Emily S. Mann

Queer youth suicide and the psychopolitics of “It Gets Better”

This article investigates a mass-mediated campaign against a perceived increase in suicides among gay (or presumed-to-be-gay) youth in the USA since September 2010. “It Gets Better” (IGB) became a rallying cry for “anti-bullying” activists, politicians, celebrities and ordinary people who created YouTube videos addressed to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth who might be considering suicide. A critical discourse analysis of a sample of IGB videos reveals a neoliberal frame that places the burden of a “better” life onto the emotional lives of LGBT youth, who are instructed to endure suffering in the interest of inevitable happiness. Drawing on Foucault and Orrs work on the construction and management of mental illness, we use the concept of “psychopower” to explore how these IGB videos render queer youth suicide both a psychological disorder and a sociological crisis for which the only viable solution is “homonormative” subjectivity.

‘It would have control over me instead of me having control’: intrauterine devices and the meaning of reproductive freedom

Abstract In the past decade, enthusiasm for intrauterine devices (IUDs) has rapidly grown in the United States. Messages from health care providers, pharmaceutical advertisements, and public health campaigns extol the freedom that women can experience using a long-term, internal, highly effective contraceptive method. Little research has investigated how young women conceptualize IUDs in terms of freedom and control. We conducted a thematic analysis of in-depth, individual interviews with 37 young Black and Latina women and explored their perspectives on IUDs as promoting and constraining freedom. Participants with favorable views of the IUD (n = 13) appreciated that it would allow them to live their day-to-day lives ‘normally’ without thinking about contraception and with minimal side effects. Four current IUD users found the method empowering because they could pursue their goals without fear of unintended pregnancy. In contrast, nearly two-thirds of participants (n = 24) had predominantly negative views and focused on temporal and physical features of IUD use. They expressed concern that IUDs would impinge on their personal agency by restricting their bodily autonomy since they would not be able to discontinue use without a health care provider; found the idea of a contraceptive method inside their body for years unsettling; and/or desired flexibility over their pregnancy plans. These results highlight a contradiction between IUD promotion discourses and some women’s views about the method and their approaches to pregnancy. Discursive and clinical practices that encourage the use of long-acting contraceptive methods like IUDs over other methods may unintentionally infringe upon reproductive autonomy.

‘You just have to learn to keep moving on’: young women’s experiences with unplanned pregnancy in the Cook Islands

Abstract The Cook Islands is one of several countries in the Pacific region that has high rates of teenage pregnancy and birth. While the social determinants of pregnancy and early motherhood are well established in the global context, little is known about how Cook Islands young women who become pregnant before age 20 make sense of their experiences. Drawing on individual interviews with a purposive sample of 10 young mothers, this paper examines the phenomenology of early pregnancy from their perspectives. Structural, cultural and individual factors emerged as salient themes in participants’ accounts. Qualitative analysis revealed that nearly all the pregnancies were unplanned and every participant reacted negatively when she learned she was pregnant. While some participants wanted to terminate their pregnancies, lack of access to safe, legal and affordable abortion care limited their options. Ultimately, while nearly all participants wished they had been able to delay motherhood, they expressed happiness and pride about their new-found status as mothers. These findings allow for a fuller understanding of factors shaping young women’s experiences of pregnancy in the Cook Islands, which have policy implications for reproductive health and rights.

Sexual Scripts in Contemporary Mexican Cinema: A Quantitative Content Analysis

While the literature on sexual scripts is substantive, with some scholarship examining the role of popular media in the production of normative and divergent sexual practices and interactions, limited attention has been paid to the contemporary Mexican context. In this article, we share findings from a quantitative content analysis of popular Mexican films in order to explore how sexual behavior is portrayed and more specifically how relationship characteristics, condom use, and substance use interact with representations of sexual behavior. We find that more sexually explicit portrayals featured people engaged in heterosexual sexual interactions outside the context of marriage and also in age discordant relationships, where one partner was a minor. Few films featured safer sex practices or substance use in concert with sexual behavior. This research sheds light on how film as a powerful agent of socialization communicates sexual scripts in contemporary Mexican culture that may contribute to risky sexual behaviors among Mexican youth.

LGBTQ College Students’ Experiences With University Health Services: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT Access to inclusive, equitable health care is central to the wellbeing of all college students yet little is known about LGBTQ students’ experiences with university health services. In this article, individual interviews with a convenience sample of 14 LGBTQ students at a large public university were analyzed to explore their perceptions of and experiences with the university’s health center and its services. Our findings demonstrate that the university is not adequately meeting their health care needs. Participants’ narratives offer insights into how to improve campus-based health services for LGBTQ students.

Black US college women’s strategies of sexual self-protection

Abstract While previous scholarship on the sexual practices of college students in the USA has explored how the co-constitution of whiteness, economic privilege and gender inequality are central to ‘hooking up’, less attention has been paid to how the sexual culture of predominantly white universities shape Black college women’s sexual practices. In this article, we use an intersectional theoretical framework informed by Black feminism to analyse interviews with Black, cisgender, heterosexual women, aged 18–22, attending a university in the south-eastern USA. We explore how they interpret the university’s sexual culture and in turn how that informs their sexual decision-making. We find that the intersection of racism and sexism limits Black college women’s sexual partner options and leads them to pursue sexual relationships outside the university setting. While most do not engage in committed romantic relationships with off-campus partners, they do engage in a range of strategies to protect their social, emotional and sexual well-being. The study findings expand the scholarship on hook-up culture by centring the narratives of a group often excluded from the literature.