Sexual Expression Research Articles

Detecting Arabic sexual harassment using bidirectional long-short-term memory and a temporal convolutional network

Due to advances in technology, social media has become the most popular medium for spreading news. Many messages are published on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Social media platforms also provide opportunities to express opinions and social phenomena such as hate, offensive language, racism, sexual content, and all forms of verbal violence, which have amazingly increased. These behaviors do not only affect specific countries, groups, or societies but extend beyond these areas into people's daily lives. This study examines sexual content and harassment discourse in Arabic social media to build an accurate system for detecting sexual harassment expressions. The dataset was collected from Twitter posts to make the classification. A deep learning model was developed as a classification system to identify sexual speech using Bidirectional Long-Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM), Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) with word embedding and the FastText previously trained on the Arabic language model. The proposed (TCN-BiLSTM) model was compared with Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost). The CASH dataset implemented with the (TCN -Bi-LSTM) model gate obtained an accuracy rate of 96.65% and an F0.5 value of 0.969. The implementation of XGBoost using word embeddings resulted in an accuracy rate of 92.56% and an F0.5 value of 0.925. Findings and manual interpretation showed that different text representation methods with various deep learning algorithms obtain higher classification performance easily in complex sentences. This strategy is helpful with languages that are difficult to study morphologically, like Arabic, Turkish, and Lithuanian.

The Issue of Gay Men in Marriage to Women in China

Gay mens marriages with females are a social phenomenon that happens in conservative regions and countries lacking gay marriage legislation. These regions and countries restrict the sexual orientation expression of LGBTQ people and try to discipline them to accept the heterosexual marriage. On account of patriarchal society and the emphasis of offspring, Chinese gay people not only suffer from social discrimination, but are also forced to finish marriage and carry on the family line by their parents. This pressure sometimes results in a deceptive marriage. In a deceptive marriage, gay men hide their sexual orientation and deceive their wives to reproduce. Therefore, gays wife become reproductive machines and victims of deceptive marriages. This paper chooses baidu tieba as a virtual field and observes the situations of gays wife in the forum. A part of the participants in forum have known that they are victims of deceptive marriage, but most the forum members just suspect their husbands are gay and are stricken with anxiety. Through observation of gays wife groups, this paper analyses three problems: the AIDS risk, twofold oppression of patriarchy, and demonization of homosexuality. It applies dramaturgy proposed by Goffman to analyse the causes and puts forward suggestions for the three problems.

Les besoins en santé mentale des personnes migrantes LGBTI : entre orientation généraliste et soutien communautaire

In France, there are no studies on the mental health of lesbian, gay, bi, trans and intersex (LGBTI) migrants. In North America however, some data show high prevalence for mental issues in this population. This study analyze mental health needs of LGBTI migrants and document the care and support for those needs in two French cities, with a socio-anthropological approach. LGBTI migrants suffer from numerous mental issues linked with their migration and their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression (SOGIE). Those sources of violence are imbricated and fuel each other. It is mainly as migrants that LGBTI are taken care of by State services devoted to precarious people, even though some LGBTI associations propose a different kind of community support. LGBTI migrants deal with the same deficits in mental health services than other migrants, but have also specific difficulties. The development of support group for this minority helps with those difficulties and ultimately questions the strengths and limits of community-based approach to mental health.

An Iranian Woman’s Exploration of Her Sexuality Through Art Therapy

Sexuality is negotiated through intimate and familial relationships within larger systems of culture and society. In contemporary Iran, religion and cultural upbringing exert a large influence on women’s sexual development. This article presents a case study of a young adult, single woman in Iran who participated in online, client-centered art therapy to explore her sexual identity in a safe space. Social role and sexual double standards emerged in the case, along with relief from sexual repression and the provision of a safe space that empowered her to discuss a taboo subject within the norms of her culture and religious family structure. Through her artmaking process and related discussions, she was able to gain understanding of healthy sexuality and identity, and lifestyle choices and constraints within a culturally sensitive relationship.

Dementia and Concurrent Consent to Sexual Relations.

Philosophers have become newly interested in the ethics of sex. One promising feature of this new discussion is that it has been broadening our moral lens to include individuals whose sexual interests have historically been denied or ignored. One such group is the elderly. Contrary to popular belief, many elderly people want to have sex and see it as a regular part of their lives. If society harbors ignorance about or prejudice against elderly sexuality, it harbors stronger views against the sexual expression of elderly people with dementia. People with dementia are often prohibited by nursing-home staff, sometimes in extreme ways, from having sex with their partners. This prohibition is at least partly motivated by the goal of protecting the vulnerable. However, cutting people with dementia off from sex has negative health effects and is a needless restriction of their autonomy. In this article, I argue that the expanding moral lens in sexual ethics should include the sexual expression of elderly individuals with dementia and that their sexual expression should be respected. Specifically, I argue that many people with dementia are competent to consent to sexual activity with their long-term partners.

