Sexual Subjectivity Research Articles

Sexual Freedom's Shadows

Tim Dean's book-length reflections on barebacking subculture, an event in themselves, also supply an occasion for examining same-sex sexuality as it is lived by a number of men who have sex with men. This review essay begins with some of Dean's foundational claims, in particular, the argument that an “elaborate subculture” organized “around men who fuck without protection precisely in order to become infected” exists and is flourishing on the sexual and social scene. In addition to assessing the claim on its own terms, the essay situates it alongside the ideology of sexual freedom, an outlook on sexual life that, in important ways, has long shaped and animated gay male sexuality as thought and practice. After introducing the ideology of sexual freedom, barebacking subculture's norms, described by Dean, are catalogued in its light, and revealed as continuous with it. Far from being a wholly novel chapter in the history of same-sex sexuality, barebacking subculture is exposed as a variation on a much older, and darker, sexual theme, retooled and keyed to possibilities specially available in the age of HIV/AIDS. Having noted that Dean's account of barebacking subculture effectively documents a lived experiment of and in the ideology of sexual freedom, the essay then turns to Dean's own normative stance on barebacking subculture. His “ethics of cruising,” in which promiscuity—including sexual promiscuity—is heralded, is closely examined. Despite Dean's recommendations, this ethical stance is ultimately challenged for the ways that it, like some dimensions of barebacking subculture, themselves in line with the ideology of sexual freedom, affirmatively promotes the social, hence legal, erasure and invisibility of injuries that are sexually produced, including through same-sex sex. The essay ends with a question about how to respond.

Redefining the Sexual Orientations in Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia

The paper will study Kureishi's treatment of gender and sexuality from the perspective of his character's sexual orientation. I will examine his first novel, The Buddha of Suburbia, to find out the sexual orientations of his characters. Kureishi's body of work has touched upon nearly every aspect of sexuality in his novels. He has gone very deep to portray his character's sexual orientation without any restriction. He uses his writing ability to put such critical themes of sexuality like homosexuality, bisexuality, lesbianism into his novels. Kureishi has experimented with his character's deep sexual idiosyncrasies like orgies and infidelity in their sexual relations. His protagonists get their sexual identities after going through many social, political, and cultural upheavals.

Pornography as a cultural resource for constructing and expressing gendered sexual subjectivities among students in a co-educational boarding school

ABSTRACT This paper draws upon research conducted in a co-educational independent boarding school in England to explore the role of pornography in students’ school-based sexual cultures. Drawing upon Mechling’s conceptualization of boarding schools as ‘total institutions’, I explore how pornography acted as both ‘play’ and ‘ritual’ through which participants asserted agency and control while producing a gendered social order surrounding sex and sexuality. Participants who spoke about pornography drew upon dominant understandings of masculine and feminine (hetero)sexuality when positioning themselves and one another regarding pornography. They tended to construct viewing pornography as a ‘typical’ and ‘normal’ part of masculine (hetero)sexuality but as antithetical to feminine (hetero)sexuality. Some of the boys expressed ambivalence and uncertainty about pornography, but this was often grounded in taken-for-granted gendered constructs about sexual performance and accomplishment. Socially approved expressions of agency and control within the research environment were, therefore, both reflective and constitutive of a gendered and heteronormative social order. I suggest that sex education should attend to the role that pornography plays as a cultural resource through which young people construct, express and designate gendered sexual subjectivities and social roles.

The influence of art censorship on New York collectors in the Gilded Age

Abstract With ample funds to furnish enormous homes and contribute to new public art museums, New York collectors in the mid-nineteenth century made a variety of choices regarding nudity and sexual themes in the works they purchased. After a surge in art censorship cases, beginning in 1883, collectors increasingly were confronted with polemical rhetoric urging them to refrain from purchasing art representing nude figures. While some collectors clearly adhered to this moralizing advice, including William H. Vanderbilt, James Lenox and Morris K. Jesup, others – most famously Henry O. and Louisine Havemeyer – were spurred on by their advocacy for civil liberties and cosmopolitan sophistication to purchase more nudes. Understanding both the intended and unintended consequences of art censorship campaigns in the Gilded Age is instructive for the likely outcome of analogous debates about appropriate subject matter on display in our own time.

