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    Examining the discursive landscape of women's sexual desire and implications for sexual subjectivity : a dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2025-10-28) Tappin, Jessica
    Sexual desire and pleasure can be an “awkward” subject to bring up in conversation, many choosing to ignore it completely, or relegate it to the private realm. Yet, our media landscape is filled with various representation of sex that fundamentally shape the way we can think about, speak about, and enact expressions of sexual desire. A substantial corpus of feminist research suggests that discursive representations of sexual desire are highly gendered and heteronormative. These researchers have mapped cultural and social constructions of women’s sexual desire, tracing its portrayal as, for example, absent, relational, and aligned with postfeminist discourses of sexual agency. Previous scholarship has considered how these discourses are circulated within talk, and through mainstream media. A research gap remains in considering alternative feminist media, and psychological literature as sites that circulate discourses of sexual desire. The central aim of this thesis is to determine how women’s sexual desire is constructed across three sites of discourse circulation: (a) mainstream media, (b) alternative media, and (c) psychological literature, how prevalent discourses are supported, transformed, and resisted, as well as the implications for women’s sexual subjectivity and sexual agency. Foucauldian-informed discourse analysis was conducted with each set of textual data collected from those sites. Specifically, 75 advice columns or articles from mainstream media websites, 55 articles from alternative feminist publications, and 12 published articles from psychological and therapeutic journals. Key findings from these analyses indicate that (i) an essentialist biological discourse of desire is prevalent, shaping women’s sexual subjectivity in relation to men, (ii) many discourses and sexual subjectivities on offer within the texts are highly heteronormative and restrict agency outside of a narrow prescription of appropriate desire, (iii) a neoliberal incitement for women to reflect on and work on themselves in various ways underscored much of the data, and (iiii) alternative media texts provided opportunities for resistance of heterosexual norms, along with a broadening understanding of what desire is and can be for women.
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    What counts as consent? : sexuality and ethical deliberation in residential aged care : final project report 19 November 2020
    (Massey University, 2020) Henrickson, Mark; Schouten, Vanessa; Cook, Catherine; McDonald, Sandra; Atefi, Narges (Nilo)
    This report is intended as a summary of the three-year Royal Society Marsden Fund-funded project “What counts as consent: Sexuality and ethical deliberation in residential aged care” (MAU-1723). The project was funded for the period March 2018 to February 2021. The aim of the project is to interrogate and inform conceptualisations of consent in the domain of sexuality and intimacy in residential aged care. The project completed and exceeded all recruitment and participation goals. While there is a general consensus that sexuality is an intrinsic part of human identity, intimacy and sexuality in aged care remain misunderstood and contested issues. This is particularly so in respect of older persons living with dementia. Gender and sexually diverse communities constitute a significant invisible and invisibilised minority in residential aged care (RAC), and that invisibility means their intimacy needs remain largely unknown and unacknowledged. There are cultural issues in aged care unique to New Zealand: for instance, while 85 percent of residential aged care facility (RACF) residents identify as European and an estimated 5.5 percent are Mäori, 44 percent of staff identify as other than European, including 10 percent who identify as Mäori, and 10 percent Pasifika. The dominant position in the theoretical literature on the ethics of sex and intimacy is that consent is of fundamental importance. Consent has dominated not just the theoretical discourse but also public and legal discourses about the ethics of sex and therefore carers and staff make decisions based on the management of institutional risk rather than the wellbeing of the resident. Vulnerabilisation of older persons in order to protect them, however well-intended, effectively robs them of possibilities to exercise self-governance, depersonalises them, and increases their social isolation. How sexual consent in particular is conceptualised has significant ethical implications for the growing number of elders in Aotearoa New Zealand who are living with degrees of cognitive decline. The specific contribution of this project is to interpret how aged care stakeholders (residents, families, and staff) make sense of consent, to contribute substantively to ethical theory around consent, sexuality, and intimacy, and to inform practice and policy in aged care environments. The project interrogates and intends to inform conceptualisations of consent in the domain of sexuality and intimacy in residential aged care. Our goals were: (1) to analyse how people are making decisions in practice about sex and intimacy in aged care; and (2) to use this information to inform the literature on ethical theory and discourses on consent and wellbeing.
