Showing papers in "Journal of Gender Studies in 2013"
TL;DR: Body work, which involves a range of practices to maintain or modify the body's appearance, is central to the way the body is experienced in a Western, industrialized, and consumerist society such as Australia.
Abstract: This article is concerned with the relationships between the body, gender, and society. Body work, which involves a range of practices to maintain or modify the body's appearance, is central to the way the body is experienced in a Western, industrialized, and consumerist society such as Australia. Through body work practices, gender is continually reasserted and reconstructed. Examining body work is a way of exploring the ways that gender is embodied and lived. Body work must be understood as embodied processes which move beyond binarized analyses of the body in society. In this regard, embodiment and Deleuzian frameworks which focus on ‘becomings’ provide important analytic insights. Drawing on 22 qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted in 2010 with men and women aged 18–35 in Melbourne, Australia, this article explores the ways that body work and gender can be understood as relations through which bodies ‘become’. There were contrasts and similarities between the male and female partic...
77 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that in the absence of biological fathers other men such as maternal or paternal uncles, grandfathers, neighbours, and teachers often serve as social fathers, and most of the men who participated in this study were able to identify men who played social rather than biological fathers.
Abstract: The legacy of apartheid and continued social and economic change have meant that many South African men and women have grown up in families from which biological fathers are missing. In both popular and professional knowledge and practice this has been posed as inherently a problem particularly for boys who are assumed to lack a positive male role model. In drawing on qualitative interviews with a group of South African men in which they speak about their understandings of being fathered as boys, this paper makes two key arguments. The first is that contemporary South African discourses tend to pathologize the absence of the biological father while simultaneously undermining the role of social fathers. Yet, this study shows that in the absence of biological fathers other men such as maternal or paternal uncles, grandfathers, neighbours, and teachers often serve as social fathers. Most of the men who participated in this study are able to identify men who – as social rather than biological fathers – played...
62 citations
TL;DR: The concept of transnationalism gets invoked so frequently in migration studies today as discussed by the authors, which is why it is interesting to see how it can be used in the context of migration studies.
Abstract: DEBORAH A. BOEHM, 2012, New York: New York University Press, 178 pp, ISBN 978-0-8147-8983-4, $49.00 (hardback) The concept of transnationalism gets invoked so frequently in migration studies today ...
57 citations
TL;DR: In 2010, Portugal became the eighth country worldwide to approve same-sex civil marriage as mentioned in this paper, which has put Portugal at the forefront of sexual citizenship rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Europe.
Abstract: In 2010, Portugal became the eighth country worldwide to approve same-sex civil marriage. Such legal change is a recent addition to the achievements that have put Portugal at the forefront of sexual citizenship rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Europe. This article investigates the political path of LGBT rights in this Southern European, majority Catholic, and post-dictatorship country, exploring the role of the Portuguese LGBT movement in contributing to change. This research highlights how the state is willing to compensate – via legal recognition – queer sexual encounters to the extent that they willingly embrace the dominant values of respectability and normalcy. In this respect, the approval of same-sex marriage offers the opportunity to discuss issues of agency, citizenship, recognition, and normativity. The paper begins by contextualizing sexual citizenship in democratic Portugal, providing an analytical account of the LGBT movement. In the second section, I sugges...
43 citations
TL;DR: In this article, focus group and interview data from 28 white heterosexual women aged between 23 and 58 living in the UK was used to investigate the relationship between celebrity women and self-transformation, and found that female celebrities were successful neoliberal entrepreneurial selves with the capacity to make money from their bodies.
Abstract: Contemporary female celebrity is produced within a context of postfeminism, sexualised culture, consumerism and neoliberalism. Feminist analyses often argue that such celebrity figures commodify female sexuality and depoliticise feminist issues regarding autonomy and sexual agency; although some celebrate contemporary celebrity as a site for producing less conventional sexual identities. In this paper we contribute to these debates with analysis of focus group and interview data from 28 white heterosexual women aged between 23 and 58 living in the UK. For the women in our study, female celebrities were figures of successful neoliberal entrepreneurial selves, with the capacity to make money from their bodies. This capacity was associated with continuous work on the bodies, rather than a natural beauty; and while there was often admiration for the work that went into this self-transformation, a consequence for the participants of equating beauty with normatively unattainable levels of body work was that the...
