Gay men, Gaydar and the commodification of difference

Purpose To investigate ICT mediated inclusion and exclusion in terms of sexuality through a study of a commercial social networking website for gay men Design/methodology/approach The paper uses an approach based on technological inscription and the commodification of difference to study Gaydar, a commercial social networking site. Findings Through the activities, events and interactions offered by Gaydar, we identify a series of contrasting identity constructions and market segmentations which are constructed through the cyclic commodification of difference. These are fuelled by a particular series of meanings attached to gay male sexualities which serve to keep gay men positioned as a niche market. Research limitations/implications The research centres on the study of one, albeit widely used, website with a very specific set of purposes. The study offers a model for future research on sexuality and ICTs. Originality/value This study places sexuality centre stage in an ICT mediated environment and provides insights into the contemporary phenomenon of social networking. As a sexualized object, Gaydar presents a semiosis of politicized messages that question heteronormativity while simultaneously contributing to the definition of an increasingly globalized, commercialized and monolithic form of gay male sexuality defined against ICT

Revisualising Intersectionality

Revisualising Intersectionality offers transdisciplinary interrogations of the supposed visual evidentiality of categories of human similarity and difference. This open-access book incorporates insights from social and cognitive science as well as psychology and philosophy to explain how we visually perceive physical differences and how cognition is fallible, processual, and dependent on who is looking in a specific context. Revisualising Intersectionality also puts into conversation visual culture studies and artistic research with approaches such as gender, queer, and trans studies as well as postcolonial and decolonial theory to complicate simplified notions of identity politics and cultural representation. The book proposes a revision of intersectionality research to challenge the predominance of categories of visible difference such as race and gender as analytical lenses

Categorizing identity from facial motion

Advances in marker-less motion capture technology now allow the accurate replication of facial motion and deformation in computer-generated imagery (CGI). A forced-choice discrimination paradigm using such CGI facial animations showed that human observers can categorize identity solely from facial motion cues. Animations were generated from motion captures acquired during natural speech, thus eliciting both rigid (head rotations and translations) and nonrigid (expressional changes) motion. To limit interferences from individual differences in facial form, all animations shared the same appearance. Observers were required to discriminate between different videos of facial motion and between the facial motions of different people. Performance was compared to the control condition of orientation-inverted facial motion. The results show that observers are able to make accurate discriminations of identity in the absence of all cues except facial motion. A clear inversion effect in both tasks provided consistency with previous studies, supporting the configural view of human face perception. The accuracy of this motion capture technology thus allowed stimuli to be generated that closely resembled real moving faces. Future studies may wish to implement such methodology when studying human face perception

Everyday gambling in New Zealand

There is a sizeable body of statistics on gambling in New Zealand which points albeit unintentionally - to the everyday status of this activity. Max Abbott and Rachel Volberg, two leading figures in the rapidly growing discipline of gambling studies, note that in 15 short years there have been no less than seven surveys on gambling in New Zealand (not including a large number of university theses). These include three assessments of people's participation in gambling by the Department of Internal Affairs, plus two surveys funded by the department focusing on problem gambling. To these can be added one conducted by a regional health authority, North Health, under contract to the Committee on Problem Gambling Management and one conducted on behalf of the Casino Control Authority. This much research on gambling should suggest to the reader that there is something about gambling that piques the interest of government bureaucrats and agencies. Here the frequency of the phrase `problem gambling' is the giveaway. In this section we will review some of the findings of this research and cover its more pathological rationale later

Revisualising Intersectionality

Revisualising Intersectionality offers transdisciplinary interrogations of the supposed visual evidentiality of categories of human similarity and difference. This open-access book incorporates insights from social and cognitive science as well as psychology and philosophy to explain how we visually perceive physical differences and how cognition is fallible, processual, and dependent on who is looking in a specific context. Revisualising Intersectionality also puts into conversation visual culture studies and artistic research with approaches such as gender, queer, and trans studies as well as postcolonial and decolonial theory to complicate simplified notions of identity politics and cultural representation. The book proposes a revision of intersectionality research to challenge the predominance of categories of visible difference such as race and gender as analytical lenses

Medical experiments on humans in Kerstin Hensel's Lärchenau (2008)

