In this dissertation, I describe patterns of interaction that were identified from in-depth narrative interviews with LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) people in two contrasting research sites. Thirty-five participants live in a small town in the Midwest known for its religious and political conservatism, and thirty-one live in a mid-sized city on the east coast that is known for being “liberal.” The dissertation focuses on these patterns of interaction at three key social sites. First, in interactions with straight family and friends, I show that sexuality—like race, class, or gender—influences the emotion work one is expected to perform. LGBTQs’ deliberations about belonging lead them to suppress or evoke emotions as they work to overcome relational boundaries. Second, in interactions with the general public, I find that LGBTQs in the small town describe a moral framework of “respect” that compels them to refrain from acts of visibility; while LGBTQs in the urban site feel they have a “responsibility” to enact a visible gay presence. Beliefs, in this case, influence LGBTQs’ decisions to engage in acts of “everyday queer visibility.” Finally, I find that rural LGBTQs engage in a process of intragroup boundary-work as they distance themselves from other LGBTQ people and from a larger gay community. Contrary to other scholarship and hypotheses about how marginalized people construct identity and community, LGBTQ people in this site reject collective identity, while simultaneously solidifying boundaries between “straight” and “gay.” While a good deal of other research focuses on LGBTQ identity, this dissertation utilizes a “critical interactionist” framework in order to examine the influence of dominant, place-based ideologies on LGBTQs’ patterns of interaction. Such an approach offers a more inclusive portrayal of the variety of LGBTQ experience, one that does not simply privilege narratives of resistance, but also sheds light on how social power functions in the everyday lives of LGBTQs.

In response to contemporary moral and feminist criticisms regarding the hypothesised effect magazine discourses of sexuality have on readers, this thesis explores how six groups of adolescents and young adults respond to representations of sexualities from the teen and women's magazines Cosmopolitan, Cleo, Girlfriend and Dolly. Drawing upon theories of poststructural feminism, cultural studies and audience reception this work expands upon existing magazine literature by attending to the ways teen and women's magazines are interpreted and talked about by different groups of adolescents and young adults. This analysis fills a gap in contemporary magazine research, which has generally failed to address how gender and sexuality, as they are portrayed in contemporary periodical publications, are made sense of by readers. Therefore, in focusing on reader talk this thesis is also able to address the ways in which individual and collective identities are constructed interactively in the socially specific context of focus group discussions. Attention is given to looking at the complexities surrounding the relationships that exist between magazine reading, representations of sexuality and adolescents and young adults through an examination of the discourses girls, boys, young women and young men draw upon in their talk on magazine representations of sexualities. I argue that readers of magazines are active producers of meaning who think and talk about magazine representations of sexualities in a variety of complex, contradictory and often ambiguous ways. Research participants employ interpretive repertoires, drawn together from various new, traditional and alternative discourses about sexuality, in the process of attributing meaning to contemporary sexualities, as both cultural objects and aspects of everyday life. Thus, rather than take up and accept the sexual subject positions that magazines make available to readers, the talk of the research participants in this project illustrates how sexualities are constantly being negotiated. The articulation and performance of masculine and feminine sexualities is therefore recognized within this thesis as a highly contradictory, contextual and negotiated process.

This dissertation studies representations of diaspora, sexuality and gender, and affect in Shani Mootoo's Cereus Blooms at Night (1996), Wayson Choy's The Jade Peony (1995), Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy (1994), and Dionne Brand's In Another Place, Not Here (1996). There is a notable absence of explicitly named sexual and gender identities in these novels. I argue that this absence is a function of diasporic doubleness: the identities are lost in the trauma of relocation and ongoing cultural translation; they have never been inscribed in collective memories about originary lands or have been inscribed only negatively; or they cannot be concretized in language because, under the disorienting conditions of diasporic mobility, nothing that matters is ever concrete. Mootoo, Choy, Selvadurai, and Brand choose against assigning distinct sexual or gender identities to their characters in part because they refuse to reproduce the social, legaL psychologicaL and medical categories through which discursive power flows. This suspension of naming, however, is not only a matter of counter-discursive opposition. Considered in the context of collective displacement, this suspension also produces an opportunity for queer diasporans to strengthen communal bonds across the fragmentary prejudices and differences that are internal to diasporas. By focusing on emergent experiences of sex-gender desire, Mootoo, Choy, Selvadurai, and Brand create room for affiliation between characters-queer and not-who might otherwise remain separated by the power and politics that flow through language. Whereas Western cultures are philosophically founded on binary separations of mind and body, human and animal, civilization and chaos, and thinking and feeling, affect theorists recognize that humans are first and foremost feeling entities, and that sensation is an integral part of any human experience. The key tenant of affect theory, that the economy of the physical body is a rich resource of agency, motivation, and hope, enables me to find common ground between the quite different interests of diaspora theory and queer theory in literary-cultural analysis. