“Everything I Didn't Want to Know I Learned in Lit Class”: Sex, Sexual Orientation, and Student Identity

If discussing sexuality with college students is difficult, discussing sexual orientation often seems impossible. However, given the prejudice and societal violence against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered persons, students need to understand the harmful effects of homophobia and heterosexism. This article offers a review of the literature on teaching about sexual identity, nonthreatening strategies for effecting change, and suggestions about fiction and poetry that might be used in the classroom to raise awareness. Secondary sources provide additional techniques and resources.     

Let’s Talk About Sex: Family Communication Predicting Sexual Attitude,Sexual Experience,and Safe Sex Behaviors in Malaysia

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined whether family sexual communication (FSC) can predict sexual attitude, initiation of sexual experience, and practice of safe sex behaviors among unmarried Malaysian young adults. Method: Three hundred eighty Malaysians aged between 18 and 30 years completed an anonymous online survey. Results: Multiple regressions and logistic regression were used in the data analysis. FSC was a significant predictor of sexual attitude, experience, and behaviors. Among the 3 dimensions of FSC, comfort significantly predicted sexual experience, information significantly predicted sexual attitude, and value significantly predicted sexual attitude and behaviors. Conclusion: Parents play a significant role in influencing their children’s sexual attitude, experience, and behaviors.     

Forbidden Fruit? A Longitudinal Study of Christianity,Sex, and Marriage

Does religion still play a role in explorations of romance and sexuality among adolescents and young adults in a secular society such as Norway? Does it influence the type of living arrangements chosen? A population-based sample (n = 2,454) was followed longitudinally from their midteens to their late 20s using survey and register data. Christian involvement in teenage years was associated with subsequent less “precoital” exploration, less masturbation, delayed sexual intercourse, and a smaller number of sex partners. However, there were no associations with prevalence of same-sex experiences. Christians also postponed initiating romantic relationships and chose marriage over cohabitation. Associations were reduced after controlling for confounding factors but remained significant. Some associations (for example, the form of residential union chosen) were present only in the most “active” Christians. In other areas, such as “precoital explorations” and the age at which intercourse is initiated, Christian norms seem to play a role in much broader segments of the population. The findings indicate that Christianity may continue to influence young Norwegians’ experiences of sexuality and cohabitation more than has been expected.     

Concerns Raised in Sex

NEARLY a decade after the first human sexuality research was begun in China, nine associations and four research institutions have been established to further explore the science of human sexuality. As a result, the country's first large-     

Making Anew an Arab Regional Order? On Poetry,Sex, and Revolution

The protests and revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region define and exceed the imperialism's new manifestations and challenge the ‘stabilities’ and ‘business as usual’ in their moves to make anew the Arab region. Emerging revolutionary sexual poetics, I argue, ride the transformative power of the erotic while resisting and interrupting tired gendered and universal portrayals of the local-feminine backward East region and masculine rational forward West-global. The practical and conceptual shifts of the protests in the MENA present an energeia that disrupts ‘business as usual’ capitalism and substantively transforms power and sexual relations. The region's poetry (poems, slogans, songs) is an essential driver of this energeia which contests fetishized syndromes of transformation. In fact, in the MENA region, sex and poetics are major contestation sites of alternative ethical imperatives of being in time including practical and conceptual shifts in world-making projects.

Las protestas y revoluciones en el Medio Oriente y África del Norte (MENA, por sus siglas en inglés) definen y exceden a las nuevas manifestaciones imperiales y retan como siempre a las ‘estabilidades’ en sus movimientos para crear una nueva región árabe. Sostengo que la poética sexual incipiente recorre el poder transformativo del poder erótico, en tanto que las representaciones locales resistentes e interrumpidas atrasadas de género femenino de la región de oriente y las representaciones masculinas racionales, avanzan hacia el occidente global. Los cambios prácticos y conceptuales de las protestas de MENA presentan una energeia que deteriora al ‘capitalismo de siempre’ y transforma sustancialmente al poder y a las relaciones sexuales. La poética de la región (poemas, eslóganes y canciones) es una impulsora esencial de esta energeia que contradice a los síndromes fetichados de la transformación. De hecho, en la región de MENA, el sexo y la poética son puntos de mayor debate de imperativos éticos alternativos de hallarse a tiempo incluyendo cambios prácticos y conceptuales en la creación de proyectos mundiales.

