Female Sexuality

L'elaborato presenta il dibattito interno al femminismo di seconda ondata riguardante il sesso e l'uso (o abuso) del corpo femminile. Il pensiero pro-sex e quello anti-sex si scontrano, dando vita a un accesa discussione portata avanti attraverso saggi di notevole portata culturale.

This essay looks at how social change has influenced and been influenced by societal perceptions of female sexuality and the role of females within intimate relationships in North America across the scope of the 20th century, arguing that women and girls in the Western world have come to experience increasingly more sexual freedom as the decades have passed.

Vaginismus and dyspareunia most commonly affect women in their childbearing years, yet sexual function, and not childbirth, has been the focus of most research. Aim. The aim of this study is to discuss pregnancy and birth outcomes in women with sexual pain disorders (SPDs) and address practical concerns of patients and practitioners regarding management during pregnancy, pelvic examination, labor, and delivery. Methods. Review of the relevant literature and recommendations based on clinical expertise of the authors. Results. A review of SPD, conception, and birth outcomes is provided as well as clinical recommendations for prenatal, labor, and delivery management of women with SPD. Conclusions. Practitioners involved in obstetrical care should be knowledgeable about SPD and provide appropriate modifications and interventions. Rosenbaum TY and Padoa A. Managing pregnancy and delivery in women with sexual pain disorders. J Sex Med 2012;9:1726-1735.

Why Lydia Bennet is the True Feminist Heroine of Pride and Prejudice

Frequently overlooked as little more than Elizabeth Bennet’s annoying little sister, Lydia is not always characterized in the most favorable terms: “vain, ignorant, idle, and absolutely uncontrolled” and “the most determined flirt that ever made herself or her family ridiculous” (Austen 135), are just some of the choice words her sister uses to describe her. However, I find, that these seemingly negative attributes are precisely what make Lydia a progressive female character as they radically break with the expectations on proper femininity at the time. Her vanity, for instance, can also be interpreted as valuable self-confidence at a time where modesty demanded women to be almost afraid of their own bodies. Similarly, her “idle” and ”uncontrolled” (135) tastes for pleasure and entertainment are significant when women were expected to be silent, self-sacrificing beings. Her Ignorance, too, also renders her ignorant of many of society’s oppressive norms, allowing her to act and speak her mind unabashedly. Finally, for a woman to be a “flirt” (135) and freely express her sexual desires can really only be considered negative in an antiquated society that will not permit her to be anything short of ‘pure’ and ‘angelic’. Lydia, thus, rebels against Regency constructions of femininity in a major way. Perhaps most importantly, her rebellion is never punished for after her elopement with Wickham (one of the most radical acts at a time were female purity before matrimony was near-sacred) she returns still “untamed, unabashed” and “fearless” (181). Therefore, Lydia Bennet, as I will argue, can be considered far more than just the comic side character of the “silliest [girl] in the country” (18), in fact she might well be the real ‘feminist heroine’ of Pride and Prejudice.

Introduction by Jude Woods and Nina Kane.
The book includes contributions from speakers who participated in the Agender: Female and Transgendered Masculinities Conference (Leeds Art Gallery, June 2014)  and performers, artists and theorists interested in the queer and gender politics opened up by the theme.  It focuses primarily on the development of queer cultures of art, dance, theatre and performance arts in Europe in the C20th, and current issues of concern in the C21st, and will contextualise this in a wider history of gender. Most of the submissions focus explicitly on the gender binary and explore constructions of masculinity, femininity and issues relating to Transgender or Transsexual experience as mediated through the arts. It also contains a number of chapters pertaining to the work of artists Marlowe Moss and Claude Cahun - exhibited in the 'Parallel Lives' exhibition held at Leeds Art Gallery (April - Sept 2014), and the impetus for the original conference. There is a focus on galleries and the presence (or absence) of queer work in gallery practice and programming, and in the wider cultural canons of art history and performance. The book has been commissioned by Cambridge Scholars Publishing and is co-authored / co-edited by Dr Nina Kane,and Jude Woods as part of the conclusion to the PoMoGaze project and Queer Eye Partnership (Leeds Art Gallery and Cast-Off Drama, 2013-2015). Published 1st June 2017.

Roughly two decades ago, the expression « cougar » surfaced in popular language as a term used to describe women engaging in intimate relationships with younger men. Drawing on 55 semi-structured interviews with women aged 30-60 who date younger men, the author explores the way these women imagine the « cougar » and the reasons why they chose to identify as such or reject that label. Results show that very few women like being associated with that expression, and that their position is largely influenced by gendered normative expectations found in the traditional cultural script for heterosexual sex. Furthermore, she shows that ageism complicates the renegotiation of gendered norms regarding sexuality that women who date younger men must do in order to present themselves as emancipated sexual subjects while also avoiding potential stigma.

近年来，PUA 亲密关系中不法行为人利用精神控制致被害人自杀死亡的案例频发，危害严重。但我国现行法律对亲密关系中精神控制行为致人自杀死亡的行为与结果之间的因果关系界定模糊，导致受害人的合法权利难以得到有效保护。PUA 教程中“教唆自杀”的概念需要进行明确界定。
根据我国涉精神控制犯罪的司法现状，结合国外“客观归责理论”，可以证成精神控制行为与自杀死亡结果之间的因果关系。同时，参考英美法系国家的相关立法和案例，应当适当扩张教唆的内涵，将教唆自杀单列成罪。这样才能更好地实现规制PUA 中“教唆自杀”行为的目的。

The essay takes it starting point from the question, how women Surrealists depict sexuality. Images of female erotic fantasies have been far less analyzed than the erotic fantasies of their male Surrealist colleagues. The essay puts forward the thesis that women Surrealists use flora and fauna symbols in juxtaposition with their own bodies to enable both freedom of imagination and sexual empowerment. Hybridity and metamorphosis are methods to self-define, within the realm of dreams. The essay analyzes selected paintings by the Scandinavian Surrealists Rita Kernn-Larsen and Elsa Thoresen and compare them to their international contemporaries. The cases of Kernn-Larsen and Thoresen both show how sexual fantasy is linked to female subjectivity, and how women artists found each their individual visualization of eroticism. Furthermore, the view that Surrealist women's use of nature symbols is primarily connected to a fertile, reproductive "Mother Earth" ideal is countered. Rather, women artists consciously invoke the complete range of roles and clichés surrounding the woman-nature link; they take these allegories and recreate them into their own versions, including images of savageness and shadiness, the "immoral" side of nature.