Life in Every Breath: Ester Blenda: Reporter, Adventurer, Pioneer by Fatima Bremmer

Reviewed by: Life in Every Breath: Ester Blenda: Reporter, Adventurer, Pioneer by Fatima Bremmer Rosie Clarke FATIMA BREMMER Life in Every Breath: Ester Blenda: Reporter, Adventurer, Pioneer Trans. Gloria Nneoma Onwuneme. Seattle. Amazon Crossing. 2022. 452 pages. EXTENSIVELY RESEARCHED and written with clear respect and affection for its subject, Fatima Bremmer's biography of Sweden's first investigative journalist details the full, tumultuous life of Ester Blenda or "Bansai." Bremmer uses letters, diaries, interviews, and a mass of archival content to vividly depict a brave and reckless woman trying to carve out space in a hostile world. Thanks to parental support and an obvious talent for writing, in 1911 Blenda was made Stockholms Dagblad's youngest reporter at twenty years old, quickly establishing herself [End Page 89] as an innovative voice. Working during a significant time in the women's suffrage movement, journalism provided an opportunity for adventure and life beyond the gender and class expectations she struggled against from childhood. Throughout her career, Blenda's reportage brought important attention to those suffering exploitation and oppression, whether rural farm maids, indigenous Sami people, or new immigrants to America. But while her fame and prosperity grew, she seemed to favor the challenge of the story over real benefit to its subjects. Despite undeniable compassion and solidarity, Blenda's radicalism often missed the mark. Bremmer doesn't shy away from this, and her generous exploration of Blenda's character captures the good and the bad. A significant thread in Blenda's life story was her relationship with Carin Frisell. Due to Swedish law criminalizing homosexuality, they could never live their truth, but evidence shows a deep, powerful love confined to secrecy. Bremmer carefully explores how lifelong sexual repression may have contributed to Blenda's poor mental health and lifelong use of alcohol to quiet her "anxiety, restlessness and buzzing thoughts." Later, Bremmer sensitively details Blenda's gradual descent into alcoholism and illness. Despite earlier allusions, this sudden derailment is disturbing after so much time adventuring. Blenda's later years are lived in relative solitude and hardship, giving her story a somber end, but one comfort is that Blenda and Carin reunite with familial support for their relationship. This is a well-written, entertaining, and superbly translated work, depicting a thrilling and tumultuous life. Bremmer does occasionally digress into tangential and boring exposition and could have spared detail without sacrificing quality. Regardless, she does justice to such an exciting, complex, and inspiring figure with her skilled and seamless weaving together of facts with a tender exploration of that which lies between certainty and speculation. Rosie Clarke London Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Territorial Inequality Driven by Tourism: A Queer Mapping of Urban Space in Acapulco, Mexico

Drawing on the life stories of nine LGBTTTIQ-identified people who have lived in Acapulco (Guerrero, Mexico), this article provides a queer mapping of this city, peripherally situated in the Global South yet with longstanding entangled transnational connections. The frame for this analysis is the concept of “territorial inequality,” a term coined by urbanism scholar Óscar Torres Arroyo, whose seminal work examined the emergence of this southern Mexican city as an urban space formed through a process of socioeconomic segregation driven by tourism. This article also responds to the call of queer urban scholars to look beyond the metropole for spaces of the political theorized on their own terms. In Acapulco, class, race, and nationality intersect with sexuality in ways that have made it a destination for some queers while also dangerous and unpredictable for others, a segregated sociopolitical space where norms of masculinity have collided with multiversal expressions of sexuality imbued with patterns of exploitation. A key destination during the 20th-century rise of international tourism and a place now securitized as “violent,” this urban space is also the site of evolving LGBTTTIQ movements, communities, and shifting patterns of queer life and queer tourism. This article reconsiders proposals made by queer theorists such as Lionel Cantú and Jasbir Puar regarding the complicated role of tourism in shaping sexualities, urbanization patterns, and state practices structured through colonial, neoliberal, and liberational processes, to theorize queer dimensions of the development of this city.

