Practices Of Men Research Articles

Time, relations and learning in gay men's experiences of adventurous sex

In 1998 social researchers reported that membership of a “culture of sexual adventurism and experimentation” was a predictor of HIV sero‐conversion among homosexually active men living in Sydney. In this paper, we explore how these researchers have understood sexual adventurism as referring to a set of sexual practices, to a subcultural network, and to a particular sexual context. We then present an analysis of the way participants in our study recounted experiences of adventurous sex, focusing on sexual occasions that feature men playing with piss. Ten men, recruited on the basis of self–identification as being into ‘adventurous sex’, were interviewed on two occasions. The first interview invited men to recount experiences of adventurous sex in detail. In the second interview we asked men to provide accounts of their sexual histories or trajectories, and to speculate about their sexual futures. The interviews, which averaged one hour in length, were recorded on audio–tape and subsequently transcribed. The 10 participants were recruited from a list of participants from the Sydney Gay Community Periodic Surveys who had indicated their willingness to participate in further research. The men ranged from 33 to 57 years old. All had had sex with casual male partners in the previous six months. Two had regular male partners. Four of them were HIV–positive, four were HIV–negative and two were serostatus unknown. In contrast with an approach to research that seeks to define clusters of sexual activity across surveys of gay men's sexual practices, our study analysed narratives of sexual occasions recounted by gay men in interviews. This approach produces an interactive and iterative perspective on sexual experience, which we develop in this paper by drawing on the affect theory of Sylvan Tomkins and by attending to aspects of momentum, time and relations as recounted in gay men's experiences of adventurous sex. Through our analysis of interview data, we develop an account of adventurous sex that focuses on how men learn in interaction with others during sexual occasions and over time. We find that approaches to sex research and health education that seek predictability in what men do sexually and rely on men to delimit the scope of their sexual repertoire are incompatible with the attitudes with which men in our study approached and recounted experiences of adventurous sex.

Recruiting Black/African American men for research on prostate cancer prevention.

Black/African American men die of prostate cancer at a greater rate relative to other males. During the period from 1992 to 1998, prostate cancer incidence rates in the United States were 234.2 per 100,000 persons among non-Hispanic black males and 144.6 per 100,000 persons among white males. The reasons for these increased rates of prostate cancer among black males are largely unknown, but increased mortality is associated with late detection. The authors conducted a longitudinal study of black men that investigated prostate cancer prevention behaviors within this population. The purpose of the current article is to identify successful recruitment strategies that were reported by participants in this study of prevention behaviors. Qualitative research methods were used to elucidate men's thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and practices regarding prostate cancer prevention behaviors and to identify strategies for attracting black men to research programs and retaining them in these programs. Ethnocentric recruitment strategies that were identified included the development of tailored printed materials; the use of targeted locations; and a personalized, participatory approach for engaging potential participants. We contacted 498 black men and enrolled a cohort of 277 non-Hispanic black males (75% of whom were recruited within a 9-week period) in the current study. Unlike other studies that reported difficulty in recruiting African American men, the current study did not encounter such difficulties. The authors attribute their success to culturally attractive Afrocentric materials; cultural sensitivity; a caring, professional, personalized ethnic approach; respect; and participatory involvement of the target population. Nonetheless, the authors did encounter barriers, such as lack of physician interest and lack of trust in quality medical care. These barriers must be overcome before black males can be engaged and retained in research studies on prostate cancer prevention.

Figure Skating

The purpose of this study was to compare triple (T) and quadruple (Q) toe‐loop figure skating jumps and quantify basic characteristics of these jumps to provide information to coaches that will assist them in teaching quadruple toe‐loops to elite figure skaters. High‐speed video was taken during men's practice and competition sessions at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics; three‐dimensional analyses of selected triple and quadruple jumps were completed. The most significant difference between triple and quadruple toe‐loops was an increase in rotational velocity in the air. Additionally, increased vertical velocity at take‐off and subsequent time in the air were also observed. Three main conclusions were developed: 1) The timing of rotation of the hips and shoulders was different for quadruple toe‐loops compared to triples with the differences being observed before toe‐pick; 2) Increases in rotational velocity occurred primarily as a result of the skaters assuming different body positions from take‐off through landing which resulted in tighter rotating positions for longer durations of the jump; 3) Greater vertical velocity was gained during the propulsive phase due to the extension of the legs during the press off the ice.