Marketers use the combination of sex and celebrity to sell movies, music and more.  This qualitative project uses content analysis to track sexualized images on the official web sites and fan sites of 41 celebrities.  An official web site may construct a celebrity’s sexuality as part of overall marketing, with all images as tightly controlled as trademarked images.  Over time, these celebrity images become a public sexual iconography.  While such images have been studied in other mass media, few studies have scrutinized sexuality on mainstream web sites.  This analysis finds that female musicians are more likely than other celebrities to be represented by sexualized images, and that all types of female celebrities are sexualized more than males.  In general, a female celebrity who uses sexuality to promote her public image wears this sexuality like a uniform on both official and fan web sites.

A look at nascent female sexuality in french film through psychological waters.

Films:

À ma sœur ! , Catherine Breillat, (Tartan, 2002).

Heavenly Creatures, Peter Jackson, (Touchstone, 1996).

H20, Ralph Steiner, (1929).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4muinY8Q9M (Accessed: 5th May 2014).

Innocence, Lucile Hadzihalilovic,(Artificial Eye, 2004).

La Vie d’Adèle, Abdellatif Kechiche, (2013)

Les Quatre Cents Coups, François Truffaut, (Tartan, 2002).

Naissance des pieuvres, Céline Sciamma, (Slingshot Studios, 2008).

Pauline, Céline Sciamma, (2009)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUHyJjiouUw (Accessed: 5th May 2014).

Sex is Comedy, Catherine Breillat (Artificial Eye, 2002).

Tomboy, Céline Sciamma, (2011).

This paper focuses on way the topics of lesbian love and female sexual desire, which are still widely unexplored a in the domaine of post-Yugoslav literature are presented in Ajla Terzić's novel Mogla je biti prosta priča (Could have been a simple story).
The novel depicts the love affaire between two young women from Bosnia, Esma and Roza, who meet on a train in Austria. The work does not only introduce the neglected aspect of lesbian sexuality into the literature of the former Yugoslav countries, but it also questions the prevailing concepts of femininity. The story includes a number of other current issues that consider the position of individuals, and especially women in a society in transition in the post-war period in the Balkans.
The novel illuminates the issue of self-discovery and self-definition of a specific generation of young people who are caught up between conservative and liberal views, and search to define their own identity. The primar goal of the author surely hasn’t been only to address the issues of homosexuals as a marginalized group, but she also tries to offer a criticism of a society full of clichés and prejudice and create a frame for analyzing the issue of diffent life choices. In a patriarchal society lesbian love can symbolize an act of resistance, liberation from the chains of assigned social norms, and subversion of typical gender and sexual roles.

Key words: Balkans, contemporary literature, desire, homosexuality, former Yugoslavia, lesbian love, female sexuality, transition

Background: the present quantitative longitudinal study focuses on the inter-relationships between sexual abuse, distressed female sexual function and childbirth. Additional variables studied include depression, mode of delivery, subjective birth experience and traumatic life events other than sexual abuse. Methods: data collection for the study was extended across three time periods: during the third trimester of pregnancy and approximately one and six months postpartum. Self-reported questionnaire responses of 300 women from two medical centres in Israel, as well as hospital records regarding their mode of childbirth, were included in the data analysis. Measures incorporated in the study included the Female Sexual Distress Scale-Revised, the Beck Depression Inventory and modified versions of the Traumatic Events Questionnaire, the Sexual Experiences Survey, and the Subjective Birth Experience Questionnaire. Results: findings demonstrated that women with a lifetime history of sexual abuse compared to women without such history, are at an increased risk for distressed antenatal and postpartum female sexual function (Odds Ratio OR=2.66 and OR=2.26, respectively); and postpartum depression (OR=2.36). Antenatal depression was likewise shown to be significantly associated with antenatal and postpartum distressed female sexual function (OR=4.32 and OR=10.4, respectively), as well as with a more negatively experienced childbirth (T-Ratio, T=1.98, po0.05). Moreover, distressed antenatal female sexual function was found to increase the risk for a more negatively experienced childbirth (T=2.04, po0.05), and caesarean childbirth (OR=3.34). Conclusions: the current study enriches the understanding of the inter-relationships between the antenatal, childbirth and postpartum variables studied herein; and has implications for evidence based practice in both preventative and intervention efforts. Recommendations for future research are presented and discussed.

Helmut Newton was one of the main photographers who changed the way femininity was
portrayed in the history of fashion photography, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, by
showing women who were sexually empowered. During the second wave of feminism,
he depicted a concept of femininity that feminists were developing and looking for society
to recognize: the idea that a feminine woman was not just a delicate mother or housewife,
but a whole human being with her own voice, will, and desires. This thesis explores
Newton’s photographic style and the use of female sexuality as a tool of empowerment
to understand how Newton changed the portrayal of femininity in fashion photography,
by analyzing fashion photographs from magazines and campaigns from the period,
articles about Helmut Newton, femininity and sexual empowerment, and books about
feminism and fashion photography. Understanding how this transformation happened in
the past is relevant because it leads to a reflection on what can be done in photography
today to create a more faithful and contemporary representation of women and femininity
in the media.
Keywords: Fashion Photography. Helmut Newton. Femininity. Women. Representation.
Sexuality. Empowerment. Portraiture.

Difficult Women analyses select case studies from international TV dramas to examine the unresolved feminist issues they raise or address: equal labor force participation, the demand for sexual pleasure and freedom, opposition to sexual and domestic violence, the need for intersectional approaches.

Drawing on examples from The Killing, Orange is the New Black, Big Little Lies, Wentworth, Outlander, Westworld, Being Mary Jane, Queen Sugar, Vida, and other television dramas with a focus on complex female characters, this book illustrates how female creative control in key production roles (direct authorship) together with industrial imperatives and a conducive cultural context (indirect authorship) are necessary to produce feminist texts. Placed within the larger context of a rise in feminist activism and political participation by women; the growing embrace of a feminist identity; and the ascendance of post-feminism, this book reconsiders the unfinished nature of feminist struggle(s) and suggests the need for a broader sweep of economic change.

In the last few years, the concept of sexual agency has been used by many English-language studies on youth and women to describe the ability to take control of one’s own body and sexuality. While the term is rarely used in informal English, it appears even less frequently in French.

One way that young women can exercise their sexual agency is for them to take an active role by seeking answers to their questions about their own sexuality. Using an innovative "private" blog method, combined with in-depth interviews, we sought to determine how teenage girls and young women ages 17 to 21 are using the Internet to learn about sexuality. We then interviewed the participants about the situations where they exercise (or refrain to exercise) sexual agency in their lives.

