Social and Health Service Use and Treatment Outcomes for Sexual Minorities in a National Sample of Substance Abuse Treatment Programs

This study examines substance use severity, levels of social and health service utilization, and the impact of service utilization on treatment outcomes for sexual minorities versus non-minorities. The sample included 3,094 clients from the National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (NTIES). Substance use severity among sexual minorities and non-sexual minorities was similar at treatment entry and at 12 months post-discharge. Differences in social and health service utilization were significant for substance abuse counseling and health services. Significant interactions between sexuality and access services and sexuality and mental health services were also found. Practice and research implications are discussed.     

Emotional Satisfaction and Physical Pleasure in Sexual Unions: Time Horizon,Sexual Behavior,and Sexual Exclusivity

This paper uses data from the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey to examine emotional satisfaction and physical pleasure from sex in intimate unions for adults in the U.S. Using perspectives from evolutionary biology and rational choice theory, we examine the effects of the following factors on emotional satisfaction and physical pleasure: time horizon expected for the relationship, sexual behavior within the relationship, and sexual exclusivity. We find a significant effect of measures for all 3 of these dimensions on emotional satisfaction with sex. For both men and women, time horizon and sexual exclusivity are more strongly tied to emotional satisfaction than they are to physical pleasure from sex, but sexual behavior has the same impact on emotional satisfaction as it does on physical pleasure.     

Sexual Harassment in the Creative Industries: Tolerance,Culture and the Need for Change

The economic, social and cultural contributions of the creative industries are essential elements of many societies and their governments' policies. However, there is growing evidence that precarity, competition and lack of regulation within these industries is exacerbating inequalities with respect to gender, race and class. With a focus on gender and sexual harassment among female workers, this study involved 32 in‐depth interviews with women working in the Netherlands' creative industries. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Findings suggest that sexual harassment is prevalent, and many women considered it to be part of their occupational culture and career advancement. Four factors influenced this phenomenon: competition for work; industry culture; gendered power relations; and the importance of informal networks. Implications include the need for a climate of non‐tolerance, sector‐specific research and guidelines, sensitivity training and further work with unions and professional associations to provide worker protection strategies traditionally undertaken by organizations. The article concludes that effective sexual harassment prevention requires action at the individual, educational, sectoral and governmental levels, beginning with public conversations to convey the message that sexual harassment is never acceptable.     

Sexual Behavior,Sexual Knowledge,and Sexual Attitudes of Emerging Adult Women: Implications for Working With Families

The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to examine the sexual behavior of emerging adult women in relation to their sexual knowledge, sexual attitudes, and perceptions of their parents' sexual attitudes; and second, to discuss the implications of this research in working with young adult women. Three hundred and sixty-four college-age women were administered the Sexual Experiences Inventory, Miller-Fisk Sexual Knowledge Questionnaire, and the Hendrick Sexual Attitude Scale. Ninety-six percent of the sample reported primarily heterosexual behavior. Sexual knowledge of participants was not related to their reports of sexual behavior. The sexual attitudes of college-age women and their perceptions of their parents' attitudes toward sexual behavior were found to relate positively to participant sexual permissiveness and sexual practice. The implications of these findings were discussed in relation to working with families and providing effective interventions to reduce unsafe sexual practices among emerging adult women.     

Over the rainbow: Sexual minorities' bonding and bridging social capital and civic engagement

This study examines sexual minorities' participation in civic engagement using the theory of social capital. The analysis of the data from a US national survey shows that sexual minorities' bonding capital within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is positively associated with their civic engagement on LGBT issues, while it is negatively associated with their participation in activities addressing other social issues. Sexual minorities' bridging social capital as generalized trust is positively associated with their civic engagement for non-LGBT issues, but it has no statistically significant relationship with their civic engagement on LGBT issues. Overall, the findings reveal that sexual minorities' civic engagement beyond LGBT activism is closely related to their generalized trust and reciprocity in society. These findings suggest that an organizational culture of non-discrimination and equity will help create more diverse and inclusive philanthropy.     

