Mediated Intimacy Research Articles

Mediated intimacies: Raw sex, Truvada, and the biopolitics of chemoprophylaxis

This article offers a retrospective view on Unlimited Intimacy by evaluating the status of pharmaceutical mediation in the emergence and development of bareback as a sexual practice. It examines the US public health recommendation of 2014 that HIV-negative people should begin taking Truvada, an AIDS drug, for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Situating the pragmatics of PrEP in a discussion of the medicalization of gay sexuality, it argues that Truvada has biopolitical side effects that warrant critical attention. Drawing on queer theorist Beatriz Preciado, the article elaborates a concept of ‘pharmacopower’ to contextualize the development of chemoprophylaxis in the history of sexuality.

Pop-politics in times of crisis: The Italian tabloid press during Mario Monti’s government

Modern politicians need to diversify their communication strategies to reach a wide range of citizens/electors. Communication of political programmes must be associated with the effective communication of the private sphere. However, does this rule apply to a scenario in which the political stage is not ruled by politicians? By presenting the results of a content analysis of four Italian tabloids and by relying on an interview with the communication officer of Italian former premier, this study shows how political popularization develops in the era of the technocrat. The authors claim that the search for ‘mediated intimacy’ with the citizens/electors does not exclusively represent a concern for professional politicians. The need to personify political action is not only dependent on the necessity to maximize the electoral turnout, but it also depends on the acknowledgement of the fact that any public officer cannot avoid opening the doors of his or her own private sphere.

Mediated intimacy and postfeminism: a discourse analytic examination of sex and relationships advice in a women’s magazine

This article uses a discourse analytic perspective to analyse sex and relationship advice in a best-selling women’s magazine. It identifies three different interpretative repertoires which together structure constructions of sexual relationships: the intimate entrepreneurship repertoire, organized around plans, goals and the scientific management of relationships; men-ology, in which women are instructed in how to learn to please men; and transforming the self, which calls on women to remodel their interior lives in order to construct a desirable subjectivity. The article considers each repertoire in turn, and also looks at how they work together in order to privilege men and heterosexuality. Discussion focuses in particular on the postfeminist nature of the advice, in which pre-feminist, feminist and anti-feminist ideas are entangled in such a way as to make gender ideologies more pernicious and difficult to contest.

Using Cultural Probes to Explore Mediated Intimacy

Intimacy is a crucial element of domestic life that has received insufficient attention from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers despite their rapidly growing interest in the design of interactive technologies for domestic use. Intimate acts differ from other activities, and there are unexplored opportunities to develop interactive technologies to support these acts. This paper presents the first phase of a two-part study exploring the potential of interactive technologies to support intimate relationships. We contribute to this uncharted domain of HCI research a literature review of concepts useful in understanding intimacy and methods for its investigation. We conclude with preliminary results and suggestive design ideas for interactive technologies intended to support intimacy.