Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / One question that is perhaps most familiar in contemporary western societies is “is it a boy or a girl?” This question goes uncontested unless a child is born with ambiguous genitalia. The medical responses to these births have recently undergone considerable attention and criticism from within the medical profession, from parents, but most loudly from the individuals themselves. In contemporary discourses these individuals are referred to by and large as intersex. The burgeoning intersex movement has coalesced around a shared lived experience of trauma brought about in no small way by the invasive procedures of medical management in its attempts to diagnose, treat and cure. These procedures leave intersex individuals with feelings of isolation and abuse and that they have been lied to and misinformed. A ‘culture of silence’ has been created whereby not only has the incidence of intersex been vastly underestimated, but also the psychological, social and physical ramifications have been omitted from medical, patient and broader social discourses. While intersex individuals cite their own experiences as evidence of these ramifications, the medical profession has been largely unresponsive. Aside from the demand for more information, counselling and a change in the medical management of intersex, there are broader ramifications of intersex within society, notably a conceptualisation of sex, gender and sexuality. While these aspects are secondary issues for the intersex movement its presence and its significance cannot be understated. This study takes note of the significant issues pertinent to the intersex movement and employs a comparative analysis of the lived experiences of Intersex Australians and Americans. Further, this project investigates the historical and cross-cultural evidence of intersex, the way in which medical discourses dominate twentieth and twenty-first century conceptualisations and how the intersex movement itself was formed in the last decade.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Univ., 2001. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study was to determine the level of parental support for school-based sexuality education in a Colombian international school and discover the most popular method, among parents, for teaching the subject, whether through a comprehensive, abstinence-only, or abstinence plus approach. Another objective was to determine parental support for the teaching of specific topics in the sexuality education curriculum and identify the age levels that parents felt were appropriate for the introduction of those topics. A third goal was to find out how parents viewed themselves as sexuality educators in the home and how they perceived their peers. In order to determine the attitudes of parents regarding school-based sexuality education, a parent survey was conducted. The first section of the survey presented parents with a variety of scenarios related to three different approaches to school-based sexuality education. The parents selected the approach that best reflected their views and attitudes toward the subject and most appropriately presented the material to students. The second section of the survey offered parents an array of sexuality education topics and asked them to choose the appropriate age level for the introduction of each topic into the sexuality education curriculum. The third section of the survey asked parents to evaluate themselves and their peers as sexuality educators in the home. Parents were also asked to list three activities in which they enjoyed participating with their children. The research indicated that of the 206 parents surveyed, 49% supported a comprehensive approach to sexuality education, 40% backed an abstinence-plus approach, and 3% supported an abstinence-only approach. Parental support was given for the inclusion of a wide variety of topics in the sexuality education curriculum, with most of the subjects being introduced at the middle school level. Most parents viewed themselves as effective sexuality educators in the home, while criticizing their peers for not having the same open communication with their own children. Chi-square tests of significance revealed correlations between parental gender, frequency of church attendance, and preference for a specific approach to sexuality education. / 2031-01-02

A significant social and personal area of the first-year of college is the freedom to engage in casual sex relationships. There is an indication that negative emotions and regret effect women longer than men (Esbaugh & Gute, 2008; Lambert, Kahn, & Apple, 2003; Littleton, Tabernik, Canales, Backstrom, 2009; Morgan & Zurbriggen, 2009; Nack, 2008). The purpose of the study is to investigate how first-year college women understand their sexual experiences. By gathering narratives directly from first-year college women regarding their sex education background and experiences, this dissertation will obtain information needed to offer the types of successful strategies and information secondary and postsecondary education can provide women to strengthen their cognitions and to enlighten their college experiences. This qualitative study investigates how women understand their sexual experiences through women's cognitive development. I conducted twelve 90-minute interviews with a diverse set of first-year college female participants using a structured interviewing technique with open-ended questions. This structure provided an opportunity for exploration of student's sexual decision-making and understanding of the experiences. My interviewing techniques mimic the strategies of grounded theory and I interpreted my data through a three phase thematic coding process guided by the theoretical framework of Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule (1986) Women's Ways of Knowing. The findings suggest that women understand their sexual experiences through informal sex education background, public sexual identity, and private sexual identity. These identities are understood through silence and received knowledge in the women's lived experiences and ownership of knowledge. The findings also suggest a model for college women's sexual identity development and how higher education can develop successful strategies to empower women and enlighten their educational experiences to assist in their academic persistence.

