Sexual Norms Research Articles

Evaluation of the strength of the upper extremity in children with hemiplegia after stroke: a case series study

The brain is a system with multidimensional organization and architecture and requires a continuous supply of blood in order to normally function. If blood flow is interrupted for more than a few seconds, the brain is deprived of blood and oxygen, causing death in nerve cells in the affected area. Stroke in children after birth appears even more rarely than in adults. For the study, 10 children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (7 boys and 3 girls) participated (mean age 10, 9 years), from the “General Hospital Hippocratio” of Thessaloniki, according to the inclusion criteria. The strength of the upper extremity was measured using the Jamar dynamometer and for the assessment of the balance the pediatric balance scale (PBS) affected and contralateral hands, results were analyzed and compared with norms for age and sex and related to the affected balance. It was found that the strength of the non-affected upper extremities was also reduced according to the data of the normal children and the balance was also affected because of the stroke. Physiotherapy programs may include exercises that give emphasis on the non-affected upper extremities, more similar research must be done on a bigger population.

Moderate Attitudes Towards Sex, Marriage, and LGBT in Indonesia: A Study of the Concept of Ipulaksanai and Its Implications for Sexuality, Marriage, and LGBT Norms Among Maanyan Dayak Communities in Indonesia

The purpose of this research is to highlight the open and accepting attitude towards love, life, sexuality, and LGBT issues in the Maanyan Dayak tribe in Indonesia. They have a unique concept of "ipulaksanai," which emphasizes the interconnectedness of all human beings and a moderate and accepting view towards these topics. This serves as an inspiration for others in Indonesia facing a shift towards increasing conservatism, especially regarding sexual morals, to show more respect and respect for diverse attitudes towards love, life, sexuality, marriage, and LGBT issues. The Maanyan concept of "ipulaksanai" holds a similar view with the Indonesia philosophy of Unity in Diversity, different but one. This article is based on qualitative research conducted in 2019 with 14 informants, including traditional Dayak Maanyan figures, Kaharingan ritual leaders, Christian religious leaders, and representatives of the Maanyan community. The tribe believes in anti-violence and reconciliation and has a scapegoat mechanism in place to deal with sexual moral violations. The article shows how the tribe values democratic space regarding amorous and sexual initiatives and encourages people to ease the burden of shame.

The Fall of Virtuous Men: Mexican Film Noir, and the Crisis of Values in the Postrevolutionary State, 1950–1959

AbstractInternational reconsideration of Mexican film noir is a recent phenomenon. For decades, Mexican film criticism tended to dismiss the importance of this tradition and even to deny its existence, often citing the presence of melodramatic elements in would-be noir films and the lack of a crime novel tradition for screen adaptations. By comparing two Mexican films to similar American productions and examining the local political and economic conditions of the former, this article argues that Mexican film noir had its own pessimistic viewpoints, which were borrowed from journalism and the illustrated press. These viewpoints were based on existing social ailments and delivered relevant criticism of the institutions, classism, and sexual norms of the postrevolutionary Mexican state of the 1940s and 1950s.

“People are having lots of other kinds of sex”: Exploring sexual lifeworlds of LGBTQ+ young people in Bangladesh

A lack of recognition of sexual diversity in Bangladesh continues to contribute to a scarcity in in-depth research around lived experiences of sexual and gender diverse young people. In this article, we adapt a phenomenological reflective lifeworld approach to capture the essential aspects of sexual intimacy as described by diverse young people. This article is based on qualitative data collected in Dhaka, Bangladesh over nine months in 2019 as part of the first author’s doctoral research. Using thematic analysis, we draw on experiences of normative sexual expectations from biographical in-depth interviews with 14 self-identifying lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and others (LGBTQ+) individuals aged 18 to 24 years. According to participants, sexual intimacy as experienced by LGBTQ+ young people in Bangladesh meant desiring consensual sexual and romantic relationships with sexually “matched” partner(s) while navigating heteropatriarchal sexuality norms. We observed five interlinked themes which encompassed the sexual lifeworld of young people in our study: desire for romantic intimacy in sexual interactions; need for discretion when navigating sex and relationships; “matching” sexual roles in partnerships; challenges to relational power dynamics of masculinity; and embodying notions of sexual morality. Our findings captured the essence of young people’s sexual lifeworlds in our study and indicate a universality around sexual intimacy while still making space for intersections of diverse lived experiences and social orientations. Further research is required to better understand these nuances in sexual behaviour.

