Shemeka Thorpe

University of Kentucky | UKY · Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion

The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of sexual behaviors and experiences of Black women's partnered behaviors at their most recent sexual event. Data were from a subset of 980 Black women ages 18 to 92 who participated in the 2018 National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior. Findings provide a sex-positive view of Black women...

Sexual pleasure has been identifed as a key component of sexual health by the World Health Organization, yet only 6.5% of articles on Black women’s sexualities are sex positive. Historically in the United States (US), Black women’s sexualities have been marked by silence, encouraging Black women to refrain from discussing their sexualities, particu...

What if being a hot girl was a way of life and a way of conducting science? In this paper, we propose a new sex-positive, liberatory, intersectional paradigm for sex science, #HotGirlScience. The #HotGirlScience paradigm invites sexologists to study the fun, sex-positive aspects of Black sexualities and move toward liberation-focused inquiry where...

Ineffective patient-provider communication poses a potential health risk to Black women if medical providers are not addressing their needs or concerns. Additionally, less than half of OBGYNs report asking their patients about sexual difficulties, which limits women’s opportunities to disclose their experiences of sexual pain. The purpose of this q...

Sexual anxiety can activate the stress response cycle during sex, compromising a woman's ability to experience sexual pleasure. Black women face additional cultural and contextual factors, such as hypersexualization, partner scarcity, and higher rates of sexual trauma that may increase the magnitude, frequency, and odds of experiencing sexual anxie...

Purpose of Review Limited research addresses Black queer women’s experience of sexual pleasure through an intersectional and sex-positive lens. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to review research on Black queer women’s sexual pleasure using the Pleasure Mountain model’s facilitators of pleasure: partnered interactions, liberation, mind-body-soul a...

Limited research has examined the emotions Black women report when thinking about sexual pain. To fill this gap in the literature, we explored the types of emotions that emerged when N = 126 premenopausal Black women thought about pain during sex. Open-ended responses to the following research question were analyzed: "What feelings emerge when you...

To date, there has been very little empirical research on Black women’s masturbation practices and views on masturbation. This study fills the gap by exploring the messages Black women received about masturbation and self-pleasure and the sources of these messages using valence theory. Data were collected in 2021 from 242 Black women who participat...

This content analysis examined the literature on female masturbation from 2000-2020. We sought to elucidate the demographics of women most often studied, whether scholarship favored people with more privileged identities, and the degree to which the literature is sex-positive. Our hypotheses were: a) there is a gap in sex research surrounding femal...

Background: Black women encounter many challenges to breastfeeding, including inequitable access to support and resources and medical racism. However, limited research investigates how Black women across generations interface with health care systems to initiate or continue breastfeeding and what factors facilitate or hinder their breastfeeding exp...

The purpose of this study was to expand the empirical research on Black women’s sexualities by exploring differences in heterosexual and queer Black women’s sexual experiences including sexual pleasure, orgasms, masturbation, number of sex partners, and sexual desire through a Black queer feminist lens. This study used survey data from n = 295 Blac...

Existing conceptualizations and measures of good sex are varied and inconclusive. Additionally, few studies have defined good sex from the margins, thus definitions are primarily informed from privileged perspectives. People with marginalized racial, gender, and sexual identities can offer culturally informed definitions of good sex that may expand...

Black women experience persistent sexual pain that may often last longer than White women. Despite the value of sexual communication to alleviate sexual pain concerns, many women do not disclose sexual pain to their partners. Limited research explores barriers to disclosing sexual pain to partners among Black women. This study seeks to fill this ga...

Black sexual minority women (SMW), the largest racial group among the sexual minority community, often report high psychological distress and decreased psychological health and social well-being. Strong, positive, social relationships positive within group identities, and support networks are a key component in coping with minority stressors and pr...

Black sexual minority women (SMW) are disproportionately impacted by negative health outcomes, healthcare discrimination , and provider bias. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate which sexual identity characteristics and minority stressors are associated with healthcare stereotype threat and healthcare access for Black SMW. Using...

Black women have disproportionate rates of HIV compared to women of all other racial groups. The purpose of this analysis was to investigate perceived HIV risk, HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing behaviors, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) knowledge and attitudes among Black sexual minority women (SMW) and examine differences b...

In the United States, Black men and women who are incarcerated bear a disproportionate and inequitable burden of HIV infection. While HIV knowledge does not consistently predict HIV risk behaviors, HIV knowledge can inform one’s perceptions of their risk for HIV. We examined gender differences in HIV knowledge and perceived risk of contracting HIV...

The current mixed-methods study is the first to explore Black women’s (N = 153) cognitive (e.g., worry about being perceived as sexually unresponsive) and emotional (e.g., sadness) responses to sexual pain based on age and relationship status, and coping strategies. Findings indicated significant differences in younger and single Black women’s cogn...

