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Despite voluminous research indicating that women and minorities have limited access to or are excluded from organizational networks, two central questions remain unanswered: (a) In what specific ways, if any, do the interaction networks of men and women and whites and racial minorities differ? and (b) What mechanisms produce those differences? The central thesis of the article is that the organizational context in which interaction networks are embedded produces unique constraints on women and racial minorities, causing their networks to differ from those of their white male counterparts in composition and characteristics of their relationships with network members. Organizational context is hypothesized to affect personal networks directly, as well as through its impact on individuals' strategies for managing constraints. A theoretical perspective that views women and minorities as active agents who make strategic choices among structurally limited alternatives is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lifecourse theory scholars focus on how individuals traverse social roles, such as marriage, parenthood, and employment, in similar and different ways across their lives. This study examined one specific role trajectory: romantic relationships. This study examined men’s and women’s (N = 3617) relationship status and quality across approximately 30 years. Using second-order latent class analysis, results showed four predominant relationship role trajectories: (a) Multiple Transitions, (b) Stable Marriage with High Conflict, (c) Stable Marriage with High Satisfaction, and (d) Marriage to Divorce/cohabitation. These relationship role trajectories differed on two aspects of quality of life: life satisfaction and depressive symptoms. Individuals in the Multiple Transitions trajectory consistently reported poorest quality of life; however, those in the Multiple Transitions and Stable Marriage with High Conflict trajectories were the only that reported decreases in depressive symptoms over 30 years. Relationship satisfaction poorly differentiated the trajectories compared to relationship conflict and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims To investigate how gender composition of the drinking group affects young adults' alcohol consumption on weekend evenings over and above the effect of drinking-group size. Design Using the internet-based cellphone-optimized assessment technique (ICAT), participants completed online questionnaires on their cell phones every hour from 8 p.m. to midnight on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings during five consecutive weekends. Setting French-speaking Switzerland. Participants Convenience sample of 183 young adults (53.0% female, mean age = 23.1) who completed a total of 4141 hourly assessments. Measurements Alcohol consumption and number of male and female friends present assessed at 8 p.m., 9 p.m., 10 p.m., 11 p.m. and midnight. Findings Results of three-level negative binomial regression analyses showed that women consumed significantly more drinks per hour when drinking in mixed-gender groups ( Z-values ranging from 2.9 to 5.3, all P < 0.01) and significantly fewer drinks when drinking with men only ( Z = −2.7, P < 0.01), compared with drinking with women only. Men reported consuming more drinks per hour in mixed-gender groups of equal gender composition ( Z = 2.4, P < 0.05) or mixed-gender groups with men in the majority ( Z = 2.2, P < 0.05) and fewer hourly drinks when drinking with women only ( Z = −4.9, P < 0.001), compared with drinking with men only. Drinking-group size predicted the hourly number of drinks for women ( Z = 6.0, P < 0.001) and men ( Z = 5.5, P < 0.001). Conclusions Drinking-group gender composition is associated with number of drinks consumed per hour, over and above the impact of the drinking-group size. Young adults report consuming more drinks per hour when drinking with mixed-gender groups than with same-gender groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been widely suggested that women are under-represented in STEM fields because careers in these fields are perceived as incompatible with other traditionally feminine roles and life goals such as helping others or maintaining a marriage and family. Although a number of studies of women in STEM have examined the importance of the communal goal of helping others, few studies have examined another communal goal, maintaining a romantic relationship. To address this gap, we designed a two-part study to explore the impact of romantic relationships on relationship and career goals of college STEM majors. First, a survey was conducted that examined the impact of relationship status on 713 male and 409 female college STEM majors' life goals and gender roles (82 % White). Although results indicated gender differences in goals and roles related to family and careers, interaction effects with relationship status that would suggest unique negative impacts on women's education or career goals were not found. Next, a subsample of 59 female STEM majors (81 % White) and their male romantic partners participated in a study examining their investments in and beliefs about careers, family, and the balance between the two. Findings suggest that successful female STEM majors may seek and find partners who are supportive of their educational and careers goals, as evidenced by the partners' investment and expectations for relationship and work roles. Overall, findings indicate that a supportive romantic partner may be a positive determining factor for women's success in STEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demography has been broadly considered as a key aspect