Search Results (7)

This paper argues that Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Georges Bataille use voyeurism as a transgressive mechanism to confront death through the female body, a paradoxical site of life and decay. Though Céline’s clinical, disenchanted gaze contrasts with Bataille’s erotic, metaphysical quest, both employ the act of seeing to reveal death’s presence within vitality. In Céline’s works, voyeurism shifts from erotic curiosity to cold observation, framing the female body as a sterile emblem of mortality. In Bataille’s, it becomes participatory, merging ecstasy with dissolution in a sacred yet destructive form. Drawing on Freud and Sodom motifs, this study shows how their gazes transform the female body into a lens for existential finitude, challenging life–death boundaries in 20th-century French literature. Full article

The institution of slavery engineered racialized gendered capitalism that locks Black women in multiple social identity-labeled boxes on the sociocultural and economic hierarchy. Acts of cultural invasion have produced controlling images and oppressive narratives to maintain the status quo of white male wealth and power. Critical race theory scholars have offered counter-storytelling as a theorizing method to study the impact of intersectional oppression on Black women and to develop strategies for resistance and healing for those who are at the margins of society. This manuscript weaves the voices of Black feminists with a creative arts methodology to explore resistance and healing practice rooted in lived experience and provides a case example of counter-storytelling in a predominantly white academic space. For future directions, there is a need for guidelines on how to navigate the use of counter-storytelling to safely engage and protect the Black woman’s humanity and not be a tool for public displays of Black pain or for trauma voyeurism. Full article

Higher brain dysfunction commonly occurs following traumatic brain injury (TBI), and may manifest in a social behavioral impairment which can significantly impede active social participation. We report two cases, one of voyeurism and the second of alcohol abuse, which might have been caused by TBI resulting in disinhibition, a type of social behavioral impairment. We discuss the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms to raise awareness of such cases and aid the development of effective interventions. Patient 1 suffered a TBI at 18 years of age, 2 years after which he presented repeated episodes of sexually deviant behavior (voyeurism). At 28, he committed suicide, since he was unable to control his aberrant behavior. Patient 2 suffered a TBI at the age of 13. He first displayed problematic behavior 7 years later, which included drinking excessive amounts of alcohol and stealing while inebriated. Despite both patients having sound moral judgment, they had irrational and uncontrollable impulses of desire. Imaging findings could explain the possible causes of impulse control impairments. Damage to the basal ganglia and limbic system, which are involved in social behavior, presumably led to desire-dominated behavior, leading to the patients conducting unlawful acts despite intact moral judgment. It is crucial to educate society about the prevalence of these disorders, explain how these disinhibitions start, and develop effective interventions. Full article

Limited information is available on the prevalence and nature of sexual offending in Hong Kong. This cross-sectional study seeks to explore the role of risky sexual behavior (RSB) and paraphilic interests in self-reported sexual offending behavior (i.e., nonpenetrative-only, penetrative-only, and nonpenetrative-plus-penetrative sexual assault) in a community sample of young adults in Hong Kong. Using a large sample (N = 1885) of university students, the lifetime prevalence of self-reported sexual offending was 18% (n = 342; 23% males (n = 166), 15% females (n = 176)). Based on the study subsample of 342 participants who self-reported sexual offending (aged 18–35), the findings indicated that males reported significantly higher levels of general, penetrative-only, nonpenetrative-plus-penetrative sexual assault; and paraphilic interest in voyeurism, frotteurism, biastophilia, scatophilia, and hebephilia than females; while females reported a significantly higher level of transvestic fetishism than males. No significant difference was found in RSB between males and females. Logistic regressions found that the participants who possessed a higher level of RSB, particularly penetrative behaviors, and paraphilic interest in voyeurism and zoophilia were less likely to engage in a nonpenetrative-only sexual offense. Conversely, the participants who possessed higher levels of RSB, especially penetrative behaviors, and paraphilic interest in exhibitionism and zoophilia, were more likely to engage in nonpenetrative-plus-penetrative sexual assault. The implications for practice in areas such as public education and offender rehabilitation are discussed. Full article

This paper maps the cultural ecosystem services (CES) of a well-known giant-wave hotspot located in Nazaré, Portugal. The paper adopts a qualitative approach combining an auto-ethnographic direct observation of a journey and the content analysis of photos and videos posted on the YouTube and Facebook pages of tourists and operators. A total of 44 geotagged photos from a sample of 6914 photos retrieved from Flickr allowed the classification and spatial distribution of several CES: (1) recreational—surf activities; (2) aesthetic—photography; (3) spiritual—dark tourism and risk recreation; (4) intangible heritage—maritime knowledge; (5) scientific—wave height forecast; (6) sense of place; and (7) social relations. The paper also proposes a theoretical framework that highlights the pull drivers (risk recreation, storm chasing, or spectacular death voyeurism) and the push drivers (e.g., marketing campaigns and wave forecasts alerts) that explain the behaviors of the big-wave spectators/chasers during the experience journey. Public decision-makers, destination marketing organizations, tourism operators, and business entrepreneurs must acknowledge the relevance of journey mapping in order to identify the moments of stress and the touchpoints associated with peak/positive experiences generated by these CES. This study confirms some push and pull factors assessed by previous studies. Full article

The embodiment of the potential loss of privacy through a combination of artificial intelligence algorithms, big data analytics and Internet of Things technology might be something as simple, yet potentially terrifying, as an integrated app capable of recognising anyone, anytime, anywhere: effectively a global ‘Shazam for People’; but one additionally capable of returning extremely personal material about the individual. How credible is such a system? How many years away? And what might stop it? Full article

Around 1900 the circus was not only an important and highly popular cultural phenomenon all over Europe, but also an inspiration to writers and artists at the onset of Modernism. As an intrinsically intermedial form with international performers, it can be seen as an expression of certain important characteristics of modern life like innovation, mobility, dynamics, speed and vigor. Its displays of color and excitement, of bodies in motion and often provocative gender relations were experienced by authors as a challenge to create new aesthetic forms. However, the circus does not only figure prominently in well-known works by Kafka and Thomas Mann and paintings by Degas, Macke or Leger, it is also thematized in texts by Scandinavian authors. When writers like Henrik Ibsen, Herman Bang, Ola Hansson and Johannes V. Jensen referred to the circus in their works, they represented it as an experience of modernity and addressed themes like alterity, mobility, voyeurism, new gender relations and ambivalent emotions. As a self-reflexive sign, the circus even served to represent the fragile status of art in modernity and thus made an important contribution to the development of Modernism. Full article