What do young children know about sex? Research on the sexual knowledge of children between the ages of 2 and 6 years

We investigated the sexual knowledge of 63 Dutch children in the age range 2–6 years. Boys and girls were equally represented in the sample. The children had an average, or above‐average IQ and none of them had any experience of sexual abuse. It was found that young children have a very limited knowledge of sexuality. They only possess some basic knowledge of genital differences, gender identity, sexual body parts and (non‐sexual) functions of the genitals. Knowledge of pregnancy and birth, reproduction and adult sexual behaviour was found to be very limited and decreased in the order presented here. Non‐sexually abused children appear to interpret situations that show physical intimacy between adults and children in terms of their own experiences. None of the children talked about sexual activities. Older children generally knew more than younger ones. No significant differences in knowledge between boys and girls were found. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The sexuality scale: An instrument to measure sexual‐esteem,sexual‐depression,and sexual‐preoccupation

This article describes the development of the Sexuality Scale, an instrument designed to measure three aspects of human sexuality: sexual‐esteem, defined as positive regard for and confidence in the capacity to experience one's sexuality in a satisfying and enjoyable way; sexual‐depression, defined as the experience of feelings of depression regarding one's sex life; and sexual‐preoccupation, defined as the tendency to think about sex to an excessive degree. The procedure involved (a) item construction, selection and subsequent validation through item analysis; and (b) a factor analysis of the items on the Sexuality Scale and the establishment of factorial validity. The results indicated that the three subscales were psychometrically sound, that males reported more sexual‐preoccupation than did females, and that the three subscales have unique intercorrelation patterns. The exploratory nature of these findings are discussed.     

The sexuality‐assemblage: desire,affect, anti‐humanism

Two theoretical moves are required to resist the ‘humanist enticements’ associated with sexuality. Post‐structuralism supplies the first, showing how the social produces culturally specific sexual knowledgeabilities. A second anti‐humanist move is then needed to overturn anthropocentric privileging of the human body and subject as the locus of sexuality. In this paper we establish a language and landscape for a Deleuze‐inspired anti‐humanist sociology of sexuality that shifts the location of sexuality away from bodies and individuals. Sexuality in this view is an impersonal affective flow within assemblages of bodies, things, ideas and social institutions, which produces sexual (and other) capacities in bodies. Assemblages territorialize bodies' desire, setting limits on what it can do: this process determines the shape of sexuality, which is consequently both infinitely variable and typically highly restricted. We illustrate how this anti‐humanist ontology may be applied to empirical data to explore sexuality‐assemblages, and conclude by exploring the theoretical and methodological advantages and disadvantages of an anti‐humanist assemblage approach to sexuality.     

Trans Men: Embodiments,Identities, and Sexualities

This article examines the experiences of 25 persons who were assigned female status at birth but do not wish to live as women and take on a masculine or queer gender identity. We employ the concept of “gendered embodiment” and introduce the concept of “sexualized embodiment” to highlight what is involved in this process. We ask how experiencing a masculine gender identity is reflexively tied to a trans man's sexuality and the ways in which these two embodiments are tightly, moderately, or loosely coupled. For example, a tight coupling appeared when trans men began to use testosterone and obtained surgery such as breast removal; a moderate coupling was found where gender validation was sought from a sexual partner (with this being related to sexual preference identities as well as the interpretation of vaginal penetration); the loosest coupling of the gender‐sexuality embodiments was linked to the liberality of the locale and whether “queer” identities could be easily adopted. In sum, our research demonstrates the link between gender and sexuality as a result of the body work trans men do and the historical and geographical situations in which they find themselves.     

Childhood sexual experience and adult offending: an exploratory comparison of three criminal groups

The study explored the links between adult offending and exploitative sexual experiences during childhood. A questionnaire was administered to three criminal groups (child molesters, rapists and non‐sexual offenders) with the aim of investigating the statistical relationships between the men's early childhood sexual experiences. The sample comprised a total of 125 males. Fifty‐eight were in prison for non‐sexual crimes, 23 were serving sentences for rape and the remaining 44 were undergoing therapeutic treatment for their child molestation crime at a special treatment programme within the prison. Significant differences were found across the groups with respect to family context: education, subsequent occupation, religious family background and levels of abuse experienced during childhood. The two sex offending groups reported higher levels of physical and sexual abuse. The rapists reported significantly higher levels of emotional abuse and neglect. The child molester group was more likely to report both consenting and non‐consenting activity with other children and there was significance across the range of sexual behaviours. Higher abuse reporting by the child molester and rapist groups suggests that early experience may influence developmental trajectories and offending pathways. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Conditional Families and Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Transgender, and Queer Youth Homelessness: Gender,Sexuality, Family Instability,and Rejection

Existing research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth homelessness identifies family rejection as a main pathway into homelessness for the youth. This finding, however, can depict people of color or poor people as more prejudiced than White, middle‐class families. In this 18‐month ethnographic study, the author complicates this rejection paradigm through documenting the narratives of 40 LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. The author examines how poverty and family instability shaped the conditions that the youth perceived as their being rejected because of their gender and sexuality. This rejection generated strained familial ties within families wherein the ties were already fragile. Likewise, the author shows how being gender expansive marked many youth's experiences of familial abuse and strain. This study proposes the concept of conditional families to capture the social processes of how poverty and family instability shape experiences of gender, sexuality, and rejection for some LGBTQ youth.     

