| Title |
Negotiating Discourses of Shame, Secrecy, and Silence: Migrant and Refugee Women’s Experiences of Sexual Embodiment
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Archives of Sexual Behavior, January 2017
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s10508-016-0898-9 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Jane M. Ussher, Janette Perz, Christine Metusela, Alexandra J. Hawkey, Marina Morrow, Renu Narchal, Jane Estoesta |
| Abstract |
In Australia and Canada, the sexual health needs of migrant and refugee women have been of increasing concern, because of their underutilization of sexual health services and higher rate of sexual health problems. Previous research on migrant women's sexual health has focused on their higher risk of difficulties, or barriers to service use, rather than their construction or understanding of sexuality and sexual health, which may influence service use and outcomes. Further, few studies of migrant and refugee women pay attention to the overlapping role of culture, gender, class, and ethnicity in women's understanding of sexual health. This qualitative study used an intersectional framework to explore experiences and constructions of sexual embodiment among 169 migrant and refugee women recently resettled in Sydney, Australia and Vancouver, Canada, from Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Sri Lanka, India, and South America, utilizing a combination of individual interviews and focus groups. Across all of the cultural groups, participants described a discourse of shame, associated with silence and secrecy, as the dominant cultural and religious construction of women's sexual embodiment. This was evident in constructions of menarche and menstruation, the embodied experience that signifies the transformation of a girl into a sexual woman; constructions of sexuality, including sexual knowledge and communication, premarital virginity, sexual pain, desire, and consent; and absence of agency in fertility control and sexual health. Women were not passive in relation to a discourse of sexual shame; a number demonstrated active resistance and negotiation in order to achieve a degree of sexual agency, yet also maintain cultural and religious identity. Identifying migrant and refugee women's experiences and constructions of sexual embodiment are essential for understanding sexual subjectivity, and provision of culturally safe sexual health information in order to improve well-being and facilitate sexual agency. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 11 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 4 | 36% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 9% |
| Canada | 1 | 9% |
| Pakistan | 1 | 9% |
| Unknown | 4 | 36% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 9 | 82% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 2 | 18% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 429 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 429 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 63 | 15% |
| Student > Bachelor | 48 | 11% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 43 | 10% |
| Researcher | 31 | 7% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 30 | 7% |
| Other | 53 | 12% |
| Unknown | 161 | 38% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Social Sciences | 62 | 14% |
| Psychology | 48 | 11% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 47 | 11% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 45 | 10% |
| Arts and Humanities | 9 | 2% |
| Other | 44 | 10% |
| Unknown | 174 | 41% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 96. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 July 2023.
All research outputs
#410,983
of 24,323,943 outputs
Outputs from Archives of Sexual Behavior
#241
of 3,608 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#9,323
of 430,118 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Archives of Sexual Behavior
#7
of 47 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,323,943 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 47 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its contemporaries.