Culture, Health & Sexuality最新文献

In the USA, sexual-minority women experience disparities in healthcare access, quality, and outcomes, shaped by entanglements of gender/sex, sexuality, and institutional norms. While intersectionality has been central to understanding these structural inequities, it does not always account for the shifting, situational nature of how identifications develop in specific encounters. Drawing on identitarian articulations theory, this study explores how sexual-minority women's identifications are differentially activated across healthcare settings. Based on in-depth interviews with fifteen US-based sexual-minority women aged 31 to 73 years, the analysis reveals how identifications materialise through intra-actions with human and non-human elements, including provider attitudes, spatial arrangements, medical protocols, and affective atmospheres. Findings highlight five analytic advantages of this approach: capturing the contingency of identifications, recognising non-human elements, accounting for differential articulation, emphasising affective dimensions, and expanding intervention possibilities. This perspective moves beyond static identity frameworks and individual-level solutions, offering a flexible, relational model for understanding and transforming healthcare practices and environments.

Abortion has been a common experience for Irish women for decades, despite being illegal in most circumstances in Ireland until the implementation of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018 on 1 January 2019. Cultural attitudes to abortion in Ireland are fraught with stigma, secrecy, and shame. However, little attention has been given to the nature of psychotherapeutic work with women in Ireland who have had an abortion. In this study, semi-structured interviews were used to explore six psychotherapists' experiences of working with women who had had an abortion and had sought psychotherapeutic professional help. A reflexive thematic analysis generated three themes conveying the importance of therapists' self-reflection, which enabled a tender, considered and congruent approach to the complex nature of the work, and honoured the needs of the client. The findings do not suggest a pathologising view of abortion but provide insights into the needs of women who have had an abortion and have sought psychotherapeutic support. Findings can inform the psychotherapeutic care for women who have had an abortion and have been psychologically affected by their abortion experiences.

Sugar relationships, defined as contractual arrangements between older individuals (sugar daddies or mommies) and younger counterparts (sugar babies), often involve financial support in exchange for companionship. This study explores the dynamics of sugar relationships from the perspective of sugar babies in Tehran, Iran. A qualitative methodology utilising content analysis was employed. Participants were recruited via purposive snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews conducted with twelve sugar babies (six women and six men) between September 2023 to February 2024. Data analysis was informed by Granheim and Lundman's inductive content analysis method and resulted in the identification of three major themes (1) reflections on experience: motivations and personal journeys, which describes the motivations and experiences of sugar babies; (2) seeking greater satisfaction with fewer responsibilities, detailing sugar babies definitions of their relationships; and (3) sugar relationships as conflicting experiences, addressing societal judgements and the internal conflicts faced by sugar babies. Findings revealed that participants engage in these relationships to enhance personal satisfaction and seek a less burdensome path in life. Sugar relationships are consensual arrangements often involving financial transactions and sexual activities, challenging traditional perceptions and positioning themselves as a new form of sex work.

Infertility remains a contentious cultural and social issue in Nigeria, where reproductive competence for women is still entangled with femininity as well as acceptability in society. This study examined the effects of cultural beliefs, societal expectations, and gender in Nigerian (Nollywood) films portraying infertility, with special reference to stigma, psychological distress, and their effects. Results show that the films predominantly portray infertility as a problem of women, with portrayals being strongly influenced by societal expectations regarding motherhood. Female characters are frequently shown as emotionally distressed, facing social exclusion, and enduring intense pressure from their families and communities to meet dominant reproductive expectations. Films also display a negative attitude towards the use of assisted reproduction technologies, such as in vitro fertilisation and surrogacy. These representations reflect current gendered realities and reinforce the operation of patriarchy as a system of power that maintains male dominance and female subordination. From a sociocultural and feminist perspective, the study points to the need for future Nollywood narratives to move beyond these complex and often limiting representations towards more equitable portrayals of gender and power.

The understanding and management of menstrual symptoms, including period pain, is informed by social, cultural and religious beliefs and practices. Much previous work on menstrual management in Australia has focused on Caucasian women. This study aimed to address this gap by exploring how cultural and religious discourses and practices impact on the knowledge, diagnosis and management of menstrual pain among Middle Eastern women living in Australia using a combination of cross-sectional survey and focus group data. A total of 75 survey respondents, and 12 focus group participants from Middle Eastern backgrounds, aged between 18 and 45, participated in the study. Thematic analysis found menstruation a taboo topic even for second-generation participants, with negative implications for experiences of menarche and menstrual literacy, often leading to difficulties with menstrual management. Cultural discourse surrounding premarital virginity impacted some women's understanding of menstrual disorders, limited the types of menstrual products used, and influenced treatment types to manage period pain. Women drew on a range of contemporary and culturally prescribed self-management strategies, including over the counter medications, heat, and traditional herbs. Increasing awareness of period pain through co-designed, culturally sensitive menstrual health promotion activities is crucial.

