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Despite flourishing gender studies over the last decades, gender equality continues to reflect imbalance, with the dominance of gender binary thinking, lacking an emphasis on a more fluid approach where children themselves are active participants. The aim of this study was to explore young children's perceptions of gender roles and sexuality. The research applied a poststructural feminist theoretical framework as well as a research method inspired by the story completion method and the mosaic approach. The children's views were underpinned by heteronormativity, but they occasionally diverged from that framework to refer to non-heteronormative families and characters. We argue that our findings demonstrate the considerable impact of heteronormativity on gender relations in preschools and the need to take that influence into account when creating a gender-sensitive pedagogy. Valuing children's agency, supporting children's power by listening to their perspectives might be the way forward, towards finding balance to promote gender equality in preschools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, feminist activism and the MeToo movement have placed a spotlight on male privilege in sexuality and raised awareness of the high prevalence of sexual violence. Within this context, men are increasingly expected to respect women's consent in their heterosexual encounters. This study employs in-depth interviews with thirty-nine educated and economically privileged heterosexual men to examine which types of men adopt egalitarian sexual norms and how and why they do so. The findings reveal that progressive men who are shy and socially awkward employ narratives of sexual consent to legitimize their traditionally disparaged sexual behaviors, such as the wait-and-see attitudes and verbal communication strategies that do not align with traditional expectations of manhood. In doing so, they construct an image of themselves as "safe guys" who do not perpetuate sexual violence. This not only enhances their sex appeal to women but also increases their influence within their peer groups. Through the use of sexual consent narratives, shy and socially awkward men who previously embodied subordinate masculinities transition to hybrid masculinities and thus gain greater access to social resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesbian, bisexual, and queer (LBQ) women experience disproportionately high rates of unwanted sex, including sexual assault. The literature has noted LBQ women's elevated risk for sexual victimization compared to heterosexual women, but little research has compared LBQ women's processing of sexual violations to those of heterosexual women. To address this gap, this article examines accounts of unwanted sex among 20 LBQ and 38 heterosexual college women (57 cisgender; 1 transwoman). We use both studies of embodiment and queer theory to understand socially patterned differences between LBQ and heterosexual women's accounts of unwanted sex. Our findings indicate that heterosexual women's multiple experiences with men (violent and not) often lead to explanations of sexual violations focused on men's individual characteristics, for example, certain men are better/worse than others. In contrast, LBQ women's experiences with women/non-binary partners produce a broader critique of heterosexuality. We find suggestive evidence that this difference helps LBQ women move away from self-blame toward a position of naming injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do the so-called wars on terror impact queer lives and politics? This article addresses this question by exploring the racialized gender and sexual politics of Turkey's own brand of war on terror and its ramifications for LGBTQI+ lives. Building on long-term ethnographic fieldwork with the disabled veterans of Turkey's Kurdish war and public culture analysis, I reveal how the political construction of Kurdish militants as queer figures goes hand in hand with state terrorization of LGBTQI+ people in contemporary Turkey. I anchor my analysis in a novel counterinsurgency trope—"terrorists in skirts"—a trope popularized by the state-controlled media for psychological warfare purposes. I argue that the voyeuristic media fascination with cross-dressing militants is both symptomatic and constructive of an Islamist-nationalist authoritarian regime where terrorism and gender and sexual nonnormativity are violently conflated in state discourse and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual minorities are a rapidly growing population, with recent estimates showing a two-fold increase in the percentage of sexual minorities over the past decade. Working with relatively few measures to identify sexual minorities, social scientists have amassed an impressive amount of evidence on inequality by sexuality. Despite this remarkable work, I argue that it is important to take a step back analytically and re-assess sexual minorities from a descriptive standpoint. Using population-level data from the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, I provide unadjusted estimates of sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and family characteristics by sexual identity. Results reveal that sexual minorities are younger, are more racially diverse, and concentrate in different