Small Penises

“How do I go about navigating sex and relationships when I’ve got a small penis and people have sometimes been unkind to me about that?”

We’ve covered this in detail in a podcast here, and here’s a summary of what we had to say.

The most important thing to emphasise here is that there is a diverse range of genital sizes, and that a lot of ways of having sex don’t require genitals at all, or specific kinds of genitals. However, we can’t escape the fact that we live in a culture which does have narrow ideals about what bodies and genitals should look like, so let’s start with that.

Cultural ideals
When it comes to penises there’s a cultural ideal that they should be a certain size. We rarely see penises at all in our everyday lives, so a lot of people end up making comparisons with the ones that they see in porn. These are actually very different from most people’s penises as they tend to be chosen for being very large and capable of getting erect and ejacuating easily. There’s also a strong cultural message that big penises are more masculine, and a lot of ridicule and stigma about having a small penis, which can leave people with a lot of shame around this.

In fact if we think about all of the ways in which diverse bodies are stigmatised (e.g. fat bodies, disabled bodies, trans and queer bodies, bodies with scars or skin conditions, older bodies, etc. etc.) the majority of people are nowhere near the ideal, so perhaps it is the ideal we should be challenging rather than criticising ourselves and other people. However that is easier said than done in a culture which rates people so much on appearance.

Diverse genitals, bodies, and types of sex
In our book we talk a lot about the different kinds of sex that people can have, many of which don’t require genitals at all. Again culturally people tend to immediately think of genital penetration, but lots of people have kinds of sex which don’t involve penetration or genitals at all, for example, various forms of stroking, kissing, kink/BDSM, erotic massage, mutual masturbation, dry-humping, tantric breathwork, oral sex, etc. A lot of people find penetration painful, uncomfortable, or simply not very enjoyable, and may welcome a partner who doesn’t focus on that. Some would rather not have their genitals involved at all and prefer to keep their pants on entirely.

If you have a small penis but are into penetration there are various options. Some people find penetration with a small penis pleasurable. Others find that it can be a bit more difficult to penetrate a vagina or anus with a small penis and, like people with vulvas, find it useful to use a strap-on dildo, some of which have space for the penis to fit and be stimulated. Many people find that penetration with fingers works as well – or better – than penis penetration because fingers can be more dextrous and sensitive.

Again it is important to emphasise that genitals come in all shapes and sizes. The clitoris and the penis are basically the same organ with sizes on a spectrum, and decisions get made about whether the organ ‘counts’ as a clitoris or a penis when we’re young, based on its size. But size and shape can also vary a lot over time. In an ideal world we wouldn’t make any assumptions about what kinds of genitals a partner is going to have, but would focus on finding out what works for them because different people like different kinds of touch in different places.

Your relationship with your body
Perhaps the key thing in this area is to focus on your own relationship with your body to hopefully reach a point where you can get comfortable enough with it. It’s important to remember though how hard that can be in a culture that’s so obsessed with bodies, and with ‘being normal’, so give yourself a big break if you find it difficult. Some folk find it helpful to elicit the help of a counsellor or other professional if they feel really negatively about their body.

One of the things that works best in helping us to feel better about our bodies is to spend time focusing on how our bodies feel (from the inside) rather than how they look (from the outside). Think about the times when you feel most ‘in’ your body. It might be when you’re dancing, or sitting in nature, or laughing, or doing a sport, or soaking in water. Spending more time ‘embodied’ like this can be really helpful. One way of doing this is the body scan meditation (see resources), another is spending time on pleasurable self-touch, which we talk about a lot in our book.

Finding other people
In terms of finding other people for sex and relationships, online dating can work well, particularly on sites like OKCupid.com which are less focused on physical appearance but give you more space to talk about what you’re into. You may also find that other people who are diverse in terms of body size and shape, disability, gender, sexuality, health conditions, etc. are more accepting or enthusiastic about body diversity than folks who haven’t had to think about these things themselves.

It can also be useful to meet people outside of a dating context, for support and friendship, and because it’s easier to get to know people beforehand. There are meetup groups for all kinds of diversities where you might meet more like-minded people, and it can be great to be in spaces where diverse bodies are celebrated such as naturist venues, fat activist groups, or body diverse dance or yoga classes.

Resources
A couple of good books about your relationship with your body are:
Jenkins, E. (1999). Tongue first: Adventures in physical culture. New York: Virago.
Cooke, K. (1996). Real gorgeous: The truth about body and beauty. London: Bloomsbury

Our yoga teacher and friend Catherine has a really useful body meditation audio you can access via Helix Yoga

Justin wrote some advice about how to do online dating at Bish which includes a link to this excellent article ‘online dating tips for the fat babe’ by Arched Eyebrow

SOURCE:

https://megjohnandjustin.com/bodies/small-penises/(accessed 30.5.22)

Υπερσεξουαλικότητα

Ως υπερσεξουαλικότητα ορίζεται η επαναλαμβανόμενη, έντονη ασχολία του ατόμου με σεξουαλικές φαντασιώσεις, ορμές και συμπεριφορές που έχουν αρνητικές συνέπειες στην ζωή και καθημερινότητά του. Οι τομείς που επηρεάζονται ιδιαίτερα είναι η διαπροσωπική , κοινωνική και επαγγελματική ζωή του. Στο παρελθόν αυτό το μοτίβο συμπεριφοράς έχει αποτυπωθεί ως νυμφομανία για τις γυναίκες, δονζουανισμός και σατυρομανία για τους άνδρες. Άλλοι όροι που χρησιμοποιούνται για να περιγράψουν αυτό το μοτίβο συμπεριφοράς είναι ο σεξουαλικός εθισμός, η ερωτομανία και η καταναγκαστική σεξουαλική συμπεριφορά. Αν και η υπερσεξουαλικότητα δεν είναι ακόμη διαγνωσμένη ψυχική διαταραχή, έχουν γίνει προσπάθειες εισαγωγής της στο 5ο Διαγνωστικό και Στατιστικό Εγχειρίδιο Ψυχικών Διαταραχών χωρίς επιτυχία. Επιπλέον, στο προσχέδιο της 11 έκδοσης του εγχειριδίου της Διεθνούς Ταξινόμησης των Ασθενειών, η υπερσεξουαλικότητα έχει συμπεριληφθεί ως καταναγκαστική σεξουαλική συμπεριφορά στις διαταραχές ελέγχου των παρορμήσεων μαζί με την πυρομανία, κλεπτομανία κ.α..

Η υπερσεξουαλικότητα μπορεί να εμφανίζεται μέσω:καταναγκαστικού αυνανισμού
υπέρμετρης χρήσης πορνογραφικού υλικού
σεξουαλικής συνεύρεσης με συναινούντες ενήλικες
διαδικτυακού σεξ
τηλεφωνικού σεξ
επισκέψεων σε οίκους ανοχής, strip clubs, κ.α..

Οι επιπτώσεις της υπερσεξουαλικότητας είναι πολλές φορές δυσβάσταχτες. Η διάλυση της οικογένειας, η κοινωνική απομόνωση, η απόλυση από την εργασία, η οικονομική καταστροφή και τα νομικά ζητήματα που πιθανώς προκύψουν, εμπίπτουν στο εύρος των επιπτώσεων αυτών.


