scholarly journals Adolescents’ Perception of Their Sexual Self, Relational Capacities, Attitudes Towards Sexual Pleasure and Sexual Practices: a Descriptive Analysis

Author(s):  
Judith Kotiuga ◽  
Maya A. Yampolsky ◽  
Geneviève M. Martin
2021 ◽  
pp. 152483992110315
Author(s):  
Leah R. Fowler ◽  
Lauren Schoen ◽  
Hadley Stevens Smith ◽  
Stephanie R. Morain

Leading medical and public health societies endorse comprehensive sex education, but only 20 states and Washington, D.C., currently require information about contraception when sex education is taught, and even fewer require the inclusion of topics such as gender diversity or consent. At the same time, social media use, especially the video-sharing app TikTok, is increasing among teens. TikTok, therefore, offers a novel opportunity to make up for shortcomings in sex education and convey sexual health information to adolescents. To describe the availability and content of sexual education on TikTok, we conducted a content analysis of themes for 100 sex education–focused videos. We found that female anatomy was the most frequently addressed topic. Sexual pleasure was the second most common theme, within which discussions of the female orgasm and arousal constituted the most common subtheme. Other common themes include contraception and sexual health. These sought-after topics may be incongruent with those presented in standard school- or home-based sex education or interactions with health care providers, and this disconnect suggests opportunities for health care providers and educators to initiate conversations or offer resources on these themes as part of routine interaction. We conclude with recommendations for future research to consider the factual accuracy of sex education on TikTok and determine how exposure to this content affects adolescents’ understanding of the risks and benefits of intercourse, sexual practices, age- and gender-based sexual norms, and other health behaviors.


Author(s):  
Alan Soble

The philosophy of sexuality, like the philosophy of science, art or law, is the study of the concepts and propositions surrounding its central protagonist, in this case ‘sex’. Its practitioners focus on conceptual, metaphysical and normative questions. Conceptual philosophy of sex analyses the notions of sexual desire, sexual activity and sexual pleasure. What makes a feeling a sexual sensation? Manipulation of and feelings in the genitals are not necessary, since other body parts yield sexual pleasure. What makes an act sexual? A touch on the arm might be a friendly pat, an assault, or sex; physical properties alone do not distinguish them. What is the conceptual link between sexual pleasure and sexual activity? Neither the intention to produce sexual pleasure nor the actual experience of pleasure seems necessary for an act to be sexual. Other conceptual questions have to do not with what makes an act sexual, but with what makes it the type of sexual act it is. How should ‘rape’ be defined? What the conceptual differences are, if any, between obtaining sex through physical force and obtaining it by offering money is an interesting and important issue. Metaphysical philosophy of sex discusses ontological and epistemological matters: the place of sexuality in human nature; the relationships among sexuality, emotion and cognition; the meaning of sexuality for the person, the species, the cosmos. What is sex all about, anyway? That sexual desire is a hormone-driven instinct implanted by a god or nature acting in the service of the species, and that it has a profound spiritual dimension, are two – not necessarily incompatible – views. Perhaps the significance of sexuality is little different from that of eating, breathing and defecating; maybe, or in addition, sexuality is partially constitutive of moral personality. Normative philosophy of sex explores the perennial questions of sexual ethics. In what circumstances is it morally permissible to engage in sexual activity or experience sexual pleasure? With whom? For what purpose? With which body parts? For how long? The historically central answers come from Thomist natural law, Kantian deontology, and utilitarianism. Normative philosophy of sex also addresses legal, social and political issues. Should society steer people in the direction of heterosexuality, marriage, family? May the law regulate sexual conduct by prohibiting prostitution or homosexuality? Normative philosophy of sex includes nonethical value questions as well. What is good sex? What is its contribution to the good life? The breadth of the philosophy of sex is shown by the variety of topics it investigates: abortion, contraception, acquaintance rape, pornography, sexual harassment, and objectification, to name a few. The philosophy of sex begins with a picture of a privileged pattern of relationship, in which two adult heterosexuals love each other, are faithful to each other within a formal marriage, and look forward to procreation and family. Philosophy of sex, as the Socratic scrutiny of our sexual practices, beliefs and concepts, challenges this privileged pattern by exploring the virtues, and not only the vices, of adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, group sex, bestiality, masturbation, sadomasochism, incest, paedophilia and casual sex with anonymous strangers. Doing so provides the same illumination about sex that is provided when the philosophies of science, art and law probe the privileged pictures of their own domains.