parts of the country than heterosexuals. Similarly, sexual minorities have remarkably different socioeconomic lives than heterosexuals, who enjoy higher annual household incomes, achieve higher educational attainment, and are more likely to be homeowners. Sexual minorities are also less likely to be married than heterosexuals. I conclude by highlighting that descriptive research can illuminate compositional differences between sexual minorities and heterosexuals; provide rationales for adjusting for certain characteristics that might confound relationships between sexual identity and numerous outcomes; and highlight potential explanatory mechanisms to make better sense of well-established findings regarding sexual minority disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexuality education is important for children's well-being, peer relationships and safety, yet pre-teenagers and their diverse experiences have remained largely overlooked within the field. In Finland, the national curriculum obliges schools to prevent sexual harassment and homo- and transphobic violence, to provide knowledge on gender diversity, and to support children and youth in developing their sexuality and gender identities. However, there are severe deficiencies in sexuality education that reinforce heteronormativity and leave pre-teenage children to cope with the pressures of normative cultures on their own. Drawing on our creative praxis with Northern-Finnish pre-teenage schoolchildren aged 10–13 years, we explore the ways in which pre-teenagers' knowledge of age, sexuality and gender, including their diversity, are negotiated and how pre-teenagers disseminate this knowledge to their peers. We also analyse pre-teenagers' political expression with respect to non-normative genders and sexualities via our arts-based Friendship Workshops. Based on our analysis, we discuss ways in which to develop sexuality education that takes into account pre-teenage children, their diversity, and their safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a critical overview of neoliberalism scholarship from a queer sociological perspective. Despite mainstream neoliberalism scholarship neglecting sexuality as a system of intersecting power relations, sociologists of sexualities have explored how neoliberalism reshapes the state, market, society, and subjectivity concerning sex, intimacy, and sexual politics. Highlighting the intersection of the sociology of sexualities with transnational feminist and queer studies, as well as critical race studies, I advocate for a refined understanding of sexuality as integral to neoliberalism's operations with empire, colonialism, and racial capitalism. I suggest areas for future research to further develop this understanding, including the emphasis on the variegated nature of neoliberalism, its ambivalence and contradictions, and its promiscuous convergence with other political, social, and cultural formations. This article ultimately calls for a queer political economic analysis in the continued engagement with neoliberalism and its interactions with sexuality politics to understand new global challenges and social transformations, including shifting geopolitics, digital and platform economies, and climate and reproductive crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The #MeToo movement became an important historical moment around the globe, illuminating the pervasive spectrum of sexual harm. This, however, did not exist without significant backlash, backlash which became one of the defining features of our study with men. We individually interviewed 31 single, heterosexual men about their experiences and understandings of contemporary masculinity, singleness and heterosexuality. During this process, participants talked significantly about the #MeToo movement and women's accounts of sexual violence, with a focus on the implications this might have for men and dating. Using a critical discursive approach, our analysis of men's talk was patterned by three interpretive repertoires: I just don't understand...; You can't do anything anymore!; and She's really only got herself to blame... Our analysis suggests that while #MeToo has succeeded in starting a conversation about sexual violence, work still needs to be done in interrupting traditional victim-blaming discourses, as exemplified though our data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the proliferation of antifeminist and anti-LGBTIQ+ discourses among teenagers in Barcelona (Catalonia) and the role of media and the manosphere – online communities and spaces where discussions about masculinity, anti-feminism, gender relations and men's issues take place – on the pollination of these discourses. Through short-term ethnography conducted in three education centres, involving the collaboration of 59 teenagers between 14 and 18 years old, the study researches the discourses that young people embrace, what mediatised environments are referring to when they speak about gender, feminism and LGBTIQ+ topics, and the meaning young people give to these media content. Findings reveal the manosphere facilitates young people's access to masculinist cultures and point to the urge of addressing the affective dimension of it. To conclude, it highlights the need to challenge these informal learning spaces within contemporary youth culture to promote gender