Experiences of condom use and meaning among feminist women of an urban college area of southwestern United States in 1994 were explored through ethnographic interviews. Women's disposition to use condoms coincides with the targeting of female consumers as a market for condoms. However, constraints on women's condom use are related to the meanings of condoms in the context of particular relationships, and to the meanings of condoms vis-à-vis ideas of sexuality, and to macrolevel power relations of gender. For some women condom use is an important component of self-transformation.

How do sex practices get constructed as normal? This research evaluates discussions of pegging, a gender non-conforming sex practice within heterosexual sex whereby women anally penetrate men. Data were collected from the website Reddit and its subreddit r/sex. 3,485 comments posted to 30 discussion threads were analyzed for common themes. Findings suggest that pegging confuses gendered expectations for “having sex”. Additionally, heteronormativity and homophobia were found to structure heterosexual interactions, including the ways in which gender and sexual identities, desire, and bodies are understood. This is illuminated by findings supporting “gender accountability” or the idea that we “do gender” because people anticipate how others will perceive their actions based on gender expectations. Finally, an examination of homophobia reveals ways in which homophobia operates in a hate-free zone. Homophobia was found to encourage heterosexuals’ treatment of homosexuals as distinctly different kinds of people than heterosexuals, including frequent boundary setting between what is gay and straight. Overall this project reveals that pegging is a culturally unintelligible sex act that causes a great deal of confusion, anxiety, and sometimes pleasure for those who partake.

The current research focuses on the study of power and commitment within heterosexual relationships. The research reviews, compares and contrasts the theoretical perspectives of Nietzsche through the work of Kaufmann and Gordon and utilises a qualitative research method of Narrative Inquiry. These theoretical epistemological and methodological perspectives are used in conjunction with the method of semi-structured interviewing to identify thematic phenomenological descriptions of participants stories. The three discourses of Fear Discourse, Protective Discourse and Detached Discourse have been used in conjunction with the writings of Nietzsche concerning the Will to Power as thematic guidance discourses for this study. To reveal these discourses the research question- How does an individual’s styles or themes of commitment change within and between three of their previous heterosexual relationships - was examined. The research found that commitment is understood as another name for responsibility, males are most often understood as behaving with a lack of responsibility, females in overly responsible ways. The research concluded that the production of a balanced responsible sharing approach achieved through creativity is the most desirable to accomplish self-overcoming independence and freedom within all situations / Master of Arts (Hons) (Psychology)

<p>Our society is based on a heterosexual norm. This may lead to the fact that LGBT-persons have a poorer health status than the heterosexual population. The nurse education lacks information and courses that highlights sexual identity. This is defective since healthcare staff needs knowledge on the subject to be able to treat patients in a professional and respectful manner. The purpose of this study was to illustrate how heteronormativity influences the treatment of patients within a healthcare context. </p><p>This paper is a survey of literature based on 12 articles and one dissertation. </p><p>The results showed that the healthcare staff and the healthcare students had both positive and negative attitudes towards non heterosexual patients. The majority had positive attitudes. It is thus important to highlight the negative attitudes and derive them to heteronormative ways in a healthcare context. The non heterosexual patients experienced problems dealing with homophobia, the issue of coming out or not and poor heteronormative communication.</p><p>The healthcare staff needs to get accurate education regarding heteronormativity and sexual identities. The negative attitudes towards non heterosexual patients would thus lessen and the treatment towards these persons would improve. </p><p>More research on the subject of nursing and heteronormativity is needed. Research focusing only on the nurse’s work and how it is influenced by heteronormativity is wanted.</p>

My research investigates young people's stories of sexual practice. I focus on the questions: How do young people construct their sexual practices and their use of `safer' sex and, in particular, how important are `conventional' notions of gender and heterosexuality in these constructions? To answer these questions I collected and transcribed in-depth interviews from 25 young people aged between 16 and 19 from schools and youth groups in a London borough. Using a discourse analytic approach (Edley and Wetherell 1997) I draw my analysis directly from the participants' talk and how they construct a sexual story rather than framing the analysis through assumptions of gender inequality. Previous feminist literature, and in particular that of Holland et al. (1998), suggests that sexual experiences are constructed predominantly through a 'traditional' framework of gender. In this literature masculinity is said to be dominant in the heterosexual relationship, whereas femininity is seen as collaborative and submissive. In my thesis I question whether young people construct their intimate experiences through such `conventional' gendered patterns of behaviour and heteronormative values. I suggest an alternative analysis of young people's sex talk through focusing on discursive scripts emerging from the data in three areas: diversity, time/life plan, and trust. I argue that these scripts, for example the time and life plan scripts, are important features of young people's talk about sexual practices and are used as justifications for the use or non-use of 'safer' sex. The participants' talk that I call the 'children-older-with-a-platform' life plan script legitimises the use of condoms and/or pill as a method of protecting their plan. The 'children-now' script is a justification for the non-use of 'safer' sex. My research concludes that there are diverse stories of intimate experiences told in certain contexts by young people that have not previously been noted by researchers.