Māori realities, intimacies, and sexual expressions: reconceptualising consent to uphold kaumātua mana in aged residential care

Increasingly, kaumātua (Māori elders) in Aotearoa (New Zealand) live apart from whānau (Māori extended family) in residential care, where policies are shaped by post-colonial legislation and ethical principles that privilege individual rights over Indigenous priorities and rights. The communal context of residential care has created late-life opportunity for intimacy and sexual expression with new partners. These issues are addressed in the international literature, highlighting the benefits and complexities. Literature report there may be clashes between resident and family members’ wishes, and tensions around privacy and consent. This article considers survey data and semi-structured interviews with kaimahi (Māori care workers) and a kaumātua who were part of a larger study of staff, residents, and family in the residential aged care context. Post-colonial individualistic rights-based approaches do not necessarily fit with a Māori worldview. A Māori-led articulation of consent is essential to uphold the mana (authority, influence, power) of kaumātua and whānau.

Queer Worldmaking in Sex-Positive Art Therapy: Radical Strategies for Individual Healing and Social Transformation

Queer worldmaking (QWM) in art therapy offers liberatory sex-positive interventions and modes of critical inquiry that affirm the lives, imaginations, and pleasures of all who enter the studio. The authors provide three major strategies for QWM in art therapy. A queer ethos of care decenters cis-heteronormativity by embracing the diversity of sexuality and gender identity and expression as valuable ways of knowing. A radically inclusive studio prioritizes queer and trans pleasure in establishing physical, psychological, and imaginal safety. Facilitating critical connections with(in) art and the community centers LGBTQ + historical strategies of care for healing and social justice. Art therapists can unite in the shared pursuit of making queer(er) worlds for individual healing and social transformation.

Sex Trading Among Adolescent Cisgender Boys.

Cisgender girls and boys report trading sex for something of value at roughly equal proportions; yet, boys are understudied and underserved. We compare boys who reported trading sex to those who never traded sex to address this gap in knowledge and practice. The study is a secondary analysis of the Minnesota Student Survey, a triannual, census-style survey. The sample included 32 311 cisgender boy students in ninth and 11th grades who answered a question about sex trading. Bivariate descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic models were used to identify associated factors and determine the odds of trading sex on the basis of specific experiences. We found that 1.2% of boys reported trading sex. In bivariate analyses, boys who reported trading sex were more likely than those who did not to: identify as Black or Indigenous; report a marginalized gender identity or sexual expression; have had sexual intercourse; have experienced sexual harassment and harassment on the basis of sexual identity and race, ethnicity, and national origin; and to have experienced homelessness, food insecurity, foster care, and substance treatment (P < .001). In multivariate models, we found increased odds of trading sex for some variables, including a marginalized sexual identity, identifying as Black, and experiences of unstable housing, foster care, substance treatment, sexual harassment, and harassment based on gender (P < .001). These findings contribute new knowledge about boys who trade sex using a large, population-based sample and counter false assumptions and stereotypes. These data suggest new avenues of research, intervention, and prevention.

Young women’s sexual agency, relationality, and vulnerability: The Israeli case study of “attacking”

The sexual agency of young women is constructed within various discourses that articulate multiple and conflicting social imperatives, such that they need to account for their sexual and social vulnerability while expressing their sexuality. This paper uses a common Israeli heteronormative youth practice called “attacking” to analyze young women’s sexual agency. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 39 young women aged 18–23, it explores how young women express their sexual agency while managing their vulnerability. Analyzed using a theory of vulnerability, our findings point to unique forms of relational agency that support young women’s subjective sexual expressions. The findings highlight the duality and ambiguities that young women face in spaces of “attacking,” showing how their agency is supported relationally by emerging alliances based on joint vulnerability. Based on these findings, this paper challenges the dichotomy between social forces and agency and establishes a conceptualization of relational agency with regard to young women’s sexuality.

She’s ‘sexssertive’ and she knows it!: a postfeminist reading of African femininities in Afrobeats music videos

ABSTRACT This paper engages a (post)feminist-aligned critical reading of women’s gendered performances in Afrobeats music videos to highlight—in the visual culture of this popular African musical genre—the visibility of sexually assertive black African women who variously subvert heteropatriarchal moral public scripts about “respectable” African womanhood and expression of their sexualities in relation to black African men. In my considerations of postfeminist sensibilities, I align with Simidele Dosekun by regarding postfeminism as a transnational cultural sensibility with flexible contours that render it analytically applicable and valuable as a scholarly lens in an African popular cultural landscape. I deploy a multimodal discourse analysis of five Afrobeats music videos (derived from a larger corpus of videos from my PhD study), their storylines, plot progressions, and the accompanying lyrical contents, to advance my arguments. The article draws significantly on postfeminist literature and key perspectives from bodies of feminist critiques of popular culture to demonstrate inflections of feminine subjectivities that I theorise as “sexssertive,” given their active constructions of counter-narratives in relation to conservative and restrictive meanings of black African womanhood. I conclude by considering the implications hereof for broader feminist efforts towards the just treatment of women across diverse African contexts in the domains of sexuality and sexual expression.