of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. On the Jewish side, State intervention to encourage Jewish immigration and Jewish births is well known. Much less known are the efforts to discourage inter-faith relations. These ‘problematic relationships’ between Arab men and Jewish women from low socio-economic backgrounds have become a high priority item in public discussions over the last decade. In this article I will explore the main discursive practices used in this heated debate by those opposing these relationships. ‘Moral panic’ as a theoretical framework will help me analyse the ways in which Jewish women and Arab men who engage in such relations are presented. As I will show, attempts to criminalize and vilify Arab men meet with strong opposition. Presenting Jewish women as weak and passive victims seems as a more successful strategy, especially when done by professionals from the psych-professions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ‘New Woman’ was an important part of the culture and society of Weimar Germany, both as a discursive figure and as social reality. However, the interdependencies between these two aspects—the ‘New Woman’ as a media phenomenon and as a lived reality—have not yet been investigated in depth. Using the example of the tabloid newspaper Tempo (1928–1933) and its interaction with its readership, this article sheds light on the ways in which Germans reconciled the ‘New Woman’ ideal with their own experiences at the end of the Weimar Republic. Most importantly, it shows the struggle of many readers to accommodate new ideas about ‘modern’ relationships between men and women at a time when traditional morals persisted in a rapidly deteriorating economic climate.A number of scholars have pointed to a change in the media-driven construction of images of femininity in the late 1920s, with the modern, independent ‘New Woman’ making way for a more conservative ideal of motherhood and devotion. This article argues that this shift in the discourse on femininity did not reflect a change in the self-definition of German women. Rather, the interaction of Tempo’s female and male readers with the paper suggests that they tried to accommodate new concepts of modern femininity with persisting traditional ideas about women’s role in society, arriving at a hybrid type of ‘moderately modern’ womanhood. Thus, only the image of the ‘New Woman’ constructed in the media changed at the end of the 1920s, while the self-definition of German women remained relatively stable—even beyond 1933. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses sexual practices and relationships among the Indian peoples Macuna and Nünak from the Colombian Amazon, focusing on gender differences in attitudes toward sex. The author offers an analysis of the similarities and differences of the practices between both groups. Subjects discussed include the concept of person and human body in the Amazonian cosmologies, social aspects of patrilineality, and the social role of shamanism.

An essay is presented which discusses the social aspects of women's health, with a particular focus on the health of the female genitalia. The role that vulva pain putatively plays in representing the refusal of heterosexual penile-vaginal intercourse, including the opportunity it allegedly gives women to evaluate the sexual desires of their male partner, is discussed.

Globalization has increased the occurrence of 'international marriages' due to expanded marriage markets resulting from increased travel and communication avenues. Although Eastern Europe is one of the top three regions of origin for marriage migrants, little is known about who chooses this type of marriage arrangement. This study describes demographic characteristics of Eastern European-U.S. international marriages using a nationally representative sample ( N = 442) from the American Community Survey, 2008-2009. Paired t test, chi-square, and ANOVA analyses were used to assess within-couple and between-couple differences. Spouses in Eastern-European-U.S. couples were found to differ significantly by age, income, education, and number of previous marriages. Results showed that marriages between Eastern European wives and U.S. husbands differed in important ways from marriages between U.S. citizens. Findings support both status homogamy and status exchange theories of international mate selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Treball Social is the property of Col·legi Oficial de TreballSocial de Catalunya and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article analyses the gender relationship of men and women in Taiwan. Firstly, it employs power relation to explore what the gender relationship is and how this gender relationship has produced. Secondly, it describes how this gender relationship has influenced Taiwanese society. It also explains the gender inequality of both sexes in Taiwan and Taiwanese women's resistance to traditional and Western culture. Thirdly, it analyses how this gender relationship has reflected on Taiwanese women's leisure. The analysis is designed to indicate the roles held by women and men in Taiwanese society in this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination of the social impact that 1970s singer-songwriters had on the development of American attitudes towards love, romantic relationships and marriage. It discusses the social change brought about during the 1960s in the U.S., noting that members of the baby boomer generation witnessed challenges to traditional forms of authority. Additionally, the author argues that it was not until the 1970s that a dramatic shift occurred in the way American youth viewed the traditional societal markers of adulthood, such as family and career.