Women’s Accounts of Heterosexual Experiences in the Context of Menopause

ABSTRACT

A number of biomedical models of female sexuality have emerged during the past few decades, and these have been challenged by feminist theorists who have tended to focus on the influence of contextual issues that mediate women's sexual experiences. In this article, a qualitative analysis of accounts relating to heterosexual experiences obtained from 25 menopausal women in Ireland through in-depth interviews is presented and considered in light of existing theoretical perspectives on sexuality. The average age of women in the sample was 54.2 years, and a diverse range of socioeconomic backgrounds was represented. We found that in describing their contemporary sexual experiences, contextual issues were brought heavily to bear as participants drew on discourses of personal history and biography, including previous relationships, to explain their current sexual experiences. However, a few women foregrounded physiological and biological reasons associated with hormonal changes to explain alterations in their sexual relationship, although overall, these were featured to a far lesser extent compared with their prominent position in biomedical menopause literature. A dominant feature of data was the influence of the discourse of the male sex drive, and many women explained their lesser interest in sexual activity compared with that of their partner in terms of men's nature. The findings suggested that for participants, anxiety around sexuality was socially produced either through the expectation to satisfy a partner, or by dominant discourses that defined sexual engagement as “healthy” and sexual apathy as “unhealthy.”     

Women and citizenship post‐trafficking: the case of Nepal

This article analyses the relationship between gender, sexuality and citizenship embedded in models of citizenship in the Global South, specifically in South Asia, and the meanings associated with having – or not having – citizenship. It does this through an examination of women's access to citizenship in Nepal in the context of the construction of the emergent nation state in the ‘new’ Nepal ‘post‐conflict’. Our analysis explores gendered and sexualized constructions of citizenship in this context through a specific focus on women who have experienced trafficking, and are beginning to organize around rights to sustainable livelihoods and actively lobby for changes in citizenship rules which discriminate against women. Building from this, in the final section we consider important implications of this analysis of post‐trafficking experiences for debates about gender, sexuality and citizenship more broadly.     

Some correlates of women's childhood sexual experiences: A retrospective study

Relatively few empirical studies have addressed long‐range effects of childhood sexual experiences. This study examined the relationships of various childhood sexual experiences to adult functioning in five areas: (a) family relations, (b) depression, (c) marital satisfaction, (d) sexual satisfaction, and (e) self‐esteem. A retrospective survey was conducted with a sample of 501 predominantly middle‐class women. No clinical or offender populations were used. Five standardized scales were used as dependent variables. On none of the five variables were the scores of women with childhood sexual experiences significantly different from those of women with no childhood sexual experiences. However, the interactions of negative experiences, such as the use of force and abusive behavior, with the type of partner, such as a parent or other relative, were significantly associated with adult functioning. Some of the findings challenge commonly held beliefs and have far‐reaching implications for the helping professions and others who study human sexuality.     

Chinese Parents’ Perspectives on Adolescent Sexuality Education

ABSTRACT

There is growing interest in China to understand how young people learn about sexuality, but there are few existing studies about the role of parents as sex educators of their children. This study surveyed 694 Chinese parents of adolescents in three cities about their knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding sexuality education for their children. The majority supported sexuality education, yet few parents had provided it. High-income parents had more favorable sexual attitudes and, in turn, were more likely to educate children about sexuality. The findings provide insight into parents’ role in adolescents’ sexual behavior and can be useful to sexuality education professionals.     

Adolescents' Need to Talk About Sex and Sexuality in an Urban Mental Health Setting

Summary

For many adults, adolescent sexuality is problematic. For adolescents, it may be problematic, powerfully alluring, or simply a part of becoming an adult. Either way, and irrespective of whether they have ever had sex, young persons seeking mental health counseling in an urban mental health clinic express a strong desire to talk about sex and sexuality. Significant gender and age differences are noted in desire to talk about sexuality and mediated by involvement in sexual risk behaviors. Having experienced forced sex is directly related to desire for counseling about sex and sexuality. The findings presented in this article compel clinicians to engage all adolescents in meaningful dialogue about sex and sexuality.     

A pole new world: Maneuvering masculinity and sexuality among men who pole dance

Research on cisgender men's experiences in feminized or women-dominated sports, physical activities, and leisure time has revealed strategies men use to circumvent or maneuver stigmas to minimize negative perceptions. Pole dancing is an under-researched activity uniquely positioned to understand dynamics of gender and sexuality. In this research dialogue, we present preliminary results from 13 semi-structured interviews with U.S. men who pole dance to understand how they navigate masculinity and sexuality in pole dancing. First, we find men very strategically disclose their pole dancing to others in the context of the activity's connections to women, gay men, and sex work. Second, we note how men who “pole” often rely on gender essentialist tropes that reinforce the assumption of natural, biological differences between men and women in attempt to legitimize their participation. Third, men who pole are aware of the potential “creepiness” of their presence in pole dance spaces and use this as an opportunity for reflection. Exploring how men rationalize their participation in pole dance is useful to understand the gender and sexual dynamics of men's presence in women-dominated spaces and broader contemporary masculinities.     

