Sex/love skirmishes: “swinging,” “polyamory,” and the politics of naming

The contested definitions of “swinging” and “polyamory” reveal profound inconsistencies in the logics of sex, love, commitment, and coupledom. In this article, I use a number of non-monogamy blogs and online glossaries as examples of the way these two words are often deployed against each other in an effort to position the speaker in relation to mononormative practices of sex and love. Leaving aside questions of the accuracy of particular definitions, I map a range of definitions against two existing scholarly/activist tools for describing relationship styles, specifically Gayle Rubin’s “Charmed Circle” and Meg-John Barker’s sex/love continuums. This exercise is doubly fruitful: first, the tools reveal the political stakes of the definitional debates; second, the definitions demonstrate that the distinctions we commonly use to distinguish between types of relationships—including types of non-monogamous relationships—in fact rely on mononormative assumptions about sex, love, and friendship. If “mononormativity” is defined as the system of ideas, institutions, and practical orientations that provide the backdrop against which the idea of monogamy as coherent, common, natural, and right congeals, the sex/love skirmishes of “swinging” and “polyamory” remind us that its logics are both pervasive and deeply fractured.     

Correction to: Disparities in Healthcare Utilization Among Adults with Obesity in the United States,Findings from the NHIS: 2006–2015

Population Research and Policy Review - In the original publication of the article the Table 1 header has been switched. The corrected Table is provided in this correction article.     

“I Am…”: Caitlyn Jenner,Jazz Jennings and the cultural politics of transgender celebrity

In the twenty-first century, the visibility of transgender celebrities appears greater than ever. Whilst scholarly work has analysed, and continues to analyse, representations of trans celebrities, this research has largely approached these figures as significant because they make transgender visible, rather than because of the more specific fact that they are celebrities. This article interrogates the role of discourses and tropes of celebrity itself in enabling particular incarnations of trans subjectivity to become intelligible within popular culture. Focusing upon the examples of Caitlyn Jenner and Jazz Jennings, two of the most widely circulated trans celebrities in the contemporary moment, I argue that the tropes of authenticity, self-reflexivity, self-revelation and manufacture central to celebrity culture, have functioned as core discursive frameworks through which Jenner and Jennings’ transgender identities have been rationalised within the popular media. In becoming legible as transgender through celebrity, I argue that Jenner and Jennings’ media narratives have worked to confer recognisability to a highly limited model of transgender life, fraught with exclusions around race and gender normativity.     

Breaking Up Is Hard to Count: The Rise of Divorce in the United States, 1980–2010

This article critically evaluates the available data on trends in divorce in the United States. We find that both vital statistics and retrospective survey data on divorce after 1990 underestimate recent marital instability. These flawed data have led some analysts to conclude that divorce has been stable or declining for the past three decades. Using new data from the American Community Survey and controlling for changes in the age composition of the married population, we conclude that there was actually a substantial increase in age-standardized divorce rates between 1990 and 2008. Divorce rates have doubled over the past two decades among persons over age 35. Among the youngest couples, however, divorce rates are stable or declining. If current trends continue, overall age-standardized divorce rates could level off or even decline over the next few decades. We argue that the leveling of divorce among persons born since 1980 probably reflects the increasing selectivity of marriage.     

“Grow the Beard,Wear the Costume”: Resisting Weight and Sexual Orientation Stigmas in the Bear Subculture

ABSTRACT

Being gay and being overweight are two stigmatized statuses in the United States. A range of work has considered the experience of being stigmatized and the consequences of stereotypes for overweight individuals and sexual minorities, but less research has examined the intersection of these two stigmas among larger gay men or collective efforts to resist such stigma. This study qualitatively examines a subculture of gay men, the bears, to test theoretical models of stigma resistance. The analysis demonstrates the transferability of stigma resistance among multiple stigmatized attributes and the use of multiple strategies to resist one stigma. At the same time, it shows how subcultural dynamics both aid and undermine the resistance toward stigma, and the risk of reinforcing stigma’s effect through criticizing others who embody a stereotype. The results also demonstrate how resistance strategies are both empowering and psychologically taxing for stigmatized individuals.     

Employment transitions in the Netherlands, 1980–2004: Are low educated men subject to structural or cyclical crowding out?

