{"title":"Between 'block course relationships<i>'</i> and abstinence: cultures of sexuality among students at Addis Ababa University.","authors":"Mulumebet Zenebe, Haldis Haukanes, Astrid Blystad","doi":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2307435","DOIUrl":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2307435","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Inspired by African and other feminist scholarship on gender, sexuality and agency, this article studies narrations of norms and practices in sexual relationships between university students. A main aim of the article is to move beyond the problem focus in earlier scholarship on women, sexuality and reproduction, and to identify potential spaces of freedom and expansion of female agency. The article is based on qualitative research conducted with students at Addis Ababa University. The findings a vivid space for male-female relationships. Study participants report being sexually engaged as \"the new normal\" and claim that many female students are active both in seeking relationships and in discontinuing them. These ideas and practices indicate increasing female agency and emerge in stark contrast to dominant social norms for sexual conduct, which demand chastity before marriage, particularly for women. Students are conscious of this discrepancy and bring it up in their narratives. Findings also show that some students prefer to stay abstinent and make an effort to avoid sexual relations. We argue that expressions of female agency are evident not only in norm-transgressive sexual conduct, but also in norm-conforming strategies of sexual abstinence.</p>","PeriodicalId":10799,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139691439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Laura Mellini, Francesca Poglia Mileti, Marc Tadorian
{"title":"Migrants facing intersectional vulnerability to HIV and AIDS in Switzerland: an exploratory study.","authors":"Laura Mellini, Francesca Poglia Mileti, Marc Tadorian","doi":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2319335","DOIUrl":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2319335","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>An emerging body of evidence suggests that a significant number of HIV-positive migrants to Europe acquire HIV after arriving in their host country. There is an urgent need to rethink HIV and AIDS prevention for migrant populations and to acknowledge the specific vulnerability to HIV and AIDS that migrants face. This article uses empirical data collected in a qualitative sociological study conducted in Switzerland. We provide evidence for the heuristic value of articulating an intersectional approach within a multilevel (biographical, interactional and contextual) framework to capture the complexity of the vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. We show that migrants' specific vulnerability to HIV and AIDS results from social vulnerabilities related to many social and cultural dimensions, including migration status, socioeconomic conditions, gender and sexual identity, sexual norms, the relational context in which sex occurs, power relations and sociocultural structures of the receiving country. The three case studies presented illustrate how HIV-related processes of intersectional vulnerability are embedded in sexism, cisgenderism, and racism, and how they are closely linked to social inequalities in health. Effective HIV and AIDS prevention for migrants must take greater account of these power relations and sociocultural structures.</p>","PeriodicalId":10799,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139982540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mercedes Vila Ortiz, María Victoria Tiseyra, Mariana Romero, Anahí Farji Neer, Ana Mines Cuenya, Anna Kågesten, Antonella Lavelanet, Anna Thorson, Xin Lu, Amanda Cleeve
{"title":"Trusted networks: a study of communication flow and access to abortion information in Argentina.","authors":"Mercedes Vila Ortiz, María Victoria Tiseyra, Mariana Romero, Anahí Farji Neer, Ana Mines Cuenya, Anna Kågesten, Antonella Lavelanet, Anna Thorson, Xin Lu, Amanda Cleeve","doi":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2408345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2024.2408345","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In December 2020, Argentina approved a new abortion law following decades of feminist and social advocacy. This paper presents qualitative findings from interviews and focus group discussions with people in local communities focusing on how individuals of reproductive age access and communicate sexual and reproductive health information, particularly regarding abortion. Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants working in the field of SRHR and four focus group discussions took place with cisgender women and girls, transmasculine people and non-binary people of reproductive age. We found that information exchange and communication about sexual and reproductive health issues, particularly abortion, took place mainly through informal social networks engaging with activists and feminist grass-root organisations. These informal social networks were built on <i>trust</i> as a collective affect that enabled open communication about abortion. Information sharing through word of mouth, in person and <i>via</i> digital means using different social media platforms, is an important means of information sharing and communication in Argentina. Monitoring the implementation of abortion policies in this country should include investigating the impact of people accessing abortion through informal social networks in terms of abortion pathways and intersections with the formal health system.</p>","PeriodicalId":10799,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142343137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nompumelelo Gloria Mfeka-Nkabinde, Relebohile Moletsane, Anna Voce