equality and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to discuss the cognitive effects and symptoms (physical and emotional) presented by victims of harassment and abuse within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In order to do so, we analyze how these cases are evidenced and originated within the HEIs in the city of Ponta Grossa, Paraná. Testimonies from academics of both genders were collected. Data were collected through an online questionnaire composed of descriptive and objective questions, which were investigated through content analysis. We evidenced that cases of harassment and abuse directly impact the academic experience of victims, resulting in several symptoms related to each other, the most common being insecurity and anxiety. Such symptoms are also reflected in physical pain and can even lead to suicidal ideation. In this sense, we affirm the need to promote discussions on the subject, as well as the elaboration of public policies aimed at the mental health of students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an open proposal on how to include questions that capture different gender identities and sexual orientations in quantitative research. Our theoretical framework is feminist theory and the evolution of feminist debates on identity categories, where the introduction of an intersectional gender perspective has been an important paradigm shift. We have compiled different previous categorization proposals and consider the consequences of not including categories that reflect identity diversity in surveys in order to finally offer our proposal for operationalizing identities. The proposal aims to ensure comparability in longitudinal studies and, at the same time, to incorporate new identity frameworks and an intersectional perspective in quantitative methodology research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies on the experiences of gay Asian men demonstrate that members of these groups experience both subtle and blatant forms of racism within lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) communities. This study expands on previous research by examining how gay Vietnamese American men experience racism within the gay community of Southern California, how racism affects members of this group mentally and emotionally, and their responses when facing racism. Based on 17 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with self-identified gay Vietnamese American men living in Southern California, this study found that they experienced racism similarly to other gay Asian men. Race and racism shape the everyday experiences of gay Vietnamese American men through the racial paradox of gay desire as they are either deemed undesirable and rejected as a potential sexual and romantic interest, or they are racially fetishized. However, members of this group do not experience racism passively but actively respond through various acts of resistance and intra-racial and ethnic community-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human geographers have analyzed the co-constitutive relationship between race, gender and sexualities across different spaces and social contexts and have called for intersectional approaches in discussions of identities, power and space. This article applies an intersectional framework to the processes of sexualization, racialization and exoticization that shape the daily lives and erotic/romantic encounters experienced and narrated by participants to two different projects: gay and bisexual men from a North African background living in Belgium; Italian gay men living in England; non-White gay men living in Italy. By discussing qualitative data collected during interviews with these men, and through a continued dialogue about this data between the authors, the paper explores both the effects of these processes on the lives of participants, and the strategies they enact to navigate their social worlds. The focus is on two elements, central to participants' narratives: the specificity of the intersectional experience of encountering men who expect a specifically gendered and racialized performance based on 'roughness' and 'wildness', and the capitalization on these exoticizing and racializing images to increase one's desirability on the dating/hook-up scene and everyday social and work life. By highlighting these elements, this paper shows the importance of applying an intersectional approach to analyses of the entanglements of racialization and sexualization in order to complicate linear accounts of these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the potential of heritage spaces to interrogate sexualities in the context of emerging scholarly debates about, and professional practices of queerness and heritage. The discussion is theoretically contextualized at the intersection between heritage studies and activism, sexuality studies and queer theory. It revolves around the Dutch Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale, showcasing melanie bonajo's installation When the body says Yes, commissioned by the Mondriaan Fund. I discuss the artist's work through the lenses of post-porn, eco-sexuality, and pleasure activism as conceptual frames and postures that complement ongoing discussions on queering heritage by providing broader representations of different sexualities in terms of modes of desire