This paper investigates some of the ways that emotional intimacy unfolds between male clients and... more This paper investigates some of the ways that emotional intimacy unfolds between male clients and male therapists in the therapy room and begins to conceptualize how both experience intimacy within the therapeutic relationship.
This paper seeks to conceptualize the DSM-5's diagnosis of female sexual interest/arousal disorde... more This paper seeks to conceptualize the DSM-5's diagnosis of female sexual interest/arousal disorder within the context of individuals struggling with an eating disorder, even long after the "height" of an eating disorder and a woman's re-establishment of healthy body weight. After exploring the intersection and relationship between eating disorders and sexuality/sexual functioning, the paper proposes a unique case study vignette, clinical assessment, and summary of treatment implications, strategies, and guidelines based on the relatively limited and young body of literature.
Since the invention of sexual addiction as a concept, researchers have demonstrated conflicting p... more Since the invention of sexual addiction as a concept, researchers have demonstrated conflicting perspectives upon its definitions, terminology, and legitimacy (Reay, Attwood, & Gooder, 2013; Briken, Habermann, Berner, & Hill, 2007; Gold & Heffner, 1998; Carnes, Green, Merlo, Polles, Carnes, & Gold, 2012). After reviewing such perspectives, this paper begins to deconstruct the ways narratives and discourses of sexuality influence those who support and oppose the existence of sexual addiction. In breaking down the sex-negative behavior-first pathology of the most recent proposed criteria for “Hypersexual Disorder” in the fifth edition of the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Kafka, 2010), this research reveals the need for an integrative sex-positive person-first model to treat problematic repetitive sexual behavior and bring these opposing groups together.
What makes a penis so sexual rather than an arm or a leg? What makes one sexual act any more leg... more What makes a penis so sexual rather than an arm or a leg? What makes one sexual act any more legitimate than another? Contemporary understandings of sexuality often seek to legitimize a wide variety of sexual activities beyond male-centered sexual intercourse (Yarber, Sayad, & Strong, 2009, p. 142). These perspectives also welcome “the immense diversity of sexual behaviors across cultures and times” and do not necessarily argue for or against the legitimacy of any one sexual behavior or sexual body part over another (Yarber et al., 2009, p. 18). In other words, individual cultures and societies largely determine which parts of the body are sexual (Seidman, Fischer, & Meeks, 2011, p. 12), what is considered natural or unnatural (Yarber et al., 2009, p. 13), and what ultimately “counts” as sex (Seidman et al., 2011, p. 65). Alternatively, several traditional understandings of sexuality often view behaviors or body parts as essentially or inherently “sexual for natural or biological reasons” (Seidman et al., 2011, p. 65). Consequently, this perspective can have a profound effect on the ways individuals within a society understand sex as a whole, where certain ways of “doing” sex are seen as more innately valid than others because of their natural intrinsic validity. In exploring what often “counts” and fails to “count” as sex in Western society, the erect penis often acts as the marker of both legitimate “real” sex and power.
This paper is a research proposal written for a masters-level research class investigating the li... more This paper is a research proposal written for a masters-level research class investigating the lived experience of adult bisexual women and reviewing five recent empirical studies in the relevant literature.
While it is difficult to determine the specific prevalence rate of bisexuality in the United States due to inconsistencies in self-reporting, binegativity, and stigmatization, the Williams Institute estimates that about 1.8% of individuals in the United States—mostly women—identify as bisexual. Most of these bisexual women struggle in the formation and performance of their sexual identities due to three main factors: (1) ‘choice’—social pressure to choose and conform to either a heterosexual or homosexual identity, (2) ‘invisibility’—difficulty maintaining bisexual visibility, especially in monogamous relationships, and (3) ‘marginalization’—stress and shame resulting from social marginalization. This study seeks to explore the lived experience of these women and investigate and expand upon these themes found in the recent literature.
Without treatment, a sex offender perpetrates an average of 581 acts against an average of 380 vi... more Without treatment, a sex offender perpetrates an average of 581 acts against an average of 380 victims over the course of his or her lifetime (Cashwell & Caruso, 1997). Simultaneously, in the early 1990s, around 70% of adolescent perpetrators received no services for their offenses. Even in such cases where there is appropriate early clinical intervention, most commonly utilized therapeutic techniques focus on recovery from victimization rather than prevention of victimization, stigmatize offenders, and neglect the ecological system in which the adolescent lives. The following overview highlights specific problematic sexual behavior and associated risk factors and demographics; subsequently, it presents multisystemic therapy as a family-based clinical and ecological model best equipped to effectively address the treatment of such adolescent sex offenders.