中东及北非地区的抗议游行和革命,限定和超越了皇帝的新衣,它们刷新阿拉伯地区的行动挑战了所谓的“稳定”和“一切正常”。我认为,新兴的革命的性别诗学,乘情诗的转变性力量之势而上,同时抵制和打断了对地方—女性的落后东方地区和男性、理性的先进西方—全球地区所进行的疲惫不堪、性别的普世描摹。中东和北非地区的抗议在实践和概念上的转变提供了一种现实性,冲击了“一切照常”式的资本主义,也实实在在地改变了权力与性的关系。这一地区的诗作（诗歌、标语、歌曲）是这种现实性不可或缺的驱动力,争夺成为拜物教的转变综合症。事实上,在中东北非地区,性和诗学是替代性、务须及时的道德律令的主要争执场,包括创造世界的计划中实践和概念的转变。     

Mom,I Understand You

To celebrate Mother's Day, the editors of Society Weekly(published by People's Daily) invited their readers to write and submit "A Sentence for Mother." This activity, which was co-sponsored by the "Program of Happiness," garnered quite an emotional response. Among the contributions we received were several from the 21 students of Class Three, Grade Two of the high school affiliated with the Beijing Institute of Clothing Technology. "Mother, you are a towering tree and I am your shadow. "—ZHANG YE "Mother, you are an umbrella, and we are the children under it. You are the pod, and we are the peas."—XU JING     

Is Sex Work Sex or Work? Forming Collective Identity in Bangalore

While sex worker activism grows increasingly vibrant around the world, the forms and practices of sex work vary widely, and are often secret. How do sex workers come to see themselves as sex worker activists? What tensions emerge in the formation of collective identity within sex worker activist organizations, especially when the term “sex work” has often traveled linked to transnational organizations and funding? To answer these questions, this article analyzes in-depth interviews and participant observation on sex worker activism in Bangalore, India. Focusing on an organization I call the Union, I argue that it was first within the “shop floor” of transnationally funded HIV prevention organizations, and then within the activist work of the Union, that sex workers came to identify collectively as activists at a large scale. However, distinct configurations of practice among gendered groups of sex workers in Bangalore meant each group related differently to the formation of a sex worker activist collective identity. Two aspects of sex workers’ practice emerged as particularly central: varying experiences of sex work as “sex” or as “work,” and varying levels of anonymity and visibility in public spaces. Organizing through transnationally funded HIV prevention programs helped solidify these categories of differentiation even as it provided opportunities to develop shared self-hood.     

When Does Race Matter? Race,Sex, and Dating at an Elite University

This paper unites quantitative and qualitative data from the College Social Life Survey (n = 732) to describe and explain patterns of racial homophily in undergraduate sexual/romantic relationships at an elite university, a closed social setting. It expands the literature on interracial romantic unions by comparing homophily in hookups (uncommitted sexual interactions), dates, and long‐term relationships. Although this population embodies many characteristics associated with greater racial mixing (youth, education, status equality, geographical proximity, racial diversity, independence from family), racial homophily is still strongly evident. Variation in levels of homophily among relationship types and among racial groups is explained by differences in desired homophily, social network segregation, and participation in formal race‐based student organizations. Black students are particularly socially isolated.     

Sex Inversion Operations in China

IN July 1992, Dr. Xia Zhaoji, 58, and his assistants surprised the world by successfully completing the world's first operation to partially replant human internal reproductive organs. BBC broadcast this 8-minute news story ten days later, followed by AP, Reuters and AFP, as well as some other domestic and international media. What is a sex inversion operation? Why should people change their sex? And how is it     

‘Behind Closed Doors’: Debt-Bonded Sex Workers in Sihanoukville,Cambodia

In the trafficking discourse and international law, debt-bonded sex workers have been defined as ‘victims of trafficking’. The hyperexploitative contractual arrangements faced by debt-bonded sex workers may be the most common form of contemporary forced labour practices in the modern industry. However, in this paper, I present women's individual experiences working under indenture in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. I do so because women's narratives raise many questions about ‘consent’ and ‘coercion’ that, to date, remain unanswered. By examining women's own perceptions of the situation, the present paper attempts to address issues related to ‘consent’ and ‘coercion’ in order to highlight some of the possible implications this has for both how we theorise about and respond to the issue of indenture.     

