Sexual Subjectivity Research Articles

Book Review: Semiotics of Rape: Sexual Subjectivity and Violation in Rural India

Book Review: Semiotics of Rape: Sexual Subjectivity and Violation in Rural India

YouTube Videos Are a Moderately Comprehensive, Reliable, and Quality Option to Learn About “Multiple Sclerosis and Sexuality”

Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the performance, comprehensiveness, reliability, and quality of English-language YouTube videos addressing the subject of multiple sclerosis and sexuality. Methods In August 2023, a search was conducted on a computer using the keywords “multiple sclerosis and sexuality,” “multiple sclerosis and sexual health,” “multiple sclerosis and sexual health problems,” and “multiple sclerosis and sexual dysfunction” for this descriptive study. According to predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria, 38 videos that met the research purpose were examined. The related URLs were recorded. For each video, the following information was collected: content producers, performance with YouTube statistics, comprehensiveness with a form developed by researchers, reliability with Singh’s Reliability Evaluation Form, and quality with Global Quality Scale. Two researchers independently evaluated the videos. Results Eighty-nine and a half percent of the videos contained information presented by professionals. The average number of views was 2699.132 ± 3382.848, the comprehensiveness score was 4.2 ± 1.711, the reliability score was 3.184 ± 1.182, and the quality score was 3.421 ± 1.2. Nearly half (42.2%) contained good and useful information for viewers, and half (50%) had high video quality. The reliability and quality scores of videos containing each item in terms of comprehensiveness were higher compared to videos that did not include that item (p < 0.05). In addition, the videos with higher comprehensiveness scores had higher quality and reliability scores (p < 0.001). Conclusion These results underscore the constrained performance attributes of YouTube videos addressing multiple sclerosis and sexuality, with their content exhibiting a moderate level of comprehensiveness, reliability, and quality. These results may provide a basis for increasing the effectiveness of YouTube videos on multiple sclerosis and sexuality.

Queer Performance of Gay and Cis Men Accountants from the Perspective of Tokenism

ABSTRACT This paper captures critical incidents under the three phenomena of tokenism – visibility, polarity, and adequacy – of gay and cis men (token figures) compared to straight and cis men (the dominant group) in the accounting environment, perceived as predominantly male. Such an environment can lead to the silencing of sexual subjectivities that do not meet heteronormative performance standards. The main concern is to observe how accountants who are both gay and cis – a minority – may feel themselves to be token figures in an area where the dominant group is men who are straight and cisgendered. Thus, this study falls within the scope of queer studies and highlights how social relations and representation between the two groups are processed in a predominantly masculine professional area. To this end, interviews were conducted with accounting professionals and members of the Accounting Collective for Inclusion and Diversity in Brazil. Using the critical incidents technique, it was possible to observe that men who were gay and cis had, throughout their professional careers – under the observable phenomena of tokenism – been confronted with potential scrutiny in the face of the dominant group. The study also points out that accountants who are gay and cisgendered are constantly confronted with behaviour similar to that of straight and cis accountants to protect their image. As a response to remaining a minority in organisations, men who are gay and cis feel forced to get as close as possible to the stereotype of heteronormativity so that their behaviour, clothes, and even tone of voice are consistent with the social norm of heterosexuality. A lack of organisational policies was also observed to mediate the tension between the groups (dominants and tokens) and the interviewees’ pessimism regarding likely changes in the future professional scenario.

Dating Apps and Shifting Sexual Subjectivities of Men Seeking Men Online

Leading theories of the recent history of sexuality have pointed to trends toward detraditionalization and precarity in intimate relations, but also to democratization and innovation. This study grounded in 79 qualitative interviews with men seeking men online considers their experiences in light of these theories. The rise of dating apps has generated sexual fields that have shaped the sexual subjectivities of the current era in multiple ways. The narratives of study participants show much more than the hook-up culture that dating apps are best known for. They speak to experiences of superficiality, unmet expectations, and sometimes bruising intersections with hierarchies defined by age, race, body type, gender expression, and serostatus. Yet at the same time, they show a strong aspiration to sociability, social network building, and reach for a language of affiliation beyond the kin and friendship terms of the larger society. Generational comparisons indicate the shifting sexual subjectivities that dating apps have shaped by constituting virtual sexual fields.

