Sexual Subjectivity Research Articles

‘Facefuck Me’: exploring crip porn

ABSTRACT In this article, I examine the 2019 Himeros.tv porn scene ‘Facefuck Me’ to consider the meanings and representations that congeal around disability, sex, and pornography. This scene depicts well-known porn star Pierce Paris face-fucking Kenneth Connin, a young gay man with quadriplegia. I am interested in the pedagogical functions that porn serves for non-normative sexual practices and subjectivities, and rather than interpret this scene in a passive and reductive sense, I suggest that there are several aspects that connote its transgressive and crip potential. Examining crip representation, crip sexual agency, and crip sexual mobility, I make the case that we need to see more disability pornography. This does not adhere to a non-crip ‘add-and-stir’ inclusion and normalization agenda, but more to exposing disability in multiple ways such that multiple, and hopefully efficacious, interpretations emerge. My interest is in broadening the meanings of sexuality and sexual practices, and of foregrounding the sexual subjectivities of disabled people that are otherwise negated. Pornography, I contend, provides the perfect platform for this sort of endeavour.

“If we can show that we are helping adolescents to understand themselves, their feelings and their needs, then we are doing [a] valuable job”: counselling young people on sexual health in the Brook Advisory Centre (1965–1985)

First opened in 1964 in London, the Brook Advisory Centres (BAC) were the first centres to provide contraceptive advice and sexual counselling to unmarried people in postwar Britain. Drawing on...

The Politics of Affirmative Consent: Considerations from a Gender and Sexuality Studies Perspective

AbstractWhile "no means no" considers sex as consensual until someone says no, "yes means yes" defines sex only then as consensual when all parties have explicitly agreed. Consent is thus positively determined by the presence of a yes and no longer negatively determined by the absence of a no. "Yes means yes" thus not only sets the limit as to when sex becomes sexual violence, it also tells us how morally "correct" sex should look like. In the first part I will give an insight into debates about affirmative consent in the US and Germany. In the following, I will work out how affirmative consent misjudges the subjectifying functioning of sexual power relations. I will show that the understanding of affirmative consent is based on a gendered giver-receiver grammar of consent, which stabilizes heteronormative notions of female sexuality as passive and male sexuality as active. Based on the results of conversational analytical studies on sexual communication, I will argue that the politics of affirmative consent underestimates the internalization of heteronormative discourses in sexual subjects.

Where’s the tech in sex research? A brief critique and call for research

Internet and data-based technologies are ubiquitous in most societies around the world. People use online technologies (i.e., devices, software, platforms, applications, etc., that connect to the Internet through wired or wireless means) in almost all aspects of their daily lives, including sexuality. Yet, researchers have been slow to integrate online technologies in sexuality studies. The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the opportunities and challenges associated with integrating research about online technology with research about human sexuality. We argue that researchers focused on (almost) all topics of human sexuality would benefit from considering online technologies in their studies. We describe how people’s online and in-person experiences do not exist in separate vacuums; rather, they influence and are influenced by one another in an ongoing and dynamic fashion. We propose three ways that sexuality researchers can integrate technology and technology-informed research in their future studies that address some of the opportunities and challenges: adding variables and constructs, using technology-focused theories, and collaboration.

Young people’s perceptions of young women’s engagement in sexting

Young women are increasingly engaging with digital sexual media, yet discussion of female desire remains absent or is vilified. This paper examines young women’s online sexual expression, as seen through the eyes of both young men and young women. Based on small friendship group interviews conducted with 106 12-16-year-old young women and men in Aotearoa New Zealand, I analysed perceptions of young women’s sexual expression. Framed through patriarchal ideals and underpinned by competitive masculinity, young women’s sexuality and opportunities for sexual expression were policed and regulated. Young women were expected to be passive yet digitally heterosexy, but not slutty. Perceptions of young women’s sexual expression continue to be framed within silencing and absent pleasure discourses, which ultimately compromises both young men and women’s development of sexual subjectivities.