In this thesis, we propose a definition of sexual agency, describe the method we have developed, and then discuss our results. We show that the participants use the Internet to gather information on a wide variety of sexual topics, but using the Internet has some limitations when a participant's situation is worrisome or taboo. Although Internet seems to serve well their needs related to "physical" matters, the participants don’t really use Internet to address their more "psychological" or "relational" concerns. They also do not grant the same credence to some Internet sources as they do to their friends, doctors or parents. We also show that the participants, in their sexual encounters, have integrated some agentic messages, such as "No means no", but show some lack of sexual agency when their partner is more experienced or insistent. Finally, we will see that our method of private blogs mixed with in-depth interviews is an ideal method for gathering qualitative data on sensitive topics such as sexuality.

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Dans les études anglophones sur les jeunes femmes, on fait de plus en plus appel à un concept relativement récent en sciences sociales : l’agentivité sexuelle (sexual agency). Terme peu usité en anglais, et encore moins en français, l’agentivité sexuelle fait référence à l’idée de « contrôle » de sa propre sexualité, c’est-à-dire à la capacité de prendre en charge son corps et sa sexualité.

L’une des façons de prendre une part active dans sa sexualité est de s’y intéresser et chercher des réponses à ses questions. Par le biais de blogues « privés » de recherche sur Internet et d’entrevues individuelles, nous avons interrogé 30 jeunes femmes âgées de 17 à 21 ans sur leurs façons d’utiliser Internet pour répondre à leurs questions sur la sexualité. Nous avons ensuite poussé plus loin la question de l’agentivité en interrogeant la façon dont les jeunes participantes manifestent de l’agentivité dans diverses situations en lien avec leur sexualité.

Ce rapport de recherche doctorale propose une définition du concept d’agentivité sexuelle, décrit la méthodologie novatrice utilisée et présente ensuite de façon qualitative les résultats. Nous avons pu observer qu’Internet constitue un moyen de choix pour répondre aux questions des participantes sur la sexualité, mais qu’en certaines situations angoissantes, Internet présente certaines limites. Bien qu’Internet leur semble une solution rapide, efficace et anonyme pour répondre à leurs questions d’ordre « physique », elles utilisent très peu le Web pour répondre à leurs besoins d’ordre plus « psychologique » ou « relationnel ». Elles n’accordent pas non plus aux sources Web le même crédit qu’à leurs parents, médecins ou amis. Nous avons également constaté que les participantes, dans leurs pratiques, ont bien intégré certaines notions de contrôle (notamment que « non », c’est « non »), mais éprouvent plus de difficulté à exercer du pouvoir quand leur partenaire est insistant ou a plus d’expérience qu’elles. Nous verrons enfin que la méthode du blogue « privé », jumelée à des entretiens individuels, présente de nombreux avantages sur les méthodes de recherche plus « traditionnelles », notamment lorsqu’il est question de sujets délicats comme la sexualité.

Appendices 48 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Maud Perrier, my supervisor, for her continued support and encouragement throughout this entire process. I would also like to thank all my friends and family who directly or indirectly helped me to complete this project:  My friend Emma for farting in front of me and giving me the inspiration to research this fascinating field.  My (other) dearest friend Emma who was probably as sick of my dissertation as I was by the end, your continued support means the world to me, thank you.  My housemates for being patient with me. Thank you for being my 'dinner bitches' at the most stressful times.  Finally, my parents for their eternal love and support which keeps me going.

This paper seeks to examine the depiction of the evil step-mother Queen in Snow White. The focus will be on examining the characterization of the Queen as both step-mother and evil witch as depicted in the traditional fairy tale and subsequent revisions in the short stories: "Blancanieves" (Snow White) by Carmen Boullosa and Neil Gaiman's "Snow Glass Apples". These texts will be compared alongside films that also look at recasting the Queen as victim of her socio-cultural environment and patriarchal standards of beauty in films such as: Mirror, Mirror and Snow White, The Fairest of them All and the television series Once Upon a Time. This presentation proposes to explore how the Queen's monstrosity is replaced with a more humanistic understanding of her behaviour thereby resulting in a more sympathetic and less monstrous depiction of the "old evil Queen".

The evolution of female images is like a child that goes through different stages of development in his entire life. This means that, in every stage, there is something new. This mirrors today's world. We cannot notice changes around us but an evolution is actually happening. We can see these big changes if we compare things from the past and the present.

Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby is a bit of an enigma. Present at every party she yet never takes center stage, privy to everybody’s secrets, her own are yet never fully disclosed and one cannot help but regret that this does not seem to be Jordan’s story; as she remains a mystery, hiding behind a “cool, insolent smile” (64). However, there are rare instances in the novel where Jordan’s true persona shines through and where her real passions and vulnerabilities are revealed. The ‘real’ Jordan is full of contradictions. Her blasé coolness, as Nick observes, only seeks to hide her insecurities. What is more, she seems to employ dishonesty not only to further her career as a golf champion but also to manipulate social situations. Yet, Nick is quick to forgive Jordan’s tendency to twist the truth, and he may be right. After all, in order for a woman like Jordan to succeed in the male-dominated society of the 1920’s she essentially had to be deceiving - or else she herself would be deceived by repressive social norms – and the reproductive system of her own female body. That this may be a concrete problem for Jordan can be gleaned from the conversation she has with Nick about “rotten driver[s]” and “accident[s]” (64). (While on the surface, this conversation might literally appear to be about cars and reckless drivers, it can also be interpreted as a veiled allusion to promiscuity, unwanted pregnancies and abortion.) In 1920’s society Jordan’s female body may be potentially ‘dangerous’ as a woman was all too quick to get blamed for any “accident”, which is why she might seek the stability of a relationship with Nick Carraway, whom she seems to think an honest, ‘safe driver’. Jordan’s need for protection and stability, thus, aligns her much more closely with her more traditionally feminine friend, Daisy Buchanan. In fact, Daisy and Jordan may have far more in common than it seems, as Jordan, at one point, admits that Daisy is the person whom she admired the most. This suggests that, beneath her tough, tomboy demeanor, it may, ultimately, be Jordan’s goal to become herself more like Daisy. Thus, to a certain extent even cool, confident Jordan seems to have internalized the traditional feminine values for which Daisy stands. Therefore, one might argue that despite being cast in the role of the emancipated “New Woman”, Jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby is not truly liberated, she is still subject to the social pressure that surrounds her as can be seen in her dependency on dishonesty, her lack of sexual liberation, and her idolization of the traditional feminine role.