Fisting Subjectivity: Narratives of Sexual Subjectivity Among Gay Fist-Fuckers

ABSTRACT Studies of sexuality have long been interested in understanding the construction of sexual subjectivity, especially amongst people whose participation in more nonnormative and kinkier forms of sex/uality have been discursively framed in terms of sexual and health “risk.” Here sexual subjectivity refers to a person’s sense of themself “as a sexual being who feels entitled to sexual pleasure and sexual safety, who makes active sexual choices, and who has an identity as a sexual being” (p. 6). This study explored what meanings fist-fuckers narratively draw on in understanding and interpreting their sexual subjectivity. Unstructured individual interviews were conducted with 32 gay South African men who fist-fuck. Guided by narrative theory and a thematic narrative analysis, six narratives were identified through which this sample of fist-fuckers constructed their sexual subjectivity as: kinkster, explorer, athlete, expert, lover, and community member. The results highlight that fist-fuckers construct and understand their sexual subjectivity through multiple and overlapping narratives of erotic desire and practice. These narratives not only work to affirmatively constitute the pursuit of fist-fucking as a personally meaningful, sexually fulfilling, and erotically legitimate form of satisfaction and play but, furthermore, facilitate identification with and membership of a distinct community of kink.

Beyond Words

Beyond Words

‘They’re Much Too young’: The Entanglement of Porn, Pleasure and Age in Sex Education

ABSTRACT Most debates around the place of porn in the classroom focus on abstaining from porn through sex education. Any inclusion of pleasure often entails lengthy consideration of discourses of pornification and sexualization more broadly. In this study, I aimed to elicit young people’s and teachers’ views, concerns and suggestions about the place of porn, and pleasure more broadly, in sex education. I present a thematic content analysis of small friendship group interviews with 106 young people aged 12–16, who self-identified as boys or girls, and semi-structured interviews with six teachers in New Zealand. I argue that by politicizing age, we continue to view young people as an at risk population. In doing so, we miss the nuance of young people’s engagements with porn and pleasure, which denies scope to understand the role of porn in young people’s lives. This is a missed opportunity to interrogate and understand porn as a resource through which young people construct and express their sexual subjectivities and social roles.

A sexual empowerment process predicting heterosexual women’s sexual pleasure

ABSTRACT Gender-based inequities within patriarchy create barriers to women’s sexual well-being. This study integrated empowerment theory with research on heterosexual women’s sexuality to examine multiple factors related to sexual pleasure. An empowerment process is one mechanism through which less powerful individuals gain influence and power that results in increased opportunities to control decisions that affect their lives. Although psychologists have been studying empowerment for decades, sexual empowerment has been under-explored. In this study, 253 heterosexual undergraduate women completed a questionnaire assessing sexual empowerment dimensions, including critical consciousness about gender and sexuality, sexual subjectivity, sexual assertiveness, and sexual pleasure. Data were analysed with structural equation modelling. A mediated sexual empowerment process in which critical consciousness was indirectly related to sexual pleasure through two mediators, sexual subjectivity and sexual assertiveness, was supported. To the extent that women can reject heteronormative beliefs and conform less to patriarchal norms of sexual fidelity, they may be able to realise more sexual subjectivity, assertiveness, and pleasure. This study has implications for rights-based sexual education and pleasure-inclusive clinical practice.

Nursing students' knowledge regarding sexuality, sex, and gender diversity in a multicenter study.

Sexuality is an integral part of development and personality, and is important in healthcare. Nurses are among the most representative healthcare professionals. For holistic and inclusive nursing care practice and to improve equality, human rights, well-being, and health of individuals, the curricula of nursing courses must integrate broad knowledge about sexuality and its diversity. This study aimed to identify and analyze nursing students' knowledge of sexuality, sex, and gender diversity. The present study was part of a multicenter study conducted in Europe. Questionnaires were administered in three nursing schools to assess nursing students' knowledge (n = 75). Data processing was performed using Excel® software version 20 and IRaMuTeQ (R Interface pour les Analysis Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires) 0.7 alpha 2, allowing organization by category and subsequent thematic analysis using content analysis. The textual corpus "Nursing students' knowledge about sexuality in its diversity," was divided into two sub-corpus: "Students' perception of sexuality" and "Students' perception of gender identity," originating Class 6 "Eroticism" (14.23%) and Classes 4 "Sexual Orientation" (16.07%) and 3 "Heteronormative" (16.07%), the latter with greater proximity to each other and consequently to Class 6. Similarly, Classes 1 "Gender" (20.36%) and 5 "Cisgender" (12.14%) also presented a greater interrelationship between themselves and consecutively with Class 2 "Gender Identity" (15.36%). The analyses revealed that though nursing students possessed knowledge about sexuality and its diversity, this knowledge was elementary and did not reveal a sustained appropriation of concepts related to sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender diversity. For some questions, the absence of students' answers were noteworthy, and may be associated with their personal reservation in expressing themselves on this sensitive and intimate theme. To ensure diversity, inclusivity, and impartiality in nursing practice, it is imperative to change the curriculum plans of nursing courses to address the theme of sexuality during the training process of nurses in Europe.