Anthologizing Gwen Flager’s plays in southern lesbian theater

With limited anthologizing of southern United States lesbian theater, the purpose of this article is twofold: to anthologize the work of Gwen Flager, self-identified southern lesbian playwright and to interpret Flager’s work as intentionally disruptive to gender and sexual norms through humor and a centering of southern lesbian identity. Flager is an award-winning playwright with U.S. southern roots. Born in Oklahoma in 1950, she spent many years in Louisiana and Alabama before relocating to Houston, Texas. Member of the Scriptwriters Houston, Dramatists Guild of America, and New Play Exchange, she won the 2017 Queensbury Theater’s New Works playwriting competition for her original script, Shakin’ the Blue Flamingo, which premiered in 2018 after a 12-month development process. By offering a series of untold stories about and from various perspectives of U.S. southern lesbian characters who navigate southern cuisine, history, identity, race, class, nationalism, and self-realization throughout the late twentieth century, Flager positions her characters and the plays themselves as owners of the best version of southern culture, shifting the center to an oft-marginalized southern lesbian identity.

The Role of Sexual Consent and Past Non-consensual Sexual Experiences on Rape Supportive Attitudes in a Heterosexual Community Sample

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between (a) sociodemographic variables, past non-consensual experiences and sexual consent and (b) the endorsement of rape supportive attitudes. A sample of 1042 heterosexual adults (42.4% men) was surveyed. A predictive model indicated that the most relevant predictors of rape supportive attitudes were gender (i.e., being male) and most dimensions from sexual consent such as (Lack of) perceived behavioural control, Sexual consent norms, and Awareness and discussion. On the contrary, holding a positive attitude for the establishment of consent in sexual encounters negatively predicted rape supportive attitudes. The positive association between gender (i.e., being male) and (Lack of) perceived behavioural control was stronger among participants who were not victims of past non-consensual sexual experiences than among participants who were victims of past non-consensual sexual experiences, and the same held true when Positive attitude toward establishing sexual consent was involved in the interaction. These findings may help us understand the role of sexual consent on the attitudes that support violence, which can better guide future prevention programs aimed at reducing them.

“Premature” Girls with “Illegitimate” Diseases: A Qualitative Exploration of the Stigma of Gynecological Diseases for Unmarried Young Women in China

Stigma has been a prominent barrier in women’s pursuit of better sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Specifically, evidence supports the stigmatization of gynecological diseases (GDs) for unmarried young women. Drawing upon the model of social identity threats, this study explored the GD stigma and social identity threats faced by unmarried young women in China with 26 in-depth interview data. The interpersonal, socio-cultural, and intrapersonal layers of GD stigma were identified. First, participants’ disclosure and concealment of GDs concerning different significant others were contrasted as an interpersonal layer and voluntary response to social identity threats. In participants’ GD experiences, peers stood out for providing emotional, tangible, and informational support, while parents were most often avoided for anticipated stigma. Second, collective representations of GDs and the cultural rationale in the socio-cultural layer were probed. The traditional and modernized sexual norms centering on the legitimacy of premarital sex and SRH knowledge were unveiled. At last, the interpersonal layer was identified. Unmarried young patients suffered social identity threats regarding their independence, sexual agency, and bodily awareness. This is one of the first studies that investigated the underappreciated GD stigma in China. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Assessment of Physical Tests in 6-11 Years Old Children: Findings from the Play Lifestyle and Activity in Youth (PLAY) Study.

