Discourses Of Sexuality Research Articles

Pleasure, prohibition and pretence: single middle class women negotiating heteronormativity in Bangladesh

Understanding heteronormativity through the ‘lived sexualities’ of single women in urban Bangladesh, who are rarely included in any discourse of sexuality, this paper looks at middle class women who do not conform to marriage normativity but who carve out a space of social respect, acceptance and happiness through a long process of negotiation and careful navigation. Taking the intersectionality of gender, class and sexuality as its focus—this qualitative study seeks to understand the tactics of avoidance and the strategic routes women employ in their everyday lives as they negotiate heteronormative prohibitions to pursue sexuality and pleasure.

Analysing Media Reactions to Male/Male Dance Partnerships On British Reality TV Shows: Inclusive Masculinity in Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing On Ice

Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing on Ice are primetime reality television shows that promote partner dancing as a form of leisure in the UK. Both shows have consistently represented partner dancing as a partnership between a man and a woman. However, in 2019 and 2020male/male partnerships were introduced into both shows for the first time. Drawing on media reports that discuss these male/male partnerships, this paper explores how the partnerships were represented and made sense of by mainstream and LGBT + media. Employing thematic discourse analysis, we demonstrate how the male/male dance partnerships were framed by a complex and contradictory inclusive masculinity discourse. On the one hand, this discourse celebrated the male/male couples as evidence that Britain is a progressive society in which homophobia is in decline. At the same time, the representations largely centred on the male dance couples’ bromances while ignoring or silencing discourses of gay love or sex. We show that although the representations can be viewed as a positive step forward, there were also some limitations to the representations which necessitate more critical examination in future research

Facilitating an encounter with a new sexuality discourse: the role of civic communicators in building sexual health literacy among newly arrived migrants

Language and different sexual health discourses constitute barriers to the uptake of information on sexual and reproductive health and rights among migrants. Challenges remain with regards to the design and implementation of culturally appropriate programmes and interventions. This study explored the role of civic communicators in increasing access to sexual health information among migrants resettling in Sweden. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Findings illustrate the potential role of civic communicators in identifying sexual health needs, deconstructing misinformation and providing a space for reflective dialogue. Training in adult pedagogy, leadership, cultural competence and subject knowledge, and allocating sufficient time to cover themes that are culturally different, sensitive and politicised, are essential for good quality implementation and promoting rights-based sexual health.

Foucault’s 1960s Lectures on Sexuality

In this extended review essay we discuss the lectures on sexuality which Foucault delivered in the 1960s, published in a single volume in 2018. The first part of the volume comprises five lectures given at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in 1964 to psychology students. The second part is Foucault’s course ‘The Discourse of Sexuality’, given at the experimental University of Vincennes in 1969 in the philosophy department. We explore both the themes of the lectures, and the important editorial materials provided by Claude-Olivier Doron which situate these themes in relation to recent developments in the history and philosophy of biology, gender and sexuality. These lectures provide some important and surprising additions to Foucault’s more familiar interest in sexuality, with discussion of plant and animal biology, sex differentiation, the question of sexual behaviour, perversion and infantile sexuality.

Linguistic Traces of Subjectivity and Dissent. A Discursive Analysis of Inclusive Language in Argentina.