Επιδημιολογία


Λόγω της έλλειψης καθιερωμένων κριτηρίων διάγνωσης η επιδημιολογική μελέτη της υπερσεξουαλικότητας είναι δύσκολη. Κάποιες έρευνες όμως, δείχνουν ότι εμφανίζεται στο 3-6% του γενικού πληθυσμού.




Αίτια




Oι αιτιολογικοί παράγοντες της υπερσεξουαλικότητας δεν είναι ακόμα γνωστοί. Κάποιες έρευνες έχουν υποδείξει το τραύμα κατά την παιδική και εφηβική ηλικία, τις δυσλειτουργικές σχέσεις με τους γονείς, κάποιες παθολογίες του εγκεφάλου και την διατάραξη του νευροβιολογικού συστήματος ως κύριους αιτιολογικούς παράγοντες της εμφάνισης της καταναγκαστικής σεξουαλικής συμπεριφοράς.




Θεραπεία




Ως ψυχολογικές μέθοδοι θεραπείας για την υπερσεξουαλική συμπεριφορά έχουν προταθεί:οι ψυχοδυναμικές προσεγγίσεις
οι γνωστικές συμπεριφοριστικές προσεγγίσεις
οι ομαδικές θεραπείες
η οικογενειακή θεραπεία
η θεραπεία ζεύγους
η θεραπεία των 12 βημάτων απεξάρτησης

Η φαρμακευτική θεραπεία, εξατομικεύεται και αξιολογείται βάσει της κλινικής εικόνας των συμπτωμάτων, της ηλικίας του ασθενούς, του χρονικού ιστορικού, της ενσυναίσθησης αλλά και της συνεργασιμότητας του ιδίου με τον θεραπευτή του.

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://askitis.gr/therapeies/ypersexoualikotita/#1641853452100-2bd70697-2377(accessed 28.5.22)

Έρευνα: Ποια είναι η ιδανική ποσότητα ύπνου για μεσήλικες και ηλικιωμένος

Ένας μεγάλος αριθμός ανθρώπων πιστεύει ότι οι ενήλικες θα πρέπει να κοιμούνται οκτώ ώρες το βράδυ κι έτσι αυτό σημαίνει ένας πλήρης ύπνος. Όμως αυτό μπορεί να μην ισχύει πλέον όταν φτάσουμε σε μια συγκεκριμένη ηλικία



Ένας μεγάλος αριθμός ανθρώπων πιστεύει ότι οι ενήλικες θα πρέπει να κοιμούνται οκτώ ώρες το βράδυ κι έτσι αυτό σημαίνει ένας πλήρης ύπνος. Όμως αυτό μπορεί να μην ισχύει πλέον όταν φτάσουμε σε μια συγκεκριμένη ηλικία.


Μια ομάδα ερευνητών από το Πανεπιστήμιο του Κέμπριτζ στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο και το Πανεπιστήμιο Fudan στην Κίνα ανακάλυψαν ότι οι επτά ώρες ύπνου μπορεί να είναι η ιδανική ποσότητα για μεσήλικες και ηλικιωμένους.

Σε μια μελέτη που δημοσιεύτηκε στο περιοδικό Nature Aging, οι ερευνητές λένε ότι διαπίστωσαν πως οι επτά ώρες ύπνου ήταν ό,τι καλύτερο για τη γνωστική απόδοση και την καλή ψυχική υγεία.

Επιπλέον, εξέτασαν δεδομένα από σχεδόν 500.000 συμμετέχοντες ηλικίας 38 έως 73 ετών και διαπίστωσαν ότι ο ανεπαρκής –αλλά και υπερβολικός– ύπνος συσχετίστηκε με μειωμένη γνωστική απόδοση και χειρότερη ψυχική υγεία.


Οι συμμετέχοντες στη μελέτη ανέφεραν τον τρόπο και τις συνήθειες στον ύπνο τους και απάντησαν και σε ερωτήσεις σχετικά με την ευημερία και την ψυχική τους υγεία. Ολοκλήρωσαν μια σειρά από γνωστικά τεστ που εξέταζαν την ταχύτητα με την οποία επεξεργάζονται καταστάσεις, την οπτική προσοχή, τη μνήμη και τις δεξιότητες στην επίλυση προβλημάτων. Όσοι είχαν κοιμηθεί επτά ώρες τα πήγαν καλύτερα σε όλα τα επίπεδα.

Ωστόσο, υπάρχει μια λεπτομέρεια: το 94% των συμμετεχόντων ήταν λευκοί, επομένως δεν είναι σαφές εάν τα αποτελέσματα ισχύουν για μαύρους και ανθρώπους άλλης εθνικότητας.

Ένας άλλος σημαντικός παράγοντας είναι η συνέπεια. Τα καλύτερα αποτελέσματα παρατηρήθηκαν σε άτομα που εμφάνισαν μικρές διακυμάνσεις στα μοτίβα ύπνου για μεγάλα χρονικά διαστήματα και που ο ύπνος είχε συνολική διάρκεια επτά ωρών.
Ύπνος που διακόπτεται: Κίνδυνος για άνοια

«Ο καλός ύπνος είναι σημαντικός σε όλα τα στάδια της ζωής, αλλά ιδιαίτερα όσο μεγαλώνουμε», δήλωσε η Μπάρμπαρα Σαχακιάν, καθηγήτρια στο Πανεπιστήμιο του Κέιμπριτζ και συν-συγγραφέας της μελέτης.


Οι ερευνητές λένε ότι η έλλειψη ύπνου είναι πιθανό να εμποδίσει τη διαδικασία απαλλαγής του εγκεφάλου από τις τοξίνες. Τονίζουν επίσης ότι η διαταραχή του βραδέως ή βαθέως ύπνου μπορεί να ευθύνεται για τη γνωστική «πτώση».

Όταν ο βαθύς ύπνος διακόπτεται, αυτό επηρεάζει την εδραίωση της μνήμης και μπορεί να οδηγήσει στη συσσώρευση αμυλοειδούς, μιας πρωτεΐνης που μπορεί —αν δεν λειτουργήσει όπως θα έπρεπε— να προκαλέσει «μπερδέματα» στον εγκέφαλο που είναι χαρακτηριστικά ορισμένων μορφών άνοιας.

Ο ανεπαρκής ή υπερβολικός ύπνος θα μπορούσε να αποτελέσει έναν παράγοντα κινδύνου για τη γνωστική «έκπτωση» στη γήρανση.

«Αν και δεν μπορούμε να πούμε με βεβαιότητα ότι ο ελάχιστος ή πολύς ύπνος προκαλεί γνωστικά προβλήματα, η ανάλυσή μας φαίνεται να υποστηρίζει αυτή την ιδέα», δήλωσε ο Γιανφενγκ Φενγκ, επιστήμονας του εγκεφάλου και καθηγητής στο Πανεπιστήμιο Fudan. «Αλλά οι λόγοι για τους οποίους οι ηλικιωμένοι έχουν “φτωχότερη” ποιότητα ύπνου φαίνεται να είναι περίπλοκοι, επηρεασμένοι από έναν συνδυασμό της γενετικής μας σύνθεσης και της δομής του εγκεφάλου μας».
Η διάρκεια του ύπνου επηρεάζει τη δομή του εγκεφάλου

Οι ερευνητές κοίταξαν επίσης την απεικόνιση του εγκεφάλου και τα γενετικά δεδομένα, αλλά αυτά τα δεδομένα ήταν μόνο διαθέσιμα για λιγότερο από 40.000 από τους συμμετέχοντες.