In our current society, we believe that men and women must behave in a certain manner and adhere ... more In our current society, we believe that men and women must behave in a certain manner and adhere to social expectations of masculinity and femininity. If an individual does not properly perform his or her gender—male masculinity and female femininity—he or she sacrifices his or her status as a heterosexual, regardless of his or her actual sexual orientation. This phenomenon, known as the conflation of gender and sexual orientation, refers to the infusing of one’s gender performance—that which is masculine or feminine— with sexual orientation. By equating gender and sexuality, we can draw conclusions about an individual’s behavior based on whether he or she is homosexual or heterosexual; on the other hand, we also believe that we can judge and evaluate an individual’s current or eventual sexual orientation based upon his or her behavior. This study investigates whether or not gay individuals engage in cross-sex-typed behavior at a higher rate than straight individuals and determines if sexual orientation correlates with gender performance. Two hundred respondents completed a written survey examining the gender of a list of forty-one behaviors, and another two hundred respondents completed a second written questionnaire investigating how often different groups engage in the same forty-one behaviors. After relating men and women’s sexual orientations with frequency of behavior, this study found that there was no significant relationship between an individual’s sexual orientation and his or her performance of gender in seventy-two out of eighty-two of the cases examined. Of the remaining ten cases, only three cases demonstrated a moderate or strong relationship between sexuality and behavior. The data confirms that sexuality and behavior are largely independent from one another.
This paper investigates some of the ways that emotional intimacy unfolds between male clients and... more This paper investigates some of the ways that emotional intimacy unfolds between male clients and male therapists in the therapy room and begins to conceptualize how both experience intimacy within the therapeutic relationship.
This paper seeks to conceptualize the DSM-5's diagnosis of female sexual interest/arousal disorde... more This paper seeks to conceptualize the DSM-5's diagnosis of female sexual interest/arousal disorder within the context of individuals struggling with an eating disorder, even long after the "height" of an eating disorder and a woman's re-establishment of healthy body weight. After exploring the intersection and relationship between eating disorders and sexuality/sexual functioning, the paper proposes a unique case study vignette, clinical assessment, and summary of treatment implications, strategies, and guidelines based on the relatively limited and young body of literature.
Since the invention of sexual addiction as a concept, researchers have demonstrated conflicting p... more Since the invention of sexual addiction as a concept, researchers have demonstrated conflicting perspectives upon its definitions, terminology, and legitimacy (Reay, Attwood, & Gooder, 2013; Briken, Habermann, Berner, & Hill, 2007; Gold & Heffner, 1998; Carnes, Green, Merlo, Polles, Carnes, & Gold, 2012). After reviewing such perspectives, this paper begins to deconstruct the ways narratives and discourses of sexuality influence those who support and oppose the existence of sexual addiction. In breaking down the sex-negative behavior-first pathology of the most recent proposed criteria for “Hypersexual Disorder” in the fifth edition of the Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Kafka, 2010), this research reveals the need for an integrative sex-positive person-first model to treat problematic repetitive sexual behavior and bring these opposing groups together.
What makes a penis so sexual rather than an arm or a leg? What makes one sexual act any more leg... more What makes a penis so sexual rather than an arm or a leg? What makes one sexual act any more legitimate than another? Contemporary understandings of sexuality often seek to legitimize a wide variety of sexual activities beyond male-centered sexual intercourse (Yarber, Sayad, & Strong, 2009, p. 142). These perspectives also welcome “the immense diversity of sexual behaviors across cultures and times” and do not necessarily argue for or against the legitimacy of any one sexual behavior or sexual body part over another (Yarber et al., 2009, p. 18). In other words, individual cultures and societies largely determine which parts of the body are sexual (Seidman, Fischer, & Meeks, 2011, p. 12), what is considered natural or unnatural (Yarber et al., 2009, p. 13), and what ultimately “counts” as sex (Seidman et al., 2011, p. 65). Alternatively, several traditional understandings of sexuality often view behaviors or body parts as essentially or inherently “sexual for natural or biological reasons” (Seidman et al., 2011, p. 65). Consequently, this perspective can have a profound effect on the ways individuals within a society understand sex as a whole, where certain ways of “doing” sex are seen as more innately valid than others because of their natural intrinsic validity. In exploring what often “counts” and fails to “count” as sex in Western society, the erect penis often acts as the marker of both legitimate “real” sex and power.