The purpose was to evaluate selected physical tests in children and to compare the outcomes by sex. A cross-sectional study design was used to evaluate children 6-11 years who completed five physical tests: hand grip, vertical jump, sit and reach, Y-balance, and obstacle course (time and score). The outcome measures including test results were descriptively examined and compared by sex. The study participants consisted of 133 children (62 males and 71 females, with a median age of 7.8 years). Girls showed superior sit and reach performance (p = 0.002) compared with boys. Boys demonstrated better Y-balance scores (p = 0.007) and faster obstacle time (p = 0.042) than girls. Sex comparison within three age groups (6-<8 years, 8-<10 years, and 10-<12 years) showed that girls performed better on the sit and reach compared with boys in the in 6-<8 years (p = 0.009). Boys demonstrated higher Y-balance scores (p = 0.017) and faster obstacle time (p = 0.007) compared with girls in the 8-<10-year age group. These data will serve to guide future efforts to evaluate normative measures of physical literacy and guide targeted training interventions to promote sustained physical activity in children with deficits relative to their age and sex norms.

Hetero- and cisnormativity-UK pharmacy education as a queer opponent.

Queer pedagogy is a lens through which the hegemonic discourses of curricula and the heterosexual assumptions within them can be made visible. Using this lens, sexuality and gender norms incorporated in undergraduate medical and health curricula can be located and the lived experience of a curriculum examined. This paper seeks to determine the extent of hetero/cisnormativity within UK pharmacy education with the aim of problematising the normalisation of heterosexuality; following this, strategies to disrupt structured hetero/cisnormativity are considered. Online cross-sectional surveys were distributed to course leads (n = 29) and students enrolled on undergraduate pharmacy (MPharm) programmes. Surveys captured quantitative data on curriculum design and perceived barriers to implementation of inclusive curriculum design (the espoused LGBTQI+ curriculum), as well qualitative data on the lived experience of the hidden curriculum. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, whereas qualitative data were analysed thematically. Responses were received from 19 course leads and students from 25 MPharm programmes, representing varying completion rates. Findings suggest the shared values and goals of pharmacy education act to normalise and legitimise hetero and cis identities within curriculum design that othering as a consequence of heterosexual normativity is experienced and that pharmacy education is an LGBTQI+ opponent and does not adopt an ally attitude. Moreover, both educator and student data suggest that the enacted and experienced curriculum fails to prepare learners to care for LGBTQI+ people. Despite findings suggesting the espoused or enacted curriculum absents LGBTQI+ people, and the hidden curriculum is experienced as homonegative, learners are questioning, resisting and disrupting the hetero- and cisnormative benevolent heterosexism within UK pharmacy curricula. This method of curricula interrogation can be adopted across health professions education as a means for ongoing problematising and disruption of normativity in clinical education.