Cognitive Factors and Male Genital Pain: A Preliminary Study

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate how pain catastrophizing and sexually related thoughts help explain pain intensity in men with genital pain. Methods: Fifty men with genital pain completed an online survey. Results: Sexually related thoughts explained an additional 11.5% of variance of pain intensity, above and beyond the influence of pain catastrophizing and medical conditions. Conclusions: Overall, findings showed that cognitions during sexual activity also contribute to explain pain intensity in men with genital pain. Besides the severity of organic factors and pain catastrophizing, sexually-related thoughts should also be included in clinical evaluation and treatment of male genital pain.     

Discursive shifts associated with coming out: A corpus‐based analysis of news reports about Ricky Martin

This study seeks to shed light on the discursive effects of a public sexual identity declaration as they surface in the language used to construct the social actor in question. Subscribing to queer linguistically informed critical discourse studies, it builds on and advances the theoretical discussion of coming out in language and sexuality studies. The investigation analyses a corpus of news reports about Ricky Martin, comparing two sub‐corpora, one with texts published before and another with texts from after Martin's public coming out as a gay man in 2010. A keyword analysis is performed to identify linguistic traces of central discourses manifesting in the two corpora. The quantitative analysis is complemented by an in‐depth qualitative analysis of the discursive construction of ethnicity and sexuality in two sample texts. The findings are discussed in the light of discursive shifts between pre‐ and post‐coming‐out phases and clashes between coming‐out stereotypes and the coming‐out experiences of Latino gay men.     

Chinese parents’ involvement in sexuality education for adolescents

Objectives and Methods: Structural equation modeling was used to examine a model of factors related to the level of involvement of Chinese parents in sexuality education for adolescents. Results: Greater parental education was indirectly related to parental engagement in sexuality education through its relationship with more traditional cultural values, greater perceived knowledge of sexuality, and increased quality of the parent-child relationship. The model was found to be largely consistent regardless of the gender of the parent or child and the residence of the family. Conclusions: Results demonstrate that there are multiple pathways to consider within the topic of Chinese parental involvement in sexuality education.     

All Shook Up: Sexuality of Mid- to Later Life Married Couples

The authors integrate theoretical work on the performance of gender with a life course perspective to frame an analysis of in-depth interviews with 17 long-term married couples. The findings indicated that couples' sexual experiences are characterized by change over time, yet that change is shaped by the intersection of gender and age. Midlife couples (ages 50 - 69) were distressed by changes in their sex lives likely because they impede couples from performing gendered sexuality. The source of this distress stems from age-related physical changes; however, it manifests in different ways for husbands and wives. In contrast, later life couples (ages 70 - 86) were more likely to emphasize the importance of emotional intimacy over sex as they age. Marital sex is a source of conflict for many midlife couples because of husbands' and wives' incongruent experiences, but later life husbands and wives tend to have more congruent experiences of marital sex.     

Restroom restrictions: How race and sexuality have affected bathroom legislation

This research details how current bathroom legislation that discriminates against trans individuals is rooted in the same discriminatory practices that permitted Jim Crow bathroom policies to exist. Sexualities that are considered nonwhite, non‐heterosexual, or non‐cisgendered are considered “othered,” as they are perceived to be a threat to the fertility of cis white women. This study details how sexuality stereotypes have been defined between white and black men and women, homosexual people, and trans‐people (with an emphasis on trans women).     

Seeing Agnes: Notes on a Transgender Biocultural Ethnomethodology

In this article, I revisit Harold Garfinkel's classic ethnomethodological account of Agnes, a transgender woman he met in the 1950s. I situate this case in its larger historical context, within the arc of a contemporary transgender studies, and incorporate recent material from bio‐neuro‐cultural studies of gender and sexuality. Within this framework I ask: what can ethnomethodology learn from transgender studies and what can it contribute.     

“The Way That I Look at Things [Is] Different Because It's Me”: Constructing and Deconstructing Narratives About Racialized Sexual Selves

Many gender scholars have abandoned the notion that we can explore women's experiences without attention to other identities such as race, class, and/or sexual orientation. Until now, the ways race influences the development of sexual selves has been underexplored. In this paper, I focus on heterosexual women's accounts of the interplay of race, gender, and sexualities. Based on in‐depth interviews with sixty‐two white and African American heterosexual women between the ages of twenty and sixty‐eight, I examine the ways in which narrative work tells a story about the presentation of public sexual selves. I also explore how women's personal narratives are impacted by larger cultural narratives about race. Specifically, through a study of sexuality, I focus on the social construction of “postracialism.”