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    Resource allocations of Ephestia kuehniella Zeller (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in response to socio-sexual environment during immature and adult stages : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Entomology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Liu, Junyan
    Animals adjust their investment in different life history traits according to their surroundings to maximise their fitness. Using a polygamous insect, the Mediterranean flour moth Ephestia kuehniella Zeller, which produces fertile eupyrene and infertile apyrene sperm, I investigated resource allocation strategies employed by males in response to socio-sexual cues during the adult and juvenile stages. I demonstrate that adult males raised their lifetime production and ejaculation of both eupyrenes and apyrenes after detecting either acoustic or chemical cues from adult rivals with combined cues strengthening such response, and that rival-experienced males could remember the sperm competition risk for most of their reproductive life. I manipulated juvenile socio-sexual settings and then examined their sperm production and ejaculation as well as survival, body and testis size, and mating behaviour. I provided the first evidence that juvenile social cues from conspecific larvae, pupae or adults had lasting impacts on lifetime sperm production and allocation. Adults from group-reared larvae, regardless of sex ratio, had smaller testes but produced more eupyrenes at emergence than from singly reared ones, and that body size and apyrene numbers remained the same across treatments. Male pupae had similar testis size but increased production of both eupyrenes and apyrenes at emergence in response to cues from conspecific pupae irrespective of sex. Late instar male larvae were able to detect cues from adult rivals and subsequently produced more sperm of both types at emergence, but adult cues had no effect on body and testis size. Juvenile socio-sexual environment had significant effects on sperm production and ejaculation during adult stage. My study indicates that after their late instar larvae were exposed to juvenile or adult rivals, adults produced and ejaculated more eupyrenes and apyrenes in their lifetime and had shorter mating latency. However, rival exposure had no effect on males’ mating frequency and longevity. Knowledge generated here enhances our understanding of how males of a polygamous insect calibrate their resource investment in response to dynamic social environment.
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    ‘Porn literacy’ as pedagogy? : key stakeholder perspectives on understanding and responding to young people's engagement with internet pornography : a dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Healy-Cullen, Siobhán
    Youth encounters with Internet pornography (IP) have led to global concern regarding the healthy sexual socialisation of youth. A growing body of critical research recognises young people as agentic political actors in their sexual socialisation with legitimate knowledge of their own experiences, and seeks to understand their perspectives alongside those of influential adults in their lives. Grounded in social constructionist thinking, my research extends this emerging body of knowledge. I investigate how key stakeholders (16-18-year-olds, caregivers, and educators) account for and discursively construct youth engagement with IP, and explore their perspectives on porn literacy education. The central premise of this scholarship is to determine how such knowledge might translate positively for young people through sexuality education that recognises their lived realities. Key stakeholders were recruited from nine schools across the North Island of Aotearoa, New Zealand. A mixed-methods design was employed over sequential phases, comprising an online survey (N = 484), a Q-sort (N = 30), and semi-structured interviews (N = 24). Descriptive statistical analyses of the survey data provided a preliminary understanding of youth engagement with IP; a specialised software programme assisted with factor analysis for the Q-methodological study investigating perspectives towards porn literacy education; and interview data were analysed by means of a critical thematic analysis, drawing on a feminist discursive approach to sexual scripting theory. Key research findings are presented across four research articles and indicate that; (i) (gendered) youth engagement with IP is commonplace, and there are varied understandings between stakeholder groups and across genders as to why and how these encounters occur, (ii) youth take up agentic positions that suggest they are active, legitimate sexual citizens, and adults generally harbour concerns about recognising youth in this way, and (iii) the construction of childhood innocence dubiously positions youth as uncritical, ‘at risk’ viewers of IP. Accordingly, protectionist adult intervention is justified and conceptualised in accordance with this construction of youth. My research highlights dominant and alternative constructions about youth sexuality, and describes the synergies and discrepancies across key stakeholder perspectives about youth engagement with IP. Importantly, my findings suggest some youth engage with IP in a more nuanced manner than typically assumed. Through gaining a comprehensive understanding of stakeholders' perspectives, the findings of my research expand scholarly knowledge by providing practical inquiry into the potential of porn literacy as pedagogy.
