Gender and Sexuality Commons^™

Gendered Violence, Hiv Acquisition, And Clinical/Behavioral Research, Liz Barr, Michele Peake Andrasik, Claire Rappoport, Jessica Mooney, Annet Davis Vogel, Lisa Rossi, Amina Alio

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

HIV incidence and prevalence rates for US women continue to increase, especially among Black and Latina women. In addition, the link between violence and HIV acquisition has been well documented. However, the interaction between violence, HIV risk, and HIV acquisition remains an under-addressed issue in current clinical and behavioral HIV research designs. Because violence against women plays an important role in HIV acquisition and transmission, it is imperative for clinical research to address violence in trial design and implementation. In this article, we discuss the prevalence of violence in women’s lives; the role violence plays in HIV acquisition; and the …

Long May She Reign: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Gender Expectations In Disney’S Tangled And Disney/Pixar’S Brave, Caitlin J. Saladino

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

This project addresses messages about gender expectations in Disney princess narratives. The two films included in my project are Tangled (2010) and Brave (2012), which feature the most recently inducted princesses to the marketed Disney Princess line (Rapunzel and Merida, respectively). Using genre as an organizing principle, I argue that Rapunzel and Merida are different from the past Disney princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, etc.) because their narratives reflect new ideas about gender expectations in modern society. The central tension appearing in both films is the opposition between the image of woman as traditional, domestic, and dependent and woman …

Acceptability Of Sexting In Same-Sex Relationships, Carly Shadid, Katherine M. Hertlein, Sarah M. Steelman

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

For individuals who identify as part of the LGB community, the Internet can be seen as a tool to take control of their lives, may promote self-esteem, and foster a sense of belonging. The purpose of the study was to learn about sexting practices on college campuses. It builds on the existing body of knowledge by attending specifically to sexting rather than the previous literature about engagement in sexual behavior online (see, for example, Daneback, Cooper, & Månsson, 2005). Findings indicated that sexting is viewed as more acceptable in same sex relationships as compared to heterosexual relationships.

The Rhetoric Of Gay Christians: Matthew Vines And Reverend Nancy Wilson As Exemplars, Josu Miller

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

In the United States, there is a perception that the gay rights debate situates Christians against gay rights advocates. According to this perception, Christians oppose gay rights, because the Bible condemns homosexuality as a sin, and those who support gay rights do so using purely secular arguments. This perception of the gay rights debate is flawed and overly simplistic, because simply not all Christians oppose gay rights. In fact, there are multiple interpretations of biblical texts that support homosexuality and have caused a gay rights debate within the church that is as complex and intricate as gay rights debate outside …

Implicit Bias In Judicial Performance Evaluations: We Must Do Better Than This, Rebecca D. Gill

Political Science Faculty Research

Judicial performance evaluations (JPEs) are a critical part of selecting judges, especially in states using merit-based selection systems. This article shows empirical evidence that gender and race bias still exist in attorney surveys conducted in accordance with the ABA’s Guidelines. This systematic bias is related to a more general problem with the design and implementation of JPE surveys, which results in predictable problems with the reliability and validity of the information obtained through these survey instruments. This analysis raises questions about the validity and reliability of the JPE. This is a particularly poor outcome, as it means that we are …

Marriage And Citizenship In The United States, Shanella Gardner

Psi Sigma Siren

Most countries associate being a citizen with having certain legal rights and being born in that country, although this has not always been the case, especially in the United States. When writing the U. S. Constitution, the founding fathers were thinking of white, male landowners to be given the legal rights as citizens. This would leave the remaining population of women, African Americans and other people of color to fight to be recognized as citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790 was the first legislative act that defined who could be citizens in the United States. It allowed citizenship for immigrants …

Gender Performance In Womens' Mixed Martial Arts, Linda Tompkins, Michael Ian Borer

McNair Poster Presentations

Academic research has typically focused on men who practice Mixed Martial Arts and their expression of hyper-masculinity. There is a lack of comparative work which examines women who practice MMA as a sport. This article aims to address this oversight by exploring the meaning and importance of the sports for women. The main focus is to explore how women navigate and “perform gender” in the patriarchal subculture of MMA. Drawing on a “grounded theory” approach, semi-structured interviews, content analysis, and participant observation, I developed a preliminary model of female Mixed Martial Artist. I examine three female fighter “types” (“Feminine inclined …

Male-Female Wage-Gap: A Comparison Of Different Employment Classes, Richard V. Foster, Jeffrey Waddoups, Heather Lynn Lusty, Thomas Mike Carroll

McNair Poster Presentations

This study is being conducted and presented in two parts. The first part, this report, is a statistical examination of the male-female wage gap. By evaluating the average (mean) differences between men and women within the workplace, pay differential trends can be ascertained and examined to support the need for additional study. The second stage, to be conducted Fall 2014 at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, will use regression analysis to differentiate between explained and unexplained portions of said pay-gap to better understand how the remaining gap is related to discrimination. The data analyzed will establish baselines for both …

