Pub Date : 2023-10-22DOI: 10.1177/13634607231208043
Sophia Zisakou
The aim of this article is to analyse and critique Greek authorities’ expectations for a ‘credible’ account in queer asylum claims. As some of the caseworkers’ accounts portray, through 16 semi-structured interviews, in order to be deemed ‘credibly queer’ applicants are expected to have passed through a painful, discursively narratable process of self-realization and have suffered enough in their ‘queerphobic and oppressive’ countries of origin. At the same time, they are supposed to find safety and protection in Greece, following a linear ‘affective journey’ from oppression to liberation, happiness and pride. However, as this research argues, decision-makers do not always comply with normative expectations but, simultaneously, through their performative assessments, they go beyond them. This way, they do not only reproduce but they often resist the homonationalist discursive framework that governs intelligibility in the asylum process; a framework founded on Eurocentric and white-centred presumptions of the ‘good and happy sexual citizen’ and the ‘bogus sexual other’. By drawing on this situated, from below critique, as well as on postcolonial feminist and queer theory, this article seeks to open up racialized, classed and gendered, normative definitions of queerness to different possibilities that do not conform with neoliberal sexual politics and urges for a more critical interpretation of the Refugee Convention.
{"title":"Proving gender and sexuality in the (homo)nationalist Greek asylum system: Credibility, sexual citizenship and the ‘bogus’ sexual other","authors":"Sophia Zisakou","doi":"10.1177/13634607231208043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607231208043","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this article is to analyse and critique Greek authorities’ expectations for a ‘credible’ account in queer asylum claims. As some of the caseworkers’ accounts portray, through 16 semi-structured interviews, in order to be deemed ‘credibly queer’ applicants are expected to have passed through a painful, discursively narratable process of self-realization and have suffered enough in their ‘queerphobic and oppressive’ countries of origin. At the same time, they are supposed to find safety and protection in Greece, following a linear ‘affective journey’ from oppression to liberation, happiness and pride. However, as this research argues, decision-makers do not always comply with normative expectations but, simultaneously, through their performative assessments, they go beyond them. This way, they do not only reproduce but they often resist the homonationalist discursive framework that governs intelligibility in the asylum process; a framework founded on Eurocentric and white-centred presumptions of the ‘good and happy sexual citizen’ and the ‘bogus sexual other’. By drawing on this situated, from below critique, as well as on postcolonial feminist and queer theory, this article seeks to open up racialized, classed and gendered, normative definitions of queerness to different possibilities that do not conform with neoliberal sexual politics and urges for a more critical interpretation of the Refugee Convention.","PeriodicalId":51454,"journal":{"name":"Sexualities","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135462663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-19DOI: 10.1177/13634607231208054
Lieke Schrijvers
{"title":"Book Review: Queer Judaism: LGBT activism and the remaking of Jewish Orthodoxy in Israel","authors":"Lieke Schrijvers","doi":"10.1177/13634607231208054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607231208054","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51454,"journal":{"name":"Sexualities","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135778923","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-16DOI: 10.1177/13634607231208047
Kari A Lerum
{"title":"Book Review: Camming: Money, Power, and Pleasure in the Sex Work Industry","authors":"Kari A Lerum","doi":"10.1177/13634607231208047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607231208047","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51454,"journal":{"name":"Sexualities","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136079371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-20DOI: 10.1177/13634607231201736
Toni Daniel, Jessica Lamb, Christine Campbell
It is well known that sex workers experience high levels of stigma. This research examined the techniques sex workers use to ameliorate the emotional and practical impacts of that stigma. Twenty female sex workers with varying roles of escorts, porn actresses, camgirls and content creators were interviewed. Our participants revealed that they used avoidance techniques, such as selective disclosure and the construction of alternate personas. Interestingly, they also reported that they employed positive techniques, such as being unapologetic and deriving confidence from their profession. We suggest that teaching stigma management techniques could be an important tool for sex work organisations to support both established and newer sex workers.
{"title":"Avoidance and empowerment: How do sex workers navigate stigma?","authors":"Toni Daniel, Jessica Lamb, Christine Campbell","doi":"10.1177/13634607231201736","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607231201736","url":null,"abstract":"It is well known that sex workers experience high levels of stigma. This research examined the techniques sex workers use to ameliorate the emotional and practical impacts of that stigma. Twenty female sex workers with varying roles of escorts, porn actresses, camgirls and content creators were interviewed. Our participants revealed that they used avoidance techniques, such as selective disclosure and the construction of alternate personas. Interestingly, they also reported that they employed positive techniques, such as being unapologetic and deriving confidence from their profession. We suggest that teaching stigma management techniques could be an important tool for sex work organisations to support both established and newer sex workers.","PeriodicalId":51454,"journal":{"name":"Sexualities","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136307858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-20DOI: 10.1177/13634607231201735
Sarah Lamble
This article analyses a widely publicised case in England, where a trans woman was remanded to a women’s prison and subsequently sexually assaulted other women prisoners. The article traces how the case was politically mobilised to support a growing backlash against trans rights in Britain. The article argues that the case was successfully deployed by trans-hostile groups because of a combination of carceral politics and sexual exceptionalism, which cut across both left and right politics and has roots in racialised narratives of ‘dangerous others'. These narratives, while ostensibly claiming to guard against sexual violence, paradoxically limit the capacity to meaningfully address underlying causes of sexual harm.