41 citations
TL;DR: CARPENTER and DELAMATER as mentioned in this paper, from virginity to viagra: how sexuality was changed from birth control to sex for life, from birth to Viagra, how sexuality
Abstract: edited by LAURA M CARPENTER and JOHN DELAMATER, 2012, New York: New York University Press, 384 pp, ISBN 978-0-8147-7253-9, £1709 (paperback) Sex for life: from virginity to viagra, how sexuality
39 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the specific commercial activities that are undertaken by women in cross-border trading, the coping strategies that they use to address the difficulties that confront them, the impact of women's trading activities on their lives, and how these are linked to their subjective understanding of poverty and well-being.
Abstract: Trading is one of the strategies that Ghanaian women have adopted to overcome poverty and improve their well-being. Using in-depth interviews, this study examines the specific commercial activities that are undertaken by women in cross-border trading, the coping strategies that they use to address the difficulties that confront them, the impact of women's trading activities on their lives, and how these are linked to their subjective understanding of poverty and well-being. The analysis shows that women can lift themselves out of poverty through informal cross-border trading activities in spite of the challenges and risks they face. Such trading activities have enabled them to support themselves and to meet the needs of their households, and this has created a sense of life satisfaction, happiness, and self-fulfilment. The study recommends that trade and trade-related programmes developed at a national level must include the needs and concerns of female cross-border traders. This should include educationa...
35 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a longitudinal content analysis of four decades of Rolling Stone magazine covers was conducted to examine whether women and men have become more sexualized over time and, if so, whether such increases have been proportionate.
Abstract: A number of scholars and journalists have argued that Western culture has become ‘sexualized’. Both women and men, they maintain, are highly sexualized in popular media. At the same time, scholars have examined the sexualization of women as part of a broader cultural ‘backlash’ against the gains of second-wave feminism and women's increasing power in society. We contribute to both of these fields with a longitudinal content analysis of four decades of Rolling Stone magazine covers. First, we analyze whether both women and men have become more sexualized over time and, if so, whether such increases have been proportionate. Second, we examine whether there is a relationship between women's increasing power in the music industry (as measured by popularity) and their sexualization on the cover of Rolling Stone. In the first case, we do not find evidence that US culture as a whole has become sexualized, as only women – but not men – have become both more frequently and more intensely sexualized on the cover of...
30 citations
30 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the relationship between gender, gender performance, and school uniforms through exploring writing on discipline, performance and uniforms and then exploring some specific contemporary policy on school uniforms in the US.
Abstract: School uniforms have been utilized by a number of schools in attempts to increase discipline and academic performance. This paper seeks to explore the relationships between gender, gender performance, and school uniforms through exploring writing on discipline, performance, and uniforms and then exploring some specific contemporary policy on school uniforms in the US.
26 citations
TL;DR: In this article, Geertje Mak explores the relationship between ambiguous forms of embodiment, the inner sense of sex of individuals and the social practices that facilitate the attribution of sex, g...
Abstract: In this work, Geertje Mak explores the relationship between ambiguous forms of embodiment, the ‘inner’ sense of sex of individuals and the social practices that facilitate the attribution of sex, g...
TL;DR: Using an understanding of HBV as gender-based violence, the paper reports on the findings, actions, and recommendations which emerged from the study for both Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK.
Abstract: This paper discusses ‘honour’-based violence (HBV) and ‘honour’ killings in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (in the north of Iraq) and the UK. HBV consists of violence committed, most commonly, against (young) women by male relatives and is usually carried out in order to preserve or restore the ‘honour’ of families, communities, or individuals. The paper discusses HBV in the context of the first-ever transnational study of such violence in Iraqi Kurdish communities. The study is a major part of the contribution of Iraqi Kurdistan to the current global effort to begin to combat this type of violence against women. Using an understanding of HBV as gender-based violence, the paper reports on the findings, actions, and recommendations which emerged from the study for both Iraqi Kurdistan and the UK. These recommendations are grounded in a gendered perspective and are currently leading to social action and change for women in Iraqi Kurdistan, together with some further impacts in the UK.