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Orientador: Pedro Ângelo Pagni / Banca: Rodrigo Pelloso Gelamo / Banca: Alexandre Filordi de Carvalho / Resumo: A partir dos escritos de Foucault problematizamos o Ensino das sexualidades na escola, quando estas adentram ao currículo informal pelos temas transversais a partir dos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais - Orientação Sexual, realizando um contraponto com a Educação a partir da Erótica. Partimos da discussão da formação dos estereótipos social e cientificamente construídos e adentramos um processo de significação do normal/anormal a partir do patológico. Este será o trajeto realizado por Foucault e do qual também nos utilizaremos para visualizar a construção de sujeitos sexuais. Será a partir da discussão de anátomo-política para a biopolítica que engendraremos nosso caminhar, para enfim entrarmos na discussão de um cuidado de si como postura tanto ética como política na educação. Durante o trajeto questões serão levantadas na tentativa de provocar uma inquietação a respeito dessas duas lógicas distintas entre si com relação à formação de um sujeito, por um lado erótico, e por outro sexual, porém, em nenhum momento o "espaço escolar" será deixado de lado na discussão. Diferenciamos Ars erotica de Scientia sexualis para produção de verdade. A partir dos sujeitos que a Scientia sexualis produz, questionaremos o cuidado de si como fonte retrocessa de vivência no interior do exercício pedagógico, como transformadora e transfiguradora de si para consigo. Fazer o caminho de reconhecimento desta genealogia foucaultina nos faz poder visualizar, a partir de nossos próprios olhos, em que medida nos apercebemos sujeitados a uma história que cientificou, de maneira positivista, nossos conhecimentos de nós mesmos, e que formulou um padrão de conhecimento do/a outro/a. Podemos enfim questionar até que ponto é possível professores/a falarem com seus/uas estudantes de algo que, na maioria das vezes... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: From the writings of Michel Foucault, we problematize the Teaching of sexualities in the school - when it enters into the informal curriculum through transversal themes in the National Curriculum - Sexual Orientation - performing a counterpoint with Education from Erotics. We start from the discussion of the formation of social and scientifically constructed stereotypes and we penetrate a process of signification of normal/abnormal from the pathological. This will be the path covered by Foucault which we will also use to visualize the construction of sexual subjects. Based on the discussion of anatomo-politics to biopolitics we will engender our journey to finally enter in the discussion of a care of the self as a posture both ethical as well as political. During this research we will raise questionings in an attempt to cause uneasiness about these two distinct approaches in relation to the formation of a subject, on the one hand erotic, and on the other hand sexual, however, the "school environment" will not be left aside of the discussion. We differentiate Ars erotica from Scientia sexualis to the production of truth. From the subjects that the Scientia sexualis produces, we will question a care of the self as a retrocessional source of existence within the pedagogical exercise, as a transforming and transfiguring experience from the self to the self. When tracing the way for the recognition of this Foulcault's genealogy we become able to visualize, from our own eyes, how we are subjected to a history that has scientified, in a positivistic way, our knowledge of ourselves, and has developed a standard of knowledge of the other. We finally question to what extent can teachers speak with his/her students about something that, in most cases, these professionals are not able to, as they have a 'little care' of themselves . We speak here... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Dana M. Britton / The literature on friendship and social networks finds that individuals form social ties with people who are like them; this is termed "homophily." Several researchers demonstrate that social networks and social ties are homophilous with regard to race and class, for example. However, few studies have explored the relationship of homophily to the social ties of lesbians, and fewer still have explicitly examined sexual orientation as a point of homophily. This study intends to help fill that gap by looking at homophily among lesbian social ties, as well as how urban and non-urban residency might shape homophily and lesbian social ties. I gathered data that would answer the following central research questions: Are lesbian social ties homophilous and if so around what common characteristics? What are lesbians' experiences with community resources and how does this influence their social ties? How does population influence lesbian social ties? Data for this research come from 544 responses to an internet survey that asked lesbians about their social ties, their interests and activities and those of their friends, and the cities or towns in which they resided. Using the concepts of status and value homophily, I attempt to make visible some of the factors and forces that shape social ties for lesbians.