This thesis explores the experiences of imprisonment of men held in HMP Stafford, an English medium-security prison for men convicted of sexual offences. Sex offenders constitute a significant proportion of the prison population – almost one in five sentenced adult men have been convicted of a sex offence – but they have been consistently overlooked by prison researchers. In this thesis, I redress this imbalance by exploring the experiences of a hitherto overlooked group, and generate some theoretical insights which will be of relevance to wider studies of imprisonment. The thesis is based on an in-depth ethnographic study conducted over a five-month period. It included 42 long semi-structured interviews with prisoners, 12 shorter semi-structured interviews with prison officers, and extended periods of participant observation of day-to-day life in the prison. It focuses on three areas which were of particular salience to these men, all of which have been explored in detail in existing studies of mainstream imprisonment: first, the ways in which they adapted to their sentence; second, the sorts of social and moral communities they formed amongst themselves; and third, the relationships they formed with staff and the way the prison’s power operated on them. All three of these areas – adaptation, moral community and power – were inflected by two issues of even greater significance: the fact that they were serving sentences for sexual offences, and their resulting social identities as ‘sex offenders’. By drawing attention to this issue, I hope to move on from the conventional mode of understanding the prison, as a disciplinary institution structured solely by power, to one which takes more seriously the moral functions and effects of the prison as a condemnatory institution.

<p> Polyamory is a type of consensual non-monogamy (CNM) in which participants engage in multiple simultaneous romantic and often sexual relationships with the knowledge and consent of all involved. CNM practitioners in general, and polyamorous people in specific, appear to be highly stigmatized due to their relational practices, and to frequently encounter CNM-related discrimination, harassment, and violence (DHV). Conceptualizing this dynamic via minority stress theory predicts that this stigma and DHV will lead to negative mental health outcomes for polyamorous individuals. However, recent research has begun to identify possible sources of resilience and strength within polyamorous populations, which may ameliorate these negative effects, as well as enhance satisfaction with CNM and quality of life. This study investigated these hypotheses in a sample of 1,176 polyamorous American adults utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM). Two structural models were proposed and tested, one for polyamorous resilience and one for polyamorous strengths. Four constructs were assessed as potential resilience and strength factors: mindfulness, cognitive flexibility, a positive CNM identity, and connection to a supportive CNM community. Results indicate that CNM-related minority stress was positively related to increased psychological distress, such as higher self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms. Mindfulness was found to have both direct and moderating effects on the relationship between minority stress and psychological distress, such that higher mindfulness attenuated the negative impact of minority stress. Cognitive flexibility also displayed direct and moderating effects, but in the opposite than predicted direction. Regarding polyamorous strengths, mindfulness was found to positively impact overall satisfaction with CNM as well as life satisfaction. In addition, greater connection to a supportive CNM community correlated with having a more positive sense of CNM identity, which in turn was related to higher satisfaction with CNM. Overall satisfaction with CNM was related to greater life satisfaction. Clinical and research implications of these findings are discussed, with an emphasis on improving cultural competence for clinicians working with this unique and under-served population.</p><p>

The thesis uses an inter-disciplinary, feminist and cultural studies approach to sexuality and schooling. The study documents the ways in which issues of sexuality feature in the school context and the implications of this for sexual learning and the production of sexual identities. The study examines the ways in which pupil cultures negotiate issues of sexuality. Pupil cultures can be understood as constitutive of informal groups of school students who actively ascribe meanings to events within specific social contexts. This approach points to the ways in which such encounters produce individual and collective identities which carry both social and psychic investments. The study focuses upon two key areas in the field of sexuality and schooling; the shaping of pupil cultures and the production of sexual identities; and secondly, the role of the school in relation to issues of sexuality. The thesis develops an analysis of pedagogic approaches to Personal and Social Education (PSE) and the ways in which the meanings and messages of the curriculum are mediated by pupil cultures. The emphasis on pupil cultures can be seen as a way of giving epistemological status to school students who receive the curriculum but play no part in the structuring of the school organisation or the plannýng of lessons. However, this approach can have the effect of seeing teachers as an oppressive, monolithic force, defined in opposition to pupils. As a corrective to this the experiences of individual teachers and their personal accounts of teaching and learning in the field of sex education are drawn upon. Teachers' perspectives can be seen as an important element in developing an understanding of current practice, in an area where both teachers and pupils may have investments in the construction and maintenance of symbolic boundaries. The study aims to contribute to academic debate and practitioner knowledge in the field of sexuality education. it is anticipated that this study will facilitate an analysis of sexuality and contemporary schooling in ways that develop our understanding of heterosexuality as a dominant category, and have implications for policy and practice in this field. The main findings of the thesis point to the significance of peer group interactions to the collective enactment of masculinities, femininities and their relationship to the sexual. The key argument of the thesis concerns the activity and agency of pupil cultures in the regulation and performance of gendered heterosexualities; through exchanges in friendship groups in school, young men and young women learn about sex and do gender. The project highlights the ways in which the acquisition of sexual knowledge and the enactment of gender is in dialogue with popular cultural forms such as teenage magazines, television programmes and pornographic representations. Moreover, the analysis of pupil peer groups stress the interrelationship of psychic and social processes to collectively generated versions of sexgender.

