Traditions and contradictions of sexual function definitions for portuguese heterosexual men and women: medicalization and socially constructed gender effects

© 2015 College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists

Saúde mental e gênero em um CAPS II de Brasília : condições sociais, sintomas, diagnósticos e sofrimento psíquico

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Psicologia, Departamento de Psicologia Clínica, Programa de Pós-graduação em Psicologia Clínica e Cultura, 2016.

Bodies on the Line: Violence, Disposable Subjects, and the US-Mexico Border Industrial Complex

Bodies On the Line: Violence, Disposable Subjects, and the Border Industrial Complex explores the construction of identity and notions of belonging within an increasingly privatized and militarized Border Industrial Complex. Specifically, the project interrogates how discourses of Mexican migrants as racialized, gendered, and hypersexualized “deviants” normalize violence against border crossers. Starting at Juárez/El Paso border, I follow the expanding border, interrogating the ways that Mexican migrants, regardless of sexual orientation, have been constructed and disciplined according to racialized notions of “sexual deviance." I engage a queer of color critique to argue that sexual deviance becomes a justification for targeting and containing migrant subjects. By focusing on the economic and racially motivated violence that the Border Industrial Complex does to Mexican migrant communities, I expand the critiques that feminists of color have long leveraged against systemic violence done to communities of color through the prison industrial system. Importantly, this project contributes to transnational feminist scholarship by contextualizing border violence within the global circuits of labor, capital, and ideology that shape perceptions of border insecurity. The project contributes an interdisciplinary perspective that uses a multi-method approach to understand how border violence is exercised against Mexicans at the Mexico-US border. I use archival methods to ask how historical records housed at the National Border Patrol Museum and Memorial Library serve as political instruments that reinforce the contemporary use of violence against Mexican migrants. I also use semi-structured interviews with nine frequent border crossers to consider the various ways crossers defined and aligned themselves at the border. Finally, I analyze the master narratives that come to surround specific cases of border violence. To that end, I consider the mainstream media’s coverage, legal proceedings, and policy to better understand the racialized, gendered, and sexualized logics of the violence.

Differences by gender in barthel index change after stroke: a retrospective study in the Northeast Portugal

Foreseeing functional recovery after stroke plays a crucial role in planning rehabilitation programs. Objectives: To assess differences over time in functional recovery assessed through the Barthel Index (BI) rate of change (BIRC) between admission and discharge in stroke patients. Methods: This is a retrospective hospital-based study of consecutive patients with acute stroke admitted to a hospital in the Northeast Portugal between 2010 and 2014. BIRC was computed as the difference between the admission and discharge BI scores divided by time in days between these assessments. General linear model analysis stratiied by gender was used to know whether there was an increase in BIRC during time period under study. Adjusted regression coeficients and respective 95% conidence interval (95%CI) were obtained. Results: From 483 patients included in this analysis 59% (n = 285) were male. Among women, mean BIRC was 1.8 (± 1.88) units/ day in 2010 and reached 3.7 (± 2.80) units/day in 2014. Among men the mean BIRC in 2010 and in 2014 were similar being 3.2 (± 3.19) and 3.1 (± 3.31) units/day, respectively. After adjustment for age, BI at admission, type and laterality of stroke we observed an increase in BIRC over time among women such that mean BIRC in 2014 was 0.82 (95%: 0.48; 3.69) units higher than the one observed in 2010. No such increase in BIRC over time was observed among men. Conclusions: We observed an improvement in functional recovery after stroke but only among women. Our results suggest differences over time in clinical practice toward rehabilitation of women after stroke.

