Sites of excess: The spatial politics of touch for drag queens in Aotearoa New Zealand

This paper explores the role of touch for drag queens. I examine the ways in which touch – being touched, touching others, and feelings associated with touch – is an important component of sexualised subjectivities and places. The first part of the paper reviews the recent literature called ‘haptic geographies’. I highlight why sexualised touch has, for the most part, been absent from this literature before bringing together the limited references made to touch, feelings, sexuality and place. In the second part of the paper I draw on various media, my involvement as a member of the queer community group Hamilton Pride Incorporated and in-depth interviews to examine the role of touch and feelings associated with touch for drag queens in Aotearoa New Zealand. I pay attention to the complex politics and performances of drag queens in order to highlight the co-construction of haptic geographies and sexualised subjectivities. I argue that drag queens’ bodies and spaces may be understood as sites of excess where the pleasures and pains of touch may form and break bodily and spatial boundaries associated with hetero/homo and masculine/feminine subjectivities. A focus on drag queens and touch queers our understandings of embodiment and haptic geographies further.     

DEMOGRAPHIC, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND RELATIONSHIP FACTORS IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DURING PREGNANCY IN A SAMPLE OF LOW-INCOME WOMEN OF COLOR

Research suggests that a significant number of women first experience domestic violence during pregnancy. The current study examines correlates of violence during pregnancy, first by comparing women who did and did not report violence, and second examining three subgroups of women who reported violence (violence initiated, violence persisted, violence ceased). Results indicated that controlling for demographics, more frequent violence was associated with less support and satisfaction with support from the baby's father, more negative interactions with the baby's father, and more verbal aggression in their relationships than those who did not report violence. Differences among subgroups of women reporting violence emerged only for the relationship variables. Implications for detecting violence in clinical settings are discussed.     

Self-efficacy and compliance with benzodiazepine taper in older adults with chronic insomnia.

Better understanding of compliance with BZD taper is warranted. Compliance with a taper program and perceived self-efficacy (SE) in being able to comply with hypnotic reduction goals was monitored weekly in 52 older adults (mean age: 63.0 years) with chronic insomnia (average duration: 21.9 years) who underwent a 10-week physician-supervised medication tapering. One group received cognitive- behavior therapy for insomnia during discontinuation, whereas the other did not. Compliant patients showed higher SE ratings at Weeks 6, 8, 9, and 10. Medication-free patients at the end of the treatment also reported higher mean SE ratings at those 4 weeks. Differences remained significant when withdrawal symptoms and sleep efficiency were controlled for. These results have important clinical implications because SE may indicate key time points when patients are experiencing more difficulty during discontinuation.     

DERIVED IDENTITY AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY IN WOMEN DIFFERING IN MARITAL AND EMPLOYMENT STATUS

Derived identity, defined as a sense of self that is overly influenced by and dependent upon relationships with significant others, and depressive symptomatology, measured by the CES-D scale, were assessed in a sample of 564 adult women classified into one of six marital-employment status groups: married professional, single professional, married nonprofessional, single nonprofessional, married nonemployed, and single nonemployed. Married women were found to report more derived identity than single women and when age effects were controlled, married women also had higher CES-D scores than single women. Employment status results in aggregate indicated that for women of equal education: (1) employment outside the home, whether it be professional or non-professional, is related to a more autonomous sense of self than nonemployment and (2) employment outside the home is not associated with lower CES-D scores than nonemployment. Derived identity and depression were also found to be significantly correlated within the total sample and within each marital-employment status group.