Harry Barbee

Harnessing progress: Gender, sexuality, and positive self-perceptions of aging in midlife

Journal of Aging Studies, 2022

Anti-Transgender Legislation—A Public Health Concern for Transgender Youth

JAMA Pediatrics, 2021

The Subjective Life Course Framework: Integrating Life Course Sociology with Gerontological Perspectives on Subjective Aging

Advances in Life Course Research, 2021

“This Incredible Monster Was Always in the Way”: The Moral Career of a Sexual Sinner in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

The Qualitative Report, 2018

This article elaborates a symbolic interactionist approach to the scientific study of sexual sin.... more This article elaborates a symbolic interactionist approach to the scientific study of sexual sin. We draw on archival materials from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), and explore recurring themes within the archival materials that signify and outline stages of a sexual sinners’ moral career. Our findings demonstrate how LDS leaders constructed a sinner’s moral career as characterized by (1) seeking out sinful temptation; (2) causing social and spiritual destruction; and (3) seeking and finding redemption. Further, we draw out implications for understanding the ways religious leaders conceptualize sexual sins for their followers, and the usefulness of conceptualizing various religious traditions, adaptations, and conceptualizations of sin as moral careers.

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Selling slumber: American neoliberalism and the medicalization of sleeplessness

Sociology Compass, 2018

Sleeplessness is an ancient and cross‐cultural phenomenon that is socially structured and restruc... more Sleeplessness is an ancient and cross‐cultural phenomenon that is socially structured and restructured against a backdrop of ideology and inequality. In an effort to make sense of sleeplessness, some scholars have invoked the medicalization framework, which highlights consumerism, managed care, biotechnology, and physicians as key “engines” that foster the transformation of this formerly “normal” condition to one that people view as a medical problem. However, this burgeoning literature has not answered the call of medical sociologists to situate the medicalization process in a political economic context. In this article, we employ the case study of sleeplessness and the creation of the “Sleep Industrial Complex” to expand the medicalization framework and illustrate how American neoliberalism creates an ideal environment for the primary engines of medicalization. We identify three critical features of American neoliberalism—enhancement culture, commodification of health, and a “productivity imperative”—that act in concert with the driving engines to foster an environment wherein medicalization not only survives but also thrives.

Exploring the Experiences of Heterosexual and Asexual Transgender People

Social Sciences, 2018

This article explores two cases at the intersection of emerging studies of transgender experience... more This article explores two cases at the intersection of emerging studies of transgender experience: heterosexualities and asexualities. Drawing on data from a mixed-methodological survey, we analyze the ways 57 asexual transgender people and 42 heterosexual transgender people occupying varied gender, race, class, age, and religious identities (1) make sense of gender and (2) experience coming out as transgender. Our analyses reveal some ways cisnormativity impacts transgender people across sexual identities, and the theoretical potential of incorporating transgender people into studies focused on asexualities and heterosexualities. In conclusion, we outline implications for understanding (1) transgender experiences with cisnormativity across sexual and other social locations and (2) possibilities for expanding studies of heterosexualities and asexualities beyond cisgender experiences.

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Un/gendering Social Selves: How Nonbinary People Navigate and Experience a Binarily Gendered World

Sociological Forum, 2019

Based on in‐depth interviews, we explore how people who do not identify exclusively or consistent... more Based on in‐depth interviews, we explore how people who do not identify exclusively or consistently as either women or men (i.e., nonbinary people) navigate a culture that bifurcates people into women or men. Using an interactionist approach, we first analyze how interviewees employ discourse (e.g., names, identity labels, and pronouns) and the body (e.g., expressions, decoration, and transformation) to present themselves as nonbinary, which we conceptualize as ungendering social selves. Second, we examine the emotional benefits (e.g., authenticity, pride, liberation) and burdens (e.g., fear, rejection, exhaustion) of ungendering. Third, we uncover the emotional, social, and structural conditions under which our nonbinary‐identified participants sometimes present themselves as binarily gendered, which we conceptualize as gendering social selves. We conclude with discussing empirical and theoretical contributions.

Variation in Subjective Aging by Sexual Minority Status

The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 2016

The past few decades have seen increased scholarly attention to gay and lesbian individuals' ... more The past few decades have seen increased scholarly attention to gay and lesbian individuals' aging experiences; however, few studies examine differences in subjective aging by sexual minority status. We identify four perspectives on the association between sexual minority status and subjective aging—double jeopardy, crisis competence, gender interactive, and limited salience perspectives. We examine each perspective’s predictions using data from the first wave of Midlife in the United States (1995–1996; MIDUS). Ordinary least square regression models reveal strongest support for the limited salience perspective, suggesting that sexual minority status has weaker effects on subjective aging than do other social factors, such as age, health, and gender. However, some results provide support for the gender interactive perspective, positing that the effect of sexual minority status on subjective aging varies by gender. Our study provides an organizational framework of theoretical per...

