<p> Transgender women have the highest HIV prevalence rates of all gender and sexual minorities, yet are less likely to enter and be retained in HIV care. As a result, they are at high risk for HIV-related morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to describe the illness career of transgender women living with HIV and to describe how interactions with health care providers and important others influenced their illness trajectory. The findings are a theoretical model that includes four stages: <i>Having the world come crashing down, shutting out the world, living in a dark world, and reconstructing the world. </i> Relationships within the social network (family, friends, and romantic partners) and the network of health care providers provided the context of the women&rsquo;s illness careers. Pivotal moments marked movement from one phase to the next. <i>Having the World Crashing Down</i> was the first stage that occurred when the participants were diagnosed with HIV. They felt that their lives as they knew them had been destroyed. They indicated that the &ldquo;whole world just shattered&rdquo; the moment they found out they had HIV. <i>Shutting Out the World</i> occurred next. During this stage, many participants experienced withdrawal, denial, social isolation and loneliness. As they struggled with their diagnosis, they often avoided HIV care and avoided contact with important others. During the third stage, <i> Living in a Dark World,</i> participants descended into a dark phase of self-destructive life and health-threatening behaviors following their diagnosis. During the fourth stage, <i>Reconstructing the World,</i> participants began to reestablish themselves in the world and found new ways to reengage with important others and resume meaningful life activities. Findings confirm that the illness careers of HIV-positive transgender women are influenced by the social context of the health care setting and interactions with health care providers and important others.</p>

<p> Gender-linked language penalizes women by both systematically devaluing women&rsquo;s speech and limiting its form and content. In 1975, Robin Lakoff claimed that gender-linked language was a key diagnostic for gender equality within society. Forty years later, this interdisciplinary analysis brings together feminist, legal justice, sociological, and linguistic perspectives to examine the courtroom testimony of female domestic violence victims for compliance with gender-linked language norms and subsequent success in obtaining protective orders. Testimony was evaluated for compliance with Mulac&rsquo;s Gender-Linked Language Effect (GLLE) as well as additional variables uncovered through research and experience. Results showed that all petitioners used female-linked variables at a consistent rate but that those who used more male-linked variables received fewer protective orders. The results of this analysis will serve to inform judges and legal professionals in their evaluation of women&rsquo;s narratives without bias, fill a gap in research on the effects gender-linked language in courtroom testimony, and uncover the presence of the GLLE in everyday life. Most importantly, this analysis provides a rationale for eliminating gender-linked language as an extralegal barrier to protection helping to ensure that all citizens receive equal protection from the Court regardless of gender.</p>

No description available.

En analys av den svenska medicinska diskursen om barn med atypiska kön, med särskild fokus på diskursens begripliggörande av kroppar som inte passar in i en heterosexuell matris

Vi har i vår studie analyserat sju personliga intervjuer med kvinnor anställda på företaget Eventia. Syftet med studien har varit att vi i intervjupersonernas narrativa berättelser sökt efter betydelser och därigenom önskat synliggöra om det finns en bristande överrensstämmelse mellan organisationen Eventias avsikt och strävan efter att vara jämställd, och dess tillämpning i praktiken. Vår teoretiska utgångspunkt är feministisk och vi utgår ifrån Joan W. Scotts förståelse av genus. Vi har som teoretisk metod i huvudsak använt oss av de fyra teman som Anna Wahl, Charlotte Holgersson, Pia Höök och Sophie Linghag formulerat i sin forskning: Struktur, Ledarskap, Symbolism och Förändring. Syftet har ringats in med våra frågeställningar: Hur kan könsstrukturen beskrivas på Eventia, och hur kommer diskriminering till uttryck? Hur överensstämmer föreställningar om kön med den sociala praktiken på Eventia? Vilka jämställhetsmetoder kan identifieras och hur relaterar dessa till jämställdhetsdiskurser?Till sist förde vi också ett resonemang om vilka följder och effekter som ovanstående bidrar till. Våra slutsatser är: Vi tycker oss kunna påvisa att det råder en diskrepans mellan Eventias strävan att vara jämställd och dess tillämpning i praktiken. Vi kunde också skönja diskriminerande strukturer av både direkt och indirekt slag. Vi menar också att föreställningar om kön på olika sätt får betydelse i praktiken, bl.a. i samband med egenskaper som en bra chef antas ha, och där dessa är könsmärkta utifrån en manlig norm. Men även att de som intervjupersonerna kopplar ihop med kvinnliga egenskaper, inte värdesätts utan tvärt om ses som hindrande för löne- och utvecklingsmöjligheter. Vad beträffar den diskursiva jämställdheten så menar vi att företagets strävan ligger i linje med den av samhället föreskrivna, men att det råder en diskrepans mellan ideologi och praktik.