Comprehensive horizons: examining Japan’s national and regional sexuality education curricula

ABSTRACT Comprehensive Sexuality Education has been acknowledged globally for its role in advancing young people’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Yet, notable variation exists in definitions and interpretations of what comprehensive means, exposing tensions between international and local values and agendas. This research focused on the situation in Japan, which is largely perceived as ‘lagging behind’ international standards in terms of its sexuality education programming. We aimed to explore the degree of comprehensiveness and variation within Japan’s national and regional sexuality education curricula, using UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education as a benchmark. Quantitative and qualitative curriculum analysis was conducted using an Excel tool. Findings revealed greater comprehensiveness and regional diversity than previously reported, although significant gaps persist regarding more explicit sexual subject matter and critical gender perspectives. These results illustrated promising progress towards comprehensiveness, even in the conservative educational environment of Japan. Nonetheless, in aspects such as rights, Japanese educational discourse differs substantially from that of the wider international community, contributing to the perception that the country’s sexuality education programme lacks comprehensiveness. This calls for greater cultural responsivity within the Comprehensive Sexuality Education agenda, albeit without compromising its core values and safeguarding of young people’s sexual health and rights.

(225) Female Sexual Function During the Last Trimester of Pregnancy

Abstract Introduction Since antiquity and until today, sexuality remains a taboo and complex subject, often little discussed either in private circles or with healthcare professionals. Although advertising and the media sometimes use it to attract attention, sexuality is still synonymous with the unknown, raising several interrogations. These concerns are accentuated during the onset of pregnancy and all the physical, psychological, and environmental upheavals associated with this physiological state. Objective This study aims to assess the changes in female sexual function during the third trimester of pregnancy Methods It is a cross-sectional online study that took place over 5 weeks starting March 1st, 2023. All low-risk singleton third-trimester pregnant and newly delivered women enrolled in the public and private prenatal care centers of the region were contacted through the institutions’ social media groups to be recruited. The online questionnaire was a 4-item Google form elaborated in concertation with the literature and included the validated translated version of the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). Results The study included 81 married participants (8% response rate). The median age of the participants was 30,4± 6,9 years and 65,4% of them were employed when pregnant. The mean pregnancy rate per participant was 2,7± 1,9 and 90% of the pregnancies were spontaneous. When questioned about their sexual life during the 3rd trimester of pregnancy, 68% of the participants report being uncomfortable when the subject of sexuality is on the table. Most of the respondents (78%) were unsatisfied with their couple's sexuality during pregnancy. A low sexual desire was reported in 84,0%, dyspareunia in 55,6% with a decrease in lubrification in 16,0%, and orgasm disorders in 17,3%. Secondary vaginismus was described by 12,3%. Partners initiated sexual intercourse according to 72,8% of the respondent. Sexual intercourses were mutually initiated in 27,2%. Pregnant women reported a change in their sexual life during the 3rd trimester in 96,3%: the 7th month of pregnancy is associated with less frequent (70,5%) and shorter (69,2%) penetrative intercourses with lower female sexual desire (48,7%). The 8th and 9th months are associated with lower sexual desire (80,8%; 94,9%), lower sexual pleasure (75,6%; 92,3%), and less frequent orgasms (67,9%; 82,1%) and penetrative intercourses (85,9%; 93,6%). Conclusions Our results suggest that the third trimester in singleton low-risk pregnancies is associated with severe impairment of the female sexual function in relation to less frequent and shorter penetrative intercourses, lower desire, and pleasure associated with a general sexual unsatisfaction. Disclosure No.