2021 ◽  
pp. 204382062110545
Author(s):  
Ingrid Young

Di Feliciantonio and Brown offer an important overview of key research areas for the geographies of PrEP, TasP, and undetectabitily, and they consider what matters for the lives of gay and bisexual men. I offer two areas of further consideration. Firstly, I suggest that rather than setting the biopolitical critiques of PrEP and TasP as at odds with grassroots activism, sexual pleasure, and subjectivities, that these particular forms of biosexual activism are indeed central to subject formation and sexual practices and are constitutive of the other within HIV assemblages. Secondly, I highlight the need to consider inequalities more directly both within the context of national borders in relation to jurisdictional health policy, implementation, and access, and within gay communities themselves in relation to intersectional and embodied identities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-182
Author(s):  
Márcio Tadeu Ribeiro Francisco ◽  
Vinícius Rodrigues Fernandes Da Fonte ◽  
Carina D'Onofrio Prince Pinheiro ◽  
Monyque Évelyn Dos Santos Silva ◽  
Thelma Spindola ◽  
...  

Objetivo: Identificar a adesão e descrever fatores associados à realização da testagem para o HIV entre os participantes do carnaval.Método: Estudo transversal realizado com 557 participantes. Os dados foram coletados com auxílio de um questionário. Foi realizada análise descritiva e empregado o teste qui-quadrado com nível de significância de 95%.Resultados: 66,2% já fizeram teste para o HIV alguma vez na vida, 54,2% realizaram nos últimos 12 meses e 83,8% nunca fizeram o teste rápido. Houve associação significativamente estatística (p <0.05) na realização do teste com as variáveis, sexo, faixa etária, relacionamento, pratica sexual com pessoa do mesmo sexo, cadastro em Unidades de Atenção Básica e conhecimento sobre serviços de saúde que realizem o teste gratuitamente.Conclusão: Questões sociais, culturais, de gênero e acesso a unidades de saúde tem se mostrado mais eficientes no estímulo para a realização da testagem do que a exposição a práticas sexuais de risco. Objetivo: Identificar la adhesión y describir factores asociados a la realización de la prueba diagnóstica para el VIH entre los participantes del carnaval.Método: Estudio transversal realizado con 557 participantes. Los datos fueron recolectados con ayuda de un cuestionario. Se realizó un análisis descriptivo y se empleó la prueba chi-cuadrado con nivel de significancia del 95%.Resultados: 66,2% ya han hecho pruebas para el VIH alguna vez en la vida, el 54,2% se realizó en los últimos 12 meses y el 83,8% nunca hizo la prueba rápida. Se observó una asociación significativamente estadística (p<0.05) en la realización del test con las variables, sexo, edad, relación, práctica sexual con persona del mismo sexo, registro en Unidades de Atención Básica y conocimiento sobre servicios de salud que realizan el test gratuitamente.Conclusión: Cuestiones sociales, culturales, de género y acceso a unidades de salud se han mostrado más eficientes en el estímulo para la realización del test que la exposición a prácticas sexuales de riesgo. Objective: To identify adherence and to describe factors associated with realization HIV testing among carnival participants.Method: A cross-sectional study with 557 participants. Data were collected using a questionnaire. A descriptive analysis was performed and the chi-square test was used, with a significance level of 95%.Results: 66.2% have ever tested for HIV at any time in their lives, 54.2% have performed in the last 12 months and 83.8% have never taken the rapid test. There was a statistically significant association (p <0.05) in the test with the variables, gender, age group, relationship, sexual practice with the same sex, enrollment in Primary Care Units and knowledge about health services that performed the test free of charge.Conclusion: Social, cultural, gender, and access to health care issues have been shown to be more effective in stimulating testing than exposure to risky sexual practices.


Author(s):  
Ariane Cruz

This chapter examines the BDSM practice of race play. Focusing on the sexual performances of black women, Cruz reveals performances of domination and submission in BDSM as inventive modes for and of black women's pleasure, power, and agency. BDSM is a critical site from which to rethink the formative links between black female sexuality and violence; in BDSM sexual practices violence becomes not just a vehicle of pleasure but also a mode of accessing and contesting power. Reconciled by the erection of fragile yet formidable boundaries between the constructs of fantasy/reality, inside/outside, mind/body, and black/white, black women BDSMers engage in an elaborate play of race in the pursuit of not only sexual pleasure but also empowerment and sentience. Cruz examines race play as a particularly problematic yet powerful BDSM practice for black women, one that illuminates the contradictory dynamics of racialized pleasure and power via the eroticization of racism and racial sexual alterity. Race play, as Cruz argues, irradiates the fantasies and enactments of racialized violence (mytho-historically conceived) that sex and sexual performance across the color line recite, particularly within the realm of BDSM.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
José Flavio De Lima Castro ◽  
Rodrigo Cappato de Araújo ◽  
Ana Carolina Rodarti Pitangui

