Goldsmiths University of London

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) encompasses the taking, sharing, and/or making threats to share nude or sexual images of others without consent. Research shows that a large percentage of individuals have been a bystander to IBSA, but most do not intervene. Currently, there is little understanding of why this is the case. The research presented in this article begins to address this gap in the literature by identifying situational factors that facilitate or inhibit behavioral intentions to intervene through three experimental studies. In each study, situational factors were manipulated using vignettes that depicted the taking of images without consent (Study 1; n = 126), sharing images without consent (Study 2; n = 125), and threatening to share images (Study 3; n = 125). The dependent variable across studies was how likely they would be to intervene if they witnessed the scenario described. Study 1 investigated the effect of the presence of other bystanders (no other bystanders present, other bystanders present who were friends with each other, or other bystanders present who were strangers to each other), and no significant effect was found. Study 2 investigated the role of initial consent to take the image (self-taken or stealth-taken) and the bystander relationship with the victim (friend or stranger). Likelihood to intervene was less likely when the image was self-taken, and the victim was a stranger. Finally, Study 3 investigated the role of initial consent to take the image and bystander relationship with the perpetrator (friend or stranger). Perpetrator-focused intervention was more likely, but justice-focused intervention was less likely, when the perpetrator was a friend. These findings have implications for the development of educational materials, campaigns, and agendas aimed at encouraging bystander intervention.

Genetic research has a potentially increasing impact on educational practices. This study investigated attitudes towards the utility of genetic and environmental research in personalising education, with comparisons between parents/non‐parents and educators/non‐educators, as well as how these attitudes may relate to heritability ratings of educationally relevant traits (N = 6,304). Data was collected using the International Genetic Literacy and Attitudes Survey (iGLAS). Overall, participants endorsed environmental research more than genetic research to personalising education. Parents were slightly less likely to endorse genetic (but not environmental) research than non‐parents. Educators tended to endorse environmental research over genetic research when compared to non‐educators; however, effect sizes were minimal. Participants ranking educational traits as more heritable were more likely to endorse genetic (but not environmental) research in education. Future work should focus on promoting the importance of genetic and environmental research in education.

Background The Cass Review aimed to provide recommendations for the delivery of services for gender diverse children and young people in England. The final product of this project, the Cass report, relied on commissioned research output, including quantitative and qualitative primary research as well as seven systematic reviews, to inform its recommendations and conclusions. Methods We critically evaluated the Cass report and the research that was commissioned to inform it. To evaluate the Risk of Bias within the seven systematic reviews commissioned by the Cass Review, we applied the ROBIS tool – a domain-based assessment of risk of bias within systematic reviews. It focuses on four domains (i) study eligibility criteria, (ii) identification and selection of studies, (iii) data collection and study appraisal, and (iv) synthesis and findings. To maintain rigour, the ROBIS tool was applied to each systematic review by two independent assessors, within Covidence, with conflicts resolved by an additional two independent assessors. We also conducted a detailed critical evaluation of the methods used in the survey of gender services for young people in Europe, the two quantitative studies of health records, and the qualitative study on the experience of gender dysphoria among young people and the claims made in the Cass report based on these studies. Results Using the ROBIS tool, we identified a high risk of bias in each of the systematic reviews driven by unexplained protocol deviations, ambiguous eligibility criteria, inadequate study identification, and the failure to integrate consideration of these limitations into the conclusions derived from the evidence syntheses. We also identified methodological flaws and unsubstantiated claims in the primary research that suggest a double standard in the quality of evidence produced for the Cass report compared to quality appraisal in the systematic reviews. Conclusions We discuss these issues in relation to how evidence regarding gender affirming care is framed, the wider political context, and the future for gender affirming care. The Cass report’s recommendations, given its methodological flaws and misrepresentation of evidence, warrant critical scrutiny to ensure ethical and effective support for gender-diverse youth.

This article investigates how conflicts emerge and unfold among newly cohabiting couples during the daily practices of making and sharing dinner. Adopting a ‘moments approach’, findings from an ethnographic study involving 12 couples reveal how conflictual moments emerge from clashes between individuals’ dispositions regarding responsibilities (who does what), standards (what is appropriate) and techniques (how things are done). Clashes are reflected upon through a process of zooming in and zooming out where conflicting gendered, classed and cultural dispositions emerge. At the conceptual level, conflictual moments are identified as epistemic and affective scenarios revealing broader structural and socio-cultural inequalities permeating domestic life of heterosexual couples.

