Sexuality & Law

Au mois de juillet 1849, un Conseil de guerre statue sur le sort de celui que la presse a surnommé « le Vampire du Mont-Parnasse » 1 , et qui passa rapidement à la postérité en tant que premier nécrophile étudié par le corps médical. Cette réputation, aussi juste soit-elle, fait oublier que cet « amant des mortes » fut aussi le premier cas de nécrophilie pris en charge par la justice contemporaine.

This paper considers issues of sexual citizenship in light of new UK legislation that prosecutes the viewers of ‘extreme pornography’. Justified as an attempt to uphold public decency, government intervention seeks to prevent people seeing ‘extreme’ images not by limiting access to certain websites, but instead by intervening in the private consumption of these images. In this paper I draw on the discourses of those who have supported such intervention, and suggest that these arguments make a claim to space that defends the rights of some citizens over others. I examine the entwining of rights of expression, rights to identity and rights to safety. In conclusion, I argue that sexual citizenship is not just about the right to occupy actual physical places but also the right to inhabit the virtual. I hence argue that the internet plays a key role in transforming the sexual geographies of public and private.

State recognition of gender identity claims in Karnataka has been in the form of administrative measures. Identity documents have become a crucial terrain where these identities are being contested, and citizenship claims are being made. These developments have given rise to a range of debates around the methods of identification of gender minorities and how inclusive the process of state recognition can be. This piece attempts to outline some of these contemporary concerns, both in terms of policy and the law.
Published in the Socio-Legal Review, National Law School of India University, Vol. 8(2), 2012.

This article explores the various ethical and legal limitations faced by researchers studying extreme or ‘ shock’ pornographies, beginning with generic and disciplinary contexts, and focusing specifically upon the assumption that textual analysis unproblematically justifies certain pornographies, while legal contexts utilize a prohibitive gaze. Are our academic freedoms of speech endangered by legislations that restrict our access to non-mainstream images, forcing them further into taboo locales? If so, is the ideological normalization of sexuality inextricable from our research methodologies? Simultaneously, can we justify researchers being allowed access to materials that are not deemed suitable for general consumption, which may further bolster normalized hierarchies of class-privilege and cultural capital?

La sentencia de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en el caso Karen Atala e hijas contra Chile constituye un precedente jurisprudencial importante para la región el que se interpretan, por primera vez, los alcances de la prohibición de discriminación por orientación sexual bajo la Convención Americana de Derechos Humanos. Este artículo analiza el pronunciamiento del Tribunal Interamericano resaltando sus aportes y criticando sus omisiones y plantea la pertinencia de los criterios allí asumidos para la práctica judicial peruana.

In this article I examine representations of sadomasochism in visual culture. Increasingly sadomasochistic imagery is becoming prominent and widespread in popular culture. I will ask which forms of sadomasochism are permitted and which are excluded or marginalized. The changing media regimes of visual representation will be addressed, arguing that cyberspace may provide a public forum for sadomasochists to challenge dominant stereotypical representations. Finally I will examine the impact of the current UK legislation to prosecute the viewers of ‘extreme’ pornographic material. This legislation reveals that certain intimate images are still denied the right to exist in visual culture.

This article reproduces and discusses a series of blog posts posted by academics in anticipation of the report on commercialisation, sexualisation and childhood, ‘Letting Children Be Children’ by Reg Bailey for the UK Department of Education in June 2011. The article discusses the difficulty of ‘translating’ scholarly work for the public in a context where ‘impact’ is increasingly important and the challenges that academics face in finding new ways of speaking about sex in public.

Historically, homosexuality and prostitution were both branded immoral vices that required criminalization, despite the fact that they were also considered 'victimless crimes.' Yet, in contemporary Canadian society, gays and lesbians have gained wide social acceptance and legal rights, while the sex trade has become more criminalized, stigmatized, and, for clients or third parties, vilified. This article explores the reasons for this divergence. First, drawing on radical queer critique, I problematize this framing, arguing that the equality and rights-based victories for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans community did not necessarily benefit all of its members. Building on this insight, I argue that those queers who are unable or uninterested in accessing the benefits ushered in by 'gay rights' have identities, proclivities, and vulnerabilities that overlap with those of sex workers and/or their clients. Part I of the article sets the socio-legal and political context, providing succinct overviews of key developments relating to gay and lesbian rights and of key developments relating to sex trade regulation, focusing primarily on the last fifty years. Part II analyses how gay/lesbian mainstream acceptance and the queer/sex trade marginalization occurred through overlapping discourses and laws related to privacy, bawdy houses/indecency, disease, spousal/ marital relations, and children. I end with a consideration of the intersectionality between queerness and the sex trade, both in terms of subjectivities and non-normative sexual practices.

There main foci of the research are twofold. On the one hand, discrimination against one’s appearance (e.g. fattism, ageism, racism, slut shaming, internalised homophobia, transphobia, etc.).

On the other hand, your rights on the pictures you upload (and on the things you write) and the rights you transfer to Grindr and other dating apps by accepting their terms of service, privacy policy, guidelines, etc.

Please go to https://northumbria.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/the-responsibilities-of-queer-dating-platforms to take part to the survey.

Should you have queries or doubts, please do not hesitate to contact me any time

Kind regards

Guido Noto La Diega

This article reproduces and discusses a series of blog posts posted by academics in anticipation of the report on commercialisation, sexualisation and childhood, ‘Letting Children Be Children’ by Reg Bailey for the UK Department of Education in June 2011. The article discusses the difficulty of ‘translating’ scholarly work for the public in a context where ‘impact’ is increasingly important and the challenges that academics face in finding new ways of speaking about sex in public.

This article reproduces and discusses a series of blog posts posted by academics in anticipation of the report on commercialisation, sexualisation and childhood, ‘Letting Children Be Children’ by Reg Bailey for the UK Department of Education in June 2011. The article discusses the difficulty of ‘translating’ scholarly work for the public in a context where ‘impact’ is increasingly important and the challenges that academics face in finding new ways of speaking about sex in public.

In this article, we locate two discourses regarding the incidences of bareback sex practices. First, there is the greater reliance on safe sex practices, including going beyond condemnation of risky behaviour. Second, there is a disciplinary discourse of law and punishment. In the first instance, there is the promotion of the use of alternative (non-invasive) sex practices and condom use. In the second, there are highly selective and punitive disclosure laws specifically directed at unprotected sexual activity and other forms of risky or illicit behaviours that involve the transference of blood or other secretions. We believe, however, that a heightened understanding of the motivations behind unsafe sex is necessary to promote the implementation of public health interventions that will be better adapted to the reality of this population. There is, then, an urgent need to begin reflecting on the type of preventive strategies needed. To this effect, the aim of the current article is to initiate some reflections as well as a dialogue on the compatibility between the practice of bareback sex and a health risk reduction approach.