Ämnet för den här uppsatsen är mäns föräldraledighet. Det övergripande syftet med denna studie har varit att studera hur män förhåller sig till sina dubbla roller som småbarnsföräldrar och förvärvsarbetare. Specifikt har jag undersökt om mina informanter, fyra män vilka varit föräldralediga, påverkats av deras arbetsgivares, Statoils, småbarnsföräldrapolicy i de val de gjort angående sin föräldraledighet. Genomförandet av studien har skett genom kvalitativ intervjumetod. Informanterna har alla uttryckt att småbarnsföräldrapolicyn gett dem stöd i de val de gjort angående sin föräldraledighet, dock har den inte haft avgörande betydelse. Småbarnsföräldrapolicyn har ett stort symboliskt värde, genom att den finns ges signalen till alla anställda att det är okej att vara föräldraledig oavsett kön.

Sexual orientation is a multi-dimensional construct, including sexual identity, attraction, and behavior. Adopting this multidimensional perspective, this thesis is structured in two manuscripts that investigate adolescent sexual orientation among a community sample of students from 14 high schools in Montréal, Québec. Study I examined sexual orientation and youth suicidality. Study II assessed factors related to concordance versus discordance of sexual identity, attraction and behavior. Students were surveyed anonymously. The survey included items assessing sexual orientation, health risk behaviors, suicidality, demographics, and social attitudes towards homosexuality. Multiple logistic regression models were used in both studies. Study I found that compared to youth with heterosexual identity, attraction and behavior, adolescents with GLB and “unsure” identities were at greater risk of suicidality. However, youth who reported same-sex attraction or behavior, but a heterosexual identity, were not at elevated risk. Study II found that compared with heterosexual-identified students, students with GLB identities were more likely to be older and to report that school homosexual attitudes were ridiculed, accepted, or appreciated versus tolerated or ignored. Overall, results highlighted the potential importance of social environment in sexual minority youth mental health outcomes and identity development. / L'orientation sexuelle est une construction mentale multidimensionnelle qui inclut l'identité sexuelle, l'attirance physique et le comportement sexuel. Cette thèse adopte la perspective multidimensionnelle et étudie l'orientation sexuelle chez un échantillon d'étudiants adolescents dans 14 écoles secondaires à Montréal, Québec. La thèse est divisée en deux manuscrits. La première étude examine l'orientation sexuelle et la suicidalité chez les jeunes. La deuxième étude examine les facteurs reliés à la concordance ou discordance de l'identité sexuelle, l'attirance physique et le comportement sexuel. Des étudiants étaient interrogés anonymement. Le questionnaire incluait des points qui évaluaient l'orientation sexuelle, les comportements de santé à risques, la suicidalité, les données démographiques et les attitudes sociales envers l'homosexualité. Les deux études ont utilisé des modèles de régression logistiques multiples. La première étude a trouvé que les jeunes avec une identité Gay-lesbienne-bisexuel(le)s (GLB) et « incertaines » étaient plus à risque pour la suicidalité comparer aux jeunes avec une identité, une attirance et un comportement hétérosexuel. Cependant, les jeunes qui ont mentionné avoir des attirances physiques ou des comportements sexuels avec le même sexe mais une identité hétérosexuelles n'étaient pas plus à risque. La deuxième étude a trouvé que, comparé aux étudiants avec une identité hétérosexuelle, les étudiants avec une identité GLB étaient plus vieux et plus porté à mentionné que l'attitude de leur école envers l'homosexualité était ridiculisé, accepté, ou apprécié au lieu de toléré ou ignoré. En tout, les résultats soulignent l'importance de l'environnement sociale pour la santé mentale et le développement de l'identité sexuelle chez les jeunes minorités sexuelles.

