Best of
Gender-Studies

2015

Girls Will Be Girls: Dressing Up, Playing Parts and Daring to Act Differently


Emer O'Toole - 2015
    With all the revolutionary zeal, laugh-out-loud humour and intelligence of Laura Bates, Caitlin Moran and Bell Hooks, Emer O'Toole explores what it really means to 'act like a girl'.Being a woman is, largely, about performance - how we dress and modify our bodies, what we say, the roles we play, and how we conform to expectations. Gender stereotypes are still deeply embedded in our society, but Emer O'Toole is on a mission to re-write the old script and bend the rules of gender - and she shows how and why we should all be joining in.With game-changing ideas and laugh-out-loud humour, this book will open your mind and revolutionise the way that you think about gender.

Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution


Mona Eltahawy - 2015
    When the Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy published an article in Foreign Policy magazine in 2012 titled Why Do They Hate Us it provoked a firestorm of controversy. The response it generated, with more than four thousand posts on the website, broke all records for the magazine, prompted dozens of follow-up interviews on radio and television, and made it clear that misogyny in the Arab world is an explosive issue, one that engages and often enrages the public. In Headscarves and Hymens, Eltahawy takes her argument further. Drawing on her years as a campaigner and commentator on women's issues in the Middle East, she explains that since the Arab Spring began, women in the Arab world have had two revolutions to undertake one fought with men against oppressive regimes, and another fought against an entire political and economic system that treats women in countries from Yemen and Saudi Arabia to Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya as second-class citizens. Eltahawy has traveled across the Middle East and North Africa, meeting with women and listening to their stories. Her book is a plea for outrage and action on their behalf, confronting the toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend. A manifesto motivated by hope and fury in equal measure, Headscarves and Hymens is as illuminating as it is incendiary.

Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality


Gloria E. Anzaldúa - 2015
    Anzaldúa's mature thought and the most comprehensive presentation of her philosophy. Throughout, Anzaldúa weaves personal narratives into deeply engaging theoretical readings to comment on numerous contemporary issues—including the September 11 attacks, neocolonial practices in the art world, and coalitional politics. She valorizes subaltern forms and methods of knowing, being, and creating that have been marginalized by Western thought, and theorizes her writing process as a fully embodied artistic and political practice. Resituating Anzaldúa's work within Continental philosophy and new materialism, Light in the Dark takes Anzaldúan scholarship in new directions.

Rape: A South African Nightmare


Pumla Dineo Gqola - 2015
    Is this label accurate? What do South Africans think they know about rape? South Africa has a complex relationship with rape. Pumla Dineo Gqola unpacks this relationship by paying attention to patterns and trends of rape, asking what we can learn from famous cases and why South Africa is losing the battle against rape. Gqola looks at the 2006 rape trial of Jacob Zuma and what transpired in the trial itself, as well as trying to make sense of public responses to it. She interrogates feminist responses to the Anene Booysen case, amongst other high profile cases of gender-based violence. Rape: A South African Nightmare is a necessary book for various reasons. While volumes exist on rape in South Africa, much of this writing exists either in academic journals, activist publications or analysis pages of select print media. This is a conclusive book on rape in South Africa, illuminating aspects of South Africa's rape problem in South Africa, illuminating aspects of South Africa's rape problem and contributing to shifting the conversation forward. It is indebted to insights from available research, activism, the author's own immersion in Rape Crisis, the 1 in 9 Campaign and feminist scholarship. Analytically rigorous, it is intended for a general readership.

Trafficked to Hell: A trafficked daughter's plight. A mother's fight to find her.


R.J. Flo - 2015
    A brutal world Elena willingly enters to rescue her daughter, placing herself in jeopardy and risking everything for a mother’s love.Kristina travels thousands of miles for the job of her dreams, only to find that she has been betrayed. Trapped and forced to work as a prostitute; under constant fear of a brutal assault from Ponytail Ari, a vicious man employed to keep the girls in line, she finds herself alone, lost and helpless in this strange land.When all official enquiries to find Kristina come to nought, her mother, Elena, who has borrowed money beyond her means to send Kristina out, determines to find her and ends up in the hands of the traffickers herself.Nikki, a hardened con artist and streetwise prostitute arrives in Almina to start a new life and make money. She befriends Elena and together they take on the traffickers with consequences neither expected or were prepared for......The book is a work of fiction but is based on real stories. Whilst the people, places, companies, cities and countries are all figments of the author’s imagination the events are all true and have happened to someone somewhere.Human Trafficking is said to be the second biggest International crime after the drugs trade and has an annual value of 31.6 billion US Dollars. An International Labour Organization report states that 2.5 million people are victims of human trafficking each year with 1.4 million of these being for sexual purposes. These victims are mostly women. To put this into perspective, it is equivalent to the entire female population of Albania or Jamaica being forced or coerced to leave and made to work overseas as prostitutes - each and every year.

