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.

Alone together: Cinematic (re)presentations of masculinity, friendship, and grief

<p>This project examines the links between masculinity, friendship, and grief in a combination of creative work and critical analysis. The creative component consists of a thirteen-minute short dramatic film entitled 'Brothers' (2014). This film explores the different ways in which three young men react to the death of a close male friend. The film contains no dialogue and emphasises the importance of gestures, actions, and other forms of behaviour. The thesis is comprised of three main sections. The first situates masculine experiences of grief and friendship in a critical context by drawing on discourses from sociology and psychology. I argue that the feelings of individual men in relation to traumatic events such as bereavement are often hidden or repressed because of the need to present a stoic exterior, even during grieving rituals such as funerals. This kind of behaviour preserves the invulnerability often associated with dominant or idealised versions of masculinity. However, this tendency arguably inhibits male emotional intimacy and friendship, particularly during times of crisis. The second part of the thesis considers how these interrelated issues are represented cinematically through a close reading of the John Cassavetes film 'Husbands' (1970). 'Husbands' is concerned with the dissolute behaviour of three male friends in the aftermath of the death of a friend. Although the men are garrulous, they struggle to articulate their feelings. I employ research on performance in cinema, as well as criticism of Cassavetes’ work to interpret the slips in their masculine bravado. The final section engages in an exegesis of 'Brothers'. I reflect on the influence of Husbands on my project. I also discuss the ways in which 'Brothers' can be understood in terms of the critical frameworks established in the previous chapters. A Note About 'Brothers': The creative component of this project, the film 'Brothers', is included alongside this thesis on a DVD. The film can also be accessed online at https://vimeo.com/99519967 using the password 'masterscut'. A copy of the final shooting script is also included in the thesis as an appendix.</p>

Alone together: Cinematic (re)presentations of masculinity, friendship, and grief

<p>This project examines the links between masculinity, friendship, and grief in a combination of creative work and critical analysis. The creative component consists of a thirteen-minute short dramatic film entitled 'Brothers' (2014). This film explores the different ways in which three young men react to the death of a close male friend. The film contains no dialogue and emphasises the importance of gestures, actions, and other forms of behaviour. The thesis is comprised of three main sections. The first situates masculine experiences of grief and friendship in a critical context by drawing on discourses from sociology and psychology. I argue that the feelings of individual men in relation to traumatic events such as bereavement are often hidden or repressed because of the need to present a stoic exterior, even during grieving rituals such as funerals. This kind of behaviour preserves the invulnerability often associated with dominant or idealised versions of masculinity. However, this tendency arguably inhibits male emotional intimacy and friendship, particularly during times of crisis. The second part of the thesis considers how these interrelated issues are represented cinematically through a close reading of the John Cassavetes film 'Husbands' (1970). 'Husbands' is concerned with the dissolute behaviour of three male friends in the aftermath of the death of a friend. Although the men are garrulous, they struggle to articulate their feelings. I employ research on performance in cinema, as well as criticism of Cassavetes’ work to interpret the slips in their masculine bravado. The final section engages in an exegesis of 'Brothers'. I reflect on the influence of Husbands on my project. I also discuss the ways in which 'Brothers' can be understood in terms of the critical frameworks established in the previous chapters. A Note About 'Brothers': The creative component of this project, the film 'Brothers', is included alongside this thesis on a DVD. The film can also be accessed online at https://vimeo.com/99519967 using the password 'masterscut'. A copy of the final shooting script is also included in the thesis as an appendix.</p>

Cyberintimacy Involvement on Building Emotional Intimacy in Close Relationship on Indonesian Tinder Users

Tinder, as one of the most popular online dating applications, is nicknamed as the hookup app. The negative perceptions inherent among the public were born because of how users in western countries operate the application, which does not follow the norms adopted in Indonesia. Many people assume that most Tinder users are those who are not looking for a long-term romantic relationship. The possibility of getting a partner who will commit to the relationship is not a common idea. This research aims to understand the development process of emotional intimacy and the initiation of a close relationship between Tinder users who have managed to find their partner through the Tinder application and communication mediated by computers (internet). This research uses a qualitative approach. In-depth interviews and Netnographic observations were used as the primary and secondary data collection techniques. This study indicates that although many Tinder users in Indonesia use Tinder similar to how people in western countries do, many users have finally succeeded in building long-term close relationships. Therefore, the perception about small numbers of Tinder users looking for long-term romantic relationships is not accurate.

