Eric Swank

Arizona State University West Campus · Social & Cultural Analysis

This study examines the links between sexual identity and participation in political protests. Among a sample of college students (N = 2175), we determined that sexual minority students were three times more likely to join a protest than heterosexual students. “Political distinctiveness” theories are used to explain this sexual identity gap in prot...

Some recent studies suggest that lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people are generally more racially progressive than heterosexuals. However, the findings of these “political distinctiveness” studies are up for some debate. Other studies find no sexuality gaps in racial attitudes, and these studies overlook the possibility of bisexual people having...

Sexual identities can influence political attitudes and actions. During political elections, gay men, lesbians, and bisexual individuals (GLB) have historically aligned with Democratic candidates. In the recent presidential election of 2016, this pattern persisted, as the vast majority of GLBs voted with the Democratic candidate for president in th...

Exposure to heterosexist discrimination may vary by a person's place of residency. Utilizing a minority stress perspective, an online survey of self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals (n = 285) examined whether rural and small town inhabitants experienced greater exposure to six types of enacted stigma. After comparing the freq...

This study addressed the relative liberalism of White lesbians. In doing so, we compared sexuality differences in White women's reactions to sexual, gender, and racial hierarchies. In the end, our analysis of 2,950 women from the American National Election Survey (ANES) suggested three trends. First, lesbians and bisexual women rejected and challen...

Though marriage is seemingly attached to the private sphere and politics to the public sphere, marriage and politics operate as intertwined institutions. Political parties routinely pitch themselves as “the protector of family values” and getting married can shift a person’s political commitments. Studies generally agree that married people in diff...

This study has three tasks. First, it establishes the extent in which current social work students engage in protest activities. Second, it analyzes the ways that a student’s sexual identity may impact their tendency to protest. Lastly, the work explores the reasons why sexual identity may impact protest inclinations. Data for this study were drawn...

Sexual minorities of color often speak about racism in White lesbian and gay communities while White sexual minorities often consider themselves liberals, especially for issues of racial justice. This study explored this contradiction by analyzing the role of sexual identities in predicting antiracist thoughts and actions of self-identified White p...

Notions of who counts as a sexual partner – that is, what specific actions, feelings, or relationships become defined as part of one’s sexual history – often carry assumptions about sexual scripts, power, and social identities. In this exploratory study, we analysed semi-structured interviews with eighteen women from a diverse 2019 community sample...

Introduction This study traced sexuality differences in Black Lives Matter (BLM) approval before using theories of “political distinctiveness” to explain why sexuality differences occurred. Methods A random sample of 3489 US adults completed the 2016 wave of the American National Election Survey (ANES) Time Series project. Ordinary least squares (...

Scholarship on the first waves of the Black Lives Matter protests (2013–2014) has emerged in recent years but little is yet known about women’s responses to the cycle of Black Lives Matter/George Floyd protests that occurred in the Summer of 2020. This study analyzed semi-structured interviews with a racially diverse community sample of 20 women an...

Traditional gender scripts in restaurants assume that men wield money, while women are framed as ‘accessories’ who do not pay restaurant checks in mixed-gender settings. While some research has addressed how servers replicate this script at U.S. restaurants, no previous research has looked at this practice longitudinally over time. This study explo...

We draw from critical pedagogy and work on radical democratic praxis when discussing ways to teach sexuality studies in a way that embodies revolt and resistance to inequitable social hierarchies. Together, we specifically look at three areas where we have worked to infuse the teaching of sexuality with themes of resistance and revolt: 1) Enhancing...

Accurate biological information about menstruation is crucial for menstrual health literacy. A diverse group of students (N = 125) at a large southwestern US university estimated—by pouring liquid into containers—the amount of menstrual blood produced during an average menstrual period. Only 14% could give a relatively accurate estimate, whereas 55...

Tensions between emotional labor, agency, entitlement, and coercion all underlie women’s ability or inability to negotiate, consent to, and refuse oral and anal sex. In this study, we analyzed semi-structured interviews with twenty women from a diverse 2014 community sample collected in a large Southwestern U.S. city in order to examine the context...

Feminists often see abortion restrictions as a way to remove female control over their labor, sexual practices, and reproductive decisions. Pro-life advocates often deny such motives, arguing that they only care about stopping the murder of “unborn humans” and the trauma associated with having an abortion. This study addresses these concerns by stu...

Although some researchers have addressed differences in sexual desire between sexual partners, little attention has been paid to the subjective narratives of how women understand and reflect on discrepancies in sexual desire between themselves and their partners. In the present study we used a critical sexualities (Fahs and McClelland 2016) perspec...

This article traces the practices and outcomes of an undergraduate research group that began organically to foster research and activist collaborations in a small group setting and without the rubric of a structured course, formal lab setting, or formal institutional backing. We consider several outcomes of this group: (1) Graduate school entry and...

Political mobilizations for and against legal abortions are cyclical entities. Studies on people who joined pro-life movements in the peak of abortion protests (1980s) are relatively common but recent critical studies of right-to-life activists are almost non-existent. To address this lack of recent research, this work combines “political resource”...

