Finding a community; Tips and suggestions for exploring the challenges for researching intimacy ‘together’
I started my PhD journey 7 months ago in Belgium at the KU Leuven / LUCA School of Arts in Genk. Coming from industry, working as a Design Researcher in the Netherlands, it was quite a change starting in Academia. Going from a close team, collaborating with international partners, and having tight deadlines, to being an independent researcher, with unlimited research possibilities, working in a very hierarchical Academic system was quite a shift.
Besides adapting to this new ‘work’ environment I needed to educate myself in the topic of sexuality in later life. The focus of my research is exploring the meaning of intimacy and sexual expression in care facilities through Participatory Design approaches. Although I am open to sensitive topics, this was new terrain for me. One of the biggest questions I had was how would I be able to have meaningful conversation about intimacy without crossing any personal boundaries? I felt very overwhelmed and uncomfortable addressing this sensitive topic thinking it was inappropriate.
To combat this, I started to familiarize myself with literature on aged sexuality in care environments. In addition, I began to volunteer weekly at a local care facility to get a sense of intimacy in a caring environment. Furthermore, I reached out to experts in the field to understand their experiences and perceptions towards aged sexuality. This helped me become more knowledgeable on researching intimacy, but also highlighted many challenges, concerns, and barriers along the way. Next to these efforts, I took the opportunity to share my early research progress with a ‘taboo’ interest group, initiated by Petra Salaric. This is a group of people, both researchers and practitioners, from around the world, who come together quarterly to discuss diverse types of taboos.
Although I did not have any concrete analyzed data yet to share with them, I introduced my preparations for researching intimacy. It was not only helpful to prepare and share a coherent story of the research to a wider audience, but it also sparked an inspiring conversation afterwards with helpful tips. Below are a few learnings that we discussed:
Provide a good understanding of your research position
- Be specific when defining ‘intimacy’ (e.g., differences eroticism, and sexuality)
- What role does sexual desire play in the research?
- How would you define your research to be a success?
- In what kind of literature would you position your research in (health, sociology, design)
Design Research makes sense because ‘people never learned the words to talk about it’
- Designed tools can support people to overcome language barriers when discussing taboos
- Do not underestimate the power of design(e.g., color and ‘curvy’ objects) when discussing taboo topics
Be reflective, protective, and empowering
- How to create a safe space, that goes beyond a physical space, but just by being you? Reflect on your (unique) positionality as a researcher.
- Talking about intimacy provides participants new perspective on their sexuality, however it can also open more desires or the feeling of dissatisfaction
- When do residents feel empowered and have a sense of autonomy throughout the day? Exploring their sexual wellbeing is also a way to feel empowered.
Clear communication and providing support is necessarily
- Manage participants’ expectations, impact through a process is not always directly visible for participants
- Clarify some ground rules (e.g., respecting each other) and information on what is covered, and what not
- Safeguarding participants’ and researchers’ mental health through support (e.g., have someone to talk to in place)
As a final question, someone asked me what was most surprising for me? I shared that I first had to acknowledge being uncomfortable when discussing intimacy and sexuality with others. However, over the months of reading, talking, and learning about intimacy and sexuality I became more comfortable to address this sensitive topic. I noticed people started to open up to me by having a moment to talk about a topic that is often silenced. When I accepted this role, that included sharing information about intimacy in later life, people were very willing to talk to me about their sexual history, desires, and needs.
I hope by reflecting on these first thoughts it can support other design researchers when exploring taboo and sensitive topics. Even though at first it is uncomfortable, we can hopefully start to pivot these ‘unspoken’ taboos.