Self-Assessment and Expectations of Mothers’ Communication With Adolescents on Sexuality Issues

This article reviews survey data obtained through anonymous questionnaires of 779 mothers on the website apklausa.lt. on their perceptions, emotional well-being, and expectations of communication with adolescents on sexuality issues. The majority of the survey participants think that they can talk openly with their daughters and sons on various topics of sexuality(about emotional changes in adolescence, friendship and love to a person of a different gender, violence, abuse recognition and help, family importance to the individual and society, gender equality, equality of roles of men and women, etc.). Mothers, who have higher education degrees, are more likely to interact with their children about sexual orientation and gender stereotypes created by the media, mass culture, and advertising regarding body appearance and their impact on a person’s self-perception. The survey results showed that almost all mothers who participated in the survey (93.6%) perceived conversations with their children on sexuality / sexual relations topics as their responsibility i.e. associated with responsible motherhood, but 64.1% of mothers indicated that they felt uncomfortable, 51.8% of them felt disturbed and 65.9% – ashamed. Mothers hope that interviews with adolescents can help protect adolescents from risky sexual behaviour (63.4% of mothers expect that their daughter / son will not have sex in adolescence; 76.6% expect that adolescents are less likely to become pregnant and 72.5% mothers note that the child will be more resistant to peer pressure to have sex).

Ilustratorzy wobec kulturowego tabu. Wiedza o seksualności w książkach dla dzieci i młodzieży

The aim of the study presented in the article was to show how illustrators address the subject of sexuality, surrounded by a strong social taboo, in books for children and youth. The study deals with illustrations from 91 sex education books belonging to the spontaneous reading sector, published in Poland in the years 1945–2018 and devoted to this age group. It shows the main illustration trends in sex education books, and presents them from a chronological and problematic point of view. Illustrations of sexual intercourse were analysed in detail in the light of different approaches to cultural taboos, the following aspects being considered as significant: their presence or absence, the way the matter was presented, and the relationship between the visual and textual layer. The stress was also put on the connections between the illustration methods and the country of origin of the book, its ideological profile, and the age category of the target audience.

“Safe and Satisfied:” An Exploratory Study of Two Aspects of Sexual Subjectivity Among Young Women at a Hispanic-Serving Institution in Southern California, USA

Past research has argued that young women in the United States encounter gendered and heteronormative cultural messages that tend to paint men’s sexuality as active and women’s sexuality as passive. Recent research argues that neoliberal ideology—with its focus on individual choice and personal responsibility—has modified these traditional sexual discourses, including women’s entitlement to sexual subjectivity. This study centers the voices of a diverse group of young women who attend a regional, Hispanic-serving university in southern California, USA, in an analysis of their responses to an open-ended survey about two aspects of sexual subjectivity. Results show that the majority of the women in this study feel entitled to sexual responsiveness from their partner and feel comfortable asking for sexual stimulation. In contrast to past research where women from historically marginalized backgrounds in the United States were more likely to prioritize romantic relationships over sexual pleasure, the majority of the participants in this study did not dismiss their sexual needs. Participants describe sexual pleasure as a relational, rather than purely self-interested accomplishment that is important for their own well-being and for building healthy romantic relationships.

The Relationship between Programme Context and Memory for Sexually Humorous Television Advertisements

This study investigated the programme context effect on the memory for embedded TV advertisements. Participants watched a video consisted of either a non-humorous programme or a humorous programme, with six advertisements inserted into the mid break. Advertisements were either non- humorous or humorous of which three of them contained sexual themes. Participants had to rate the programme, and were tested on brand recognition, free recall and cued recall. Humorous advertisements were better recalled within non-humorous programme while non-humorous advertisements were better recalled within humorous programme. Humorous advertisements with sexual content were recalled the least compared to those without this content. Implications and limitations were noted.