Αυτά τα δεδομένα έδειξαν ότι η ποσότητα του ύπνου θα μπορούσε να συνδεθεί με διαφορές όσον αφορά τη δομή των περιοχών του εγκεφάλου, όπως ο ιππόκαμπος, που θεωρείται το κέντρο μνήμης και μάθησης του εγκεφάλου, και ο προκεντρικός φλοιός, ο οποίος είναι υπεύθυνος για την εκτέλεση εκούσιων κινήσεων.

Δεδομένου ότι ο κίνδυνος εμφάνισης Αλτσχάιμερ και άνοιας -ασθένειες της γήρανσης που συνοδεύονται από γνωστικές «βλάβες»- έχει συνδεθεί με τη διάρκεια του ύπνου, οι ερευνητές λένε ότι χρειάζεται επιπλέον εργασία στον τομέα της επιστήμης του ύπνου.

«Η εύρεση τρόπων βελτίωσης του ύπνου για τους ηλικιωμένους θα μπορούσε να είναι ζωτικής σημασίας για να τους βοηθήσει να διατηρήσουν καλή ψυχική υγεία και ευεξία, ιδιαίτερα για ασθενείς με ψυχιατρικές διαταραχές και άνοιες», είπε η Σαχακιάν.



Με πληροφορίες από το DW

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://www.kathimerini.gr/life/health/561838480/ereyna-poia-einai-i-idaniki-posotita-ypnoy-gia-mesilikes-kai-ilikiomenos/(accessed 27.5.22)

Stigmatisation of yawning could be a strategy to avoid disease, study argues

By Matthew Warren

It’s really common to start yawning after seeing someone else do it. You might even be yawning right now, just reading about it. But we also instinctively know that there’s something a bit rude about yawning: we’re less likely to show this “yawn contagion” when we’re being watched, for instance. And even when we do yawn in the presence of others, we’ll often cover our mouth.

Why does yawning carry this stigma? The obvious explanation is that yawning indicates that we are tired or bored, and we might not want to make others feel like they are the source of that boredom (even if they are!). But the authors of a new study in Personality and Individual Differences have another intriguing theory: we dislike yawning because it can be a sign of disease.

There is some evidence that yawning is related to disease, note Mitch Brown from the University of Arkansas and colleagues. Certain neurological diseases can lead to abnormal yawning, for example, and yawning may become more frequent as someone develops a fever (some researchers argue that one of the purposes of yawning is to cool the brain, though this theory is contentious). Yawns can also indicate fatigue, which is often brought on by illness. The team also points out that covering our mouth hardly hides the fact that we are yawning — in fact, it might even draw attention to it. So perhaps it is more akin to covering our mouths during a cough or sneeze: an action performed to avoid transmitting disease.

To see whether people think of yawning as a disease cue, the team asked 196 American undergraduates to complete various questionnaires. These included measures of their aversion to germs generally and fear of Covid in particular. They also indicated the extent to which they felt disgust in various scenarios, including those related to pathogens (for example, “Accidentally touching a person’s bloody cut”). Finally, participants rated how much they stigmatised yawns, as well as sneezes, coughs, and hiccoughs, by indicating how rude it was to perform that bodily function in front of others and how important it was to cover your mouth when doing it.

The team found that coughing and sneezing carried a higher degree of stigma than yawning, which in turn was stigmatised more than hiccoughing. But importantly, people’s levels of pathogen-related disgust and aversion to germs both predicted how much they stigmatised these bodily functions. Those who scored higher on these measures showed more stigmatisation of yawning, as well as coughing and sneezing (only aversion to germs was related to stigmatisation of hiccoughs).

The researchers argue that this shows we do indeed see yawning as a disease cue. The fact that people who are particularly concerned about disease and germs are more likely to stigmatise yawning — as well as clearer indicators of disease like sneezing and coughing — suggests they may see yawns as potential threats to their health. Fear of Covid didn’t further increase people’s stigmatisation of yawning, and the researchers suggest this shows that the stigma around yawning has “ancestral roots” rather than just cropping up during a pandemic.

However, there could be other explanations for the results. Perhaps people who are concerned about germs would rather avoid someone who is yawning not because it suggests they are sick, but simply because they don’t want to be breathed on. Or maybe these people have an aversion to seeing or thinking about bodily functions in general, whether or not these are actually related to disease. Further studies are needed to disentangle all of these possibilities before researchers can definitively conclude that we use yawns as a disease cue.

The study also doesn’t rule out other reasons that yawning carries a stigma. Yawning can of course indicate boredom and may be interpreted as disrespectful, so covering our mouths may simply be a non-verbal way to communicate that we’re not trying to be rude — even if it doesn’t really hide the yawn. There’s clearly a lot more work to be done to understand the purpose and meaning of this seemingly simple reflex.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2022/05/26/stigmatisation-of-yawning-could-be-a-strategy-to-avoid-disease-study-argues/#more-46312(accessed 27.5.22)

Hallucinations are surprisingly common and varied experiences

By Emma Young

Many mentally well people experience hallucinations. An estimated 6 – 15% of us hear, see, feel or even smell things that aren’t real. But there has been little research into what those hallucinations are like — and how they might differ from those experienced by people with psychosis. Now Mascha M.J. Linszen at Utrecht University and her colleagues report the results of a large study of more than 10,000 people aged 14 to 88. The work, published in Schizophrenia, throws up a few surprises among a host of interesting findings.

The team’s online survey was open to anyone aged over 14 who could understand enough Dutch to complete the questionnaires. In total, 10,448 participants (68.9% female) took part.

The team’s first finding was that hallucinations were common. About 80% reported having hallucinated at least once in their lifetime. About half had hallucinated within the past month and 32% within the past week. Auditory hallucinations were most common, with about 30% of the respondents saying they had experienced them in the past month, followed by visual (21.5%), tactile (about 20%) and olfactory hallucinations (about 17%). Of course, the participants were self-selecting, and not gender-balanced, and people who had hallucinated may well have been more likely to take part. It’s also worth noting that the team did not gather medical histories, so some of the participants may have had a diagnosis of psychosis. For all these reasons, it’s not possible to extrapolate these rates to the general population. But the team’s further exploration of answers given by everyone who had experienced a hallucination within the past month did lead to some unexpected results.

There were “remarkably high” percentages of people reporting characteristics of hallucinations previously associated only with schizophrenia, substance abuse and some neurological disorders. For example, almost half of this group had experienced hallucinations in more than one sense. Also, a large proportion of those who reported auditory hallucinations heard music, something previously regarded as rare.

Perhaps the most striking finding, though, was the range of content described. People reported everything from seeing shadows to hearing children crying, and from smelling food to being slapped. There was also a big spectrum of severity — from fleeting, benign experiences to minutes-long, highly distressing hallucinations. The team argues that this finding fits with the idea that psychotic symptoms fall along a continuum, ranging from isolated, minor experiences affecting people who are mentally well to those suffered by people with psychosis. (Though it’s also worth noting that the continuum idea has been challenged.)

