Gender Roles in Intimate Relationships: Who Initiates and Why?

The gender roles of men and women are continuously changing in heterosexual relationships alongside the ever-increasing flexibility and variation of preferences, choice, agency, and individual needs. This paper delves into the role tradition plays between men and women in intimate relationships regarding marriage proposals and surname changes, as well as which sex initiates more when it comes to physical intimacy, emotional intimacy, and long-term commitment.

Impact of COVID-19 on rehabilitation experiences of physiotherapists

BACKGROUND: As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed, pressures on almost all health sectors in many countries increased, and physiotherapy interventions were canceled for various reasons. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine the status of physiotherapists who interrupted their services due to the pandemic and investigate procedures adopted by physiotherapists during face-to-face practice. METHOD: The measuring tool was an online survey administered via Google Forms between January 27 and February 27, 2021. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the sample consisted of 558 physiotherapists, questions about their clinical experience during the pandemic were answered, and descriptive statistics were examined. RESULTS: Of the physiotherapists, 351 (62.9%) suspended their services due to pandemic, while 207 (37%) of all participants worked without suspending their services since the beginning of the process. Among participants, 303 (54.3%) needed education to use telerehabilitation methods, and 315 (56.5%) monitored their patients with remote communication methods. Hand washing (86.6%), disinfectant (85.3%), gloves (76.5%) and masks (86.6%) were the most common protective measures. CONCLUSIONS: Most physiotherapists had their face-to-face practice interrupted for a short time due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but they continue to treat all disease conditions in spite of inherent physical intimacy and increased risk of infection.

Study protocol for the Exercising Together© trial: a randomized, controlled trial of partnered exercise for couples coping with cancer

Background Most cancer survivors are married, and cancer strains the physical and mental health of each partner and their intimate relationship. We created a partnered strength training program, Exercising Together©, where the survivor and his/her partner exercise as a team in order to improve physical and mental health of both members of the couple as well as the quality of their relationship. We have not yet determined if Exercising Together© is similarly effective in couples coping with different types of cancer nor if training as a team has unique and added benefits over those derived from supervised group training and/or shared behavior change. The purpose of this study is to determine the unique benefits of Exercising Together© on physical, mental, and relational health in couples coping with breast, prostate, or colorectal cancer. Methods Survivors of prostate, breast and colorectal cancer (N = 294, 98 per cancer site) and their intimate, co-residing partners are recruited to participate in a single-blind, parallel group, randomized trial comparing three exercise groups that train twice per week for 6 months. Couples are randomized to one of three groups: (1) Exercising Together© where partners train as a team in a supervised group setting; (2) separate supervised group exercise classes for survivors or partners, respectively; (3) unsupervised home exercise program provided to each partner. The primary outcome is relationship quality (dyadic coping by the Dyadic Coping scale, emotional intimacy by the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, physical intimacy by the Physical Intimacy Behavior Scale, and symptom incongruence). Secondary outcomes are physical health (% body fat by DXA, serum fasting lipids (triglycerides, HDL, and LDL cholesterol), insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), resting blood pressure, C-reactive protein, TNF alpha, and physical functioning by the short Physical Performance Battery and SF-36) and mental health (depressive symptoms, anxiety, fear of recurrence) of each partner. Outcomes are collected at baseline, mid (3 months), post-intervention (6 months), and follow-up (12 months). Discussion Exercising Together© could shift the paradigm of survivorship care toward novel couple-based approaches that could optimize outcomes for each partner because their health is interdependent on each other and their relationship. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.govNCT03630354. Registered August 14, 2018

Study Protocol for the Exercising Together© Trial: A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Partnered Exercise for Couples Coping with Cancer