This article addresses whether low educated men are displaced from their jobs by higher educated workers in the Netherlands in the period 1980–2004. In particular, we test whether structural or cyclical crowding out is predominant in the Dutch labor market. In order to do so, we try to explain the observed trends in education-specific transition rates to entry into first employment from education, exit from employment into unemployment or inactivity, and re-entry into employment from unemployment or inactivity for men by both business cycle effects (that is, changes in aggregate unemployment rates) and structural effects (that is, changes in labor supply–demand ratios for high educated). Discrete-time event history models are estimated using the OSA Labor Supply Panel 1985–2004. Retrospective information enables to study trends from 1980 onwards, so that structural effects can be distinguished from cyclical effects. The results show that structural crowding out exists at both the worker in- and outflow. First of all, it was observed that a growth in the oversupply of high educated increases the employment exit risk of low educated workers more so than that of higher educated ones. In addition, it was shown that an increase in the oversupply of high educated especially reduces the re-employment chances of low educated unemployed men. There is no evidence found for cyclical crowding out among low educated workers in the Dutch labor market.     

Reply to “A Call to Focus on Racial Domination and Oppression: A Response to ‘Racial and Ethnic Inequality in Poverty and Affluence, 1959–2015’”

Population Research and Policy Review - The comment raises some thoughtful points but offers an approach to research on racial and ethnic differences in poverty and affluence guided by ideology...     

“You Bring Great Masculinity and Truth”: Sexuality,whiteness, and the regulation of the male body in motion

This study contributes to analyses of how heterosexuality and whiteness work together in the embodied social practice of dance and the representational realm of television. It does so by attempting to destabilize theories of sexual difference dependent upon the concept of a stable, “natural,” and unitary body by highlighting the representational work that underpins heteronormative (white) masculinity within the first season of the syndicated reality dance television series So You Think You Can Dance Canada. The paper argues that though the presence of male dancers in the (often feminized) representational realm has the potential to challenge simple heteronormative dichotomies of masculine/feminine, reality dance television in this case plays with, yet ultimately reaffirms, heteronormative masculinity and does so relationally, through the juxtaposition of racialized male and female dance contestants over the span of a series. While it is not surprising that a reality show depends heavily upon heteronormative stereotypes, these discursive mechanisms are rendered invisible, in this case, when couched in a discourse of authenticity, technical ability, and dance aesthetics, resonating beyond the context of television, into the ways we think about dance practice.     

Do Social Workers Apply “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself” to Gay,Lesbian, Bisexual,and Transpersons in the South?

ABSTRACT

Across the United States there has been a spate of legislative bills and initiatives that blatantly stigmatize and discriminate against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This study was a cross-sectional, exploratory survey designed to measure the attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors of Tennessee social workers and future social workers toward the LGBT population and toward proposed discriminatory legislation. A 3-way factorial ANOVA investigated the effects of political affiliation, religious affiliation, and social contact on the dependent measures. Significant main effects were found. Self-reported political affiliation was found to be the most important factor predicting LGBT acceptance and LGBT respect among this sample.     

“Emasculation nation has arrived”: sexism rearticulated in online responses to Lose the Lads’ Mags campaign

In the spring of 2013 a British feminist campaign sought to have men’s magazines, such as Zoo, Nuts, and Loaded, removed from the shelves of major retailers, arguing that they are sexist and objectify women. The campaign—known as Lose the Lads’ Mags (LTLM)—received extensive media coverage and was the topic of considerable public debate. Working with a data corpus comprising 5,140 reader comments posted on news websites in response to reporting of LTLM, this paper explores the repeated focus on men and masculinity as “attacked,” “under threat,” “victimised,” or “demonised” in what is depicted as a sinister new gender order. Drawing on a poststructuralist feminist discursive analysis, we show how these broad claims are underpinned by four interpretative repertoires that centre around: (i) gendered double standards; (ii) male (hetero)sexuality under threat; (iii) the war on the “normal bloke”; and (iv) the notion of feminism as unconcerned with equality but rather “out to get men.” This paper contributes to an understanding of (online) popular misogyny and changing modes of sexism.     