A popular explanation for hallucinations is that, in generating these misperceptions, the brain is jumping to conclusions — it’s relying more on faster top-down predictions of what it’s perceiving than bottom-up data from the senses. According to this theory, hallucinations are more likely to happen when the quality of sense data is poor. This could be down to dim lighting, for example, for a healthy individual, or perhaps a failure of the brain to properly process sense data for someone diagnosed with schizophrenia.

As the researchers note, from an evolutionary perspective, fast top-down predictions are especially useful if they potentially aid survival or reproduction. “This might explain why the majority of the contents in our sample involved ‘warning signs’,” the team writes. For example: hearing threatening voices, sirens or footsteps; seeing shadows or figures approaching; feeling insects crawling; smelling fire, smoke or gas; perceiving social cues, such as telephones ringing, kids crying or names being called; feeling hands on shoulders; even smelling food.

To better understand the causes of various types of hallucinations, they suggest that groups of people who experience a specific type, whether they are mentally well or have a clinical diagnosis, should be studied together.

For now though, the findings do suggest that contrary to some portrayals, hallucinations are not rare, and are not necessarily distressing. This extends similar work which had argued that hearing voices, specifically, is more common than often recognised. “Overall, our findings provide a more nuanced and less severe perspective on hallucinations and other misperceptions, which are typically depicted in a negative way and often pathologized in Western news media,” the team concludes.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2022/05/20/hallucinations-are-surprisingly-common-and-varied-experiences/(accessed 23.5.22)

Consent in Romantic Relationships

In this episode of the podcast we covered consensual romantic/partner relationships: why this is particularly important to talk about right now, and what we can do to move towards a more affirmative model of consent in our relationships.

Non-consent in relationships

The current moment – in summer 2020 when we recorded this – highlights the importance of turning our attention to consensual relationships in several ways.

First, domestic abuse has gone up globally by 20% during the pandemic. In the UK calls for domestic abuse helplines jumped by a half in the first month or so and a further spike is predicted post lockdown. Boots pharmacies began offering safe spaces for people to go if they were in abusive situations, and legislation was put in place to help survivors to escape abusive homes during lockdown. All this led to domestic abuse being called the ‘shadow pandemic’. So we see clearly the scale of non-consensual relationships, and just how important this is to address.

Then #BlackLivesMatter highlighted massive flaws in the policing and criminal justice systems. When some responded to calls to dismantle and abolish these systems by asking ‘what about’ survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault, many pointed out that the criminal justice system has never served survivors. Survivors often experience legal processes as retraumatising and gaslighting, given the minimising, denial, victim blame, and perpetrator defense which often happens in court cases – mirroring how survivors are treated in wider culture. Number of cases passed for charges is low as rates continue to rise. Many have suggested that policing is ill-equipped to deal with sexual and relationship abuse, and that it is actively dangerous when those involved are people of colour. For these reasons, people have turned to alternative models like funding other forms of support for survivors, building accountable communities, and transformative justice.

The UK statistics on non-consensual sex are that 1 in 5 women have had someone try to have sex with them against their will and 1 in 10 women have had someone had sex with them against their will. For men this is 1 in 20 have experienced attempted non-volitional sex on them and 1 in 71 have had sex against their will. In most instances of completed non-volitional sex, the perpetrator was known to the participant, either as a current or former intimate partner (40·6% women, 22·9% men).

This highlights the fact that we need far more focus on how to avoid and address sexual – and other forms of – violence in the home and within known relationships. Instead, media focus tends to be on stranger sexual assault, which potentially puts women at more risk (constraining them to private/home spaces) and makes it harder to speak out about assault with known people when it occurs. Also, non-consensual sex often happens in contexts where other forms of non-consent are normalised, so we need to look to how to cultivate cultures of consent around all our relationships.
Spectrums of consent

The common idea with physical, sexual, and emotional abuse is that the majority of relationships are ‘normal’ and non-abusive, and a minority are abusive and need an entirely different approach. This is unhelpful because it encourages us – as survivors and wider culture – to keep asking the binary question of whether a situation is ‘bad enough’ to count as abuse, and only counting it, and feeling able to address it, if it meets those criteria: often the legal criteria.

Also, this binary perpetuates the idea that there are bad ‘abusers’ and everyone else who is perfectly good and safe. This makes talking about consent in relationships really hard because we feel like we have to present ourselves as perfectly good and safe, and deny or defend any non-consensual behaviours, lest we be seen as an abuser and rejected, called out, or reported.

Also, as with sex, the criteria for ‘abuse’ is a low bar for a relationship. The idea should not be that if it doesn’t meet the legal criteria for abuse/assault it is fine, but more about how it can be as consensual and beneficial for all involved as possible.

A more useful approach is to see these things on a spectrum. In a highly non-consensual culture where non-consensual behaviour is normalised in romantic relationships in particular, it would be unlikely – if not impossible – for any relationship to be entirely consensual. So we might more usefully ask ‘how can we maximise how consensual this relationship is for all involved?’ – as the people in that relationship and as the people around it. Then if we feel like the level of consent is not good enough – if we start feeling unsafe or our freedom constrained for example – we can know that that is enough reason to ask for that to be dealt with, and to step away if the other person isn’t up for that.

Thinking about all the following features on spectrums rather than as legalistic abuse/non-abuse binaries can be helpful:How consensual is physical touch in this relationship (rather than does it count as physical abuse or not)?
How consensual is sex in this relationship (rather than does it count as sexual abuse or not)?
How consensual is money in this relationship (rather than whether someone is entirely controlling of the other’s personal finances)?
How kind are people in this relationship, and are they able to regulate themselves when not feeling kind (rather than do people actively put each other down or diminish each other)?
How safe do people in this relationship feel (rather than are active threats made)?
How free do people in this relationship feel to have other close relationships (not just whether they are explicitly isolated from friends or family)?
Is everyone in this relationship able to meet their basic needs and get support when they need it?
Does everyone in this relationship get the privacy and solitude they need on- and offline without monitoring from the other person/people?
Is everyone free to decide where they go, who they see, what they wear, when they sleep, etc.?

Lockdown has highlighted to many people the areas in their relationships which are not as consensual as they would like. It also potentially presents a good opportunity for us all to start to address our own non-consensual patterns where we have them.
A culture of consensual relationships

The wider culture of romantic relationships normalises non-consent, with common tropes like it being romantic to pressurise or manipulate somebody into a relationship, to attempt to shape them into who you want them to be, to focus on that relationship at the exclusion of others, and to say that you couldn’t live without them and try to convince them to stay with you forever.

There’s also a dangerous idea that romantic relationships are private and shouldn’t be shared with anybody else, and that we should present them as perfect on social media and never talk about the difficult parts.

Ideally we would change the whole culture to depict romantic relationships far more consensually. In the meantime hopefully we can try to shift the consent cultures in our communities and networks.

