Revisiting Sexualities and Health: Contributions from Sociological Insights
Special Issue of Health Sociology Review
Volume 15 Issue 3 August 2006
96 pages ISBN 978-0-9757422-5-9
Editors:
Victor Minichiello
University of New England, NSW, Australia
David Plummer
University of the West Indies, Trinidad
Sexual health involves complex and interdependent relationships between biology, psychology and socio-historical-cultural factors. Late modernity has witnessed a growing critique of discourses which frame sex as deviance, or view sexuality and identity as essential and normative rather than as multiple and diverse, or which treat sex as a public health problem.
Through understanding sexualities we can obtain a better understanding of individual and societal health, the diversity of sexualities and the importance of sexual expression on intimacy, relationships, identity, quality of life and health. This provides insights into the sexuality, experiences and rights of groups previously ignored or excluded.
Not surprisingly, the papers in the present edition also illustrate our contemporary pre-occupations. While not overtly about social boundaries, it is significant that in one edition we have a smorgasbord of social neuroses and transgressions: castration anxiety, drugs, underage sex, incest, sexual assault, sexual violence and the perennial problem of how to classify homoerotic praxis.
Papers in this special issue of Health Sociology Review extend this knowledge and offer insights on aspects of sexuality, identity and health across the life span, focusing on diverse populations, groups and sexualities - addressing experiences and rights of groups often ignored in public health policy.
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