The Role Of Body Surveillance, Body Shame, And Body Self-Consciousness During Sexual Activities In Women's Sexual Experience, Kimberly Claudat

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Objectification theory is a social constructivist framework that aims to explain how sociocultural and intrapersonal variables impact women's mental health. To date, however, few studies have used an objectification framework to examine the relationship between body image and sexual functioning in ethnically diverse samples of women. Consequently, the present study used the tenets of objectification theory to examine body image and sexuality in women. Specifically, this study investigated the relationships between body surveillance, body shame, body self-consciousness during sexual activities, and sexual satisfaction in American female college students. Participants completed self-report measures of demographic information, body shame, body surveillance, body …

The Impact Of Sexual Arousal On The Category Specificity Of Women's Visual Attention To Erotic Stimuli, Sarah Jones

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Research has shown that women have a much less category-specific pattern of visual attention to erotic stimuli than do men. That is, when simultaneously presented with male and female erotic stimuli, heterosexual women attend much more evenly to both male and female erotic stimuli than do heterosexual men, who attend almost exclusively to female stimuli. The present study investigated one proposed explanation for women's more diffuse visual attention patterns - that erotic female images have arousal value for heterosexual women. To test this hypothesis, heterosexual women were presented with either a 12-minute neutral, non-arousing video (n = 19) or a …

The Relationship Between Sex-Typing And Help-Seeking Behaviors In Adults, Joshua Juvrud

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The process of expressing what is masculine promotes attitudes and behaviors that can discourage men from seeking help, contributing to numerous health issues in males. The purpose of this study was to explore how personally endorsed gender stereotypes vs. gender stereotyped attitudes impacted help-seeking behavior. In the current study, female and male adults completed challenging puzzle tasks, recalled previous health help-seeking behavior, and completed sex-typed measures. Females utilized personally endorsed gender stereotypes more during the puzzle tasks, while males utilized both personally endorsed gender stereotypes as well as gender stereotyped attitudes. When males recalled health-related events, however, personally endorsed feminine …

Session 3-1-B: Casino Employee Crime: Equal Opportunity Threat, Teresa Dalton

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Patterns of Offending

Gender Crime Theories

HR Implications

Emotional And Behavioral Reactions To Emotional And Physical Infidelity: An Evolutionary Perspective, Alyson Kay Baker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The current study examined the effect of sex on how people react, emotionally and behaviorally, to different types of partner infidelity. We expected to replicate previous findings that men experience more jealousy in reaction to their partner's sexual infidelity, and women experience more jealousy in reaction to their partners' emotional infidelity. We hypothesized that sex will affect behavioral reactions to infidelity as well. Specifically, we expected men to respond to sexual infidelity by terminating the relationship and to emotional infidelity by employing mate-guarding behaviors to prevent further infidelity. We hypothesized women would display the opposite pattern, leaving a relationship in …

Claiming Citizenship: Las Vegas' Conventional Women's Organizations Establishing Citizenship Through Civic Engagement, Cynthia Cicero

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many historians of American women portray women's organized civic engagement and work to attain social, economic, and legal equality as feminism. American feminism has been expanded and applied in scholarship. The American feminists of the 1960s wanted to alter the male power structure and redefine conventional notions of womanhood. However, many middle-class women who participated in community and civic organizations valued their roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers, expressing their citizenship and community work as an extension of these roles. Their motivation in pursuing equality was to gain full citizenship status.

In this thesis, I argue that viewing women's civic …

Sex Worker Rights Organizing As Social Movement Unionism: Responding To The Criminalization Of Work, Crystal A. Jackson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In a post-industrial, de-regulated economy, worker organizing is changing shape and function. While much research has focused on the decline of U.S. union organizing and the difficulty of organizing today's workers, a growing body of research on social movement unionism interrogates how "un-organizable" and "non-traditional" workers like day laborers and domestic workers are organizing. Yet sex worker activism in the U.S. is little studied, which is interesting given sex workers unique position as criminalized and contingent workers. Based on a two year ethnographic study from 2010 to 2012 of a national sex worker rights organization, the Desiree Alliance (DA), I …

Isolation Of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender Youth: A Dimensional Concept Analysis, Michael Johnson, Elaine Amella

Interdisciplinary Research Scholarship Day

Present the findings of a dimensional concept analysis of isolation within the context of LGBT youth. LGBT youth are at greater risk for negative health outcomes as compared to heterosexual youth, including depression, anxiety, suicide, substance abuse, and HIV/AIDS. Some studies suggest LGBT feeling and being isolated is related to some negative health outcomes. Other research reveals a relationship between isolation and negative health

