Communicating Intimate Health presents an edited collection of original, empirical research, personal essays, autoethnography, critical reviews, and theoretical work showcasing advances in intimate health research from the field of communication studies. Intimate health includes sexual and reproductive health, sexual activity, sexuality, gender, and reproductive justice. The contributors vulnerably engage subjects including: parent-child, partner, patient-provider, and larger societal discourse and communication about sexuality education, HIV, family planning, purity pledges, (in)fertility, breastfeeding, and Black maternal health, sexting, boundary setting, consent, border justice, trauma, contraception, and menstruation, among others. Featuring both new research and vulnerable reflections on the research process, Communicating Intimate Health showcases the potential of communication scholarship to engage intimately with intimate topics.
Angela F. Cooke-Jackson is associate professor of health communication and behavioral science at California State University, Los Angeles, and co-director of the Intimate Communication Lab. Valerie Rubinsky is assistant professor of communication at the University of Maine at Augusta and co-director of the Intimate Communication Lab.
Table of Content Introduction: Communicating Intimate Health: From the Bedroom to the Doctor's Office Valerie Rubinsky & Angela Cooke-Jackson Part 1: Absence as a Theme of Intimate Health Communication Chapter 1: Sweet Nothings: A Journey of (Gay) Sex without Condoms By Andrew Spieldenner & Nic Flores Chapter 2: "Why Don't All Parents Talk About This Stuff:" Informational, Emotional, and Cultural Barriers to Meaningful Parent-Child Conversations About Sex By Amanda Holman Chapter 3: "The Sex Talk was Taboo... So was Wearing a Tampon:" Sexual and Menstrual Health Conversations among Young Latina and Latinx Women and Gender Minorities By Ashley Aragon and Angela Cooke-Jackson Chapter 4: Intimate Conversations about Sex and Sexuality: Lessons Learned from Studying Purity Pledges By Jimmie Manning Chapter 5: Intimate Communication Guidelines for Transformative Sexual Education By Angela Cooke-Jackson, Taylor McMahon, and Kavita Shah Chapter 6: The (S)lack of Queer Healthcare in Appalachia By Katy A. Ross Part 2: Interpersonal Communication and Health Intimacies Chapter 7: Theory of Memorable Messages: Theorizing Message Disruption By Angela Cooke-Jackson & Valerie Rubinsky Chapter 8: Beyond the Binaries of Sexual Consent: Developing Consent Identities through Diversification of Sexual Messaging By Rachel Hanebutt Chapter 9: Disrupting Sexual Communication: An Exploration and Application of Boundary-Setting Conversations in BDSM, Polyamorous, and LGBTQ Relationships By Valerie Rubinsky & Monica Roldan Chapter 10: "But I Can't Talk to My Doctor About That!" Tips for Young Adults to Improve Sexual Communication with Health Providers. By Carey Noland Chapter 11: Technology and Sexual Health Communication Among Black and Latinx Young Women By Carina M. Zelaya and Diane B. Francis Part 3: Maternal Health & Motherhood Chapter 12: Interpersonal Communication Surrounding Infertility and Miscarriage: Considerations Under the Gaze of the Master Narrative of Motherhood By Haley Kranstuber Horstman and Shaye Morrison Chapter 13: From "Breast is Best" to "Your Choice" - Memorable Messages Mothers Receive about Breastfeeding By Angela M. Hosek, Heather Matthys, and Kelly M. Weikle Chapter 14: Caregiving Throughout Herstory: The Role of Doula on African Descent Women's Health Outcomes By Shukura Ayoluwa Umi Part 4: Trauma, Structural Violence, and Intimate Health Chapter 15: Migrant Gender Violence, Reproductive Health, and the Intersections of Reproductive Justice and Health Communication By Leandra H. Hernandez and Sarah De Los Santos Upton Chapter 16: Historical and Intergenerational Trauma and Radical Love By Andrew Jolivette Part 5: Negotiating Identity in Intimate Health Research: Considerations and Opportunities Chapter 17: Researching Marginalized Populations in Intimate Health Communication: Observations from the Field By Angela Cooke-Jackson, Valerie Rubinsky, Andrew Spieldenner, Nicole Hudak, Ashley Aragon, and Jacqueline Gunning Chapter 18: Negotiating Identity in Queer Pregnancy and Birth Control Research By Nicole Hudak Chapter 19: A Dialogic Forum on Feminist Implications of Birth Control Research By Jacqueline Gunning and Nicole Hudak Conclusion: A Love Letter to Vulnerability By Valerie Rubinsky & Angela Cooke-Jackson
"At a time when people throughout the world are coming to embrace and understand intersectional gender identities like never before Communicating Intimate Health provides a refreshingly brilliant collection of essays that extend our thinking beyond what we ever knew possible. This is a book any scholar committed to gender justice will want to add to their libraries."--Ronald L. Jackson II, Author of Scripting the Black Masculine Body "Communicating Intimate Health involves vulnerable selves, both those who choose to be vulnerable and those made vulnerable by others. As revealed across chapters, for some selves their vulnerability is a vehicle for connection and growth and for others it is exploited. Authors, too, embrace vulnerability in the pursuit of knowledge and social justice. In explorations of sexual consent and sexual education, breastfeeding, infertility, and queer healthcare, this edited book engages common communication challenges around intimate health and models how to disrupt the stigma and shame that accompany silence and distorted communication. Collectively, authors illuminate forces that marginalize, including systemic racism and heteronormativity, and elevate voices and experiences too often unacknowledged. Cooke-Jackson and Rubinsky have edited a timely and necessary volume for students and scholars of interpersonal and health communication as well as those working on the frontlines of healthcare. Communicating Intimate Health is a must-read book that unsettles stagnant scripts and encourages expanded possibilities."--Lynn Harter, Ohio University "This is a first. This important book is the first to bring together the emerging work on issues of intimate communication as they relate to health. Both interpersonal and health communication scholars will find this work of great value. The contributions are unique and insightful. The issues identified in the various chapters are difficult to discuss and to study, even though they are of great significance. The authors have brought together personal insight and valuable research and theory. I look forward to the future contributions to scholarship that I am confident we will see as a consequence of the publication of this influential volume."--Teri Thompson, Editor of Health Communication
