Who gets counted and how Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action Kevin Guyan Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. 240 pp.

Sexual orientation and gender identity data must be collected and used with thought and with care

Teaching the History of Sexuality with Images

This article outlines how an in-depth engagement with visual archives has transformed the author’s pedagogical practice. It argues that working with visual sources like photographs and illustrations offers students important opportunities to develop key academic skills, and to think critically about archives and sources. It details how working with such rich materials makes space for personal reflection and discovery, especially for students engaging with histories of sex and sexuality for the first time. Outlining the strengths of this approach, it explores some of the tensions and obstacles inherent in doing this kind of work—discussing, for example, the ethical dilemmas faced when reproducing and disseminating sexualized images in the classroom, the complexities of handling student reactions, and the activities students and the instructor have created to negotiate these issues.

Visual Histories of Sex

Increased access to visual archives and the proliferation of digitized images related to sexuality have led a growing number of scholars in recent years to place images and visual practices at the center of critical historical inquiries of sexual desire, subjectivity, and embodiment. At the same time, new critical histories of sexual science serve both to expand the temporal and geographical frames for investigating the historical relationships of sex and visual production, and to generate new lines of inquiry and reshape visual studies more broadly. The contributors to this issue invite us to ask: What new questions and challenges for the study of sex and sexual science are posed by critical studies of the visual? How are new visual methodologies that focus on archives changing the contours of historical knowledge about sex and sexuality? What—and where—are new methodologies still needed? “Visual Archives of Sex” aims to illuminate current research that centers visual media in the history of sexuality and that interrogates contemporary historiographies.

Diversity Monitoring in the Library

The collection of data about the identity characteristics of library users is the latest development in a long history of contested categorisation practices. In this article, I highlight how the collection of data about lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) people has implications for the undertaking of diversity monitoring exercises in academic and public libraries. Based on experiences in the United Kingdom, I argue that recuperative efforts to ‘fix’ categorisation practices are not enough and overlook how categories of gender, sex and sexuality are constructed through the practice of diversity monitoring, how categories are positioned in time and space, and who is involved in decision-making about who to include and exclude from the category of ‘LGBTQ’.

Health and Lifestyle, Safety, Relationship and Personality Factors Influence Gender, Sex and Sexuality Issues among Youth—A Case Record Analysis from Youth Mental Health Promotion Clinics in Karnataka, India

Promoting positive identity and seeking early support for gender, sex and sexuality (GSS) issues among youth is vital. Understanding and addressing factors associated withGSS among them is critical. We assessed four-year case records (January 2017–December 2020) of all first visit youth mental health promotion clinic (YMHPC) clients (15–35 years) for factors associated with GSS issues in Karnataka. Overall, prevalence of GSS issues was 1.8% (189/10,340). Increased risk of GSS issues was observed among clients reporting suicidality (AOR = 4.27, 95% CI = 2.70–6.74) and relationship issues (AOR = 3.63, 95% CI = 2.36–5.57), followed by issues of safety (AOR = 2.56, 95% CI = 1.72–3.81), personality (AOR = 2.48, 95% CI = 1.60–3.85), health and lifestyle (AOR = 2.27, 95% CI = 1.77–4.19), smokers (AOR = 2.30, 95% CI = 1.24–4.27), and those who felt depressed (AOR = 2.10, 95% CI = 1.43–3.09) and worthless (AOR = 2.08, 95% CI = 1.28–3.39). Clients aged 21–25 years (AOR = 1.80,95% CI = 1.27–2.54), male (AOR = 1.72, 95% CI = 1.20–2.46) and who had been married (AOR = 2.32, 95% CI = 1.51–3.57) had a higher risk of GSS issues than those aged 15–20 years and other counterparts, respectively. Clients who drank alcohol (AOR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.30–0.81) had reduced risk of GSS issues. The findings re-iterate the importance of early recognition of factors (essential precursors) of GSS issues among youth. The study highlights the importance of promoting awareness and improving primordial prevention of possible GSS issues in later life. This study has important implications on youth mental health promotion programs, especially in countries like India.

Documentary Disclosures: The Emergence of Queer Independent Filmmaking in India

“Documentary Disclosures” is about the emergence of queer-identified filmmaking in India against the dramatic backdrop of a rapidly transforming mediascape in the last decade of the twentieth century. The restructuring of India’s urban mediascape in the 1990s—through processes of economic globalization, an open-sky policy, and the rise of the Hindu right—witnessed wide-ranging cultural transformations, including an unprecedented efflorescence of cinematic and televisual speech on issues of sex and sexuality. Against this backdrop, the works of three independent filmmakers—Pratibha Parmar, Riyad Wadia, and Nishit Saran—rendered queer subjects and communities visible while raising formalist concerns about documentary’s ability to “disclose.” This chapter discusses the work of these filmmakers as both intercultural texts and confessionals that shaped a new generation of queer interlocutors.

Researching Masculinity and Men’s Sexual Health in Bangladesh: Methodological Reflections

Sex and sexuality are deemed “sensitive” issues in relatively conservative, predominantly Muslim countries. Men’s sex and sexualities research within such cultural contexts confronts certain challenges and raises important methodological issues. This paper reflects on some of the methodological issues and challenges encountered when carrying out a study in Bangladesh. It reports on a male researcher’s qualitative study of men’s sexual health and masculinity in Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim country where sexuality is largely constituted as a taboo subject. The researcher faced challenges in gaining access and in discussing sex and sexuality issues in interview settings. Moreover, the interview context emerged as a site for expressing, negotiating, challenging men and masculinities. Drawing upon experiences in navigating the “field” in Bangladesh, some of the useful ways of researching “sensitive” issues such as sex, sexuality, and masculinity within these settings are suggested, highlighting what works when researching men’s sexual health and masculinity.

Not in front of the children? An analysis of sex on screen in Italy

Despite the fact that both state owned (RAI) and privately owned (Mediaset) Ital-ian television channels habitually adopt scantily dressed women in provocative poses to fulfill a purely decorative function on daytime television, a closer look at Italian TV reveals that it is far less liberated than it seems. In fact, in stark contradiction to the apparent unrestraint of autochthonous studio productions, references to sex and sexuality in imported fictional products tend to be severely mitigated in their translated forms. Furthermore, it also appears that sexual behaviour beyond traditional male/female ‘mainstream’ sexual practices becomes in-creasingly taboo in translation, as they too are either toned down or totally eliminated. Relegated to cable and satellite channels or late-night/early morning viewing on one of the privately owned Mediaset channels, programs containing very explicit sexual content such as US produced ‘Sex and the City’ are moderated quite significantly for Italian audiences, not only in terms of the pervasive use of strong, taboo language, but also for explicit references to a variety of sexual practices.This paper will discuss the norms which govern the translation of ‘adult’ materials for Italian TV both from an examination of the linguistic content of the programs themselves and from the point of view of operators involved in the dubbing process.