‘We expected more about sex in the sex week’ - A qualitative study about students’ experiences with a sexual health education programme, from a health-promotion perspective

ABSTRACT Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore adolescents’ experiences with participation in a sexual health education programme named «Week 6», from a health-promotion perspective. Methods Six focus group interviews were conducted with adolescents aged 15–16 in Norway. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data material. Results The results can be summed up by the main theme: “We like «Week 6» but … we expected more about sex in the sex week”. The main theme consisted of two main analysis-derived themes: “The students want a topical sexual health education, with realistic and relevant learning subjects and exercises”, and “The students want to contribute to the content and implementation, in order to improve the learning outcomes of «Week 6»”. Further, four categories were identified: organization and content, positive experiences, the potential for improvement, and learning outcome. «Week 6» is desirable, but students expect to learn more. Teaching should have a positive approach, and adolescents do not want their educators to get embarrassed. Conclusion Although the teaching methods with active participation are enjoyable, it is necessary with more time for discussions and questions. Student participation in planning and implementation of the programme seems crucial for promoting salutogenic teaching processes.

Resistir para existir: aportes freireanos para uma educação sexual transgressora e emancipadora

his essay aims to reveal the resonances of Paulo Freire’s thought and the black feminist bell hooks for the proposition of a transgressive sexual education that promotes critical insertion in reality, questioning heteronormativity, appropriation of a language of resistance, to favor the construction of autonomy and the emancipation of dissident sexual subjects. Here, the relevance of the Freirean legacy is reaffirmed for the consolidation of an education as a practice of freedom. The emancipatory character of the Freirean educational project catalyzes the confrontation of reactionary strategies hidden in the bills proposed by the Escola Sem Partido program, which aim to undermine democracy, establish a gag school and criminalize educators who work in the perspective of social transformation.

A PSYCHOANALYTICAL STUDY OF PAUL MOREL’S SEXUAL DESIRE IN D.H LAWRENCE’S SONS AND LOVERS

<p class="15"><strong>This research examines the</strong><strong> </strong><strong>sexual desire</strong><strong> of Paul Morel, a male main character in the D.H Lawrence’s novel Sons and Lovers. </strong><strong>It</strong><strong> is a descriptive qualitative library</strong><strong> research</strong><strong> </strong><strong>with the</strong><strong> main data are the narrative and dialogue</strong><strong>s taken from the respective</strong><strong> novel</strong><strong>.</strong><strong></strong></p><p class="15"><strong>Th</strong><strong>e</strong><strong> </strong><strong>study</strong><strong> aims to describe how Paul Morel’s </strong><strong>sexual desire</strong><strong> in the novel Sons and Lovers is constructed. It uses Freudian psychoanalysis approach to reveal the pattern of intimate relationships between Paul Morel and three most- significant women in his life: Gertrude Morel, Miriam Leviers, and Clara Dawes.</strong><strong> </strong><strong></strong></p><p class="15"><strong>The result of the study shows that Paul </strong><strong>sexual desire</strong><strong> is constructed by his relationship with three women characters that posit different effect</strong><strong>s</strong><strong> to him</strong><strong>.</strong><strong> Paul experiences Oedipus complex when he is a child. </strong><strong>T</strong><strong>he mother acts as the restraining force that restricts Paul from fulfilling his sexual desire with other women. Paul and Miriam</strong><strong>’s</strong><strong> relationship is the manifestation of the id versus the superego. There’s an endless battle between Paul’s raw desire and Miriam’s religiosity. Meanwhile Paul and Clara</strong><strong>’s</strong><strong> relationship is the realization of the id. The intimacy between them is solely based on pleasure principle and satisfaction pursuit. </strong><strong></strong></p><p align="justify"><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong><strong>id,</strong><strong> </strong><strong>ego</strong><strong>, </strong><strong>psychoanalysis, </strong><strong>sexual desire</strong><strong>, superego</strong></p>

