Sexy ladies sexing ladies: women as consumers in strip clubs

Recent shifts in the consumer base of the sex industry have involved greater female attendance in strip clubs. This article examines how strip clubs and dancers incorporate female patrons into a sexualized space traditionally designed for men by identifying three interactional processes: passing over, sidestaging, and tailoring. We suggest dancers pass over women because they perceive female patron behavior to include resistance to "buying the game" and spending patterns that diverge from male customers. Drawing on Goffman's dramaturgical analysis, we suggest the dynamic relationship between dancer and female patron involves what we term sidestaging, which refers to both dancers' disclosure and how the club's spatial organization inhibits the construction of women as customers through sharing gendered spaces, such as the bathroom. We argue that when a dancer tailors her lap dance for a female patron, she succeeds in acknowledging the female customer's sexual subjectivity and potential same-sex desires by providing an individualized avenue for exploring an erotic experience. Finally, we discuss data implications for understanding how same-sex desire and sexual identity operate in an environment that eroticizes the female form, and how the strip club becomes a potential space for engaging in same-sex eroticism that includes elements of play.     

Gender Similarities and Differences in Sexual Arousal,Desire, and Orgasmic Pleasure in the Laboratory

Relatively little is known about gender differences in the orgasm experience. The objectives of this study were to compare men's and women's patterns of sexual arousal and desire before and after orgasm, and the predictors of their orgasmic pleasure. Using their typical technique, where masturbation enjoyment was similar to that experienced at home, 38 men and 38 women masturbated to orgasm in the laboratory. Physiological sexual arousal (genital temperature) and subjective sexual arousal and desire measurements were taken at baseline, after masturbation almost to orgasm, and immediately and 15 minutes after orgasm. In both genders, all measures increased significantly during masturbation, with a greater buildup leading to a more pleasurable orgasm. After orgasm, however, sexual arousal and desire decreased more quickly and consistently in men than in women, thereby replicating Masters and Johnson's (1966 Masters , W. H. , &; Johnson , V. E. ( 1966 ). Human sexual response . Boston , MA : Little, Brown . [Google Scholar]) observations. More men than women exhibited resolution of subjective sexual arousal and sexual satiation; their genital temperature also decreased more than women's but did not return to baseline. Women's orgasmic pleasure was related to a postorgasmic decrease in genital temperature but, unexpectedly, the maintenance of subjective sexual arousal and desire. Future studies should explore whether this pattern explains gender differences in the pursuit of additional orgasms.     

The use of celebrity scandals and sensational news for identity negotiations: analyzing gossip among the queers within Taiwanese families

Since the late 1990s, Taiwanese celebrity scandals and sensational news stories have addressed how the families of gay children understand the latters' idiosyncratic sexual identity. Conducting studies on audience reception and searching for divergent readings were once useful means of understanding resistance and resilience among marginalized groups. This study of the interactive interpretive practices among viewers in a family further contextualizes the dialectical formation of queer1^1. In this study, I use the term queer to refer to the larger lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning (LGBTQ) community in Taiwan. However, since the usage of gay and lesbian is more common than that of queer in Taiwanese everyday conversations, I use gay and lesbian when referring to the context of family conversations. Since the early 1990s, Tóng-zhì (vernacular for queer) has become the most common name for the younger generation in the LGBT community in the Greater Chinese area. According to Chou Wah-Shan (2000 Chou, W. (2000). Tongzhi: Politics of same-sex eroticism in Chinese societies. New York: Haworth Press. [Google Scholar], p. 2), Tóng-zhì was coined as a means of signifying “politics beyond the homo-hetero duality” and “integrating the sexual into the social”. Specifically, the social networks I am referring to here are the Taiwan Tong-Zhi Hotline Foundation and the Persons with HIV/AIDS Rights Advocacy Association. In the former Tong-Zhi Hotline, I worked as a volunteer and an advisor; in the latter, I am a member of the steering committee, and I serve on the advisory board. subjectivities in Taiwan, a society that emphasizes the performance of an appropriate self in social relations and maintaining family harmony. Over a three-year period of fieldwork in Taipei, this study employed ethnographic methods to interview 16 gay men and lesbians and their mothers in order to clarify how celebrity scandals and sensational news function as a site for identity negotiation within families with gay children. This study argues that vernacular interpretive practices within families produce resources of resistance, accommodation and even pleasure, which can be used to understand the nascent Taiwanese gay identity in relation to significant others.     

