Erotic Imagination in Latin America: Reflections on Sexual Fantasies and Coloniality

Latin America comprises 20 countries and 14 dependent territories throughout the Western Hemisphere. It is a diverse and plural region in terms of its geography, cultures, languages, and historical experiences, with fifteenth-century colonialism as a common denominator. Two areas in which the lingering effects of coloniality seem clearly ever-present are the realms of gender and sexuality. The latter encompasses sexual fantasies, a subject of focus in this article. The examination of sexual fantasies remains a ripe area for future research, particularly throughout the Global South, where its linkages to coloniality should be explored in detail. To contribute to this larger and long-term goal, we implemented an online qualitative study designed to document the sexual fantasies of Spanish-speaking individuals living in the Latin American region. We developed a data-gathering form that included open-ended questions to document sexual fantasies. The form was available through the JotForm online platform that was linked to the study webpage entitled "A Calzón Quita'o." We conducted a thematic analysis to identify response patterns. Three main categories emerged from: (1) spatiotemporal references, (2) multiple partners, and (3) power, control, and rough sex. We relied on perspectives linked to ongoing discussions about coloniality to analyze the thematic content in the participants' responses regarding their sexual fantasies. The findings highlight the existing tensions between the reproduction of-and resistance to-the norms associated with gender roles and their embodiment within the framework of the gender binary inherited from coloniality.

In a double-bind: Time-space distanciation, socioeconomic status, and coping with financial stress in the United States

Psychological research has shown that lower socioeconomic status (SES) individuals experience higher levels of stress and tend to cope in more present-oriented ways. While some research in the field has sought to, for instance, increase future-oriented ways of being among lower SES individuals, we argue that such approaches may come at significant cost. We consider the construct of time-space distanciation (TSD) - the normative way in which time and space are abstracted from one another at cultural and individual levels - as a way to complicate psychological research on social class, stress, and coping. Across four studies, we present research on US geographical regions (Studies 1-2) and US participants (Studies 3-4) suggesting that adopting normative high-TSD orientations represents a double-bind for lower SES individuals: it allows one to enact more proactive coping strategies in the face of financial stressors such as debt (Studies 1-3), but it is also a source of disproportionate stress itself (Study 4), given the burdens faced by lower SES individuals trying to navigate time and space in culturally hegemonic ways in spite of precarity and material insecurity. We discuss how TSD offers a means of situating psychological research into precarity within the broader structural context of flexible capitalism.

The sociomaterial force theory of identity

Foundational theories in social psychology tend to focus on the individual’s phenomenological experience, and to conceive of the environment and the individual as discrete entities. To overcome the ontological and epistemological limitations of such perspectives, we propose a theory rooted in culturally oriented existential philosophy. This sociomaterial force theory of identity emphasizes the reciprocal, historically contingent relationship between broad social and material forces on one hand, and processes of social and individual identity on the other. To concretize the framework, we compare it to current theories (social identity theory and social representations theory) and apply it to a qualitative case study of differences in how religious group members narrate the suffering brought on by natural disaster. We propose the theory can contribute to a more historical, dynamic, and truly interdisciplinary psychology, and would be especially useful for integrating multilevel data on the experience of a particular social group at a specified historical period.