The Last Thousand: One School's Promise in a Nation at War


Jeffrey E. Stern - 2015
    The stakes of war are explored through the intertwining lives of six members of the Marefat School, an institution in the Western slums of Kabul built by one of the country's most vulnerable minority groups, the Hazara, as the school community prepares for the departure of foreign troops. Marefat's mission is to educate its community's youth- both boys and girls - and introduce them to a secular curriculum, civic participation, and the arts. The Marefat community has embraced the U.S. and flourished under its presence; they stand to lose the most when that protection disappears.The Last Thousand tells the story of what we leave behind when our foreign wars end, presenting the promise, as well as the peril, of our military adventure abroad. Through the eyes of these characters, Stern presents a nuanced and fascinating portrait of the complex history of Afghanistan, American occupation, and the ways in which this one community rallies together in compelling, heartbreaking, and inspiring detail.

SLUT: A Play and Guidebook for Combating Sexism and Sexual Violence


Katie Cappiello - 2015
    By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, SLUT captures the real lives of teens and young adults as they negotiate sex and the cruel scapegoating that still hobbles female sexuality and power. This groundbreaking play, written in collaboration with New York City high school students, and guidebook offers communities and individuals concrete tools to inspire change and stop slut. The guidebook includes production notes, a guide for talk-backs, and provocative essays by Leora Tanenbaum, Jennifer Baumgardner, Farah Tanis, Jamia Wilson, among others, providing the resources to inspire change within our communities and ourselves.

Poetics of the Flesh


Mayra Rivera - 2015
    She connects conversations about corporeality in theology, political theory, and continental philosophy to show the relationship between the ways ancient Christian thinkers and modern Western philosophers conceive of the "body" and "flesh.” Her readings of the biblical writings of John and Paul as well as the work of Tertullian illustrate how Christian ideas of flesh influenced the works of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Michel Foucault, and inform her readings of Judith Butler, Frantz Fanon, and others. Rivera also furthers developments in new materialism by exploring the intersections among bodies, material elements, social arrangements, and discourses through body and flesh. By painting a complex picture of bodies, and by developing an account of how the social materializes in flesh, Rivera provides a new way to understand gender and race.

Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis


Georgiann Davis - 2015
    Rather than share this information with her, they withheld the diagnosis in order to “protect” the development of her gender identity; it was years before Davis would see her own medical records as an adult and learn the truth. Davis’ experience is not unusual. Many intersex people feel isolated from one another and violated by medical practices that support conventional notions of the male/female sex binary which have historically led to secrecy and shame about being intersex. Yet, the rise of intersex activism and visibility in the US has called into question the practice of classifying intersex as an abnormality, rather than as a mere biological variation. This shift in thinking has the potential to transform entrenched intersex medical treatment.In Contesting Intersex, Davis draws on interviews with intersex people, their parents, and medical experts to explore the oft-questioned views on intersex in medical and activist communities, as well as the evolution of thought in regards to intersex visibility and transparency. She finds that framing intersex as an abnormality is harmful and can alter the course of one’s life. In fact, controversy over this framing continues, as intersex has been renamed a ‘disorder of sex development’ throughout medicine. This happened, she suggests, as a means for doctors to reassert their authority over the intersex body in the face of increasing intersex activism in the 1990s and feminist critiques of intersex medical treatment. Davis argues the renaming of ‘intersex’ as a ‘disorder of sex development’ is strong evidence that the intersex diagnosis is dubious. Within the intersex community, though, disorder of sex development terminology is hotly disputed; some prefer not to use a term which pathologizes their bodies, while others prefer to think of intersex in scientific terms. Although terminology is currently a source of tension within the movement, Davis hopes intersex activists and their allies can come together to improve the lives of intersex people, their families, and future generations. However, for this to happen, the intersex diagnosis, as well as sex, gender, and sexuality, needs to be understood as socially constructed phenomena. A personal journey into medical and social activism, Contesting Intersex presents a unique perspective on how medical diagnoses can affect lives profoundly.

Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures (New Black Studies Series)


L.H. Stallings - 2015
    It is multisensory and multidimensional philosophy used in conjunction with the erotic, eroticism, and black erotica. It is the affect that shapes film, performance, sound, food, technology, drugs, energy, time, and the seeds of revolutionary ideas for black movements. But funk is also an experience to feel, to hear, to touch and taste, and in Funk the Erotic , L. H. Stallings uses funk in all its iterations as an innovation in black studies. Stallings uses funk to highlight the importance of the erotic and eroticism in Black cultural and political movements, debunking "the truth of sex" and its histories. Brandishing funk as a theoretical tool, Stallings argues that Western theories of the erotic fail as universally applicable terms or philosophies, and thus lack utility in discussions of black bodies, subjects, and culture. In considering the Victorian concept of freak in black funk, Stallings proposes that black artists across all media have fashioned a tradition that embraces the superfreak, sexual guerrilla, sexual magic, mama's porn, black trans narratives, and sex work in a post-human subject position. Their goal: to ensure survival and evolution in a world that exploits black bodies in capitalist endeavors, imperialism, and colonization. Revitalizing and wide-ranging, Funk the Erotic offers a needed examination of black sexual cultures, a discursive evolution of black ideas about eroticism, a critique of work society, a reexamination of love, and an articulation of the body in black movements.

Our Bodies, Our Bikes


Elly Blue - 2015
    Through personal stories, how-to guidelines, and factual information, contributors explore the intersection of cycling and women's health, from bike fit to clothing, from periods to childbirth, from media representation to gender presentation and reproductive rights. Our diverse contributors demystify and elucidate women's issues in cycling in a practical, friendly, and down to earth manner.

Exploring Masculinities: Identity, Inequality, Continuity and Change


C.J. Pascoe - 2015
    It takes a conceptual approach by covering the wide range of scholarship being done on masculinities beyond the model of hegemonic masculinity. C.J. Pascoe and Tristan Bridges extend the boundaries of the field and provide a new framework for understanding masculinities studies. Rather than taking a topics-based approach to masculinity, Exploring Masculinities offers an innovative conceptual approach that enables students to study a given phenomenon from a variety of perspectives. It divides up the field in ways that provide accessible introductions to complex debates and key intra- and interdisciplinary distinctions. The book provides a portable set of conceptual tools on which scholars and students can rely to analyze masculinities in different contexts, time periods, and embodiments.

Recovering Armenia: The Limits of Belonging in Post-Genocide Turkey


Lerna Ekmekçioğlu - 2015
    Following World War I, as the victorious Allied powers occupied Ottoman territories, Armenian survivors returned to their hometowns optimistic that they might establish an independent Armenia. But Turkish resistance prevailed, and by 1923 the Allies withdrew, the Turkish Republic was established, and Armenians were left again to reconstruct their communities within a country that still considered them traitors. Lerna Ekmekcioglu investigates how Armenians recovered their identity within these drastically changing political conditions.Reading Armenian texts and images produced in Istanbul from the close of WWI through the early 1930s, Ekmekcioglu gives voice to the community's most prominent public figures, notably Hayganush Mark, a renowned activist, feminist, and editor of the influential journal Hay Gin. These public figures articulated an Armenianess sustained through gendered differences, and women came to play a central role preserving traditions, memory, and the mother tongue within the home. But even as women were being celebrated for their traditional roles, a strong feminist movement found opportunity for leadership within the community. Ultimately, the book explores this paradox: how someone could be an Armenian and a feminist in post-genocide Turkey when, through its various laws and regulations, the key path for Armenians to maintain their identity was through traditionally gendered roles.

From I Do to I Don't: Overcoming the Wounds of a Bad Relationship


Tricia-Anne Y. Morris - 2015
    The book was written to help women determine whether or not they’re in a bad relationship, engage in the healing process and track their progress. It also gives tips to help women not repeat the mistake. Inside are solutions women can use to heal. I invite all women regardless of age, race, educational background or income status to read this book. I pray as you read, it will help you heal and help you take back your life!

The V Girl: a Coming of Age Story


Mya Robarts - 2015
    Lila Velez desperately wants to lose her virginity before the troops visit her town and take it away by force. She makes plans to seduce her only friend. Lila does not love him, but he is the only man who has shown her true affection, an affection she is willing to take as a substitute for love.Lila hides a secret that will bring her closer to Aleksey Fürst, a foreign, broody man who she distrusts because of his links to the troops and his rough, yet irresistible appearance. He offers Lila an alternative to her plans, a possibility that terrifies her…and tempts her in spite of herself.With threats looming at every turn and no way to escape, Lila fears that falling in love will only lead to more heartache. The consequences of laying down her arms for Aleksey and welcoming hope might destroy more than her heart. They might force her to face the worst of her nightmares becoming a reality. Is love possible in a world that has forgotten what the human touch is?