In Argentina, the so-called “inclusive language” aims at avoiding the bias for a particular sex or gender and objects to a grammatical binary system (feminine – masculine). Although in most Spanish-speaking countries, inclusive language has been limited to the realms of activism, gender studies and a certain type of public administration, in Argentina, its use has been extended to different social spheres, mostly urban. Considering such context, this work aims to investigate the inclusive language in Spanish and characterize its most relevant resources in a series of public texts that circulated in Argentina between 2018 and 2020. On the one hand, its origin is explained, differentiating it from non-sexist language and the different theoretical positions around inclusive language are exposed. On the other hand, from the Dialogical Approach to Argumentation and Polyphony, this paper proposes to address inclusive language resources as subjectivity and polyphony marks which evidence certain aspects of the discourse of patriarchy, with respect to which there is dissent; therefore, inclusive language resources show viewpoints that were once silenced and rejected. For this, a corpus of various speeches is addressed, made up of outdoor urban inscriptions, flyers (advertisements), audiovisual informative speeches and digital press, written in inclusive language, between 2018 and 2020. Throughout the paper it is warns that the inclusive language marks, such as –e and x, are traces of the “heterogeneity shown marked” that object to grammatical binarism and convey comments by the subject about their own enunciation, alluding to the image of previous sexist and patriarchal discourses with whom they disagree. The analysis reveals that the words or expressions in which inclusive language resources are employed (-e and x) work as traces of harassed identities and manifest comments by the speaker on their own enunciation. This way, this research shows that gender inclusive language holds conflict linguistic marks which point to historically denied dissidence forms, linked to gender identity and the assertion of collective rights. Finally, this article aims at, on the one hand, contributing to the description of Argentinean Spanish, and on the other, promoting reflection in favor of linguistic education. Undoubtedly, opening instances of debate on the subject can have an impact on the deepening of linguistic reflection and the training of speakers who contribute to forging a more egalitarian society, one which is inclusive and respectful of differences.

Language in the middle: Class and sexuality on the Hinglish continuum

AbstractThis article draws from ethnographic research among youth in Delhi's expanding middle classes to call for more sociolinguistic attention to the role played by sexuality discourse in the reproduction of class relations. The discussion highlights the centrality of the middle classes to sustaining as well as shifting sexual normativity, suggesting that sexual norms are in part constituted through everyday discourses that situate middle class subjectivity between two class extremes. Specifically, the article tracks how Hinglish, as a mixed‐language alternative to a class system polarized by English and Hindi, came to rival English as the preferred language of sexuality, challenging the elite censorship of “vernacular” languages that began in nineteenth‐century colonialism. However, as demonstrated by two case studies of queer speakers at different ends of the Hinglish continuum, speakers of this internally diverse hybrid variety are not equally able to master the sexuality discourse that has become indexical of upward mobility.

Travels and Travails of Settler Colonialism in Queer Natal

Travels and Travails of Settler Colonialism in Queer Natal

A poetics of sensuality: Xenophobia and same-sex intimacy in cane/cain

This article offers a reading of the ways in which the short film, cane/cain (directed by Jordache Ellapen, adopts a poetics of sensuality to both unsettle and undergird its themes of South Asian migration, sexual intimacy and xenophobia in South Africa. While both homosexuality and xenophobia are not uncommon sites of public discourses in South Africa, cane/cain unearths the less visible faces of both by centring Brown bodies in corporeal collisions of sexual intimacy and of xenophobic violence to disrupt normative and binary categories of sex, race and citizenship in post-apartheid South Africa. Utilizing the symbolic currency of sugarcane as an aesthetic and narrative pivot, cane/cain constructs a tension between the cinematic pleasure elicited by its poetics of sensuality and its discomfiting themes of homosexual intimacy and xenophobic intolerance to insert the South Asian subject into the discourses of race, sexuality and nationality in South Africa.

“EVARISTO ERA MAIS FAMOSO POR SER GAY DO QUE POR SER ESTILISTA DE MODA”: UMA ANÁLISE CRÍTICA DO DISCURSO DA REPRODUÇÃO E SUBVERSÃO DE SEXUALIDADE E GÊNERO NO FILME “MACHO”

Buscamos analisar a reprodução e a subversão do binário de gênero e sexualidade no filme “Macho”. Discutimos sobre a constituição do sujeito, resistências e heteronormatividade em uma perspectiva feminista. Trata-se de uma metodologia qualitativa com análise fílmica e análise crítica do discurso. Trabalhamos com três categorias de análise: “Evaristo era mais famoso por ser gay do que por ser estilista de moda”: a constituição do sujeito; “Não há o gene gay. É uma preferência sexual. E mais, é uma experiência temporal”: a reprodução e a subversão do discurso da heteronormatividade; “Às vezes, eu me pergunto: mas para quê Evaristo? Por que não se tornou boxeador como seu pai?”: a reprodução e a subversão do discurso binário de gênero nas relações sociais de trabalho. Como resultados, analisamos como os discursos da meritocracia, da sexualidade e da heteronormatividade atravessam a constituição do sujeito mais famoso por ser gay do que por ser estilista de moda. Por fim, como o binário de gênero possui relação com a divisão sexual generificada do trabalho e as características específicas na moda, percebemos uma construção discursiva instável, cujos sujeitos performam diversos gêneros e por vezes reproduzindo e subvertendo a heteronormatividade e o binário de gênero.