This chapter considers the representation of the legacy of National Socialist eugenics and human experimentation in Kerstin Hensel’s novel Lärchenau (2008). Lärchenau chronicles a period of almost a century (1915–2007) in a small village in the Oder-Spree district of Brandenburg. The chapter draws on the work of Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich in order to argue that Hensel’s characters enact sado-masochistic behaviour patterns which echo the medical crimes of the Third Reich. Hensel’s novel – in part, a tribute to Ingeborg Bachmann’s Das Buch Franza/The Book of Franza (1978/1995) – centres on the geneticist Gunter Konarske who conducts a series of medical experiments on his wife Adele. Although Konarske is born in 1944, his practices bear comparison to the human experiments carried out by Carl Clauberg in Auschwitz. Clauberg’s victims were unaware that they were experimental subjects, and, in Hensel’s novel, so too is Adele. Reading Lärchenau against the background of Nazi medical crimes requires us to reconsider the novel as a confrontation with history, showing how the present is rooted in the past. This perspective counteracts the prevailing tendency in Hensel criticism to pigeonhole her as a satirical and fantastical author. Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit der Darstellung nationalsozialistischer Programme der Eugenik und Menschenversuche bzw. deren Nachwirkungen in Kerstin Hensels Roman Lärchenau (2008). Lärchenau erzählt die Geschichte eines gleichnamigen Dorfes im Oder-Spree-Seengebiet Brandenburgs im Zeitraum von 1915 bis 2007. Auf Basis der Theorien von Alexander und Margarete Mitscherlich wird hier argumentiert, dass Hensels Figuren sadomasochistische Verhaltensweisen wiederholen, die den Formen der medizinischen Gewalt im Dritten Reich ähnlich sind. Hensels Roman ist zum Teil als Hommage an Ingeborg Bachmanns Das Buch Franza (1978/1995) zu verstehen. Im Zentrum von Lärchenau steht der Genetiker Gunter Konarske, der eine Reihe von Menschenversuchen an der eigenen Frau Adele durchführt. Obwohl Konarske erst im Jahre 1944 geboren wurde, lässt sich seine Praxis mit den Menschenversuchen vergleichen, die Carl Clauberg in Auschwitz durchführte. Claubergs Opfer wussten nicht, dass sie Versuchspersonen waren, und das gleiche gilt für Adele in Lärchenau. Die Betrachtung Lärchenaus aus der Sicht der nationalsozialistischen Medizinverbrechen bedeutet, dass man den Roman als kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der Vergangenheit verstehen soll, die die Wurzeln der Gegenwart in der Vergangenheit entdeckt. Diese Betrachtungsweise wirkt der Forschungstendenz entgegen, Hensel als Satirikerin und Fantasy-Autorin einzuordnen

Inj Prev

ObjectiveThe purpose of this research is to identify how data science is applied in suicide prevention literature, describe the current landscape of this literature and highlight areas where data science may be useful for future injury prevention research.DesignWe conducted a literature review of injury prevention and data science in April 2020 and January 2021 in three databases.MethodsFor the included 99 articles, we extracted the following: (1) author(s) and year; (2) title; (3) study approach (4) reason for applying data science method; (5) data science method type; (6) study description; (7) data source and (8) focus on a disproportionately affected population.ResultsResults showed the literature on data science and suicide more than doubled from 2019 to 2020, with articles with individual-level approaches more prevalent than population-level approaches. Most population-level articles applied data science methods to describe (n=10) outcomes, while most individual-level articles identified risk factors (n=27). Machine learning was the most common data science method applied in the studies (n=48). A wide array of data sources was used for suicide research, with most articles (n=45) using social media and web-based behaviour data. Eleven studies demonstrated the value of applying data science to suicide prevention literature for disproportionately affected groups.ConclusionData science techniques proved to be effective tools in describing suicidal thoughts or behaviour, identifying individual risk factors and predicting outcomes. Future research should focus on identifying how data science can be applied in other injury-related topics.CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States

Challenging homophobic bullying in schools: the politics of progress

In recent years homophobic bullying has received increased attention from NGOs, academics and government sources and concern about the issue crosses traditional moral and political divisions. This article examines this ‘progressive’ development and identifies the ‘conditions of possibility’ that have enabled the issue to become a harm that can be spoken of. In doing so it questions whether the readiness to speak about the issue represents the opposite to prohibitions on speech (such as the notorious Section 28) or whether it is based on more subtle forms of governance. It argues that homophobic bullying is heard through three key discourses (‘child abuse’, ‘the child victim’ and ‘the tragic gay’) and that, while enabling an acknowledgement of certain harms, they simultaneously silence other needs and experiences. It then moves to explore the aspirational and ‘liberatory’ political investments that underlie these seemingly ‘common-sense’ descriptive discourses and concludes with a critique of the quasi-criminal responses that the dominant political agenda of homophobic bullying gives rise to. The article draws on, and endeavours to develop a conversation between, critical engagements with the contemporary politics of both childhood and sexuality