“In Delhi, we pay extra for the privilege of not moldering.” This observation, offered by a transmasculine collaborator in my research, names what I theorize as the “sunlight tax”—a biopolitical calculus where access to light, air, and safe habitation is rationed by the intertwined logics of caste, capital, and cis-heteropatriarchy. Through this paper, I map how everyday spatial inequalities are not accidental by-products of a disorganized rental market, but are engineered outcomes of what I term Brahminical biopolitics. I use this framework to employ Foucault’s analysis of state power, along with Ambedkar’s indictment of caste spatiality, to reveal the colonial and Brahminical orders that converge to pathologize trans bodies. I argue that this renders trans lives perpetually on the margins of the habitable city.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, life histories, and participatory research with 12 transmasculine individuals in South Delhi’s margins, this paper traces how everyday inequalities accumulate across scales: the body, the rental room, the street, and the city. State mechanisms of nominal inclusion, such as the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act (2019) and the Garima Greh shelter homes, are shown to function as carceral rather than caring spaces, enforcing discretion, selective penalization, and temporal tolerability over permanence. These are not failures of policy but its underlying logics: who is stopped, who is policed, whose informal dwelling is razed, and whose precarity is rendered invisible are all questions written by caste and produced through colonial continuities.

Yet, against this violent cartography, trans individuals engineer improvised sovereignties: forging kinship networks that function as urban infrastructure, reclaiming otherwise “unruly” spaces as heterotopias of compensation, and transforming their cramped rentals into nodes of community care. This paper contends that these acts of queer homemaking constitute a living counter-cartography, which is a practice of spatial abundance that maps a right to the city from its discarded fragments.

This study examines gender equality and sexual diversity in Thailand through an interdisciplinary framework that integrates mathematical modeling, social analysis, and gender studies. Focusing on male, female, and LGBTQ+ populations, the research explores how evolving social values, legal reforms, and educational practices shape gender relations from the past to the present, while projecting future trajectories.

The study employs analytical and conceptual modeling to represent relationships between key social variables, including gender norms, access to sex education, legal recognition of same-sex marriage, and public attitudes toward sexual diversity. Using Thailand as a case study, the model captures historical transitions from traditional family-centered and heteronormative values toward increasing recognition of gender equality and inclusivity. Particular attention is given to the social implications of marriage equality, changes in sex education policies, and shifting perceptions of masculinity, femininity, and non-binary identities.

Rather than relying solely on descriptive narratives, this research applies simplified mathematical structures—such as relational mappings and trend-based analytical models—to conceptualize how institutional reforms and cultural values interact over time. This approach allows for systematic comparison between past social configurations and emerging patterns, as well as scenario-based projections of future developments in gender equality.

The findings suggest that Thailand is undergoing a nonlinear transformation in gender norms, characterized by tensions between traditional social values and progressive legal and educational reforms. The study demonstrates that mathematical and analytical modeling can offer valuable insights into complex social processes, contributing to gender studies by providing a structured framework for understanding social change. The paper highlights the relevance of interdisciplinary approaches for analyzing gender equality and sexual diversity in contemporary societies, particularly in the Global South.

Introduction: Mukbang videos on TikTok have become a prominent form of digital food content, transforming eating into a public, mediated, and interactive practice. This paper examines how mukbangs function as a site for the performance of gendered norms related to appetite, bodily control, and visibility. Drawing on gender performativity theory and sociological studies of food consumption, the study explores how appetite itself is socially and gendered constructed within platform cultures. Methods: The research employs qualitative content analysis of a purposive sample of highly engaged TikTok mukbang videos produced by creators of different genders. In addition, an analysis of user comments was conducted to examine audience reactions and moral evaluations related to food consumption, body image, and self-discipline. Videos and comments were coded thematically with particular attention to gendered patterns of representation and interaction. Results: The findings indicate significant gender differences in both the performance and reception of mukbang content. Women and gender-diverse creators are more frequently subjected to moralizing, health-focused, and sexualized judgments, whereas male creators are more often associated with humor, excess, and spectacle. At the same time, some creators strategically use mukbangs to challenge dominant norms of restraint and thinness, framing visible appetite as pleasure and self-assertion. Conclusions: The study concludes that TikTok mukbangs simultaneously reproduce and contest gendered expectations surrounding eating and the body. By making appetite publicly visible, mukbangs reveal how digital consumption practices are deeply embedded in power relations shaped by gender and platform logics. This research contributes to gender studies and digital sociology by highlighting appetite as a key dimension of online identity performance.