Real Men Don't Sing: Crooning in American Culture


Allison McCracken - 2015
    Although Vallée and other crooners reflected the gender fluidity of late-1920s popular culture, their challenge to the Depression era's more conservative masculine norms led cultural authorities to stigmatize them as gender and sexual deviants. In Real Men Don't Sing Allison McCracken outlines crooning's history from its origins in minstrelsy through its development as the microphone sound most associated with white recording artists, band singers, and radio stars. She charts early crooners’ rise and fall between 1925 and 1934, contrasting Rudy Vallée with Bing Crosby to demonstrate how attempts to contain crooners created and dictated standards of white masculinity for male singers. Unlike Vallée, Crosby survived the crooner backlash by adapting his voice and persona to adhere to white middle-class masculine norms. The effects of these norms are felt to this day, as critics continue to question the masculinity of youthful, romantic white male singers. Crooners, McCracken shows, not only were the first pop stars: their short-lived yet massive popularity fundamentally changed American culture.

Geometries of Belonging


R.B. Lemberg - 2015
    Set in Birdverse, found in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

The Body and Shame: Phenomenology, Feminism, and the Socially Shaped Body


Luna Dolezal - 2015
    Body shame only finds its full articulation in the presence (actual or imagined) of others within a rule and norm governed milieu. As such, it bridges our personal, individual and embodied experience with the social, cultural and political world that contains us. Luna Dolezal argues that understanding body shame can shed light on how the social is embodied, that is, how the body-experienced in its phenomenological primacy by the subject-becomes a social and cultural artifact, shaped by external forces and demands. The Body and Shame introduces leading twentieth-century phenomenological and sociological accounts of embodied subjectivity through the work of Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault and Norbert Elias. Dolezal examines the embodied, social and political features of body shame. contending that body shame is both a necessary and constitutive part of embodied subjectivity while simultaneously a potential site of oppression and marginalization. Exploring the cultural politics of shame, the final chapters of this work explore the phenomenology of self-presentation and a feminist analysis of shame and gender, with a critical focus on the practice of cosmetic surgery, a site where the body is literally shaped by shame. The Body and Shame will be of great interest to scholars and students in a wide variety of fields, including philosophy, phenomenology, feminist theory, women's studies, social theory, cultural studies, psychology, sociology, and medical humanities.

Finding Masculinity: Female to Male Transition in Adulthood


Alexander Walker - 2015
    The stories within come from scientists, teachers, fathers, veterans, and artists who share how being visible as the masculine humans they identify as has developed, changed, and evolved their sense of masculinity.

Women and Socialism: Class, Race, and Capital (Revised and Updated Edition)


Sharon Smith - 2015
    If anything, each decade that has passed without a fighting women’s movement has seen a rise in blatant sexism and the further erosion of the gains that were won in the 1960s and 1970s. Yet liberal feminist organizations have followed the Democratic Party even as it has continually tacked rightward since the 1980s.This fully revised edition examines these issues from a Marxist perspective, focusing on the centrality of race and class. It includes chapters on the legacy of Black feminism and other movements of women of color and the importance of the concept of intersectionality. In addition, Women and Socialism: Class, Race, and Capital explores the contributions of socialist feminists and Marxist feminists in further developing a Marxist analysis of women’s oppression amid the stirrings of a new movement today.

The Hunting Ground: The Inside Story of Sexual Assault on American College Campuses


Kirby Dick - 2015
    The film has sparked calls for legislation by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and other prominent public figures and sparked a backlash from university administrators, fraternities, and conservative groups. Now, in a new companion volume to the film, all those concerned about the “rape culture” on campus will be offered an inside perspective on the controversy, as well as reactions to the film from a range of leading writers and guidance on how to learn more and get active. As in the film, it’s the gripping personal stories told by female students—and the obstinate refusal of college administrators and law enforcement authorities to recognize the severity of the problem—that will rivet readers.

Miscellaneous Records of a Female Doctor


Tan Yunxian - 2015
    It consists of one volume with 31 cases surrounded by two prefaces and three postscripts. Tan Yunxian primarily treated women in her practice, and these records reflect insights into the pathology of female patients that male practitioners might not have been privy to. At this time, a wealthy woman could not see a male doctor without having a male relative such as her father, husband, or son present. Modesty was the utmost female virtue. The male doctor questioned the husband, not the woman herself. He might not be allowed to see her face. He needed to ask for permission to feel her pulse. Therefore, because Tan was a woman, she was allowed by her female patients to do things that a male doctor could not, and this intimacy in turn led to a better diagnosis of the patient's problems. Lorraine Wilcox has annotated and explained Tan's original cases by both telling us the source text of the formulas Tan used, and what the probable diagnosis was from both Western and Eastern viewpoints. The complete formulas used by Tan have been added, and have been compared to the original formulas with a complete explanation of Tan's modifications. Wilcox, then discusses the reasons for such a diagnosis, and illustrates a number of other details that help us better understand each case. There were undoubtedly many other women doctors in ancient China but they left no record or the record was not preserved. Women doctors are occasionally mentioned in case studies written by men or in other types of literature. Therefore, we are lucky that Dr. Tan Yunxian's manuscript survived through the ages, as it helps us to understand the challenges and illnesses that women of the Ming faced.