Pilot-testing a Multiplayer HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection Prevention Video Game Intervention for Black Adolescent Girls: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Black adolescent girls aged between 14 and 19 years are more likely than White girls to be diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI). As STI diagnosis is associated with an increase in the risk for HIV acquisition, an early intervention specifically tailored to Black adolescent girls is warranted. A web-based video game intervention has the potential to reach this demographic. Because studies of social and behavioral determinants of disease demonstrate the protective role of peer group structures on individual outcomes, a multiplayer game can facilitate opportunities to exchange and evaluate information, learn social norms, develop behavioral skills, and allow peers to influence attitudes and behavior. No prior research has examined the feasibility of a web-based multiplayer game intervention for this population. This study describes the protocol for a randomized controlled trial (RCT) pilot-testing the feasibility, acceptability, and limited efficacy of a multiplayer game-based intervention for increasing HIV and STI testing and condom use in Black adolescent girls. We enrolled 79 Black adolescent girls aged 14 to 19 years residing in the United States into a 2-arm parallel RCT. The intervention is a theory-based, community-informed, multiplayer game that can be played with peers on the web using videoconferencing software. The goal of the game is to empower Black adolescent girls to make healthy decisions regarding dating, relationships, and sex, thus reducing HIV and STI infection. Control condition participants received a list of resources after playing a time and attention control game. All study procedures were conducted via the internet. We conveniently sampled Black adolescent girls using web-based advertisements. Study assessments occurred at enrollment, 1 week, 1 month, and 4 months after enrollment. The primary outcome of this study is increased HIV and STI testing by Black adolescent girls. Secondary outcomes include increased condom use, self-efficacy to use condoms, positive attitudes toward condom use, intentions, harm perceptions, HIV and STI and pre-exposure prophylaxis knowledge, positive sexual norms, sexual communication with partners, and reduced incidence of sexual risk behaviors associated with HIV and STI transmission. Secondary outcomes also included assessment of intervention feasibility and acceptability. From February to April 2022, a total of 79 Black adolescent girls were enrolled, with 40 (51%) having been randomized into the intervention condition and 39 (49%) into the control condition. At baseline, participant ages ranged from 14 to 19 (mean 16.4, SD 1.23) years. Web-accessible game interventions overcome common impediments of face-to-face interventions presenting a unique opportunity to reach Black adolescent girls and improve their sexual health and self-efficacy. Trial data will provide information about the limited efficacy of the intervention and inform future web-based studies and a larger RCT aimed at improving the sexual health of Black adolescent girls. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04108988; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04108988. DERR1-10.2196/43666.

Communication for Inclusion in Universities: Study of the Perception of LGBTQI+ Actions at the Complutense University of Madrid

Universities are meant to be places of personal and intellectual development. In theory, they are designed to be a safe place where students can express themselves without fear. However, certain vulnerable groups continue to struggle to be able to assert their identities. There are five principal categories of social inequality, which are socio-economic and urban-rural, gender, ethnic and racial, disability, and age (Gairín &amp; Suárez, 2012). There are groups at risks of exclusion in a society still dominated by prejudices and stereotypes in each category. Among these groups is the LGBTQI+ community since people who do not follow sexual and gender norms tend to be punished with bullying and hidden curricula in school environments (Elipe et al., 2015). The existence of social inequality in these areas creates barriers that make it difficult for vulnerable groups to integrate into social contexts, such as academia (Pichardo &amp; Puche, 2019).There are physical barriers, like non-accessibility in common spaces, bureaucratic barriers with the absence of clear and known protocols, and symbolic barriers due to a shortage of positive references or models.

The Texture of ‘Lives Lived with Law:’ Methods for Queering International Law

ABSTRACT Queer theory’s obligations to critique and problematise the mechanisms of power and discourse, especially law, remain important for revealing, unsettling and destabilising established sexual and gender norms. However, as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick argues, the emphasis on paranoid or critical practices in queer theorising must be counterbalanced by recognising the queer methods of repair evident in the way LGBTQIA+ people engage with systems of oppression in empowering and transformative ways. 1 , 2 In this paper, I draw on the methodological tools that Sedgwick provides to examine LGBTQIA+ engagements with international law in terms of their creative, generative and sustaining capacities. Focusing on the experiences of two Australian LGBTQIA+ activists, Rodney Croome and Dianne Otto and the objects they brought to the interviews I did with them, I highlight the queer sensibilities, or queer reparative practices, operating in and through their commitments to law. In doing so, I expand the registers through which to conceptualise queer theory in relation to law and instantiate the queer jurisprudential work occurring in international law.

A Critical Look at Indian Queer Sociology: novel approach

This study makes an attempt to queer Indian sociology. Queering encompasses the viewpoints of individuals who do not conform or do not desire to adhere to the heterosexual or hetero-gender thinking, or both. Non-conformity to established gender and sexual norms in a particular culture has significant implications for non-conforming individuals, which can range from physical assault to various exclusions, stigma, and marginalisation. Since the early 1990s, activists in India have been mobilising against unfairness, stigma, and abuses suffered by the sexually marginalised. Popularly termed as the LGBTQI movement or movements of "sexual minorities," these mobilizations across South Asia have brought to light numerous unpleasant and hazardous trajectories that comprise the very existence of these sexually marginalised people.