Women's sexual subjectivity in a Tanzania city in the era of neoliberalism and AIDS

This paper draws on anthropological research exploring women’s changing sexuality within an urban context of Tanzania. The women involved were participating in an HIV prevention trial and worked in bars, restaurants, hotels and nightclubs, or sold local beer or food in Mwanza city. In ethnographic fieldwork and interviews and group discussions with women, narratives about sexuality focused on gendered and moral discourses of sexuality, the commodification of sexuality, and emotions and intimacy in relationships. This paper discusses how women's sexual subjectivies are shaped by a city where social, structural and economic changes over an era of neoliberalism and AIDS has created both disciplinary and liberalising spaces in which gendered and moral discourses of sexuality have emerged.

Determination of Social Studies Teachers’ Opinions on Socıal Gender

Social gender is a concept built with life experiences. It distinguishes men and women through their biological differences. Social gender attributes behaviors and roles in accordance with the gender identity of the society to individuals. Social studies regard each student as a unique individual. Social studies students should be sensitive to these differences in their relationships and should respect each other. This is important for respect and equality between the genders. In this context, social studies teachers have an important role in conveying concepts such as gender, equality and human rights to their students accurately and effectively. The aim of this study is to examine social studies teachers’ perceptions of social gender equality in terms of various variables. In the research, qualitative and quantitative methods were used together and mixed structure was applied. The quantitative study group of the research consists of 112 female and 92 male social studies teachers in total. Participants were determined by using criterion sampling, one of the purposeful sampling methods. In the research, the qualitative study group was selected from the quantitative research group through simple random sampling. A total of 20 social studies teachers, 10 female and 10 male, working in 6 different schools were interviewed. In the study, quantitative data were collected with the “Social Gender Perception Scale” developed by Altınova and Duyan (2013). The semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher was used to obtain qualitative data. The qualitative data of the research were analyzed by content analysis method. The quantitative data obtained in the study were analyzed in IBM SPSS 15.0 program. Social studies teachers’ views on social gender equality have also been evaluated in terms of curriculum literacy. At the end of the study, it was found that social studies teachers have high social gender perceptions. In the gender variable, it was determined that the social gender perception levels of female social studies teachers were higher than male teachers. In the qualitative findings of the study, it was found that teachers treated their students equally and fairly, regardless of gender, and avoided sexist discourse. It was determined that when sexist attitudes and groups were formed in the classroom, teachers directed their students to respect and empathize with each other. In addition, it was found that the teachers mostly explained gender equality in their lessons by linking with biographies. Recommendations are made taking the findings of the study into consideration.

EULOGIJA ZA BALKAN

This paper intends to show the significance of the specific hegemony of coded interpretations in contemporary Western cultural relation to „cultural otherness“. Rendered through West-East dichotomy, certain discursive issues of identity and difference, human and nonhuman, the phenomenon of race, nation, ethnic group, class, gender, are formulated within a polarized paradigm of Western thought. „Balkan“ is theoretically made, unmade, and remade continuously and with all the consenquences that it carries. To think of „Balkan“ is to unthink the thinking itself, to rephrase, rename, reclaim the theory and discoursive geography. Critical reading of the aspects of cultural fascination with the other, different, unknown, and foreign is based on recognition of techniques and modes of contemporary cultural environment and the cultural patterns related to the forms of marginalization and othering. Interdisciplinary approach and cross-scientific model of semiotics, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, in recent science research examine the phenomenon of the alterity, in ethical, political, cultural and media domain, questioning the position of „the other“ in discourses of culture, language, body, race, nation, gender, sex and colonial subject, and in the field of the new, emergent monster theory.