This study explored the paradoxical role of the dera (communal household) in shaping the everyday lives of transgender individuals in Pakistan. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 31 transgender participants selected through purposive sampling, the study explores how the guru–chela system simultaneously provides protection, belonging, and material survival while reproducing dependency, surveillance, and constrained autonomy. Guided by structural injustice theory and Foucauldian governmentality, the study conceptualizes the dera as a form of protective marginalisation. This informal governance structure emerges in response to state absence but reproduces hierarchical control over marginalized bodies. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis, allowing for a nuanced examination of how power, discipline, and care intersect in everyday life. Findings reveal that family rejection, educational exclusion, and labour market barriers channel transgender individuals into community-based living arrangements that provide safety yet limit long-term mobility and self-determination. While the dera mitigates extreme vulnerability, it also institutionalizes dependence through moral regulation and economic control. The study argues that legal recognition alone is insufficient to address transgender marginalisation and calls for structural interventions that confront the informal systems through which inequality is reproduced. By situating transgender experiences within broader governance and power structures, this study contributes to critical debates on gender, marginality, and social justice in the Global South.

Gender inequality remains one of the most persistent barriers to sustainable social development and community resilience in sub-Saharan Africa. In Nigeria, environmental degradation, economic disparities, and institutional fragility interact to deepen gender-based vulnerability. This study integrates geospatial techniques with participatory research to analyse how spatial factors influence gendered experiences of risk and resilience. Multi-temporal satellite imagery and census datasets were processed in ArcGIS and QGIS to map vulnerability hotspots across selected states, while interviews and focus group discussions with local leaders, women’s associations, and policy actors provided qualitative insights. Quantitative mapping revealed that areas undergoing rapid land-use change and weak environmental governance experience intensified gender disparities in access to resources and recovery capacity. Qualitative findings further highlighted the critical role of women’s networks, traditional institutions, and grassroots governance in sustaining resilience through mutual support and adaptive innovation. The integration of spatial data and social evidence provides a nuanced understanding of how geography, governance, and gender intersect to produce unequal resilience outcomes. The study concludes that embedding gender-sensitive spatial analysis into national policy planning can enhance social equity, strengthen local governance, and improve adaptive capacity to socio-environmental challenges. This interdisciplinary approach contributes to feminist geography, governance studies, and resilience research by offering a replicable model for integrating spatial evidence into gender-responsive policy frameworks.

In Himachal Pradesh, women are central to sustaining households, managing natural resources, and maintaining cultural practices, yet their voices are frequently underrepresented in environmental and social decision-making. They carry out essential labor in agriculture, water collection, forest use, and household management, while also preserving knowledge of local ecology and contributing to social cohesion. This paper uses an ecofeminist lens to examine how women navigate the intersections of ecological stewardship, daily labor, and community leadership, revealing both their vital contributions and the constraints they face in rural Himalayan societies.

Drawing on field interviews, oral histories, and participatory observation across multiple villages in Himachal Pradesh, the study foregrounds women’s experiences in environmental management, resource use, and local governance. It explores how traditional knowledge, gendered labor, and care work shape community resilience and social organization, while also demonstrating the ways women negotiate influence in decision-making despite systemic inequalities.

The findings suggest that achieving inclusive and sustainable practices requires more than formal policies; it necessitates recognizing and integrating women’s labor, knowledge, and agency into governance structures. By centering women’s experiences, this paper highlights pathways for equitable and context-sensitive environmental management. It contributes to broader debates on ecofeminism, rural women’s agency, and participatory governance, offering insights for designing policies that value and amplify the often-overlooked voices of women in mountainous communities.

Pornography has become a pervasive component of contemporary sexual cultures, yet attitudes toward its social and interpersonal consequences remain highly contested. Existing research suggests that perceptions of pornography are strongly shaped by gender, reflecting broader inequalities in how sexual media represent bodies, power, and consent. From a theoretical standpoint, feminist approaches—particularly radical feminist critiques of pornography as a system of sexual objectification and male dominance—contrast with more liberal and sex-positive perspectives that emphasize agency, sexual expression, and potential benefits. Additionally, sexual script theory provides a useful framework for understanding how pornography may inform gendered expectations about sexuality, while objectification theory helps explain differential sensitivities to its potential harms. The current study examines gender differences in attitudes toward pornography and explores how men and women perceive harms and benefits. The analysis uses data from a sample of individuals aged 16 and older residing in Castilla-La Mancha, a region in central Spain (N = 1,003; 50.7% men). Attitudes toward pornography are measured using a set of 19 items adapted from the Internet Pornography Questionnaire developed by Noll et al. (2022) in the United States. These items capture beliefs about pornography’s potential harms—such as fostering sexual objectification, unrealistic sexual expectations, or aggression—as well as perceived benefits, including sexual education, sexual satisfaction, or tension release. The study compares responses between men and women using descriptive statistics to identify gender differences across the different attitudinal dimensions. From a gender studies perspective, the analysis interprets these differences in light of feminist debates on pornography and the gendered dynamics of sexual media consumption. By examining how attitudes toward pornography vary across genders, this study contributes to understanding how sexual media are interpreted within broader structures of gendered power, inequality, and sexual norms in contemporary societies.