Children can benefit when they are able to talk about sexuality with their parents. Studies indicate that adolescents prefer to discuss sexuality primarily with their same-sex peers and siblings. In families, teens prefer confiding in their mothers, then their fathers, and finally their stepparents of either gender. In an exploratory qualitative study, using a family systems and communication boundary perspective, 19 young women who self-identified as having a positive relationship with their mothers and nonresidential stepmothers were interviewed in depth. One area of strength identified was that the participants had open communication with their mothers. Although the volume of communication between mothers and daughters was greater than between stepmothers and stepdaughters, the content differed. Ten of the young women could confide in their stepmothers about their sexual experiences, whereas none of young women confided about sexuality with the mothers, with the exception of sexual health issues. This finding might indicate an unrecognized characteristic of positive stepmother-stepdaughter functioning. Practice implications are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has indicated that family experiences, including parental divorce, family conflict, and parental monitoring, play an important role in adolescent relationships (e.g., Mahl, 2001). Research on how these family experiences affect romantic relationships during early adolescence is lacking. Because pubertal maturation has been linked with earlier dating, it is also important to consider its role when studying adolescent relationships. This study compared 1,765 young adolescents (grades 5-8) from intact (n = 1,315) and divorced (n = 379) families on their dating patterns, susceptibility to romantic influence, and romantic relationship quality. The findings show that adolescents from divorced families, compared to adolescents from intact families, report more dating, report more susceptibility to romantic influence, and do not differ in their romantic relationship quality. In line with the hypotheses, both family conflict and puberty mediated the relationship between family structure and dating stage, as well as family structure and susceptibility to romantic influence. Parental monitoring, however, did not mediate between family structure and the romantic relationship variables. Finally, differences, regardless of family structure, were found between males and females, where males indicated being at a higher dating stage than females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One aim of this study was to test a model derived from Cutrona that conflict and depression partially mediate the relation between perceived and accurate empathy and relationship satisfaction. This was investigated in 149 heterosexual couples using dyadic analysis. As accurate empathy was not significantly related to relationship satisfaction when actual and assumed similarities were controlled, this model was only examined with perceived empathy. Apart from conflict in men, the actor effects of the model were supported. Perceived empathy was positively associated with relationship satisfaction and negatively associated with depression and conflict. Depression and conflict were negatively associated with relationship satisfaction. There were two partner effects. Conflict in women was significantly associated with depression and relationship dissatisfaction in men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This online study explored gender differences in affective reactions to sexual refusal during hookups and whether state or trait measures were the best predictors of verbal coercion. The Midwestern U.S. undergraduate sample included 220 men and 50 women previously in situations where they wanted more sexual contact than their heterosexual partner desired. Women reported stronger negative responses on several affect variables, suggesting that such refusals might have resulted in significant expectancy violations. Men reported more experience in handling refusals, consistent with traditional sexual scripts. Logistic regression analyses revealed that dominant men were more likely to coerce when angry or confused, whereas hostile women were more likely to coerce when feeling rejected. The results have important implications for sexual coercion prevention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hooking up on college campuses has become more frequent than dating in heterosexual sexual interaction. Analysis of the relative benefits and costs associated with dating and hooking up suggest that women benefit more from dating while men benefit more from hooking up. U.S students (150 women, 71 men) at a midsized southeastern university indicated preferences for dating and hooking up across a number of situations and indicated the perceived benefits and risks associated with each. As hypothesized, in most situations women more than men preferred dating and men more than women preferred hooking up. Both genders perceived similar benefits and risks to dating and hooking up; differences provided insight into the sexual motives of college women and men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. This article provides an examination of how men and women spend their recreational attendance time and how their behavior differs when they are single and married. The battle of the sexes model and the theory of artistic human capital acquisition from one's spouse both suggest that married individuals will have different patterns of attendance than singles. Methods. Using data from the Performing Arts Research Coalition, we estimate a number of models to examine the differences between male and female attendance at art, professional sports, and popular culture events for those single and married. Results. We find that single males prefer sports, while single females prefer the arts. As predicted by the battle of the sexes model, men are more likely and women less likely to attend art events after marriage. This increase in male attendance is also predicted by human capital models of attendance that argue that the choice of art events is based on acquired tastes that can be influenced by the human capital of one's spouse. The battle of the sexes model, however, also predicts a decline in male and an increase in female attendance at professional sports. We find a small increase in female, but also an increase in male, attendance. Conclusions. The behavior of married and single males and females tends to correspond to the predictions made by the battle of the sexes and human capital models of attendance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how the popularity of "The Man Show," a television program shown on the cable television network Comedy Central, provides an opportunity to examine the desires and fears of heterosexual white men in the U.S. Particular attention is paid to the prevalence of the "men-behaving-badly ethos" in popular culture and the shifting cultural attitudes concerning masculinity and social relationships in U.S. society. It is argued that "The Man Show" illustrates the theoretical construct of "mediocre masculinity," which enables traditional power relationships to prevail in a social context that is increasingly intolerant of displays of traditional masculinity.

