People with disabilities face barriers that limit their sexual lives. In Portugal, some individuals with physical impairments have shown interest in resorting to sexual assistance provided by trained professionals, according to the client’s preferences and needs. However, in Portugal, sex workers lacking any formal training represent the only way to access commercial sex services. Thus, this study analyzes the experiences of sex workers that provide services for disabled clients. The interviews of thirteen sex workers were analyzed using the thematic analysis method proposed by Braun and Clarke. The key findings show that men seek out sexual and emotional satisfaction from sex work. Additionally, specificities inherent to the lack of training and the relationships established tend to embarrass professionals. Finally, we conclude that training coupled with sexual education and popular awareness about gender differences in the pursuit of sex is fundamental to improve the sexual health of those who choose sex services as a way of sexual expression.
ResumoEngravidar e ter filhos/as é uma realidade existente para alguns homens trans* que resistem à construção da gravidez associada à mulher cisgénero. Contudo, as formas de discriminação, especialmente nos cuidados de saúde, resultam num evitamento destes serviços e repercutem-se na saúde individual da pessoa trans* e do/a bebé. Para lidar com a visibilidade da gravidez, é adotado um conjunto de estratégias, mas nenhuma protege realmente estas pessoas. Neste sentido, esta resenha teórica pretende refletir sobre a opressão perpetuada pela cultura cisnormativa que afeta homens trans* grávidos, alertando para a necessidade de pensar estas vivências e de criar condições que contemplem a diversidade e bem-estar de todas as pessoas.Palavras-chave: Homens trans* grávidos, direitos, reprodução, parentalidade. Abstract (De)Construction of Trans* Parenthood: Pregnant MenGetting pregnant and having children is a reality for some trans* men who resist the construction of pregnancy associated with cisgender women. However, forms of discrimination, especially in healthcare, result in the avoidance of these services and have an impact on individual health of the trans* person and the baby. To deal with the visibility of pregnancy, a set of strategies are adopted but none of them protects these people. In this sense, this theoretical review intends to reflect on the oppression perpetuated by the cisnormative culture that affects trans* pregnant men, alerting to the need of thinking about these experiences and creating conditions that contemplate the diversity and well-being of all people.
This article explores the concept of sexual fluidity and its applicability to men’s sexual experiences by approaching the surveillance and control of hegemonic masculinity. We carried out semi-structured interviews with 15 participants aged between 20 and 53 who state having experienced sexual fluidity. The analysis conveys how sexuality is a work in progress while highlighting the intersections of masculinities and sexualities in a heteronormative, mononormative, sexually rigid, and hegemonically masculine social context. The results indicate the potential flexibility, malleability, and changeability of all sexual identities, orientations, and experiences when disengaging from a heteronormative approach in sexual relations.
A human right paradigm has been challenging the biomedical perspectives that tend to be normalized in the Western context concerning the lives of trans people. The aim of this study is to understand how trans people in Portugal and Brazil perceive the (non-)recognition of their socio-cultural, economic and political rights. Specifically, the study intends to know in what extent these perceptions influence the processes of identity (de)construction. For this purpose, 35 semi-structured interviews were conducted with people self-identified as trans, transsexuals and transvestites in Brazil and Portugal. The narratives of the participants were analyzed according to the thematic analysis method and the following six main themes emerged: (i) Who are the rights for; (ii) Types of rights; (iii) Paradigm of distribution of rights; (iv) Local or global rights; (v) Non-recognition of the “human”; and, (vi) Transphobias (and cissexism). The results allowed the knowledge of rights and the non-recognition of the “human” which is the central organizer of the analysis. Among the main conclusions of this study, we emphasize the circumscription of rights to certain international, regional and/or national contexts; the existence of local instead of global rights, since they are influenced by regional and international law, but they depend on the legislation in force in each country; and the way human rights can also be understood as a platform of invisibility and exclusion of other people. Based on a commitment to social transformation, this article also contributes to rethinking the violence that is exercised on trans people as a continuum, whether through ‘normalizing devices' by medical contexts, family contexts, public space, or even through internalized transphobia. Social structures produce and sustain transphobias and, simultaneously, are responsible for fighting them by changing the paradigm about the conception of transsexualities.
Hegemonic masculinity constitutes a relevant tool for understanding the genderization processes prevailing in men's sexualities. Hence, we deployed this concept as a resource to analyse how sexual fluidity might apply to the sexuality of nonheterosexual men and how they experienced this. We carried out semi-structured interviews with 15 participants, ranging from 20 to 53 years old, who all reported having experienced sexual fluidity. This article presents experiences of sexual fluidity as a shifting identity amidst flexible sexual activities and concerns over normativity through personal and social reactions taking place in a heterostable social world. These results exhibit the negotiations of sexual fluidity with hegemonic masculinities, both reproduced and questioned.
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