TL;DR: In the preface to this book, the authors note that their publisher urged... as mentioned in this paper, which is the publisher of this paper, to use the pre-print version of this book.
Abstract: MARTA, TRZEBIATOWSKA, STEVE, BRUCE, , 2012, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 224 pp, ISBN 978-0-19 960810, £23.75 (hardback) In the preface to this book, the authors note that their publisher urged...
TL;DR: Shelle, BUDGEON, the authors, 2011, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 216 pp, ISBN 978023058090909, £55 (hardback)
Abstract: SHELLEY, BUDGEON, , 2011, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 216 pp, ISBN 9780230580909, £55 (hardback) Feminism in late modernity constitutes a complex negotiation of twentieth-century feminist histories, as ...
TL;DR: An analysis is made of the elimination of foot binding and applied to the eradication of FGM, and a model is created to identify the features which are most likely to lead to success.
Abstract: Gender-based violence affects women in most societies. Chinese foot binding existed for nearly a thousand years and was seen as a sign of beauty and marriageability. Female genital mutilation (FGM) has existed for over two thousand years, affecting 140 million women across forty countries. Both practices have significant parallels and are examined historically, geographically, and by health consequences. An analysis is made of the elimination of foot binding and applied to the eradication of FGM. A model is created to identify the features which are most likely to lead to success. Three case studies taken from Somalia, Ghana, and Ethiopia are assessed against the success criteria for the eradication of foot binding. Conclusions and recommendations are drawn for future work in the stand against FGM.
TL;DR: Pascoe's "Dudel" as mentioned in this paper is a picture-queous ethnographic description of Pascoe's Dudel, originally published in the early 1970s, and revised in 2011.
Abstract: CHERI JO PASCOE, 2011 (second revised edition) Berkeley: University of California Press, 227 pp, ISBN 978-0520271487, £18.00 (paperback) Through a picturesque ethnographic description, Pascoe's Dud...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a field work based on field work in Iran and challenge the Orientalist discourse which dominates the majority of writings on women in Iran, arguing that women's status in Iran is far more complex than is often assumed.
Abstract: This book is based on field work in Iran and challenges the Orientalist discourse which dominates the majority of writings on women in Iran. Women's status in Iran is far more complex than is often...
TL;DR: In her book on war rape as mentioned in this paper, Inger Skjelsbaek confronts a phenomenon that is very difficult to explain and it is difficult to find a good solution to it.
Abstract: INGER SKJELSBAEK, 2012, London and New York: Routledge, 172 pp, ISBN 978041567117-0, £8500 (hardback) In her book on war rape, Inger Skjelsbaek confronts a phenomenon that is very difficult to stu
TL;DR: Results can be used by clinicians to identify patients who may be at an increased risk for negative body image and problems in sexual functioning, and showed that younger adults, Caucasians, those who were married and patients with some functional limitations were more likely to have problems with sexual interest/activity.
Abstract: Psycho-social factors impacting on the overall quality of life for cancer patients may differ between men and women. This study examined the influence that psychological distress and clinical and social variables have on sexual activity and body image in adult oncology patients. Symptom data were collected from the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS). Analysis indicated women and patients with reported functional limitations were more likely to be less satisfied with how they looked. The final model showed that younger adults, Caucasians, those who were married, and patients with some functional limitations were more likely to have problems with sexual interest/activity. Gender was not a significant predictor of having problems with sexual interest/activity. These results can be used by clinicians to identify patients who may be at an increased risk for negative body image and problems in sexual functioning. Further research regarding gender differences in cancer-related psychological symptoms is nee...
TL;DR: In this article, Hanlon offers insight into caring from men in a variety of life positions, and a thorough discussion of the ways in which men care for others in their daily lives.
