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    "It's complicated" : the lived experience of female sexual desire : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Health Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Ferris, Kate
    ‘What is sexual desire and how do women experience it?’ is the central question of this hermeneutic phenomenological study. The goal was to challenge the pathologisation of women’s sexual desire by highlighting its complexity, situatedness and temporality. In-depth interviews and autobiographical art data elicited in partnership with seven participants were interpreted and analysed using a life course perspective to highlight how both positive and negative experiences, as well as the acceptance or resistance of cultural scripts and double standards, contribute over time to a woman’s sense of her own access to sexual desire, agency around sexual decision-making, and entitlement to sexual pleasure. In line with the study’s meta-theoretical principles, the researcher completed a parallel reflexive writing and art practice to deepen her engagement with participant experience. In analysing all data, it became evident that women’s sexual desire, develops through a complex multistage process over the lifetime. Participants all reflected MacNeil and Byers’ (2005) finding that the more comfortable and agentic a woman feels in expressing her sexuality and communicating her desires, the greater her feelings for intimacy and the higher likelihood that she will derive satisfaction in sex.
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    A sexual masquerade : the performance of desire and femininity in a Fifty Shades of Grey era : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Dowling, Chelsea Louise
    Within a neoliberal Western society, sex is more visible than ever, infiltrating our digital world, media, popular culture and talk. As women are assumed to have achieved sexual ‘liberation’ and ‘equality’, there has been a shift in disciplined femininity, with women now expected to maintain positions of hypersexuality in an effort to flaunt their newfound ‘empowerment’. Research literature suggests that women’s efforts in ‘doing’ or fulfilling their sexual desires remain confined by gendered performativity, being more about looking desirable or performing desire over feeling it. This research aimed to explore how young women, sex therapists and women seeking sex therapy talk about desire. Nine young women (aged 21-25), five sex therapists (trained through Sex Therapy New Zealand) and two women seeking sex therapy engaged in semi-structured interviews. A feminist discourse analysis was applied to participants’ talk, which attended to how the women and sex therapists both reproduced and resisted a heteronormative sexual script and whether women’s sexual empowerment enabled sexually desiring subjectivities. While there were points of resistance, sex was continually reconstituted through hegemonic discourses, with women’s desire remaining a gendered performance that served men’s desires and pleasures. Any assertions of women’s desire were less about their own felt experience and more about being the ‘right kind of woman’, with women who ‘failed’ femininity positioned through ‘deficit’ or ‘disorder’. Therefore, while neoliberal ideologies emphasise ‘liberation’ and ‘agency’, these appear to be a façade, instead bringing women’s bodies and sexual desire under further regulation and oppression. While the sex therapists continually attempted to attend to gendered social power relations, they too were limited through the knowledge and practices of psy-discourse that uphold a pervasive heteronormative sexual script. This research provides an understanding of the constraints placed upon the women’s sexual bodies through unequal social power relations that regulate their expressions of desire or pleasure. It therefore opens a space to reflect on these ongoing issues and emphasises the importance of practitioners attending to heteronormativity and gender social power relations as an ethical response to women’s potential as sexually desiring subjects.
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    Sexual health knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of Sāmoan youth in Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Veukiso-Ulugia, Analosa
    Sex and sexuality in many cultures are sensitive topics. For many Pacific communities where sex is often regarded as tapu (sacred), cultural and religious values largely frame how sexuality and pregnancy are understood. For many Sāmoans, sex is regarded as a taboo subject. While sexual activity may be a pleasurable experience, its consequences can be life-altering. In New Zealand, the sexual health status of teenagers, particularly Pacific young people, is concerning. Compared with other countries, the rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unintended teenage pregnancies and suboptimal levels of contraceptive use in New Zealand are high. From a public health perspective, these issues pose serious social, economic and health risks. For teenagers, early sexual involvement and pregnancy can drastically affect their social, educational and emotional development and life chances. In an attempt to understand and address these sexual health issues, public policy agents seek appropriate information that can assist them in designing responsive interventions. This mixed methods study explores the factors that influence the sexual health knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of Sāmoan secondary school students in Aotearoa New Zealand. An analysis of information from 535 Sāmoan students that participated in the Youth ‘07 health survey was undertaken. Individual interviews with eight key informants, and eight focus groups comprised of 55 Auckland Sāmoan secondary school students were carried out. This study presents a comprehensive picture of the sexual health patterns and issues unique to Sāmoan youth living in Aotearoa New Zealand. Three broad factors - the individual, family and wider environment - influence the sexual health knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of Sāmoan youth. This study proposes that to address sexual health issues for Sāmoan communities requires an understanding of three essential concepts: ‘Context’, ‘Communication’ and ‘Co-ordination’. The significance of this research and its findings extend to a range of audiences including Sāmoan young people, families, schools, health and social service providers and policy agents.