Everyday erotics in urban density: an ethnography of older lesbian and bisexual women in Hong Kong

Lesbian spaces, in terms of their social, cultural, sexual or political purposes, have been dwindling in recent years within global North lesbian geographies. For this article, I would like to put forward a historical analysis of social spaces in Hong Kong through a qualitative ethnographic study of 12 older lesbians and bisexual women aged 60 years and above. Expanding upon Yue and Leung’s theoretical assertion of disjunctive modernity and urban neoliberalism, I proceed to develop my argument that lived experiences in an urban environment diffuses and decenters the assertion of one’s lesbian identity and sexual subjectivity across time and space. Under the British colonial era, the assertion of one’s Chinese womanhood as independent and modern intersects with rapid industrialization and social transformations which lead to culturally-specific spatial practices in locating lesbian desires. I call this mode of spatial practice as everyday erotics in density to describe the way of navigating sexual desires in relation to urban development, where becoming a woman with lesbian desires mean not only carving out one’s alternative erotic space but also disengaging with traditional gender roles in one’s life course and redefining gender and sexuality for an older generation of women.

Positioning LGBTIQ as the human sexuality agenda for black theology of liberation – Reflection on Vuyani Vellem’s black theology of liberation

Vuyani Vellem was an outstanding Black Theologian of Liberation (BTL), who was approaching the zenith of his career when he died at the age of 50 years in 2019. This paper begins with a personal memoir to Prof. Vellem and a recognition that there is a lacuna in BTL relative to human sexuality issues. The contemporary global context of the human sexuality debate is discussed before the task of BTL in Vellem’s thinking is outlined. This is followed by an examination of the situation in Africa and South Africa. Following this, the article proceeds to introduce the issue of human sexuality as a potential field of research in BTL and argues that the subject of human sexuality in the black community is a valid and appropriate topic for study and research by BTL.Contribution: This article raises pertinent issues regarding the development of a Black Theology of Liberation (BTL) which includes a proposal for the inclusion of LGBTI+ issues. It seeks to expand the understanding of the oppressed to include those who are oppressed as the result of gender issues.

The man who lusted after Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary: A case report

We report a case of a geriatric male patient who presented with unique features of obsessive-compulsive disorder revolving around religious and sexual themes. Psychodynamic therapy, instead of the traditional choice of cognitive behavioural therapy, was successfully used in conjunction with pharmacotherapy, leading to an improvement in symptoms.

Polyamory in Paris: A social network theory application

Multiple sexual partnerships can be viewed as networks in order to assess the nature of links between lovers and metamours (lover’s lovers) as well as the larger population. In such non-monogamous networks, where participants share sex, friendship, ideas, and economic resources, there exists a vast web of nodes connected in much more intimate and complex ways than one finds in the mono-normative landscape. This study explored gender dynamics in network centrality on a sample of 62 polyamorists in Paris, France using participant-observation, informal and structured interviews, and social network analysis. Though evolutionary psychology and pornographic film tend to reinforce heteronormative stereotypes of males as central social actors with multiple sexual partners and women as sexually passive, feminist theorists have argued for a more “agentic female sexual subjectivity”. My data showed that cis- and trans-women, with a strong sense of family and skills in interpersonal communication, score highest on network metrics of density/degree, homophily, indirectedness, and transitivity. The network data also indicate high modularity and endogamy with clustering tendencies for both cis-men and cis- and trans-women linked to kink, atypical intelligence, sexual and gender non-conformity, and mitigating factors of socioeconomic advantage and racial privilege.