The “End” of Orgasm: The Erotics of Durational Pleasures

ABSTRACT This essay examines how capitalism and colonialism collude to produce a high value on the “end” of the erotic—the orgasm—and rather proposes an end to the hierarchical valuing of orgasmic pleasure. Through an analysis of film, literature, and the pleasures in their consumption, this essay makes the case for asexual pleasures that resist the telos of erotic settler time, moving into a queer, sovereign erotic temporality. In other words, how might we think differently about intimacies and reimagine the durations of pleasure when we interrogate the colonial construction of the normative sexual subject and imperatives toward sexual coupling? By exploring the possibilities of various nonsexual pleasures, we can question how and which bodies are constructed as healthy, desirable, and desiring subjects according to normative constructions of race, ability, age, and orgasmic potential, while also creating different modes of relationality and intimacy with the self and others.

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This article investigates sex work among Black transgender women in Chicago’s ballroom scene, drawing on ethnographic data to argue that Black transwomen engage in sex work as a practice of self-investment undergirded by an epistemological shift regarding the centrality of affective labor to their work. In so doing, interlocutors reap the benefits of deploying embodied knowledge—the harnessing and transformation of insight derived from lived experiences of racial, gender, and sexual subjection into useful strategies, tactics, and tools—to secure material and human resources necessary for survival. A focus on how Black transwomen live, despite continued physical, spiritual, socioeconomic, political, and cultural annihilation, remains critically important given the myriad indicators (low average life expectancy, low annual income, disproportionally high murder rate, etc.) that expose the world’s indifference to the plight of this community and Black bodies writ large. Further, the author places interlocutors in conversation with Black feminist historians’ and theorists’ discussions of sex work among Black women to expose points of convergence between Black cis- and transgender women. The author also complicates narratives that link sex work to “survival” and subsequently obfuscate explorations of limited and situated agency among Black women that have significant historical precedent.

Zoom-ing in on White Supremacy

Zoom-ing in on White Supremacy

The Silent Victim: Rape and Sexuality in Giacinta and ‘Tortura’ by Luigi Capuana

ABSTRACT This article explores how Luigi Capuana addresses the theme of rape and female sexuality in his first novel, Giacinta, and the short story ‘Tortura’. It investigates how the author engages with post-traumatic effects, female agency and subjectivity through the depiction of female acts of resistance. Through a reading of treatises on nineteenth-century sexuality and sociological studies on the topic, it offers a more nuanced understanding of how Capuana represents the drama of sexual violence. It is argued that Capuana’s scientific interests and verista aesthetic principles constitute a driving force for interrogating the ills of a static, male-dominated society and that his scientific gaze on the female ‘other’ does more than represent her as a disruptive force. The article shows that his exploration of sexuality reveals signs of rupture in the normative conception of gender roles where sexual violence and subjection are condoned and normalised by a masculine scientific discourse.

An Intertextual Reading of William Faulkner’s “Victory”

An Intertextual Reading of William Faulkner’s “Victory”

The queer aesthetics of la PrEP: iconography, the pharmacopornographic regime, and (safe) sex in the French neoliberal marketplace

This article offers an analysis of an array of French pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) campaigns through the pharmacopornographic framework established in the works of transfeminist philosopher Paul Preciado. Throughout, I argue that the material and discursive presentation of PrEP in these campaigns, part of a more expansive injection of biomedical protocols into the global marketplace, invites us to (re)consider binary conceptualizations of queer and non-queer subjectivities, normal and pathological sexual subjectivities, and good and bad sexual citizenship often through biomedical and neoliberal perspectives. Additionally, I propose the critical concept, biotechsex, to describe the biotech circuit that simultaneously subjectifies users and non-users of biotechnologies, like the PrEP option, and circumscribes them within a dynamic network of socio-political discourses concerning morality, ethics, pathology, and desire, a circuit formed and informed by the more specific French ideologies of universalism and communitarianism.