Abstract: This is an ambitious and well-executed text. Working through 11 chapters, Hanlon offers insight into caring from men in a variety of life positions. He begins with a thorough discussion of the ways...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the significance of interpersonal context in the making of moral judgments, and reveal the dynamics of moral development with regard to gender and age in children aged between 7 and 12.
Abstract: This paper describes the significance of interpersonal context in the making of moral judgments. The study reveals the dynamics of moral development with regard to gender and age. The article draws on the social comparison orientation (Guimond et al. 2006) and questions Gilligan's (1977) structuralist position. The study focuses on the developmental aspect of morality in children aged between 7 and 12, and it specifies how gender identities are context and social role-specific and their impact on information processing. The study engaged some 240 children who finished incomplete narratives. The basic question concerned the process of solving implicit moral dilemmas and its possible dependence on care orientation (associated with femininity) or justice orientation (associated with masculinity). The analysis showed significant developmental changes with age: girls become more care-oriented but only towards opposite-sex peers, whereas boys become more justice-oriented but also only towards opposite-sex peers...
TL;DR: This paper conducted qualitative textual analysis of four television programs aimed at young girls and found that much of this programming is anti-feminist, which undermined the empowerment of women and girls and undermined feminist inroads.
Abstract: Although ‘girl power’ has become a mainstream concept, some scholars have argued that we are in the midst of a media-generated backlash designed to undo the empowerment of girls and women. US popular culture targets young girls with anti-feminist messages, which undermine feminist inroads. To explore this issue, I conduct qualitative textual analysis of four television programs aimed at young girls. I find that much of this programming is anti-feminist.
TL;DR: This article examined changes and shifts in women's leisure across the life-course and within families, and found that women transmitted both habits and understanding of leisure down the generations across three generations.
Abstract: This paper examines the leisure lives of twelve women, from four families, across three generations. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with ‘trios’ of three generations of women, I examine changes and shifts in women's leisure across the life-course and within families. At the outset of the research I was interested primarily in identifying changes, but soon the data revealed that the women transmitted both habits and understanding of leisure down the generations. An important question for gender studies is if women transmit leisure values and practices across generations does this mean that women's leisure lives remain unchanged since early feminist leisure theory? The challenges for the participants of this study were to achieve some autonomy and change in their leisure patterns, even though they demonstrated that many of those patterns remained extremely similar.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated issues arising during the post-conflict recovery period in northern Uganda as differentiated by gender and found that the needs of citizens during recovery varied according to gender and the time elapsed since the conflict.
Abstract: This study sought to investigate issues arising during the post-conflict recovery period in northern Uganda as differentiated by gender. The study was exploratory and descriptive, employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches, and the theoretical framework of Greenberg and Zuckerman (2004, 2009) predominantly guided it. The key finding was that needs of citizens during recovery varied by gender and the time that had elapsed since the conflict. A plethora of agencies participated in the post-conflict recovery efforts and many challenges affect the mainstreaming of gender issues into these programmes, especially in a patriarchal society such as the study area. In practical terms, during post-conflict recovery efforts, all stakeholders need to effectively consider analysis of need by gender in their programmes if sustainable PC-PPP (post-conflict, peace, participation and prosperity) is to be realised. This research has contributed to the continuous debate on, and search for, a gender-sensitive post...
TL;DR: In this paper, the problematique of appropriation and its interruption is discussed by using material from three Finnish cases which relate to the ways the Finnish national identity has been constructed in relation to the trauma of the Finnish Civil War and Second World War.
Abstract: The imagining of the nation-state includes the appropriation of bodies as objects on which the desire for national unity and identity is brutally inscribed. The appropriation of male bodies is accompanied by hegemonic forms of masculinities that are constitutive of the national identity. This article asks how male bodies are appropriated and post-war nationalism inscribed on them and how the hegemonic forms of masculinities are produced for the purposes of ‘healing’ the national self after the trauma of war. The article seeks also to demonstrate that the processes of appropriation can be interrupted and resisted, and alternative masculinities produced in visual art. In the text, the problematique of appropriation and its interruption is discussed by using material from three Finnish cases which relate to the ways the Finnish national identity has been constructed in relation to the trauma of the Finnish Civil War and Second World War.
