Lanice Avery is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Gender, Women & Sexuality. She is an interdisciplinary scholar whose overarching research interest is in the promotion of healthy gender and sexual development among socially marginalized and stigmatized groups. Specifically, her work examines Black women’s intersectional identity and how the negotiation of hegemonic gender ideologies and racial stereotypes are associated with negative psychological and sexual outcomes.

Currently, Dr. Avery has three primary lines of research that focus on understanding the ways in which gender-based psychological and sociocultural factors inform the sexual beliefs, experiences, and health practices of young Black women. Her first line of research explores how Black women negotiate paradoxical expectations to perform hegemonic femininity (e.g., nurturing, submissive, communal) and stoicism (e.g., strong Black woman/superwoman stereotype), and how these negotiations present liabilities to their health and well-being. Her second line of research considers the role of mainstream Black-oriented media in the socialization of erotic injustice – beliefs about sexuality that reflect broader socio-structural injustices experienced by Black women. She considers how romanticizing hypermasculinity and feminine subjugation in intimate partnerships jeopardizes women’s capacity to express sexual agency. Finally, her third line of research examines how the idealization of restrictive feminine beauty and body standards contributes to adverse emotional (e.g., feelings of guilt and shame), cognitive (e.g., body surveillance and dissatisfaction), and behavioral (e.g., high sexual risk taking and low sexual assertiveness) experiences during sexual intimacy.

Selected Publications:

Avery, L. R., Ward, L. M., Moss, L., & Üsküp, D. (2017). Tuning gender: Representations of femininity and masculinity in popular music by Black artists. Journal of Black Psychology, 43, 159-191. doi: 10.1177/0095798415627917

Goldey, K. L., Avery, L. R., & van Anders, S. M. (2014). Sexual fantasies and gender/sex: A multimethod approach with quantitative content analysis and hormonal responses. The Journal of Sex Research, 51, 917-931. doi:10.1080/00224499.2013.798611

Cole, E. R., Avery, L. R., Dodson, C., & Goodman, K. D. (2012). Against nature: How arguments about the naturalness of marriage privilege heterosexuality. Journal of Social Issues, 68, 46-62. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.2012.01735.x