Stripping for the State

This article examines whole body imaging technologies in contemporary airport security contexts. Situating these technologies more broadly within histories of aviation and theories of mobility, we examine how discourses of technological efficiency and freedom of movement work to obscure the ever-expanding surveillance practices of the state. While whole body imaging technologies are marketed as objective and neutral, we investigate how they draw upon, and reinscribe, existing social inequalities. Using Angela Davis' theory of the strip search as a form of state-sponsored sexual assault, we assess contemporary uses of whole body scanners by the state and allied corporate interests not only as alleged privacy violations, but also as potential acts of violence by the state on marginalized subjects. By demonstrating the disproportionate impact of whole body imaging technologies on particular communities, including the intersections of transgendered travelers, travelers with disabilities, and racialized and religious communities, we show that whole body imaging technologies continue and expand upon the tradition of stratified mobilities that has always been a component of air travel. We also argue that the alleged non-invasiveness and efficiency of the “virtual strip search” marks a troubling trend in which the state consolidates power through increasingly concealed surveillance practices.     

Marriage and Midnight Work: A Qualitative Study of Unmarried Women Call Center Agents in India

Based on a qualitative study, we explored the changing aspirations of marriage among unmarried call center agents in India. Data were collected from forty-five unmarried call center agents and ten parent couples, through in-depth semi structured interviews in the National Capital Region (New Delhi, Gurgaon, and NOIDA) in India. Our study found that the agents desire to continue in their cell center employment after marriage, despite the existing incompatibility between marriage and night shift based call center employment in India. We argue that the socio-cultural background of the agents influences their capacity to exercise their agency more than the economic aspects of their employment.     

Divorce Disclosures and Adolescents' Physical and Mental Health and Parental Relationship Quality

Two studies were constructed to examine the associations between custodial parents' negative disclosures about the other parent after a divorce and parent–adolescent relational quality (closeness and satisfaction) and adolescents' physical and mental health. In general, the results suggested that even though negative disclosures about the other parent might be associated with more cohesive relationships between custodial parents and adolescents, it does not mean that adolescents are immune to the physical and psychological effects of such disclosures. In Study 2, negative disclosures about the other parent were associated with adolescents' increased reports of physical and mental health symptoms. The results revealed a similar effect for general divorce information and adolescents' mental health. However, there was no association for catharsis and adolescents' physical and mental health. The results from both studies also revealed that adolescents perceived that their custodial parents disclosed more negative information about the other parent than the parents perceived that they disclosed.     

Anti-Homophobia Education in Public Schooling: A Canadian Case Study of Policy Implementation

SUMMARY

An 18-month study investigating the implementation of a Canadian anti-homophobia school policy found that such policies need to address homophobic ideas, institutional forms of homophobia and heterosexism, and individual expressions of homophobia. Teacher development is identical as an area in which Canadian policy implementation can be improved. More resources are needed to support the complex negotiations that educators must undertake when their professional and personal commitments to equity and human rights education collide with their own and others' personal and community religious beliefs about homosexuality.     

Alcohol- and drug-involved driving in the United States: methodology for the 2007 National Roadside Survey

This article describes the methodology used in the 2007 U.S. National Roadside Survey to estimate the prevalence of alcohol- and drug-impaired driving and alcohol- and drug-involved driving. This study involved randomly stopping drivers at 300 locations across the 48 continental U.S. states at sites selected through a stratified random sampling procedure. Data were collected during a 2-hr Friday daytime session at 60 locations and during 2-hr nighttime weekend periods at 240 locations. Both self-report and biological measures were taken. Biological measures included breath alcohol measurements from 9,413 respondents, oral fluid samples from 7,719 respondents, and blood samples from 3,276 respondents.     

Trait anger as a mediator of difficulties with emotion regulation and female-perpetrated psychological aggression

Recent research has demonstrated the devastating impact of female-perpetrated psychological aggression in intimate relationships broadly and dating relationships specifically. With the perpetration of psychological aggression in dating relationships occurring at shockingly high rates, prevention programming for dating violence should target this form of aggression. Toward this end, it is important to understand the antecedent conditions that increase one's risk for perpetrating psychological aggression. This study sought to examine two possible risk factors for perpetrating psychological aggression among female undergraduates (N = 145), namely, emotion regulation and trait anger. Findings showed that difficulties with emotion regulation and trait anger were associated with increased psychological aggression perpetration, and trait anger mediated the link between emotion regulation and psychological aggression. Implications of these findings for prevention programming and future research are discussed.     

The effect of movie portrayals on audience attitudes about nontraditional families and sexual orientation

This study examined the impact of motion pictures about the family on viewers' attitudes about family life and sexual orientation. Viewers were randomly assigned to view either Father of the Bride II (control group) or Object of My Affection (treatment group). Viewers' attitudes toward nontraditionalism and homosexuality were assessed before and after viewing their respective film. Treatment and control groups significantly differed in their attitudes toward nontraditionalism, but did not significantly differ in their attitudes toward homosexuals after viewing their respective films. However, the treatment group experienced more favorable attitudes toward homosexuals than the control group after viewing the film. Gender differences were also observed. Men were less tolerant of homosexuals and held fewer nontraditional beliefs about the family than women. Implications and discussion follow.     

Erotic arguments and persuasive acts: discourses of desire and the rhetoric of female-to-male drag

This chapter analyzes the October 21, 2000 drag king performance by Mildred Gerestant, a.k.a. Dréd. Arguing that her act appropriates, embodies, and manipulates certain ideological discourses of desire and identity, the article studies the shape and force of Dréd's performative arguments and illuminates how a drag king act can not only tease and titillate the addressed audience (the actual people who watched the show) but also hail the invoked audience (the audience called upon, imagined, or made possible by the performance). Arguing that, as a rhetorical act, Dréd's performance offers a purposeful discourse about gender, race, and power, this chapter ultimately explores how a rhetorical analysis of FTM drag elucidates the complex relationship between the rhetor, performance, and audience. More specifically, it shows how a rhetor's performance of non-normative identity and engagement with discourses of desire has the potential to unmask the hegemonic effects of language and power and to unsuture the seemingly natural connections between sex and gender.     

Multimethod measurement of high-risk drinking locations: extending the portal survey method with follow-up telephone interviews

Portal survey techniques involve multimodal assessments (e.g., self-report, biologic, and observational) in high-risk drinking and drug-use settings. Our investigation expanded the portal survey methodology to include follow-up assessments of emerging adult women recruited at the border as they cross to and from Mexico south of San Diego, California. The feasibility of the follow-up procedure was established, and the limitations of the technique clarified. Follow-up participants and nonparticipants did not differ by age or reported victimization. Data indicated that 8% of women experience negative events on their return to the United States after a night of binge drinking. These experiences could only be captured in a follow-up survey, as they happened after participants left the border area.