Sexual Well-Being Informed Social Work Practice: Harnessing the Power of Reflection and a Hallmark Experiential Sexuality Education Activity

Abstract Moving human sexuality beyond a specialty focus and establishing a sexuality discourse within social work’s foundation may be challenging. Group process and reflection, hallmarks of social work, may be a way to integrate this sometimes overlooked and often taboo conversation into social work coursework. Undergrad students from two Mid-western universities reflected on the usefulness of an established experiential sex education activity . Qualitative analysis of student narratives resulted in seven themes describing the usefulness of this activity including: (i) emotional intimacy; (ii) connection; (iii) power of personal stories; (iv) normalising; (v) healing; (vi) clinical profile and (vii) RE-storying. These themes demonstrate that this activity has clear benefits and enriches the overall learning of the topic of human sexuality. Further, these themes fit nicely within a social work pedagogy teaching clinical practice skills such as group process, rapport building and use of self. Implications for social work are discussed.

A invisibilidade da mulher negra na Ciência: uma análise a partir de livros didáticos de Ciências e Biologia

A perpetuação do discurso racista e machista na sociedade atual tem influência em todas as áreas e, em especial, na área científica. O presente trabalho objetivou investigar a presença de mulheres negras na história da Ciência, por meio da análise de duas coleções de livros didáticos de Ciência e Biologia. Os livros de Ciências e Biologia analisados foram os do último programa Nacional de livro didático (PNLD), adotados por escolas do município de Cruzeiro do Oeste (PR). Os resultados demonstraram a ausência de relatos sobre a presença de mulheres negras da Ciência. Por fim, com a finalidade de instrumentalização para o ensino na Educação Básica, o presente estudo apresenta uma relação de cientistas negras nas mais diferentes áreas das Ciências Biológicas.

Transcripts of Gender, Intimacy, and Islam in Southeast Asia: The “Outrageous” Texts of Raja Ali Haji and Khatijah Terung

It is generally perceived that Malays—who are predominantly Muslims—are comparable with the notion of politeness, aligned with moral axioms, and behave in ways copiously guided by religion. Casual sex and other forms of sexual “deviance” are typically attributed to foreign influences, most popularly, Westernisation. New social trends among this community, such as the emphasis on male dominance, changing prescriptions about the functions and expectations of sex, receptiveness towards the body and emotion, exposure to sex education, and openness to sexual discourse are often attributed to the “immoral” West. Yet, forms of sexual behaviours depicted in the writings of notable Malay religious and literary personages reveal surprising insights into the Malay-Muslim milieu of 19th-century Riau. A variety of sexual practices and relations are expressed through these writings. This article adopts a historical-sociological framework to examine the “artisan tools” of textual materials as in the Kitab Pengetahuan Bahasa (Book of Linguistic Knowledge) by Raja Ali Haji and Perhimpunan Gunawan bagi Laki-Laki dan Perempuan (A Compendium of Charms for Men and Women) by Khatijah Terung. The “outrageous” sexual depictions in these texts are discussed and analysed, in part to debunk the idea of a “sexual revolution” or “sexual licentiousness” as emanating from an external culture.

From Lucifer to Jezebel: Invitational Rhetoric, Rhetorical Closure, and Safe Spaces in Feminist Sexual Discourse Communities

ABSTRACT This essay applies Craig Rood’s concept of rhetorical closure to the specific case study of the creation of feminist discourse communities to discuss sexuality. It looks at the editorial policies of two feminist discourse communities in order to more broadly analyze the ways that rhetorical closure operates constitutively along with invitational rhetoric. It connects these issues to past and current debates about censorship, echo chambers, safe spaces, and trigger warnings in order to show when and how rhetorical closure is intended to prevent harm. Like Rood, I do not resolve questions on distinguishing the effectiveness or ethics of rhetorical closure. Examining a radical feminist periodical of the nineteenth century and the twenty-first-century feminist blogosphere shows how invitational rhetoric works with and as rhetorical closure.

