This book utilizes collaborative autoethnography to examine transformations in health and aging among queer, trans, and intersex people in society. To this end, the authors each utilize their lived experiences as queer, trans, and/or intersex people to discuss inequalities and norms in U.S. healthcare. Further, they elaborate upon some ways U.S. healthcare systems may become more inclusive of queer, trans, and intersex populations over time. In so doing, they utilize the autoethnographic cases to illustrate and describe the complexities of sex, gender, and sexualities in health and aging as well as the ways such intricacies facilitate societal inequalities in health and aging.
Sexual Deviance in Health and Aging: Uncovering Later Life Intimacy explores life course health experiences and unmet care needs of populations perceived as sexually deviant in the United States. These groups include but are not limited to: gay, lesbian, and bisexual people; asexual and demisexual people; trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people; intersex people; nonmonogamous and polyamorous people; kink and fetishism practitioners; sex and adult entertainment workers; individuals labeled as sexual offenders and predators; people living with sexually transmitted infections; people identifying as neuroatypical and/or autistic; and people with chronic conditions and disabilities who lead active sexual lives. Lacey J. Ritter and Alexandra C.H. Nowakowski analyze the social, cultural, and political origins of perceptions of these groups as sexually deviant. In the process, they provide history and context for the health care experiences of people within each of these broad groups. Simultaneously, Sexual Deviance in Health and Aging highlights the complexity and individuality of different people’s journeys through sexuality in health and aging.
This book provides the first compilation of demographic research focused on transgender, nonbinary, and gender minority populations. It discusses the measurement and conceptualization challenges that shape demographic knowledge of these populations, including how we capture gender on surveys. It examines our current knowledge of demographic characteristics and health disparities and outcomes. Overall, this research demonstrates the increasing knowledge of gender variation at the population level. At the same time, it reveals the need for better survey questions, additional data, and inquiry into a broader subset of demographic questions for these populations as there is little understanding of fundamental demographic information, including migration or spatial distribution of transgender populations, fertility and household structure, labor market outcomes, or broader patterns of morbidity and mortality. The research set forth in this book lays the groundwork for a trans demography that would produce population-level knowledge of these populations and points researchers and policymakers toward needed areas of research, conceptualization, and data collection.
The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Transgender Studies is a comprehensive yet concise overview of important issues, themes, and research on transgender people and populations. Coupling both their scholarly expertise with their lived experiences, the contributors tackle a full gamut of topics, including medical care, education, coming out, bathroom and military politics and possibilities, and the creation of families. The volume opens with an introduction from the editor who outlines her own journey and experience searching for information on “transgender studies” in the early 2010’s. Since then, the field has risen in prominence and is one of the fastest growing areas of research in gender studies. Scholars and students alike will find this to be an accessible and essential primer on the societal forces that impact and shape the lives of transgender people.
Advances in Trans Studies: Moving Toward Gender Expansion and Trans Hope explores transgender peoples’ experiences and interactions across various social contexts and institutions. With clear implications for policy and advocacy, this volume demonstrates the promise of an empirical turn in transgender studies.
This book explores how social determinants of health (SDH) impact the health of a variety of marginalized demographic groups in the United States. Chapters focus on the 13 groups that research demonstrates are most disadvantaged by SDH and, consequently, who suffer the most from ongoing health disparities in America. This includes Black and Hispanic individuals, the LGBTQIA+ community, women, the elderly, people with disabilities, veterans, and those living in rural areas, among others. Chapters follow a standardized format that makes it easy for readers to focus in on aspects of the subject that are of greatest interest. Each profile begins with a snapshot of that group's current state of health, including the biggest medical concerns and how other determinants of health may play a role. Next, each chapter takes an in-depth look at the four components of SDH: economic factors, educational access and quality, healthcare access and quality, and living environment and social context. Unique problems and possible solutions are explored within each of these four sections. An end-of-volume bibliography and further readings list points readers who wish to continue their investigation of the topic toward additional information. Relying on an interdisciplinary framework, the book incorporates research from diverse fields including public health, feminist theory, critical studies of race and ethnicity, poverty studies, disability studies, aging studies, cultural competence, legal studies, and global health. In recognition of the reality that health disparities are the result of a complex interplay of forces and structural factors that permeate American culture, analysis extends beyond health and health care to include a broad range of interrelated social, political, economic, and educational components.