Ill Composed: Sickness, Gender, and Belief in Early Modern England


Olivia Weisser - 2015
    Drawing on a wide range of sources, including personal diaries, medical texts, and devotional literature, the author enters the sickrooms of a diverse sampling of early modern Britons. The resulting stories of sickness reveal how men and women of the era viewed and managed their health both similarly and differently, as well as the ways prevailing religious practices, medical knowledge, writing conventions, and everyday life created and supported those varying perceptions.   A unique cultural history of illness, Weisser’s groundbreaking study bridges the fields of patient history and gender history. Based on the detailed examination of over fifty firsthand accounts, this fascinating volume offers unprecedented insight into what it was like to live, suffer, and inhabit a body more than three centuries ago.

Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty, and Feminist Activism


Tamar W. Carroll - 2015
    Drawing on a rich array of oral histories, archival records, newspapers, films, and photographs from post-World War II New York City, Carroll shows how poor people transformed the antipoverty organization Mobilization for Youth and shaped the subsequent War on Poverty. Highlighting the little-known National Congress of Neighborhood Women, she reveals the significant participation of working-class white ethnic women and women of color in New York City's feminist activism. Finally, Carroll traces the partnership between the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Women's Health Action Mobilization (WHAM!), showing how gay men and feminists collaborated to create a supportive community for those affected by the AIDS epidemic, to improve health care, and to oppose homophobia and misogyny during the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s. Carroll contends that social policies that encourage the political mobilization of marginalized groups and foster coalitions across identity differences are the most effective means of solving social problems and realizing democracy.

Love's Refraction: Jealousy and Compersion in Queer Women's Polyamorous Relationships


Jillian Deri - 2015
    In Love's Refraction, Jillian Deri explores the distinctive question of how and why polyamorists - people who practice consensual non-monogamy - manage jealousy. Her focus is on the polyamorist concept of "compersion" - taking pleasure in a lover's other romantic and sexual encounters.By discussing the experiences of queer, lesbian, and bisexual polyamorous women, Deri highlights the social and structural context that surrounds jealousy. Her analysis, making use of the sociology of emotion and feminist intersectionality theory, shows how polyamory challenges traditional emotional and sexual norms.Clear and concise, Love's Refraction speaks to both the academic and the polyamorous community. Deri lets her interviewees speak for themselves, linking academic theory and personal experiences in a sophisticated, engaging, and accessible way.

On Racial Icons: Blackness and the Public Imagination


Nicole R. Fleetwood - 2015
    Fleetwood’s answers to these questions will change the way you think about the next photograph that you see depicting a racial event, black celebrity, or public figure. In On Racial Icons, Fleetwood focuses a sustained look on photography in documenting black public life, exploring the ways in which iconic images function as celebrations of national and racial progress at times or as a gauge of collective racial wounds in moments of crisis.   Offering an overview of photography’s ability to capture shifting race relations, Fleetwood spotlights in each chapter a different set of iconic images in key sectors of public life. She considers flash points of racialized violence in photographs of Trayvon Martin and Emmett Till; the political, aesthetic, and cultural shifts marked by the rise of pop stars such as Diana Ross; and the power and precarity of such black sports icons as Serena Williams and LeBron James; and she does not miss Barack Obama and his family along the way. On Racial Icons is an eye-opener in every sense of the phrase.  Images from the book. (http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/pages...)