<p> Prevention is key to keeping men who have sex with men (MSM) protected from Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Despite new and innovative HIV prevention resources such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), factors such as education level, employment status, number of sexual partners, and access to health resources may inhibit certain populations from using PrEP. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the association between education level, employment status, number of sexual partners, and access to health resources and the use of PrEP among MSM. The fundamental cause theory was used to examine how socioeconomic barriers are associated with the use of PrEP among MSM in the United States. Secondary data from 217 surveys were collected from the Public Library of Science. Findings from multiple regression analyses indicated that employment status, access to health resources, and number of sexual partners were not associated with use of PrEP among MSM. Those who had at least some high school or a high school diploma were 3.98 times more likely to be likely to extremely likely to use PrEP, compared to those who had less than a high school education (<i>OR</i> = 3.98, <i> p</i> = .048). Those who had some college were 6.91 more likely to be likely to extremely likely to use PrEP, compared to those who had less than a high school education (<i>OR</i> = 6.91, <i>p</i> = .028). Findings may be used to assist public health professionals in identifying factors that prevent the use of PrEP. By addressing these health threats, and social barriers, specialists could have the ability to increase HIV prevention activity in populations that are more susceptible to being infected with HIV and may decrease HIV infections not only within the MSM population but also in other populations.</p><p>

Much of the research conducted on lesbians and place focuses on women who live in urban areas or highlights how participants wish to live in urban areas. Knowing that there are lesbians who live in rural and Appalachian areas that do not wish to leave to urban areas, this research examines participants’ experiences living in those places. Participants discuss how religion is a socially circulating meaning system in the places they live and it dictates much of social life. I argue that religion has a two-fold meaning for participants: one, it is a religious text that is used as a social control mechanism in the lives of the women and two, it is church as community, in which the participants use church spaces to both make community among themselves as well as be a part of the larger community in their towns. This research adds to the narratives of rural lesbian women and available ways of occupying spaces by breaking down a binary of common cultural ideas about place and sexuality.

This thesis is about studio habits. Specifically, it considers what happens in practice in the artist's studio and ways in which creative acts have been visualised and disseminated. The chapters of this thesis are organised around views of the studios of four twentieth century painters: Francis Bacon (1908-1994), Lee Krasner (1909-1984), Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) and Agnes Martin (1913-2005). Each of these artists' studio habits has been fundamental to their respective mythologies and the studios they occupied in their lifetimes have inflected discussion of their work. Drawing on critical theories of sexuality, gender and space, this thesis argues that the idea of the artist as a master continues to dominate as an explanation of art-making but that this characterisation is called into question by these four artist's specific practices in the studio. Close readings of the studio habits in these case studies, considered here as a situated negotiation between artist and studio, challenges the idea of mastery that studio-view exhibits and images tend to promote. Notions of mastery are inclined to construct practice as a paradigm between an active artist and passive studio materials and these, in turn, are apt to be read in terms of masculinity and femininity, respectively. Thus, the role of studio artist has tended to privilege a male lead. Therefore, analysing particular performances of masculinity by these artists provides a means to contest reading studio-view images as statements of mastery and the damaging and inequitable connotations this designation implies. Furthermore, this thesis argues that the recent trend to preserve studio material, or to otherwise encompass traces of practice in exhibits, films and photographs, may be correlated with theoretical shifts which took place in latter half of the twentieth century as a response to philosophical losses entailed in the critique of authority and objecthood and the rise of performance and conceptual art practices.