East-west disparities in safer sex inside China: a sociocultural perspective.

This study responds to the increasing rate of HIV/AIDS and unplanned pregnancies among Chinese college students from a sociocultural perspective, and investigates the influences of sociocultural factors in shaping sex-related beliefs and acts among Chinese college students. An online survey was conducted on a purposive sample of 1286 female college students in four cities in east and west China. Significant east-west disparities have emerged in the rate of sexual intercourse experience, rate of safer sex, conservative sexual values, authority sex education, unofficial sex knowledge access and HIV knowledge. A higher rate of sexual activity, but lower rate of safer sex, were found among the students in the west relative to those in the east. This study demonstrates that in a large country, such as China, regional disparities in economy, social development and sexual norms are salient to affect individuals' sexual behaviours.

About Sex, Open-Mindedness, and Cinnamon Buns: Exploring Sexual Social Media

General purpose social media platforms—often incited by American legislation—increasingly exclude sex from acceptable forms of sociality in the abstract name of user safety. This article analyzes interview data (four developer interviews and 56 user interviews) from three North European sexual platforms (Darkside, Alastonsuomi, and Libertine.Center) to explore what follows from including sexual sites in definitions and analyses of social media and, by extension, in including sex in definitions of “the social” itself. We found that instead of context collapse, the users and developers of the studied sites operate with what we call context promiscuity, blending boundaries, but maintaining their structural integrity. This allows for a particular silosociality to emerge based on experiences of safety, risk, and consent. Building on this, we propose thinking of sexual expression as something not contained by, but put in motion across platforms, user cultures, content policies, and sexual norms. Rather than framing sexual social media exchanges in terms of their perceived risks and harms, we would do well to also inquire after the risks and harms involved in ousting sex from networked forms of sociality. Deplatforming of sex truncates our ways of understanding what interests, forces, and attachments drive our sociality. Yet, when analyzing social media as if the socio-sexual matters, platforms designed to support sexual displays and connections become vital nodal points in social media ecologies.

Sexual Revolution, Mobilization or Civil War: How to Understand the Soviet Transformation of Sexuality (The Case of Soviet Lithuania)

The article raises a question whether the concept of sexual revolution could be applied to the changes of sexuality in the Soviet Union. The case of one of the republics of the USSR, Soviet Lithuania is analysed. The dynamics of sexual policy, norms and behaviour that took place in 1944–1990 are examined to demonstrate what problems arise when applying the concept of the sexual revolution and a new solution is offered – the concept of sexual civil war. It is argued that this new concept points to implications that contradict the sexual revolution: the changes of sexuality are elongated and viscous, the conflicting traditional and modern norms and behaviour can overlap or entrench in separate social and cultural groups to create a kind of stalemate. Therefore the concept of sexual civil war does not stress on the changes themselves but a particular conflict in the process of a transformation of sexuality.

Capturar e enviar nudes: as torções morais, prazeres e perigos de produzir e trocar imagens eróticas online

Abstract In this article, I reflect on the polysemy involved in the registration, sending and circulation (authorised or not) of nude digital photographs. I propose that this practice the discourses it entails should be thought both in terms of “a new twist in visuality regimes, a transition towards new ways of seeing, living and symbolising one’s own and others’ bodily nudity” (Sibilia, 2015, p. 42) and as an articulator of the “limits of sexuality” (Gregori, 2016). This involves flexions in the social classifications that organise sexual norms as acceptable or reprehensible and a complex dispute about the expansion of, and restrictions to, the boundaries between consent and abuse, norm and transgression, legitimate and immoral, healthy and violent.