Femininity Ideology and Sexual Health in Young Women: A focus on Sexual Knowledge,Embodiment, and Agency

ABSTRACT

Traditional femininity ideology is associated with diminished sexual agency in women; yet we know little about its connection to sexual knowledge or experiences of one's body during sex. This study examined how femininity ideology related to sexual health knowledge, body comfort during sex, condom self-efficacy, and sexual assertiveness in college-age women. Femininity ideologies were related to decreased sexual-risk knowledge and lowered body esteem during sex. Femininity ideologies were also related to decreased sexual assertiveness and condom use self-efficacy. Results highlight the importance of understanding the association between femininity ideologies and sexual knowledge acquisition as an aspect of sexual agency, as well as sexual embodiment, in addition to the more commonly studied sexual self-efficacy and assertiveness.     

Lukewarm Nationalism: The 2020 Tokyo Olympics,Social Media and Affective Communities

This article considers the way in which a new nationalism is being created in the age of the Internet and social media by looking at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and other Games in the past. The development of media technology from film, radio, and television to the Internet and social media has changed the character of the Olympic Games as media event. It has been argued that these developments have created a shared consciousness, a sense of belonging and enthusiastic nationalism in the age of modern nation‐state. While the spread of the Internet and social media was originally expected to contribute to globalization or to the emergence of global citizens in a global village, as McLuhan once predicted, it seems that the world is more divided, fragmented, and fluid than ever. At the same time, the digital media organize various layers of community not only by ideology but also by affect: affective communities. This often leads to the rise of chauvinistic nationalism in developed countries. With reference to McLuhan's famous argument on hot and cool media, the article tries to examine the character of contemporary lukewarm nationalism in the age of digital media.     

Making Hakka Spaces: Resisting Multicultural Nationalism in Taiwan

Projects of official nationalism have long been understood as state-sponsored attempts at enforcing cultural uniformity within the borders of the national territory. Contemporary nationalisms tend to compartmentalize minority cultural groups in a way that marginalizes those who are not seen as belonging to the core of the “modern” nation. Contemporary official Taiwanese nationalism promotes the “ethnic Taiwanese” (Hokkien) majority as the modern center of an otherwise diverse nation, primarily through the funding and ‘preservation’ of non-Hokkien cultural traditions. Though these programs that celebrate local cultures are more inclusive than earlier nationalisms in Taiwan, the terms of inclusion nonetheless function as a form of neoliberal state control of minorities, such as the Hakka (kejia ren). This article examines how Hakka “culture workers” (wenhua gongzuozhe) resist state attempts at spatial and symbolic marginalization. From producing ethnographies that create a Hakka neighborhood to organizing a parade route that symbolically links that neighborhood to Taipei's government and financial centers, Hakka culture workers resist multicultural nationalism by making Hakka spaces that are resistant to state attempts to marginalize them. I argue that their work is a prime example of how communities and individuals can successfully negotiate the cultural and spatial politics of the neoliberal state.     

Religion,Nationalism, and Transnational Civil Society in the Eritrean Diaspora

This article examines the emergence and significance of religion among Eritreans in the United States as a basis for building community in diaspora, reconfiguring nationalist identity, and constituting transnational civil society. It argues three related points: that religious identity and gatherings help mitigate against fractured political identities that have weakened secular diaspora associations; that practicing Eritrean identity through religion challenges the hegemonic power of the Eritrean state to transnationally control diaspora communities and dictate national identity; and that the very incipience of religious bodies as transnational avenues provides Eritreans in diaspora with an autonomous space to resist the state's totalizing demands. Through a critical ethnographic investigation of religious identity and church bodies in Eritrea and one United States diaspora community, the article shows that uneven transnational networks between the United States and Eritrea create new spaces for political action. Specifically, the relative autonomy of churches and the incipience of their transnationalism allow diaspora Eritreans to use religion in the constitution of an emergent transnational civil society.     

Child Sexual Abuse,Sexual Anxiety,and Sexual Satisfaction: The Role of Self-Capacities

Research indicates that child sexual abuse produces lasting alterations in interpersonal relatedness, identity, and affect regulation, often referred to as self-capacity disturbance. Child sexual abuse also has been shown to negatively impact sexual functioning. This study examined the role of altered self-capacities in mediating the relationship between child sexual abuse and sexual responses. Path analysis revealed that child sexual abuse was related to sexual anxiety and decreased sexual satisfaction through its association with reduced self-awareness and a propensity to be involved in difficult interpersonal relationships.     