The article looks at the perceptions and practices of the societies of Nepal towards women, giving particular focus on the issues of gender relations and the status of widow women. It defines the concept of both women, which are pointed out to be inferior to men, and single women, which are referred as those who deserted their husbands, divorced, widowed, and unmarried until the age of 35. The concept of marriage, husband, and being a widow are also analyzed, arriving at several implications and tough circumstances of widowhood. Also taken into consideration are the code of conducts prescribed for women including the dress and color code and the behavior code. It is concluded that perceptions and practices in Nepal societies towards women blocks women's happiness and existence.

Recent studies have identified robust associations between the types of words that people use and their psychological health. This study investigated whether couples’ word use in their daily instant messages (IMs) is linked to the quality and stability of their relationships. Sixty-eight dating couples in the United States submitted 10 days of IM conversations with each other, which were analyzed with a linguistic word count program. Six months later, couples indicated whether they were still dating. Pronoun use and emotion word use both were associated with relationship satisfaction and stability. These findings extend previous research showing that the frequencies of certain words that people use are associated with the quality of their social relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using cohort data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this paper tracks the experiences of serial cohabitors . Results indicate that only a minority of cohabiting women (about 15% – 20%) were involved in multiple cohabitations. Serial cohabitations were overrepresented among economically disadvantaged groups, especially those with low income and education. They also were less likely than single-instance cohabiting unions to end in marriage rather than dissolve. If serial cohabitors married, divorce rates were very high — more than twice as high as for women who cohabited only with their eventual husbands. The results suggest the need to balance the government’s current preoccupation with marriage promotion with greater support of “at risk” unions that marriage promotion initiatives have helped create. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. The aim was to analyse the construction of masculinities among men aged 85 and older. Background. All societies have a gender order, constructed from multiple ideas of what is seen as feminine and masculine. As the group of men aged 85 and older is increasing in size and their demand for care will increase, we must recognize the importance of studying these men and various discourses of masculinities. Design. Qualitative explorative. Methods. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse thematic narratives. Masculinity theories provided the point of departure for the analysis. Results. The analysis coalesced into three masculinities. 'Being in the male centre', developed from subthemes as: taking pride in one's work and economic situation; being in the centre in relation to others; regarding women as sexual objects; and belonging to a select group. 'Striving to maintain the male facade' developed from subthemes as: emphasizing 'important' connections; having feelings of loss; striving to maintain old norms and rejecting the fact of being old. 'Being related' was formulated from subthemes as: feeling at home with domestic duties; being concerned; accepting one's own aging; and reflecting on life. Conclusions. Our study indicates the importance of being aware of the existence of multiple masculinities, in contrast to the generally unproblematic and unsubtle particular healthcare approaches which consider men as simply belonging to one masculinity. Relevance to clinical practice. Diverse masculinities probably affect encounters between men and healthcare providers and others who work with an older population and therefore our results are of importance in a caring context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers: Revista de Sociologia is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article analyzes the narratives about women in the Pilaga society in Argentina through Idoyaga Molina's fieldwork conducted between 1972 and 1995. The myth "The Origin of Women" shows that the role of a woman, as manifested through her morphology and customs, is focused on domestic and reproductive aspects of the family life and explains the intergration of men and women, while "The Star-woman Seduces an Ugly Man" narrative emphasizes the impossibility of unions and marriages of human beings with those with a godly or mythical nature because the tie is centered on sexual desire that produces emotional instability. The conclusion states that the two myths describe the status of women in the society that is related to power and not of subordination.