This article examines how male circumcision ceremonies in Türkiye are being reconfigured within digital platforms, focusing on their performative, affective, and gendered dimensions. Drawing on a purposive sampling of publicly accessible Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube posts (2022-2024), we analysed reels, captions, hashtags, comments, and visuals curated under culturally specific tags such as #sunnetdugunu (circumcision ceremony), #sunnet (circumcision), #sunnetannesi (circumcision mother) and #sunnetbabasi (circumcision father) #erkekligegiris (introduction to manhood). Findings reveal a gendered division of aesthetic and affective labour: mothers are positioned as the orchestrators of emotional intensity and visual spectacle; fathers embody restrained authority and patriarchal stability; and boys are staged as future masculine subjects through ceremonial attire, convoy displays, and performative rites of passage. Far from destabilising tradition, social media amplifies hegemonic masculinity and normative femininity by transforming family rituals into algorithmically visible spectacles.

The objective of this study was to understand aromantic peoples' experiences of intra-community discrimination within the Queer community. Methods included thematic analysis of open-ended data, drawn from a convenience sample of aromantic individuals from a cross-sectional, online, international survey. Thematic analysis led to the identification of three themes. The first elucidated how discrimination against aromantic people within the Queer community is so prevalent that those who have not experienced it consider themselves lucky. A second theme centred on discriminatory attitudes which were largely governed by ignorance and misunderstanding about aromanticism and worked to exclude aromantic people from fuller participation within the Queer community. The third theme explained how intra-community discrimination causes some aromantic people to disengage from the Queer community. Discrimination faced by aromantic people within the Queer community has negative implications for mental health and wellbeing within aromantic communities. Aromantic people, as well as members of the wider Queer community, stand to benefit from efforts to ensure aromantic people are included and affirmed within the Queer community.

This study examined how adolescents in Rural Tanzania navigate social norms governing their access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services. Informed by Giddens' Structuration Theory, we adopted a qualitative case study approach. Data were collected between March and June 2025 through 60 in-depth interviews and six focus group discussions (two in each ward) with adolescents and young people aged 14-19, as well as with six healthcare workers in Nyasa District. Thematic analysis, guided by Braun and Clarke's six-step framework, revealed three interrelated patterns of agency: norm reproduction, norm resistance, and norm negotiation. Adolescents and young people reproduced dominant norms by prioritising social acceptance through social conformity and behavioural self-regulation in line with community expectations, resistance through discreet strategies such as covert clinic visits, and norm negotiation by balancing compliance with selective access to services. In a context marked by rural poverty, intergenerational authority, and stigmatising gender expectations, adolescents actively navigated constraints while seeking to maintain dignity and community belonging. This study contributes to scholarship on social norms and adolescent health by advancing a nuanced understanding of how young people exercise agency within a restrictive cultural context. It also offers practical insights into culturally responsive interventions that move beyond policy rhetoric to address lived realities.

This descriptive qualitative study explored Jordanian and Syrian adolescents' understandings of available sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information sources and identified their perceived barriers to accessing these sources. The sample consisted of 179 adolescent participants aged 15-19 who were enrolled from community centres in the four main cities of northern and central Jordan. Same-sex trained facilitators guided focus groups to generate discussions. Thematic analysis found that adolescents frequently expressed how conservative social norms, referred to as the 'culture of shame,' prohibited them from accessing and obtaining accurate SRH information. The 'taboo' surrounding SRH in Jordanian society made adolescents feel embarrassed and judged when seeking SRH information. Intergenerational dialogue regarding SRH was generally prohibited and limited. Despite the cultural shame surrounding reproduction and sexuality, participants identified diverse sources in their quest for adequate and reliable SRH information. This study underscores the need for culturally acceptable and youth-friendly SRH services and information. Efforts should be directed towards meeting adolescents, and young people's needs in this regard. Additionally, the sensitive nature of SRH topics for Jordanian adolescents and their parents should be considered.

This study examines how COVID-19 restrictions influenced the location of first sexual intercourse among Mexican university students. The sample included 221 students who initiated sexual activity during the pandemic and 162 who did so before or after. During the pandemic, there was a significant change, with a reduction in sexual relations at parents' houses (from 54.9% to 40.3%) and an increase in first sex in rented/borrowed houses (from 9.3% to 19.5%) and outdoor spaces (from 2.5% to 9.5%). However, at all times, even during pandemic restrictions, the parents' house remained the most common site for first sexual intercourse (46.5%). Other notable locations included hotels/motels (22.7%), rented/borrowed houses (15.1%), cars (9.1%), urban outdoors (3.7%), and rural outdoors (2.9%). Those who first started having sex during the pandemic displayed a lower level of interest in sexual activity (inhibited sexual desire (ISD) score: 3.39 vs 2.64, p = .006), initiated later (17.92 vs 16.95 years, p < .001), and had fewer partners (2.18 vs 2.77, p = .048). These findings highlight the continued importance of the parental home as a key site for first sexual activity among students, but with key shifts in location linked to pandemic restrictions.