Pathways to adulthood and their precursors: Roles of gender and race

Research on the transition to adulthood dates back nearly four decades, but a growing body of research has taken a new approach by investigating multiple demographic markers in the transition to adulthood simultaneously. Using the life course perspective, this dissertation is built on the literature by first examining contemporary young adults’ pathways to adulthood from ages 18 to 30 and their differences by gender. Data for this study were drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997; the final sample included 2,185 men and 2,086 women. The college-educated single workers pathway, the college-educated married working parents pathway, and the high-school-educated single parents pathway were identified in both genders. For men, the study also identified the high-school-educated single workers pathway and the high-school-educated married working parents pathway. For women, the study also identified the high-school-educated workers pathway and the high-school-educated married parents pathway. Not only did the definitions of some pathways differ by gender, but even in the pathways with the same definition, gender differences were found in the probabilities of being married, of being a parent, or of being employed full-time. Based on the pathways to adulthood identified, this research examined the family and adolescent precursors and whether race moderates the associations between family structure experiences and young adults’ pathways to adulthood. Parental education, family structure, GPA, delinquency, early sexual activity, and race/ethnicity were the family and adolescent precursors that distinguished among pathways taken by the youth. Two interactions between race and family structure/instability were identified. The positive association between growing up in a single-parent family and the odds of taking the high-school-educated single workers pathway compared to the college-educated married working parents pathway was weaker for Black males than for White males. The positive association between family instability and the odds of taking the college-educated single workers pathway compared to the college-educated married working parents pathway was weaker for Black females than for White females. This dissertation accounted for changes in the multiple statuses related to becoming an adult by following contemporary young adults for 12 years. More research on contemporary young adults’ pathways to adulthood and subgroup differences in the effects of precursors are recommended. Limitations and implications of this study are discussed.

The Gender of Drunkenness

International audience

Gender, Behavioral Assessment of Negative Reinforcement Driven Risk Taking Propensity, and Cigarette Smoking

Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death and disability in the United States and most often is initiated during adolescence. An emerging body of research suggests that a negative reinforcement model may explain factors that contribute to tobacco use during adolescence and that negative reinforcement processes may contribute to tobacco use to a greater extent among female adolescents than among male adolescents. However, the extant literature both on the relationship between negative reinforcement processes and adolescent tobacco use as well as on the relationship between gender, negative reinforcement processes, and adolescent tobacco use is limited by the sole reliance on self-report measures of negative reinforcement processes that may contribute to cigarette smoking. The current study aimed to further disentangle the relationships between negative reinforcement based risk taking, gender and tobacco use during older adolescence by utilizing a behavioral analogue measure of negative reinforcement based risk taking, the Maryland Resource for the Behavioral Utilization of the Reinforcement of Negative Stimuli (MRBURNS). Specifically, we examined the relationship between pumps on the MRBURNS, an indicator of risk taking, and smoking status as well as the interaction between MRBURNS pumps and gender for predicting smoking status. Participants included 103 older adolescents (n=51 smokers, 50.5% female, Age (M(SD) = 19.41(1.06)) who all attended one experimental session during which they completed the MRBURNS as well as self-report measures of tobacco use, nicotine dependence, alcohol use, depression, and anxiety. We utilized binary logistic regressions to examine the relationship between MRBURNS pumps and smoking status as well as the interactive effect of MRBURNS pumps and gender for predicting smoking status. Controlling for relevant covariates, pumps on the MRBURNS did not significantly predict smoking status and the interaction between pumps on the MRBURNS and gender also did not significantly predict smoking status. These findings highlight the importance of future research examining various task modifications to the MRBURNS as well as the need for replications of this study with larger, more diverse samples.

The incorporation of violence by women video artists

This paper examines the way in which women video artists embodied violence in their video pieces as a strategy of critique of the patriarchal regime. Since the 1960s several generations of women artists used different strategies of self-harm or explored the physical and mental limits of their bodies to express the anguish of those who are excluded from the patriarchal society on sexist and/or racist grounds. Considering the guiding line that covers three fields – art, gender, and feminist social movements – as well as their key thinkers and scholars in Sociology, Fine Arts and the Humanities, we have built the object of study of this essay, namely, the relationship between women's video art focused on the body, violence and gender along with feminist social movements in the period ranging from 1967 to 2007, in a Western context. The methodology used had as its primary goal to create a link between the micro-sociological level of expressions, body gestures and behaviours in the videos and the macro-sociological level of broader, institutionalized social forces that are at the origin of inequalities, such as dimensions of gender and «race». This study concluded that at least since the 1960s there is the denunciation by women video artists of the general circumstances women live under, while enduring violence of various kinds, such as socio-cultural, psychological and sexual violence against women.