The Risks and Rights of Sexualization: An Appreciative Commentary on Lerum and Dworkin's “Bad Girls Rule”

This commentary wholeheartedly supports the critical observations by Kari Lerum and Shari L. Dworkin in this issue of the Journal of Sex Research with regard to the 2007 Report of the APA (American Psychological Association) Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. The APA task force makes an overwhelmingly strong point for the dangers of the sexualization of women and girls and the self-objectification connected to it. However, their discussion of the evidence is noteworthy for being one-sided, generalizing, and negatively toned. Among the arguments presented in this commentary are notions about the rather diverse and often ambiguous nature of sexualized imagery and about the all too often ignored complexity of its presumed “effects.” In addition, the issue of female sexual power and the case of sex workers are discussed. When sexualization is defined as only negative, both sex worker's rights and, more generally, women's rights to be sexual, get into a tight corner. The main contention is that sexualization is associated with risks, as well as with rights, and that any productive analysis will have to consider both.     

BOOK REVIEW

Hurricane Katrina ranks among the worst natural catastrophes in United States history. In addition to the physical damage to the city and the levees, Katrina will also be remembered for the posthurricane suffering, the lack of coordinated government response, and memorable reporting in the media. The media, here characterized as newspaper coverage, utilized anarchy to frame the reported postdisaster lack of government presence, the perceived threat of, and actual violence and looting in the immediate wake of the catastrophe. Ethnographic content analysis of 59 newspaper articles yielded a typology of the three different connotations of anarchy. Finally, a comparison is offered between the media's use of anarchy in the post-Katrina coverage and the sociopolitical theory of anarchy. The article concludes that although the media mischaracterized the postdisaster reality by using an anarchy frame, their coverage is consistent with the disaster mythology literature, while conflating typical disaster myths within the anarchy frame.     

THE FATALISTIC IMAGINATION AND THE CONTINUED SALIENCE OF RELIGION IN THE MODERN WORLD: A TEST OF RESOURCE COMPENSATION/RESOURCE AMPLIFICATION HYPOTHESES USING CROSSNATIONAL DATA

The resource compensation hypothesis predicts that religiosity will serve as a cognitive buffer against structural constraints whereby more religious individuals will exhibit lower levels of fatalism than their less religious counterparts. The resource amplification perspective, on the other hand, predicts that religiosity will foster a sense that otherworldly forces control life's outcomes, leading to higher levels of fatalism. Using a precise measure of fatalism from the two most recent waves of the World Values Survey, a comparative examination of three Latin American countries, South Africa, and the United States is carried out. With Mexico as the sole exception, findings from ordered logistic regression models suggest that higher levels of religiosity are associated with lower levels of fatalism, supporting the resource compensation hypothesis. Implications for longstanding debates over the salience of modern religion are considered. An important and underappreciated cognitive function provided by thriving religious denominations and institutions may be to provide a catalyst for personal empowerment that comes through the rejection of a fatalistic mentality.     

Melancholy Femininity and Obsessive—Compulsive Masculinity: Sex Differences in Melancholy Gender

The author offers a revision of melancholy gender (Butler, 1995 Butler, J. 1995. Melancholy gender.. Psychoanal. Dial., 5: 165–180. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) in which sex differences are theorized. Drawing on contemporary psychoanalytic feminist theory that emphasizes the mother's role as primary caretaker and as pre-Oedipal object for both boys and girls, the author suggests that, in heterosexual development and within heterosexual cultures, same-sex object-desire is likely to be unavowedly lost for girls but preemptively foreclosed for boys. While the theory of melancholy gender does not differentiate between loss and foreclosure, the author argues that this is an important distinction such that Freud's two preconditions of melancholy—unavowed loss and ambivalent identification—are more likely to be part of female development than of male development, leading to melancholy femininity in girls and obsessive-compulsive masculinity in boys. This argument allows the theory of melancholy gender to speak to the empirical and clinical finding that femininity and depression tend to be associated whereas masculinity and depression do not.     

