Accessing health care on the asexual spectrum : A feminist analysis of patient-practitioner relationships and compulsory sexuality in medical discourse

The LGBTQ population is widely recognized as an at-risk demographic—as a result ofstigma, studies report sexual and gender minorities experience elevated risk for depression,suicide, anxiety, and substance abuse, as well as greater exposure to sexual, physical, andinterpersonal violence (Logie 1244). Asexuality, a marginalized population traditionallyexcluded from the LGBTQ acronym, poses a unique set of challenges to existing health carepolicies and procedures. As neither queer nor asexual literature have adequately attended to suchchallenges, this study aims to address present limitations through two key inquiries: (1) How doace individuals approach and navigate discussions about their health and wellness with healthcare providers? and (2) What is the relationship between asexual identity and the ways oneaccesses health care? To critically engage with the research questions, this thesis employs adiscourse analysis of pre-existing public forum and blog posts collected from online asexualcommunity spaces which include narratives that allude to the impact of the naturalization ofsexuality, the medicalization of asexuality, and the conflation of libido with sexual attraction onaccess to health and wellness. Analysis of the collected data centers on the pathologization ofqueerness, existing wellness support networks, and perhaps most importantly, access to andcomfortability with current health care models.Keywords: health care, compulsory sexuality, asexuality, online discourse, medical discours

Study on open science: The general state of the play in Open Science principles and practices at European life sciences institutes

Nowadays, open science is a hot topic on all levels and also is one of the priorities of the European Research Area. Components that are commonly associated with open science are open access, open data, open methodology, open source, open peer review, open science policies and citizen science. Open science may a great potential to connect and influence the practices of researchers, funding institutions and the public. In this paper, we evaluate the level of openness based on public surveys at four European life sciences institute

Autistic Dreaming: a phenomenological study of dreaming and well-being

Whilst there have been a handful of studies into autism and dreaming, it remains a potentially under-researched area. Studies that have been carried out with autistic participants have demonstrated that there are differences in the sleep architecture that produces dreams and in the content of those dreams. Research into the dreaming experiences of other atypical groups or loosely affiliated communities have shown that this activity may indicate a change in their underlying conditions or may be used to monitor the effectiveness of any therapeutic intervention. If correlations between dreaming and the impact on well-being of autistic people can be demonstrated then this same potential for therapeutic support could be applied. To investigate this gap in knowledge, a Thematic Analysis (TA) approach was used which was later supplemented with an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Three participants were recruited using a Semi Structured Interview Questionnaire (SSIQ) and the interviews transcribed for analysis. Following a review of the feedback around this initial pilot, the data collection was moved to an on line survey based on the SSIQ. This reached a wider group of potential participants and a further 90 questionnaires were completed. These responses were prepared for a parallel analysis, all the responses were explored in the descriptive TA and 6 of these were selected for the idiopathic IPA. The data provided by the on line questionnaire offered some quantitative data which was used to highlight the qualitative findings. Initial findings have shown an appreciation of the therapeutic benefits of dreaming and links to waking well-being in a variety of ways. An unexpected finding has been the role of dreaming in the construct of a sense of personal identity and how it is perceived in the sense of an autistic self-hood. The study will provide suggestions for further research in the area

The end of stigma? Understanding the dynamics of legitimisation in the context of TV series consumption

This research contributes to prior work on stigmatisation by looking at stigmatisation and legitimisation as social processes in the context of TV series consumption. Using in-depth interviews, we show that the dynamics of legitimisation are complex and accompanied by the reproduction of existing stigmas and creation of new stigmas

A Multi-method Examination of Race, Class, Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Motivations for Participation in the YouTube-based "It Gets Better Project"

On September 15, 2010, Dan Savage and Terry Miller created a YouTube channel that turned into a global phenomenon: the It Gets Better Project (IGBP). This multi-method study employs: 1) Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) to examine race, class, gender, and sexual orientation within IGBP videos; and 2) video chat-based in-depth interviews for determining participants' motivations for IGBP participation and production of crowdsourced, social media-based strategic communication. Using sociologist Patricia Hill Collins' matrix of domination as a theoretical framework for understanding structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal oppressions that led to the IGBP's creation, video production, and video content, this empirical study draws from a sample of 21 videos and 20 interviews. MCDA findings reveal that participants presented a pared-back version of their own racial, class, gender, and sexual identities; projected their identities onto viewers; and created and perpetuated myths through their video narratives. In doing so, certain identities are presented to the exclusion of others, potentially leaving viewers outside of these boundaries more isolated, at risk for being even more suicidal because again they do not fit in, and confused about what identities are even possible. Thus, the IGBP videos both challenge the matrix of domination and reify its very existence. Interview data reveal four categorizations, including participants': 1) felt sense of camaraderie with at-risk LGBTQ and questioning youth; 2) urgency to rectify what was missing from their own sexual identity development; 3) need to alter the media representation of lesbian and gay men in - and through - the IGBP; and 4) impact of their current positionality. Participants were forthcoming about the intersectionality of their racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, age, religious, and geographic identities and how those led to their IGBP participation, though that intersectionality rarely surfaced explicitly in their video content. In addition to contributing to numerous literatures on LGBTQ suicide, bullying, and harassment; LGBTQ media representation; strategic communication; and online participatory culture, this study has several methodological, theoretical, and practical implications for both scholars and practitioners, including participant recruitment, video chat-based interviewing, application of the matrix of domination to strategic communication efforts, and more.Doctor of Philosoph

A Queer Politics of Imperceptibility: A Philosophy of Resistance to Contemporary Sexual Surveillance

This thesis journeys through a series of events to develop a concept of “imperceptibility” as a mode of resistance to contemporary sexual surveillance. The events I examine include biometric recognition of gender and race at airport security checkpoints, the heteropatriarchal colonial surveillance of Indigenous peoples at Standing Rock, various protest actions, and the political potentials of glitch art. Exploring their unexpected points of connection, my goal is to bring into view acts of resistance against sexual surveillance that already operate below and above the threshold of everyday perception. The project advocates for a philosophy of resistance that underscores the political importance of creating new modes of existence. Rather than engaging in the problematic of devising a new model of subjectivity, I argue that what is needed to escape from contemporary systems of capture and control is to turn from the Self as the primary site of concern and affirm instead the potentials of becoming-imperceptible. Imperceptibility signals not invisibility, but the act of relinquishing identity in favour of moving toward becoming everybody/everything. Far from a homogenizing or unitary endeavour, I propose imperceptibility as a radical celebration of difference that surges a revolutionary desire for social transformation through interconnectedness. Activating Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s pragmatic philosophy and style of writing, which emphasize multiple relations over binary oppositions, I introduce “a queer politics of imperceptibility” as a conceptual framework that takes a both/and approach to consider resistance. That is, I work with and between the tensions of feminist theories of recognition and Deleuze and Guattari’s nonrepresentational philosophy. I develop this framework in each chapter by mapping a constellation of interacting forces and affective intensities between bodies, both human and non-human. A Queer Politics of Imperceptibility makes an important intervention into the fields of feminist surveillance studies, posthumanism, affect theory, postcolonial theory and queer theory by revealing the ways in which imperceptible relations of resistance cascade into the political to generate new potentials to act in the world