenes take place. Materials and method We inserted in a database named “Internet Movie Database” a range of keywords distinctive for orientation, scene, location, degree of nudity of the characters. We decided to include only films made for the “big screen” and we ruled-out tv-series and cartoons. We examined 18 films considering the following independent variables: 1) the sex scene 2) the relationship. We also considered as dependent variables: 1) the length 2) the level of nudity 3) the location of the sex scenes. Results We realized that in a film classified as “homosexual” there are more heterosexual sex scenes than homosexual ones, compared to films classified as “heterosexual”; the average length of the scenes classified as “heterosexual” is undoubtedly bigger than those classified as “homosexual”; heterosexual characters are generally more uncovered than the homosexual ones. There are not remarkable differences between heterosexual and homosexual locations of the sex scenes. Conclusions It should be interesting to expand the research to a longer lapse of time and to consider as a new dependent variable the country of film's production.

Girls and the unconscious in Murakami Haruki's Kafka on the Shore

Murakami's 2002 novel, Umibe no Kafka (translated by Philip Gabriel and published as Kafka on the Shore, 2005), is a psychoanalytical interrogation of the mind of a young, deeply disturbed patricide whose Oedipal crisis culminates in a descent to the pre-Oedipal, Kristevan ‘semiotic’ level of the unconscious in order to begin the healing process. This paper draws on psychoanalytic literary criticism along Kristevan lines in its focus on the young women in Kafka on the Shore, who, as in many of Murakami's novels, play important roles in the male protagonist's progress. Sakura comfortably belongs to the outside world ruled by the symbolic order, and her presence, along with the other strongly heterosexual character, Sada, provide the outer frame for Kafka's inner journey. The androgynous, uncannily insightful Ōshima, on the other hand, plays a central role in shaping Kafka's progress in his liminal journey towards psycho-sexual health, and is well served by a Kristevan analysis. However, both the liminal stage and the mainstream, ‘real’ space are dominated by a rather old-fashioned, Lacanian view of heterosexuality as the normal subjectivity, focusing on the male, homogeneous body as the ideal, limiting the applicability of the Kristevan approach.

Homosexuality in TV Situation Comedies

ABSTRACT A content analysis was conducted on 22 television situation comedies in order to determine the incidence of homosexual characters, their demographics (sex, age and race/ethnicity), and whether they verbally comment about sexual orientation. One episode of each program appearing in early October 2000 was video recorded and analyzed for its contents by trained coders. Only 2% of the 125 central characters were homosexual; thus, homosexuality is significantly under-represented in programs that adolescents and young adults watch compared to actual prevalence rates of homosexuality in North America (10–13%). All the homosexual characters were male and in the 20–35-year-old age group; this indicates that homosexual adolescent viewers have no peer role models with whom to identify. Homosexual characters made significantly more comments about sexual orientation than heterosexual characters. This suggests that television writers/producers present sexual orientation as a significant theme in the lives of homosexual characters.

Viral Dynamics of Primary HIV‐1 Infection in Senegal, West Africa

Few studies have addressed primary human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 infection in sub-Saharan Africa, where the epidemic is of a predominantly heterosexual character and is caused by different subtypes. The present study examines the dynamics of viral replication in subjects infected with various HIV-1 subtypes. Seven hundred fifty-two HIV-negative Senegalese women at high risk for infection were monitored every 3 months for acute/early HIV infection; 26 infections were identified (23 HIV-1 and 3 HIV-2), with an HIV-1 incidence rate of 3.23 cases/person-years observation. Multiple viral-load measurements were taken for all seroconverters. The mean+/-standard deviation viral load for all subjects during the early stage of infection was 4.13+/-0.66 log10 copies/mL, with an overall decrease of 0.22 log10 copies/mL after the early stage; the viral set point was reached after 12 months of infection. Most subjects had relatively low viral loads during the early stage of infection. HIV-1 CRF02_AG-infected women had a significantly higher mean viral load during the early stage of infection (mean +/- SD, 4.45+/-0.60 log(10) copies/mL) than did non-HIV-1 CRF02_AG-infected women (mean+/-SD, 3.78+/-0.46 log(10) copies/mL) (P=.008). None of the subjects reported symptoms consistent with primary HIV-1 infection. Our findings in Senegalese women differ from what have been described for primary HIV-1 infection. Further investigations of primary infections with non-B subtypes are warranted, to better characterize their differences with primary infections with subtype B.