{"title":"'Parents are gudlists!' Experiences of puberty and parent-child sexual communication in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.","authors":"Nompumelelo Gloria Mfeka-Nkabinde, Relebohile Moletsane, Anna Voce","doi":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2306228","DOIUrl":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2306228","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This paper explores young people's experiences of puberty and their perspectives on parent-child sexual communication in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal. In-depth individual interviews, focus group discussions, and participatory visual research methodology were employed with 18 and 19-year-old young women (<i>n</i> = 30) and young men (<i>n</i> = 16) attending three primary health care facilities and a local high school in Jozini municipality. The findings suggest a complex interplay between unequal gender and socio-cultural norms that results in divergent puberty experiences and ambiguous and inconsistent patterns of parent-child sexual communication. Young people referred to their parents as <i>gudlists</i>, a local colloquialism for someone who is evasive, vague, ambiguous and indirect. Lack of open parent-child sexual communication hinders discussion of healthy sexuality, neglecting the sexual and reproductive health education and needs of young people. Reflective of their desire for change, young women in particular contest current parenting norms and suggest returning to cultural practices linked to traditional forms of courtship and sexual communication among young Zulu people.</p>","PeriodicalId":10799,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139650432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mary Lou O'Neil, Amrutha Ramaswamy, Deniz Altuntaş
{"title":"Population politics, reproductive governance and access to abortion in Turkey.","authors":"Mary Lou O'Neil, Amrutha Ramaswamy, Deniz Altuntaş","doi":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2317734","DOIUrl":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2317734","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Turkey currently pursues an aggressive pronatalist population politics which has created wide-reaching reproductive governance regulating reproductive health care and family planning choices. One aspect of this orientation centres on restricting access to abortion services despite the fact that abortion is legal through ten weeks of pregnancy. This article uses nationwide data collected from mystery patient surveys administered to all public (in 2016 and 2020), and all private (2021) hospitals in the country to determine the availability of abortion services in Turkey. Less than half of all hospitals responding provided abortions to the full extent provided by law. Abortion without restriction as to reason was largely unavailable at public hospitals and the cost of care at private hospitals remained prohibitive for many. Among those hospitals we reached, in four provinces, there was no public or private hospital providing any type of abortion care. The most frequent explanation for the lack of abortion services was that abortion is illegal. This was particularly the case for public hospitals. Despite a 10-week cutoff for abortions, 39% of private hospitals responding to the survey invoked even earlier time limits creating further restrictions. The extreme pronatal orientation of the reproductive governance currently in place has created a state of reproductive injustice that makes enhanced access to abortion of vital importance.</p>","PeriodicalId":10799,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139971192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lisa Labita Woodson, Adriana Garcia Saldivar, Heidi E Brown, Priscilla A Magrath, Leslie V Farland, Magaly M Blas, Purnima Madhivanan
{"title":"'You have a lot of mirrors': structural and socioecological factors impacting adolescent pregnancy and reproductive health in the Amazon basin, Peru, a qualitative study.","authors":"Lisa Labita Woodson, Adriana Garcia Saldivar, Heidi E Brown, Priscilla A Magrath, Leslie V Farland, Magaly M Blas, Purnima Madhivanan","doi":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2308666","DOIUrl":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2308666","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Loreto, in the Peruvian Amazon, has one of the highest adolescent pregnancy rates in the country. However, underlying causes of adolescent pregnancy are not fully understood as data are limited in Indigenous and remote Amazonian communities. This study investigated adolescent reproductive health within Loreto using an ecological systems framework. Forty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted in June 2022: community leaders (<i>n</i> = 12) and adolescent participants between 15 and 17 years of age (pregnant girls, <i>n</i> = 11; never pregnant girls, <i>n</i> = 9; and boys, <i>n</i> = 9). We also conducted focus group discussions with community health workers and educators in October 2022 (three focus groups, <i>n</i> = 15). Adolescent reproductive health is complex with multi-layered factors that put girls at higher risk of pregnancy. We found a paradoxical relationship between expected social and gender norms and individual desires. This research provides a contextual understanding of the lived experience of adolescents and young people in the Amazon region of Peru. Our findings suggest the need for greater exploration of the contradictory ideas surrounding adolescent pregnancy and female sexuality.</p>","PeriodicalId":10799,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11298572/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139691442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"'The abortion gave me my life back': the long-term impact of access to self-managed medication abortion through telemedicine on women's lives in legally restricted countries.","authors":"Romy Frances van den Dungen, Rebecca Gomperts","doi":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2408337","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2024.2408337","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Approximately 753 million women (38%) of reproductive age live in countries with restrictive abortion laws. To overcome these legal constraints, women access safe self-managed medication abortions through telemedicine abortion services. This study aimed to explore the long-term impact of accessing a self-managed medication abortion through telemedicine service on women's lives in countries with restrictive abortion laws. We conducted interviews with eleven women (from eleven different countries) who accessed a self-managed medication abortion through online telemedicine between 2014 and 2018 in a legally restricted country. We analysed interviews thematically. Three key themes were developed: (1) access to abortion positively impacted life plans; (2) the negative influence of the legally restricted environment wore off and their well-being improved; (3) participants are now using their own experiences to help others by either sharing information or facilitating access to abortion. In summary, our findings highlight the positive impact of access to self-managed medication abortion and underline the importance of ensuring access to abortion for everyone.</p>","PeriodicalId":10799,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142343136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David J Kinitz, Lori E Ross, Ellen MacEachen, Dionne Gesink
