Effects of entertainment media framing on support for gay rights in China: Mechanisms of attribution and value framing

This study investigates the framing effects of gay-themed entertainment media in China. Specifically, the study explores the mechanisms underlying attribution framing and value framing, through two separate experiments. The results of the first experiment indicate that exposure to attribution frames had considerable influence on the participants' perceptions of the controllability of homosexuality and their emotional responses. In addition, fictional entertainment media's framing of the origin of homosexuality indirectly influenced the participants' opinion through anger. Those participants exposed to a program homosexuality as a type of ‘controllable’ sexuality were likely to express anger and thus were not likely to support gay rights. The results of the second experiment indicate that the core values reflected in a gay-themed program affected the participants' opinions by changing their perception of the importance of value-related beliefs. Those participants exposed to a frame reflecting family values were likely to consider beliefs about family values to be important, which facilitated their support for gay people's personal dignity and equal rights to jobs, housing, and freedom of expression, among others.     

The Moral Controversy Over Boxing Reform

Lesbian athletes, no matter their gender performances, are viewed as masculine. The on-court persona of Amélie Mauresmo illustrates this. Even though Mauresmo’s gender expression was indistinguishable from other women on the pro tennis tour, her sexuality, being an out lesbian, led the public to view her as masculine. Judith Butler’s ‘heterosexual matrix’ (a sex-gender-sexuality tripartite system) accounts for how we make assumptions based on what we see. Her theory explains the experiences of most people, where sex and gender are the known categories, so the viewer, then, assumes a particular sexuality. However, the concept does not work for people who are out, when the known categories are sex and sexuality. This leads the viewer to assume a particular gender and, for Mauresmo, the assumed gender was masculinity. This paper transforms Butler’s theory, extending the usefulness of her ‘heterosexual matrix’.     

‘Dicks are for chicks’: Latino boys,masculinity, and the abjection of homosexuality

Employing social constructivist theories and the concept of abjection from gender studies, this article examines how and why a group of low-income, USA-born Dominican and Puerto Rican middle-school boys constructed masculine identities by invoking and repudiating homosexuality. Ethnographic data from a 2.5-year study indicate that the abjection of homosexuality was a place of performativity wherein the boys utilised their bodies, cultural referents, and bilingualism to delineate masculinity, reiterate heteronormativity, and distance themselves from homosexuals, who they perceived as a threat to their sexuality, personal safety, and physical dominance. At school, the boys enacted a hypermasculine, heteronormative variant of their ethno-racial identities. As a result, their gender construction was heavily influenced by dominant gender practices present in their neighbourhoods and in segments of the broader US, Dominican, and Puerto Rican cultures. Together, these cultural influences shaped the gender regime within the boys' school peer group. This article concludes with a call for additional research examining the intersection of ethno-racial identity, sexuality, gender, and class.     

Profit (f)or the Public Good?

From the Sunday Pictorial's 1952 ‘Evil Men’ series, the first postwar exposé on homosexuality to appear in the British popular press, to the 1964 achievement by its stable mate the Daily Mirror of record circulation figures, both papers commodified and sensationalized homosexuality for consumption by mass newspaper audiences. Sensationalism was combined with homosexuality as a deliberate strategy to succeed in Britain's highly competitive postwar circulation wars and also to promote particular personal and political agendas of key directors. But historians have tended to focus on the vitriol of sensationalism, emphasizing its homophobic content, without fully interrogating the tactic itself. This paper looks at the origins of sensationalism as a strategy at Mirror Group newspapers, asserting that sensational treatments of homosexuality concretely illuminate the multiple interactions between subjective beliefs and the seemingly objective profit motive. At the Daily Mirror and Sunday Pictorial, homosexuals held a negative moral, political, and social value, but critically, they also held a high commercial value.     

Influence of Social Support,Existential Well-Being,and Stress Over Sexual Orientation on Self Esteem of Gay,Lesbian, and Bisexual Individuals

The purpose of the study was to explore the effects of existential well-being, social support, and conflict over ones sexual orientation on gay, lesbian and bisexual (GLB) individuals self-esteem. In addition, the study explored the effects of conservative or non-conservative religious backgrounds in the lives of the participants. The results of multiple regression suggest that stronger self-esteem is predicted by having greater sense of social support, less internal conflict over ones sexual orientation, greater sense of existential well-being, and extrinsic social orientation to religion. Religious and spiritual issues are assumed to carry universal significance for people and suggestions are made for mental health professionals who work with GLB clients in various cultures.     

同性恋之法理初探

作为一种社会现象,同性恋已经存在了几千年,在中国古书上也有断袖之癖的记载。历史上大量才华横溢的政治家、艺术家、哲学家都是同性恋者,龙阳君、汉哀帝、郑燮(郑板桥)、苏格拉底、柏拉图、米开朗基罗、圣.奥古斯丁、莎士比亚、列奥纳多.达.芬奇……优秀的同性恋名人数不胜数。但是,因为与传统的社会习俗相悖,直到今天,同性恋群体依然是一个被极其边缘化的群体,经常视作异类,不被我们强权社会所接纳,而在当代以自由、公平和正义为价值理念的法律世界中,我们应当为他们做些什么。     

大学生对同性恋的归因及态度的调查研究

为了解大学生对同性恋成因的认识及态度,采用自编调查问卷,对3所高校的540名文、理、工科大学生进行了调查研究。调查结果表明:大学生能够从主观动机、负面经历和环境影响等7个方面对同性恋进行归因;大学生对同性恋的态度存在性别差异和学科差异,主要受情感和认知的影响,对同性恋的认识越全面,态度就越宽容,反之就越反感。     

权利对性的压抑——以《躁动的阴阳河》为模板为边缘人追寻自由一辩

同性恋这一边缘题材,在当下引起了越来越多研究者的兴趣,笔者无意于考察其是否道德,是否合乎伦理,只是意欲探究这一少数族群在权利管制下所受性的压抑,并以《躁动的阴阳河》为模板,对边缘人追寻同性之爱自由的可能性做以理性的探寻。     

天堂里的单身汉：一个国家的主题

文学中的单身汉具有多样性和特殊性的特点,并且已变成一种媒介,即研究社会和人类不同文化结构特点的媒介。同时单身汉主题的出现,也为小说理论提供了新的性别分类方法。它展现了一个弯曲的阶级和一种特定的文化特征;即使它不能完全呈现出来,其重要性也已建立在时代特征的框架上了。＂唐人街的单身汉＂为我们提供了一个研究潜在性特征结构的假想空间,通过自然主义的审美描写昭示对社会的看法。随着文学主题学批评对单身汉和男性结合主题关注的增多,单身汉主题自成一派,我们也意识到其政治意义的冗长和压制（压抑）。     

同性恋与古代罗马社会——一项历史学的分析

古代罗马社会中的同性恋是“希腊化”的结果。比较古代罗马与希腊的同性恋,二者从内容到形式已毫无共同之处。同性恋在罗马的遭遇一方面证实了不同的历史背景与文化传统对人类性关系的制约,另一方面使我们从中透视出希腊、罗马文明的差异。