This dissertation investigates heterosexed reality as an ongoing accomplishment by the members at a workplace. Observations were carried out sporadically for two years at a museum. During this period twelve formal interviews, fifteen informal interviews, three formal group interviews and three informal group interviews were also conducted. The study rests on an ethnomethodological understanding of how reality and order is achieved by actors in interaction through the use of ethnomethods, such as common sense. Order is produced in a number of situations and it is situations, as locations of shared practices, which are primarily focused. It is concluded that the members try to, in different ways, realise the museum as a nice place. The concept of straight-framing is introduced to describe one of the pleasure procedures performed by the members in order to generate good mood, solidarity and familiarity in everyday working life. To successfully straight-frame situations, the members must utilise the heterosexual matrix and produce themselves and others as intelligibly sexed beings, belonging to either the category women or men, and as relatable to people of the other sex in couple-like and/or sexualised (explicitly or implicitly) ways. Three different forms of straight-framing are distinguished; direct, mock direct and indirect. The members also routinely realise the museum as a nice place by creating a discourse of political correctness. The easiest way to produce and use this discourse appears to be to talk about gender equality. In conversations about gender equality women and men are commonsensically turned into a standardised relational pair and this is referred to as the body count routine. While the body count routine makes the issue of gender equality intelligible for the members and enables them to come across as politically competent, it also provides them with an opportunity to organise the working units at the museum. Sex-mixed units can be placed above non-mixed in a moral hierarchy.

Thesis (M. A.) (Hons) -- University of Western Sydney, 2005. / A thesis submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Hons) (Psychology) at University of Western Sydney. Bibliography : leaves 213 - 216.

I interviewed 60 rural, white, straight-identified men who have sex with men (MSM). I did so to answer three main research questions: How do rural, white, straight MSM understand their gender and sexual identity? How do their experiences with sexual flexibility relate to the ways in which they understand their gender and sexual identity? How do whiteness and rurality shape how they understand their gender and sexual identity? While participants shared a diversity of experiences, all aligned themselves with straight culture. Participants had varying levels of attractions to women and different sexual histories, but all identified as straight. Sexual identities are not simply descriptors for sexual orientation. They also indicate feelings of belonging in certain communities and cultures, and not belonging in others. My research shows that rural straight MSM are not closeted gay or bisexual men. They are straight men who occasionally enjoy sex with other men. Their narratives, I argue, highlight the difference between sexual orientation, sexual identity, and sexual culture. The ways participants had sex with other men—what I call bud-sex—both reinforced and reflected their alignment with straight culture. Enjoyment of straight culture, I argue, is the main reason the men I interviewed in this study identified as straight. None of them considered sex with men an important aspect of their identity. “Straight” was an identity that encompassed participants’ alignment with mainstream heterosexual institutions, such as marriage, and straight communities, to which they and most people they knew belonged. Collectively, these institutions and communities comprise straight culture. Participants considered straightness an identity, a way of life, and/or a community. Having sex with men was largely irrelevant to their sexual identity and how they understood their masculinity. Talking to them highlights how straightness is cultivated in a variety of institutions and contexts, and in numerous ways. Because participants grew up in and/or lived in white-majority rural areas, the rural straight culture to which they felt connected was by definition white. Their enjoyment of straight culture—and the institutions, communities, and ways of life attached to it—was central to their identification as straight and masculine. / 2021-01-11

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How do self-identified heterosexual Kaqchikel men in the rural areas of Sololá attain status and power in their relationships with women? This question is explored here by analyzing different masculine roles in various social spaces. The complexity of masculine identity requires a meticulous analysis to assess the extent to which the masculine role and identity has been or not a determinant factor in the social and personal development of both women and men in the communities. This exploration also allows us to see the different expressions of masculine identities and evaluate their current role in society. I learned that the Kaqchikel men I interviewed find their social power and status in part through well-established, old ideologies and belief systems, as well as their perception of a biological superiority, which they justify by their hard work in agricultural activities. Based on this socially constructed beliefs and practices, men emphasize the passivity of the women and their social absence – their subordinate status in society. However, the authority of the men is not limited to their remarkable role as leaders and head of the households; it also encompasses pernicious acts such as domestic violence, which is still highly prevalent in contemporary Sololá. This project also explores these men’s perceptions about: (1) the women living in their communities, (2) the low level of education of these women, and (3) the justice system that is still weak and flawed. While all of these are indeed prevailing problems in the communities, women are challenging to an extent all the practices and beliefs associated with the authority of the men. / text