Critical Studies on Men in Ten European Countries

This article is on the work of the European Research Network on Men in Europe project, “The Social Problem and Societal Problematization of Men and Masculinities” (2000-2003), funded by the European Commission. The Network comprises women and men researchers with a range of disciplinary backgrounds from Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom. The Network's initial focus is on men's relations to home and work, social exclusion, violence, and health. Some of the findings on the Network's fourth phase of work, namely the review of newspaper and media representations of men's practices in the ten countries, are presented. This is the last of four articles reviewing critical studies on men in the ten countries through different methods and approaches.

In Search of the ‘Mysterious’ Australian Male: Editorial Practices in Men's Lifestyle Magazines

The men's lifestyle magazines FHM (For Him Magazine) and Ralph are a significant presence in the Australian market, and both target a specific readership of young, heterosexual men. My central research question concerns how desired audiences are constructed or imagined at the ‘front end’ of magazine production. One of the major tasks of the editors and publishers of these magazines is to access, and compete for, an audience. This paper aims to examine the contradictions apparent in the editorial practices of defining or envisioning an audience for Ralph and FHM. To understand the process of how they produce the magazines, I examine the editorial staffs' conceptions of the ‘audience’; the ways in which it is created and for what purposes, as well as the terms used to describe this integral part of the industry. How the audience is defined and constructed highlights how contradictions, creativity and constraint operate in defining the audience.

Lust, trust and latex: Why young heterosexual men do not use condoms

This paper examines young heterosexual men's participation in unsafe sex. A qualitative study of young heterosexual Australian men's understandings and practices of safe and unsafe sex, involving in-depth interviews conducted with 17 men aged between 18 and 26, found that five principal themes recur in young men's accounts for the non-use of condoms. First, men stress the risk of pregnancy rather than the risks of HIV or other sexually transmitted infections, and they respond to the former risk by relying on their partners' use of the contraceptive pill. Second, men perceive that wearing condoms decreases penile sensation and that condoms are difficult to use. Third, men find that the 'heat of the moment' of sexual episodes, and their spontaneous and passionate ambience, makes it hard to incorporate condoms. Fourth, men privilege 'trust' as fundamental to their sexual involvements, and quickly define involvements as 'relationships' and therefore as trusting and monogamous, such that they abandon condoms. Fifth, men believe that they are very unlikely to contract HIV because they see their social circles, the 'heterosexual community' or heterosexual sex per se as safe and free of HIV/AIDS. Future education and prevention efforts directed at the heterosexual sexual transmission of HIV should address such configurations of sociosexual meaning and practice in men's lives. Cet article examine la participation des jeunes hommes hétérosexuels à des rapports sexuels hétérosexuels à risque. Une étude qualitative des compréhensions et des pratiques des rapports sexuels protégés et à risque par des jeunes hétérosexuels australiens, comprenant des entretiens en profondeur avec dix-sept hommes âgés de 18 à 26 ans, montre que cinq thèmes majeurs sont récurrents dans les discours de ces hommes sur la non utilisation du préservatif. Premièrement, les participants mettent plus en avant les risques de grossesse que ceux de la transmission du VIH ou d'autres MST, et ils y trouvent une solution en comptant sur l'utilisation de pilules contraceptives par leurs partenaires. Deuxièmement, ils perçoivent le préservatif comme pouvant réduire les sensations au niveau du pénis et comme quelque chose de difficile à utiliser. Troisièmement, ils trouvent que e le feu de l'action f des rapports sexuels, la spontanéité et la passion qui en découlent, ne se prêtent pas très facilement à l'utilisation du préservatif. Quatrièmement, ils considèrent e la confiance f comme fondamentale à leurs engagements sexuels et, rapidement, définissent ces engagements comme des e relations suivies f , alors basées sur la confiance et monogames, leur permettant d'abandonner le préservatif. Cinquièmement, ils croient très peu probable leur contamination par le VIH parce qu'ils considèrent leurs cercles sociaux, la e communauté hétérosexuelle f ou les rapports sexuels hétérosexuels, comme intrinsèquement protégés du VIH/sida. Les stratégies d'éducation et de prévention contre la transmission hétérosexuelle du VIH doivent prendre en considération ces configurations sociales et sexuelles existant dans la vie des hommes. En este documento se analizan los comportamientos de riesgo de jóvenes heterosexuales en sus relaciones sexuales. Un estudio cualitativo sobre los conceptos y prácticas de sexo seguro y de riesgo de jóvenes heterosexuales de Australia que incluyó entrevistas en profundidad a diecisiete hombres entre los 18 y 26 años de edad, encontró cinco razones principales que los hombres mencionaron para no usar preservativos. En primer lugar, recalcaron que existía más riesgo de embarazo que de contagio del virus del SIDA u otras enfermedades de transmisión sexual, y en cuanto al riesgo de embarazo respondieron que confiaban en que sus compañeras tomaran la píldora. En segundo lugar, manifestaron que utilizar preservativos disminuía la sensibilidad en el pene y que era difícil utilizarlos. En tercer lugar, según ellos el 'calor del momento' en los episodios sexuales y su ambiente de espontaneidad y pasión hacía difícil el uso de condones. En cuarto lugar, para los hombres la confianza era un factor fundamental en las relaciones sexuales, que en seguida definían como 'relaciones serías' y, por lo tanto, monógamas y de confianza, lo que hacia que ignorasen el uso del preservativo. En quinto lugar, los hombres están convencidos de que no pueden contagiarse de VIH porque consideran a su círculo social, la 'comunidad heterosexual' y a las relaciones heterosexuales per se como segura, es decir, sin el peligro de VIH/SIDA. En el futuro, la educación y la prevención de la transmisión heterosexual del VIH deberá abordar tales configuraciones del significado y la práctica sociosexual en la vida de los hombres.