The thesis explores current debates about postfeminism, social class and new forms of femininity within the context of young women’s social drinking practices. A pervasive culture of intoxication has emerged amongst contemporary young drinkers where drunkenness is constructed as integral to a good night out. This is played out in highly visible public displays where gender, femininities and class are performed, positioned and reconfigured. The culture of intoxication therefore provides a productive arena to undertake an in depth analysis of how postfeminism works and how different social groups of young women navigate gender relations, new formations of femininity and class within this terrain. Data are in the form of middle-class and working-class young women’s accounts of their social drinking in bars and clubs within a relatively small city in the South West of England. The data was collected through 2 phases of semi-structured focus groups with 6 friendship groups of 24 women between 19-24 years of age. A Foucauldian discourse analysis was employed to identify key discourses in young women’s talk, focusing on the intersection between postfeminism and the culture of intoxication. These young women are called on to occupy positions of excess through drinking practices and display a hyper-sexualised form of femininity. This produces an impossible dilemma for young women. The young women drew on four discourses to construct drunkenness as a cultural norm. Within these discourses a particular level of drunkenness was constituted as highly desirable but also as a precarious risky state. Femininity was defined around a ‘right’ look and a ‘wrong’ look within two interlinking discourses and the young women drew on discourses that re-inscribed the gendered politics of drinking. The working-class and middle-class young women drew on different discourses to articulate class differentiation and class was reproduced through highly coded terms. There was an absence of feminist discourse throughout the young women’s accounts and this was involved with re-producing the sexual double standard and with constructing classed postfeminist subjectivities. The thesis concludes by considering the implications of a new classed femininity within an absence of feminist discourse in the context of postfeminism.

Abstract not available.

My dissertation examines the broader social context of hookup culture and dating in this current digital age. Data comes from a mixed-methods study that draws on original self-administered surveys (N=196) and focus groups with undergraduate women (N=21) at a university in Ontario, Canada. In this dissertation, I show that hooking up and dating coexist on campus and I examine the broader social context of hookup culture as constituted by women’s friendship groups and new technology to date and hookup. Through this research, my findings reveal how the pursuit of pleasure comes alongside many non-consensual encounters for undergraduate women. Taken as a whole, my research reveals the pleasures and perils of partying, dating, swiping, Snapchatting, and hooking up for undergraduate women. In Chapter Three, I draw on the descriptive statistics from my self-administered online survey and focus groups with undergraduate women to investigate whether hookup culture has emerged in a different social context without a dominating Greek culture and the role of new dating/hookup technology in this culture. In Chapter Four, I draw on the focus groups to show that hookup culture should not be understood as only about a set of expectations around sexual partners, but rather, hookup culture is heavily organized around women’s friendships with other women who support each other as they navigate the hookup scene and attempt to mitigate risks to their safety. In Chapter Five, I examine the potential of new dating apps to improve women’s dating/hookup experiences, revealing that they often fail to achieve their promises and, in other cases, they introduce new unforeseen risks to women’s safety. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy / My dissertation examines the broader social context of hookup culture and dating in this current digital age. Data comes from a mixed-methods study that draws on original self-administered surveys (N=196) and focus groups with undergraduate women (N=21) at a university in Ontario, Canada. In this dissertation, I show that hooking up and dating coexist on campus and I examine the broader social context of hookup culture as constituted by women’s friendship groups and new technology to date and hookup. Through this research, my findings reveal how the pursuit of pleasure comes alongside many non-consensual encounters for undergraduate women. Taken as a whole, my research reveals the pleasures and perils of partying, dating, swiping, Snapchatting, and hooking up for undergraduate women.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T18:15:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ADRIANA GELINSKI.pdf: 2701794 bytes, checksum: fd08ba79a422909aae2be57ce24cfc14 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-28 / This research shows how the different spatial experiences of LGBT members of the Church of the Metropolitan Community of Maringá (ICM-Maringá) and the gay members of the Anglican Episcopal Church of Curitiba (IEA-Curitiba) constitute the meanings of their sexualities. The investigations were conducted through 17 interviews, following a semi-structured script, eight of them with LGBT members and two with LGBT leaders from ICM-Maringá. At the IEA-Curitiba, five interviews were conducted with the gay members and two with the leaders. The analysis of these interviews was guided by the sub-questions proposed for this dissertation, which were related to: (a) How are the religious space experiences of LGBT persons attending the Church of the Metropolitan Community and the Anglican Episcopal Church in Paraná;(b) How the sexualities of LGBT goers are established by religious experience in the Church of the Metropolitan Community and the Anglican Episcopal Church in Paraná;and (c) How the theological perspectives of sexualities are structured