Brief Report: Sexual Wellbeing in Heterosexual,Mostly Heterosexual,and Bisexually Attracted Men and Women

Abstract

Objective: To assess differences in sexual wellbeing among men and women with exclusively heterosexual, mostly heterosexual, and bisexual attractions. Method: An anonymous online survey in a convenience sample of 597 young adults (394 women, 203 men; average age = 20.04) assessed patterns of sexual attraction, desire, sexual functioning, and sexual satisfaction using validated questionnaires. Results: Individuals with mostly heterosexual attractions reported significantly higher solitary sexual desire than exclusively heterosexual individuals (women: d?=?0.64; men: d?=?0.68). Partnered sexual desire did not differ between groups. Women with exclusively heterosexual attractions reported significantly higher sexual functioning and satisfaction than either mostly heterosexual or bisexually attracted women (functioning: d?=?0.29; satisfaction: d?=?0.47). Men with mostly heterosexual attractions reported significantly lower sexual functioning than either exclusively heterosexual or bisexually attracted men (d?=?0.40). Conclusions: There were significant differences between exclusively vs. mostly heterosexual individuals in several aspects of sexual wellbeing, supporting the assertion that mostly heterosexual may constitute a distinct orientation. Taken together with prior research showing higher rates of sexual dysfunction in bisexual women, these findings highlight sexual health disparities among nonmonosexual women. Efforts to support the sexual wellbeing of sexual minority individuals should include consideration of mostly heterosexual individuals, as this population may have unique sexual health needs.     

Social Citizenship Guarantee for Minorities in Japan: Present and Future

In recent years, the presence of minorities and their ways of life have become the subject of public interest in Japan. These minorities have experienced misrecognition and denial of their rights, and have been forced to live without benefiting from social redistribution. However, the lack of acceptance of minorities or their ways of life by majorities is being challenged. These aspects of recognition and redistribution are matters of universal human dignity. They are indispensable when considering issues of security in the lives of minorities. To achieve this security it is necessary to consider social citizenship. It described the way we are treated in society. In this article I examine the current state of social citizenship for minorities in Japan. An analysis of the contents and characteristics of social policy and social security systems in which social citizenship is embodied suggests that social citizenship in Japan is still strongly based on traditional social standards. This traditional orientation constitutes an obstacle to guaranteeing social citizenship for minorities. Moreover, the more serious inherent problem is that neither the concept of citizenship nor that of rights has been adequately accepted by the people. Given these points, it is unsurprising that the majority perceives minorities as deviant, and this situation has made guarantees of social citizenship for minorities much more difficult. A full guarantee of social citizenship for minorities requires further efforts to be made in human rights education and citizenship education.     

Nationalism,gender and sexuality in the autobiographical writing of two Afrikaner women

This article makes the point that autobiography, a genre often considered marginal to the literary canon, can be regarded as a site for examining the impact of nationalism on the construction of gendered and sexual identity. It investigates questions of nationalism, gender and sexuality in the autobiographical texts of Petronella van Heerden and Elsa Joubert. Petronella van Heerden (1887–1975) became the first Afrikaner woman to qualify as a medical doctor and published two short autobiographical texts, Kerssnuitsels (‘Candle Snuffings’) and Die sestiende koppie (‘the Sixteenth Cup’), in the early 1960s. Elsa Joubert (1922–) established herself as one of the most important novelists in Afrikaans literature and published the first part of her autobiography, titled ’n Wonderlike geweld (‘A Wonderful Violence’), in 2005. The article argues that van Heerden’s omission of overt references to her lesbianism can be attributed to the strong, though embattled, position of Afrikaner nationalism at the time her texts were published. With regard to Joubert’s autobiography, the article makes the point that the text demonstrates the erotic appeal of the nationalist spectacle, constituted by events surrounding the Second Trek in 1938.     

The dog that hasn't barked: assimilation and resistance in Inner Mongolia,China

As one of China's five autonomous regions, Inner Mongolia has not been highlighted in the international news, and the Mongols have not demonstrated significant political will for greater autonomy in the way the Tibetans and the Uighurs have in recent decades. Why haven't the Mongols mobilized? This paper argues that the Mongols' lack of aspiration for greater autonomy is in part due to the relationship between Inner Mongolia and Mongolia as an independent kin state. The different trajectories of national identity construction in these two places and the perception of better living conditions in Inner Mongolia have made the Inner Mongols less anxious about their current incorporation within the Chinese state.     