Gender Differences In Frontal Plane Lower Extremity Kinetic Variability During Landing, Andrew Nordin

Interdisciplinary Research Scholarship Day

Investigations of human movement variability have been used as a
means of exploring neuromotor functioning, where performance variability is
thought to provide the system with flexibility and a mechanism for adaptation to
movement repetition [1,2,4,6]. Operationally, variability has been considered to
fall within optimal limits (Figure 1), while excessively high or low variability has
been implicated in injury susceptibility [1,2,4,6]. Landing has been explored
due to a high incidence of injury in athletic performance, as well as the ability
to easily control task demands through increases in landing height [3,4].
The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate changes in …

Still In The Shadows: A Content Analysis Of Sexual Addiction In Couple Therapy, Austin Ellis, Quintin Hunt, Tod Young, Rebecca Nemecek, Jordan Staples, Stephen Fife, Colleen Peterson

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

There is no universally accepted definition of “sex addiction” in the literature, though it is generally understood as persistent patterns of sexual behaviors acted out despite negative consequences to self or others (Kafka, 2010; Levine, 2010). Though sexual addictions are often addressed individually, most take place within a social context that includes family members and/or intimate relationships. The purpose of this presentation is to present the results of a content analysis of M/CFT peer-reviewed journals and summarize the extent to which this literature addresses sexual addictions and couples therapy. The content analysis adds to the existing literature by examining the …

Gender, Emotional Labour, & Interactive Body Work: Negotiating Flesh And Fantasy In Sex Workers’ Labor Practices, Barbara G. Brents, Crystal A. Jackson

Sociology Faculty Research

Body/Sex/Work focuses on the intimate, embodied and sexualised labour that occurs within body work and sex work. Bringing together an internationally renowned group of academics, it explores, empirically and theoretically, labour processes, workplace relations, regulation and resistance in some of the many work sites that make up the body work and sex work sectors. The book makes a key contribution to research recognising the embodiment of labour and the body, reframing the key questions in critical studies of work and employment.

Key Benefits:

• The first book that draws together the sub-disciplines of body work and sex work

• Written …

An Examination Of Attitudes Toward Sexualized Advertising In Las Vegas, Ashley Crisp, Alexis Kennedy

McNair Poster Presentations

This study explores the attitudes of college-level criminal justice students as to their perception of sexualized advertising in Las Vegas, and if these attitudes have any correlation with the participant’s length of residency. The study also correlates college-level student’s attitudes toward sexualized advertising and how religious they rate themselves. Female participants who lived in Las Vegas for 5 years or more on average agreed advertisements in Las Vegas are too sexualized. In contrast, female participants who were either born in Las Vegas or lived there less than 5 years neither agreed nor disagreed that advertising was too sexualized. As for …

Morphological Features Of The Proximal Femur: Investigations Of Habitual Activities, Sex And Health In A Bronze Age Population From The Arabian Peninsula, Animikha Dutt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bronze Age sites on the Arabian Peninsula are relatively rare. The undisturbed nature of Tell Abraq, located in the United Arab Emirates, is significant since it represents one of the longest known occupied settlement sites dating from the 3rd millennium BC to the 1st century AD. This site has revealed an undisturbed communal tomb that was used for approximately 200 years (2200-2000 BC), housing commingled and disarticulated human remains of at least 286 adults and 127 subadults. The strategic coastal position of Tell Abraq, at the intersection of several major cultural centers, allowed its people to actively participate in world …

Sociosexuality, Mate Preferences, And Sex Steroid Hormone Levels Among Breastfeeding Women In Manila, Michelle Escasa

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This project investigates the influence of lactation on female sociosexuality and mate preferences in urban Manila, a population with long-term breastfeeding, low contraceptive use, and quick return to ovulatory cycling. Physiological and evolutionary considerations suggest that lactating women face important life history allocation trade-offs between mating and parenting effort that may be manifest in their sociosexual behavior and mate preferences. Breastfeeding (n=155) and control (n=105) women were recruited to provide a saliva sample (for testosterone and estradiol analyses), complete a questionnaire, and complete a face and voice preference task to determine preferences for masculinity. Breastfeeding women reported differences in commitment …

Exploring Reasons Why Men And Women Refrain From Sex Despite Desire, Alessandra Lanti

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Sexual behavior has been found to be an unreliable referent for sexual desire. Numerous studies have found that sexual activity is motivated by a range of non-desire related factors, from the promotion of intimacy to the seeking of new experiences. Sexual desire may also be an unreliable predictor of sexual activity. There is a dearth of research, however, on the reasons why individuals choose not to have sex despite the presence of desire for a willing partner. The main aim of this study is to qualitatively investigate the reasons why people refrain from sex when they feel desire for a …

The Hiv/Aids Pandemic In African American Msm: Targets For Intervention, Kelly Neff