ENCUADRE PSICOANALÍTICO: ENTRE EL CATECISMO Y EL VALE TODO, ALGO DIFERENTE ES POSIBLE

The frame, as a set of established rules so that the psychoanalytic process can take place, has been debated for a long time. For those who adhere to the idea that nothing has changed either in patients or in society, everything must remain as it was said, atthe risk of not being considered psychoanalytic. For those who follow a tradition of questioning, reviewing and re-elaborating psychoanalytic theories, the changes in the frame have been unavoidable, taking into account the problems of today’s people, theirways of suffering and the visibility of phenomena such as violence in its many forms.From the theoretical perspective of psychoanalysis and its articulation with gender studies, I describe my motivation to depart from some psychoanalytic theoretical postulates, saturated with sexist, heteronormative conceptions and blind to the evidenceof the effect that unequal power relations between genders have constructed, which has affected sexual subjectivities. For this reason, I propose to review and question traditional frames, in order to understand and sustain clinical situations that in somecases exceed the limits of conventional treatments due to their severity or risk.

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

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

Post-Slavery Negotiations? On (Slave) Narrative and Impossible Stories in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

The article examines Toni Morrison’s historical novel A Mercy for the ways in which it interrogates the intricate connections between slavery, self-making, private property, and narrative. The rich pool of critical readings of A Mercy often situates itself within an environment of 21st- century ‘post-racial’ discourse, not least since it was published one week after Barack Obama was elected as President of the USA in 2008. The article pushes against such readings by means of an examination of the character of the enslaved mother minha mãe. By showing how this character revisits the African American slave narrative tradition, and by reading the minha mãe in line with the groundbreaking work of Black feminist scholars on the entanglements between slavery, property, and reproduction, my close reading of the minha mãe text establishes Atlantic slavery’s sexual economies as the novel’s explicit frame of reference and signification. My reading of A Mercy is also an attempt at positioning the novel within a broader critical context of recent Black Studies theorizing, in which questions concerning narrative’s ability to account for the social death of the enslaved on a deeper level have taken centre stage. My reading situates itself within African American studies, Black feminist thinking, and Early American studies.First, I situate the minha mãe and her textual fragment in A Mercy against the novel’s critical reception and the prominent tendency to read this character only in tandem with the novel’s other characters—and not as a character that needs to be examined in its own right.Second, I juxtapose the minha mãe fragment with the tradition of the women-authored African American slave narratives. I suggest that the textual fragment of the minha mãe invokes and allegorizes the slave narratives authored by Mary Prince and Harriet Jacobs, creating intertextual moments with them. In their respective narratives, Prince and Jacob follow the literary conventions of the slave narrative as a genre in that they more or less implicitly draw attention not only to the sexual subjection by their master but also to how the regimes of property ruptured recognized kinship relations for the enslaved. The character of the minha mãe takes up these concerns raised by Prince’s and Jacobs’ narratives and brings them to the novel’s fictional representation of colonial Virginia.Third, the article expands on this argument by suggesting that the fragment of the minha mãe, while relying on particular features of the slave narrative tradition, in fact also challenges the generic structure of these narratives, which are strongly invested in an ethos of liberation. Unlike the protagonists of the above mentioned women-authored slave narratives, the minha mãe does not gain freedom at the end of her text. Her fragment, as I suggest, therefore needs to be read as a challenge to the slave narrative script and its narrative gestures to liberation.In conclusion, the article enters its close reading of the minha mãe into conversation with recent Black Studies theoretical trajectories stressing the varied ways in which the ‘afterlife’ (Hartman) of New World slavery continues to structure Black existence in the U.S., and their inquiry into whether narrative can account for the enslaved. Finally, I suggest that A Mercy takes up these theoretical concerns with the minha mãe and argue that her textual fragment in the novel amplifies them through its non-resolution.