(179) Sexual Dysfunctions in Infertile Tunisian Women

Abstract Introduction Once perceived as a source of pleasure and enjoyment, sexuality has evolved for infertile couples, focusing primarily on a purely procreative objective. Infertility has a direct impact on a woman's sex life, calling into question her femininity and causing significant alterations in the components of her sexual response. Objective The aims of our study were to assess the frequency of sexual dysfunction in Tunisian women facing infertility and to identify the aspects of their sexuality most affected. Methods This was a prospective, cross-sectional, and descriptive study, including a sample of 200 Tunisian infertile women, followed up in a Tunisian Assisted reproduction center over a three-month period, from November 24, 2022 to February 24, 2023. To assess the different dimensions of sexuality in infertile women, we used the Arabic version of the FSFI (female sexual function index) Results The mean age of our women was 30 ± 4 years. The majority had a university educational level (80%), an urban origin (87%), an average socio-economic level (63%), and no medical or gynecological surgery history (62%). Most partners (67%) had no sexual dysfunction (SD). The most frequent male SD was premature ejaculation, observed in 14% of cases. As regards the etiology of infertility, most cases were classified as unexplained (28%), while the remainder were linked to female causes, dominated by PCOS (40%). The majority of women had initially discussed the subject of sexuality (72%) with their partners. In our sample, the mean FSFI score was 20.74, with extremes ranging from 2 to 35.4. The prevalence of female sexual dysfunction (FSD) was 82%. The areas most affected were sexual satisfaction (50%), reaching orgasm (45%), as well as lubrication (44%) and arousal (44%). Lower educational level, secondary infertility, contraceptive use, and a long history of fertility treatment as well as the presence of sexual dysfunction in the male partner, were found to be associated with sexual dysfunction in women suffering from infertility, yet no significant correlation was established. Conclusions Infertility is associated with high rates of sexual dysfunction. Thorough counseling and continuing support of infertile women is therefore indicated. Disclosure No.

Forming Consciences into Collective Parish Actions: Catholic Parishioners’ Struggles for Institutional Change

This article examines how Catholics form their consciences together in parishes particularly on topics of gender and sexuality. The data for this project stems from ethnographic observations and forty interviews from a 2010 to 2012 study of two Catholic parishes in Chicago. The first is a progressive parish promoting inclusion of gay and lesbians as well as women’s ordination. The second had a small but active Respect Life group attempting to change their parish culture to be more committed to Respect Life issues. The paper suggests that cultural inertia (or lack there of) is one mechanism that drives or halts conscience formation. These collective consciences lead to differing understandings of what it means to be Church and to be a person, and they may motivate actions to change the Catholic Church hierarchy or local parish. Forming consciences together has implications for understanding the role of culture and structure in the Catholic Church. Specifically, these formed consciences, parish cultures, and actions produce different boundaries and partnerships with the Archdiocese which determines what actions are legitimate by setting the conditions for parish actions and constraining parish actions with threats of sanction.

‘Doctors advised to take medicines to remove these thoughts’: the violence and violations in sexual mental health care in community mental health programmes in Kerala

Abstract Community mental health programmes (CMHPs) have proliferated in both governmental and non-governmental sectors in recent times in India. Although CMHPs are mandated to work in close collaboration with the community, the operationalization of community is fraught with exclusionary tendencies, particularly concerning non-cis-heteronormative sexual subjects. Mental health professionals trained in the mainstream western biopsychiatric paradigm are largely silent on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual identity discourses as they institute pathological and reductive conceptualization about sexualities, psychosocial disabilities and resultant sufferings. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork carried out at two non-governmental and a governmental CMHP in Kerala, south India, I illustrate the lack of a human rights–based approach to sex and sexual orientation and gender identity, due to which pressing concerns of sexual life are mis/overdiagnosed as mental ‘disorders’ to be treated within a biomedical framework. The lack of an intersectional approach fails the marginalized sexual subjects to exert their agency, develop critical consciousness and recognize sexuality as a political issue—all vital for transformative social change. The consequence is a dehumanized mental health care system that fails to ‘archive feelings’ that are pivotal in making invisibilized worlds observable to tell ‘unwelcome truths’ that induce psychic pain. Collaborative alliances among other marginalised sections like Queer, Dalit, tribal and Crip (disability) groups are vital in resisting intra-individual prescriptions by increasingly commercializing mental health practice in a country beset by a host of social problems including poverty, discrimination and rising inequalities. It is crucial to understand systems of power (imbalance) that operate as major (social) determinants of (sexual) mental health.

Sexuality, social organization, and health in a women's prison

In the United States, sexuality and sexual relationships were foundational concepts for understanding women's prisons that generally receded from carceral research as the nation's incarceration rates climbed. This study reevaluates classic themes of sexuality and women's prison informal organization using social network and health data collected in two Pennsylvania women's prison units (n = 118). Sampled women perceived a high prevalence of prison-based sexual relationships and overwhelmingly endorsed the rights of sexual minorities. Additionally, network analyses found that sexual minority women had similar friendships, social status, and self-reported health as their heterosexual peers across both units, suggesting an absence of sexual stigmatization or group segregation processes. However, older, longer-term incarcerated women were more likely than their peers to hold unfavorable views toward prison sex. This was particularly evident in a “good behavior” unit holding many older, long-term residents where overt sexual behaviors could jeopardize the unit's stability and privileges.

