Despite how the internet has radically changed our access to and, for many, our relation to porn, problematic pornography use (PPU), remains largely understudied and undertheorized: We have no official diagnosis, lack of evidence-based treatments, and almost no research on women. Consequently, individuals struggling with PPU often turn to online self-help fora, which primarily focus on frequency. However, emerging research suggests that frequency may not be at the core of PPU. We propose that PPU is complex and could be better understood holistically via the network theory of psychopathology. The goal of this study was twofold: first, to examine the role of pornography use frequency and to identify other symptoms that play important role in PPU; second, to investigate differences and similarities in PPU networks between women and men. We recruited an online sample (N = 1,048) from fora on pornography addiction and assessed various PPU symptom domains: quantity, addiction, context, and affect. We examined the network structure and gender differences in networks using Bayesian network analysis. Frequency was a peripheral symptom. Instead, moral incongruence played a key role. PPU networks were largely equivalent between women and men. Our findings suggest that the emphasis on pornography use frequency prevalent in online self-help fora may be insufficient to understand and treat PPU. Instead, we need theorizing on key interconnected psychological aspects of PPU, such as moral incongruence, to more effectively address the suffering it causes. Similarities between women and men imply that PPU affect both genders comparably. Our findings extend and challenge prevalent online discourse that pornography use frequency is the key indicator of PPU or that it primarily and differently affects men. (272 words)

Keywords: problematic pornography use, addiction, Bayesian graphical modeling, women, gender

In an age marked by polarized gender discourses, from the rise of incel communities to the conservative backlash emphasizing traditional gender roles, our collective anxieties around gender seem to reveal something deeper than sociopolitical division: a wounded sense of self. This paper investigates how vulnerable narcissism, characterized by its oscillation between entitlement and shame, can usefully illuminate the emotional underpinnings of contemporary gender attitudes. Vulnerable narcissism and traditional gender ideology both carry a striking duality. Vulnerable narcissism is distinguished by fluctuations between self-importance and self-contempt while sexism manifests in both hostile and benevolent forms, defined as overtly negative vs. seemingly positive but in fact harmful gender attitudes, respectively. These “two faces” mirror one another, suggesting that fragile selfhood externalizes its tension through either aggression or idealization. Both constructs expose a paradox of dependency and defense: the longing for recognition entwined with the fear of vulnerability. Discourse analysis of both English and Chinese (Taiwan) digital content, such as short-form videos and incels wiki, and online forums, such as Reddit, PTT, Threads, and 4chan, is conducted to examine the psychological parallels between the “two faces” of narcissism and gender attitudes. Analyses reveal how fantasies of grandiosity, externalization of blame, and reported sense of inadequacy underlie sexist gender attitudes online. Specifically, vulnerable self-structures can manifest as seemingly contradictory patterns of gender perception. The paper provides a psychologically nuanced account on the recent revival of traditional gender attitudes and demonstrates how psychoanalytic and personality theory can be effectively applied to understand the potential psychological drivers of contemporary social discourse. Understanding these affective dynamics provides novel perspectives on the interplay of gender, self-esteem, and shame as well as proposes directions for intervention. (277 words)

Keywords: vulnerable narcissism, entitlement, shame, gender attitudes, ambivalent sexism

This paper argues that Ian Hacking’s account of the looping effect is highly relevant for improving psychological theorizing, especially in contemporary times. Psychological research often treats classifications such as gender as stable variables, despite evidence that its theories actively “make up” new ways of being a person, shaping the way people experience themselves, feel, and act. These changes then “loop back” to affect psychological theorizing. Interviews were conducted with women from 12 countries in Europe and East Asia to investigate possible looping effects of the classification of ‘(modern) woman’ in recent decades. Findings reveal that women interact with gender classifications in complex, non-linear ways, varying between-persons with culture and within-persons with age. While feminist critiques have emphasized the influence of sociohistorical context on scientific theories, insufficient attention has been paid to how psychological theories also intervene on social behavior, values, and norms. With advances in information and communication technologies, psychological concepts increasingly permeate and interact with public discourse. It is thus more pertinent than ever to consider looping effects in psychological theorizing and practice. This paper extends Hacking’s account by showing that the looping effect intensifies with greater psychologization and is itself context dependent. The case study signals that psychological theories on gender should be updated to reflect the growing influence of feminism and psychologization on gender and subsequent looping effects. Four methodological recommendations are made: recognizing the bidirectional relationship between theory and context aids conceptual clarification and generates relevant, novel questions for empirical research; the looping effect highlights the utility of feminist Strong Objectivity for psychological science and points to causal relationships that, if integrated, would enhance the explanatory power of psychological theories for practice. (276 words)

Keywords: looping effect, theory, gender, feminist science, psychologization

The application of theory for practice requires a cultivation of its intimate relation to the everyday realities of its subject. The book is interested in knowledge and theorizing as functional strategies of resistance in contemporary knowledge societies. Based on interviews with and short writings by 17 women on the topic of ‘(modern) womanhood’ and using editorial design and visual documentation alongside theoretical analysis, the project aims to make academic knowledge more accessible by taking a bottom-up approach to exploring interactions between the academic and the personal. We distinguish key themes from interviewees’ self-analyses, narratives, and reflections on what they themselves indicate as relevant and salient to their experiences of past girlhood and contemporary womanhood. Each chapter of the book maps these themes to feminist, psychological, and philosophical literature, including relational autonomy, reclamation, therapeutic ethos, epistemic injustice, and difference vs. gender feminism. The book examines questions such as: How do personal philosophies mirror and interact with academic ones? What does this interaction afford us in understanding and responding to changes in contemporary dialogues on gender? How can we leverage design to make academic theories more accessible and useful for the public? From the passages of interview transcripts and writings, photos of personal objects from the interviewees’ homes and/or workspaces, and excerpts from academic essays, a new form of transdisciplinary research and theorizing materializes. We demonstrate how artistic methodologies can help enhance and reshape theoretical perspectives on existing gender discourse. The book presents an avenue, inviting both the makers and readers to participate in reconsidering how academic concepts are seized and transformed in popular discourse and how theorizing is and can be usefully guided by direct engagement with its subject. (278 words)

Keywords: design, theory, knowledge society, art, feminism