and pleasure. I will also highlight how these frames incorporate an anti-capitalist lens that speaks to contemporary pressing challenges, such as isolation and exclusionary models of intimacy. bonajo's approach will emerge as providing renewed perspectives in relation to the debate surrounding identity labels and their limitations; a discussion that causes division even within LGBTQIA+ groups. I will reflect on my own interpretation of bonajo's installation to present a critical analysis of the exhibition and its potential effects. As the exhibition clearly emphasizes a focus on embodiment as learning modality, my discussion concludes by highlighting some limitations of institutional heritage spaces, as they remain normative environments in relation to the potential to explore the erotic in sensorial ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an open proposal on how to include questions that capture different gender identities and sexual orientations in quantitative research. Our theoretical framework is feminist theory and the evolution of feminist debates on identity categories, where the introduction of an intersectional gender perspective has been an important paradigm shift. We have compiled different previous categorization proposals and consider the consequences of not including categories that reflect identity diversity in surveys in order to finally offer our proposal for operationalizing identities. The proposal aims to ensure comparability in longitudinal studies and, at the same time, to incorporate new identity frameworks and an intersectional perspective in quantitative methodology research.

The research presented in this paper supports claims by feminists and queer theorists that there are numerous and diverse sex/gender/desire categories (Bem, 1995). Taken from a broader digital ethnography of digital sex markets in the United Kingdom, the findings are based on ten in-depth interviews with those who identified as men or 'gender flexible' and who buy and/or sell sex within digital markets. The participants featured in this paper used digital sex markets as a space to explore and express non-normative/subversive sexual and gender identities. Yet for many of them, these subversive acts were bounded by the market, so they were able to uphold masculine heterosexual identities outside of sex markets. The relative privacy of digital sex markets empowered them to maintain heterosexist power, reducing the social risks of stigmatisation and ostracisation associated with subversive sexual and gender identities. The thematic analysis revealed the limitations of heteronormative and homonormative labels and assumptions of sex work relations, thus, prompting the need to write this paper. Framing sex markets in narrow binary terms, as either homosexual or heterosexual markets, or research participants as customers or workers do not reflect the fluidity and diversity evident in this small yet revealing sample. The study shows multiple and fluid expressions of sex/gender/desire; and a duality in market roles as workers and/or customers amongst men engaged in digital sex markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Using data from an online survey of 211 heterosexual and 148 sexual and gender minority-identifying cyclists, this article examines the attitudes of both sexual and gender majorities towards sexual and gender minorities as well as the experiences of sexual and gender minorities in relation to each other, within the sport of cycling. The results show a culture of acceptance for LGB athletes with heightened antipathy towards transgender cyclists. However, this variance is not as large as might be expected given the media attention on transgender athletes in cycling, and sport more broadly. It therefore appears that the transgender social movement is drafting closely behind LGB inclusion within this sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of capturing and sharing one's own nudity through nude self-portraits contributes to the integration of the body, sexuality, gender, and nudity into the worldwide network of computers and other digital artifacts. In this study, the aim is to investigate the modes of operation of the curriculum of nudity in the production of relationships of sexuality and gender in cyberculture. The curriculum of nudity was researched through the netnography of three secret groups on the social network Facebook, based on the discourse analysis inspired by Michel Foucault. The argument put forth is that the curriculum of nudity produces the position of the cyborg subject and the fruit-of-being-ourselves, characterized by the practice of photographing oneself naked and sharing nudes with crushes through digital applications. In this curriculum, playful activities are activated that dissent from compulsory heterosexuality in social networks and construct safe networks for sharing nude selfies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the proposal of this dossier, this text presents an interview as a form of tribute to the memory of Professor Robson Olivino Paim. While teaching Geography at the Federal University Fronteira Sul, Campus Erechim/RS, Robson was interviewed for the doctoral thesis "Queer Geographies & Curriculum: For an 'out of the closet' geographic education" and was mercilessly murdered the following year in a homophobic hate crime. In