Introduction: The adolescent sexuality should not be understood only from the biological point of view; it is necessary to consider the whole social context.Objective: To characterize the adolescents’ behavior and sexual practices , according to sex.Methods: Cross-sectional study with adolescents aged 14 to 19 years registered in the  Recife-PE state. A questionnaire with sociodemographic data and sexual behavior was used. The data were analyzed using SPSS, being employed a descriptive analysis and the tests chi-square and Mann-Whitney.Results: The data from 674 adolescents with an average age of 16.07 ± 1.46 years were analyzed. It was verified sexual initiation in 52.9% of boys and 38.7% girls. There was a significant difference between the number of partners (p = 0.001) with the boys showing greater quantitative. The barrier method was the most used in the first (68.8%) and last intercourse (52.2%). There was a significant difference in the first and last intercourse, in use (p = 0.006; p = 0.010) and type of contraceptive method (p= 0.001; p 0.001). Regarding the social network, riends were the most popular. However, it was observed a significant difference (p = 0.026), being the maternal figure more prevalent in girls. There was a significant difference in the absence of sexual initiation (p= 0.001). The lack of opportunity was the most reported condition by boys (52.2%) and marry virgin by the girls (33.9%).Conclusion: Most had already had sexual life, with higher prevalence in males. Regarding the sexual practices and behaviors in most conditions analyzed different values between the sexes were observed, with greater freedom and permissiveness in males. 


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shannon Couper

<p>In this thesis I argue that foregrounding young women’s intersectional voices through an embodied sociolinguistic approach can afford a contribution to empowering sexual scripts. In doing so I demonstrate the political value in harnessing the linguistic negotiation of pleasure. To enact this goal, my research questions are: 1. How do women make sense of experiences of sexual pleasure in talk? 2. How do women construct their identities when talking about sexual pleasure? 3. How do women describe their bodies when recounting sexual pleasure?  An embodied sociolinguistics offers insight into the discursive construction of sexual embodiment, and together with a critical feminist approach, centers the voices and experiences of women. Sexual experiential embodiment entails reflexively constructed understandings of sexual pleasure and desire through attention to discursive bodies, particularly for those that are historically misrepresented.  The analysis makes use of conversations in intimate female friendships that serve as identity construction sites and reflect both agency and interdependent self-authorship. This data offers insights into the challenges of navigating various discourses in the pursuit of self-definition and is comprised of 6 hour-long conversations between 6 pairs of young female friends, as well as 4 hours of recorded focus group discussion.   My findings demonstrate that ideologies of femininity play a large role in the initial construction of the intimate conversational site which creates space for dynamic negotiations of desire, subjectivity and the multifaceted nature of sexual experiences. The continuing interaction affords constructions of complex feminist identities within neoliberal constraints. I develop this into a critique of how uncritical discourses of sexual agency can transform sexual pleasure into a neoliberal project. Embodied sociolinguistics allows access into how sexual pleasure dynamically unfolds in the discursive formulation of the body. Ultimately this culminates into a mapping of historical pleasure landscapes that illustrate the significance of foregrounding language and conversation on sexual pleasure.   Sociolinguistic investigations that seek to transform harmful hegemonic discourses are essential in the ongoing combat against entrenched rape culture. My study advocates for a culture that values discussion of female sexual pleasure. This focus is potentially more destabilizing and contestive than focusing on sexual violation because it directly challenges hetero-patriarchal culture’s hostility toward women’s agency.   The framework employed in this thesis offers significant implications for the field of language, gender and sexuality, including the further advancement of the theory of embodied sociolinguistics and a methodology of intimate insider research. Employing intersectionality allows for the queering of normative sexual practices and disrupts normative gender discourses by centering agentive feminist voices. From a critical perspective, the research contributes to building a model of pleasure activism that prioritises joy. A body-focused linguistic approach demonstrates that true transformation of our sexuality culture must begin with destabilizing the neoliberal project and moving toward collective liberation. There is no inevitability to the sexual danger script when we channel the political power of pleasure. </p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Shannon Couper