Standard models of sexual consent in sexual violence prevention campaigns suppose that women, as free and autonomous agents, are in control of their sexuality and are able to ‘just say no’ to unwanted sex. In this article, we suggest that the ‘just say no’ approach to sexual consent is deeply problematic in light of the contradictory ways in which women’s empowerment is assumed within postfeminist discourses whilst masking ongoing gender imbalances. In addition, we problematise neoliberalist notions of the inherently free and hyper-responsible citizen by highlighting the persistence of sociostructural constraints on young women's sexual decision-making. We draw on an analysis of interviews with eight young women aged between 18 and 24 about their perceptions and experiences of everyday negotiations of consent in their casual and intimate sexual relationships with men.

Female sexual dysfunction is commonly considered a psychogenic condition and is commonly believed to be temporary and potentially treatable by psychodynamic therapy. However, Goldstien and Berman have written about what they call clitoral erectile deficiency, referring to a local vascular condition in some women that may be temporary and is potentially treatable through pharmacological intervention. In 2012 I proposed a neurological aspect of the absence of clitoral erection in some women that is probably permanent and untreatable. However, such neurological impairment may be easily preventable during early brain development, through adequate genital self-stimulation long before the massive neural pruning of puberty. I also proposed the label Clitoral Erectile Dysfunction as more specifically descriptive of the most obvious functional effect of that neurological impairment. In the present paper I clarify my hypothesis and confront some possible criticism.

My article analyses the ways in which trauma governs the fictional world of
Irish writer Eimear McBride’s debut novel, A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing,
published in 2013. In telling the coming-of-age story of an unnamed, young
girl in 1980s Ireland from her birth to her twenties, McBride explores the
girl’s sexual awakening through several layers of trauma, ranging from verbal
and sexual abuse to Catholic taboos, class differences and the disability of
the protagonist’s brother. I examine how the tangled web of unresolved
tensions impact both her self-representation and McBride’s development
of a new form of narration. Drawing on recent trauma theories, I analyse
how the novel engages with the paradox of articulating the so-called
unspeakable core of trauma by fictionally re-enacting it through narration.
Moreover, I investigate the ways in which such an articulation is played
out: by adopting a highly experimental style, which is very much indebted
to the Modernist search for formal innovation, McBride develops new
ways of giving voice to traumatic experience.
Key-words: trauma, female sexuality, abjection, language.

This article analyses the discourse on female procreating nature as reflected in Biblical Hebrew. Adopting a gender perspective and using a philological method, I study an array of roots and one idiomatic expression which are objects of scholarly debate and which were employed to describe – and prescribe– the reproductive role of Israelite women. The naming of motherhood, its absence and the resort to slave exploitation as a way to end childlessness are the topics which this piece of research aims to address. Special attention is drawn to the semantics of the lexeme aqarah, where I discuss its conventional rendering as “barren” and make a proposal which, albeit not completely new, has never been thoroughly justified.

Both Sandra Cisneros and Helena María Viramontes in their novels, The House on Mango Street and Under the Feet of Jesus, respectively, deal with the experience of growing up as a young Mexican-American woman in the United States. Both their protagonists (Esperanza in The House on Mango Street and Estrella in Under the Feet of Jesus) not only experience discrimination as Latinas at the hands of mainstream Anglo-American culture, but are also discriminated as women within Mexican culture, whose traditional gender roles leave little room for female self-identification. Both Cisneros and Viramontes show the problem of discrimination based on gender to be closely related to those of racism and classism as both Esperanza and Estrella witness the abuse and exploitation of women as part of the vicious cycle of poverty in a lower class environment. To the young protagonists (both of whom are entering puberty and about to discover their own sexuality) female sexuality, in this context, often appears threatening and dangerous, as it entraps women in dependence and poverty. Thus, both Esperanza and Estrella struggle to come to terms with their femininity and sexuality. Both eventually have to break away from the traditions they were raised in, in order to arrive at a more fluid and flexible gender identity. In that sense, both The House on Mango Street and Under the Feet of Jesus can be read as coming-of-age stories on the formation of Chicana identity.

Ismat Chugtai is one of the most accomplished Indian writers. She is known for her
progressive, feminist, bold writing style. Chugtai’s short stories revolve around the odds
faced by women. In most of her works she raises a serious concern towards the unjust
treatment of women. The phrase personal is political is a clear hint towards the social
concerns she explored in her writing. Chugtai’s writing reflects her ideology of female body
as a site of women’s oppression and that every aspect of female identity and struggle is
controlled by female sexuality. She sensitively highlights the politics of the private sphere
such as home marriage and sexuality apart from social evils like ignorance, illiteracy,
orthodoxy and abuse of women.