In this chapter, we illustrate the paradox of pleasure and danger by examining points of tension, contradiction, and conflict about women’s sexuality, power, and empowerment. We have divided this chapter into two parts. In Part 1, we begin by reiterating Fahs and McClelland’s (2016) argument for critical sexuality studies and argue for how such a l...

This study examines whether women’s feminist activism is connected to three key factors: sufficient educational and financial resources, the internalization of a feminist consciousness, and being involved in feminist mobilization structures. Analysis of the 2012 American National Election Survey (N = 1,876) suggests that participation and engagemen...

This study investigated the relationship between sexual orientations and the protest actions of adults in the United States. Drawing from General Social Survey data from 1996 to 2004, we found that lesbians, gays, and bisexuals were more than twice as likely to protest as heterosexuals. To account for this sexuality gap, we used Patrick Egan’s (200...

Student protest is often an engine of social change for sexual minorities and other oppressed groups. Through an analysis of college students in the Add Health survey (n = 2,534), we found that sexual minorities attend more political marches than heterosexuals. To understand why this sexuality difference occurs, we performed a logistic regression a...

This study explores the relationship between people’s sexual identities and their tendencies to join political protests. When analyzing American National Election surveys from 2012 (n = 3813), gays and lesbians were more than twice as likely to protest as heterosexuals. To explain the increased activism of gays and lesbians, this study applied Patr...

While sexual minorities have produced large and efficacious social movements in many countries, there are few systematic studies on why gays and lesbians join these movements. To address this void, this study created a unique sample of activist and non-activist listservs to identify some factors that inspired greater involvement in protests for gay...

Abortion politics are often about “pro-choice” and “pro-life” countermovements trying to gain power by winning the support of political bystanders. While more is known about the reasons people become pro-choice activists, far less research has examined the motives for pro-life men and women. To address the factors that mobilize abortion activism, t...

Sociological theories of gendered “emotional labor” have often been examined in relation to domestic work, sex work, and jobs that demand emotional caretaking and physical “pampering” of clients (e.g., hairdressers, nail salon workers, medical workers). The concepts of emotional labor have been used far less often to address inequalities within pri...

Existing literatures on anal sex mostly focus on links between anal sex and public health, particularly sexual risk-taking. Drawing upon feminist theoretical frameworks, this study linked anal sex activities of heterosexual men and women to broader issues of sexist power imbalances. This study analyzed survey data from 205 undergraduates to assess...

While social workers advocate against domestic violence, sexual harassment, and restrictive reproductive practices, there have been virtually no studies on the reasons behind their feminist activism. To address this oversight, this study documented the extent of feminist activism among American undergraduate social work students (n = 159). When mov...

While previous studies have addressed symbolic implications of lesbian dildo usage and quantitative findings about women’s vibrator use, little research has assessed women’s subjective feelings about using sex toys. This study draws upon qualitative interviews with twenty women from diverse ages and backgrounds to illuminate six themes in women’s n...

Utilizing the resource model of political participation, we identify the antecedents of willingness to sign a petition supporting employment protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people among sexual minority and heterosexual college students. Through secondary data analysis, we investigate the role of sociodemographic, mobi...

Although battles over gay and lesbian rights have appeared prominently in political arenas, scholars have created few empirical studies on gay and lesbian activism. To address this absence, this quantitative study identified factors that inspired greater electoral engagement among gays and lesbians in the United States (n = 285). After integrating...

This paper considers the contexts and motivations as to why some social work students engage in lesbian and gay rights activism. To explain electoral and protesting modes of activism, this study utilized variables from resource, mobilizing, and framing theories of political participation to explain activism related to gay and lesbian rights. After...

This study identifies the predictors of U.S. heterosexual undergraduate and graduate college students’ attitudes toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a group rather than toward individual identities. Findings suggest that affirming LGBT attitudes are most strongly associated with liberal political ideology and whether one...

Recently, there has been an increase in the number of studies on minority stress among sexual minorities. Few of these studies have explored the ways in which regional or spatial factors influenced the amount of minority stress that lesbians, gay men and bisexuals (LGBs) endure. To see if living in rural and small towns creates stressful social env...

Social movements aimed at increasing rights for sexual minorities have mobilized in the United States and throughout the world, yet studies on why gays and lesbians from a variety of racial backgrounds join and participate in these collective actions are rare. To address this gap, this study used a survey to identify the key factors that inspired f...

This article identifies factors inspiring greater political participation among undergraduate social work students (N=125). When separating students into self-identified liberals and conservatives, the study uses resource, mobilizing, and framing variables to explain greater levels of activism. After several multivariate regressions, this article c...

This article explores the reasons why some college students join the gay and lesbian rights movements. After addressing the frequency of students joining this social movement, the article then considers the contexts and motivations behind such actions. To explore the catalysts to gay and lesbian rights activism, this study utilizes variables from r...

Empirical systematic studies on political activism among self-identified sexual minorities are sparse and underdeveloped. When using three waves of a random national survey of respondents who have sex with people of the same sex (N = 184), this study tested the predictive capabilities of “resource,” “framing,” and “network” theories of political pa...