The purpose of the current study was to explore pleasure mapping among (N=215) Black women living in the South using Black Feminist Thought and Cite Black Women critical praxis. Participants identified 78 activities that were most pleasurable. There were nine distinct themes of activities including oral sex, foreplay, clitoral and combined stimulat...

Sexual self-consciousness, also known as spectatoring, can result in unpleasurable sexual experiences, sexual difficulties, and negative mental health outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate ratings and correlates of sexual self-consciousness (sexual embarrassment and sexual self-focus) among (N = 283) Black women ages 19–42 living in...

Black men are often socialized to limit their emotional expression, which can lead to negative relationships and emotional health outcomes. Yet, little is known about how childhood experiences influence their emotional restrictiveness in adulthood. This study examined the relationship between parental closeness, childhood abuse, and restricted emot...

There is limited research on how Black women’s perspectives of their relationship infuence their sexual experiences (i.e., sex initiation and orgasm frequency) in early adulthood. This quantitative study examined the association between relationship and partner-specifc factors (e.g., relationship satisfaction, love, egalitarianism, partner’s age, p...

Hookups are a normative experience for college students with 72% of college students reporting hooking up by their Senior year. Although there is over a decade of research on hookups, what motivates college students to participate in hookups is not clear, with prior research focused mostly on psychological rather than social motivations, and differ...

Background Using the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), we previously developed and optimized an online behavioral intervention, itMatters, aimed at reducing the risk of sexually transmitted infections (STI) among first-year college students by targeting the intersection of alcohol use and sexual behaviors. Purpose We had two goals: (a) to e...

This study examined individual and familial influences on Black female adolescents’ (N = 1426) sexual pleasure expectancies, sexual guilt, and age of sexual debut using data from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent to Adult Health. Results indicated significant differences between Black female adolescents that were sexually active and tho...

Objective: Research suggests African American men use cannabis to cope with racial discrimination. This conjecture may also be true for incarcerated African American men, who report high rates of cannabis use prior to and after incarceration. However, no studies to date have examined the association between race-related stress and chronic cannabis...

Sexual double standards tend to marginalize women and restrict their sexual expression in comparison to men. Sexual attitudes can heavily influence women’s propensity to engage in sexual risk behaviours. One’s sexual attitudes, whether more conservative or liberal have been shown to influence differing experiences of power and assertiveness in sexu...

Existing research adopting a sex positive and intersectional framework for investigating Black women’s sexualities is scarce. We conducted a 46-year (1972–2018) content analysis of sexualities research focussed on Black women. It sought to examine which sexualities topics were published most; whether the publications aligned with sex-positive, neut...

Objective To describe an iterative approach to developing an online intervention targeting the intersection of alcohol use and sexual behaviors among first year college students. Methods and Participants: Using the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), we conducted two iterative optimization trials to: (1) identify candidate intervention compone...

Background and Purpose Accelerated bachelor’s and master’s nursing students supported through the New Careers in Nursing program were surveyed ( n = 3,506) using subscales from Arthur’s Professional Self-Concept in Nursing Instrument (PSCNI). Reliability and validity of the instrument were assessed. Methods Factor analysis using a random split-hal...

Background: Alcohol outcome expectancies (AOEs) are associated with college students' varied alcohol consumption. Existing research on AOEs focuses primarily on heterosexual White students. Thus, it is important to explore how the intersection of multiple identities such as race, gender, and sexual orientation influence the endorsement of specific...

Objective: To explore sexual sensation seeking (SSS) among an ethnically-diverse sample of first-year college students and their hookup behaviors. Participants: 1,480 first-year college students who hooked up in the last 30 days were recruited from four universities in 2016. Methods: Students completed an online survey before completing an online...

This study used a sexual scripting framework to analyse data from the Online College Social Life Survey to examine the role of individual, (e.g. gender, race and alcohol use), relational (partner type, condom use behaviours), and contextual factors (sex ratios and fraternity/sorority affiliation) influencing 4,292 first-year college students’ hooku...

The purpose of this mixed methods pilot study was to examine the sexual health needs, knowledge, and access to resources for students with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) and their support staff in an inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) program. Four college students with IDD and sixteen support staff from an IPSE program...

The purpose of this study was to examine the sexual health needs, beliefs, and access to resources for support staff of students with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) in a postsecondary education (PSE) program. Sixteen support staff from a PSE program in the Southeast United States were recruited. Online surveys containing open-...

Objective: The purpose of this systematic review was to identify and evaluate approaches used in sexual health interventions targeting Black women in the United States. Methods: We conducted a review of 15 sexual health intervention studies for Black women published between January 2000 and May 2017 in the United States. Results: Each intervention...

Background The New Careers in Nursing (NCIN) program provided scholarships and other supports to accelerated degree students at 130 nursing schools and collected data from the scholars at three time-points. Purpose The NCIN database was analyzed to identify gender-based differences in scholars' profile characteristics, program experiences, and pos...