The Domesticated Penis: How Womanhood Has Shaped Manhood


Loretta A. Cormier - 2015
    In this fascinating exploration, Loretta A. Cormier and Sharyn R. Jones explain the critical contribution that conscious female selection has made to the attributes of the modern male phallus.   Synthesizing a wealth of robust scholarship from the fields of archaeology, cultural anthropology, evolutionary theory, and primatology, the authors successfully dismantle the orthodox view that each part of the human anatomy has followed a vector of development along which only changes and mutations that increased functional utility were retained and extended. Their research animates our understanding of human morphology with insights about how choices early females made shaped the male reproductive anatomy.   In crisp and droll prose, Cormier’s and Jones’s rigorous scholarship incorporates engaging examples and lore about the human phallus in a variety of foraging, agrarian, and contemporary cultures. By detailing how female selection in mating led directly to a matrix of anatomical attributes in the male, their findings illuminate how the penis also acquired a matrix of attributes of the imagination and mythical powers—powers to be assuaged, channeled, or deployed for building productive societies.   These analyses offer a highly persuasive alternative to moribund biological and behavioral assumptions about prehistoric alpha males as well as the distortions such assumptions give rise to in contemporary popular culture. In this anthropological tour de force, Cormier and Jones transcend reductive gender stereotypes and bring to our concepts of evolutional biomechanics an invigorating new balance and nuance.

The Sex Partition: The Greatest Barrier to Women's Success at Work


Kim Elsesser - 2015
    Failure to lean in and greater responsibility for childcare don t fully explain why women are not reaching the top levels of many corporations. The truth is, many senior male executives are reluctant to have a one-on-one meeting with a junior woman at work. They re afraid that an offhand remark will be misinterpreted as sexual harassment or that their friendliness will be mistaken for romantic interest. As a result, many male executives stick with other men, especially when it comes to dinners, drinks, late-night meetings, or business trips. When it s time for promotions or pay raises, these same executives are more likely to show preference to the employees with whom they feel most comfortable other men. In Sex and the Office, Kim Elsesser delves into how issues as varied as workplace romance, spousal jealousy, organizational sexual harassment policies, and communication differences create barriers between the sexes at work. Since senior management is still largely dominated by men, these barriers which Elsesser labels the sex partition often leave female employees without the influential friends and mentors critical for career success. Fortunately, all hope is not lost. Elsesser offers practical advice on how to break down the sex partition and reveals the best strategies for networking with the opposite sex. Sex and the Office is sure to spark new dialogue on the sources of the gender gap as well as its solutions."

Out of Everywhere 2


Emily Critchley - 2015
    Here, 20 years later, is the long-awaited follow-up, including the following 44 poets: Sascha Akhtar, Amy De'Ath, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Andrea Brady, Lee Ann Brown, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Mairead Byrne, Jennifer Cooke, Corina Copp, Emily Critchley, Jean Day, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Carrie Etter, Kai Fierle-Hedrick, Heather Fuller, Susana Gardner, Susan Gevirtz, Elizabeth James/Frances Presley, Lisa Jarnot, Christine Kennedy, Myung Mi Kim, Frances Kruk, Francesca Lisette, Sophie Mayer, Carol Mirakove, Marianne Morris, Erin Moure, Jennifer Moxley, Redell Olsen, Holly Pester, Vanessa Place, Sophie Robinson, Lisa Samuels, Kaia Sand, Susan M Schultz, Eleni Sikelianos, Zoe Skoulding, Juliana Spahr, Elizabeth Treadwell, Catherine Wagner, Carol Watts, Sara Wintz, Lissa Wolsak. A limited-edition CD of audio work by nine of these poets accompanies this anthology, and is available for sale separately, exclusively from the Reality Street website while stocks last."

Riotous Flesh: Women, Physiology, and the Solitary Vice in Nineteenth-Century America


April Haynes - 2015
    Riotous Flesh explores women’s leadership of those movements, with a specific focus on their rhetorical, social, and political effects, showing how a desire to transform the politics of sex created unexpected alliances between groups that otherwise had very different goals. As April R. Haynes shows, the crusade against female masturbation was rooted in a generally shared agreement on some major points: that girls and women were as susceptible to masturbation as boys and men; that “self-abuse” was rooted in a lack of sexual information; and that sex education could empower women and girls to master their own bodies. Yet the groups who made this education their goal ranged widely, from “ultra” utopians and nascent feminists to black abolitionists. Riotous Flesh explains how and why diverse women came together to popularize, then institutionalize, the condemnation of masturbation, well before the advent of sexology or the professionalization of medicine.

Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Feminists on Why We Stay


Gina Messina-Dysert - 2015
    These are not women who buy into Candace Cameron’s biblically submissive theory; rather, these are women who claim a feminist identity, have membership in a particular religious tradition, and practice their faith in spite of gendered challenges.In Faithfully Feminist 15 Christian, 15 Jewish, and 15 Muslim women share their stories of struggle and faith.In a world where women’s issues are political issues, women are judged for their positions in relation to their claimed identities. Feminists argue that you cannot be a “true” feminist if you are a practicing Christian, Muslim, or Jew. Likewise, religious practitioners claim that you cannot be a “true” Christian, Muslim, or Jew if you support feminist values. Nevertheless, women who practice these religious traditions and hold feminist values are not uncommon, and the question “Why do you stay?” is one that is frequently asked of them.Faithfully Feminist is the sharing of stories, encouraging other women, and acknowledging that being feminist doesn’t mean giving up on your faith.