"L’histoire des femmes et les études féministes ont exposé le traitement du corps féminin par la médecine, la pathologisation de l’ensemble du système reproducteur de la femme et, par extension, de l’être des personnes identifiées au sexe féminin. Elles ont aussi démontré le contrôle social exercé sur les femmes justifié par la volonté de surveillance de leurs fonctions procréatrices et de leur sexualité. La médicalisation de l’accouchement a bien été reconnue comme l’une des modalités de ce contrôle. C’est d’abord la mise en doute de l’assertion de la médicalisation de l’accouchement comme mal nécessaire qui a constitué le point d’interrogation à l’origine de cette thèse. Afin de nourrir l’hypothèse, une colligation de données de sources hétérogènes fut entreprise, à la fois à l’échelle historique et au plan disciplinaire, pour constituer une toile sur laquelle pourrait apparaître la nature construite de la dangerosité de la naissance et du bien-fondé de la médicalisation de la maternité, ainsi que les fondements sociopolitiques et rhétoriques de cette construction. Ainsi a-t-on constaté que le langage resserre sur le corps maternel, un cran de plus à chaque décennie, le stigmate mortifère de sa défaillance et de sa dangerosité en même temps qu’il renforce la perspective antinomique des intérêts de la mère et ceux de l’enfant « à naître ».
Le corpus général de cette étude sémiotique provient, d’une part, du discours social sur l’enfantement et la périnatalité, de la Renaissance à nos jours, et, d’autre part, d’un corpus délimité (données secondaires) provenant de récits d’accouchements ayant eu lieu au Québec entre 1990 et 2004, ainsi que d’entrevues et d’observations issues de deux études québécoises publiées au milieu des années 2000.
Après avoir posé les concepts sémiotiques et les principales théorisations qui ont influencé l’orientation de la recherche, la thèse propose une déconstruction de l’accouchement articulée en quatre axes principaux. Dans un premier temps, elle décortique le paradigme qui domine aujourd’hui tous les modèles de représentations et de narration de la naissance, celui du risque et de la dangerosité, et propose les avenues de la confrontation et du renversement de ce paradigme. La perspective mortifère de la naissance obéit à diverses modalités de la production des faits scientifiques, et ces modalités y sont examinées. Ensuite, à l’issue d’un parcours de l’histoire de l’obstétrique et de la critique de la discipline depuis le 17e siècle sont exposés les moments charnières de la pathologisation et de la performativité obstétricale du corps féminin. Les modes d’opération de l’agir médical comme performance de l’accouchement tels qu’ils se généralisent, s’appesantissent et se ramifient depuis les dernières décennies sont décryptés. Au final, on arrive au constat que la construction performative du corps des femmes est parvenue à l’invalider pour s’y substituer en tant que condition de réalisation et de possibilité de la naissance. Par la suite, le projet propose une exploration d’expériences contemporaines de l’accouchement, afin de saisir comment la performativité obstétricale est vécue, exprimée, observée et traduite – littéralement – par les femmes à travers les récits d’enfantement livrés au tournant du troisième millénaire, plus particulièrement au Québec. Enfin sont décrites les étapes de la construction du modèle sacrificiel de l’enfantement, et de l’accréditation de ce modèle qui, en s’en prenant à son sexe et à sa sexualité, excise la maternité charnelle d’une de ses dimensions signifiantes et met en acte un sacrifice symbolique qui a des effets bien réels et durables, physiques et psychiques, sur les femmes elles-mêmes. Ce dernier axe de l’investigation rend compte de ce qui est sacrifié par le traitement gynécoobstétrical de l’enfantement, et laisse entrevoir à quoi peuvent ressembler les formes de l’expérience dont plusieurs femmes se disent dépossédées et dont elles réclament la reconquête.
Cette thèse constitue le prolongement d’une réflexion commencée au Québec il y a une quarantaine d’années sur l’humanisation de la naissance, réflexion menée parallèlement dans plusieurs régions du monde. Elle offre une compréhension de la construction de l’obstétrique-gynécologie depuis ses origines et expose l’évolution de cette construction. Elle se termine sur un cri d’alarme quant au devenir de la mise au monde, à l’heure où dans certains pays les césariennes constituent l’issue de plus de la moitié des grossesses annuellement : le sujet féminin de la génération a-t-il été définitivement sacrifié sur l’autel de la maternité? Se dirige-t-on, dans un avenir proche, vers une ère où la reproduction se réalisera entièrement hors du corps des femmes? Y a-t-il un avenir pour l’enfantement au-delà de l’accouchement technomédical?

Mots-clés : accouchement – naissance – sexualité – expérience – récit – narration – discours – féminisme – corps féminin – sémiotique – épistémologie – pratiques – obstétrique – gynécologie – médicalisation – performativité – risque – violence – sacrifice "

The Argentinean writer Luisa Valenzuela in her section on ‘The Tales of Hades’ (Symmetries 1993) revised six classical fairy tales, Little Red Riding Hood, The Princess and the Pea, Sleeping Beauty, The Frog King, Cinderella, Snow White and Bluebeard–giving them an unquestionable feminist approach. Specifically, in the short story ‘If this is Life, I am Little Red Riding Hood,’ Valenzuela rewrites Little Red Riding Hood’s symbolic journey through the forest to grandma’s house as her journey from childhood to adolescence and a maturity characterized by her embracing her own desires as embodied in her conversion into the wolf.

Eighteen years later, in 2011, Once Upon a Time an American fantasy-drama television series created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz , also revises classical fairy tales by not only emphasizing the role of women, but, most importantly, expanding on their interpretation. Surprisingly, the character Little Red Riding Hood also has to accept her wolf part (representative of her sexuality, animalistic in nature) in order to be independent and liberated from the patriarchal socio-cultural preconceptions of her environment. As a result, this paper seeks to explore the role of Little Red Riding Hood in becoming a complete human being when the wolf part of her is accepted as an integral part of her personality–that is, to be fully human she must also accept the “monster” within her.

En el libro Bluets (2009) de Maggie Nelson el azulamiento del cuerpo femenino funciona como una representación de la corporeización del dolor. Es decir que las experiencias dolorosas se expresan visualmente por medio del azul. En esta tesina analizo la manera en la que el dolor marca al cuerpo femenino. Además, expongo la relación intrínseca entre el color azul y el sufrimiento, ya que en el poemario la voz poética aborda la narrativa del dolor después de la ruptura corporal y emocional.
Considero que es relevante tratar estos tópicos puesto que históricamente el dolor de las mujeres ha sido invisibilizado y minimizado. En contraste, en Bluets, se narra de manera cruda y sin escrúpulos la paranarrativa del dolor femenino enmarcado en las experiencias de sexualidad y de enfermedad. Por otro lado, a pesar de que los estudios del cuerpo han tomado cada vez más relevancia, la discusión suele ignorar las experiencias de dolor femenino, comúnmente nombrando a lo masculino como universal. En el texto de Nelson, por medio de la descripción de encuentros sexuales y de la vida después de la cuadriplejía, la autora hace hincapié en la perspectiva de las mujeres. Así pues, destaco la mirada femenina sobre el cuerpo y su relación con las experiencias dolorosas que lo atraviesan.
La hipótesis de este trabajo de titulación es que las dos figuras femeninas corporeizan el dolor por medio del azulamiento después de que el cuerpo experimenta vivencias de enfermedad y de sexualidad. Es por esto mismo que analizo las implicaciones del color azul y de la dimensión individual del color en Bluets. Para llevar
a cabo mi objetivo me baso en teorías del recuerdo corporeizado, color y estudios del cuerpo, siempre enfatizando la importancia de la perspectiva femenina dentro del texto. Además, incluyo un análisis detallado de fragmentos pertinentes que ejemplifican los temas seleccionados y sustentan mi argumento.
Esta tesina cuenta con tres ejes principales: el cuerpo femenino y sus procesos, las vivencias dolorosas matizadas y la corporeización del color por medio del azulamiento. En el primer capítulo analizo la manera en la cual el dolor se contrasta a través de la sexualidad y de la enfermedad y cómo esto marca al cuerpo. Después, en el segundo capítulo, ahondo en la forma en la que el dolor es una experiencia compartida por ambas mujeres y cómo eligen nombrarlo, ya que el dolor las transforma al momento atravesar los procesos de condolencia de la relación de pareja y la ruptura corporal. Por último, en el tercer capítulo, expongo el azulamiento del cuerpo como expresión del dolor. Estos tres capítulos contribuyen a alcanzar el objetivo final de comprender la manera en la cual las dolencias marcan al cuerpo. A lo largo del texto de Nelson, además, se expone el dolor en términos de vacío y éste se ilustra visualmente por medio del uso del fragmento. Por lo tanto, argumento que el dolor proviene de la enfermedad y de la ruptura amorosa y que el dolor es expresado visualmente a través de la corporeización del color azul y de la fragmentación.