Perceptions and Interpretation of Contemporary Masculinities in Western Culture: A Systematic Review

The social construct of masculinity evolves in response to changes in society and culture. Orthodox masculinity is mostly considered to be hegemonic and is evidenced by the dominance of men over women and other, less powerful men. Contemporary shifts in masculinity have seen an emergence of new masculinities that challenge traditional male stereotypes. This systematic review aims to review and synthesize the existing empirical research on contemporary masculinities and to conceptualize how they are understood and interpreted by men themselves. A literature search was undertaken on 10 databases using terms regularly used to identify various contemporary masculinities. Analysis of the 33 included studies identified four key elements that are evident in men’s descriptions of contemporary masculinity. These four elements, (a) Inclusivity, (b) Emotional Intimacy, (c) Physicality, and (d) Resistance, are consistent with the literature describing contemporary masculinities, including Hybrid Masculinities and Inclusive Masculinity Theory. The synthesized findings indicate that young, middle-class, heterosexual men in Western cultures, while still demonstrating some traditional masculinity norms, appear to be adopting some aspects of contemporary masculinities. The theories of hybrid and inclusive masculinity suggest these types of masculinities have several benefits for both men and society in general.

Does Brand Love Last Forever? : A Study on Turkey’s Lovemarks

Brand love has become an important concept in both the academic and business worlds. There are some studies in the literature conducted on consumers regarding the brand love, but no study focuses on brands that consumers are in love with. Therefore, to analyze how brand love is created and to identify the components of a sustainable brand love, we conducted a qualitative study on the brands that achieved the lovemark status several times in the survey conducted on the consumers in Turkey. We used the categories in the 2019 lovemark survey, a study conducted by Ipsos for MediaCat magazine every year, as the basis, and we evaluated brands that have been selected as lovemarks in their respective categories at least five times. Our study concluded that the brands created brand love through quality in product or service as well as diversity, customer satisfaction, brand trust, innovative products, sincerity, and emotional intimacy, being a solution-oriented brand, as demonstrated in other studies in the literature, and in addition, by creating social responsibility projects, and being accessible. These brands also made brand love sustainable through reliability, service, relevance, stand behind the promise, innovation, brand image, customer satisfaction, a sense of community, customer experience, emotional bond, trust, people-oriented communication strategy, real-life compatible products and services as well as creation of different experiences.

An EFA of a revised Condom Fit and Feel Scale (CoFFee-R): Adding intimacy and pleasure

External condoms are an effective contraceptive and safe-sex practice when used properly. A focus on universal fit has produced a variety of latex, polyurethane, or polyisoprene condoms. However, researchers and manufacturers have given little attention to how condoms subjectively fit and feel for the user. Reece and colleagues (2007) developed the Condom Fit and Feel Scale in 2007 that focused on physical aspects of fit (e.g., loose along penis shaft). Yet, users’ perceptions of emotional intimacy and pleasurable sensations may also predict condom use. The original scale had items corresponding to one of five factors: Condoms Fit Fine, Condoms Feel Too Loose, Condoms Feel Too Tight, Condoms Are Too Long, and Condoms Are Too Short. We revised the measure to include a broader conceptualization of feel and to remove redundant items. This revised scale (CoFFee-R) was tested for its psychometric properties in a sample of 399 participants recruited through a university participant pool. After conducting parallel and exploratory factor analyses, we settled on a four-factor structure. Our resulting CoFFee-R scale contained 18 items with the following factors: Condom Fit, Condom Intimacy and Pleasure, Condom Big, Condom Small. The factor structure of the CoFFee-R accounted for 57.6% of the variance, with structure matrix loadings ranging from .54 to .99, and no cross-loadings above .33. We discuss benefits and uses of the CoFFee-R within a transtheoretical model of predicting condom-use. This study has implications for how researchers measure health behaviours, from the wording of items to the conceptualization of condom fit and feel.

“not conducive for sobriety”: Sex Addiction and Neoliberal Masculinity in Don Jon and Thanks for Sharing

Thanks for Sharing (2012) and Don Jon (2013), share similarities in their representation of the lives of unmarried men who are all approaching midlife, and who are all struggling to build meaningful, monogamous, long term attachments with women. In Thanks for Sharing, Adam (Mark Ruffalo) is addicted to brief encounters with numerous partners in contexts devoid of emotional intimacy, while a fellow member of his sex addicts support group, Neil (Josh Gad), struggles with a compulsion to touching strangers in public locations. In counterpoint, Don Jon charts the protagonist’s insatiable consumption of online pornography, since Jon believes that the virtual domain provides a far superior sexual experience than anything, he could find in real life encounters with women. This article is concerned with the relationship between sex addiction and masculinity, and how neoliberalism is imbued in the characters’ embodiment of masculinity regardless of their divergent social backgrounds.

Synthetic versus human voices in audiobooks: The human emotional intimacy effect

Human voices narrate most audiobooks, but the fast development of speech synthesis technology has enabled the possibility of using artificial voices. This raises the question of whether the listeners’ cognitive processing is the same when listening to a synthetic or a human voice telling a story. This research aims to compare the listeners’ perception, creation of mental images, narrative engagement, physiological response, and recognition of information when listening to stories conveyed by human and synthetic voices. The results showed that listeners enjoyed stories narrated by a human voice more than a synthetic one. Also, they created more mental images, were more engaged, paid more attention, had a more positive emotional response, and remembered more information. Speech synthesis has experienced considerable progress. However, there are still significant differences versus human voices, so that using them to narrate long stories, such as audiobooks do, is difficult.