Alcohol,Sex, and Screens: Modeling Media Influence on Adolescent Alcohol and Sex Co-Occurrence

Alcohol use and sexual behavior are important risk behaviors in adolescent development, and combining the two is common. The reasoned action approach (RAA) is used to predict adolescents’ intention to combine alcohol use and sexual behavior based on exposure to alcohol and sex combinations in popular entertainment media. We conducted a content analysis of mainstream (n = 29) and Black-oriented movies (n = 34) from 2014 and 2013–2014, respectively, and 56 television shows (2014–2015 season). Content analysis ratings featuring character portrayals of both alcohol and sex within the same five-minute segment were used to create exposure measures that were linked to online survey data collected from 1,990 adolescents ages 14 to 17 years old (50.3% Black, 49.7% White; 48.1% female). Structural equation modeling (SEM) and group analysis by race were used to test whether attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control mediated the effects of media exposure on intention to combine alcohol and sex. Results suggest that for both White and Black adolescents, exposure to media portrayals of alcohol and sex combinations is positively associated with adolescents’ attitudes and norms. These relationships were stronger among White adolescents. Intention was predicted by attitude, norms, and control, but only the attitude–intention relationship was different by race group (stronger for Whites).     

Pharmaceutical Intimacy: Sex,Death, and Methamphetamine

ABSTRACT

In this article, I draw from ethnographic work conducted among residents of an “in-house” drug and alcohol treatment center in Baltimore, Maryland, to discuss the relationships born of pharmaceutical (ab)use. By looking in close detail at the autobiographical accounts of one man in treatment for addiction to methamphetamine, I attempt to chart the way life and death are at times brought into close proximity, and at others wedged firmly apart, by such things as love and avoidance. My concern is with the ethics of care that emerge through the so-called “small events” in everyday relations; that so often define a life or a relationship as falling under the category “normal” or “pathological.” I ask how such things as the known demands placed on the body by the need to maintain or avoid relations, whether pharmaceutically mediated or not, come to bear on the decision to “let die” or the resurgence of moral worlds. I end by discussing the different aspects of relatedness revealed by the dependencies and alliances formed by the kinship between pharmaceuticals and humans.

In compliance with current ethical research standards, the names of all informants have been changed to assure their anonymity.     

Magia Sexualis: Sex,Magic, and Liberation in Modern Western Esotericism. By Hugh B. Urban

Much of what is known about emotions and sexuality explores the relationship enhancing qualities of positive affect. This research extends the current literature by focusing on the association between negative feelings and sexual thoughts and experiences in the context of close relationships, controlling for the effect of positive feelings. Specifically, the unique effects of daily negative feelings toward one's partner in general and specific negative feelings (i.e., anger, anxiety, and sadness) on the sexual experience of heterosexual, gay male, and lesbian relationships were explored. Participants completed an initial questionnaire followed by daily diary measures for 14 consecutive days. Positive feelings were positively associated with sexual variables as expected. Negative feelings were associated with increases in sexual behaviors for heterosexual men and women and gay men, but not lesbian women. Sadness showed a unique positive association with arousal, lust, wanted sexual behavior, and sexual behavior for heterosexual men and women and gay men, but not lesbian women. Neither anger nor anxiety was uniquely associated with the sexual experience for heterosexual or same-sex couples.     

Culture,History, and Sex

SUMMARY

This paper provides a brief overview of anthropological approaches and studies of father involvement with the hopes of providing insights into how father involvement is conceptualized in the United States. The paper reviews four topics: (1) how our culture shapes how we feel about father-child relations; (2) factors cross-cultural studies have identified as being associated with high levels of father involvement; (3) the different roles of fathers during the past 120,000 years of human history; and (4) how biology and male reproductive interest influence father involvement.     

Sex,Drugs, and Situation

Abstract

Although the general populace has stereotyped bathhouses that cater to men seeking sex with other men as facilitators of HIV transmission, little research has been conducted that examines such claims. The authors conducted structured, in-depth topical interviews with 41 men who frequent bathhouses in Houston, Texas. Qualitative data were collected. The qualitative data were analyzed using an inductive and deductive analytical process. The study finds that bathhouses are a setting in which sex occurs, but bathhouses per se do not determine the nature of sexual activities. Instead, the meanings patrons attach to the commercial public sex environment bath-houses and to the activities they perform there account for men's sexual risk behaviors. Many participants reported accurate knowledge regarding HIV and safer sex practices and also reported either avoiding penetrative sex or using condoms in this setting. Data are presented that elucidate the relationships between perceptions, drug use, and sexual risk behaviors. Findings are discussed in regard to intervention and future research.     

Discovering Sex: Medical Science, Feminism and Intersexuality

Dans cet article, l'auteure explore le rôle de la science médicale dans la production et la représentation de catégories du sexe biologique que Ton tient pour acquises. L'accent est mis sur les deafinitions obstétrique et gynécologique de l'intersexualité dans les années 1950. Elle examine comment la science biomédicale a eu recours aux concepts culturels et sociaux de sexe biologique et de l'«apparte-nance sexuelle>> dans la differentiation binaire du sexe pour en arriver à un diagnostic de sexe biologique «véritable>>. Pour conclure, elle évalue les résultats de ses recherches à la lumière des écrits féministes et non féministes dans le domaine de la sociologie de la médecine, des sciences et de l'appartenance sexuelle.
This article explores the role of medical science in producing and reflecting taken-for-granted categories of biological sex. It focusses on obstetric and gynecologic definitions of intersexuality in the 1950s, and examines how biomedical science used cultural and social concepts of biological sex and gender as resources in dichotomizing sex, and creating diagnoses of "true" biological sex. The article concludes with an assessment of the author's findings in light of feminist and non-feminist writings in the sociology of medicine, science, and gender.     

Sex,greed, and nonprofit mismanagement: A review essay

The United Way: Dilemmas of Organized Charity, by Eleanor L. Brilliant, New York: Columbia University Press, 1990. 382 pp. $47.00. The United Way Scandal: An Insider's Account of What Went Wrong and Why, by John Glaser. New York: Wiley, 1994, 274 pp., $34.95. Free Ride: The Tax-Exempt Economy, by Gilbert Gaul and Neill M. Borowski. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1993. 197 pp., $6.95 (paper).     

Sex,Inequality, and Ethnography: Response to Erich Goode

Qualitative Sociology -     

Transforming Sex: An Interview with Joanne Meyerowitz,Ph.D. Author of How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States

Christine Jorgensen's widely publicized sex reassignment surgery in 1952 brought transsexualism to worldwide attention and fostered medical interest in transsexualism. Joanne Meyerowitz has traced the history of Jorgensen's personal odyssey, the medical history of transsexualism, and the broader impact of transsexualism on United States culture. In this interview, Meyerowitz discusses how she came to this project and some of its theoretical and methodological challenges. Finally, she sets her historical work in the context of contemporary gender and transgender politics.     

Sex,Endocrines, and Political Behavior

While political behavioral differences between men and women appear to have been exaggerated, some continue to be validly observed. Evidence from several diciplines suggests that such differences may be biological in origin, mediated through the endocrine system. Variance in concentrations of certain hormones may have behavioral consequences. Since an experimental test in which these concentrations would be directly manipulated is not feasible, a design was developed which relies on the naturally-occurring hormonal variance of the female menstrual cycle. Subjects responded to a survey instrument and also supplied physiological data including, for women, location in the menstrual sysle. Hylpothesized differences in the reponses of women experiencing diverse concentrations of key endocrines failed to appear.