that interview, the professor was questioned by the researcher on issues relating to gender and sexualities, and his answers, now published, invite us to reflect on Geography and its role in gender relations and sexualities, in a society that is still brutally discriminatory and unequal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older men’s sexualities have recurrently been defined as either “asexual” or “in decline.” Their sexualities, when/if represented at all, have also been associated with the “dirty old man” stereotype, which has depicted sex in old age as both unpalatable and grotesque. Delving into these (mis)representations, this article offers an overview of representations of older men’s sexual lives in contemporary Spanish cinema and TV series, which seem to reify but also challenge such stereotypes. Thus, for example, both the classic film El abuelo by José Luis Garci and the highly acclaimed animation movie Arrugas by Ignacio Ferreras, based on Paco Plaza’s graphic novel of the same title, present the older men in an old people’s home as eminently asexual, while the TV series Crematorio, based on Rafael Chirbes’ homonymous novel, focuses on the relationship between an aging (heterosexual) man and a younger woman, which thus seems to reinforce the traditional “dirty old man” stereotype. Yet Salvador Calvo’s “El trasplante,” one of the episodes of the recent remake of Chicho Ibáñez-Serrador’s well-known horror TV series Historias para no dormir, appears to turn the stereotype upside down, featuring a dystopian story of an older woman who grows increasingly apart from her suddenly rejuvenated lifelong husband. Movies such as En la ciudad sin límites, on the other hand, question rigid (hetero)sexual binaries as the dying older male protagonist, a supposedly straight husband and father, is finally revealed as bisexual, while Eloy de la Iglesia’s Los novios búlgaros depicts a middle-aged man’s attachment to a younger boy, who ends up marrying his girlfriend. Using the character of Salvador Mallo as his alter-ego, Pedro Almodóvar’s (semi-)autobiographical Pain and Glory also focuses on gay aging, redefining it as a queer” rather than linear or “straight” temporal experience (Halberstam), while one of the latest Spanish horror films, Malasaña 32, revolves around a house inhabited by a ghost whose traumatic past as a transgender person living under the Francoist regime comes back to haunt the present. Whilst exploring a number of selected films and TV series that seem to conform to conventional images of older men’s sexual lives, this article will thus include alternative film representations that also undermine such limited and limiting images, thereby redefining aging men’s sexualities on the contemporary Spanish screen as much more complex and plural than has been acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to analyze various developments in the relationship between childhoods, youth and sexualities that have appeared in public schools in the era of restriction and persecution that has characterized sex education over the course of the last decade in Brazil. To speak about childhood is to speak about bodies and as such, to speak about sexuality, and the interpersonal relationships that occur in school spaces, which are primary, essential sites of sex and gender socialization. As such, in the face of the censorship imposed on these themes in recent educational plans and policies, as well as in the National Common Curricular Base, and in the face of the systematic persecution of teachers interested in exploring these issues, our intention in this paper is to investigate the place of the body and sexuality in school settings, especially in times of neoconservatism and post-fascism. By the former, we understand those new agencies that promote and propagandize a set of reactionary values among the Brazilian population; by the latter, we mean those spheres of sociability and collective action and reaction that function in an atmosphere of moral panic, and promote an ideology saturated by both implicit and explicit violence and repression. To support our analysis, we explore three school settings whose practice of sexuality education acts to resist neoconservative and post-fascist norms. These three cases, vilified as they are in the right wing mainstream as being responsible for the destruction of the traditional heteronormative Brazilian family, should, we argue, be valued as educational practices that promote safe childhoods and positive social reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Occupational Therapy of University of São Paulo / Revista de Terapia Ocupacional da Universidade de São Paulo is the property of Revista de Terapia Ocupacional da USP and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Direito e Práxis is the property of Editora da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (EdUERJ) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The constructions of genders and sexualities in different global spaces continue to be influenced by Christian and imperial ideologies. In Africa, genders and sexualities were (mis)construed by colonial and missionary enterprises, and they continue to be defined according to Eurocentric terms and perceptions. This has produced ‘modern sexual repression’. The use of Biblical discourses to construct African genders