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Un/Gendering Social Selves: How Nonbinary People Navigate and Experience a Binarily Gendered World

Sociological Forum, 2019

Based on in‐depth interviews, we explore how people who do not identify exclusively or consistent... more Based on in‐depth interviews, we explore how people who do not identify exclusively or consistently as either women or men (i.e., nonbinary people) navigate a culture that bifurcates people into women or men. Using an interactionist approach, we first analyze how interviewees employ discourse (e.g., names, identity labels, and pronouns) and the body (e.g., expressions, decoration, and transformation) to present themselves as nonbinary, which we conceptualize as ungendering social selves. Second, we examine the emotional benefits (e.g., authenticity, pride, liberation) and burdens (e.g., fear, rejection, exhaustion) of ungendering. Third, we uncover the emotional, social, and structural conditions under which our nonbinary‐identified participants sometimes present themselves as binarily gendered, which we conceptualize as gendering social selves. We conclude with discussing empirical and theoretical contributions.

Download

“Exploring the Experiences of Heterosexual and Asexual Transgender People”

Social Sciences, 2018

This article explores two cases at the intersection of emerging studies of transgender experience... more This article explores two cases at the intersection of emerging studies of transgender experience: heterosexualities and asexualities. Drawing on data from a mixed-methodological survey, we analyze the ways 57 asexual transgender people and 42 heterosexual transgender people occupying varied gender, race, class, age, and religious identities (1) make sense of gender and (2) experience coming out as transgender. Our analyses reveal some ways cisnormativity impacts transgender people across sexual identities, and the theoretical potential of incorporating transgender people into studies focused on asexualities and heterosexualities. In conclusion, we outline implications for understanding (1) transgender experiences with cisnormativity across sexual and other social locations and (2) possibilities for expanding studies of heterosexualities and asexualities beyond cisgender experiences.

Selling Slumber: American Neoliberalism and the Medicalization of Sleeplessness

by Harry Barbee and Thomas R Konrad

Sleeplessness is an ancient and cross‐cultural phenomenon that is socially structured and restruc... more Sleeplessness is an ancient and cross‐cultural phenomenon that is socially structured and restructured against a backdrop of ideology and inequality. In an effort to make sense of sleeplessness, some scholars have invoked the medicalization framework, which highlights consumerism, managed care, biotechnology, and physicians as key “engines” that foster the transformation of this formerly “normal” condition to one that people view as a medical problem. However, this burgeoning literature has not answered the call of medical sociologists to situate the medicalization process in a political economic context. In this article, we employ the case study of sleeplessness and the creation of the “Sleep Industrial Complex” to expand the medicalization framework and illustrate how American neoliberalism creates an ideal environment for the primary engines of medicalization. We identify three critical features of American neoliberalism—enhancement culture, commodification of health, and a “productivity imperative”—that act in concert with the driving engines to foster an environment wherein medicalization not only survives but also thrives.

“This Incredible Monster Was Always in the Way”: The Moral Career of a Sexual Sinner in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

The Qualitative Report, 2018

This article elaborates a symbolic interactionist approach to the scientific study of sexual sin.... more This article elaborates a symbolic interactionist approach to the scientific study of sexual sin. We draw on archival materials from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), and explore recurring themes within the archival materials that signify and outline stages of a sexual sinners’ moral career. Our findings demonstrate how LDS leaders constructed a sinner’s moral career as characterized by (1) seeking out sinful temptation; (2) causing social and spiritual destruction; and (3) seeking and finding redemption. Further, we draw out implications for understanding the ways religious leaders conceptualize sexual sins for their followers, and the usefulness of conceptualizing various religious traditions, adaptations, and conceptualizations of sin as moral careers.

Variation in Subjective Aging by Sexual Minority Status: An Examination of Four Perspectives

The past few decades have seen increased scholarly attention to gay and lesbian individuals' agin... more The past few decades have seen increased scholarly attention to gay and lesbian individuals' aging experiences; however, few studies examine differences in subjective aging by sexual minority status. We identify four perspectives on the association between sexual minority status and subjective aging—double jeopardy, crisis competence , gender interactive, and limited salience perspectives. We examine each perspective's predictions using data from the first wave of Midlife in the United States (1995–1996; MIDUS). Ordinary least square regression models reveal strongest support for the limited salience perspective, suggesting that sexual minority status has weaker effects on subjective aging than do other social factors, such as age, health, and gender. However, some results provide support for the gender interactive perspective, positing that the effect of sexual minority status on subjective aging varies by gender. Our study provides an organizational framework of theoretical perspectives that can guide further examinations of variation in aging experiences by sexual minority status.

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