Statistical data suggest that many people with chronic health conditions pass away at much younger ages than their peers. Yet large quantitative datasets that address aging with chronic illness often do not capture the diversity of people with chronic diseases and their experiences of growing older. The assumptions built into many core data resources on aging often erase the journeys of people occupying marginalized social locations. Likewise, these same assumptions can result in omission of people who survive for long amounts of time while managing conditions with relatively short median life expectancies. These barriers to understanding diverse experiences of aging with chronic illness are endemic but not unique to quantitative research. Qualitative data collection can indeed offer richer insight into both of these intersecting sets of aging experiences. However, even more in-depth approaches to inquiry with smaller groups of people require asking questions that explicitly explore and affirm the diversity of identities and health statuses held by older adults. A more constructive and impactful approach to capturing meaningful data on diverse experiences of aging with chronic disease is thus to focus on affirming study architecture, rather than viewing one particular set of methods as a panacea for exclusion. With this new edited volume, the editors support the broader goal of expanding knowledge on diverse trajectories of aging with chronic health conditions. Contributed chapters range from critical reviews to methods primers to empirical investigations. The authors focus synergistically on amplifying the attributes and experiences of diverse social populations and on highlighting journeys of longevity with chronic disease. Contributors are: Nicholas B. DiCarlo, Angela Hunt, Ian M. Johnson, Nat Jones, Kristen D. Krause, Nik M. Lampe, Ginny Natale, Audria LB, Kirsten Ostergren Clark, Manacy Pai, Michele Wise Wright and Terry Gene Wright.
Drawing on theory and empirical research, this book provides an analysis of the intersections between LGBTQ+ identification and chronic illness. Chapters focus on the theoretical meaning of chronic illness as a queer notion, as well as the lived experiences of chronically ill LGBTQ+ people. The author analyzes chronic illness as an experience that interrogates the normative notions of time, (in)visibility, and disability. Interweaving notions of heteronormativity and able-bodiedness as interwoven and mutually dependent, this book argues that the experience of chronic illness through LGBTQ+ embodiment presents the potential to imagine bodies differently. This book will be useful for scholars and students in Disability Studies, Queer Studies, and Gender Studies.
Gender-Based Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa: Prevalence, Patterns, and Policies examines the multifaceted issue of gender-based violence (GBV) in Sub-Saharan Africa, offering an in-depth exploration of its prevalence, underlying patterns, and the policies and frameworks that aim at addressing it. The book provides a regional overview on the prevalence of GBV, drawing on a wealth of statistical data and case studies, and examines the diverse forms of gender-based violence on the African sub-region, including domestic violence, sexual harassment, trafficking, and harmful traditional practices, highlighting the complex social, cultural, and economic factors that create and sustain these abuses.In analyzing GBV patterns, contributing authors investigate the dynamics of power and control that underpin gender-based violence, exploring how the intersection of identities such as class, migration, and sexuality influence individuals' experiences. The policy component evaluates international, national, and local responses to GBV, and reviews existing legal frameworks, protection mechanisms, and support services, identifying both best practices and significant gaps. It also considers the effectiveness of public awareness campaigns, education programs, and community-based interventions in shifting societal attitudes and reducing the incidence of GBV. This book provides essential insights for policymakers, researchers, students, and activists committed to combating GBV and supporting survivors.
Even though they are the largest sexual minority group in the United States, the lives, joys, and struggles of bi+ people, as well as the social structure of monosexism, are regularly overlooked in social scientific research and broader conversations about sexuality and gender. Mapping the Monosexual Imaginary interrupts this pattern of erasure by providing readers with a sociological examination of sexualities in society that places bi+ people and monosexism at the center of analysis. Through exploring bi+ peoples experiences navigating identity, community, and politics, Lain Mathers argues that to understand and challenge gender and sexual inequalities, we must first recognize and interrogate the structure of monosexism. At a time when attacks on LGBTQ people are increasing, this book offers an incisive examination of how an often-overlooked group within the LGBTQ community makes sense of their place in the world and what we can learn from attending to the specific issues that bi+ people face in society.