and sexualities is one way that this repression is mirrored in South Africa. Because of this, African genders and sexualities are marginalised, treated as taboo and depicted as backward and uncivilised, thus, promoting hegemonic heteronormative and monogamous marriages. This article examined how Biblical discourses contributed to this narrative. It further advanced a call for transforming this dominant narrative by engaging theology, gender and sexuality studies and socio-political sciences from the premise of a multidisciplinary epoch. The decolonial motif, with a focus on delinking African genders and sexualities from the Western agenda of sexual repression, serves as the theoretical framework for this research. On the other hand, race, gender and sexuality serve as lenses used to better understand the phenomenon and to explore the use of biblical discourses in this context. Thus, the article makes use of a secondary research approach to carry out this task. Contribution: This article seeks to add to the body of knowledge that endeavours to change the way that biblical discourses are used in South Africa today to construct a narrative that represses non-normative genders and sexualities.

Fifty years after the coup d'état, its effects on Chilean society continue to be observed in political, economic, cultural and social aspects, but one area that has been less studied is its effect on the sexuality of Chilean society. A conservative dictatorship and a first decade of the transition to democracy with the Catholic Church as a moral compass, Chilean society seemed to confront itself through various discussions about the Body and Sex. Through the following article, four cases in which naked bodies have been exposed in public spaces or places of public access in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century will be studied in order to understand and analyze the state of sexuality of the time and build a historical account of an area of society that in the last 30 years has undergone all kinds of changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs descriptive and regression analyses of the National Sports and Society Survey (N = 3,993) to examine the patterns and implications of sexual stigma and prejudice in sports contexts by focusing on U.S. adults' reports of sports-related mistreatment and involvement. Results indicate that about 1/3 of adults perceive sports as unwelcoming to LGBT athletes and nearly 40% report experiencing sports-related mistreatment; adults who identify as a sexual minority are particularly likely to perceive sports as unwelcoming and to report personal mistreatment. They are also less likely than self-identified heterosexuals to play, spectate, and talk about sports; sports-related mistreatment and childhood sports histories do not explain these patterns. Overall, the findings suggest that more action is needed to offset the presence and influence of sexual stigma and prejudice and to provide more welcoming sports environments for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the communities of support that LGBTQ people from a Muslim background in Brussels build with other racialized LGBTQ people, and the spaces of disidentification and resistance that these produce. It does so by analysing qualitative data collected over a year of ethnographic research with LGBTQ people from a Muslim background in Brussels. In particular, the article focuses on the functions that queer de color communities serve in the lives of research participants. It shows how communication in these often takes place on a non-verbal level, in contrast to a 'pressure to explain' that marks participants' interactions in other contexts, and the sense of mutual recognition, understanding and political empowerment this communication produces. The article then discusses how the co-presence of LGBTQ people from a Muslim background and their collective resignification of cultural scripts produce counterpublic spaces that have the potential to disrupt social norms and dominant imaginations of difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines men as a minority in asexual (experiencing low/no sexual attraction) and aromantic (experiencing low/no romantic attraction) communities. First, we situate our research in existing literature on asexuality, compulsory sexuality/compulsory romance, and hegemonic masculinities. In our analysis, we use survey data from the 2020 Asexual Community Survey (n = 4974) and 2020 Aromantic Census (n = 3018) to provide evidence that asexual and aromantic men are demographic minorities within asexual and aromantic communities. Next, we turn to two interview samples with 39 individuals who identify as aromantic and 77 individuals who identify as asexual. We analyzed these interviews to explore how sexuality and romance contribute to the construction of hegemonic masculinities. Our interviews reveal several important themes that highlight how asexual and aromantic men navigate their masculinity and identity amid asexual and aromantic communities as majority‐woman spaces. We focus on three main themes: (1) masculinity as inherently sexual; (2) masculinity, heteronormativity, and the gendered construction of romance; and (3) asexual/aromantic identity, masculinity, and the split attraction model. Taken together, our results show how (hetero)sexuality and romantic relationship