Edward Rigby (1747-1821) of Norwich and his Essay on the Uterine Haemorrhage

Antepartum haemorrhage has always been one of the most feared complications in obstetrics. William Hunter (1718-1783) said that only two emergencies ever scared him: ‘... one is the flooding and the other convulsions’1. One of the most alarming causes of antepartum haemorrhage is placenta praevia, which can lead to torrential haemorrhage. It was Paul Portal (1630-1703), a physician at the Hotel Dieu in Paris, who was the first to clearly describe the attachment of the placenta to the lower uterine segment in a case of placenta praevia in his 1685 text The Compleat Practice of Men and Women Midwives2. Before his description it was thought that when the placenta was felt at the cervix in cases of antepartum haemorrhage it had fallen down from its fundal attachment3. William Hunter illustrated the true position of placenta praevia in plates 11 and 12 of his Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus, published in 17744. During the 17th and 18th centuries obstetricians acknowledged the dangers of placenta praevia even when they did not understand its true nature. It was recognized that the bleeding would continue until delivery of the infant. Thus, the obstetrician would dilate the cervix if necessary, separate the edge of the placenta with the hand until the membranes were reached, rupture them, grasp the leg of the infant, and deliver it by breech extraction. If necessary, the infant was turned inside the uterus until the feet could be grasped and delivered. This technique of internal version and breech extraction was known as ‘delivery of the art’5. If the cervix had to be forcibly dilated to achieve this it became known as accouchement force—a term introduced by the French obstetrician Andre Levret (1703-1780)6. Thus, the principal obstetric texts of the 17th and 18th centuries advocated accouchement force in cases of placenta praevia2,3,7,8,9. However, because there was no clear clinical differentiation between placenta praevia and other causes of haemorrhage, accouchement force tended to be applied to all patients with heavy antepartum bleeding. Since most of these cases were not due to placenta praevia, and accouchement force itself could be traumatic and dangerous, this was neither necessary nor desirable5. Indeed, in a historical review, Noble found a maternal mortality of 33% with no interference compared with 48% with accouchement force10.

A Man's world: changing men's practices in a globalized world

Part 1 Transnational contexts: global masculinities - restoration and resistance, Michael Kimmel the white ribbon campaign - involving men and boys in ending global violence against women, Michael Kaufman adopting a global perspective on fatherhood, Graeme Russell global men's health and the crisis of western masculinity, Ben Wadham. Part 2 National contexts: nation, state and welfare - the cases of Finland and the UK, Jeff Hearn men as social workers in the UK - professional locations and gendering global discourses of welfare, Alastair Christie men and masculinities in late-modern Ireland, Harry Ferguson men's practices in prostitution - the case of Sweden, Sven-Axel Mansson toward the end of Black Macho in the United States - preface to a (pro) womanist vision of black manhood, Gary Lemon masculinities in Brazil - the case of Brazilian television advertisements, Benedito Medrado, Jorge Lyra and Marko Monteiro unlearning machismo - men changing men in post-revolutionary Nicaragua, Patrick Welsh moving beyond mateship - reconstructing Australian men's practices, Bob Pease gendering services for men in Hong Kong - backlash or pursuit of gender equity?, Chan Kam Wah saris, men and non-violence - reflections on Indian masculinity, Siddartha cultural practices of masculinity in post-apartheid South Africa, Ira Horowitz.

