Male gays in the female gaze: Women who watch m/m pornographyThis paper draws on a piece of wide-scale mixed-methods research that examines the motivations behind women who watch gay male pornography. To date, there has been very little interdisciplinary research investigating this phenomenon, despite a recent survey by PornHub (one of the largest online porn sites in the world) showing that gay male porn is the second most popular choice for women porn users out of 25+ possible genre choices (PornHub, 2014). While both academic literature and popular culture have looked at the interest that (heterosexual) men have in lesbian pornography (e.g. Attwood, 2005), considerably less attention has been paid to the consumption of gay male pornography by women. Research looking at women's consumption of pornography from within the Social Sciences is very focussed around heterosexual (and, to a lesser extent, lesbian) pornography (e.g. Smith, 2007;Williams, 2004). Research looking more generally at gay pornography/erotica (and the subversion of the 'male gaze'/concept of 'male as erotic object') often makes mention of female interest in this area, but only briefly, and often relies on anecdotal or observational evidence (e.g. Mackinnon, 1997). Research looking at women's involvement in slashfic (primarily from within Media Studies), while very thorough and rich, tends to view slash writing as a somewhat isolated phenomenon (indeed, in her influential article on women's involvement in slash, Bacon-Smith (1992) talks about how 'only a small number' of female slash writers and readers have any interest in gay literature or pornography more generally, and this phenomenon is not often discussed in more recent analyses of slash); so while there has been a great deal of very interesting research done in this field, little attempt has been made to couch it more generally within women's consumption and use of pornography and erotica or to explore what women enjoy about watching gay male pornography. Through a series of focus groups, interviews, and an on-line questionnaire (n=275), this exploratory piece of work looks at what women enjoy about gay male pornography, and how it sits within their consumption of erotica/pornography more generally. It investigates what this has to say about the existence and nature of a 'female gaze'.Key words: Pornography, Gay, Female Gaze, Women, M/M Pornography At the Edinburgh Literary Festival in August 2014, the author G. R. R. Martin stated that he had received numerous letters from fans asking for more explicit gay male sex scenes in his Game of Thrones novels (and the associated television series), and that 'most of the[se] letters come from women ' (in Furness, 2014). The idea that women might be interested in watching men have sex with each other is certainly not new within popular discourses -there was much discussion of this issue after the success of Brokeback Mountain with female audiences (see Taormino, 2008), and there has been an increasing inclusion of gay male love scenes in TV show...

The dismantling of the welfare state across the United Kingdom (and indeed a number of other Western industrialised democracies, such as Canada and the United States) and the reductions to welfare provisions and entitlements are having a detrimental impact on women's equality and safety. Towers and Walby argue that the recent cuts to welfare provision in the United Kingdom, particularly for women's services, could lead to increased levels of violence for women and girls. This paper makes the argument that female victims of domestic abuse experience violence on two levels: first, at the intimate/personal level through their relationship with an abuser and, second, at a structural level, through the state failing to provide adequate protection and provision for women who have experienced violence in intimate relationships. Using a specific example of post-violence community services delivered to both the children of women who have experienced domestic violence and the women themselves, this paper draws on empirical research carried out in 2010–2011 with London-based third-sector and public sector organisations delivering the Against Violence and Abuse Project ‘Community Group Programme’. We argue that the lack of services for women involved in, or exiting, a violent relationship can amount to state-sanctioned violence, if funding is withheld, or indeed, stretched to breaking point.

This paper draws on a piece of wide-scale mixed-methods research (n=429) that examines how women who write and read male/male erotica feel their involvement with the genre has affected their views on gender and sexuality and their political engagement with gay rights issues. Previous work has looked at how online slashfic communities might provide a safe space for exploring gender performance and sexuality, while other researchers have observed a tension between those who identify as queer themselves and those who only 'play at queerness' exclusively within the online environment. However, much of this work has examined the theoretical positioning of such forums as transgressive and/or political. Far fewer pieces have attempted to engage with the women who frequent such sites to ask them about whether their involvement in these online spaces has affected their attitudes and behaviours. This study looks not only at the ways in which online m/m fandoms can act as a safe space for women to explore their sexualities and gender identities, but whether and how these insights connect to women's real-world lives. Data presented here shows a strong consensus among participants that involvement with explicit slash communities has had a positive effect on their lives, as well as contributing to beneficial changes in their knowledge, attitudes, and practices with regards to LGBTQ+ issues. Overall, slash is seen as a medium which can create better allies, encourage cross-identification, and bring about positive personal changes. To this extent, I argue that explicit online slash sites can act as heterotopias.

This study aims to provide a framework for assessing and modelling behavioural changes in a prison therapeutic community. A behavioural checklist able to monitor both positive and negative behaviours throughout the course of therapy, paying particular attention to offence-paralleling behaviours, was devised. Content analysis of therapy notes on n=68 residents identified 35 variables. The study investigated the hypothesis that it is possible to model behavioural change over the course of therapy using an action systems framework. This framework has been used to classify different forms of anti-social behaviour (Fritzon & Brun, 2005; Miller & Fritzon, in press) and pro-social behaviour (Shye, 1985). The four modes of action system functioning were consistently identified during therapy using Smallest Space Analysis. Paired sample t-tests of residents at the beginning and end periods of therapy suggested that residents progress from the antisocial to prosocial behaviours from within each mode. Overall, findings support the prison therapeutic community treatment model, as well as demonstrating the appropriateness of the action systems framework for understanding the nature and function of positive and negative therapeutic behaviours.

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