Critically feminizing family science: Using femme theory to generate novel approaches for the study of families and relationships

AbstractHow do values, beliefs, and assumptions about femininity shape relational experiences? To answer this question, we critically feminize family science by applying femme theory to the field. Through this analysis, we present some of the ways that femmephobia (i.e., the systematic devaluation and regulation of femininity across all bodies and identities) is established in childhood and perpetuated throughout various relational contexts across the life course. Specifically, we examine how femmephobia is socialized via families, systematically normalized and perpetuated throughout childhood, and how it shapes gender‐based violence risk, perpetration, and tactics. We demonstrate how femme theory illuminates the importance of disentangling the intersectional axes of gender, sexuality, and gender expression, thereby generating novel approaches for family and relationship science and interventions that promote systemic social change. Subordinating and regulating femininity affects all individuals, making its disruption of critical importance for the prevention of gender‐based violence and the promotion of healthy families and relationships.

Indonesia’s new Criminal Code: indigenising and democratising Indonesian criminal law?

ABSTRACT In late 2022, Indonesia’s national parliament enacted a new Criminal Code, which replaced a 1918 Code introduced during Dutch colonial rule. Some provisions – such as those covering the death penalty, corporate liability and criminal settlements – have been relatively well received by reformists. But many other provisions have been widely and strongly criticised. While the Code claims to democratise, decolonise and consolidate Indonesian criminal law, this article demonstrates that it has achieved the opposite. It undermines democracy by seriously hampering free speech, including legitimate criticism of government officeholders and institutions. It reinstates offences imposed during the Dutch colonial era that were used against Indonesian nationalists pushing for independence, including Indonesia’s first president, Soekarno. And, far from bringing together Indonesia’s disparate regulatory sources of criminal law, the Code adds another layer of law to existing sui generis criminal statutes, which largely remain in effect. Worse, the new Code imposes conservative religious-based values allowing the state to interfere in citizens’ private sexual lives. The Code also appears to encourage subnational lawmakers to give effect to localised customary norms of criminal law, which might reflect even more conservative values and result in the prohibition of various expressions of sexuality, including homosexuality.

Mitigating Anxieties: Cleaving as Queer Becoming

Cleaving, a principle of theatricality, proposes that a ‘cleft’ or a ‘cleaving’ holds within it the promise and ability to shift, change, alter, and create emergences. I find the instability and transformation that cleaving energises to be resonant with the instability of sexual or gender non-conforming expression. In this essay, I present a rubric of cleaving as queer becoming by bringing together my memories from the production process of the play Yavanavvanam (2018) and a recent photo-performance (2021) of self gesturing at my own trajectory since then. These dynamic fabrics are braided and punctuated by analyses of mitigating anxieties surrounding the abrogation of the anti-sodomy law in India and the legacy of the Rohith Vemula anti-caste movement at the University of Hyderabad.

The use of the internet for sexual and intimate purposes by individuals with intellectual disabilities: A systematic review and thematic analysis

BackgroundThe expression of sexuality is integral to being human, and adults with intellectual disabilities access the internet to express their sexuality through chatting with others, looking at sexual content, or meeting others online to pursue a sexual or romantic relationship (Löfgren-Mårtenson, 2008). The review aims to explore the views and experiences of adults with intellectual disabilities, their families, and staff regarding accessing the internet for sexual and intimate purposes.MethodSix primary studies published in the English Language were identified from electronic database searches (PsycINFO, EMBASE, MEDLINE, ASSIA, CINAHL, and SCOPUS), which were rated against inclusion and exclusion criteria, as well as quality criteria. Findings were analysed using thematic synthesis (Thomas &amp; Harden, 2008).ResultsThree analytic themes were identified: (a) Navigating the online world: Norms and Netiquettes’, (b) ‘Exploring and expressing intimacy’, and (c) ‘My identity and the internet: The Digital Me’.DiscussionExamination of the themes highlights that many adults with intellectual disabilities use the internet for sexual purposes and have positive experiences of accessing the web. Several barriers to accessing the internet were identified, such as safeguarding concerns and cyber-etiquette. Professionals and family members highlighted concerns regarding risk and vulnerability. It is recommended that services have clearer policies around supporting adults to access the internet for sexual purposes, and training and education around safe use for both adults with intellectual disabilities and those who support them.