Real Queer?: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Refugees in the Canadian Refugee Apparatus


David A Murray - 2015
    But what are the inherent challenges in obtaining this proof? How is the system that assesses this predicated upon homonormative frameworks and nervous borders? What is the impact of gender, race and class? What is an authentic sexual or gender identity and how can it be performed? Real Queer? is an ethnographic examination of the Canadian refugee apparatus analysing the social, cultural, political and affective dimensions of a legal and bureaucratic process predicated on separating the authentic from the bogus LGBT refugee. Through interviews, conversations and participant observation with various participants ranging from refugee claimants to their lawyers, Refugee Protection Division staff and local support group workers, it reveals the ways in which sexuality simultaneously disrupts and is folded into the nation-state s dynamic modes of gate-keeping, citizenship and identity-making, and the uneven effects of these discourses and practices on this category of transnational migrants."

The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims: A Medieval Woman Between Demons and Saints


Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski - 2015
    Her era was troubled by war, plague, and schism within the Catholic Church, and Ermine could easily have slipped unobserved through the cracks of history. After the loss of her husband, however, things took a remarkable but frightening turn. For the last ten months of her life, Ermine was tormented by nightly visions of angels and demons. In her nocturnal terrors, she was attacked by animals, beaten and kidnapped by devils in disguise, and exposed to carnal spectacles; on other nights, she was blessed by saints, even visited by the Virgin Mary. She confessed these strange occurrences to an Augustinian friar known as Jean le Graveur, who recorded them all in vivid detail.Was Ermine a saint in the making, an impostor, an incipient witch, or a madwoman? Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski ponders answers to these questions in the historical and theological context of this troubled woman's experiences. With empathy and acuity, Blumenfeld-Kosinski examines Ermine's life in fourteenth-century Reims, her relationship with her confessor, her ascetic and devotional practices, and her reported encounters with heavenly and hellish beings. Supplemented by translated excerpts from Jean's account, The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims brings to life an episode that helped precipitate one of the major clerical controversies of late medieval Europe, revealing surprising truths about the era's conceptions of piety and possession.

My Silence is Broken: A workbook for survivors of Sexual Abuse and Rape


Gary Sellors - 2015
    My Silence is Broken, is designed for the many thousands of survivors, maybe yourself or you may know someone who has or is being affected by Sexual Violence. This unique workbook starts to give the survivors who have not yet told anyone a voice. Wellbeing Consultant, Dr Gary Sellors, confronts the traumatic experiences that people rarely talk about and encourages people to work through the work book themselves. The exercises support survivors through suppressed anger, resentment, humiliation, guilt, blame and allows them to start to understand what and why it happen to them. It is always important to remember, it was never the survivors fault and that they are not alone in this world. My Silence is Broken, really does want people to come forward with a voice, feel supported and listened too. He offers excellent realistic and practical exercises that have been shown to work with the many clients affected by Sexual Abuse. This emotional and inspiring work was started long before the Operation Yewtree Police investigations in 2012. Dr Gary Sellors, is passionate about the work that he does, when working with children, adults or even animals that have been effected by violence and or traumatic sexual experiences over a short or very long time period. This workbook, can be done in any order, that is relevant to the person reading it, there is no time scales. It is important that the person reading this book does the work on their own, although if they feel comfortable, would be nice to share with a trusted friend, parent, partner or just anyone that needs the support. With this workbook and the focused exercises, you will discover, deeper meanings, thought provoking insights leading to a different understanding of the experience you went through. Therefore, gaining new found confidence, support, inner strength and that puts you back in control of your life and relationships. June 2015. The BBC news reported that there were not enough therapeutic interventions being offered for people affected by Sexual Abuse, Rape and Child Exploitation. This workbook is that offer of intervention help.

I'm Buffy and You're History: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Contemporary Feminism


Patricia Pender - 2015
    With its strong, capable heroine, witty dialogue, and a creator (Joss Whedon) who identifies himself as a feminist, the cult show became one of the most widely analysed texts in contemporary popular culture. The last episode, broadcast in 2002, did not herald the passing of a fleeting phenomenon: Buffy is a media presence still, active on DVD and the internet, alive in the career of Joss Whedon and studied internationally. I'm Buffy and You're History puts the entire series under the microscope, investigating its gender and feminist politics.In this book, Patricia Pender argues that Buffy includes diverse elements of feminism and reconfigures - and sometimes revises - the ideals of American second wave feminism for a wide third wave audience. She also explores the ways in which the final season's vision of collective feminist activism negotiates racial and class boundaries.Exploring the Slayer's postmodern politics, her position as a third wave feminist icon, her placing of masculinity in extremis, and her fandom and legacy in popular culture, this is a fresh and challenging contribution to the growing literature on the pitfalls and pleasures of a great cult TV show.