Moving towards a culture of more consensual relationships could involve things like:At a micro level learning how to notice what non-consent feels like in our body: both when we are at risk of doing it to another person, and when it is done to us. This requires getting enough solitude and privacy to be with our feelings and to check in with ourselves regularly about our needs and boundaries.
Addressing our stuck patterns which make us more likely to behave reactively or non-consensually, and being up for getting support with this when needed. Again some time alone and with others is necessary for doing this work, as is the capacity to take ourselves away to a safe-enough place when we become reactive.
Practising addressing micro moments of non-consent in relationship so it becomes everyday and normalised to do so.
Cultivating systems of support, and consensual relating within those systems, so that it becomes normalised and that we have people to support us in this.
Committing to keeping the windows on our relationship open with our close people and community so we can be alerted if people have concerns, and supported to maximise consent.

So what might consensual romantic relationships look like? Here we’re taking the key ideas that we often talk about around consensual sex and applying them to the whole of a relationship:
Make consent the aim.

With sex making consent the aim, rather than getting sex, enables consensual sex to happen. With relationships we could make mutual consent the aim of the whole relationship, and each encounter: not getting what you want from the other person, or being what they want. This might look like wanting the maximum freedom and safety for you and the other person, regardless of what the relationship needs to look like in order for this to be possible.
Everyone knows that they don’t have to do it (now or ever).

Sex can’t be consensual unless we know that we absolutely don’t have to do it, and that no kind of punishment will occur if we don’t do it. With relationships the same is true for the whole relationship. We need to know that we are free to not be in this relationship, or in this particular way, without fearing that we will be punished or suffer significant loss. Here it can be useful to keep affirming with each other that our whole relationship (and our home, community, security, etc.) isn’t contingent on, for example: having sex regularly, continuing to cohabit, feeling romantic towards this person, our body staying the same, earning a certain amount, etc.
Consent is informed.

In sex this means knowing what’s on the cards before the encounter rather than being surprised with activities we weren’t expecting. In relationships this means having enough information to be able to make a decision about whether this kind of relationship with this person is a good idea for you. It’s important not to hide vital information that you know might make a person think twice or want to go slower. With each step in a relationship people need enough information in advance in order to make a consensual choice. For example it’s good to be clear about your feelings about having kids and childrearing long before you’ve committed to a relationship that would preclude people doing that elsewhere, or not doing it if it’s not what you want. It’s good to be clear about your financial situation and relationship with money long before sharing/borrowing/lending finances in any way. Considering speed of relationships can be helpful for having long enough to ensure informed consent before each step. It’s also important to explore shame and how we cover over shame in presenting ourselves to others.
Consent is ongoing.

In sex this means checking in verbally and/or non-verbally during the encounter that everyone is enjoying it, and pausing or stopping if not. In relationships this means also continuing to check in whether it is working well for everyone, and taking whatever kinds of pauses or breaks are necessary on aspects of the relationship – or the whole relationship – if it isn’t working (if it’s not working for everyone, it’s not working for anyone). The cultural idea of specific vows, promises or commitments can make ongoing consent difficult because they suggest that it’s possible to agree to share your money, body or home in a certain way for the rest of your life, whatever happens in relation to money, health or feelings.
There is no default script, but multiple options.

In sex there is the default script of first to fourth base (or similar). In relationships there is a similar cultural ‘escalator’ model where it is seen as good to get closer, more entwined, and happier over time, checking the points on the relationship checklist (e.g. dating, having sex, becoming exclusive, moving in together, getting married, having a family, etc.) For consent it’s vital to know that all erotic, sensual or sexual activities – and none – are equally valid, so you can choose what works best for everyone. In a relationship all ways of doing relationships – and all aspects of relationships – need to be affirmed as equally valid. Then you can find what works – and doesn’t work – for this particular relationship. It’s important that the person or people whose ways of doing things are the closest to the normative script maximise the agency of those whose ways are further away to articulate their preferences and have them respected.
We’re all mindful of power imbalances and how they constrain consent.

Sexual consent is way harder when one person has a lot of power over the other. For example it is hard to say ‘no’ if you feel at risk in some way if you don’t respond to another person’s sexual advances (career, money, care, safety, etc.) Similarly those with more power in a relationship need to recognise those with less may feel far less able to say what they need and where their boundaries are. It’s good to be open about the power imbalances, and to do what you can to enable those with less power in each area to identify and articulate their needs and boundaries and have them respected.
We try to be accountable.

It’s important to recognise that we won’t always be perfectly consensual and to recognise – as soon as possible – when this hasn’t happened, and to be accountable for that. Micro moments of non-consent can be fairly easy to repair, and the more we make a habit of doing that the more easy it can become. Bigger moments can be much harder, and this is where it’s really good to have a network of support around you to help each person to process what has happened, to enable them to take as much space as they need in order to be ready to address it, and to support them coming together to hear and be heard, and repair if possible.

SOURCE:

https://megjohnandjustin.com/relationships/consent-in-romantic-relationships-2/(accessed 16.5.22)

Women candidates are seen as less electable — which makes voters less likely to support them

By Emily Reynolds

Politics in the UK is becoming increasingly diverse. But there is still a way to go. When it comes to gender, the proportion of women in the House of Commons is at an all time high — but at 35%, is still far from representative of the population.

A new study, published in PNAS, looks at the barriers to women being elected. And the Stanford University team finds even voters who would prefer a female candidate show a level of “pragmatic bias”: if they believe that women candidates face barriers that make them less electable, they are less likely to vote for them.

Participants in the first study were Democrat voters. First, they were asked whether they felt it would be easier or harder for a woman to win the 2020 election against Trump compared to a man, and how ready they felt the US population was for a woman president. Next, they assessed the electability of specific candidates: Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. They were also asked about their personal preference for presidential candidate and who they would actually vote for in the Democratic primary.

Across the measures, participants consistently felt that women candidates were less electable: 76% believed it would be harder for a woman to win the 2020 election than a man, while only 18% believed Americans were extremely ready for a woman president. Half of the participants also believed that Harris and Warren were less electable than Biden and Sanders, while just 27% felt they were more electable.

Unsurprisingly, participants whose preferred candidate was a woman were more likely to say they’d vote for a woman candidate. But if they believed that male candidates were more likely to be elected, then many of these participants indicated that they’d shift their actual vote to a man. That is, concerns that women were less electable seemed to lead people to vote for men even when they really wanted to vote for a woman. A second study replicated these findings.

A third study found that simply giving people information about women’s electability was not enough to counteract this effect. Democratic primary voters were assigned to one of three conditions. In the true information condition, participants saw a correct figure showing that 52.5% of voters are very or extremely ready for a woman president; in the misperception condition, participants saw a figure showing only 15.7% are ready; and in the control condition, participants read general information about the election. They were then asked their likelihood of voting for a woman candidate. However, providing candidates with true information about the electorate’s willingness to elect a woman was not enough to overcome their pragmatic bias.

In the final studies, the team instead gave participants evidence that women are actually as successful as men in elections. They read that women are just as likely to win general elections as men, that they receive slightly more support than men, and that they are as successful as men at primaries. This time, the intervention increased their likelihood of intending to vote for a woman presidential candidate. And in a follow-up study, those who had seen this evidence were still more likely to say they’d vote for women candidates a month later, suggesting that sharing information about electability can increase voting intentions over a longer period of time.

Overall, the study suggests that a belief that women candidates are not electable ironically makes people less likely to vote for them — even voters who they profess to support these candidates. Future research could look at different levels of politics — does this stand for council elections, for example, or non-governmental elections, or was the executive level position explored here relevant? And would it apply to Republicans or those outside of the United States?