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    The sexual stories of adults who have lived in out-of-home care as young people : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Vague, Tiffany Melinda
    Young people who are in out-of-home care occupy a space in which what is public and what is intimate intersect. Families, sexuality and reproduction are interconnected and subjected to implicit and explicit government regulation. In contemporary liberal societies, the emphasis on parents caring for their children leads to discourses that call into question the worth of children who are not looked after by their parents. In 17th century Europe, these beliefs were associated with moralism; in contemporary New Zealand, these beliefs are associated with neoliberalism. Sexual stories are “simply the narratives of the intimate life, focussed especially around the erotic, the gendered and the relational” Plummer (1995, p. 6). Utilising a narrative methodology, this research involved a series of interviews with ten adults who had spent time in out-of-home care as young people to explore the sexual stories of those who have been in out-of-home care to consider three research questions: firstly, how the public and the intimate converge at the intersection between sexuality and the provision of out-of-home care, secondly, the intersection between experiences of out-of-home care, sexual and romantic relationships, and lastly the meaning that adults who have been in out-of-home care have made of their lives. The responses to these questions were underpinned by the theory of meaning making, which describes “a sophisticated understanding of the relationship between the psychological and the social, between the past and the present, and between emotion and thought” (Kegan, 1982, p. 15). Participants were aware of being positioned as existing outside of dominant social discourses and being perceived as less worthy because they had been in out-of-home care. The stigma associated with being in out-of-home care intersected with sexual stigma that they experienced. Participants actively sought power, agency and inclusion and imagined that if they were to have socially acceptable relationships with socially acceptable partners, they would experience a sense of social inclusion that they had not experienced before. Relationships were made more challenging by the fact that participants had to discover how to have a healthy relationship when they had seen few examples of these in their own lives. Making meaning was more challenging for adult participants who have been in out-of-home care as young people, as not only did they have very complex lives and relationships of which to make meaning, they often lacked relationships with key family members to help them make this meaning. Participants who had made meaning of their experiences in out-of-home care before entering a relationship expressed more satisfaction within their relationships than those who had not made meaning. This research calls into question the neoliberal foundations on which the New Zealand child protection system is predicated but acknowledges that in the immediate future young people will come into out-of-home care. Thus, based on the findings of this research this thesis makes several recommendations to improve that system. The first is a system that promotes better connection between young people in out-of-home care and their caregivers and social workers. The second recommendation is the prioritisation of life-story work with young people in out-of-home care. Both deeper connections and more opportunities for young people in out-of-home care to make meaning of the lives will provide a foundation in which social workers and caregivers are able to engage in meaningful sex and relationship education with the young people that they care for. These changes, as with any development of policy and practice should be informed by the voices of those who are in, or who have been in, out-of-home care.
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    Sexual violence and secondary prevention : an exploration of opportunities and barriers to implementing a secondary prevention approach to harmful sexual behaviour in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Hutton, Heath
    Sexual violence is a highly prevalent issue that has wide-ranging social and economic impacts. Research suggests that approximately one in three women and one in seven men experience sexual victimisation during their lifetime. Victimisation is related to various lifelong impacts on physical and mental health. Research has shown that children and youth are responsible for a significant proportion of harmful sexual behaviour, including approximately 50% of all offences against children. With an increasing focus on the public health approach to the prevention of sexual violence, it is timely to explore the opportunities that secondary prevention presents. This thesis interviewed eight clinicians about their views on implementing secondary targeted prevention approaches in New Zealand. Thematic analysis identified two main themes in their responses, comprehensiveness and early intervention. These are discussed in relation to what clinicians thought was needed in New Zealand, and what barriers and opportunities existed to the realisation of this approach. This thesis provides an overview of the key issues that need to be considered by policy makers in the development of new prevention strategies and initiatives in the area of sexual violence. It highlights the various socio-cultural factors that will need to be adequately addressed by any approach that hopes to meet the diverse, and often conflicting, needs of individuals, families, and communities.
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    "Coming ready or not" : women's accounts of negotiating intersubjectivity within heterosex : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Moore, Candice
    This research examined the discourses that women rely on when talking about heterosexual sex and how they position both themselves and their sexual partners. These positions are produced through dominant sexual discourses that function to maintain and reproduce a sexual double standard for women, and to reinforce existing patriarchal power structures. However, these subject/object positions also draw on multiple intersecting discourses. This research examines women’s attempts at negotiating space within sexual encounters to enable the opening of spaces for resistance and for challenging the normative and oppressive discourses that produce them. Analysis of conversational interviews with eight women was conducted to interrogate the dominant discourses involved in the construction, maintenance and change of meaning within normative discourse over time. I identified where these discourses were integrated or worked in tandem to produce sexual subjectivities and areas of contradiction or inconsistences which were accounted for as the women negotiated meaning. I explored points of resistance and repositioning within each discourse. A feminist poststructuralist epistemology was utilised with a focus on social power relations to enable the exploration of the patriarchal power structures that regulates women’s subjectivity and the social function of the sexual double standard and heteronormativity in maintaining patriarchal dominance and the social status quo. It also enabled examination of the resistances exercised by the women towards the sexual double standard, the coital imperative and the absence of desire. Analysis included examination of the ways in which the women located themselves and their partners in relation to sexual encounters and orgasm. Key findings were; that women’s sexuality is still represented as a response to men’s sexuality with a clear double standard still in play; that sex for most of the women was very important to the overall relationship; that orgasm was a choice and faking had its uses; that pleasure did not mean orgasm; that having sex with multiple partners could enable pleasurable encounters; that sexual encounters did not necessarily involve penetration; and that women have very clear desires. My analysis suggests that regardless of social movements towards acknowledging women’s sexuality, disciplinary power continues to regulate women’s sexual encounters and an acknowledgment of women’s sexual desire remains absent within the norms of heterosexuality. Without articulated desires, women struggle with burdens of masculine imposed sexuality, negative social sanctions and negative or unwanted sexual experiences. This research highlights the importance of talking openly about women’s desire and to open up a space within sexual education for pleasure and relationship talk and within everyday social discussions that enables both a language and position from which women may assert their own independent desires. The points of resistance identified within women’s talk along with the position of future focused desiring women may enable new counter narratives and therefore more pleasurable sexual experiences for women to occur.
