Gender and sexuality conference held at ISU
Idaho State University’s annual Gender and Sexuality conference hosts a variety of speakers on a variety of topics. The purpose of the conference is to show all the different kinds of research happening about all different kinds of gender and sexuality issues.
“It’s a pretty broad kind of focus,” said Jeremy Thomas, assistant professor of sociology. “There’s a lot of different disciplines represented, from the humanities, social sciences, hard sciences. There’s a lot of different kind of perspectives there.”
Much of keynote speaker Audrey Giles’ research has been about boat safety, focusing on why adult men both in the United States and Canada, especially non-white men, tend to drown more often, and generally take risks.
“I would talk to focus group participants, and I would say, ‘What’s important about boat safety?'” said Giles. “And they’d say, ‘Everybody should wear a life jacket.’ ‘Do you wear a life jacket?’ ‘Me? No. I don’t wear a life jacket, but everybody else should.'”
Giles said some research is showing that men aren’t necessarily participating in risky behaviors to impress women, but rather to impress other men to try and form a connection. But she said a lot of stigma is attached to that, specifically a stigma of homophobia.
“It might not be for sexual reasons. It could just be more social reasons,” said Giles. “I think we need to realize that there could be issues of sexuality at work.”
Giles’ work is just one part of many kinds of research being discussed, and represents the overall goal of holding the conference, which is to have a discussion about the changes happening in the world, and take away new information.