Child Sexual Abuse,Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,and Substance Use: Predictors of Revictimization in Adult Sexual Assault Survivors

This study examined the unique effects of child sexual abuse simultaneously with post-traumatic stress disorder symptom clusters, problem drinking, and illicit drug use in relation to sexual revictimization in a community sample of female adult sexual assault victims. Participants (N?=?555) completed two surveys a year apart. Child sexual abuse predicted more post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in adult sexual assault victims. Post-traumatic stress disorder numbing symptoms directly predicted revictimization, whereas other post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms (reexperiencing, avoidance, and arousal) were related to problem drinking, which in turn predicted revictimization. Thus, numbing symptoms and problem drinking may be independent risk factors for sexual revictimization in adult sexual assault victims, particularly for women with a history of childhood sexual abuse.     

The Relationship between Sexual Minority Status and Suicidal Ideations among Urban Hispanic Adolescents

Youth identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ), and more specifically Hispanic youth identifying as LGBTQ, experience suicidal ideation (SI) at disproportionate rates. Furthermore, adolescents identifying as LGBTQ are likely to experience high rates of bullying, depression, and limited social support, increasing SI. Counselors often have difficulty working with youth at the intersection of sexual and ethnic minority statuses. Using structural equation modeling techniques, the present study examined sexual minority status as a predictor of school bullying, depression, social support, and SI, among urban Hispanic youth (N = 538). The authors also tested social support as a buffering mechanism.     

‘Go on,Go on,Go on’: Sexual Consent,Child Sexual Exploitation and Cups of Tea

This novel paper critically addresses a currently popular sex education resource which compares sexual consent to tea drinking. Drawing from a study which considered the meaning of consent through focus groups and interviews with young people and professionals, we argue that the central ‘risk avoidance’ message of such resources individualises the potential risks of non‐consensual sex and ignores the gendered social structures which shape interpersonal relationships. We suggest that simplifying and extrapolating sexual consent from broader cultural understandings is problematic. Conversations with young people are important, but they need to address the complexity of sexual consent, coercion and gendered sexual norms.     

Civil Society,Economic Distress,and Social Tolerance

The idea that civil society is declining has been much discussed recently, for example, by Fukuyama (Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. New York: Free Press, 1995) and Putnam (The American Prospect 13 (Spring):35–42, 19937semi; Nobel Symposium, Uppsala, Sweden, August 27–30, 1994; PS: Political Science and Politics, December: 664–683:. At the same time, another stream of research suggests that racial tolerance is increasing through time (Quillian, American Journal of Sociology 101 (3):816–860, 1996; Firebaugh and Davis, American Journal of Sociology 94 (2):251–272. This paper combines ideas from several intellectual traditions to suggest that economic conditions may affect civil society, which in turn may influence social tolerance. These ideas are explored, using multivariate analysis of pooled General Social Survey data from 1972 to 1994. The results suggest that the fabric of civil society and economic conditions may contribute somewhat to espoused tolerance. Greater economic security, together with the attitudes fostered by a vibrant civil society including greater trust and less anomia, appear to increase espoused social tolerance. Period effects and the effects of other demographic factors remain strongly related to expressions of tolerance. While alternative interpretations may be offered depending on whether the interaction terms, Year × Education or Cohort × Education, are included in the analysis, the high correlation between the two suggests that these interpretations cannot be seen as oppositional. Finally and most important, the analysis reveals many parallels between espoused racial and homosexual tolerance, suggesting a more generalizable model of social tolerance.     

Emotions and Nationalism: Armenian Genocide as a Case Study

Until recently, sociologists have paid surprisingly little attention to the relationship between emotions and nationalism. Existing accounts remain homogeneous, linear and nonrelational. To remedy this gap, this article compares public controversies in Turkey over the Armenian genocide at two historical moments: its semi‐centennial anniversary in 1965, and the publication of an article in 2004 by the Armenian‐Turkish journalist Hrant Dink that led to his assassination in 2007. It demonstrates that the genocide, and the conflicting epistemic structures that it incites, is a source of anxiety for Armenians due to their actual displacement within the nation. It is also a source of anxiety for Turks due to the perceived threat of displacement within the nation. These relational anxieties over the nation played an important role, during these two events, in reproducing hierarchical and exclusionary configurations, experiences, and representations of nationhood. During the 1965 semi‐centennial, Armenians reacted to the mainstream Turkish public's anxieties by pledging their loyalty to the state. Dink's assassination in 2007, on the other hand, showcases how an attempt by the excluded to redefine the what and who of the nation united otherwise separate social sections around a nationalist front.