Percepções de professoras/es de português sobre sexualidade e(m) suas aulas no ensino médio

O presente estudo foi realizado em 2017 e foi apresentado como Trabalho de Conclusão do Curso Especialização em Direitos Humanos, ofertado pela Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (Ufes) entre os anos de 2016 e 2017. O mesmo configura-se na análise de percepções de professores de língua portuguesa do Ensino Médio, que atuavam em Ecoporanga /ES , e o processo educativo acerca da sexualidade por meio desta disciplina. A pesquisa em questão tende a perceber o ensino da temática transversal da sexualidade na disciplina escolar de língua portuguesa. A produção de informações aconteceu por meio da estratégia de grupo focal e um aporte teórico que compreende os conceitos de currículo, ensino acerca da sexualidade e a importância da linguagem na vida dos sujeitos. É um texto que enfatiza as vivências de profissionais de língua materna em sala de aula ao expor as angústias deles acerca do ensino da sexualidade nas escolas.

A sexualidade silenciada no ambiente escolar e as contribuições da série Sex Education

A Educação Sexual é considera um tabu na sociedade. Os diálogos que deveriam, em suma, alicerçar informações e debates coerentes sobre sexualidade são transformados em um conjunto de achismos baseados em desinformações, revelando uma Educação Sexual informal perpassada por gerações e apoiada em dogmas morais e religiosos. A pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar a série Sex Education da Netflix e sua relevância para o debate da Educação Sexual. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório que nos permite refletir a escola como órgão inerente à sociedade, que se vê refletida em um paradigma marcado pelo reforço do senso comum atrelado às temáticas da sexualidade. Assim, denota-se que a escola deve ser responsável por disseminar uma Educação Sexual formal, baseada em estudos científicos acerca da sexualidade, mas esbarra em conceitos morais e deturpados de profissionais, impedindo, consequentemente, que haja uma discussão livre de dogmas e preconceitos e que, efetivamente, venha a sanar os questionamentos dos alunos da atual geração.

Upgrading <em>The L Word: Generation Q</em>

Upgrading <em>The L Word: Generation Q</em>

Marriage, aging, and women’s pursuit of commercial sex in Japan

A number of scholarly works have observed Western and Japanese women travelers who seek romance and adventure with local “beach boys” in the Global South. Despite the important criticism of geopolitical inequality contained in these works, what is missing is how those involved in such commodified sexual relationships make sense of what they do. This essay focuses on how well-heeled Japanese married women, who are concerned with the meaning and effects of aging, pursue a commodified form of sexual intimacy as a means to rediscover their sense of sexual subjectivity. How do they perceive their own involvement in sexual commerce? What kinds of sexual power dynamics do these women and their younger, precarious male partners shape at the intersection of gender, age, and class? How do these women make sense of the apparently masculine act of paying for sex, which requires them to transgress cultural norms of feminine passivity in sexual matters? By posing these questions, this article provides a fine-grained portrayal of a particular kind of feminist agency.

O tema sexualidade humana nos livros didáticos de Biologia mais distribuídos pelo Programa Nacional do Livro Didático 2015

The restriction of the approach to the issue of sexuality in schools and in the textbook may be problematic, since by not debating on contents related to human sexuality, important doubts about health in relation to the sexual sphere may not be clarified. By not debating about the social issues of human sexuality, prejudices and discriminations against homosexuals can be generated. The objective of this study was to investigate how the two collections of biology textbooks most distributed in Brazil in 2015, by the PNLD, address the theme, in addition to checking the collections of the same authors in 2018. Content analysis was used to analyze the four collections. It was verified that the language present in the textbooks still presents a heteronormative pattern, not addressing the diversity of human sexuality, focusing mainly on sexuality as a synonym and form of reproduction. Thus, the discussion of sexuality issues within the classroom should cover more topics within the content, in order to deepen the discussion and then be able to meet the criteria for building a democratic society. It is hoped that this study will contribute to the demystification of the taboos that involve human sexuality; as well as help in the elaboration of textbooks with a more social view of the sexuality theme, with the intention of deconstructing gender prejudices and sexual orientation.