<p>In this thesis I argue that foregrounding young women’s intersectional voices through an embodied sociolinguistic approach can afford a contribution to empowering sexual scripts. In doing so I demonstrate the political value in harnessing the linguistic negotiation of pleasure. To enact this goal, my research questions are: 1. How do women make sense of experiences of sexual pleasure in talk? 2. How do women construct their identities when talking about sexual pleasure? 3. How do women describe their bodies when recounting sexual pleasure?  An embodied sociolinguistics offers insight into the discursive construction of sexual embodiment, and together with a critical feminist approach, centers the voices and experiences of women. Sexual experiential embodiment entails reflexively constructed understandings of sexual pleasure and desire through attention to discursive bodies, particularly for those that are historically misrepresented.  The analysis makes use of conversations in intimate female friendships that serve as identity construction sites and reflect both agency and interdependent self-authorship. This data offers insights into the challenges of navigating various discourses in the pursuit of self-definition and is comprised of 6 hour-long conversations between 6 pairs of young female friends, as well as 4 hours of recorded focus group discussion.   My findings demonstrate that ideologies of femininity play a large role in the initial construction of the intimate conversational site which creates space for dynamic negotiations of desire, subjectivity and the multifaceted nature of sexual experiences. The continuing interaction affords constructions of complex feminist identities within neoliberal constraints. I develop this into a critique of how uncritical discourses of sexual agency can transform sexual pleasure into a neoliberal project. Embodied sociolinguistics allows access into how sexual pleasure dynamically unfolds in the discursive formulation of the body. Ultimately this culminates into a mapping of historical pleasure landscapes that illustrate the significance of foregrounding language and conversation on sexual pleasure.   Sociolinguistic investigations that seek to transform harmful hegemonic discourses are essential in the ongoing combat against entrenched rape culture. My study advocates for a culture that values discussion of female sexual pleasure. This focus is potentially more destabilizing and contestive than focusing on sexual violation because it directly challenges hetero-patriarchal culture’s hostility toward women’s agency.   The framework employed in this thesis offers significant implications for the field of language, gender and sexuality, including the further advancement of the theory of embodied sociolinguistics and a methodology of intimate insider research. Employing intersectionality allows for the queering of normative sexual practices and disrupts normative gender discourses by centering agentive feminist voices. From a critical perspective, the research contributes to building a model of pleasure activism that prioritises joy. A body-focused linguistic approach demonstrates that true transformation of our sexuality culture must begin with destabilizing the neoliberal project and moving toward collective liberation. There is no inevitability to the sexual danger script when we channel the political power of pleasure. </p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Mary O. Obiyan ◽  
Atinuke O. Olaleye ◽  
Macellina Y. Ijadunola ◽  
Morenike O. Folayan

Background: Young people aged 10-24 years constitute about one-third of the total population of Nigeria. Street-involved young people (SIYP) face a double burden of living condition instability and lack of adequate parental monitoring. This leaves them vulnerable to poor sexual and reproductive health (SRH) choices and behaviour. Risky sexual behaviour with poor access to SRH information and interventions increases their vulnerability to adverse SRH outcomes. This study explored the use of modern contraceptives and sexual practices among male and female SIYP (10-24 years) in Nigeria. Methods: This qualitative study used an exploratory research design to guide the development of the focus group discussion (FGD) and in-depth interview (IDI) guides. Participants were asked questions on background information, lived experiences and SRH practices. The FGDs were stratified by sex and age. Both FGD discussions and IDI interviews were recoded; transcripts were transcribed and translated from local dialect into English language. Content analysis was conducted thematically with the aid of NVivo. Results: In total, 17 IDIs and 11 FGDs were conducted among SIYP aged 10-24 years. The total number of respondents interviewed was 109. There is high awareness of modern contraceptives among SIYP; the commonly known method was condom with a few also aware of emergency contraceptives pills. However, participants reported low use of modern contraceptives. The common reasons alluded for not using condoms were reduced sexual pleasure, cost and associated myths. The five themes that emerged under sexual practices of SIYP included early age at first sexual encounter, multiple sex partners, transactional sex, same-sex relationships, and transactional sex. Conclusions: There is low utilization of contraceptives by SIYP against the background of their high-risk sexual practices. SIYP would benefit from free contraceptive education, social safety nets and interventions to dissuade them from transactional sex and other unhealthy sexual practices.


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