Siblings with disabilities: a duoethnography on the intersections between a sibling relationship and disability

A growing body of research examines the intersections between sibling relationships and disability. However, much of this research focuses on non-disabled siblings and how the disabled sibling affects them, thereby continuing to center able-bodiedness and able-mindedness while further marginalizing disabled people. This research centers the voices of two siblings who are both disabled. Using duoethnography, the researchers engaged in a dialog interrogating how disability has played a role in our sibling relationship. Our dialog demonstrated the complexity of our experiences as siblings and as disabled people. We found that physical disability, a status we do not share, created role asymmetry and power differentials in our relationship. Conversely, we discussed how our shared experience of having psychiatric disabilities had a positive influence on our closeness, and enhanced our ability to provide mutual support and engage in reciprocity. This duoethnography has important implications for the inclusion of disabled siblings in future research.     

Trust,uncertainty and identity in health-related decision-making: the role of key professionals

There is a growing literature examining the way service users make choices in the context of complex and frequently changing forms of welfare provision and increasingly personalised services in England. Despite criticisms of the individualistic, consumerist assumptions underpinning these policies, little is known about the relational contexts of individuals’ lives and the role of professional support in choice-making. Drawing on interviews with ‘key professionals’, identified by service users as having played a crucial role in recent important choices, this paper explores how these choices are made with the support of those who are trusted to provide assistance. Placing ‘key professionals’ at the centre of the analysis, the distinct experiences of people with fluctuating and sudden-onset health conditions are examined. The analysis highlights the particular value of relationships that pay close attention to transitional health identities and the co-production of health-related decisions.     

China and the Remolding of International Human Rights Norms

The life cycle of international norms is not actually a process of emergence, diffusion and internalization. As is shown by the logic of argumentation and the relational logic of process- oriented constructivism, the development of international norms may take another approach, one of origination, diffusion and remolding. Through dialogues on norms, discourse critique, self-remolding and other means, China has enriched the practice of remolding international human rights norms with a human rights theory centered on the right to survive and develop, thereby providing a new approach and new angle of vision that allows non-Western countries to break away from the monist approach of norm development.     

Brief Report: Who has a Sexual Agreement Among Mixed-Sex Partnered Adults in the U.S.?

Little is known about how common sexual agreements (SAs) are among mixed-sex couples. Data from 555 partnered, mixed-sex adults who completed a 1-time web survey were used to describe who had a SA in their current relationship and associated factors. Sixty-two percent reported having a SA. Having a SA was associated with identifying as bisexual or questioning, owning a smartphone, and recently having anal sex in the current relationship. Further research is needed to assess whether SAs may be an ideal platform to assist mixed-sex couples with their sexual health needs, which could include HIV/STD prevention and family planning.     

苗族生命伦理观与苗族和谐文化

中国苗族人和谐的社区生活是苗民族繁荣发展的基础,而这种和谐的环境又与苗族生命观联系十分紧密。是他们的泛生命意识造就了和谐的自然生存环境,造就了和谐的人际关系和文化环境,由此,创造了和谐的社区生活。     

Sex Differences in Reciprocal Altruism: Reply to Mower

Mower questions some aspects of Geary's (2002 ) proposals regarding the nature of male-male and female-female relationships during human evolution and the implications for understanding the basis for same-sex friendships. The core of this proposal is reviewed and Mower's challenges to the core are addressed.     

Factors Influencing the Sexual Relationships of Lesbians and Gay Men

ABSTRACT

This study examined the rewards and costs that lesbians and gay men experience in their sexual relationships. Participants were 23 lesbians and 15 gay men who completed questionnaires and participated in a semi-structured interview. Frequently identified sexual rewards included emotional and physical intimacy, feeling accepted and supported, communication, and a positive view of self. Sexual costs included feeling vulnerable and negative social and cultural attitudes toward same-sex relationships. Sexual rewards and costs tended to cluster into three main categories: relationship factors, sexual factors, and factors related to being a sexual minority. The participants' responses illustrate the limitations of applying conventional (biomedical) models of sexual response to men as well as to women. Moreover, they strengthen calls for theories of sexual functioning that are based on diverse experiences and that consider sociocultural, political, economic, relational, psychological, and medical factors.     

The embodied experience of episodic disability among women with multiple sclerosis

This paper explores the embodied experience of three women living with an episodic or fluctuating disability within the context of relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis. I argue that this shifting embodiment is subjectively, performatively, and interpretively experienced in discrediting ways across social, organizational, and local contexts in women's lives. Drawing on findings from my doctoral thesis, three interpretive themes inform the analysis: not looking disabled, more than meets the eye, and institutional bafflement. Respectively, these themes pertain to a woman's physical appearance, cultural assumptions about disabled embodiment, and the contestation of social, organizational, and local institutional practices shaping women's lives. These themes hold implications for an ‘embodied politics' in rethinking the manner in which episodic disability is experientially, conceptually, and socio-politically recognized as a legitimate tier of the experience of disability.