Doors of Female Orgasmic Consciousness: New Theories on the Peak Experience and Mechanisms of Female Orgasm and Expanded Sexual Response
Umit Sayin

Abstract

Although there are many forms of female orgasms described in the literature, there are still debates about the female orgasmic response and no unified theory to explain those orgasmic reflexes and sexual responses have been proposed. Also, there are inconsistent reports and comments about the ‘vaginal versus clitoral orgasm controversy’. Recently, a novel form of female orgasms has been coined as “Expanded Sexual Response” (ESR), and defined as: “being able to attain long lasting and/or prolonged and/or multiple and/or sustained orgasms and/or status orgasmus that lasted longer and more intense than the classical orgasm patterns defined in the literature”. Expanded orgasms induce a different state of consciousness, or “orgasmic consciousness”, whereas many forms of altered states of consciousness (ASC) can be observed. There are lots of reports, coming from the data accumulated during last decades on the female orgasm and orgasmic consciousness, which confirms the fact that “clitoral and vaginal orgasms are two separate entities”, while their unification may induce a stronger and intense form of female orgasm, coined as “blended orgasm”. As we have hypothesized in our other publications, at least six orgasmic reflex pathways may take part in the development of single or multiple clitoral, vaginal, blended orgasms, and expanded, enhanced, prolonged ESR orgasms. Pudental, pelvic, hypogastric and vagus nerves play major roles in the development of single or ESR orgasms, as well as at least two oxytocin pathways may contribute to it. In blended, ESR orgasms and/or status orgasmus, more than one ‘orgasm reflex arch pathway’ may trigger the orgasm at the same time, while other pathways play a supplementary role. We have investigated the ESR phenomenon using a specific ESR-Scale in a series of surveys among ESR-women, compared to the control groups and defined the main characteristics of ESR phenomenon in the human female. ESR women seem to have higher libido, higher masturbation frequency, more erotic fantasies, stronger and more intense, prolonged orgasms or expanded orgasms (EO); while they experience multiple clitoral, vaginal and blended orgasms separately, as well as status orgasmus. Also ESR women are more aware of their bodies and their deep vaginal erogenous zones (DVZs), which comprises inner clitoris, G-Spot, A-Spot, O-Spot, PC-Muscles and Cervix. “Four nerve-six pathway theory of female orgasm” and oxytocinergic system may seem to explain ESR phenomenon.

NeuroQuantology | December 2012 | Volume 10 | Issue 4| Page 692-714

Keywords

Orgasmic Consciousness; Vaginal Orgasm; Clitoral Orgasm; G-Spot; A-Spot; Blended Orgasm; Status Orgasmus; Expanded Orgasm; EO; Four Nerve Theory; Expanded Sexual Response; ESR; Deep Vaginal Erogenous Zones

The aim of this paper is to examine how exactly female mental illness in
the Victorian era is represented in Waters’ novel. While the “madness” for which Sue (as Maud) is confined to the asylum is merely a sham, what I am going to focus on is the Victorian phenomenon of female hysteria and how Maud in Fingersmith actually exhibits disordered symptoms which at the time may have been considered a sign of hysteria.
Tammy Kaye
Drawing on the findings of Susan Bordo – who, in her book, Unbearable Weight, Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body, explores to what extent predominantly female nervous disorders (just like the very construct of the female body) can be seen as “constituted by culture” (Foucault qtd. in Bordo 142) - I am going to argue, that hysteria – contrary to Victorian psychiatrist beliefs – can be considered the result, not of women’s physical and mental “fragility”, but rather of the era’s problematic conception of femininity.1 As I will demonstrate, the example of Maud (who was brought up within the rules and restrictions common to Victorian upper-class femininity) illustrates how women, in a culture that sought to control and censure the female body, might have internalized these anxieties about their own bodies that then manifested themselves in the physical symptoms of hysteria.
Furthermore, I will discuss how Waters portrayal of Maud shows her hysteric symptoms to be not only caused by, but actually compliant with, Victorian social norms, and thus can be said to refute that notion in feminist discourse which glorifies hysteria as a form of proto-feminist protest. Rather than descend into futile madness, Waters’ protagonists by the end of the novel can be said to have found a much more effective way of resisting social control of their bodies. For, to accept their lesbian sexuality allows them, not only to embrace their own as well as the other’s body, but also to defy Victorian society’s narrow definition of femininity in the style of what feminist writers such as Monique Wittig have championed by proclaiming that a lesbian is not a woman (Wittig 2020).

Please be advised that this article was written and published before accusations were brought to light of James Deen being a rapist, and it was written while living in Serbia, and before the acceleration of important information on abusers as we see following MeToo. ***Deen is an abusive misogynist rapist.*** I for one never thought he was a feminist or supported his work, I was doing a discourse analysis on this phenomenon because I thought it was strange. For many years I did not circulate this article after the accusations because I did not want to perpetuate a false narrative of his innocence or cultural significance.

In response to a drop in women producing academic work following COVID-19, I decided to share this article. For one, it is out there, and it has been cited and read by students and academics. Second, in spite of the object of desire, this is looking at young women's sexuality and use of cyber-culture, an arena that needs to be taken up without punitive frameworks and as a way to better communicate the function of the internet on our individuation.

Please contact me if you have any concerns or questions.

