Researching Sexuality And Sexual Health In Southeast Asia And China

This volume analyzes and documents the groundbreaking work done by many organizations to bring issues of sexuality and rights to public attention, to expand the freedoms of women and sexual minorities and to highlight the unfair distinctions faced by those not conforming to gender and sexual norms across a range of expressions, behaviours and identities in Asia. This volume covers eight countries in South and Southeast Asia. The contributors address issues of power and social hierarchies by using the principles of justice, equality, non-discrimination, and access to rights and services. They cover diverse issues like sexual rights, sexuality education, sexual health services, transsexuals and other sexual minorities, HIV/AIDS prevention, as well as sex work and the representation of sexuality in popular culture. The contributors argue that neither gender nor sexuality can be addressed in isolation from human rights and demonstrate how linking sexuality and gender with human rights has an impact on people`s lives across intersecting issues and contexts. Moving beyond theoretical discussions of sexuality, gender and rights, this volume looks at what these ideas mean in practice and offers examples of the diversity of effective approaches that can be adopted in varied settings. Moreover, it illustrates how sexuality ties in with wider issues—health, personal relationships, economic well-being, equitable access to public services, and the freedom to think, speak and associate without fear of discrimination.

This collection brings together cutting-edge work by established and emerging scholars focusing on key societies in the East Asian region: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, North and South Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam. This scope enables the collection to reflect on the nature of the transformations in constructions of sexuality in highly developed, developing and emerging societies and economies. Both Japan and China have established traditions of ‘sexuality’ studies reflecting longstanding indigenous understandings of sex as well as more recent developments which interface with Euro-American medical and psychological understandings. Authors reflect upon the complex colonial and economic interactions and cultural flows which have affected the East Asian region over the last two centuries. They trace local flows of ideas instead of defaulting to Euro-American paradigms for sexuality studies. Through looking at regional and global exchanges of ideas about sexuality, this volume adds considerably to our understanding of the East Asian region and contributes to wider discussions of social transformation, modernisation and globalisation. It will be essential reading in undergraduate and graduate programs in sexuality studies, gender studies, women’s studies and masculinity studies, as well as in anthropology, sociology, history, cultural studies, area studies and health sciences.

This report demonstrates the relationship between sexual health, human rights and the law. Drawing from a review of public health evidence and extensive research into human rights law at international, regional and national levels, the report shows how states in different parts of the world can and do support sexual health through legal and other mechanisms that are consistent with human rights standards and their own human rights obligations.