{"title":"'How can you worry about employment and survival at the same time?': employment and mental health among precariously employed cisgender and transgender sexual minority adult men in Toronto, Canada.","authors":"David J Kinitz, Lori E Ross, Ellen MacEachen, Dionne Gesink","doi":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2408349","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2024.2408349","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study addresses a gap in the labour market and occupational health literatures among sexual and gender minority workers by exploring the relationship between precarious employment and mental health through a political economy framework. Narratives from 20 cisgender and transgender sexual minority men were analysed to uncover the production of employment and mental health inequities. Results are presented temporally, including employment readiness, looking for work, and on the job, illuminating the social and structural processes that underly participants' stories of precarious employment and mental health. A cyclical pattern was identified whereby participants' mental ill-health resulted in separation from the labour market and increased employment precarity that subsequently further impacted their mental health. Interventions and programmes must consider multipronged approaches that address all aspects of this syndemic, including social stigma and discrimination towards sexual and gender minority people and improved access to stable employment, mental healthcare, and adequate social welfare systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":10799,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142343132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Preparing to play: a thematic analysis of bottom training in gay men's fist-play.","authors":"Jarred H Martin","doi":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2408358","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2024.2408358","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Anal fisting amongst gay men has been characterised as a risky form of sexual play, particularly for the bottoming (receptive) playmate. This view may be oversimplistic and fail to recognise how fist-bottoms ready themselves for fist-play through preparatory journeys of bottom training. This study explored how gay men who bottom in fist-play understand bottom training and how this understanding informs their personal sense of pleasure, risk, and safety. Unstructured individual interviews were conducted with 8 gay men who play as fist-bottoms. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted on the data, from which four main themes were developed: (1) training the body to play; (2) training for headspace; (3) training to understand pleasure; and (4) training by rules. Taken together, the findings highlight how fist-bottoms understand their bottom training as both a formative and transformative process that shapes their corporeal, psychological, erotic, and subcultural knowledge and skills to navigate play. Through bottom training, fist-bottoms explore and attune their understanding of what is safe and pleasurable, as well as riskier play.</p>","PeriodicalId":10799,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142343135","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Susan C S Chong, Gene Lim, Kirsty Machon, Heather Mugwagwa, Jennifer Johnson, Roslyn Le Gautier, Jennifer Power
{"title":"Missing voices: building women living with HIV's meaningful engagement in HIV clinical and cure research.","authors":"Susan C S Chong, Gene Lim, Kirsty Machon, Heather Mugwagwa, Jennifer Johnson, Roslyn Le Gautier, Jennifer Power","doi":"10.1080/13691058.2024.2408353","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2024.2408353","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Women living with HIV are consistently under-represented in HIV clinical trials, including cure trials. Little is known about how cisgender women living with HIV in Australia perceive HIV cure research, their level of trust in research institutions/staff, and factors salient to participation in HIV cure trials. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with women living with HIV and clinicians working with women living with HIV to investigate motivations and barriers to gender-equitable representation in HIV clinical research. Participant motivations for participation included altruistic desires to benefit younger women, and to optimise resulting interventions. Women living with HIV expressed optimism that a cure would dispel HIV-related stigma and brings about substantial material improvement to their lives. Reluctance to participate related to concerns regarding potential side-effects, antiretroviral treatment interruption, and impacts on fertility. Unfamiliarity with trials, confidentiality concerns and logistical difficulties were also cited. Lastly, onerous eligibility criteria, clinicians' assumptions about women's willingness and ability to meaningfully provide consent to participation were cited as barriers which could be addressed. Bolstering women's participation in HIV cure research requires consideration of factors relating to reproductive health, analytical treatment interruption, and recruitment. Engaging women living with HIV in trial design and promotion may help overcome these issues.</p>","PeriodicalId":10799,"journal":{"name":"Culture, Health & Sexuality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142343133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}