“You Look Like a Dude,Dude”: Masculine Females Undoing Gender in the Workplace

ABSTRACT

Interviews with 49 masculine females from diverse identities and occupations suggest that their workplace interactions undo gender, that is, breach rather than revise gender parameters. In this study, participants reveal that, although they were acknowledged as women in the workplace, their treatment was often more similar to men. Their classification as “like men” sometimes accrued advantage such as male camaraderie, access to information and opportunities, and greater assumed competence relative to gender-conforming women. Participants’ interactions with coworkers, supervisors, and customers suggest that, rather than a pariah femininity, masculine females may more accurately be described as a subordinate masculinity. Interactions that classify masculine females as predominantly masculine or “like men” denaturalize gender. By visibly countering gender’s anatomical basis and the notion of coherent gendered selves, masculine females might, in one small way, undo gender.     

“Overwhelmed and out of my depth”: Responses from early career midwives in the United Kingdom to the Work,Health and Emotional Lives of Midwives study

BackgroundEfforts to resolve the longstanding and growing staffing crisis in midwifery in the United Kingdom have been hampered by very poor retention rates, with early career midwives the most likely to report burnout and intention to leave the profession.AimsTo establish the key, self-described factors of satisfaction and dissatisfaction at work for early career midwives in the United Kingdom, and suggest appropriate and effective retention strategies.MethodsThematic analysis was undertaken on a subset of free text responses from midwives who had been qualified for five years or less, collected as part of the United Kingdom arm of the Work, Health and Emotional Lives of Midwives project.FindingsMidwives described feeling immense pressure caused by an unremittingly heavy workload and poor staffing. Where relationships with colleagues were strong, they were described as a protective factor against stress; conversely, negative working relationships compounded pressures. Despite the challenges, many of the midwives reported taking great pleasure in their work, describing it as a source of pride and self-esteem. Midwives valued being treated as individuals and having some control over their shift pattern and area of work.DiscussionThese results, which reveal the strain on early career midwives, are consistent with the findings of other large studies on midwives’ wellbeing. All available levers should be used to retain and motivate existing staff, and recruit new staff; in the meantime, considerable creativity and effort should be exercised to improve working conditions.ConclusionThis analysis provides a ‘roadmap’ for improving staff wellbeing and potentially retention.     

The Gender of “Energy”: Language,Social Theory,and Cultural Change in Women’s Lands in the United States

Within women’s intentional communities, women use the phrase women’s energy to describe certain social interactions, a sense of community, and ideas about how gender is done or performed. For example, energy can express both difference in communication style between men and women and male dominance in social situations. During my fieldwork in these communities, I explored how this phrase suggests a reference to a precultural female body, but it is also sometimes used to explicitly reject biological reasons for gender difference. The term is easily understandable to a wide range of women from varying class backgrounds and encompasses both the unconscious side of social interactions and a possibility for future change.     

A Call to Focus on Racial Domination and Oppression: A Response to “Racial and Ethnic Inequality in Poverty and Affluence, 1959–2015″

Population Research and Policy Review - In this essay, I respond to Racial and Ethnic Inequality in Poverty and Affluence, 1959–2015 (hereafter Racial and Ethnic Inequality). I argue that...     

How (not) to “Hollaback”: towards a transnational debate on the “Red Zora” and militant tactics in the feminist struggle against gender-based violence

Abstract

The Red Zora was formed in the mid-1970s as a subgroup within the militant leftist network Revolutionary Cells. Like other militant leftist groups in West Germany, the Red Zora deemed the use of physical force against property, and in some cases people, to be a necessary part of national and international political interventions. But the group had a radical feminist philosophy. Between 1977 and 1995, the Red Zora carried out dozens of attacks with an explicitly feminist agenda. This paper gives a brief overview of the activities of the Red Zora and of feminist responses to the group. Against the background of Germany’s fascist past and political violence in the FRG, feminist activists in Germany were understandably reluctant to discuss ideas and activities that could associate the women’s movement with left-wing “terrorism.” This article shows that “Hollaback!,” #aufschrei and other recent campaigns by feminist activists in Germany have reinforced rather than challenged the feminist silence on the Red Zora. While German feminists have only begun to document the history of the group, activists in other countries show that one does not have to agree with the tactics of the Red Zora to productively engage with the activities of this group.