The team notes that in order to overcome pragmatic bias, it is not enough to believe others are simply ready for a female president but that “others will act on that readiness and vote accordingly”. Thinking and acting collectively could, then, shift attitudes and change representation.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2022/05/11/women-candidates-are-seen-as-less-electable-which-makes-voters-less-likely-to-support-them/(accessed 12.5.22)

Prejudice among Trump supporters increased after he became president

By Emily Reynolds

Whether or not Donald Trump’s presidency actively increased prejudice or simply emboldened those who already held bigoted views was frequently debated during his term. A new study looks more closely at prejudicial attitudes during the presidency, exploring the views of over 10,000 American citizens.

The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, finds a complex picture. While prejudicial attitudes decreased among Trump’s opponents, his supporters showed an increase in prejudice — and this seems to be because they believed these views had become more socially acceptable.

First, the researchers conducted a set of studies looking at attitudes towards Muslims. In 2014/2015, before Trump came into power, participants completed a scale measuring their levels of Islamophobia. Some also rated how ashamed, angry, guilty, and compassionate they felt towards a Muslim man who had been arrested by US forces and held in Guantanamo Bay prison. Then, two years later once Trump was in office, the participants repeated these measures and answered further questions about their political attitudes generally and support for Trump.

Participants did not, as a whole, increase or decrease in prejudice between the first and second survey. However, when the team looked at Trump supporters and opponents separately, this changed: supporters of Trump showed a significant increase in Islamophobia, while those opposed to Trump showed significant decreases in negativity towards Muslims. These findings were also replicated when participants read the story about the Muslim man imprisoned in a US military prison: Trump supporters reported significantly less concern for the man by the second survey.

Trump support was crucial here: this, rather than conservatism generally or membership of the Republican party, was the most important predictor of changes in prejudice. In fact, conservatives who opposed Trump did not display increases in prejudice.

The next set of studies looked at prejudice against African Americans, again surveying participants before and after Trump’s rise to power. The same patterns held: Trump support predicted increases in prejudice towards Black people, both in implicit and blatant forms. Trump supporters were more likely to agree with racist statements such as “Blacks are not as smart as Whites” by the second survey, for instance. And, again, this held when controlling for political conservatism more generally.

Data from a longitudinal study of American citizens conducted in 2016 and 2011 looked at prejudice against other minorities too. This data again showed that prejudice amongst Trump opponents decreased over this period, while supporters showed an increase in prejudice against some of these groups (for others, they didn’t show a significant increase but still didn’t show the decrease in bigotry seen in society on a broader scale).

What could account for these changes in prejudice? Shifts in social norms that occurred with the rise of Trump seem to be crucial. In a final set of studies looking at perception of other people’s attitudes, participants believed that Americans generally had become more critical of Muslims — something both Trump supporters and non-Trump supporters agreed on. And Trump supporters also reported that those they respected and admired in their own social group had become more critical of Muslims, too. In further experimental studies, the team found that leading people to believe that Trump supporters approved of his anti-immigrant rhetoric led Trump-supporting participants to express a greater degree of prejudice themselves.

While the earlier studies are merely correlational, these later studies provide evidence of some form of causation: that Trump supporters felt it was more acceptable to express prejudice after his election, and that this acceptance facilitated their own further expression. Creating social environments where such speech or action is not acceptable is, on a societal level, easier said than done — future research could look at ways to push back on hateful rhetoric even when it is being promoted by those in the public sphere.

Photo: Donald Trump holds a rally in 2016 after being elected president. Credit: Mark Makela/Getty Images

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2022/04/29/prejudice-among-trump-supporters-increased-after-he-became-president/(accessed 10.5.22)

Έρευνα: Ποια είναι η ιδανική ποσότητα ύπνου για μεσήλικες και ηλικιωμένος

Ένας μεγάλος αριθμός ανθρώπων πιστεύει ότι οι ενήλικες θα πρέπει να κοιμούνται οκτώ ώρες το βράδυ κι έτσι αυτό σημαίνει ένας πλήρης ύπνος. Όμως αυτό μπορεί να μην ισχύει πλέον όταν φτάσουμε σε μια συγκεκριμένη ηλικία




Ένας μεγάλος αριθμός ανθρώπων πιστεύει ότι οι ενήλικες θα πρέπει να κοιμούνται οκτώ ώρες το βράδυ κι έτσι αυτό σημαίνει ένας πλήρης ύπνος. Όμως αυτό μπορεί να μην ισχύει πλέον όταν φτάσουμε σε μια συγκεκριμένη ηλικία.


Μια ομάδα ερευνητών από το Πανεπιστήμιο του Κέμπριτζ στο Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο και το Πανεπιστήμιο Fudan στην Κίνα ανακάλυψαν ότι οι επτά ώρες ύπνου μπορεί να είναι η ιδανική ποσότητα για μεσήλικες και ηλικιωμένους.

Σε μια μελέτη που δημοσιεύτηκε στο περιοδικό Nature Aging, οι ερευνητές λένε ότι διαπίστωσαν πως οι επτά ώρες ύπνου ήταν ό,τι καλύτερο για τη γνωστική απόδοση και την καλή ψυχική υγεία.

Επιπλέον, εξέτασαν δεδομένα από σχεδόν 500.000 συμμετέχοντες ηλικίας 38 έως 73 ετών και διαπίστωσαν ότι ο ανεπαρκής –αλλά και υπερβολικός– ύπνος συσχετίστηκε με μειωμένη γνωστική απόδοση και χειρότερη ψυχική υγεία.


Οι συμμετέχοντες στη μελέτη ανέφεραν τον τρόπο και τις συνήθειες στον ύπνο τους και απάντησαν και σε ερωτήσεις σχετικά με την ευημερία και την ψυχική τους υγεία. Ολοκλήρωσαν μια σειρά από γνωστικά τεστ που εξέταζαν την ταχύτητα με την οποία επεξεργάζονται καταστάσεις, την οπτική προσοχή, τη μνήμη και τις δεξιότητες στην επίλυση προβλημάτων. Όσοι είχαν κοιμηθεί επτά ώρες τα πήγαν καλύτερα σε όλα τα επίπεδα.

Ωστόσο, υπάρχει μια λεπτομέρεια: το 94% των συμμετεχόντων ήταν λευκοί, επομένως δεν είναι σαφές εάν τα αποτελέσματα ισχύουν για μαύρους και ανθρώπους άλλης εθνικότητας.

Ένας άλλος σημαντικός παράγοντας είναι η συνέπεια. Τα καλύτερα αποτελέσματα παρατηρήθηκαν σε άτομα που εμφάνισαν μικρές διακυμάνσεις στα μοτίβα ύπνου για μεγάλα χρονικά διαστήματα και που ο ύπνος είχε συνολική διάρκεια επτά ωρών.
Ύπνος που διακόπτεται: Κίνδυνος για άνοια

«Ο καλός ύπνος είναι σημαντικός σε όλα τα στάδια της ζωής, αλλά ιδιαίτερα όσο μεγαλώνουμε», δήλωσε η Μπάρμπαρα Σαχακιάν, καθηγήτρια στο Πανεπιστήμιο του Κέιμπριτζ και συν-συγγραφέας της μελέτης.


