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Healthy and honest discussions about sexuality provide individuals with more fulfilling and successful romantic relationships and better sexual health outcomes. Honest understanding of sex and sexual issues can also encourage more successful negotiation of sexual consent and better public policy. Additionally, peers have consistently been among those with whom individuals are most comfortable discussing sexuality. However, little research has sought to analyze peer sexual communication. Building on a study of sexual communication in romantic partnerships, this study assesses individuals' perceived social and personal barriers to openly discussing their sex and sexuality with close friends. The study uses a survey experiment to test for differences in perceived barriers to participating in a group discussion among friends when the topic relates to sexuality versus a general topic. Barriers to communication are not found to be stronger in sexual discussions overall, but they are stronger for those with marginalized sexual identities or greater general mental distress. Discussion identifies avenues for future research and suggests alternative theoretical frames for better understanding differences across sexual orientations and identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to explore how notions of gender and sexualities influence state and voluntary agencies' understanding of men as victims of rape. It aims to examine the roles of gender, sexualities, and hate crime in male rape discourse, particularly examining the concept of male rape as a form of hate crime. I draw on data that consist of police officers, male rape counsellors, therapists, and voluntary agency caseworkers (N = 70) to explore male rape fuelled by hatred in the North, South and West of England. I used 25 semi-structured interviews and 45 qualitative questionnaires to collate the data. I ensured that those who were interviewed did not also fill out a questionnaire. The findings suggest that there is a link between male rape and hate crime, in that gay men or men presumed to be gay are positioned as feminine and subordinate through the act of rape. The findings suggest that the study of hate crime ought to be expanded to include male rape victims because my research suggests that, in some cases, hatred might be involved during an incident of rape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines multimodal, nonverbal communication on birth control, teenage pregnancy and abortion among a number of female students who expressed themselves through anonymous writings on toilet doors of their educational institution in Malta. Their diverse perspectives on these themes were also related to contraception and sexually acquired infections and how these compromise sexual pleasure in heteronormative relations. Data is comprised of digital photographs of toilet graffiti. The study draws on discourse analysis to understand girls' thinking about safe sex and surrounding issues according to the discursive formations present in their writings. This approach affirms that written texts are ascribed meanings according to social and cultural contexts in which they occur. Their debates on how lack of contraceptive use might materialize the pregnant and/or the infected body are culturally mediated through a number of discourses surrounding safe sex. The study demonstrates that the girls' articulations affirm the complexities surrounding their described heterosexual relationships in relation to the un/condomised bodies of the other. Condom-less sex and glow-in-the-dark condoms use are considered two liminal states that between them hold a discursive continuum on issues about sexual pleasure. By debating safe sex students could move across this continuum; not necessarily in a linear way but backwards and forwards according to culturally prescribed dictates on safe sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual desire is often assumed to be natural and universally experienced by all adult human beings. The lived experiences of asexual individuals, however, are beginning to challenge this assumption. The purpose of this research is to gain a better understanding of asexual experience and identity. This study employed life story interviews with ten self-identified asexual individuals. Results show that asexuality is far more complicated than just a lack of sexual attraction. Respondents in this study arrived at an asexual identity after a discovery process, one that involved research on various sexualities. Participants report discovering an identity that "fit" through research on digital mediums, with Reddit being particularly influential. Several respondents reported trouble with their gender identity, particularly the set of sexual expectations that were hitched to their respective gender expressions. Many respondents noted that they were often assumed to be homosexual. Several participants described their "coming out" process as very similarly aligned with homosexual disclosure. Most respondents first had sexual encounters before realizing their asexual orientation. All respondents experienced relationships, community, connection and romance on their own terms, in unique and creative ways. This group of participants were by no means isolated. Indeed, all interviewees reported involvement in strong communities and many respondents experienced support from others. That said, several respondents did endure resistance, denial and pathologizing reactions from other people, including family members. The insights from this study challenge the normative ways we imagine sexuality, romance and attraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social research has been building an increasingly powerful challenge to the public health framing of HIV serodiscordance as pertaining only to sexual transmission risk within couple relationships. Aligned with this critique, our qualitative research with couples of mixed HIV status in New South Wales, Australia, revealed that serodiscordance held relational and cultural meanings which extended beyond the couple domain, encompassing a range of other relationships and issues, particularly those pertaining to families. A deductive thematic analysis of the data on families within these interviews revealed two major themes, disclosing serodiscordance to extended family members, and pursuing serodiscordant parenthood, which presented different challenges for same-sex and opposite-sex couples. We conclude that, despite incredible advances in the medical management of HIV, there continue to be diverse implications of serodiscordance within both intimate and extended family relationships. Understanding the implications of disclosing serodiscordance beyond the couple relationship, and recognising the complex intersections between the public and private dimensions of serodiscordance, offer promising ways forward in supporting families affected by HIV in settings which are culturally comparable to Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As women age, their sexual desirability is likely to diverge from what is presented as most coveted in American society: youthful, slim but curvy, firm, and fit. Media rarely feature actresses over the age of 50 as leading characters and when they do, they are usually relegated to caretaker or partner roles and they usually conform to gender traditional stereotypes. However, more recently, there have been a few television programs that focus specifically on older women’s sexualities and feature plotlines that center on their desire and desirability. The premise of the program Hot in Cleveland is that desirability is in the eye of the beholder. Using a comedic format, the show highlights the tensions between media and celebrity fueled standards for desirability and “real life” desirability. In this paper, based on a close analysis of five seasons of Hot in Cleveland, we explore these competing messages about midlife and older women’s appearance and sexualities and the way comic framing both challenges and reinforces dominant narratives of aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this investigation is to examine male and female students' perceived believability of various rape disclosures, manipulated by the relationship (e.g., best friend, neighborhood woman) between the discloser and recipient as well as by various demographic characteristics of the discloser (e.g., gender, race, age). Data were collected online from 777 college students at a large southwestern university, of which 60 students did not report their gender. Of those participants who did report their gender, 342 are men and 375 are women. The average age of the sample is 22.23 years old ( SD = 5.53). Results indicate that men and women do not differ in terms of reported believability of a discloser's false rape disclosure to serve an ulterior motive of getting revenge on a man or falsifying a rape due to pregnancy. However, an examination of male and female students' reports of discloser believability when examining various relational and demographic factors (i.e., best friend, neighborhood woman, young boy, Indian woman, white woman, black woman), indicate that women and men significantly differ in that women are more inclined to believe the discloser of the rape than men. Within gender differences also exist in terms of believability. Discussion and future directions follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]