Stranger Danger!

This article discusses the historical origins of the “stranger danger” myth, including the conditions that fueled the spread of panic. It explains how the myth was bolstered by increased media coverage, emotional appeals by parents, and public awareness campaigns. A number of important terms are defined and statistical information about child abductions in the United States is provided. Constructionist critiques of the “missing children” problem are explored as well as work that looks at the phenomenon through the lens of moral panic. A variety of social, legal, and ethical implications are discussed. The final sections assert the dangers of the myth, explain the difficulties involved in debunking the myth, and argue for the need to shift from fear-based responses to more rational responses that actually work to protect the most vulnerable populations of children (e.g., those who reside in abusive homes or experience harm at the hands of those known to them)

Introduction: Special issue on gender and sexuality studies

The articles included in this special issue represent a selection of the thirty four gender and sexuality related projects that were scheduled to be presented at the 2020 Senior Projects Day event at Pacific University’s Forest Grove campus. The papers included in this special issue come from a variety of academic disciplines and speak to a wide range of topics, but unable to be disseminated due to the novel coronavirus pandemic

“What Did We Get When We Got Sex?”: Narratives of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Ulane v. Eastern Airlines

This dissertation is a case study of Ulane v. Eastern Airlines (1983/84), a historically significant and precedent setting Title VII civil rights case with a transsexual plaintiff, Karen Ulane. This study employed narrative analytical and creative analytical methodological processes in order to better understand narratives and counter narratives about Karen Ulane’s sex/gender in Ulane v. Eastern Airlines. These methodological modes allowed me to appreciate how the stories in Ulane relate to established narratives and counter narratives about transgender people in and out of the workplace. An analysis of the materials associated with Ulane v. Eastern Airlines (e.g., court transcripts, depositions, medical exhibits, news articles, transgender publications, and audio-visual material) provided the opportunity to examine a number of narratives present in the case. My analysis revealed that toxic cultural tropes about transsexuals fed into negative assumptions about Karen Ulane in the workplace. I engaged with narrative constructions and co-constructions of sex/gender in the legal arena by analyzing a subset of core themes drawn from the Ulane case materials. This project considered medical narratives related to the case through an examination of Ulane as “patient,” Ulane’s agentic behavior, characterization of transsexuality as illness and medicalization of trans identity, medical authority (who gets to be one?), “transsexuality” as defined by medical professionals, normative assumptions, and privacy (or lack thereof). Finally, this project looked at the medico-legal perpetuation of the system of binary sex/gender. Judicial opinions by the lower court and the appellate court in the matter of Ulane v. Eastern Airlines demonstrate how two courts decided very differently, yet both adhered to the notion of binary sex/gender while doing so. This is problematic because the persistent mischaracterization of trans persons as deceptive, predatory, freakish, and comical is animated by a binary conceptualization of sex/gender in heteronormative social settings, such as the workplace, where the constructions impact transgender people’s life chances and well-being

Sex-Positive Criminology

Sex-Positive Criminology proposes a new way to think about sexuality in the fields of criminology and criminal justice. Sex-positivity is framed as a humanizing approach to sexuality that supports the well-being of self and others. It is rooted in the principle of active and ongoing consent, and it encourages perspectives that value bodily autonomy, the right to access education, and respect for sexual difference. In this book, the authors argue that institutions such as prisons, schools, and healthcare facilities, as well as agents of governments, such as law enforcement, correctional officers, and politicians, can unduly cause harm and perpetuate stigma through the regulation and criminalization of sexuality. In order to critique institutions that criminalize and regulate sexuality, the authors of Sex-Positive Criminology examine case studies exploring the criminalization of commercial sex and related harm (at the hands of law enforcement) experienced by those who sell sex. They investigate sex education in schools, reproductive justice in communities and institutions, and restrictions on sexuality in places like prisons, jails, juvenile detention, and immigrant detention facilities. They look into the criminalization of BDSM practices and address concerns about young people’s sexuality connected to age of consent and privacy violations. The authors demonstrate how a sex-positive perspective could help criminologists, policymakers, and educators understand not only how to move away from sex-negative frameworks in theory, policy, and practice, but how sex-positive criminological frameworks can be a useful tool to reduce harm and increase personal agency. [Amazon.com]https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/sociology_criminaljustice_books/1037/thumbnail.jp

Composing an aesthetics of performance pedagogy

Abstract: We present a collaborative audio and video-based performance ethnography and companion essay that expands upon our experiences in a graduate-level performance ethnography seminar. Our performative text explores the potential for audio and video-based performance ethnography as an important pedagogical tool that prioritizes alternative ways of knowing that are deeply related to nondeliberative groupwork practice. Following a review of our process, we propose an aesthetics of performance pedagogy and discuss the importance of liminality in our work. Implications for practice include providing educators with critical opportunities to contribute to students’ awareness and understanding without demanding conformity to particular ways of knowing.Keywords: liminality; nondeliberative practice; performance pedagogy; social groupwork; wabi-sab

Building an Intersectional and Trans‑Inclusive Criminology: Responding to the Emergence of 'Gender Critical' Perspectives in Feminist Criminology

This article responds to claims advanced by “gender critical” feminists, most recently expressed in a criminological context by Burt (2020) in Feminist Criminology, that the Equality Act—a bill pending in the United States Congress—would place cisgender women at risk of male violence in sex-segregated spaces. We provide legal history, empirical research, and conceptual and theoretical arguments to highlight three broad errors made by Burt and other trans-exclusionary feminists. These include: (1) a misinterpretation of the Equality Act; (2) a narrow version of feminism that embraces a socially and biologically deterministic view of sex and gender; and (3) ignorance and dismissal of established criminological knowledge regarding victimization, offending patterns, and effective measures to enhance safety. The implications of “gender critical” arguments for criminology, and the publication of such, are also discussed