Talking About Sex with Your Child

MENGMENG paid no attention to her body's changes at age 10. She changed her underwear in front of others. "Dad, carry me out, please," she called just as usual when she finished bathing. Her mother thought at first it was good for her daughter's personality development, since she was not bothered by shyness at puberty. However, one day the father told his wife, "I can't hold our daughter in my arms any more as before." Until then, her mother realized it was time to give her daughter a lesson on sex     

好吧,I服了YOU

看电视中的辩论节目,常常目瞪口呆:正方咔咔咔咔开讲,话音刚落地,反方咔咔咔咔一通反驳;反方咔咔咔又开讲,话音未落,那边又咔咔咔反驳上了。我想,这些人反应咋这么快呢,他们的脑子是人脑子还是狗脑子?后来一琢磨,应该是这么回事:在对方说话的过程中,这边厢已经在寻找他的破绽,挖掘问题的对立面。这边厢才不管事理对错,只有一个念头一一把丫驳倒。纵使你得理在手,巧舌如簧,滔滔不绝,但言多必失,总会有点漏洞,一旦抓住七寸,这边厢乘虚而进,迅速将漏洞做成溃堤之穴,对方自然一败涂地。而我正相反,跟人对话的时候,我一定是先顺着对方的思路走,并试图去理解。倒不是我多么善解人意,而是我觉得在别人讲     

Iranian College Students’ Attitudes Toward Premarital Sex,Marriage, and Family Before and After the Islamic Revolution

ABSTRACT. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine Iranian college students’ attitudes toward premarital sex and marriage before and after the Islamic Revolution. Methods: Responses to a survey from 526 students at University of Shiraz in 2011 were compared to those from another study of 392 students from the same university who completed the same survey in 1977 (2 years before the Islamic Revolution). Results: No substantial changes were observed to indicate that college students adopted theocratic views on premarital sex and marriage after the Islamic Revolution. Conclusions: The Islamic regime's efforts to cultivate conservative attitudes toward sexuality and marriage have not achieved their goals.     

People Automatically Extract Infants’ Sex from Faces

People can reliably distinguish the sex of faces across age groups. Rates of accuracy are lower for infants, however, likely because they lack the pronounced sexually dimorphic features that develop during puberty. Given that previous research has shown that perceivers categorize adult sex automatically, we wondered whether this would extend to the faces of infants for whom sex is less legible. We tested this using a semantic priming paradigm in which infant faces preceded the categorization of stereotypically male and female names. Results showed that participants categorized the sex of male names significantly faster following perceptions of male versus female infant faces (though female faces did not significantly facilitate the processing of female names). The asymmetry in interference for male but not female faces supports evidence for a male default in conceptions of sex among infants previously found for adults. Individuals may therefore process sex automatically in the absence of overt cues (e.g., post-pubertal sexually dimorphic features or stereotypical clothing), providing additional evidence for the depth and flexibility of social categorization.     

Longitudinal Event-Level Analysis of Gay and Bisexual Men’s Anal Sex Versatility: Behavior,Roles, and Substance Use

Gay and bisexual Men Who Have Sex with Men (GBM) are sexually unique in that they can practice penile-anal sex versatility, i.e. engage in insertive and receptive anal sex. Individual-level versatility is extensively researched both as a sexual behavior linked to HIV/STI transmission, and as a GBM identity that can change over time. However, there is a dearth of research on event-level versatility (ELV), defined as taking the receptive and insertive role in the same sexual encounter. We analyzed event-level data from 644 GBM in the Momentum Health Study from February 2012-February 2017 to identify factors associated with ELV prevalence, the relationship between ELV and anal sex role preference, and sero-adaptive and sexualized drug use strategies. Univariate analysis revealed ELV prevalence rates between 15% and 20%. A multivariate generalized linear mixed model indicated ELV significantly (p < .05) associated with versatile role preference and condomless sex. However, the majority of ELV came from GBM reporting insertive or receptive role preferences, and there was significantly higher condom use among sero-discordant partners, indicating sero-adaptation. Multivariate log-linear modeling identified multiple polysubstance combinations significantly associated with ELV. Results provide insights into GBM sexual behavior and constitute empirical data useful for future HIV/STI transmission pattern modeling.     

How do I tell thee? Voice, pen, or computer key

In this issue, the previous two articles by Hamby and colleagues and Vega and O'Leary are concerned with whether the method of administration and format of the Conflict Tactics Scale influence participant responses. Because they examine different aspects of the same measure, I was asked to conclude the issue by writing a brief summary and integration of the two articles.     

‘I know,I can,I will try’: youths and adults with intellectual disabilities in Sweden using information and communication technology in their everyday life

This study introduces how technology and humans are part of relationships that influence agency among people with disabilities. It aims to focus attention on the use of, and access to, information and communication technology (ICT), and agency among youths and adults with intellectual disabilities. The study draws on empirical research conducted with youths and adults with intellectual disabilities, as well as staff at a day centre. It shows that by drawing upon interests, previous experiences, and cooperating in ICT activities the participants’ agency changed. Also, it shows how disability is relational and how it can be influenced by ICT. An interdisciplinary approach is adopted to interpret the findings and to explore: How do people of different ages with intellectual disabilities experience the use of ICT in their everyday lives? Are people with intellectual disabilities able to influence their level of activity by using ICT? And if so, in what ways?