Critical Studies on Men in Ten European Countries

This article is on the work of The European Research Network on Men in Europe project “The Social Problem and Societal Problematization of Men and Masculinities” (2000-2003), funded by the European Commission. The Network comprises women and men researchers with a range of disciplinary backgrounds from Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom. The Network's initial focus is on men's relations to home and work, social exclusion, violences, and health. Some of findings on the Network's second phase of work, namely the review of statistical sources on men's practices in the ten countries, are presented. This is the third of four articles reviewing critical studies on men in the ten countries through different methods and approaches.

Critical Studies on Men in Ten European Countries

This article is one the work of The European Research Network on Men in Europe project “The Social Problem and Societal Problematization of Men and Masculinities” (2000-2003), funded by the European Commission. The Network comprises women and men researchers with range of disciplinary backgrounds from Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom. The Network's initial focus is on men's relations to home and work, social exclusion, violences, and health. Some of findings on the Network's second phase of work, namely the review of statistical sources on men's practices in the ten countries, are presented. This is the second of four articles reviewing critical studies on men in the ten countries through different methods and approaches.

Critical Studies on Men in Ten European Countries

This article is on the work of the European Research Network on Men in Europe project, “The Social Problem and Societal Problematization of Men and Masculinities” (2000-2003), funded by the European Commission. The Network comprises women and men researchers with a range of disciplinary backgrounds from Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom. The Network's initial focus is on men's relations to home and work, social exclusion, violence, and health. Some of the findings on the Network's fourth phase of work, namely the review of newspaper and media representations of men's practices in the ten countries, are presented. This is the last of four articles reviewing critical studies on men in the ten countries through different methods and approaches.

The Virtuous Marketplace: Women and Men, Money and Politics in Paris, 1830–1870. By Victoria E. Thompson. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. Pp. viii, 229. $32.00.

Victoria Thompson's study of the French market begins with the Richard Terdiman's premise that societies faced with rapid change engage in “semiotic activity” (Discourse/Counter Discourse: The Theory and Practice of Symbolic Resistance in Nineteenth-Century France. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985). In other words, the tensions surrounding political, economic, and social upheaval send individuals scurrying to categorize and explain the new world confronting them. Certainly, the boom-and-bust economy of nineteenth-century France generated such anxieties. Interestingly, many of those fears focused on female sexuality, a topic that might seem remote from the debates over living wages for working-class men or the appearance of new credit mechanisms. The problem that interests Thompson is twofold. First, how did French society cope with the potentially destructive power of early capitalism, a power that could dissolve familial bonds and up-end social hierarchies? Second, how did new gender norms work within the new market framework? The French answer to both problems was the creation of a “virtuous marketplace,” one in which honor and self-control shaped men's economic practices, and in which distinct gender roles kept women a respectable distance from the temptations of material gain.

Teaching Men's Studies in Religion at an All-Women's College

An all-women's college could provide the perfect opportunity to address two important issues: to develop an additional model for teaching men's studies within undergraduate religious studies and to facilitate a collective women's response to profeminist men's studies. To accomplish both these tasks, we piloted a new course at Agnes Scott College during fall semester 1999, entitled “Women, Masculinities, and Religion.” This course, including its female participants' responses to men's studies work in religion during the 1990s, constitutes one specific site of the intersection of men's studies scholarship and professional practice, the further exploration of which may both enhance pedagogical conversations within the academy and contribute to the future shape of genuinely profeminist men's studies work within the field of religious studies. To these ends, this paper describes the shape and content of the course, and examines both related pedagogical issues and students' responses to the course design and content.

Gay men's practice of anal intercourse in Sydney, Australia

Gay men's practice of anal intercourse in Sydney, Australia

Condom use and 'withdrawal': exploring gay men's practice of anal intercourse

Condom use and 'withdrawal': exploring gay men's practice of anal intercourse

Condom use and 'withdrawal': exploring gay men's practice of anal intercourse.