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    "Turn the lights down low" : women's experiences of intimacy after childbirth : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) Urquhart, Teresa Heidi
    Women navigate many social changes when they become mothers, often including considerable changes to intimate and sexual relationships. While maternal health care attends to various physical and emotional changes for women, it has emerged that many women experience dissatisfaction in their intimate relationships after birth. A literature review revealed that while many studies had investigated the sexual experiences of women postpartum, none had looked at the effect of dominant discourses within Western popular culture. This research aimed to explore how women make sense of changes to their intimate relationships following childbirth. Norms and assumptions about the effects of childbirth on women’s bodies and the implications of change to intimate relationships were examined. Six women between the ages of 25-45 who had given birth to a child in the last 10 years were interviewed in a conversational style about their experiences. A feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis was applied, attending to the dominant discourses and gendered power relations that enabled and limited positions for women. The analysis showed that normative discourse shaped not only how women experienced their bodies and intimate relationships, but every aspect of their lives including pregnancy, labour, mothering, unpaid and paid work. Furthermore, women were positioned through discourse and a gender binary as responsible for the household and childcare, as well as responsible for regulating and managing the intimate relationship. Ultimately the overriding experience of women in this research was that body changes and changes in the sexual relationship (overwhelmingly one of dissatisfaction) postpartum resulted in feelings of responsibility and guilt on the women’s behalf for failing the expectations of femininity and the obligations of neoliberalism. Instances of resistance and challenge to the dominant discourses were expressed, as were alternative discourses. This research provides an understanding of the effects of dominant discourses and the power relations implicit in them on women’s lived realities. This piece of research provides knowledge around contextual factors impacting on postpartum sexual health and postpartum body image. It may also provide the platform from which both professionals and women can discuss female bodies, including genitalia, and female sexuality in less 'troublesome' ways.
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    "For her eyes only" : male strippers, women's pleasures, and feminist politics : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1997) Hann, Sheryl Leigh
    This thesis explores women's experiences of male strip shows (specifically, the pleasures they gain from these) utilising a post-modern feminist perspective which emerges from a critique of some anti-pornography and radical lesbian feminist orthodoxies. This perspective includes a feminist 'politics of pleasure', in which popular pleasures are centralised as a site of political importance. Pleasures help organise women's inscription into dominant cultures, but also are sites where women's agency and resistance to norms of femininity and heterosexuality can be identified. Semi-structured interviews with eight young women who attend male strip shows (as well as many informal conversations and observations) are used to understand the various types of pleasures available. These are discussed in relation to the social and cultural context of 1990s Aotearoa/New Zealand and feminist politics. The conclusions of this research are that male strip shows can provide some safe spaces (physical and cultural) for women to explore their pleasures, sexualities, desires and fantasises, and that exploring these pleasures will have some positive implications for many women. That is, it can help empower them in some way: by experiencing what a utopian situation of 'freedom from personal and social constraints' would feel like; by having some control over the spaces and terms of their entertainments; by being active desiring agents without being objects to be looked at; by recognising the support of other women; and by denaturalising women's association with passivity, deference and 'innocence'. This research also challenges commonly-accepted feminist understandings of popular culture, sexually-explicit material, women's pleasures and audiences arguing for a recognition of the diversity and creativity of women.
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    Good days and bad days : a grounded theory study of disabled women's sexuality : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Nursing at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Sherrard, Susan Mary
    Disabled women have been considered asexual for too long. Disabled women have experienced prejudice and oppression as a result of living within a social environment that expects its members to conform to a socially defined normality. Historically, disabled people have been considered the tragic victims. This has been acknowledged as the 'medical model' approach to disability. That is, that an individual is disabled, and it is the responsibility of the health professionals to cure or care for them. By contrast, disabled people have developed the 'social model' of disability. This model recognises that society disables people with impairments by excluding them. Barriers to inclusion are both environmental and attitudinal. Nurses and other health professionals have been educated in the medical model of understanding disability. The results have been that disabled women have not been treated appropriately. The aim of this thesis was to uncover how disabled women understand and experience their sexuality. As a disabled researcher, I am in a unique position to undertake this study. Very little has been researched about disabled women by disabled women. We have tended to be studied by nondisabled health professionals. This study includes information provided by nine disabled women, literature written by disabled women, and resources from a broad academic perspective. The methodology used to guide this research is grounded theory as described by Glaser (1992). The process included semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed and then coded. The constant comparison method was used to discover six categories. By using the comparison method, the basic social process emerged from the data. The basic social process or pattern of behaviour was called good days and bad days. Simply, disabled women feel more sexual on good days as compared to bad days. Society and nurses have an impact on disabled women's experience of having good or bad days. If nurses are to make a positive contribution they need to understand disability from a social model perspective so that they can work with disabled women in partnerships. Change is needed in society to value us. Disabled women need to speak out and support each other in promoting social change. Disabled women are sexual beings and we can be proud to be all that we are.
