Key messages Victim arousal or pleasure in the context of non-consensual sexual activity is often conflated with consent by victims, perpetrators and bystanders. Victims whose experiences of sexual violence are complicated by pleasurable physical or emotional dimensions can experience significant shame and self-blame, which inhibits disclosure and help-seeking. Sexuality education and sexual assault prevention strategies should recognise and address the distinctions between arousal, pleasure and consent. Sexual violence refers to any sexual act
The pleasures of a good meal? Eating is not an optional activity. However, the contexts for eating are managed in multiple ways to meet physical, emotional, cultural and social objectives. Many events are primarily functional, a means to basic physical reproduction, episodes to quell hunger which are of no great significance. Mostly, however, additional gratification is expected. Even simple and meagre refreshments may be very pleasurable under the right circumstances. Tea and biscuits played an important symbolic role in Britain throughout the 20th century
PART III Agency through fantasy, erotic tales and pleasure
Following on from the investigation of instrumentality, competitiveness, and hyper-conformity, this chapter turns to Mulrooney et al’s (2019 : 3) contention that an acknowledgement of pleasure constitutes ‘an essential part of a coherent and reasoned response to steroid consumption’. As such, the following analysis will examine the chemical, symbolic, and psychic pleasures of IPED consumption through the case study of Phillip, the project’s oldest participant and ardent ‘lifestyle’ user. Introducing Phillip Arriving uncharacteristically early to the
Introduction Sexual expression and pleasure of black minority ethnic (BME) older women is not a topic of extensive research, and discussion appears to be taboo among these women. In addition, many erroneous assumptions and ageist stereotypes exist about the sexuality of BME older women. In fact, many BME older women themselves believe myths about their sexuality and ageing. The stereotypes and silence about BME older women’s sexuality, and their sexual desires and sexual health have both personal (individual) and collective implications (Lagana et al, 2013
hinders us from becoming as happy, healthy and wise as we could potentially be. As much as we have learnt how to seek pleasure, joy and happiness, we can also unlearn it gradually. Although our desires and strivings may feel hard wired into our gut feelings, they can actually be transformed. We can also learn to be more aware of our senses, feelings and thoughts. Updating our emotional strategies from the Stone Age Happiness, from a biological point of view, occurs as a ‘by-product’, rewarding and reinforcing actions that help survival. The human being today is
143 SEVEN the sensible drinker and the persistence of pleasure We believe that England has a drink problem . . . it is not just a problem for a small minority, but a much larger section of the population (Health Select Committee 2010: 267) Britain: the café society. What an agreeable idea it seemed at the time. Back in the days where the nation was still intoxicated by New Labour, our political leaders promised that they would transform not only our public services but our drinking culture . . . Britain is to café society what Iceland is to financial
159 NINE A theoretical model for intervening in complex sexual behaviours: sexual desires, pleasures and passion – La Pasión – of Spanish-speaking gay men in Canada Gerardo Betancourt VIGNETTE Carlos, a Latino Colombian gay man, came to the first session of Chicos Net, an HIV prevention behavioural intervention. He has lived in Canada for the past four years. During the process, he told the group that he had unprotected sex the week before. His reasoning was based on how much he was attracted to the guy he had sex with, and that he was so ‘into’ the
), including 3G (the standard at the time), Wi-Fi and hook-up apps (for example, Grindr). The quotation at the beginning of this chapter, from the interview with Ben, highlights the significance of these elements in shaping the experience of chemsex. The use of drugs for sexual pleasure within gay communities is not new. As recently argued by Florêncio (2021 , p 8), ‘drugs, in some form or another, have been a part of queer culture for a very long time, and are certainly present in a lot of the 20th- and 21st-century queer cultural outputs’. For him, it is important to
165 EIGHT Selling bodies/selling pleasure: the social organisation of sex work in Taiwan Mei-Hua Chen Introduction In daily practice, prostitution is simply the explicit selling and buying of sex. However, if we reduce the complex social practices of prostitution to sex we will fail to examine the economic, political and ideological underpinnings of prostitution, that is, the social problems that underlie it. As O’Connell Davidson has argued, ‘the ills associated with prostitution can be addressed only through far broader political struggles to rid the world of