Background Most cancer survivors are married, and cancer strains the physical and mental health of each partner and their intimate relationship. We created a partnered strength training program, Exercising Together©, where the survivor and his/her partner exercise as a team in order to improve physical and mental health of both members of the couple as well as the quality of their relationship. We have not yet determined if Exercising Together© is similarly effective in couples coping with different types of cancer nor if training as a team has unique and added benefits over those derived from supervised group training and/or shared behavior change. The purpose of this study is to determine the unique benefits of Exercising Together© on physical, mental and relational health in couples coping with breast, prostate or colorectal cancer. Methods Survivors of prostate, breast and colorectal cancer (N = 294, 98 per cancer site) and their intimate, co-residing partners are recruited to participate in a single-blind, parallel group, randomized trial comparing three exercise groups that train twice per week for 6 months. Couples are randomized to one of three groups: 1) Exercising Together© where partners train as a team in a supervised group setting, 2) separate supervised group exercise classes for survivors or partners, respectively, 2) unsupervised home exercise program provided to each partner. The primary outcome is relationship quality (dyadic coping by the Dyadic Coping scale, emotional intimacy by the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, physical intimacy by the Physical Intimacy Behavior Scale, and symptom incongruence). Secondary outcomes are physical health (% body fat by DXA, serum fasting lipids (triglycerides, HDL and LDL cholesterol), insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), resting blood pressure, C-reactive protein, TNF-alpha, and physical functioning by the short Physical Performance Battery and SF-36) and mental health (depressive symptoms, anxiety, fear of recurrence) of each partner. Outcomes are collected at baseline, mid (3 months), post-intervention (6 months), and follow up (12 months). Discussion Exercising Together© could shift the paradigm of survivorship care toward novel couple-based approaches that could optimize outcomes for each partner because their health is interdependent on each other and their relationship.

Toxicity and Femininity in Love Island: How Reality Dating Shows Perpetuate Sexist Attitudes Towards Women

Using episodes of ITV2’s Love Island (2016–2020) as a case study, this paper explores the extent to which reality dating shows perpetuate sexist attitudes towards women through a heteronormative focus. Examining the operation of gender roles in Love Island, in the context of emotional intimacy and physical intimacy, this paper proposes that the performance and portrayal of heteronormative ideals disadvantage women. Specifically, by presenting female contestants as overly emotional and irrational, outdated stereotypes surrounding emotionality and hysteria are reproduced within Love Island. Moreover, the stigmatization of sex-positive women in Love Island demonstrates the existence of a sexual double standard wherein male contestants are celebrated for their sexual prowess, while female contestants are shamed and deemed unruly, by virtue of their sexual dominance. Fundamentally, this paper contributes to research on contemporary sexualities by demonstrating how, despite the cultural shift towards greater gender equality, traditional gendered ideals continue to exist in heterosexual relationships, which serve to disadvantage women.

Archiving Mexican Masculinities in Diaspora

In Archiving Mexican Masculinities in Diaspora, Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández challenges machismo—a shorthand for racialized and heteronormative Latinx men's misogyny—with nuanced portraits of Mexican men and masculinities along and across the US-Mexico border. Guidotti-Hernández foregrounds Mexican men's emotional vulnerabilities and intimacies in their diasporic communities. Highlighting how Enrique Flores Magón, an anarchist political leader and journalist, upended gender norms through sentimentality and emotional vulnerability that he performed publicly and expressed privately, Guidotti-Hernández documents compelling continuities between his expressions and those of men enrolled in the Bracero program. Braceros—more than 4.5 million Mexican men who traveled to the United States to work in temporary agricultural jobs from 1942 to 1964—forged domesticity and intimacy, sharing affection but also physical violence. Through these case studies that reexamine the diasporic male private sphere, Guidotti-Hernández formulates a theory of transnational Mexican masculinities rooted in emotional and physical intimacy that emerged from the experiences of being racial, political, and social outsiders in the United States.

The Fate of the Charismatic Leader’s Consort

“Charisma” is essentially a relationship of great emotional intensity between a charismatic leader and the disciples, as depicted by sociologist Max Weber. This study focuses on a charismatic leader’s powerful influence on his close companion through an examination of the life of Ma Yoga Vivek, the lover, head medium, and caretaker of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh/Osho. Her role in the charisma-building processes that shaped Rajneesh’s career, and the divagations of her own spiritual status, buffeted by competing factions in Rajneesh’s inner circle, is analyzed within the framework of recent elaborations of Weberian charisma theory and studies of the dynamics of “proximal authority” and “haptic logics” (sacred touch) in the charismatic relationships involving women devotees in new religious movements. It is argued that Vivek’s peculiar passive and reflected type of charisma was dependent upon her propinquity to, and physical intimacy with Rajneesh, and this dynamic explains the dramatic rise and decline of her spiritual status and social influence within the “charismatic aristocracy” that surrounded Rajneesh/Osho.