TL;DR: The authors examined how my body became intertwined with notions of the 'right and wrong' pregnant body, the 'good and bad' mother/academic/feminist/researcher, and the 'insider and outsider' within academic hierarchies.
Abstract: The appearance of bodies in social space is a theoretically rich subject for discussion. The study of bodies and identities is a personally complex endeavour as researchers are often implicated in their own subject of investigation. This article explores one researcher's engagement with issues of power and identity; while undertaking a study on gender, race, and ability in the critical identity classroom (i.e. Women and Gender Studies), I, the researcher, became part of the study as my age and non/pregnant body began to emerge as crucial to the study itself. In this paper, I examine how my body became intertwined with notions of the ‘right and wrong’ pregnant body, the ‘good and bad’ mother/academic/feminist/researcher, and the ‘insider and outsider’ within academic hierarchies.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine biological sex (male versus female) and gender identity (masculine versus feminine) as predictors of support provision in marriage and reveal that a person's support provision was uniquely predicted by his/her gender identity.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to examine biological sex (male versus female) and gender identity (masculine versus feminine) as predictors of support provision in marriage. Participants were 235 married individuals who completed scenario-based questionnaires designed to measure support provision across a broad range of daily stressors. Our results did not reveal differences between biological males and females in their support provision behaviour. However, a person's support provision was uniquely predicted by his/her gender identity. As compared to feminine individuals, masculine individuals reported providing higher levels of instrumental and unhelpful support for their spouse in distress. Furthermore, feminine individuals reported higher levels of emotional support provision than masculine individuals. This pattern of results appeared to be consistent across stressor type. The present findings contribute to the discussion concerning the origins of the support gap in marriage by revealing that it is not biological sex per se, but people's gender role socialization that determines their skilfulness as a support provider in intimate relationships.
TL;DR: The authors provides a wealth of rich, empirical material about women's football, or more specifically, in the language of North America, of soccer, which is referred to as soccer soccer.
Abstract: This is a substantial, well-researched book which provides a wealth of rich, empirical material about women's football, or more specifically, in the language of North America, of soccer, which is t...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze how the current Spanish law regulating changes in gender identity still imposes medical criteria that pathologize the trans person and reinforce sexist assumptions, and how these criteria still implicitly support inaccurate and oppressive understandings of sex/gender/sexuality by, for example, relying on diagnostic criteria that support the imposition of gendered stereotypes on children and traditional social roles on adolescents and adults.
Abstract: Despite recent worldwide legal advances in the protection of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights, legal systems continue to take the categories of ‘male’ and ‘female’ to be based on a fixed and permanent natural order. Taking the current Spanish law regulating changes in gender identity as an example, we analyze how this recent (2007) legal advance still imposes medical criteria that pathologize the trans person and reinforce sexist assumptions. Although it is no longer up to a judge to determine a person's legal gender, the criteria for modification of official documents still implicitly support inaccurate and oppressive understandings of sex/gender/sexuality by, for example, relying on diagnostic criteria that support the imposition of gendered stereotypes on children and traditional social roles on adolescents and adults. Only through reconceptualizing our very notion of sex and gender can the law be revised to protect the rights of everyone no matter what their lived sex/gender histo...
TL;DR: In this paper, content analysis was utilized as a way of examining how gender transgression and gender performance are linked to (hetero)sexuality, and how they are constructed, in the sitcom Two and a Half Men created by Lee Aronsohn and Chuck Lorre.
Abstract: This paper seeks to highlight gender enactment and desire as it relates to Butler's ‘heterosexual matrix’ within a nationally syndicated television show. By focusing on gender performativity – the impression of gender through repetitive stylized manners of interaction grounded in cultural norms – and discourse, this paper scrutinizes heteronormativity in a popular situation-based comedy in the US. Content analysis was utilized as a way of examining how gender transgression and gender performance are linked to (hetero)sexuality, and how they are constructed, in the sitcom Two and a Half Men created by Lee Aronsohn and Chuck Lorre. Two and a Half Men premiered on 22 September 2003 for the United States network, CBS.