Some gay men who have unprotected anal intercourse avoid ejaculation-they practise 'withdrawal'. Using data collected in 1997 from a sample of Sydney gay men (n=625), we explored the relation between men's practice of ejaculation and their use of condoms. We also investigated whether men who had unprotected withdrawal but not unprotected ejaculation were more likely to think unprotected withdrawal was safe, liked condoms less, liked anal intercourse more, or were more sexually adventurous. Considering separately insertive and receptive anal intercourse with regular and with casual partners, we found that the majority of men who practised unprotected withdrawal also practised unprotected ejaculation. Of those whose only unprotected sex was withdrawal ('true withdrawers'), most never used condoms (they did not also have protected sex with ejaculation). True withdrawers were compared with men who had unprotected ejaculation, who always used condoms, who had no anal sex and who had no partners. Those who were true withdrawers with casual partners were more likely to believe withdrawal was safe; no group effects were found with regular partners. No significant differences in condom attitudes were found. True withdrawers with regular partners liked anal intercourse less than other men, but true withdrawers with casual partners were indistinguishable from those who had unprotected ejaculation. True withdrawers did not differ in sexual adventurousness from other men who had anal intercourse. Most withdrawers avoided anal sex with ejaculation rather than use condoms. Converting them into reliable condom users may be a considerable challenge for health promotion.

Pornography and men's practices

Summary: This article addresses the inter-relationship between pornography and sexual violence. Its particular focus is a political analysis of pornography within a context of gender politics, using concepts from feminist standpoint theory and recent theorising about men. It examines extant research concerning the effects of pornography, and critiques the predominantly positivist assumptions of such research. The article concludes with some ideas for enabling men to challenge pornography and its uses.

‘The canary in the coalmine’: The nonaccommodation cycle in the gendered workplace

In this paper, we look at workplace communication nonaccommodation between men and women coworkers and its role in the persistence of organizational gender inequality. We contend that the principles of Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) explain the dynamics of intergroup psychological processes underlying gender‐based workplace communication breakdowns, which contribute to the development and maintenance of separate gender group workplace social identities. Drawing upon prior research and theory, especially Coupland, Wiemann & Giles’(1991) miscommunication model and Dubë‐Simard's model of intergroup communication breakdown, we develop a model of the workplace gender nonaccommodation cycle and its effects upon men's and women's workplace linguistic practices. We also suggest that recognition of the intergroup nature of gender‐based workplace conflicts can point the way to finding solutions that reduce the incidence of these communication breakdowns or, at the least, mitigate their worst effects.

Young men's awareness, attitudes and practice of testicular self-examination: A Health Action Process Approach

One-hundred-and-one Australian university students aged 18-25 years, with a mean age of 22.9 years (SD=1.62) completed a survey assessing testicular self-examination, and knowledge of testicular cancer. A statistically significant difference was found in knowledge scores between performers and non-performers. The factors influencing performance of testicular self-examination were examined using Schwarzer's (1992) Health Action Process Approach as the theoretical framework. Results showed that the majority of men were uninformed or misinformed about testicular cancer and testicular self-examination. Eighty-three per cent of respondents did not perform testicular self-examination once per month as recommended. Intention, outcome expectancies and self-efficacy were the best predictors of testicular self-examination performance. Findings provided some support for the Health Action Process Approach.

Sally Johnson & Ulrike Hanna Meinhof (eds.), Language and masculinity. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997. Pp. x, 244.

This book calls attention to an area of language and gender research that has been too long overlooked. Most studies in the field have centered either on women or on comparative analyses of women's and men's linguistic practices, while relatively few have focused primarily on the language use of men and boys. Such an enterprise is fraught with political peril, since feminists may object that making men more central to language and gender studies necessarily detracts attention from the study of women. However, as an invisible norm, masculinity frames the gendered lives of women as well as men. The study of language and masculinity is therefore a vital part of the feminist linguistic project – linked to the study of other categories rendered normative, and hence invisible to scrutiny, such as whiteness and heterosexuality. Although Language and masculinity gives little attention to the question of how the processes of racialization and gender are mutually constituted, two chapters explore the construction of heterosexuality as part of the project of normative masculinity. While the book focuses primarily on white middle-class English speakers, it includes a wide range of national contexts, genres, and social groups, as well as theoretical and methodological approaches.