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In her seminal work Hard Core (1999), Linda Williams ar- gues that pornography shows through its form a response and reaction to changing gender relations, reflecting a certain status and understanding of these relations in society. In this study, I discuss some ways women may be using pornography for their own purposes by looking at recent media discourses surround- ing the popularity of contemporary porn star James Deen and his supposed young women fans. I consider what is being said about women using pornography and how women are speaking about sex. When talking about porn, it is easy to believe that it is still mostly for men and about women. How pornographic content is being shared by Deen’s online fandom seems to demonstrate how this is a minimizing and erroneous assumption. By looking at on- line Deen fan sites and the interaction with the mainstream het- erosexual pornography genre in which he is situated, I discuss and compare related contemplations in current media of female sexu- ality and the expressions of female sexuality by his online fans. I concentrate on the socially communicated pleasure from women - supposedly younger women - who are connected to the online
social media platform Tumblr. How are young women expressing their sexuality online and what are its possible greater implica- tions in regards to understanding pornography? How does Deen fit in all this and what does it mean that he is a polemical figure in porn? Deen has been called both a feminist hero and a sex- ist, pointing to his almost-romantic approach to sex-on-camera and his BDSM work as evidence of both positions. The discourses around Deen and his fandom point to the continuing anxiety sur- rounding female sexuality as well as the possibility of new consid- erations regarding its taboo.

In men and women sexual arousal culminates in orgasm, with female orgasm solely from sexual intercourse often regarded as a unique feature of human sexuality. However, orgasm from sexual intercourse occurs more reliably in men than in women, likely reflecting the different types of physical stimulation men and women require for orgasm. In men, orgasms are under strong selective pressure as orgasms are coupled with ejaculation and thus contribute to male reproductive success. By contrast, women's orgasms in intercourse are highly variable and are under little selective pressure as they are not a reproductive necessity. The proximal mechanisms producing variability in women's orgasms are little understood. In 1924 Marie Bonaparte proposed that a shorter distance between a woman's clitoris and her urethral meatus (CUMD) increased her likelihood of experiencing orgasm in intercourse. She based this on her published data that were never statistically analyzed. In 1940 Landis and colleagues published similar data suggesting the same relationship, but these data too were never fully analyzed. We analyzed raw data from these two studies and found that both demonstrate a strong inverse relationship between CUMD and orgasm during intercourse. Unresolved is whether this increased likelihood of orgasm with shorter CUMD reflects increased penile-clitoral contact during sexual intercourse or increased penile stimulation of internal aspects of the clitoris. CUMD likely reflects prenatal androgen exposure, with higher androgen levels producing larger distances. Thus these results suggest that women exposed to lower levels of prenatal androgens are more likely to experience orgasm during sexual intercourse.

Nel pensiero di Michel Foucault è centrale il concetto di potere, inteso sia come complessità dei rapporti che come molteplicità di strategie, «il cui disegno generale o la cui cristallizzazione istituzionale prendono corpo negli apparati statali, nella formulazione della legge, nelle egemonie sociali». 1

This paper evaluates a current discourse of cultural hybridity that is deployed to examine the global success of local popular culture from South Korea. Indicating the discourse is descriptive without retaining an explanatory merit, I propose an alternative perspective based on Jean Baudrillard's notion of simulation and hyperreality, while focusing on the political economy of cultural hybridization. Examining how the Korean popular music (K-pop) industry mixes various audiovisual elements, I argue cultural hybridity in K-pop is not so much an autonomous, self-reflective cultural endeavor as an industrial means to maximize profits while perpetuating the status quo of gender relations. Re-inserting K-pop within the industry's structural configurations, I analyze how and why a hyper-real personality of female idols who sport contradictory characteristics, innocence and explicit sexuality, becomes a new ideal femininity. Indicating neoliberal and post-feminist ramifications in K-pop's hybridity, I redress the myopic, descriptive nature of the current scholarship.

Vorliegende Masterarbeit ist der Versuch den sozialwissenschaftlichen Diskurs über kosmetische Intimchirurgie zu systematisieren.
Eine facettenreiche Debatte, welche sich stets im Spannungsverhältnis von Selbstermächtigung und -unterwerfung bewegt, wird in vier Deutungsmustern dargelegt sowie reflexiv diskutiert.

The Tantras selected here give few clues about geographical locations. Of the six short passages, the third alone mentions a place called the “Garlanded” (Mālinī) Mountain and a ravine or cave named Kokila, which may refer to sites in the far northeast of India, in the state of Arunachal Pradesh, such as the ruined temple site called Malini- than in the Siang Hills. This area borders Tibet, Myanmar, and Bhutan and is home to numerous tribal communities speaking dozens of languages and hundreds of dialects. Its green forests and high mountains host some of the most biodiverse wilderness in India, with over 750 species of birds and hundreds of mammals, including snow leopards, red pandas, and gibbon apes.

These six short passages translated from the Sanskrit depart from the narrative format and instead present Tantric-guided visualizations and hymns of praise to the so-called goddess of desire, Kāmeśvarī. They are all about vivid description, characteristics of the practitioner, and praise for the goddess’s power. The first two pieces are from the Nityākaula, a previously untranslated Tantra predating the eleventh century and the sole surviving representative of the Nityā cult, as described in the essay. This important early Tantra has barely reached the present, for it survives in a single damaged palm-leaf manuscript from Nepal. The frequent ellipses (. . .) in the first passage flag places where the text is damaged and unreadable. The passage from the Ciñciṇīmatasārasamuccaya serves as a midpoint that elaborates on the nature and power of Kāmeśvarī. The latter three passages are from the Vāmakeśvarīmata, a Tantra of slightly later origin that expands the goddess’s retinue and links her to the famous diagram of nine interlocking triangles, called the Śrīcakra. The passages are thus arranged sequentially to illustrate the historical flow of religious influence from the Nityā cult to that of Tripurasundarī, who is still actively worshiped today in the popular Śrīvidyā tradition.

In men and women sexual arousal culminates in orgasm, with female orgasm solely from sexual intercourse often regarded as a unique feature of human sexuality. However, orgasm from sexual intercourse occurs more reliably in men than in women, likely reflecting the different types of physical stimulation men and women require for orgasm. In men, orgasms are under strong selective pressure as orgasms are coupled with ejaculation and thus contribute to male reproductive success. By contrast, women's orgasms in intercourse are highly variable and are under little selective pressure as they are not a reproductive necessity. The proximal mechanisms producing variability in women's orgasms are little understood. In 1924 Marie Bonaparte proposed that a shorter distance between a woman's clitoris and her urethral meatus (CUMD) increased her likelihood of experiencing orgasm in intercourse. She based this on her published data that were never statistically analyzed. In 1940 Landis and colleagues published similar data suggesting the same relationship, but these data too were never fully analyzed. We analyzed raw data from these two studies and found that both demonstrate a strong inverse relationship between CUMD and orgasm during intercourse. Unresolved is whether this increased likelihood of orgasm with shorter CUMD reflects increased penile-clitoral contact during sexual intercourse or increased penile stimulation of internal aspects of the clitoris. CUMD likely reflects prenatal androgen exposure, with higher androgen levels producing larger distances. Thus these results suggest that women exposed to lower levels of prenatal androgens are more likely to experience orgasm during sexual intercourse.