<p> "Subtle Resistance: How Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Martha Jackson Resisted Post-World War II Gender Constructions" explores the careers of three women in postwar New York City&mdash;artists commonly referred to as "second generation" Abstract Expressionist painters, Grace Hartigan and Joan Mitchell, and gallerist Martha Jackson. Following the Second World War, the distinctions between men and women, and masculinity and femininity grew. It is in this polarized social field that Hartigan and Mitchell were able to carve out success, claim agency over the formation of their artistic identities, and overall resist the gender constructions that were so pervasive to postwar American culture. Martha Jackson, a Buffalo native who opened the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York City in 1953, played an important role in the careers of Hartigan and Mitchell and ensured continued progress in their careers during the tumultuous 1960s. </p><p> Chapter 1 examines the gendered construction of postwar American culture and the exemplary career of Martha Jackson, an independent woman who challenged traditional notions of a woman's role in society. Chapter 2 explores how Hartigan and Mitchell navigated the gendered tensions of the New York School. Chapter 3 studies how Hartigan and Mitchell's artistic styles reflect their construction of identity in relation to art historical tradition and the use of a controlled expressivity in their work. </p><p> Archival materials from the Martha Jackson Gallery Archives at the UB Anderson Gallery and the Grace Hartigan Papers at the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University, as well as periodicals, oral history interviews and other primary sources provide a new perspective of the social history of the time. With this new perspective, the challenges Hartigan, Mitchell, and Jackson faced become clearer, as do their means of resistance.</p>

<p> The Marquis de Sade became famous, or infamous depending on one's perspective, for the ferocious depictions of sexual predation which are found throughout his literary works, and consequently, the character of the sexual predator is indispensable to understanding the author's philosophical standpoint. For Sade, the laws of nature determine the sex of the individual, but they also require him or her to satisfy a set of physical needs which reject the masculine/feminine binary as often as they embrace it. This blurring of the lines between masculinity and femininity is thus characteristic of the Sadian sexual predator who must constantly seek satisfaction for his needs regardless of social and religious constraints on his behavior and on the sex of his victim. When examining the myriad variations on this character in Sade's work, it becomes clear that he has transferred the natural law of &ldquo;survival of the fittest&rdquo; from a purely physical to a highly intellectual concept and, in so doing, has created a predator who uses mental as well as physical strength to dominate his victim. I, therefore, propose that masculinity mixes fluidly with femininity when examined through the lens of the predator and that by investigating the hierarchy of predator versus prey, the mutability of gender at both extremes of the predatory relationship, and the description of specific acts of predation, it is possible to deconstruct the gender differences through the strict adherence to the laws of nature observed by Sade's sexual predators.</p>

This study examined the societal factors and subjective beliefs that are hypothesized to be affecting the lives of trans persons accessing Ontario health care services. The purpose of this study was to uncover information pertaining to trans persons’ needs and fulfillments within Ontario’s health care system in order to discover what the specific health care needs of trans persons accessing health care services are as well as if they are alienated and/or systemically discriminated against when seeking medical attention. The research questions were addressed through a secure, anonymous, online questionnaire taking approximately 30 to 45 minutes to complete. A small sample of 18 to 26 individuals who identified as trans, living in Ontario and have accessed, or are currently accessing, Ontario health care services were recruited through relevant list-servs and website postings. Participants accessed a variety of open-ended and closed questions concerning sociodemographics, sexuality, health care access experiences, and health care needs. Qualitative results showed that access to Ontario health care is complicated by race, class and language for participants in this study. Experiences for trans persons with Ontario health care services varied from individual to individual; some reported no negative experiences at all, some have been refused services by the Center for Addiction and Mental Health’s Gender Identity Clinic, and some avoided health care services entirely due to discrimination from medical professionals. / Thesis (Master, Gender Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-20 12:42:59.005