2015 Association for Women in Psychology Conference

As evidenced by recent attention from the press, questions around institutional policy, and public outcry, politics regarding sexual violence have become particularly pertinent within Western culture. These articulations play out across an array of discourses, including media landscapes. Drawing from popular culture and contemporary literature, television, and film, the papers in this symposium will utilize feminist frameworks to delineate how our society understands and reacts to sexual violence. This symposium serves to ask: Where and how do we learn about sexual violence? Why do media outlets so often romanticize and glorify abusive relationships? What are the implications of consuming these problematic media images? Both presenters will extrapolate from their continued research on rape culture to analyze the real-world impact of these media depictions. The specific and insidious abusive links within several popular television series and novels, among them Scandal, Game of Thrones, Twilight, and 50 Shades of Grey, are analyzed. The presenters assert that the marketing and development of these media series suggest that abuse is acceptable and favorable, and that rape serves to function primarily as a plot device. Norms of masculinity, femininity, and heterosexuality all play a role in constructing images of victims and abusers, “good girls” and “bad girls”, and notions of true love. Furthermore, these portrayals contribute to the existence and proliferation of rape culture. The presenters find that these media examples actively harm individual consumers and inspire the creation of similarly problematic media-- an effect which is exacerbated when that content is disseminated across the globe. Additionally, the presenters bring an activist dimension to their work by including victims’ words and experiences, and by confronting the culture of silence that surrounds sexualized harm. This symposium strives to cultivate new directions for feminist social justice efforts, particularly in approaches to rape, resistance, prevention, violence, and victimhood.

In the 19th century the paramount moral challenge was slavery; in the 20th century totalitarianism; today, it is the brutality inflicted upon women. This Symposium addresses the pervasiveness of gender violence globally, followed by an in-depth discussion of sex trafficking, and concludes with a discussion of approaches to empower women and promote gender equality

This symposium presents both quantitative and qualitative research and clinical strategies related to the experience of sexual minority stress and resilient responses to ward off their effects. Sexual minority stress is the stress that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people experience in addition to the every day stress that all people experience (e.g., Meyer, 2001). The presentation addresses questions about how sexual minority stressors function across different groups of women, about how resilience to sexual minority stressors can best be conceptualized, and about how the damage from sexual minority stress can best be repaired within our contemporary landscape. At the beginning of the symposium, researchers explore LGBQ women’s gender expression to see how masculinity in women influences minority stressors and mental health via a survey study. Outcomes explored include internalized homophobia, identity concealment, expectations of rejection and psychological distress. The second set of researchers examines the question of whether people who have multiple minority identities have increased resilience to sexual minority stressors by examining how LGBT women of color experience social well-being. The ways this population experiences connectedness to communities, loneliness, and social support is explored. Next, a qualitative study queries the ways that resilience functions to support LGB people. It sheds light upon the ways resilient responses can mitigate minority stressors but also upon the potential costs of those same responses. Finally, an eminent therapist examines how, as advances are being made in the social acceptance of LGBTQ populations, sexual prejudices are shifting in form to become increasingly subtle. These covert forms of sexual prejudice may be harder for both clients and therapists to recognize and resist. She shares her clinical insights on how practitioners can refine their practices to help clients repair the effects of sexual minority stressors. We request a 90-minute program slot, if possible.