{"title":"Sexual peril and dangerous others: The moral economies of the trans prisoner policy debates in England and Wales","authors":"Sarah Lamble","doi":"10.1177/13634607231201735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607231201735","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses a widely publicised case in England, where a trans woman was remanded to a women’s prison and subsequently sexually assaulted other women prisoners. The article traces how the case was politically mobilised to support a growing backlash against trans rights in Britain. The article argues that the case was successfully deployed by trans-hostile groups because of a combination of carceral politics and sexual exceptionalism, which cut across both left and right politics and has roots in racialised narratives of ‘dangerous others'. These narratives, while ostensibly claiming to guard against sexual violence, paradoxically limit the capacity to meaningfully address underlying causes of sexual harm.","PeriodicalId":51454,"journal":{"name":"Sexualities","volume":"183 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136314459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-11DOI: 10.1177/13634607231200969
Marjolein de Boer
This empirical phenomenological study examines women’s sexual identity work in menopause. It shows that women’s self-understandings are at stake and take shape through a negotiation of dis/connectedness from/to others in sexual activities. Four negotiations are distinguished: (1) lessening with the other, (2) self-familiarizing (3) experimenting with others, and (4) giving oneself to the other. Herein, sexual identity work is revealed to be a precarious practice. In making sense of oneself, often through new sexual activities, women balance the tightrope of dis/connecting with others and norms, while facing the possibility that they may lose themselves and others in the process.
{"title":"“Becumming” oneself as one relates to others: An empirical phenomenological study about sexual identity work in menopause","authors":"Marjolein de Boer","doi":"10.1177/13634607231200969","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607231200969","url":null,"abstract":"This empirical phenomenological study examines women’s sexual identity work in menopause. It shows that women’s self-understandings are at stake and take shape through a negotiation of dis/connectedness from/to others in sexual activities. Four negotiations are distinguished: (1) lessening with the other, (2) self-familiarizing (3) experimenting with others, and (4) giving oneself to the other. Herein, sexual identity work is revealed to be a precarious practice. In making sense of oneself, often through new sexual activities, women balance the tightrope of dis/connecting with others and norms, while facing the possibility that they may lose themselves and others in the process.","PeriodicalId":51454,"journal":{"name":"Sexualities","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135981713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-08DOI: 10.1177/13634607231200548
Michelle Liang
Through following sentiments of nostalgia and loss through leathermen’s personal narratives, and an analysis of 110 influential leather images, this article argues that constructed histories of the Dutch gay male leather scene reflect a nostalgia for a lost white gay masculinity that reproduces Dutch-centric conceptions of tolerance, freedom, and self. In these constructed pasts, the Dutch leather brotherhood purportedly developed as a space of exceptional acceptance, protected from encroaching straight and effeminate gay cultures in the 1970s. These memories feature a conceptualization of sexual freedom as indistinguishable from sexual expression, reflecting ideas of freedom and tolerance rooted in Dutch liberalism. Leather memorialization of sexual freedom mobilizes liberal conceptions of autonomy and self that locate freedom in expression, bound sexual pleasure to the individual, and disconnect it from sociopolitical contexts. In influential erotic images of hyperwhite men covered in black leather and dirt, the rare but exclusive appearance of people of color in racist sexual tropes reveals the racist discourse underlying imaginations of the past erotic scene. These constructed pasts continue to haunt larger fetish culture even after the closure of beloved leather bars—shaping their self-identities into the present, inflecting upon their current participation in leather culture, and creating the meaning they derive from this community.