Muslim Refugee Girls in Malala Yousafzai’s We Are Displaced

The research intends to find out the kinds of discrimination faced by the refugee girls and also life experiences of the refugee girls that related to the author’s life. Malala as the writer of the memoir We Are Displaced describes her experiences as a Muslim woman who is often treated unfairly both in the homeland and in the host land. As Malala had seen many discriminations in many places, she was inspired to write all discrimination as the movement against that discrimination. Therefore, feminism is a study of efforts to change gender roles, sexist practices, and sexual norms that often limit personal development. This research uses content analysis, especially close textual analysis. The results of this research show that there are 3 kinds of discrimination of the refugee girls. They are: 1) Racial Discrimination, 2) Gender Discrimination, and 3) Social Class Discrimination. This research also shows that some of the refugee girls have the same life experience as the author based on educational value, they are: 1) Independence value, 2) Creativity value, 3) Social Concern value.

“A Handful of Syllables Thrown Back across the Water”:Dictée’s Aesthetic Legacy and Thai American Poetics

AbstractThis article draws on the formal and aesthetic qualities of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée as a critical model for theorizing the transnational legacies of colonialism and empire embedded in the acts of language learning and as an opening for Asian American literary studies to engage with the previously understudied genre of Thai American and Thai poetry. Foregrounding aesthetics and unique, translingual poetic practices, the readings in this article explore rich connections between Dictée and two experimental collections of Thai and Thai American poetry: Padcha Tuntha-obas’s trespasses (2006) and Jai Arun Ravine’s แล้วandthen entwine (2011a). Thai American cultural production is uniquely situated to offer aesthetic insights into the history of US presence in Southeast Asia from the mid-twentieth century onward, which in Thailand took the form of allyship and soft power as Thailand’s formally uncolonized status obscured the violent codifications of gender, racial, and sexual norms to align with Western, imperial worldviews. The author argues that, just as Dictée marked a revolutionary period in Asian American literary studies as the field grappled with the role of poststructural theory, experimental literary forms, and transnational, decolonial politics in the United States and Asia, a more sustained engagement with Thai American and Thai poetry can offer a critical entry point to address US informal empire building in Southeast Asia, including activities often occluded in mainstream historical narratives by a singular focus on Vietnam during the Cold War era.

Distribution of water sectors in patients in chronic critical illness: Early rehabilitation stage

BACKGROUND: Fluid therapy in the intensive care unit is not only one of the most common components of therapy but also one of the most controversial and widely discussed. The choice of volume and type of infusion is a multifactorial issue. Currently, the search continues for a convenient non-invasive method that can be used to assess the water composition of the patients body.&#x0D; AIM: To analyze the distribution of fluid sectors in patients with chronic critical illness using bioimpedance with standard fluid therapy.&#x0D; MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 63 patients with chronic critical illness (CCI) after brain damage (men, n=28; women, n=35; average age, 5419 years). According to nosology, 22 patients had ischemic stroke; 17, traumatic brain injury; 14, hemorrhagic stroke; 7, condition after brain surgery; and 2, post-hypoxic conditions. The study was conducted in the morning before breakfast using the analyzer of bioimpedance metabolic processes and body composition ABC-02 Medass. A total of 140 measurements were conducted.&#x0D; RESULTS: In most cases, the volume of the total body water (TBW) in patients was within the age and sex norm (78.6%); however, the volume of extracellular water (ECW) reached normal values only in 45.7%. Moreover, both indicators were simultaneously within the normal range only in 44.3%. In addition, TBW and ECW did not coincide at 35.7%. The most common option was an increase in ECW while maintaining a normal TBW (24.3%). When conducting a correlation analysis of TBW and ECW indicators with biochemical blood test data (a decrease in the total protein level and albumin level), the strength of the relationship between the correlation coefficients of the samples on the Chaddock scale turned out to be very weak for all options considered.&#x0D; CONCLUSIONS: In patients in CCI after brain damage, there may be an accumulation of water in the extracellular space without visible edema in 50% of the patients, whereas the TBW indicator is within the age and sex norm in 24.3%. This indicator does not depend on either the level of hypoproteinemia and hypoalbuminemia.