formation are fundamental to hegemonic masculinity. We find that asexual and aromantic men face cultural pressures and social stigma around initiating sex and performing romance. Asexual men must contend with managing a sexual identity that runs counter to men's supposedly innate sexual desire, thus situating them as inadequately masculine. Aromantic men, meanwhile, must manage inhabiting an identity that is conflated with the fuckboy/player trope, situating them as excessively masculine. This study demonstrates how centering asexual and aromantic perspectives reveals complexities in the ways hegemonic masculinity relies on participation in both sex and romance. We conclude by relating our findings to larger conversations on gender and sexualities as well as implications for future research on marginalized sexual identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this article examines how 8–9-year-old South African boys construct and negotiate heterosexual masculinities in the primary school. Situated within a racially diverse schooling context comprised of a mixed class of middle and low income Indian and Black boys, we offer insights into how race and class structures intersect with masculinities to create hierarchies of power as boys navigate the pressures of compulsory heterosexuality. Boys' investment in the male provider role and in aspiring to material shows of wealth—such as wearing expensive clothing—as key ways to engender heterosexual relationships, was also nuanced by race and class. While such practices defined boys' masculinities, failure to conform to normative masculine behaviour subjected them to homophobic teasing thus pointing to the regulatory mechanisms through which heterosexual masculinity was policed. The study contributes to the growing field of young masculinities in South Africa as we consider its local manifestations and gendered performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(NATO [14]) What is most obvious in these remarks is that like at the 2019 event, LGBTQ rights are framed as both a signifier of "NATO (family) values" and as a strategic benefit to the alliance. Keywords: Allyship; LGBT; NATO; Sexualities EN Allyship LGBT NATO Sexualities 491 496 6 08/10/23 20230901 NES 230901 Proud at NATO In June 2019, I found myself at NATO headquarters in Brussels, staring at a poster featuring a rainbow flag superimposed with silhouettes of armed forces personnel. The image below has been used, somewhat inconsistently, on Stoltenberg's Twitter account to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) over several years dating back to 2017 (Stoltenberg [13]) and on the NATO website (NATO [10]). [Extracted from the article]

The idea that children need a mother and a father to thrive is a hegemonic ideology of parenting, yet research finds that children do equally well in families with two parents of any gender. Prior research has not addressed how social location shapes parents' engagement with gender essentialist ideologies of parenting. Filling this gap, we analyze ethnographic and interview data based on the experiences of poor fathers of color and mostly white, wealthy gay fathers. This two-case study uniquely reveals how class, race, and sexuality shape fathers' relationships to parental essentialism. Fathers experience it as either a source of empowerment that valorizes them as worthy parents or a source of marginalization that denies their ability to raise healthy children. We theorize how this dual response reveals the salience and dangers of essentialist discourses in spaces where men grapple with gendered and heteronormative ideologies of masculinity, fatherhood, and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The links between home, gender and non-normative sexualities have received scant attention in academia in Chile. In this article, we analyze the discourses, practices and imaginaries concerning the home in two gay men and a lesbian woman from the commune of Peñalolén in Santiago, Chile, from a biographical and feminist perspective. Four cross-cutting dimensions are presented: 1) homemaking as a struggle for appropriation, 2) the home as a paradoxical space and negotiation with the heterosexual norm, 3) gender roles and the distribution of domestic work, and 4) the association with the extra-domestic space and local gay and lesbian imaginaries. These dimensions show that the home is a conflictive space where disputed meanings that must be understood in a dynamic, situated and intersectional way coexist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By following the path of the anthropological tradition inspired by the spirit of ethnography - and considering it the ethical and epistemological basis of Anthropology, as well as a fundamental part in the process of construction of this scientific field -, this paper aims to highlight the methods of elaboration of an anthropological perspective under the light of the Urban Studies. In this sense, both fieldwork and ethnographic text engage in a "becoming", a flow, in which networks are creatively established from dynamics of recognition and specular reflections. In spiral processes of intersubjectivities, which are found in relationships experienced in the fieldwork, a bright gaze builds bridges that are apparently insurmountable, thus blurring symbolic boundaries. In this formation of subjectivities, bodies, relationally, play a leading role -especially those outlined in the margins. Gender, bodies and sexualities intertwine in the search for understanding the expansion of the human. Therefore, the objective is to demonstrate the importance of ethnography for the consolidation of a scientific field whose ways of approaching the other, namely subjects inserted in a specific social context, reveal the apprehension and construction of knowledge open to the unexpected, unfinished and the imponderables of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Despite heightened stigmatisation of fatness in gay/bisexual/queer (GBQ) men's spaces, geographers have yet to explore the nexus of men, sexualities, and fatness. 