Introduction:
Contemporary research on gender and sexuality highlights the role of sexual identity in shaping experiences of intimacy, body perception, and sexual well-being. Drawing on masculinity studies and minority stress theory, sexual orientation may influence how men internalize cultural norms regarding the body and sexual performance. Despite growing research on male sexual functioning, homosexual men remain underrepresented in studies examining the relationship between body image and sexual well-being. This study aimed to compare heterosexual and homosexual men in selected dimensions of sexual functioning and body image within the Polish cultural context.
Materials and Methods:
Data were collected between April and June 2025 via an online survey. The final sample consisted of 214 men (Mage = 22.20, SD = 2.11; 53% heterosexual). Measures included sexual satisfaction, sexual self-esteem, and body image. Group differences were analyzed using independent-samples t-tests and Mann–Whitney U tests.
Results:
Gay men reported a higher number of sexual partners and greater sexual consciousness. Heterosexual men rated their upper-body strength and physical condition more positively. No significant differences were found in overall sexual satisfaction or sexual self-esteem.
Conclusions:
Sexual orientation differentiates certain aspects of sexual behavior and body perception but not core evaluations of sexual functioning. These findings may reflect shared cultural standards of masculinity alongside minority-specific experiences influencing sexual self-reflection. The results highlight the importance of including sexual orientation in research on masculinity, body image, and sexual well-being, particularly in heteronormative contexts.

Access to safe and adequate sanitation remains a critical public health challenge for women living in urban poor settlements in India. Despite national initiatives such as the Swachh Bharat Mission aimed at improving sanitation infrastructure, many women in low-income urban communities continue to face difficulties in accessing safe, hygienic, and gender-sensitive sanitation facilities. This study examines the relationship between public sanitation facilities and women’s health problems among the urban poor in Tamil Nadu.

The study adopts a mixed-method approach combining survey data and qualitative insights from women residing in selected urban low-income neighborhoods. Primary data were collected through structured questionnaires and focused discussions to understand patterns of public toilet usage, accessibility issues, safety concerns, hygiene conditions, and associated health outcomes. The findings indicate that inadequate sanitation infrastructure, overcrowded public toilets, poor maintenance, lack of privacy, and safety concerns significantly affect women’s health and wellbeing. Many respondents reported health problems such as urinary tract infections, reproductive health issues, and psychological stress due to delayed or restricted toilet use.

The study further highlights the intersection of gender, poverty, and urban infrastructure inequalities in shaping sanitation experiences. It argues that sanitation policies must move beyond infrastructure provision to include gender-sensitive design, regular maintenance, safety measures, and community participation. Strengthening public sanitation systems is essential not only for improving women’s health but also for advancing urban dignity, gender equity, and inclusive public health governance. The findings contribute to ongoing debates on urban sanitation policy and gender-responsive urban planning in the Global South.

Child marriage remains a significant challenge in the socio-economic context of Bangladesh. It is hampering efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 4 and 5, which aim to ensure good health and well-being, inclusive and equitable quality education and gender equality, respectively. This study examines the physical, psychological, educational and socio-economic impacts of child marriage from a human rights perspective, using data from government and non-governmental organization reports, research articles and publications. The findings show that poverty, low literacy rates, dowry practices, weak law enforcement, patriarchal norms and socio-cultural pressures drive child marriage. Bangladesh ranks seventh in the world and first in Asia in terms of child marriage rates. Child marriage affects both girls and boys, although girls are disproportionately affected. Child marriage is associated with poor health outcomes, increased risk of early pregnancy and maternal mortality, loneliness, psychological distress, disrupted education, limited economic opportunities, gender inequality and violations of fundamental human rights. While policy measures and awareness-raising campaigns have made progress, persistent socio-economic and cultural barriers, poverty, dowry practices, weak law enforcement and poor implementation of laws hinder meaningful change. The study highlights the need for comprehensive legal enforcement, expansion of health care, education, poverty eradication and economic empowerment, addressing socio-cultural and religious perspectives and community-based interventions to reduce child marriage by 2030 and support the achievement of SDGs 3, 4 and 5.