{"title":"Leather nostalgia: Constructed histories of Dutch leathermen through national discourses of tolerance and white innocence","authors":"Michelle Liang","doi":"10.1177/13634607231200548","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607231200548","url":null,"abstract":"Through following sentiments of nostalgia and loss through leathermen’s personal narratives, and an analysis of 110 influential leather images, this article argues that constructed histories of the Dutch gay male leather scene reflect a nostalgia for a lost white gay masculinity that reproduces Dutch-centric conceptions of tolerance, freedom, and self. In these constructed pasts, the Dutch leather brotherhood purportedly developed as a space of exceptional acceptance, protected from encroaching straight and effeminate gay cultures in the 1970s. These memories feature a conceptualization of sexual freedom as indistinguishable from sexual expression, reflecting ideas of freedom and tolerance rooted in Dutch liberalism. Leather memorialization of sexual freedom mobilizes liberal conceptions of autonomy and self that locate freedom in expression, bound sexual pleasure to the individual, and disconnect it from sociopolitical contexts. In influential erotic images of hyperwhite men covered in black leather and dirt, the rare but exclusive appearance of people of color in racist sexual tropes reveals the racist discourse underlying imaginations of the past erotic scene. These constructed pasts continue to haunt larger fetish culture even after the closure of beloved leather bars—shaping their self-identities into the present, inflecting upon their current participation in leather culture, and creating the meaning they derive from this community.","PeriodicalId":51454,"journal":{"name":"Sexualities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42016125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-06DOI: 10.1177/13634607231200552
Z. Saeidzadeh
In this paper, I explore the socio-legal status of trans women in contemporary Iran especially as it relates to Gender Affirmation Surgery. More specifically, I try to understand how trans women embody gender by investigating gender practices and relations in family, law, and medicine. Based on my fieldwork in Iran, the findings suggest that aberu – a phenomenon specific to Iranian culture – plays a big role in shaping trans women’s lives. By bringing together feminist philosopher Nancy Fraser’s work on the politics of recognition and sociologist Raewyn Connell’s understanding of social embodiment, I discuss how the status of trans women is pervasively misrecognised and how they are denied economic participation and democratic representation in Iranian society. Adopting the method of thematic analysis, I argue that the social pressure associated with aberu, and the lack of legal protection have made trans women simultaneously invisible and yet also subject to violence. Finally, I discuss how trans women go through the process of gender embodiment by problematising misrecognition, redefining femininity, and reclaiming womanhood through everyday life challenges.
{"title":"Trans women’s status in contemporary Iran: Misrecognition and the cultural politics of aberu","authors":"Z. Saeidzadeh","doi":"10.1177/13634607231200552","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607231200552","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, I explore the socio-legal status of trans women in contemporary Iran especially as it relates to Gender Affirmation Surgery. More specifically, I try to understand how trans women embody gender by investigating gender practices and relations in family, law, and medicine. Based on my fieldwork in Iran, the findings suggest that aberu – a phenomenon specific to Iranian culture – plays a big role in shaping trans women’s lives. By bringing together feminist philosopher Nancy Fraser’s work on the politics of recognition and sociologist Raewyn Connell’s understanding of social embodiment, I discuss how the status of trans women is pervasively misrecognised and how they are denied economic participation and democratic representation in Iranian society. Adopting the method of thematic analysis, I argue that the social pressure associated with aberu, and the lack of legal protection have made trans women simultaneously invisible and yet also subject to violence. Finally, I discuss how trans women go through the process of gender embodiment by problematising misrecognition, redefining femininity, and reclaiming womanhood through everyday life challenges.","PeriodicalId":51454,"journal":{"name":"Sexualities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46756351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-06DOI: 10.1177/13634607231201723
Larissa S. Christensen
The representation of women who engage in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offenses in the media is important to understand because the misconstruction of offending may marginalize victims of these offenses and stymie the reporting by victims. The current study aimed to explore how women who perpetrate CSAM offenses are represented in the media. A search of all newspaper articles reporting CSAM offenses perpetrated by women published in English over a 6-month period (1 May 2020 to 31 October 2020) was conducted ( N = 68 articles). A qualitative content analysis identified three themes: (1) newspaper headings do not suggest women, including mothers, engage in CSAM offending; (2) women who co-offend are actively involved in the CSAM offending; and (3) CSAM cases perpetrated by women are reported factually as opposed to emotively. Overall, the findings are positive, indicating advancements in the factual, as opposed to stereotypical, reporting of women who engage in CSAM offenses.
{"title":"Exploring the uncomfortable topic of women who engage in child sexual abuse material offenses: How are they represented in the media?","authors":"Larissa S. Christensen","doi":"10.1177/13634607231201723","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607231201723","url":null,"abstract":"The representation of women who engage in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offenses in the media is important to understand because the misconstruction of offending may marginalize victims of these offenses and stymie the reporting by victims. The current study aimed to explore how women who perpetrate CSAM offenses are represented in the media. A search of all newspaper articles reporting CSAM offenses perpetrated by women published in English over a 6-month period (1 May 2020 to 31 October 2020) was conducted ( N = 68 articles). A qualitative content analysis identified three themes: (1) newspaper headings do not suggest women, including mothers, engage in CSAM offending; (2) women who co-offend are actively involved in the CSAM offending; and (3) CSAM cases perpetrated by women are reported factually as opposed to emotively. Overall, the findings are positive, indicating advancements in the factual, as opposed to stereotypical, reporting of women who engage in CSAM offenses.","PeriodicalId":51454,"journal":{"name":"Sexualities","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45161622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}