Οι ερευνητές λένε ότι η έλλειψη ύπνου είναι πιθανό να εμποδίσει τη διαδικασία απαλλαγής του εγκεφάλου από τις τοξίνες. Τονίζουν επίσης ότι η διαταραχή του βραδέως ή βαθέως ύπνου μπορεί να ευθύνεται για τη γνωστική «πτώση».

Όταν ο βαθύς ύπνος διακόπτεται, αυτό επηρεάζει την εδραίωση της μνήμης και μπορεί να οδηγήσει στη συσσώρευση αμυλοειδούς, μιας πρωτεΐνης που μπορεί —αν δεν λειτουργήσει όπως θα έπρεπε— να προκαλέσει «μπερδέματα» στον εγκέφαλο που είναι χαρακτηριστικά ορισμένων μορφών άνοιας.

Ο ανεπαρκής ή υπερβολικός ύπνος θα μπορούσε να αποτελέσει έναν παράγοντα κινδύνου για τη γνωστική «έκπτωση» στη γήρανση.

«Αν και δεν μπορούμε να πούμε με βεβαιότητα ότι ο ελάχιστος ή πολύς ύπνος προκαλεί γνωστικά προβλήματα, η ανάλυσή μας φαίνεται να υποστηρίζει αυτή την ιδέα», δήλωσε ο Γιανφενγκ Φενγκ, επιστήμονας του εγκεφάλου και καθηγητής στο Πανεπιστήμιο Fudan. «Αλλά οι λόγοι για τους οποίους οι ηλικιωμένοι έχουν “φτωχότερη” ποιότητα ύπνου φαίνεται να είναι περίπλοκοι, επηρεασμένοι από έναν συνδυασμό της γενετικής μας σύνθεσης και της δομής του εγκεφάλου μας».
Η διάρκεια του ύπνου επηρεάζει τη δομή του εγκεφάλου

Οι ερευνητές κοίταξαν επίσης την απεικόνιση του εγκεφάλου και τα γενετικά δεδομένα, αλλά αυτά τα δεδομένα ήταν μόνο διαθέσιμα για λιγότερο από 40.000 από τους συμμετέχοντες.

Αυτά τα δεδομένα έδειξαν ότι η ποσότητα του ύπνου θα μπορούσε να συνδεθεί με διαφορές όσον αφορά τη δομή των περιοχών του εγκεφάλου, όπως ο ιππόκαμπος, που θεωρείται το κέντρο μνήμης και μάθησης του εγκεφάλου, και ο προκεντρικός φλοιός, ο οποίος είναι υπεύθυνος για την εκτέλεση εκούσιων κινήσεων.

Δεδομένου ότι ο κίνδυνος εμφάνισης Αλτσχάιμερ και άνοιας -ασθένειες της γήρανσης που συνοδεύονται από γνωστικές «βλάβες»- έχει συνδεθεί με τη διάρκεια του ύπνου, οι ερευνητές λένε ότι χρειάζεται επιπλέον εργασία στον τομέα της επιστήμης του ύπνου.

«Η εύρεση τρόπων βελτίωσης του ύπνου για τους ηλικιωμένους θα μπορούσε να είναι ζωτικής σημασίας για να τους βοηθήσει να διατηρήσουν καλή ψυχική υγεία και ευεξία, ιδιαίτερα για ασθενείς με ψυχιατρικές διαταραχές και άνοιες», είπε η Σαχακιάν.



Με πληροφορίες από το DW

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://www.kathimerini.gr/life/health/561838480/ereyna-poia-einai-i-idaniki-posotita-ypnoy-gia-mesilikes-kai-ilikiomenos/(accessed 6.5.22)

Feeling Better About Our Bodies

Content note. We discuss how we might feel better about our bodies. So we touch on the social messages we get about bodies and this includes us talking about fatphobia, diets, ‘health’, disablism, but we don’t go into much detail. It’s a long one — sorry about that.



Around the time of year that we recorded this podcast – early Spring – it’s easy to feel bad about our bodies. Cultural scripts suggest that we should overindulge and hibernate over the Winter, but that after new year we should be follow resolutions to diet and ‘get in shape’ for the summer ‘beach body’.



The media doesn’t help. At the moment there are a number of billboard adverts and makeover TV shows focusing on weight-loss and ‘improving appearance’. Particularly problematic are the links that are made between looking a certain way and ‘health’ and ‘fun’. Not only are we meant to have a certain appearance in order to be attractive and sexy, but also we’re blamed and shamed for being ‘unhealthy’ if we don’t conform to cultural beauty ideals, as well as often internalising the idea that caring about ‘looks’ is a fun and pleasurable thing to do, and to do otherwise would mean being a killjoy.

But the beauty ideal is incredibly limited. Looking around at the aspirational bodies that surround us they’re overwhelmingly young, thin, white, ‘flawless’, non-disabled, and gendered to match the ideals of rugged masculinity and delicate femininity, and a good deal of wealth is required to buy all the products necessary for maintaining such an ideal. We scientifically estimate on the podcast that 97% of people will not match these ideals for one reason or another, and all of us will move away from them as we age of course.
Love your body?

Most of us are likely to feel bad about our bodies if we’re surrounded by such narrow body ideals that we can’t possibly match up to. But what can we do about this? There has been a move among some people to replace the ‘change your body’ message of so much advertising and other media with a ‘love your body’ message.

This is pretty risky because it still locates the problem in us as individuals – rather than wider society. It’s bloody hard to love your body when the whole world is implicitly – or explicitly – telling you not to. If we receive the message that we should be able to easily love our bodies, that gives us yet another thing to feel bad about.

There’s a real tension when we live in a very individualising culture to know how to address things like this without continuing to individualise our struggles. At megjohnandjustin.com, we find the following diagram helpful – for all kinds of things – to think through how they work on multiple levels, and how we might address them on all those levels too. We can’t just try to relate differently to our body on an individual level if the people around us, our communities, and wider culture simply stay the same.

In the podcast we explore what we might do at each of these levels:Society – We could notice the images around us and be critical of them. We could confront fat-shaming remembering that it’s actually poverty, type of diet, and fitness that relate to health – not fatness; that being ‘underweight’ is generally more risky health-wise than being ‘overweight’; that these categories are based on an old model of measurement that doesn’t relate to how bodies are these days; and that shaming people about their bodies makes everything far worse – not better – for them. We could engage in body-related activism. We could seek out different subcultures that incorporate more diversity of bodies or expand our ideas of what is beautiful.
Communities – We could deliberately share materials that are critical of body ideals, or which incorporate a wider range of bodies. We could curate our social media accounts to avoid body-shaming from others, and to put out different messages ourselves, including filters and content notes. We could find communities which are trying to cultivate different ways of engaging with bodies. We could deliberately follow communities online which challenge narrow body ideals, including fat activists, disability activists, dwarf community activists, age activists, etc.
Interpersonal Relationships – We could keep an eye on whether we shame people in our lives for aspects of their bodies or bodily practices and try to stop doing that. We could have consent conversations about how we like to be treated in relation to our bodies, and what we find difficult from others.
Yourself – We could try to incorporate more embodied experiences into our lives where we feel ‘at one’ with our bodies rather than separate to them and scrutinising of them. These can include activities where the body is in motion, being alone, being in nature, etc.