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    "It's embarrassing that my own body betrays me" : a critical thematic analysis of young women's accounts of painful sexual intercourse with men : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology (Endorsement in Health Psychology) at Massey University, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Lavò, Belinda Rosella
    Recurrent pain during sexual intercourse is a prevalent yet stigmatised health issue that impacts almost a fifth of young women who have sex with men. Despite its significant effects on subjectivity construction, the majority of research on chronic coital pain has focused on causation and treatment from a medical perspective. Psychological studies that have examined women’s experiences of painful sexual intercourse have largely ignored young women as a particularly vulnerable group, only including those who have been given a medical diagnosis and who identify as heterosexual. Additionally, the theoretical underpinnings of prior research regularly places the issue of coital pain at the level of the woman, with little consideration of the cultural and social environment within which she exists. In the current study, I was interested in exploring how heteronormative ideals regarding sexuality and gender in Aotearoa New Zealand shape how young women with chronic coital pain understand themselves and their experiences, along with the subsequent possibilities available to them. I adopted the theoretical framework of feminist poststructuralism to make visible the particular ways of being and behaving that gender discourses allow and inhibit. My study used an anonymous online qualitative survey to gather data from 108 Aotearoa New Zealand women between the ages of 18 and 30 who regularly experience pain during penetrative sex with men. I undertook a constructionist thematic analysis, taking a deductive and critical approach to the interpretation of data, and applied the main principles of feminist poststructuralism to make sense of the themes generated. From my analysis, I identified a key theoretical concept known as the coital imperative. Six main themes were constructed from my data – 4 that supported the coital imperative and 2 that resisted it. These included: (1) the ‘hotblooded male’; (2) ‘good girls’ don’t rock the boat; (3) the neoliberal postfeminist woman; (4) failed femininity; (5) resisting the coital imperative; and (6) alternative gender constructions in heterosexual relations. The findings of my study suggest that women readily draw on heteronormative ideals of gender and sexuality when constructing their subjectivities and frequently prioritise the needs of their male partners ahead of their own experience of pleasure. However, the visible adoption of egalitarian/feminist discourse that resists the coital imperative enables women to renegotiate conceptualisations of sex, allowing for equal pleasure and emotional satisfaction. As such, I argue that by unpacking the taken-for-granted assumptions of normative ideals, women are able to construct subjectivities based on adequacy and selfworth.
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    Women's encounters with pornographic texts: encoding/decoding and resistance: a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Media Studies, Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Adamson, Tracey Jennifer
    The aim of the present study was to undertake audience research (from within the cultural studies paradigm) into ways that women watch pornography. Given that the dominant position within feminism towards pornography has been anti-pornography pro-censorship, the debate surrounding pornography within feminism has concentrated on harm-based analysis. My research is an attempt to address this imbalance, focusing instead on the possibilities of pleasure in pornographic imagery, and by asking specifically about issues that inhibit and generate pleasure in sexual imagery. Using Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model, the present study asked four groups of 3 to 4 women to respond to specific examples of hard-core male identified and women-identified pornographic images. Following viewing the clips each group entered into focus-group discussion concerning the way the images represented women, the degrees of identification with the women on-screen, and the possibility of pleasure in erotic imagery. Wider cultural considerations regarding cultural expectations and definitions of pornography and erotica were also discussed. Textual analysis of the clips revealed that pornography is principally organised according to gender difference that privileges male sexuality over female sexuality. Women's responses to this 'preferred encoding' were organised according to whether the women agreed that pornography failed to offer pleasure for them as viewers, negotiated parts of pornography as pleasureable, or opposed the idea that pornography could not offer pleasure for women. Whereas women are expected to abhor pornography, a view perpetuated by the harm-driven censorship campaigning of anti-pornography theorists, most of the women in this study negotiated pleasure in aspects of pornographic/erotic imagery. I found that although the text themselves do subordinate women's sexuality, women can and do take active pleasure in pornography. It was the textual construction of pornography that was found to be the most offensive aspect of pornography, as it is a construction of sexuality that often fails to represent women's pleasure and misrepresents women's sexuality.