This paper looks at the way in which popular narrative forms deal with the contemporary
issue of trafficking. The analysis of Kate Atkinson’s novel One Good Turn (2006) and Pierre
Morel’s movie Taken (2008), which address both the concept and current practices of trafficking
and prostitution, are both written within the genre of popular crime. A comparative
analysis of these texts will illustrate how the issue of trafficking is seen and analysed in
popular cultural forms, while highlighting remarkable divergences in purpose and ideology.
The dangers Taken evokes are clearly aimed at creating a “myth” of trafficking which
rewrites nineteenth-century fears of white slavery with a complete disregard for the complex
structure of the sex industry and migratory flows. On the contrary, by exploring the failures
of both border control and the forces of law and order to prevent sex trafficking, One Good
Turn clearly states the necessity of establishing other means to prevent female abuse, turning
instead to consider issues of women’s powerlessness and/or agency.

““Pleasure principal” is one of the most important driving forces of the human psyche. Kinds of pleasure in human beings include
various satisfactions, such as food intake for the survival, satisfaction of the ego and higher cortical cognitive functions, sexual satisfaction
and orgasm, satisfaction of basic physiological needs and peak experiences, such as love, satori-like experiences, and some
mystical-like experiences. Pleasure phenomenon has some neural correlates, circuitries and neurotransmitter systems involved.
Some pleasure centers have been defined in both animals and humans, such as ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens
(NA), prefrontal cortex, hypothalamus, cingulate cortex, insula, while amygdala, hippocampus and some structures of the temporal
lobe may have an auxiliary role. Mainly neurotransmitters dopamine (DA) and oxytocin (OXT) are the mediators of pleasure experiences
in humans. During love, sexual pleasure and orgasm, those hedonic hot spots are activated, as also shown by fMRI techniques.
Recently it was proposed that sexual pleasure can be expanded and there were reports on expanded orgasms (EO or ESR). Also, some
researchers have reported that there are erogenous zones other than clitoris, while some non-genital orgasms have also been reported.
Pudental, pelvic, hypogastric nerves and vagus control the orgasmic reflex in females. OXT, which is also a pleasure molecule,
just like DA, also has some separate pleasure pathways. The limits and extents of female pleasure and orgasms have not been investigated
thoroughly until recently. One of the extremes of female pleasures, ESR, has some specific neurological mechanisms which
can be explained by using current data on female sexuality. There are different types of female orgasms: clitoral, vaginal, blended
orgasms, EO and status orgasmus, which are still debated in the academic circles. This review discusses the possible neurological and
neuropharmacological mechanisms of EO and ESR, using the informatics theory, as well.

In the past few years a pervasive trend and a much wider range of teenage sexual expressions and activities have forced their way unto the Taiwanese scene. Demonstrations of teenage girls’ sexualities have become so clearly in sight and so blatantly “in your face” that adult concerns are raging to rein in such energies. The present paper traces out some of the most visible formations of teenage girls’ sexualities in present-day Taiwan, namely, how Taiwanese teenage girls have fashioned their sexual selves out of media images and commodities, how their sexual values and practices are changing because of other profound changes in the social milieu surrounding them, and how sex work has gradually become an acceptable and ordinary part of their lives. Considered within such a context, to reduce the multiplicities of casual teen sex work known as enjo kosai to simple notions of lop-sided exploitation or commodification is to overlook the efforts of teenage girls to forge new possibilities out of limited space and means. Enjo kosai could be seen as a new form of social/sexual intercourse in a sexually open society; and new modes of relations, emotions, and work are being created in this process by, first and foremost, our teenage enjo-kosai girls.

JIRS Special Section: A Conversation on Celene Ibrahim's Women and Gender in the Qurʾan

Celene Ibrahim - Response to Reviews:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.26

Taking Sexuality and Gender Seriously in Qurʾanic Studies (pp. 191-196)
Aayah Musa
https://doi.org/10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.22
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.22

Concerning Family, Theology, and Qurʾanic Exegesis (pp. 197-200)
Martin Nguyen
https://doi.org/10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.23
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.23

Emotive Energy and Pleasure: Centering Female Figures in Qurʾanic Narratives (pp. 201-206)
Hadia Mubarak
https://doi.org/10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.24
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.24

More Than a Feminist Hobby: Gender as an Analytical Category in Qurʾanic Studies (pp. 207-212)
Rahel Fischbach
https://doi.org/10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.25
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.25

Abstract
The effect of interpersonal trauma on sexuality
can be profound. The field of sexual trauma is complex
empirically and clinically, with contradictory theories
and conflicting data. Researc
h definitions and treatment
protocols for child sexual abuse are very imprecise.
There are no firm, empirically proven guidelines for
treating men and women who have been sexually
abused as children or adolescents. Overt sexual abuse
(OSA) in children and adolescents is defined here as
molestation, rape, or incest. Research has shown that
OSA may, but does not necessarily, lead to sexual
dysfunction in adulthood. The effects of OSA are wors-
ened by concurrent types of family of origin abuse,
such as emotional abuse or physical abuse. One factor
that seems related to the varying impact of OSA on
adult sexuality is the patients
’
family of origin experi-
ence with nonsexual Milestones of Sexual Development.
Without positive experiences with touch, trust and em-
pathy, the ability to relax and be soothed, and power,
the effects of OSA are potentiated and complicated.
Sexuality is embodied, so experiences with touch are
particularly important when working with OSA. A
three-color Body Map technique which assesses stored
associations to touch is provided. The concept of devel-
opmental sexual trauma (DST) is introduced as a way to
label traumagenic family events which potentiate OSA
or negatively effect sex but which are not explicitly
sexual in origin. Strategies to assess and treat OSA
are reviewed. Body Maps are recommended to assess
and treat sexual trauma.
Keywords
Developmental sexual trauma (DST)
.
Family of
origin
.
Milestones of Sexual Development
.
Body Map
.
Touch
.
Trust
.
Overt sexual abuse
.
Sexual compulsivity
.
Family violence
.
Emotional neglect
I