Gender relations and the dowry system in India : the case of Hyderabad

This article seeks to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the gender relations and the dowry system in India. It is based on a qualitative study that gave priority to the undertaking of interviews with women from different educational backgrounds living in the city of Hyderabad (South of India). The predominant perception of the interviewees is that education promotes economic and symbolic independence. The higher the educational level, the more critical accounts are found in relation to: the dowry system as a mechanism of reproduction of the low status of women and of the persistent asymmetries in gender relations; the wish to educate sons and daughters under equal conditions; and the value given to marriages based on love to the detriment of arranged ones. The main argument is that education is a fundamental source of women’s empowerment and opens up prospects for challenging the patriarchal regime, changing the status of women and leading to a more gender equal society. However, if this is to happen, then the education system (programs and curricula) needs to be congruent with gender equality, targeting both women and men in the project of challenging the dominant patriarchal structure.

The specific shapes of gender imbalance in scientific authorships : a network approach

Gender differences in collaborative research have received little at- tention when compared with the growing importance that women hold in academia and research. Unsurprisingly, most of bibliomet- ric databases have a strong lack of directly available information by gender. Although empirical-based network approaches are often used in the study of research collaboration, the studies about the influence of gender dissimilarities on the resulting topological outcomes are still scarce. Here, networks of scientific subjects are used to characterize patterns that might be associated to five categories of authorships which were built based on gender. We find enough evidence that gen- der imbalance in scientific authorships brings a peculiar trait to the networks induced from papers published in Web of Science (WoS) in- dexed journals of Economics over the period 2010-2015 and having at least one author affiliated to a Portuguese institution. Our re- sults show the emergence of a specific pattern when the network of co-occurring subjects is induced from a set of papers exclusively au- thored by men. Such a male-exclusive authorship condition is found to be the solely responsible for the emergence that particular shape in the network structure. This peculiar trait might facilitate future network analyses of research collaboration and interdisciplinarity.

Relatório de Estágio – Sexualidade na Adolescência

O seguinte relatório permitiu-nos reflectir e descrever as nossas actividades ao longo do estágio que realizámos de 14 de Fevereiro a 30 de Junho de 2011. Este teve duas intervenções: uma na Escola Mouzinho da silveira, cujo objectivo era contribuir para uma sexualidade saudável dos adolescentes do 8º ao 10º ano e para uma turma de CEF, num total de 264 adolescentes. A segunda intervenção foi realizada na ESSP cuja intervenção foi no âmbito da promoção da saúde e da ESSP, dos cursos lá ministrados para os alunos de 9º e 12º anos da área Ciências e Tecnologia num total de 317 adolescentes, informando-os das oportunidades que Portalegre oferece de forma a evitar a desertificação das cidades do interior. A educação para a saúde e a educação sexual merecem particular atenção por parte da sociedade e a escola, integrando estratégias de promoção da saúde sexual, no desenvolvimento curricular, favorecendo a articulação com a família, parceiros locais e como as unidades de saúde no âmbito da actividade de saúde escolar. Foi por esse motivo pedida colaboração a ESSP. Neste contexto realizámos um diagnóstico de situação o qual serviu de base para o nosso projecto de Estagio e para este relatório. Seguimos a metodologia do planeamento em saúde com base no diagnóstico de situação, tendo sido abordados os seguintes temas: sexualidade, papéis de género, homossexualidade, gravidez na adolescência, IST, métodos contraceptivos e violência no namoro

“Ela não precisava chamar a polícia...” : anestesias relacionais e duplo-vínculos na perspectiva de homens autores de violência conjugal

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Psicologia, Psicologia Clínica e Cultura, 2015.