Cohabitation has become part of the pathway toward marriage. Prior work focuses on expectations to marry and has ignored cohabitation. Although most young adults are not replacing marriage with cohabitation, but instead cohabit and then marry, it is important to study adolescents’ joint expectations to cohabit as well as marry. Our analyses draw on recently collected data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (N = 1,293). We find that adolescents are less certain about their cohabitation than marriage expectations. Dating and sexual experience, traditional values, prosocial activities, and parents influence adolescents’ union formation expectations. The findings from this work suggest that adolescents are including cohabitation as part of their future life trajectories but rarely envision cohabitation as substituting for marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By employing a network approach and discussing certain features of different family network patterns among Tamil and Somali families, this paper argues that cultural scripts governing kinship, marriage and gender relations developed in the country of origin influence adaptation patterns in exile. Cultural scripts influence the process of interaction between migrants and the Norwegian majority society. While Tamil families appear to have densely-knit and joint networks of relatives and friends, Somali spouses have separate social networks with few cross-linkages. These differences are expressions of different systems of marriage and kinship relations, where Tamils have a system of life-long cross-cousin marriages while Somalis follow a system of exogamy and plural marriages. The paper maintains that, while Tamil cultural scripts tend towards centralisation, which is re-enacted in Norway in ways which confirm family unity, joint gender roles and social cohesion, the diversified and diffusive logic of Somali cultural scripts is likewise re-enacted. This tendency is supported by welfare policy that speeds up the dissolution of Somali families in exile. The analysis does not pretend to give a full understanding of adaptation processes for the two groups; it discusses a temporally limited period in the exiled communities and only some aspects of family adaptation; but its aim is to shed light on aspects that are understudied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For women in Nigeria, as in many settings, simply being married can contribute to the risk of contracting HIV. I studied men's extramarital sexual behavior in the context of modern marriage in southeastern Nigeria. The results indicate that the social organization of infidelity is shaped by economic inequality, aspirations for modern lifestyles, gender disparities, and contradictory moralities. It is men's anxieties and ambivalence about masculinity, sexual morality, and social reputation in the context of seeking modern lifestyles— rather than immoral sexual behavior and traditional culture—that exacerbate the risks of HIV/AIDS. (Am J Public Health. 2007;97:997-1005. doi:10.2105/AJPH. 2006.088583) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Married women in rural Papua New Guinea are at risk for HIV primarily because of their husbands' extramarital relationships. Labor migration puts these men in social contexts that encourage infidelity. Moreover, many men do not view sexual fidelity as necessary for achieving a happy marriage, but they view drinking and "looking for women" as important for male friendships. Although fear of HIV infection is increasing, the concern that men most often articulated about the consequences of extramarital infidelity was possible violent retaliation for "stealing" another man's wife. Therefore, divorced or separated women who exchange sex for money are considered to be "safe" partners. Interventions that promote fidelity will fail in the absence of a social and economic infrastructure that supports fidelity. (Am J Public Health. 2007,97:1006-1014. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2006.088559) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Bollywood director Farhan Akhtar on relationships in his film 'Dil Chahta Hai,' is presented. Asked about relationships in the story that do not have a name, Akhtar states that in the society one lives in, certain relationships are hard to define. He further clarifies that the relationship between the protagonist and the lead female character and the relationship between the two men are comparably unacceptable in society.

Copyright of Revista Brasileira de Crescimento e Desenvolvimento Humano is the property of Centro de Estudos de Crescimento e Desenvolvimento do Ser Humano and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective: To gain insight into the needs and expectations of abused women in shelter homes, with regard to family physicians. Methods: Twelve women in two shelter homes were interviewed. The interview focused on women's experiences and expectations of family physicians regarding the abuse situation. Results: Eight women did not disclose intimate partner abuse to their family physicians. The main reasons were shame and fear of retaliation. Six women suffered from extreme controlling behavior by their partners, which made it impossible to seek help. Four women were not aware of the relationship between abuse by a partner and physical symptoms. Women mainly wanted a solution for physical problems and were ambivalent about help to tackle their problems with abuse. The majority of the women found the family physician's attitude of great importance and considered it a task of the family physician to provide assistance. Conclusion: Although the family physician did not play an important role in solving the problems for victims of intimate partner abuse living in shelter homes, an open and empathic attitude was of great importance to these women. Women also expressed the need for assistance by their physician and emphasized that it was important to keep asking about partner abuse, even in case of denial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The investigation examined the mental work associated with managing a household and raisins young children and how such mental work might be associated with relationship satisfaction. Forty-five parents with young children completed questionnaires that assessed marital satisfaction and mothers' and fathers' perceptions of who did what in their household in terms of household tasks, childcare tasks, household management, and childcare management, as well as how much they worried about the completion of each of these tasks. Results indicate that fathers' marital satisfaction and mothers' marital satisfaction differed in terms of the division of labor and management of labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the empirical evidence on the determinants of time spent in domestic activities by male and female partners, with the theoretical predictions of