New Trends in the Modern Sex Industry and Its Criminological Risks

The paper presents an original analysis of the state of the modern sex industry as the largest shadow segment of the Russian economy. The relevance of the study consists in identifying and describing new criminal marketing schemes to maintain the demand for sexual services, which, among other things, contribute to an increase in the rates of sexual exploitation and serious crimes against the individual. The subject of this research is the sex industry as a social phenomenon; its purpose is to describe new trends in its functioning. Based on foreign and Russian criminological sources, the author developed the sex industry concept, identified its structure, and classified the forms of sexual activity and subjects. The novelty of the study is determined by the fact that for the first time the author gives a criminological characteristic of new directions in the development of the sex industry as an economically significant segment of the shadow market. In this regard, criminological risks of deviant sexual behavior are predicted, the development of which can lead to an outbreak of latent criminal violence, fraudulent activities, etc. Based on predictive estimates, in order to reduce the consequences of the massive use of Internet platforms that facilitate virtual transactions for the sale of virginity, sexual services and child pornography, their creators and administrators should be brought to administrative responsibility. In practical terms, the results of the study include proposals on criminal law criteria for distinguishing between these offenses and the argumentation of qualification decisions.

Stories Told Together: Male Narratives of Non-Monogamous Bi+ and Heterosexual Men

The stories we tell about our identities and sexual orientations shape how we perform gendered scripts and negotiate relationships with significant others. Previous literature inquired the styles and outcomes of consensual non-monogamous (CNM) relationships, but more research is need on how CNM men resist or abide to hegemonic models of masculinity. To understand how constructions of masculinity and conceptualizations of sexual orientation are embedded in CNMs, the study analysed the stories of non-monogamous Bi+ and heterosexual men. Following a critical narrative approach, the study inquired the diverse conceptualizations of masculinity, sexual orientation and relationship practices in the narratives of 20 non-monogamous Bi+ and heterosexual identified men. The semi-structured in-depth narrative interviews (105 min on average) were analyzed via Nvivo 12 and explored their stories of desire and the sense-making process of being sexually oriented to one or more genders and to one or more partner/s. Engaging in non-monogamy was signified as a relevant insight from their personal stories and/or from adopting new concepts of desire beyond the “love as a zero-sum game.” The latter theme was also shared by many heterosexual participants that, when negotiating a non-monogamous agreement, signified their attractions to more than one person as part of their personal identity. Finally, the paper discusses how non-monogamous spaces can offer a positive and safe space for bisexuals/Bi+ people to explore and reaffirm their identities, constantly challenged by biphobia, invisibility, and erasure. Experiences and stories of Italian cisgender Bi+ and heterosexual men cannot be generalized to the whole spectrum of masculinities within CNM spaces, and the study lacks how other gendered and sexual subjectivities construct masculinity. Diverse stories and construction of sexuality and gender can lead to similar relationship preferences and understanding how we signify them can greatly improve our understanding of intimacies.

From dansō to genderless: mediating queer styles and androgynous bodies in Japan

ABSTRACT This article explores the mediation of androgynous bodies and styles in contemporary Japan by mapping the relationship between dansō (female-to-male crossdressing) and genderless (jendāresu). Dansō refers to gender-crossing practices usually by individuals who are assigned female at birth, whereas genderless is a mode of fashion emerging in 2010 which theoretically denotes styles that do not distinguish between genders. Drawing on media coverage of dansō individuals and genderless joshi (girls) in the 2010s, supplemented by ethnographic research conducted in a Tokyo dansō cafe-and-bar, I argue that these individuals embraced genderbending practices before being named as “doing” dansō or genderless. Through their distinct but related androgynous practices, they construct alternative identities and ways of being and retrospectively become interpellated as “dansō” and “genderless.” Further, I suggest that dansō and genderless not only allow us to rethink the gender binary, particularly in queer studies and transgender studies in a transnational context, but also the connections between style and gender and sexual subjectivities. Placing dansō and genderless on a spectrum instead of considering the two as separate phenomena opens up new conversations about androgynous bodies at the intersections of queer studies, fashion studies, and cultural studies in Asia.