Kadın Dergilerinde Toplumsal Cinsiyet İdeolojilerine Yönelik Bir Söylem Çözümlemesi

Women’s magazines are a means to create and reproduce women identity through emphasizing particular topics like fashion, beauty, love and horoscopes. In this sense, they convey some ideological messages – mostly cultural and gender-biased. Using critical discourse analysis method of Van Dijk (2001), this study intends to compare the social and linguistic patterns of love and sexual themes in horoscopes in women’s magazines in three cultures – English, German and Turkish. The data were collected from 2023 yearly horoscopes published in online women's magazines in three languages. The macro level analysis showed that in all three languages, horoscopes highlighted the place of love in women's self-improvement. German and English horoscopes reflected women as equal, independent, self-confident, and strong individuals, while Turkish horoscopes conveyed a more conservative perspective on love, partnership, and sexuality, emphasizing traditional gender roles and perpetuating stereotypes. Regarding the micro level of the analysis, left and right dislocation were frequently found in the German horoscopes, compared to Turkish and English ones. Questions and imperatives were mostly applied pattern in the three language. The employment of plural and singular forms of you pronoun and the lexical strategies used to address readers showed variations in Turkish, German, and English horoscopes.

Giovanni’s Room: Hideous or Hideout?

The novel Giovanni’s Room by author James Baldwin is one of the most controversial novels written in 1956 It focuses on the complex themes of sexuality and internalised homophobia as well as the social construct of genders. However, this paper focuses particularly on the title of the novel and the two main characters from the novel, they are David (the man who pretends to be straight because of his internalized homophobic nature) and Giovanni (an Italian bartender who shares a romantic relationship with David) This paper attempts to understand and justify the title of the novel, which seems to be picked up by the author with a certain intention, with the context of the above-mentioned characters and their feelings with the help of a close reading of the novel. What does the room represent? It definitely relates to the character and so to understand it, the paper utilizes specific quotes from the novel as well as academic articles regarding the novel to bring out the accuracy and support of the argument.

What Can the Netflix Series Sex Education Teach School-Based Sexuality Education?

Netflix series Sex Education is popular with young people in a way school-based programmes rarely are. Analyzing the first three seasons, this paper explores what and how educative content is offered and how young people are addressed as sexual subjects. It is argued that Sex Education radically expands the conventional content of school-based programmes and attends to many critiques young people repeatedly make of them. Sex Education offers an example of how to educate about sexuality, via a queer and sex-positive approach where young people are understood as legitimate sexual beings who are authorities on their own sexual lives.

Obscure Desire: Goethe and the Imbalanced Pedagogy of What Maisie Knew

Abstract: What is the importance of the children Mignon and Felix, in Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship and Travels , for the themes of sexuality and pedagogy in What Maisie Knew ? Grounded in suggestive correspondences between geographically distant, but conceptually allied narratives, James’s novel appears to invert the moral compass of Goethe’s bildungsroman to craft Maisie’s misguidedness and perhaps that of her narrator. While distancing Maisie from the preconceptions of the narrator, I credit, as a foreshadowing of What Maisie Knew , James’s allusion—in his personal review of the Meister narratives—to “pernicious conclusions.” Features of both Mignon and Felix, as transposed by James, resurface in Maisie, while Wilhelm morphs into a predatory Sir Claude.

Sexuality in elderly age: stereotypes and possibilities

The research discusses the main ageist stereotypes associated with sexuality in older individuals, as well as presents and analyzes the results of an empirical study of the characteristics of sexual activity in the elderly. This article presents the findings of a study focused on peculiarities of sexual manifestation in old age. The study involved 202 participants, of which 107 (53%) were women and 95 (47%) men, all of whom were residents of the Israeli Center for Psychological Help in Life Crises. The age distribution among the participants was as follows: 62-71 years old – 77.2%; 72-79 years old - 35.4%; 80 years old and older –26.1%. The experiment showed that the subject of sexuality remains relevant for older individuals, and they do not perceive societal barriers to expressing their sexuality. the cessation of sexual activity is found to be directly linked not to age but rather to the absence of a sexual partner or declining health. The study’s results indicate that 62.5% of respondents in committed relationships are sexually active. Among divorced individuals, this percentage rises to 68.2%, whereas widowed respondents exhibit the lowest level of sexual activity at 16.3%, which aligns with expectations.