Table of Contents

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 Aragón 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 Roldán

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. Hernández and Sarah De Los Santos Upton

Chapter 16: Historical and Intergenerational Trauma and Radical Love

By Andrew Jolivétte

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 Aragón, 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

About the Author

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.

Reviews

"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

"Drs. Cooke-Jackson and Rubinsky provide a diligently researched and deeply considered approach to one of life's most interesting and complex topics: intimate health. This text provides a solid background to the most cutting-edge research in this area, focusing on communication theories and application, all the while offering a creative and evocative format that engages the reader. This remarkable book is an astute, insightful read, sure to be enjoyed by academics and lay readers alike."--Carey Marie Noland, Northeastern 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