DIGITAL KINK OPACITY: SEXUAL SOCIAL MEDIA BEYOND VISIBILITY AND COMPREHENSION

Building on and expanding discussions of the value of anonymity and pseudonymity in digital cultures in general, and in queer digital cultures in particular, this paper explores notions of opacity as modes of resistance to dominating regimes of visibility on and beyond social media platforms. Across queer, postcolonial and digital media theorizing, opacity provides a way of thinking through the tension between the visible and the invisible, challenging the idea of public visibility and identification as that which drives data cultures and legitimizes deviant sexual practices and expressions. Suggestive of discussions on tactical, queer uses of social media in terms of disconnection and reluctance, opacity affords yet another way of thinking resistance to platform power and user control. Based on an ethnographic study of the Swedish digital BDSM, fetish and kink platform Darkside, this paper theorizes opacity in two ways: first, as a way of discussing tactical uses of Darkside between modes of revealing and concealing, and second, as a way of conceptualizing the platform as a borderland between intelligibility and unintelligibility. Opacity implies a lack of clarity; something opaque may be both difficult to see clearly as well as to understand. Drawing on Édouard Glissant (1997) and his idea of “the right to opacity” as a form of resistance to surveillance and imperial domination, a digital sexual politics of opacity could help provide recognition without a demand to fully understand sexual otherness, opening up for new modes of obscure and pleasurable sexual expressions and transgressions on social media platforms.

Blonde (2022)

Blonde (2022)

Identification of three members of the multidomain adhesion CCp family in Babesia gibsoni

Babesia gibsoni is an intraerythrocytic apicomplexan parasite transmitted by Haemaphysalis longicornis and causes canine babesiosis. Within the tick, the Babesia parasite undergoes sexual conjugation and the sporogony process of its life cycle. To control B. gibsoni infection, prompt and effective treatment of acute infections and curing chronic carriers are urgently needed. Gene disruption of Plasmodium CCps resulted in blocking the transition of sporozoites from the mosquito midgut to the salivary glands, showing that these proteins are potential targets for the development of a transmission-blocking vaccine. In this study, we described the identification and characterization of three members of the CCp family in B. gibsoni, named CCp1, CCp2, and CCp3. The B. gibsoni sexual stages were induced in vitro by exposing parasites to xanthurenic acid (XA), dithiothreitol (DTT), and tris (2-carboxyethyl) phosphine (TCEP) at serial concentrations. Among them, 100 µM XA-exposed and cultured at 27 °C without CO2B. gibsoni presented diverse morphologies, including parasites with long projections, gradually increased free merozoites, and aggregated and round forms, indicative of sexual stage induction. Then, the expression of CCp proteins of induced parasites was confirmed by real-time reverse transcription PCR, immunofluorescence, and western blot. The results showed that BgCCp genes were highly significantly increased at 24 h post-sexual stage induction (p < 0.01). The induced parasites were recognized by anti-CCp mouse antisera and anti-CCp 1, 2, and 3 antibodies weakly reacted with sexual stage proteins of expected molecular weights of 179.4, 169.8, and 140.0 KDa, respectively. Our observations on morphological changes and confirmation of sexual stage protein expression will advance elemental biological research and lay the foundation for the development of transmission-blocking vaccines against canine babesiosis.

The influence of juvenile justice workforce’s knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs on behaviors toward youth with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and expressions

The purpose of this study is to understand the influence that knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about youth with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and expressions (SOGIE) may have on juvenile justice staff members’ provision of protection and support for these youth. When youth with diverse SOGIE are not protected by the workforce in charge of their care, they are at greater risk for poorer future outcomes as they transition into adulthood. Survey responses from 237 juvenile justice staff members in a mid-Atlantic state were examined using both univariate and multivariate analyses. Findings indicate that respondents who exhibited greater knowledge about these populations and those who had ever had an LGBT youth on their caseload were significantly more likely to report that they would demonstrate protective and supportive behaviors toward youth with diverse SOGIE. At the same time, those who exhibited more negative attitudes about LGBT populations were significantly less likely to report that they would demonstrate protective and supportive behaviors toward youth with diverse SOGIE. Staff members’ attributions about LGBT populations were not significantly related to their reported behaviors toward these youth. These findings set the stage for implications for theory, policy, practice, and research.