South African LGBTPQ Youth: The Perceptions and Realities of Coming out and Parental Reactions

The study engages with several lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, pansexual and queer (LGBTPQ) identifying youth in South Africa to explore their perceptions and realities regarding coming out to their parents and parental reactions. In-depth interviews were utilized to engage with the 17 participants, aged 19 to 32 years old, all of whom were students at the same university in South Africa. The study found that participants who have not come out tended to view coming out as a problematic act that reproduces the heteronormative discourse of sexuality in which heterosexuality is normalized, while same-sex sexuality is seen as odd and as deviant. The study also found that many participants perceived coming out as an individual choice. However, the choice of whether or not to come out, when to come out, and which parent to come out to, is dependent on 1. the nature of the relationship the participants have with their parents, and 2. perceived parental reactions. Analysis reveals how religion, gender norms based on heteronormativity, and parent-child relationship dynamics intersect to shape participants’ perceptions regarding parental reactions. This intersectionality also shaped the realities of coming out. Such realities involved a variety of reactions from parents, including acceptance, rejection, forms of violence, and silence. Parents reacting with silence was a common, yet complex experience among the participants. The participants’ experiences suggest ways through which they could be empowered to cope better with their parents’ silence and other non-supportive reactions.

The Saint Mary’s Rape Chant

In September 2013 student leaders at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, used a chant about the rape of underage girls as part of an Orientation Week activity for new students. The incident garnered national and international media coverage. In this article, we analyze and critique a selection of Canadian media articles published in the weeks after the rape chant was used. We draw on feminist analysis of post-feminism and the sexualization of youth cultures to show how, in their struggle to make sense of the incident, the media critique reiterates harmful discourses of youth, gender and sexuality while undermining deeper understanding of rape culture.

Sexual Politics in Fiksimini: Analysis of Feminist Critical Discourse

This study aims to describe the sexual politics in fiksimini by using feminist critical discourse analysis. This research is a qualitative descriptive study that uses @fiksimini account during January-February 2020 on Twitter as the data source. The research data used is sexual politics discourse contained in literary worksfiksimini which has a total of 267 data with 44 topicsfiksimini. Data collection techniques are conducted by reading and recorded in the data cards. The data collection instrument was the researcher himself (human instrument) using Kate Millett's sexual politics parameters. Data analysis technique in this study used semantic and pragmatic equivalents in analyzing work fiksimini containing sexual politics in fiksimini. The data analysis stage is carried out by the work step of literature research, namely studying libraries related to research objects by reading, taking notes, and interpreting references related to research objects. The results showed that there are six forms of sexual politics contained in fiksimini, namely: sexual slavery, women's domestic work, control of women, abuse of sexuality, rape, projecting women and negotiations conducted by female characters in the story. Sexual politics contained in fiksimini is 80% written by male writers who recount the power of patriarchy. The ideology seen from writing about sexual politics shows that writers use male and female characters emerging from social classes, institutions of marriage, and free sex. The female characters narrated by the fiksimini writers still place women as inferior beings who are in the power of superior patriarchy.

Teaching Indo-Islamic poetry: Sexuality in the global classroom

The article argues that a critical encounter with pre-modern literatures from the national past is long overdue under the impact of a globalized discourse of sexuality. Its effects are already felt at the level of both pedagogy and literary reading, one reconstituting the other, in the ‘global classroom’, a self-conscious pedagogical space imagined by the new educational policy to bring about a globally accredited cultural homogeneity. The case study comes from teaching erotic poetry at an Indian university, from the joint literary complex of Hindi and Urdu in South Asia, a theme uncomfortably located in national culture not just because of its sexuality but its association with non-national linguistic elements which the article terms ‘Indo-Islamic’. The overlapping of the sexual modern with the Indo-Islamic resurfaces a tension in the nationalized body of literary writing in Hindi/Urdu, the major ‘national’ languages of South Asia. This encounter of erotic poetry in old Hindi and Urdu with globalized sexuality, the article shows, offers a chance to reflect on how literary studies are being reshaped by the assumptions of a monolingual, monocultural global sexuality in our nationalist times.