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    Effective intimacy? : Evaluating intimacy focused therapy for 'out-of-control' sexual behaviour : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Philosophy at Massey University, Manawatu campus, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2015) Faisandier, Karen Marie
    Difficulties with intimacy are considered to be important to the development and maintenance of ‘out of control’ sexual behaviours (OCSB) yet the small body of research into OCSB therapies has not included an intimacy-based therapy approach (Reid & Woolley, 2006). Specialist service Sex Therapy New Zealand (STNZ) uses such an approach which was formalised by the researcher and termed ‘Intimacy Focused Therapy’ (IFT) for the purposes of being evaluated in the current study. A single-case design with non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants was used with 12 volunteer men with OCSB who completed up to 12 sessions of IFT with STNZ therapists. Participants rated their sexual behaviour, negative consequences of sex, adult attachment, and fear of intimacy at baseline, post-therapy, and over a three-month follow-up phase. Weekly self-report data was collected on the duration and frequency of sexual activity as well as associated distress. Compared to baseline, there were improvements in participants’ control over their sexual behaviour, reductions in negative consequences experienced, as well as reduced distress regarding sexual behaviour post-treatment. Changes in fear of intimacy and attachment were less obvious, although dismissing and preoccupied attachment each slightly reduced or increased for several participants. Secure and fearful attachment showed limited change in either direction. Weekly sexual behaviour did not follow a clear pattern of change, although some behaviour’s reduced for some participants over therapy while others stayed the same or increased. Follow-up data showed that changes at the end of therapy were largely maintained or continued over three months post-therapy. These individual outcomes support the potential effectiveness of IFT as a treatment for OCSB, but do not support the notion that improvements to fear of intimacy or attachment are affected by this approach. Future research that examines IFT over a longer duration of time, utilising measures that capture the mechanisms that effect change in this therapy approach, are recommended to establish the role of intimacy and attachment in therapy for OCSB.
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    An appraisal of sex-role development in New Zealand boys: A dissertation presented to the Faculty of Social Science, Massey University, New Zealand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy
    (Massey University, 1968) Houston, Hugh Stewart
    A growing literature attests to the importance of sex-role identification as a crucial component in the structuring of personality. Much has been written, too, concerning the significance of interpersonal relationships in the development of sex-role. Surprisingly, however, little has been done to examine the process of the acquisition of a sex-role identity in either males or females. Past research has been heavily committed to the study of parent effects on children's sex-role development at a variety of ages. The parent-affects-child paradigm is viewed, for present purposes, as conceptually threadbare, for within the numerous approaches which it has embraced, the influence - even the existence - of any model other than the parent has been consistently ignored. The study is devoted to some aspects of sex-role development in a sample of New Zealand boys of primary school age i.e. between ages five and twelve. It breaks with the conventional; for it reports upon sex-role identification (a) in a familial context and (b) at three different age-levels. The work is presented in three parts. Part A deals with theoretical considerations which are relevant to the present study. Prior to an examination of sex-role identification, problems which arise from the diverse uses to which the term 'identification' is put are discussed. There is good reason for this ordering: identification is conceptualised as generic, sex-role identification as one of its derivatives. Although it is the derivative which is of primary concern in this study, discussion of the overarching concept cannot be precluded.
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    A critical discourse analysis of herbal sexual medicine websites marketing to women : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2011) Sutton, Shane
    An area attracting increased attention from the ‘profit driven’ commercial drug industry is the potentially lucrative medication market for female sexual problems. In the absence of an approved pharmaceutical drug, numerous internet based herbal sexual medicine (HSM) companies are targeting this market. Very little has been known about the marketing messages that HSM companies are sending out to women via the internet. This research delivered a critical analysis of the marketing messages of five prominent internet based HSM companies: Zestra; Femvigor; Hersolution; Vigorelle, and; Provestra. The analysis revealed three main discursive themes forming the basis of the marketing strategy. In the first theme, the HSM websites presented a medicalised view of women’s sexuality and sexual problems, this framing implicated all women as being sexually dysfunctional and requiring biologically based sexual medication. In the second theme, stereotypical gender constructions were used in the HSM websites to portray women’s sexuality as inadequate compared to men’s, whilst emphasising the importance of sex for men and the necessity for women to fulfil men’s sexual needs in order to maintain intimate relationships. This again led to the conclusion that women needed to consume sexual medication. In the third theme, the HSM websites capitalised on the current western societal emphasis placed on the importance of sex for health. In conjunction with the portrayal of the importance of sex was a call for women to act responsibly concerning their health. Being ‘responsible’ for sexual health, was portrayed in the HSM websites as consuming sexual medicine. The critical analysis of the HSM websites ultimately revealed that the marketers of HSMs had researched and identified potential issues that could make women anxious about their sexual problems. They appeared to emphasise these problematic issues in an attempt to increase a women’s anxiety about her sexual concerns, with the aim of manipulating women into purchasing sexual medication. These findings add considerable evidence to suggest that HSM companies are involved in the disease-mongering of female sexual problems.