in the Church of the Metropolitan Community and the Episcopal Anglican Church in Paraná. All interviews had their contents analyzed according to the constitution of semantic networks, as proposed by Bardin (1977), which give meaning to the spatial dimensions lived by these people. The whole process of analysis resulted in a total of 987 evocations, which were classified according to discursive spatiality and discursive categories. Both ICM-Maringá and IEA-Curitiba differ from fundamentalist churches,since both theological practices and interpretations of biblical texts are based on contextual, historical-critical theological understandings, as well as sympathizing with the feminist, gay, and inclusive theological perspectives. Thus, they constitute spaces with discourses and practices of welcoming and respecting people. However, LGBT people, socialized in other religious denominations, mostly fundamentalists, find in the ICM-Maringá and IEA-Curitiba a religious alternative, which allow people to reconcile experiences, religious practices and their sexualities. In this way, they reframe their religious understandings and conceptions, breaking with the notion of sin apprehended in the course of their lives. The interviews elucidate that the spatialities are constituted by complex relations of chains, discourses and practices. These, in turn, contribute to the constitution of the meaning and resignification of the people, consequently they are directly linked to the identity categories. In the case of this research, it was evidenced that gender, sexuality and religiosity have great relevance in the life of these people, revealing that the religious discourse permeates all the spatiality and instances of the life of the group studied (LGBT members of ICM-Maringá and for the gay members of IEA-Curitiba). Going further, such discourse reinforces and justifies other discourses as regulatory in relation to sexualities, thus contributing to a reiteration of the sexualizing process of sin. / Esta pesquisa evidencia como as diferentes vivências espaciais dos membros LGBT da Igreja da Comunidade Metropolitana de Maringá (ICM-Maringá) e os membros gays da Igreja Episcopal Anglicana de Curitiba (IEA-Curitiba) constituem as significações de suas sexualidades. As investigações deram-se através de 17 entrevistas, seguindo um roteiro semiestruturado, oito delas com os membros LGBT e duas com as lideranças também LGBT da ICM-Maringá. Por sua vez, na IEA-Curitiba foram realizadas cinco entrevistas com os membros gays e duas com as lideranças. A análise destas entrevistas foi guiada pelas subquestões propostas para esta dissertação, que estavam relacionadas a (a) 'como são significadas as experiências espaciais religiosas das pessoas LGBT frequentadoras da Igreja da Comunidade Metropolitana e da Igreja Episcopal Anglicana no Paraná', (b) 'de que forma as sexualidades dos frequentadores LGBT se instituem pela vivência religiosa na Igreja da Comunidade Metropolitana e da Igreja Episcopal Anglicana no Paraná' e (c) 'como se estruturam as perspectivas teológicas das sexualidades na Igreja da Comunidade Metropolitana e da Igreja Episcopal Anglicana no Paraná'. Todas as entrevistas tiveram seus conteúdos analisados segundo a constituição de redes semânticas, assim como proposto por Bardin (1977), que davam sentido as dimensões espaciais vividas por estas pessoas. Todo o processo de análise resultou em um total de 987 evocações que foram classificadas segundo espacialidadesdiscursivas e categorias discursivas. Tanto a ICM-Maringá como a IEA-Curitiba diferenciam-se das igrejas fundamentalistas, pois ambas as práticas teológicas e interpretações dos textos bíblicos estão baseadas nas compreensões teológicas contextuais e histórico-críticas, bem como simpatizam com as perspectivas teológicas feministas, gay e inclusiva. Constituindo-se assim como espacialidades com discursos e práticas de acolhimento e respeito às pessoas. Contudo, as pessoas LGBTs, socializadas em outras denominações religiosas, em sua maioria fundamentalistas, encontram nas espacialidades ICM-Maringá e IEA-Curitiba, as quais permitem que as pessoas conciliem experiências, práticas religiosas e suas sexualidades. Ressignificando dessa forma suas compreensões e concepções religiosas, rompendo com a noção de pecado apreendida no decorrer de suas vidas. As entrevistas elucidam que as espacialidades são constituídas por complexas cadeias de relações, discursos e práticas. Essas, por sua vez,contribuem para a constituição das significações e ressignificações das pessoas,consequentemente estão diretamente ligadas às categorias identitárias. No caso desta pesquisa, evidenciou-se que o gênero, as sexualidades e a religiosidade têm grande relevância na vida dessas pessoas, revelando que o discurso religioso permeia todas as espacialidades e instâncias da vida do grupo pesquisado (membros LGBT da ICMMaringá e para os membros gays da IEA-Curitiba). Indo além, tal discurso reforça e justifica outros discursos como normatizadores em relação às sexualidades,contribuindo assim para reiteração do processo sexualizador do pecado.

This paper explores how people of color, particularly black people in the Atlanta area, navigate inside and outside of their sexual communities – particularly, BDSM, polyamory and swinging communities. I investigated how participants’ (N=11) identity construction and sexual actions/behaviors contributed to the benefits and/or consequences that fostered the navigation of non-sexual and sexual communities using queer theory and intersectionality theory with a womanist approach. Particularly, I found that my participants migrated towards communities based on privilege, comfort, and acts of resistance. In addition, I found that while they all identified as “perverts of color,” they did not identify as “promiscuous.” Overall, this study highlights the potential for people to resist certain oppressions, all while maintaining a sex-positive politic inside and outside of their alternative sexual communities. It also emphasizes the need to broaden our scopes on sexual liberation movements that marginalize those with various intersections of identities.