Drawing on research mapping the commodity chains associated with beauty salon consumption, this article examines the subtle yet pervasive ways in which oil works to make and maintain hairless ‘feminine’ bodies. Developing a methodological approach focused on the liveliness of depilatory wax, which included fostering a close attention to how wax behaves and asking Beauty Therapists to narrate what they were doing whilst carrying out treatments, the article explores not only why but how hair removal happens. The article shows how petro-products are a key and active force in the material production of smooth bodies, simultaneously entrenching socio-cultural expectations of ‘feminine’ hairlessness. Making the wax always-available – it is taken-for-granted that more can always be manufactured from a seemingly infinite source – oil is also active in enabling the maintenance of ‘femininity’ through the required repetition of hair removal. An attention to how these practices are quietly but deeply predicated upon petroleum, the prevalence of expectations of ‘feminine’ hairlessness and the social sanctions if one does not engage highlights the extent of the challenge facing calls for divestment from oil. The bi-monthly, 45-minute waxing treatment exemplifies the under-noticed but unrelenting ubiquity with which petro-products thoroughly permeate and produce the socio-material world.

Tomoko Tamari conducted this interview with the editors of the Body & Society special issue ‘Pregnant Bodies – Embodied Pregnancy’ in order to explore their rationale for focusing on pregnant bodies and exploring how their personal experience of being pregnant women during their editing process of the issue influenced their analytical insights into pregnancy and pregnant bodies. Tamari also raises the issues of transgender male’s pregnancy, which is often stigmatised, and analyses the lived experience so as to further discuss multifactorial and complex embodied pregnancy in society. In 2020 she introduced Body & Society’s special section on ‘Biocircularities: Lives, Times and Technologies’ (Vol. 29, Issue 2) and the notion of ‘recursion’ to raise the question of how the development of reproductive science and technology has transformed ‘the temporality’ of pregnant bodies to make possible ‘multiple temporalities’. Finally, Kloß and Villinger discuss their thoughts about experiences of ‘after pregnancy’ and ‘becoming a mother’ in order to open up potential future research topics.

This article provides a response to Judith Butler’s recent book Who’s Afraid of Gender? making the case for the volume as a key contribution to feminist cultural studies, an exemplary pedagogic text, close to Stuart Hall’s style of writing. The book works as a counter to the anti-gender currents which have demonised genderqueer and trans people through the unleashing of populist sentiments securing these to a right-wing agenda. The article draws attention to the UK tabloid press and its reliance on social media invective. With the university as a contested space, what scope is there for new forms of public pedagogy to emerge?

Avatars are edging into mainstream videoconferencing, but evaluation of how avatar animation modalities contribute to work meeting outcomes has been limited. We report a within-group videoconferencing experiment in which 68 employees of a global technology company, in 16 groups, used the same stylized avatars in three modalities (static picture, audio-animation, and webcam-animation) to complete collaborative decision-making tasks. Quantitatively, for meeting outcomes, webcam-animated avatars improved meeting effectiveness over the picture modality and were also reported to be more comfortable and inclusive than both other modalities. In terms of avatar satisfaction, there was a similar preference for webcam animation as compared to both other modalities. Our qualitative analysis shows participants expressing a preference for the holistic motion of webcam animation, and that meaningful movement outweighs realism for meeting outcomes, as evidenced through a systematic overview of ten thematic factors. We discuss implications for research and commercial deployment and conclude that webcam-animated avatars are a plausible alternative to video in work meetings.

Understanding how creativity is judged in brief, structured texts is essential for exploring aesthetic and emotional engagement in minimalist art forms. Haiku and Senryu, two concise poetic genres, provide a unique lens to investigate how creativity is perceived under constraints of brevity. This study examines how readers' subjective experiences of poems, their personality traits, and the structure of their semantic memory networks influence creativity judgments. Fifty‐one participants evaluated 140 English‐language poems (70 Haiku and 70 Senryu) and 70 nonpoetic control texts in a laboratory experiment. Participants rated each stimulus on aesthetic appeal, vivid imagery, emotionality, originality, and overall creativity. They also completed seven personality assessments, and their semantic memory networks were estimated by a verbal fluency task. We found originality to be the strongest predictor of creativity in both poetic genres. However, the influence of aesthetic appeal and emotionality varied: Haiku balanced aesthetic beauty and emotional resonance, while Senryu prioritized emotional resonance. Personality traits, including the vividness of visual and auditory imagery, significantly influenced creativity judgments. Participants who favored Haiku exhibited more efficient and flexible semantic memory networks. This study provides novel insights into how creativity is evaluated in constrained poetic forms, offering broader implications for creativity in structured art.