Acceptance and Change

The ‘love your body’ message risks replacing the idea that we should always change our bodies to fit beauty ideals with the idea that we should always accept our bodies as they are and that changing them in any way is a bad thing that’s always about conforming to cultural norms.

Actually each person needs to find their own way of navigating the possibilities of change and acceptance in relation to their bodies (and in other areas). For example bodily changes of various kinds can be extremely helpful in decreasing physical pain and discomfort and/or improving mental health and/or opening up new possibilities in our lives.

Many trans people, disabled people, people with chronic health conditions, fat people, and others face a constant barrage of messages from one group of people telling them they should make changes to their bodies, while another group of people tell them they shouldn’t and that they should accept their bodies as they are. It’s not for anybody else to tell us how we should relate to our bodies, and – as a culture – we should help everyone to navigate these complex decisions about change/acceptance and support them through the various options instead of telling people what they should or should not do with their bodies.

SOURCE:

https://megjohnandjustin.com/bodies/feeling-better-bodies/#more-706(accessed 5.5.22)

Η εμπλοκή της οικογένειας στην εξέλιξη του εφήβου

Κώστας Τσώλης

Στην παιδική ηλικία η ωρίμανση εξαρτάται από την «αποκοπή από την συμβιωτική μεμβράνη για να γίνει ένα αυτόνομο παιδί» (Mahler 1963) και αποτελεί την πρώτη διαδικασία διαφοροποίησης. Στην εφηβική ηλικία η απόρριψη των οικογενειακών δεσμών και η χαλάρωση του δεσμού με το νηπιακό αντικείμενο έχει σκοπό να γίνει το άτομο ένα μέρος της κοινωνίας του ενήλικου κόσμου και αποτελεί την δεύτερη διαδικασία διαφοροποίησης. Το τελευταίο οδηγεί τον έφηβο σε αντιπαράθεση με τους κανόνες που του επιβάλλονται από το περιβάλλον και ιδιαίτερα από τον «οικογενειακό μύθο». Η εφηβεία ευνοεί το «δράμα» που αφορά τον εξωτερικό κόσμο και την «τραγωδία» που αφορά τον εσωτερικό κόσμο – μια διαδικασία που αφήνει βαθιά ίχνη στον έφηβο και στην ενήλικη προσωπικότητά του. Ο ίδιος δεν θέλει να δεσμεύεται από τις επιθυμίες, τις προσδοκίες και τις αρχές των γονέων του. Θέλει να βρει την αυθεντικότητα τού εαυτού του και έτσι έρχεται σε αντιπαράθεση με τους γονείς του και την ευρύτερη κοινωνία. Η σύγκρουση είναι σιωπηλή ή ταραχώδης και με εκδραματίσεις που μπορούν να τον βάλουν σε κίνδυνο. Οι γονείς επηρεάζουν την εφηβική πορεία με λογική ανεκτικότητα ή με θυμό και απόρριψη που εξαρτώνται από τον ψυχισμό τους, Ο έφηβος είναι φυσιολογικό να παλινδρομεί λόγω των νηπιακών του αναγκών μέχρι να τις εγκατάλειψη αποδεσμευόμενος από τα εσωτερικά του αντικείμενα. Με κάποιον τρόπο μπορούμε να πούμε ότι αποκλείεται η προοδευτική ανάπτυξη του έφηβο εάν η παλινδρόμηση δεν πάρει τον κατάλληλο δρόμο και έχει το χρόνο μέσα στην εξέλιξη της εφηβικής διαδικασίας ωρίμανσης. Οπότε υπάρχει μια αλληλεπίδραση μεταξύ έφηβου και οικογένειας ως προς την διαφοροποίηση του.

ΠΗΓΗ:

https://psychoanalysis.edu.gr/el/%ce%b7-%ce%b5%ce%bc%cf%80%ce%bb%ce%bf%ce%ba%ce%ae-%cf%84%ce%b7%cf%82-%ce%bf%ce%b9%ce%ba%ce%bf%ce%b3%ce%ad%ce%bd%ce%b5%ce%b9%ce%b1%cf%82-%cf%83%cf%84%ce%b7%ce%bd-%ce%b5%ce%be%ce%ad%ce%bb%ce%b9%ce%be/(accessed 4.5.22)

We unconsciously pay more attention to someone who has dilated pupils

By Emma Young

How do you know when someone else is paying attention to you? If they’re staring at you intensely, that’s a pretty obvious giveaway. But there are also far subtler signals — such as the size of their pupils.

As Clara Colombatto and Brian Scholl at Yale University note in a new paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, our pupils automatically and uncontrollably dilate when we’re emotionally aroused, working something out, or just attending to something. Pupil size has been used as an objective indicator of all these things in a wealth of recent studies.

But if another person is directing their attention towards you, you need to know about it. It might be attention that you should reciprocate, to build a relationship, or it might signal a potential threat. So, Colombatto and Scholl wondered, “If the apprehension of pupil size is so helpful to scientists, might it be similarly helpful to us in everyday life?”

To investigate, they studied groups of student participants. For these screen-based studies, they manipulated the presentation of a series of images so that they only gradually became perceptible. As soon as a participant saw any part of the image emerge into their conscious awareness, they hit a key.

In each of the two main studies, the participants were repeatedly exposed to versions of face and upper torso images of two men and two women. The researchers digitally manipulated the pupils so that they were either small or large; in the first study, they also digitally cut, rotated and pasted pairs of large or small pupils to resemble shirt buttons. In the second study, instead of “buttons”, a single large or small pupil was pasted near the mouth to resemble a facial mole. Colombatto and Scholl varied the size of the pupils and the “buttons” or “moles” independently, and looked for any differences in the time it took for the images to be consciously perceived.The team varied the size of the pupils (left) and either buttons (middle) or moles (right). Buttons and moles actually consisted of pupils digitally imposed on the shirt or face. From Colombatto and Scholl (2022)

The results showed that the participants became more rapidly consciously aware of facial close-ups with large vs small pupils — but this was not the case for large vs small “buttons” or large vs small “moles” (even though the large facial moles really stood out visually against the individuals’ skin). It seems, then, that our visual system is indeed attuned to large pupils, which carry a social meaning — but not to otherwise identical dots.

A further experiment ruled out a potential alternative explanation for the results: that a face with dilated pupils might be perceived as more attractive, and this could lead it to enter conscious awareness more rapidly. Colombatto and Scholl found, in fact, that big-pupil versions of the eye regions were considered less attractive than the small-pupil versions.

“Despite its social significance, pupil dilation is an exceptionally visually subtle signal,” the pair also notes. During debriefings after the experiments, only two of their total of 60 participants said they’d noticed any eye differences in the images. One referred to a difference in eye colour. The other said: “Some people looked more intense.” “This degree of subtlety makes the key results of the study all the more striking,” they argue — and it’s hard to disagree.

In revealing that we unconsciously pay more attention to someone who seems to be paying attention to us, the work also helps to illuminate the processes by which we come to share mutual attention. “In short, the current results suggest that the perceived attentional state of other can in turn cause us to attend to them — a novel form of ‘attentional contagion’,” the researchers conclude.

SOURCE:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2022/05/04/we-unconsciously-pay-more-attention-to-someone-who-has-dilated-pupils/#more-46133(accessed 4.5.22)