Development of the Virginity Beliefs Scale

Past research on first sexual intercourse experiences and virginity has largely focused on using demographics such as age at first intercourse as predictors of future sexual behaviors and beliefs. Carpenter (2002 Carpenter , L. M. ( 2002 ). Gender and the meaning and experience of virginity loss in the contemporary United States . Gender and Society , 16 , 345 – 365 . doi: 10.1177/0891243202016003005 [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2005 Carpenter , L. M. ( 2005 ). Virginity lost: An intimate portrait of first sexual experiences . New York , NY : New York University Press . [Google Scholar]) suggested a model of three virginity metaphors that describe how individuals perceive their virginity: gift, stigma, and process. Using Carpenter's framework as a starting point, scale items were developed based on the conceptual understanding of the three metaphors. In Study 1 (N = 223, mean age = 19.9, SD = 2.4), 50 items were factor analyzed, yielding 22 items found to be strong indicators of the three metaphors; ten items for gift, eight for stigma, and four for process. The three subscales were validated using measures of gender-role beliefs and affective reactions to first intercourse. In Study 2 (N = 359, mean age = 19.7, SD = 2.4), confirmatory factor analysis was used to confirm the 22-item factor breakdown. The resulting Virginity Beliefs Scale is discussed in terms of how it applies to Carpenter's original framework and its future research potential.     

Sexual Self-Concept: Testing a Hypothetical Model for Men and Women

One theoretical concept receiving modest attention in contemporary sex research is the sexual self-concept (SSC). However, a lack of cohesion within this research has culminated in a collection of SSC models which overlap one another but which are not exactly the same. Therefore, a unified conceptual model of SSC needs to be established. In addition, little research has examined potential differences between genders in SSC, as most SSC research has focused on women. Using Buzwell and Rosenthal's 1996 Buzwell , S. , & Rosenthal , D. (1996). Constructing a sexual self: Adolescents’ sexual self-perceptions and sexual risk-taking. Journal of Research on Adolescence , 6, 489–513.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] sexual selves model as a theoretical basis, a six-factor higher-order latent SSC model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Lower-order factors for this model included multidimensional sexual self-esteem and sexual self-efficacy factors, as well as unidimensional arousal, anxiety, exploration, and commitment factors. A five-factor latent model (after removing the commitment and the resistance sexual self-efficacy factors) was the best-fitting model. This model was then tested for measurement and structural invariance between genders. Results indicated that while the measurement of SSC was similar between men and women, structural invariance did not hold, as men had a significantly higher latent SSC score compared to women. These findings have important implications for sexual self-concept research, as well as contributing to better understanding of human sexuality.     

U.S. Adults’ Pornography Consumption and Attitudes Toward Adolescents’ Access to Birth Control: A National Panel Study

Objectives: The conditions under which adolescents should have access to birth control has been debated by U.S. policy makers and health officials for some time. Given the variability and fluidity of law and policy in this area and the high stakes described by advocates for and against access, identifying predictors of electorate opinion is important. Methods: This study utilized national panel data gathered in 2008 (T1) and 2010 (T2) to examine associations between U.S. adults' pornography consumption and attitudes toward adolescents' access to birth control. Results: Consistent with a social learning perspective on media, pornography consumption at T1 was associated with more positive attitudes toward adolescents' access to birth control at T2, even after accounting for T1 birth control attitudes and multiple potential third-variables. Consistent with Wright's (2011 Wright, P. J. (2011). Mass media effects on youth sexual behavior: Assessing the claim for causality. Communication Yearbook, 35, 343–386. [Google Scholar]) acquisition, activation, application model (3AM) of media sexual socialization, this association was stronger for more morally individualistic adults. Contrary to a selective exposure perspective on media, birth control attitudes at T1 did not predict pornography consumption at T2. Conclusions: These findings have implications for the prediction of birth control attitudes specifically and the socializing influence of pornography more generally.     

New women,old messages? Constructions of femininities,race and hypersexualised bodies in selected South African magazines, 2003–2006

This article discusses the ways in which racialised femininities are differently presented as hyper(hetero)sexual in three South African magazines targeting female readers – Femina, Fair Lady and True Love – between 2003 Fair Lady. 2003. RoC. Fair Lady, : 71 [Google Scholar] and 2006. I argue that the bodily work women are expected to perform is determined by constructs of race, where women are advised to regulate and control their physical bodies as a means of maintaining (hetero)sexual desirability or becoming (hetero)sexually desirable. I discuss how the racist portrayal of black womanhood in magazine advertisements that target white female readers of Femina and Fair Lady are sexualised in ways that define the black female body as alluring and exotic. My discussion reveals that the privileging of white heterofemininity in all three magazines as normative and ideal, simultaneously defines black women as the embodiment of a racialised (hetero)sexuality – at times mediated by essentialist ideas of Africa – which echoes racist colonial discourse and defines black women as essentially different.     