Acoustic noise can have profound effects on wellbeing, impacting the health of pregnant women and their fetus. Mounting evidence suggests neural memory traces are formed by auditory learning in utero. A better understanding of the fetal auditory environment is therefore critical to avoid exposure to damaging noise levels. Using anatomical data from MRI scans of pregnant patients (N=4) from 24 weeks of gestation, we develop a computational model to quantify fetal exposure to acoustic field. We obtain acoustic transfer characteristics across the human audio range and pressure maps in transverse planes passing through the uterus at 5 kHz, 10 kHz and 20 kHz, showcasing multiple scattering and modal patterns. Our calculations show that the sound transmitted in utero is attenuated by as little as 6 dB below 1 kHz, confirming results from animal studies that the maternal abdomen and pelvis do not shelter the fetus from external noise.

Background Suicide has been reported as a leading cause of premature death in autistic populations. Additionally, risk of suicidality is often found to increase with age in the general population. Despite this, suicidality has seldom been explored in autistic populations in midlife and older age. This study investigates the self-reported prevalence of self-harm and suicidality in autistic people in midlife and older age compared to an age- and gender-matched non-autistic comparison group. Methods In total, 388 participants (autistic n = 222, 44% men) aged 40–93 years (mean = 60.9 years) from the AgeWellAutism study completed questionnaires related to experiences of suicidal ideation, self-harming thoughts, deliberate self-harm, and suicidal self-harm. Group, gender and age differences were examined chi-square and linear regression analyses. Results The autistic group reported significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation, self-harming thoughts, deliberate self-harm, and suicidal self-harm than the non-autistic comparison group. When considering gender differences in the autistic group (but not the non-autistic group due to limited sample size), autistic women reported significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation and suicidal self-harm compared to autistic men; no other gender differences were found. When considering age differences, autistic people in old age were more likely to have had thoughts of self-harm, to have deliberately self-harmed, and to have experienced suicidal self-harm than autistic people in midlife. Limitations: The AgeWellAutism study is a cross-sectional convenience sample that relies on self-report. Survivor bias may also influence findings, as the study design would exclude those who have died by suicide, potentially leading to an underestimation of suicidality. Conclusions Autistic adults may be particularly susceptible to experiences of self-harm and suicidality in midlife and older age, particularly autistic women. Additionally, autistic people in old age were also more likely to experience suicidality (including recent experiences) than autistic people in midlife. These findings highlight the urgent need for targeted suicide prevention strategies and mental health interventions for autistic adults in midlife and older age, particularly autistic women and older people.

In translating data governance for the AI era, Taylor et al. have put forward a set of ambitious and considered benchmarks that can serve as an important vision for data justice. However, in doing so, we are also confronted with the challenges of the current ‘AI moment’. The open consolidation of powerful interests seeking to advance AI's unfettered development has also marginalised governance agendas, especially those seeking to assert publicness and avenues for resistance and refusal. In this sense, asserting benchmarks for just data governance can only garner real meaning if such benchmarks can account for the broader politics of the current AI moment and connect to the political mobilisation around data justice that might now be possible.

Attending to competing styles of thought in healthcare controversies may be helpful to critical health scholarship. This article reexamines the debate over the introduction of a new HIV prevention technology in England as a tension between epidemiological and molecular style of thoughts. I argue English HIV services were organised according to an epidemiological style of thought. The introduction of biomedical pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to the health system brought this rationality into question in ways the English health system was ill-prepared to manage. A situational analysis of English PrEP discourse in the lead up and following NHS-England’s ‘U-turn’ on PrEP illustrates a split along epidemiologically and biomedically informed styles of thought. These networks have their dedicated administrators, experts, activists and ways of thinking about their target population and preferred organisation of HIV services. Though they often collaborate, these two groups have distinct moral and political agendas that relate to their style of thinking. This analysis further nuances existing critical interpretations of the PrEP controversy in England. Beyond England, this debate suggests a potential departure from the conventional biopolitical subject and rationality of advanced liberalism.

Background: Participatory music-based interventions can promote mental health and connectedness across diverse contexts, including in the perinatal period. However, research on participatory music-based perinatal interventions is limited and typically focused on postnatal depression. This study explores the various elements of four music-based interventions supporting different severities of perinatal mental health needs. Methods: Five musician leads and two clinicians were interviewed from four music-based perinatal interventions. Interviews explored the key features, goals, impacts and challenges of each intervention. Results: A reflexive thematic analysis identified four themes: (1) Incorporating varied musical activities; (2) Fostering a supportive community; (3) Affecting psycho-emotional change; and (4) Strategies for accessibility. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the multiple mechanisms through which participatory music interventions can promote perinatal mental health, including emotional regulation, self-compassion and coping skills. These findings can be used to guide future interventions for a wider spectrum of severities and types of perinatal mental health.