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in 2005 that 46% of African American men who have sex with men (MSM) are HIV positive. This review explores the unique factors that contribute to risky sexual behavior and the spread of HIV within this population, suggesting that the disparate prevalence of HIV among African American MSM is rooted in experiences of stigmatization from multiple sources and lack of social support from society at large as well as from within the African American community. Beliefs in HIV conspiracy myths are also thought to hinder HIV education, awareness and prevention for African …

A Pilot Self-Care Group Intervention For Low-Income Hiv-Positive Women, Maithe Enriquez, Margaret S. Miles, Jacki Witt, Paul Gore, Nancy Lackey

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

This article describes the development of a self-care intervention and examines its efficacy with low-income HIV-positive women (n=34) in the Midwestern United States. Adapted from an individual nurse-led intervention, this effort focused on increasing self-care behaviors through enhancing self-esteem and social support. The investigators used a community-based participatory approach and partnered with three HIV-positive women to adapt and pilot test the new group intervention. A within-group, repeated-measures, pre-/post-test design, together with participant interviews, was used to evaluate the intervention. Mean scores on measures of self-care behaviors, self-esteem, social support and depressive symptoms all changed in the clinically desirable direction. Group …

Quality And Severity Of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Among African American Elders, Daniel L. Howard, Bennett G. Edwards, Kimberly Whitehead, M. A. Amamoo, Paul A. Godley

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Lack of population-based data on lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) among African American men represents a significant gap in understanding. This study examined LUTS among a racially over-sampled, mixed urban/rural, elderly cohort of African Americans and whites in the South to discern whether racial differences exist in the prevalence, severity, and associated risk factors of LUTS. Longitudinal analyses using generalized estimating equations (GEE) were conducted on the 1994–1998 EPESE dataset for 5 North Carolina counties. In 1994, the analytic cohort included 482 African Americans and 407 whites; by 1998, 249 and 222, respectively. In 1994, 49.4% of African Americans reported …

So That The People May Live (Hecel Lena Oyate Ki Nipi Kte): Lakota And Dakota Elder Women As Reservoirs Of Life And Keepers Of Knowledge About Health Protection And Diabetes Prevention, Dawn W. Satterfield, John E. Shield, John Buckley, Sally T. Alive

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Around the world, Type 2 diabetes is on the rise, affecting adults and youth from societies in the throes of industrialization. Over time, uncontrolled diabetes can leave in its wake people facing renal failure, blindness, and heart disease, and communities daunted by new, chaotic phenomena. Westernized lifestyles are a recognized explanation for the escalating prevalence. The web of causation, however, may be broader and thicker, woven by complex interactions with environmental, sociological, and historical roots. The purpose of this participatory ethnographic study was to document, understand, and support Lakota and Dakota elder women’s beliefs and knowledge about health protection and …

Process Evaluation In Action: Lessons Learned From Alabama Reach 2010, M. C. Nagy, Rhoda E. Johnson, Robin C. Vanderpool, Mona N. Fouad, Mark Dignan, Theresa A. Wynn, Edward E. Patridge, Isabel Scarinci, Cheryl Holt, Sharina D. Person

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

The CDC-funded Alabama Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH 2010) project is designed to reduce and eliminate disparities in breast and cervical cancer between African American and white women in six rural and three urban counties in Alabama. In this manuscript, we report on the development, implementation, results, and lessons learned from a process evaluation plan initiated during the Phase I planning period of the Alabama REACH 2010 program. The process evaluation plan for Alabama REACH 2010 focused on four main areas of activity that coincided with program objectives: assessing coalition development, building community capacity, conducting a needs …

Hungry For Respect: Discrimination Among Adults Using Emergency Food Services, Gilbert C. Gee, Kathryn J. Lively, Larissa Larsen, Jennifer Keith, Jana Stone, Kara Macleod

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Objectives: We examined how adults using emergency food services report discrimination and how these reports may be associated with well-being.

Methods: Data come from a survey (n=318) and from five focus groups of adults using emergency food services, conducted between 2003-2004. The survey included measures derived from the Everyday Discrimination Scale and the Centers for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Focus groups were analyzed with content analysis.

Results: The survey data suggest that everyday discrimination was associated with the CES-D, conditional on covariates. Focus group data are consistent with the survey results and suggest several avenues for future research, including …

Gay And Lesbian Health Disparities: Evidence And Recommendations For Elimination, M. R. Barker

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Research suggests that significant health disparities exist among the gay and lesbian population in the United States. These disparities impact both the short- and long-term health outcomes of this population. This study first provides a current literature review of available research on gay and lesbian health disparities and organizes these findings according to health topic. The paper then investigates recommendations for the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities and examines their applicability in eliminating sexual minority disparities. While many recommendations are valid, this paper analyzes the six thought to have the greatest potential in eliminating gay and lesbian health …