'Bear' is a term used to describe a set of global identities, communities and bodies of GBQ men who are usually large and hairy. Spaces created and used by Bears have been described as inclusive of fat GBQ men, but no geographic research has investigated such men's experiences in themThis paper presents findings from 'Bearspace', a study of Bear spaces in the UK from 2018 to 2020. It shows that 'comfort' was how fat GBQ men framed their experiences of both Bear spaces ('comfortable') and mainstream LGBTQ spaces ('uncomfortable'), and that this meant 'standing out' or 'fitting in' amongst a majority of proximate thin or fat bodies respectively. However the paper also demonstrates that fat stigma persists in Bear spaces, and thatit is part of how Bear spaces are produced as comfortable for most fat GBQ men, through their awareness that they are not the fattest man present. The paper concludes by asserting the significance of differences between spatially proximate fat bodies for the relational conceptualisation of fatness and fat stigma, and for making fat-inclusive spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased text messaging across relationships is well-documented, but little research explores how texting style impacts initial impressions of gender/sexuality. Extended research demonstrating that some men avoid expressive forms of communication in order to appear masculine, this project explores whether expressive text messaging (frequent emoji usage and exclamation points) is likely to decrease perceptions of masculinity and/or heterosexuality among male-identified confederates. In a 2 x 2 experiment (expressiveness by confederate sex), participants texted with an unknown interaction partner and rated conversational qualities and perceived attributions about the masculinity/heterosexuality of those confederates. While participants preferred interacting with more expressive partners, there were significant impacts upon ratings of partners' gender and sexual orientations. Results have implications for men's development of interpersonal relationships with unknown others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most significant and lasting contributions of Ken Plummer to the sociology of sexuality have been his work on sexual storytelling. Best represented in Plummer's 1995 book Telling Sexual Stories: Power, Change and Social Worlds, this approach to sexuality made two key points. One is that sexual storytelling is fundamental to the formation of individual sexual identities and a process of sexual self-discovery. The second is that sexual storytelling is a key social process in a broader sexual politics and struggles for "intimate citizenship." Plummer's work has significance, however, far beyond studies a simple model of sexual identity formation. Building upon a review of the research literature citing Plummer as well our own research, this essay explores three dimensions of Plummer's narrative sociology that include but also take us beyond sexuality studies. One is Plummer's contribution to the concept of "storytelling" as anti-foundationalist social ontology practice. The second is narrative sociology as humanistic methodology. The third is the significance of the narrative method for a dialogic pedagogy, not only in teaching about sexuality but also in other areas of social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As you get older, a couple of things happen – the probability of your own dying increases, and so too does that of friends. So, recently there have been the deaths of some very good friends and colleagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do sexual and gender minorities use social media to express themselves and construct their identities? We discuss findings drawn from focus groups conducted with 17 sexual and gender minority social media users who shared their experiences of online harms. They include people with gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, asexual, non‐binary, pansexual, poly, and kink (LGBTQ+) identities. We find that sexual and gender minorities face several challenges online, but that social media platforms provide important spaces for them to feel understood and accepted. We use Goffman's work to explore how sexual and gender minorities engage in 'front region' performances online as part of their identity work. We then turn to Hochschild's concepts of 'feeling rules' and 'framing rules' to argue that presentations of self, or front region performances, must include the role of feelings and how they are socially influenced to be understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]