This paper is a research proposal written for a masters-level research class investigating the li... more This paper is a research proposal written for a masters-level research class investigating the lived experience of adult bisexual women and reviewing five recent empirical studies in the relevant literature.
While it is difficult to determine the specific prevalence rate of bisexuality in the United States due to inconsistencies in self-reporting, binegativity, and stigmatization, the Williams Institute estimates that about 1.8% of individuals in the United States—mostly women—identify as bisexual. Most of these bisexual women struggle in the formation and performance of their sexual identities due to three main factors: (1) ‘choice’—social pressure to choose and conform to either a heterosexual or homosexual identity, (2) ‘invisibility’—difficulty maintaining bisexual visibility, especially in monogamous relationships, and (3) ‘marginalization’—stress and shame resulting from social marginalization. This study seeks to explore the lived experience of these women and investigate and expand upon these themes found in the recent literature.
Without treatment, a sex offender perpetrates an average of 581 acts against an average of 380 vi... more Without treatment, a sex offender perpetrates an average of 581 acts against an average of 380 victims over the course of his or her lifetime (Cashwell & Caruso, 1997). Simultaneously, in the early 1990s, around 70% of adolescent perpetrators received no services for their offenses. Even in such cases where there is appropriate early clinical intervention, most commonly utilized therapeutic techniques focus on recovery from victimization rather than prevention of victimization, stigmatize offenders, and neglect the ecological system in which the adolescent lives. The following overview highlights specific problematic sexual behavior and associated risk factors and demographics; subsequently, it presents multisystemic therapy as a family-based clinical and ecological model best equipped to effectively address the treatment of such adolescent sex offenders.
In our current society, we believe that men and women must behave in a certain manner and adhere ... more In our current society, we believe that men and women must behave in a certain manner and adhere to social expectations of masculinity and femininity. If an individual does not properly perform his or her gender—male masculinity and female femininity—he or she sacrifices his or her status as a heterosexual, regardless of his or her actual sexual orientation. This phenomenon, known as the conflation of gender and sexual orientation, refers to the infusing of one’s gender performance—that which is masculine or feminine— with sexual orientation. By equating gender and sexuality, we can draw conclusions about an individual’s behavior based on whether he or she is homosexual or heterosexual; on the other hand, we also believe that we can judge and evaluate an individual’s current or eventual sexual orientation based upon his or her behavior. This study investigates whether or not gay individuals engage in cross-sex-typed behavior at a higher rate than straight individuals and determines if sexual orientation correlates with gender performance. Two hundred respondents completed a written survey examining the gender of a list of forty-one behaviors, and another two hundred respondents completed a second written questionnaire investigating how often different groups engage in the same forty-one behaviors. After relating men and women’s sexual orientations with frequency of behavior, this study found that there was no significant relationship between an individual’s sexual orientation and his or her performance of gender in seventy-two out of eighty-two of the cases examined. Of the remaining ten cases, only three cases demonstrated a moderate or strong relationship between sexuality and behavior. The data confirms that sexuality and behavior are largely independent from one another.
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Papers by Grant Gordin
While it is difficult to determine the specific prevalence rate of bisexuality in the United States due to inconsistencies in self-reporting, binegativity, and stigmatization, the Williams Institute estimates that about 1.8% of individuals in the United States—mostly women—identify as bisexual. Most of these bisexual women struggle in the formation and performance of their sexual identities due to three main factors: (1) ‘choice’—social pressure to choose and conform to either a heterosexual or homosexual identity, (2) ‘invisibility’—difficulty maintaining bisexual visibility, especially in monogamous relationships, and (3) ‘marginalization’—stress and shame resulting from social marginalization. This study seeks to explore the lived experience of these women and investigate and expand upon these themes found in the recent literature.
While it is difficult to determine the specific prevalence rate of bisexuality in the United States due to inconsistencies in self-reporting, binegativity, and stigmatization, the Williams Institute estimates that about 1.8% of individuals in the United States—mostly women—identify as bisexual. Most of these bisexual women struggle in the formation and performance of their sexual identities due to three main factors: (1) ‘choice’—social pressure to choose and conform to either a heterosexual or homosexual identity, (2) ‘invisibility’—difficulty maintaining bisexual visibility, especially in monogamous relationships, and (3) ‘marginalization’—stress and shame resulting from social marginalization. This study seeks to explore the lived experience of these women and investigate and expand upon these themes found in the recent literature.