Sleep, dreams, nightmares, and sex-related differences: a narrative review.

The aim of this study was to review the available findings on sex-related differences for sleep disorders, dreams and nightmares. We explored the PubMed, EMBASE and Google Scholar electronic databases, with regards to the searching terms 'sleep', 'dreams', and 'nightmares' associated with 'sex' and/or 'gender'. Moreover, other supplementary terms for the searching strategy were 'chronobiology', and 'circadian rhythm'. Due to the relative paucity of studies including separate analysis by sex, and especially to their wide heterogeneity, we decided to proceed with a narrative review, highlighting the sex-related findings of each topic into apposite boxes. On one hand, sleep disorders seem to be more frequent in women. On the other hand, sex-related differences exist for either dreams or nightmares. As for the former, differences make reference to dream content (men: physical aggression, women family themes), self-reported perspective (men dream in third person, women in first person), dream sharing (more frequent in women), lucid dreaming (women more realistic, men more controlled), and daydreaming (young men more frequently have sexual themes). Nightmares are more frequent in women too, and they are often associated with sleep disorders and even with psychiatric disorders, such as depression and/or anxiety. In women, a strong association has been shown between nightmares and evening circadian preference. For many years, and for many reasons, laboratory experiments have been conducted mainly, if not exclusively, on male animals. Thus, a novel effort towards a new governance of scientific and research activities with a gender-specific perspective has been claimed for all areas of medicine, and more research on sex-differences is strongly needed also on this topic.

Sexual function assessment in men with PTSD

IntroductionExposure to extreme traumatic events can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This disorder affects emotional, social and professional functioning. Recent studies suggest that it can lead to sexual dysfunction.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to compare the level of sexual dysfunction between men with PTSD and control subjects.MethodsA total of 30 male PTSD patients and 30 controls were included in this study. We used the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Check Scale (PCLS) to assess the intensity of PTSD symptoms and the International Erectile Function Index (IIEF15) to assess sexual dysfunction of both patients and controls.ResultsThe mean IIEF-15 score was 51.16 ± 6.82 in patients followed for PTSD versus 77.33 ± 2.02 in healthy controls with a non-significant difference (p = 0.26). Three patients (10%) had an alteration of desire while the control reported only dysfunction but there was no significant difference between the mean scores of IIEF-SD (p = 0.22). No patient or control had erectile dysfunction and there was no significant difference between the IIEF-EF sub-scores in the 2 groups (p = 0.20). The mean sexual intercourse satisfaction (SD) score in the patients was 5.13 ± 1.10 versus 8.86 ± 0.40 with a non-significant difference (p = 0.09). Altered satisfaction with intercourse was noted in 15% (n = 5) of subjects with PTSD versus a single control.ConclusionsIt is important that practitioners address the subject of sexuality in patients followed for PTSD and refer their patients, if necessary, to a sexology consultation.