Critical Flaws in the Female Sexual Function Index and the International Index of Erectile Function

The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI; Rosen et al., 2000 Rosen , R. C. , Brown , C. , Heiman , J. , Leiblum , S. , Meston , C. , Shabsigh , R. , … D'Agostino , R. ( 2000 ). The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI): A multidimensional self-report instrument for the assessment of female sexual function . Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy , 26 , 191 – 208 . doi: 10.1080/009262300278597 [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF; Rosen et al., 1997 Rosen , R. C. , Riley , A. , Wagner , G. , Osterloh , I. H. , Kirkpatrick , J. , &; Mishra , A. ( 1997 ). The International Index of Erectile Dysfunction (IIEF): A multidimensional scale for assessment of erectile dysfunction . Urology , 49 , 822 – 830 . doi: 10.1016/S0090-4295(97)00238-0 [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) are two of the most widely used measures of sexual dysfunction. However, they have potential measurement and psychometric flaws that have not been addressed in the literature. This article examines the measurement capabilities of these measures based on data collected from an online study in 2010. A convenience sample of 518 sexually active adults (65% female) drawn from the general community were included in the analyses. Both measures displayed critical theoretical and measurement problems for the assessment of sexual problems beyond sexual arousal, and for the sexual desire domains in particular. Based on these results, we encourage clinicians and researchers to think critically about whether the FSFI and IIEF are appropriate measures for their practice and research. In particular, these measures are inappropriate for use among individuals who are not currently sexually active, and research with a focus other than sexual arousal should consider supplementary measures of sexual function. The psychometric properties of these measures should be reassessed in clinical samples, but the theoretical issues with the measures raised in this article are relevant across clinical and research contexts.     

Sexual Aggression among Brazilian College Students: Prevalence of Victimization and Perpetration in Men and Women

Despite the increased attention devoted to sexual aggression among college students in the international research literature, Brazil has no systematic studies on the prevalence of sexual aggression in college populations. The present research measured the prevalence of sexual aggression and victimization since age 14 among 742 first-year college students in Brazil (411 women). A Portuguese version of the Short Form of the Sexual Experiences Survey (Koss et al., 2007 Koss , M. P. , Abbey , A. , Campbell , R. , Cook , S. , Norris , J. , et al. . ( 2007 ). Revising the SES: A collaborative process to improve assessment of sexual aggression and victimization . Psychology of Women Quarterly , 31 , 357 – 370 .[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) was administered to collect information from men and women as both victims and perpetrators of sexual aggression. The overall prevalence rate of victimization was 27% among men and 29% among women. Except for sexual coercion and attempted sexual coercion, there were no significant gender differences in victimization rates concerning nonconsensual sexual acts and aggressive strategies. In contrast, perpetration rates were significantly higher among men (33.7%) than among women (3%). The findings challenge societal beliefs that men are unlikely to be sexually coerced. Explanations are proposed for the disparity between male victimization and female perpetration rates based on traditional gender roles in Brazil.     

Similarities with a (Crucial) Difference: Reply to Commentaries by Shapiro and Marshall

Reviewing Sigmund Freud's essays and correspondence during World War I, we find that for the most part he minimized or denied the impact the war was having on him and his patients. Just as Sandor Ferenczi's emphasis on the impact of “real” childhood events and the “real” relationship between patient and analyst was seen as aberrant, so too was Ferenczi's warning Freud to leave Germany in 1933 Ferenczi , S. ( 1933 ). Confusion of tongues between adults and the child—the language of tenderness and of passion . Contemporary Psychoanalysis , 24 , 196 – 206 . [Google Scholar] treated as paranoia. Freud's later works apply his psychoanalytic theories to society as a whole but do not consider ways to “cure” social ills, so it is not surprising that Freud didn't hear Albert Einstein's famous question, Why War? as a plea for insight into how to end war. The author suggests a reconsideration of Einstein's question from the perspective of Buddhist psychology and finds a more optimistic albeit difficult answer.     

From Face-to-Face to Facebook: The Role of Technology and Social Media in Adoptive Family Relationships with Birth Family Members

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study of 77 individuals in 40 couples (same-sex and heterosexual), who had adopted publically, privately, or internationally, examined parents' engagement with their child's birth family via technology (e.g., texting, e-mail, social media) through the lens of the Couple and Family Technology frame-work (Hertlein & Blumer, 2014 Hertlein, K. M., & Blumer, M. L. C. (2014). The couple and family technology framework. New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar]). Parents used three approaches to contact: active, passive, and no contact. Regardless of approach, some parents described concerns about boundaries. Couples were generally in agreement in their perspectives on engaging with birth family via technology. Practitioners must be know-ledgeable about management of relationships via technology and help adoptive families set healthy boundaries.