This article traces the development of peace activism among undergraduate social work students. In doing so, it explores how social statuses, political contexts, and collective action frames affect the likelihood of joining the movement against the Afghanistan war (2001 to current). After analyzing data from a multicampus sample of Bachelors in Soc...

Scholars and pundits have asserted that the United States has regions and pockets that serve as hotbeds of traditional gender roles. Through quantitative techniques, this analysis explores whether Appalachian college students differentiated themselves from others on a litany of different gender role measures (n = 508). Ultimately, Appalachian colle...

While much research has examined sexual problems and dysfunction, far less research has examined intersections between sexual satisfaction and sexual activity, particularly as it relates to social identities. This study utilized secondary analysis of 1,473 women from the National Health and Social Life Survey to examine the way sexual satisfaction...

This study traces the development of union loyalties among community college professors. Assuming that activism is motivated by contextual and ideological factors, the paper analyzes the ways that social networks, collegiate workplaces, and framing practices transform political bystanders into committed union members. Using data from a study of jun...

Since the 1980s, the United States has seen several instances of legislative action on the topic of same-sex marriages and civil unions. As some studies explored public reactions to such laws, the perspectives of social workers and social work students have mostly been ignored. In addressing part of this oversight, this paper looks at the approval...

This article identifies the factors behind students’ attitudes toward lesbian and gay individuals on the basis of the responses of 575 heterosexual undergraduates from 12 social work programs in the United States. Consistent with attribution theory, the findings suggest that the belief that sexual orientation is a choice is the strongest predictor...

As some educators try to eradicate homophobia among their students, the literature on how classroom interventions lessen homophobia has netted inconsistent results. Most studies have found modest curriculum effects, while some have not. In addressing these inconsistencies, this study investigates the way some mitigating factors may either augment o...

Rape myths regularly admonish victims for supposedly provoking the violence done against them. While rape attitudes have been studied in national and urban samples, the support of rape myths in rural populations is seldom investigated. Furthermore, the few empirical studies on sexual coercion in Appalachia are mostly descriptive and rarely compare...

In addressing the extent of sexual prejudices among the profession, two strands of research have emerged. One strand explores heterosexism among practicing social workers whereas another explores student attitudes. As these separate bodies of literature have developed, there has been an absence of studies comparing the sexual prejudices of these ag...

While recent research explores the determinants of homophobia among college students, only a few studies look at the perceptions of homosexuals among social work students. Urifortunately these rare studies generally present a mod- est list of predictor variables or small sample sizes. To address this gap, this research explores the ways in which un...

While recent research has explored the determinants of homophobia in urban settings, few have looked at the perception of homosexuals in rural communities. This research fills this gap by exploring the ways in which Central Appalachians feel about homosexuality. In doing so, the impact of interpersonal contact with a homosexual as well as the facto...

As politicians in the 1990s shrank welfare appropriations and tinkered with eligibility rules, many researchers examined American welfare attitudes. In doing so, separate lines of research argued that welfare-spending inclinations can be swayed by a person's class, race and gender statuses. Moreover, different studies connected welfare appraisals t...

There is a long line of studies on academic cheating. This literature has established a litany of different individual and contextual factors that seem to inspire student conformity of the official rules of test taking. This study draws on this literature by using fourteen independent variables to explain the cheating habits of students in a Centra...

This study explores the multicultural predispositions of 437 students in a Central Appalachian university. After selecting students from a wide range of majors, this article shows which sort of multicultural programs garner weaker and stronger support in this undergraduate population. Following this descriptive elaboration, a set of OLS regressions...

The social movement literature is replete with review essays of the various theoretical formulations (i.e., Buechler 1993; Jenkins 1983; Tarrow 1989). Frequently, these intellectual histories contain descriptions of how one cohort of sociologists glamorized or debunked the favored theories of earlier generations (i.e., before the “resource mobilize...

Researchers and organizers recognize that social movements experience periods of inception, expansion, and decline. Although the movement literature is laden with numerous theoretical formulations on this topic, there are few articles that overtly address the issue of data collection. This paper addresses this methodological issue in detail. In doi...

Operation Desert Storm was not a "patriotic triumph" for many U.S. citizens. Numerous Americans silently disapproved of the war, while others defiantly created a movement of Gulf War dissenters. This reenactment of the antiwar movement will be the focus of this paper. More specifically, the paper will trace the inception, growth and decline of this...

The concept of “welfare dependency” is a hot topic in political circles. Although pending Republican plans have seized much attention, the reform stage was recently occupied by President Clinton. This paper examines Clinton's welfare reform proposal (the 1994 Work and Responsibility Act). The article reviews the Act's objectives before it explores...

Thousands of Americans went to demonstrations against the Persian Gulf War. This research examines the aspirations, judgments, and concerns of different anti-war protesters. After interviewing 48 activists in San Diego, it became clear that more than three-fourths of sample activists thought the movement could not directly alter Bush's war policy....

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1998. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 219-230). Advisor: Keith Kilty, College of Social Work.