92. Association Between Religiosity, Erotophobia and Sexual Subjectivity in Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Background From a young age, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) are taught the importance of gender roles, traditional families, sexual purity and are frequently exposed to public consequences of sexual misconduct. We hypothesize that sexual development in this educational environment leads to high levels of erotophobia (inclination to avoid sexual stimuli) and low levels of sexual subjectivity (SS, seeing oneself as a sexual being and the subject, rather than object, of desire) in emerging adults. We aim to describe the relationship between religiosity, erotophobia and SS in LDS members. Methods Members of the LDS church aged 18-50 were recruited on electronic platforms for an anonymous, IRB-approved survey. Co-primary outcomes were scores on the Sexual Subjectivity Inventory (SSI) and the Sexual Opinion Survey (SOS), which measures erotophobia. The main exposure was strong religiosity, as defined by scoring at or above the median on both the Dimensions of Religiosity scale and the Religious Cultural Affiliation scale. We used bivariate analyses to assess differences in demographic and sexual experiences by religiosity. Separate multivariate linear regression was used for the relationship between religiosity and SS. Results 1229 individuals met inclusion criteria; 459 (37.4%) were classified as strongly religious. Table 1 provides demographic characteristics and sexual experiences by religiosity. Table 2 shows the results of the regression models for SSI and SOS outcomes. Lower SOS scores signify higher erotophobia. Strong religiosity was associated with a statistically significant reduction in SSI and SOS scores (-0.1 and -10 points, respectively) after adjusting for covariates. Non-heterosexuality is associated with a 16-point increase in SOS scores (16.8; 95% CI 12.6 - 21.0), and cis-male gender is associated with a 7-point increase in SOS scores (7.7; 95% CI: 4.6,10.9). Conclusions Strong religiosity amongst members of the LDS church is associated with decreased SS and higher erotophobia. Of note, lower religiosity in non-heterosexual respondents may be a strategy to reconcile their ongoing membership in a church with strong rhetoric against homosexuality. Our findings are relevant to adolescent health because erotophobia has been associated with sexual dysfunction, contraceptive selection and lower healthcare utilization. Furthermore, SS is essential for healthy sexual development and associated with overall well-being amongst adolescents. Strengths of this hypothesis-generating study include large sample size and use of standardized instruments. These conclusions can direct future studies evaluating the impact of specific religious rhetoric on sexual development and education. From a young age, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) are taught the importance of gender roles, traditional families, sexual purity and are frequently exposed to public consequences of sexual misconduct. We hypothesize that sexual development in this educational environment leads to high levels of erotophobia (inclination to avoid sexual stimuli) and low levels of sexual subjectivity (SS, seeing oneself as a sexual being and the subject, rather than object, of desire) in emerging adults. We aim to describe the relationship between religiosity, erotophobia and SS in LDS members. Members of the LDS church aged 18-50 were recruited on electronic platforms for an anonymous, IRB-approved survey. Co-primary outcomes were scores on the Sexual Subjectivity Inventory (SSI) and the Sexual Opinion Survey (SOS), which measures erotophobia. The main exposure was strong religiosity, as defined by scoring at or above the median on both the Dimensions of Religiosity scale and the Religious Cultural Affiliation scale. We used bivariate analyses to assess differences in demographic and sexual experiences by religiosity. Separate multivariate linear regression was used for the relationship between religiosity and SS. 1229 individuals met inclusion criteria; 459 (37.4%) were classified as strongly religious. Table 1 provides demographic characteristics and sexual experiences by religiosity. Table 2 shows the results of the regression models for SSI and SOS outcomes. Lower SOS scores signify higher erotophobia. Strong religiosity was associated with a statistically significant reduction in SSI and SOS scores (-0.1 and -10 points, respectively) after adjusting for covariates. Non-heterosexuality is associated with a 16-point increase in SOS scores (16.8; 95% CI 12.6 - 21.0), and cis-male gender is associated with a 7-point increase in SOS scores (7.7; 95% CI: 4.6,10.9). Strong religiosity amongst members of the LDS church is associated with decreased SS and higher erotophobia. Of note, lower religiosity in non-heterosexual respondents may be a strategy to reconcile their ongoing membership in a church with strong rhetoric against homosexuality. Our findings are relevant to adolescent health because erotophobia has been associated with sexual dysfunction, contraceptive selection and lower healthcare utilization. Furthermore, SS is essential for healthy sexual development and associated with overall well-being amongst adolescents. Strengths of this hypothesis-generating study include large sample size and use of standardized instruments. These conclusions can direct future studies evaluating the impact of specific religious rhetoric on sexual development and education.