a Gronau model in which the amount of housework done by each partner depends only upon market wages and domestic productivity. Empirical analysis is based on data drawn from the ISTAT Multipurpose Survey, the first Italian survey to collect data on time use. The survey contains no data on income and wages and consequently in the empirical analysis we use the information on demographic characteristics of individuals and households to test the consistency between the evidence and the implications of the model. The results show a strong asymmetry in the determinants of time spent on domestic activities by male and female partner, which is in sharp contrast with theoretical predictions, introducing the idea that other factors beyond wages and productivity are influencing the way families are deciding about time allocation in their domestic activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out an ethnomethodological approach to the study of gender and interaction, and demonstrates how the topic of ‘gender’ can be studied empirically via its categorial reference in talk-in-interaction. I begin by charting the history of ethnomethodological accounts and studies of gender, starting with Garfinkel's groundbreaking work and the subsequent ‘doing gender’ project, alongside a more general discussion of feminism's relationship to ethnomethodology. I then consider two related trajectories of research, one in conversation analysis and the other in membership categorization analysis, both of which deal with the explication of gender's relevance to interaction, but in somewhat different ways that raise different problems. Finally, drawing on data from different institutional settings, I show how ‘categorial’ phenomena such as ‘gender’ can be studied as phenomena of sequential organization using the machinery of membership categorization alongside conversation analysis. I suggest that the analysis of members' categories in their sequential environment allows language and gender researchers to see how everyday notions of gender are taken up, reformulated, or resisted, in turns of talk that accomplish conversational action; that is, how categories ‘might be relevant for the doing of some activity’ ( Sacks, 1992 vol. 1: 597). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of impotence or erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs and the powerful imagery of their promotional campaigns may be a significant contributor to the social reconstruction of male sexuality and aging in general, and popular understandings of the male heterosexual in particular. This is noteworthy given that the heterosexual male is a demographic that has, historically, been quite resistant to the whims of the psycho-medical establishment. Given men's psychological and physiological makeup, the emerging social expectations of male sexuality may be wholly unrealistic, with its matter-overmind rhetoric. Examining the language and imagery of several ED drug campaigns, and considering some popular therapeutic, and academic discourse on the subject, the paper considers some of the expectations facing men in our society today that have recently been generated by the sexual pharmacology industry. The analysis suggests how these new expectations potentially liberate and constrain men in various ways, solidifies a male ethos that focuses almost exclusively on the physical component, and thereby displaces men from the context of the romantic relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Madagascar, the cultural and economic changes that have accompanied economic liberalization have also seen the emergence of the jaombilo, a young man supported by the money that a woman earns from sex work. In this article, I explore the structural forces that have contributed to the emergence of the jaombilo as well as the more subjective process through which young men become jaombilo. I argue that the category of the jaombilo emerged because of the particular ways in which global economic change articulates with local conceptions of youth, gender and economy. I further suggest that the case of the jaombilo challenges the assumption that youth is a normative phase on the way to adulthood. Instead, I argue that for young men in Madagascar, youth is a phase that they cannot escape. Much as savages were figured as "children" in the 19th century evolutionary discourse, many contemporary Malagasy young men have become perpetual youth, and perpetually poor, thereby challenging normative models of human development that emerged in the context of modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a substantial amount of leisure research, little is known about the leisure activity patterns and satisfaction of couples and their influence, if any, on relationship satisfaction. Further, satisfaction and leisure activity research has been limited to married dyads and has not included a range of romantic partners. Leisure research has focused primarily on individual data, and this impedes fully understanding the joint construction of leisure in a couple and its outcomes. The present research extends efforts by examining the perceptions of dyads in diverse relationships and their effect on their leisure and relationship satisfaction. The model in this study is that gender, joint leisure time, and individual leisure satisfaction affect the relationship satisfaction of both an individual and his or her partner: the partner effect model. Questionnaires self-administered to both members of romantic dyads obtained information on the variables of interest. Results indicated moderate participant leisure satisfaction and a near-significant relationship between gender and relationship satisfaction. However, the model that individual leisure satisfaction would influence both an individual and a partner's relationship satisfaction was not supported by the data. Nonetheless, dyadic research remains a rich area for conceptual and methodological advancement, and therefore subsequent research suggestions are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a study which examined the usefulness of relationships as a factor in preventing AIDS for women of color. Details on the prevention measures and safe sex strategies developed for gay men and women's HIV/AIDS incidence rates; Impact of gender and culture on the health status of women of color; Discussion and recommendations.

The article discusses the relationship between feminism and history by focusing on the film "Liberators Take Liberties: Wars, Rapes, Children," by Helke Sander. The film focuses on the issues of the strategic mass rapes of German women in 1945 after the Battle of Berlin. According to the author, Sander's film addresses mass rapes as one of the urgent European problems particularly the imperative relations between the sexes during the World War II. He discusses several discourses regarding feminism that paved way to concrete social changes that should not be neglected.