ANALYSIS OF GENDER RELATIONS IN THE INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITY OF AGUIRRE, PUERTO RICO

This thesis is a study of the gender relations of the residents of Aguirre, Puerto Rico, between 1940 and 1991. The primary goal of the project was to explore how gender roles and relations in the Aguirre community were impacted by the social class system introduced by the Aguirre Sugar Company. This project was based on the interpretation of the past and present situation of the Aguirre community using oral history, by conducting a series of interviews among its residents. The interviews resulted in three main themes. First, the concepts of `normal and natural' were used to distinguish gender roles. Second, Aguirreños identified `family as community', since through the family individuals built their gender identity and learned the basic rules of coexistence within the social hierarchy of the community. Third, although the gender and class roles were clear in the community, `resistance and negotiation' occurred in the home and at the Company between those of different gender and social classes. The Aguirre Sugar Company was one of the principal influences on the construction of the Aguirreños identity, and left a mark on the past, present and future generations.

Spiritual Violence: Queer People and the Sacrament of Communion

This thesis addresses spiritual violence done to queer people in the sacrament of Communion, or Eucharist, in both Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in the U.S. Rooted in the sexual dimorphic interpretation of Genesis, theologians engendered Christianity with sexism and patriarchy, both of which have since developed into intricate intersections of oppressions. Religious abuse is founded on the tradition of exclusionary practices and is validated through narrow interpretations of Scripture that work to reassert the authority of the experiences of the dominant culture. The resultant culture of oppression manifests itself in ritualized spiritual violence. Queer people are deemed “unworthy” to take ‘the body and blood of the Christ’ and, in fact, are excluded altogether. This “unworthiness” is expressed as spiritual violence against queer people who are shunned and humiliated, internalize hateful messages, and are denied spiritual guidance or life-affirming messages. By “queering” Scripture, or reading the Bible anew through a framework of justice, queer people have begun to sacramentalize their experiences and reclaim their place at the table.

Health profile of centenarians in Portugal: a census-based approach

Background: The number of centenarians is rapidly increasing in Europe. In Portugal, it has almost tripled over the last 10 years and constitutes one of the fastest-growing segments of the population. This paper aims to describe the health and sociodemographic characteristics of Portuguese centenarians as given in the 2011 census and to identify sex differences. Methods: All persons living in Portugal mainland and Madeira and Azores islands aged 100 years old at the time of the 2011 census (N = 1,526) were considered. Measures include sociodemographic characteristics and perceived difficulties in six functional domains of basic actions (seeing, hearing, walking, cognition, self-care, and communication) as assessed by the Portuguese census official questionnaires. Results: Most centenarians are women (82.1 %), widowed (82 %), never attended school (51 %), and live in private households (71 %). The majority show major constraints in seeing (67.4 %), hearing (72.3 %), and particularly in their mobility (83.7 % cannot/have great difficulties in walking/climbing stairs and 80.7 % in bathing/dressing). In general, a better outcome was found for reported memory/concentration and understanding, with 39.1 % and 42.5 % presenting no or mild difficulty, respectively. Top-level functioning (no/mild difficulties in all dimensions concurrently) was observed in a minority of cases (5.96 %). Women outnumber men by a ratio of 4.6, and statistically significant differences were found between men and women for all health-related variables, with women presenting a higher percentage of difficulties. Conclusion: Portuguese centenarians experience great difficulties in sensory domains and basic daily living activities, and to a lesser extent in cognition and communication. The obtained profile, though self-reported, is important in considering the potential of social and family participation of this population regardless of their functional and sensory limitations. Based on the observed differences between men and women, gender-specific and gender-sensitive interventions are recommended in order to acknowledge women’s worse overall condition.