Queer pleasures: Some thoughts

Queer praxis is often conceptualized as a creative construction of alternative ways of being; a strategic practice of self‐(trans)formation. The practice of queer pleasures constitutes one such mode of possibility. Within this model, queer pleasures represent the threshold of a politics that promises a radical confrontation with inhibiting normalities. Yet by applying political priorities to pleasure, and by incessantly equating pleasure with the sexual, there is a risk of re‐establishing hierarchies and conventions, and, moreover, of reinforcing a notion of the subject as self‐transparent, autonomous and intentionally motivated. This paper explores some of the dimensions of pleasure that this politics tends to ignore—the trivial, quotidian, accidental, embarrassing, boring, insignificant, mediocre—and asks whether this overlooking is accidental or a structural inevitability. I will explore queer's investment in the politics of pleasure, and speculate about alternatives     

Book note

David Keys: Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World. New York, Ballentine Books, 1999     

Rural HIV: Brief interventions for felony probationers

HIV/AIDS in Southern rural America has been described as an epidemic. Furthermore, the HIV prevalence rate among criminal justice populations is higher than the general population in both rural and urban areas. One segment of the criminal justice population, felony probationers, has not been targeted for HIV/AIDS interventions and little is known about rural HIV risk behaviors. Probation is an appropriate setting for examining HIV interventions because rural participants can be easily identified and contacted. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to describe an HIV intervention for Southern rural probationers and to profile participants (N=800) on their demographics and risk behaviors by degree of criminality. Results suggest that HIV interventions are needed to target rural probationers, especially those with extensive arrest histories since they engage in high-risk behaviors, including illicit substance use and unprotected sex. This project is supported by grant #R01DA11580 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The opinions expressed are those of the authors.     

40‐Hz Square‐Wave Stimulation Requires Less Energy to Produce Muscle Contraction: Compared with the TASER® X26 Conducted Energy Weapon

Conducted energy weapons (CEWs) (including the Advanced TASER^® X26 model produced by TASER International, Inc.) incapacitate individuals by causing muscle contractions. In this study using anesthetized swine, the potential incapacitating effect of primarily monophasic, 19‐Hz voltage imposed by the commercial CEW was compared with the effect of voltages imposed by a laboratory device that created 40‐Hz square waves. Forces of muscle contraction were measured with the use of strain gauges. Stimulation with 40‐Hz square waves required less pulse energy than stimulation with the commercial CEW to produce similar muscle contraction. The square‐pulse stimulation, at the higher repetition rate, caused a more complete tetanus at a lower energy. Use of such a simple shape of waveform may be used to make future nonlethal weapon devices more efficient.     

Examining Dose–Response Relationships Between Childhood Victimization,Depression, Symptoms of Psychosis,and Substance Misuse for Incarcerated Women

The current study uses the dose–response model to examine the relationships between childhood victimization events and subsequent depression, symptoms of psychosis, and substance misuse in a sample of 230 randomly selected incarcerated women in the United States. Results on the frequency of victimization were mixed. In this sample, both frequency of physical abuse and frequency of sexual abuse significantly predicted current symptoms of psychosis, but only frequency of physical abuse significantly predicted substance misuse. Incarcerated women who experienced multivictimization were 5.7 times as likely to report depression, 4.2 times as likely to report current symptoms of psychosis, and 3.8 times as likely to meet criteria for a substance use disorder. Results indicate that adjusting prison-based interventions to address multivictimization may improve outcomes and reduce recidivism among this population.     

The Practice of Nonviolence in the Contemporary World: An Interview with Daniel Berrigan

Critical race theory provides a much‐needed framework for improving the study of race and racism's influence on psychological health and illness. Implicating the mundane and extraordinary, critical race theory explains how racism determines lifestyles and life chances. It also clarifies the individual and institutional nature of racism. Such clarification should be meaningful to sociologists of mental health, especially those interested in how race‐related inequality alters the distribution of psychological health and illness. Towards improving research linking race and racism with mental health, the present essay exposes five weaknesses in the sociology of mental health literature: (1) misspecification of perceived discrimination; (2) neglect of the psychological wages of Whiteness; (3) conflation of race and ethnicity; (4) assumption of mental health measurement invariance; and (5) disregard for narratives about how racism hurts mental health. These weaknesses and the strategies for overcoming them are uncovered by systematically applying select critical race theory tenets.     

Spike lee's do the right thing : Filmmaking in the American grain

Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing is one of the most important American films of the 20th century. On one level it raises questions about racial conflict in New York City during the 1980s but, on another, about the struggle to be human in America, specifically the requirements of a justice that takes into account the needs of all. In other words, the film is about the struggle each of us faces to recognize each other as a being of value and worth regardless of our state- and market-defined merits or deserts. The authors argue that Do the Right Thing is a film consistent with the true American character which reflects a desire to be not a power-wielding sovereign but a person connected to a community of human concern, one in which the needs of all are taken into account.