Breaking the Mother-Son Dynamic


John H. Lee - 2015
    In his new book, he revisits the mother-son relationship and gently but assertively shows men how to separate from the mother energy that has a massive magnetic pull on their hearts and souls, no matter how young or old they may be. Lee also shows women how to keep from being a man's surrogate mother and shows mothers how to minimize their unconscious draining of their son's energy, and much more.By the end of the book, not only will mothers and sons be able to identify this dynamic, but they will have tools to dismantle it and create a healthier relationship. Wives, girlfriends and lovers of men who may be caught in the dynamic and are suffering because of it will find tools for navigating and negotiating their relationship both with their husband, partner, or lover and his mother.- See more at: http://www.hcibooks.com/p-4339-breaki...

The Jezebel Effect: Why the Slut Shaming of Famous Queens Still Matters


Kyra Cornelius Kramer - 2015
    The fact that Cleopatra is better known for her seductions than her statecraft, and that Jezebel is remembered as a painted trollop rather than a faithful wife and religiously devout queen, isn’t a way for historians to keep these interesting women in the public eye, rather it’s a subversion of their power, a re-writing of history to belittle and shame these powerful figures, preventing them from becoming icons of feminine strength and capability.Slut shaming has its roots in our earliest history, but it continues to flourish in our supposedly post-feminist, equal-rights world. It is used to punish women for transgressions against gender norms, threatening the security of their place in society and warning that they’d better be “good girls” and not rock the patriarchal boat, or they, too could end up with people believing they’ve slept with everything from farm animals to relatives. This is The Jezebel Effect.

Forbidden Memories: Women's experiences of 1965 in Eastern Indonesia


Mery Kolimon - 2015
    So far, most studies of the 1965 violence have focused on the Muslim majority population of Java and the Hindu majority population of Bali. Forbidden Memories presents stories - from across the regions of Sumba, Sabu, Alor, Kupang, and other parts of West Timor - of women who were imprisoned and tortured or whose husbands were murdered. The book is a critical examination of the role of the Protestant church at the time of the violence and in its aftermath, including ongoing sanctions and political purges against those considered to be supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party. Themes include the impact of the violence on women teachers, members of the women's organization Gerwani, and the fracturing of social and religious communities. It critiques the role of religious and state institutions for failing to care for this vulnerable community in the face of state terrorism and a culture of fear. *** Librarians: ebook available on ProQuest and EBSCO (Series: Herb Feith Translation Series) [Subject: History, Asian Studies, Indonesian Studies, Women's Studies, Politics, Religious Studies]

Unspinning the Spin: The Women's Media Center Guide to Fair and Accurate Language


Rosalie Maggio - 2015
    Consumers and creators of media are the most obvious beneficiaries, but everyone can benefit from this timely guide on the background, current uses, accuracy, nonbiased alternatives, and best practices for choosing and de-coding commonly used words and phrases. This book goes beyond the scope of a dictionary or thesaurus. It mines a wide variety of fields for accurate, inclusive, creative, and clear words and phrases. As a compendium that is easy to consult, practical, informative-and funny!-it is indispensable for everyday use. Unspinning the Spin is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary guide to words and phrases - their meanings, sources, backgrounds, suggested uses, and nonsexist, nonracist alternatives. It's a guide for journalists and editors in the United States and other countries, for bloggers creating their own media and for government officials creating policy, for students and teachers at all levels, for activists, workers in communication fields, and for any reader who loves the English language. The guide is organized alphabetically for easy use, with cross-references to related words, phrases, and issues. Rosalie Maggio, a distinguished authority on language for more than 25 years, is the author of Unspinning the Spin. Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem wrote the preface. Morgan is an award-winning author of over 20 books, a feminist leader, political analyst, former editor in chief of Ms., and co-founder of The Women's Media Center. Steinem is a writer, lecturer, editor, activist, bestselling author, and co-founder of Ms. Magazine and The Women's Media Center. This book is the first publication of WMC Press, the publishing arm of The Women's Media Center.

Sex Radical Cinema


Carol Siegel - 2015
    Siegel distinguishes between a liberal approach to visual representations, which has over-emphasized normative equal opportunity while undervaluing our distinctive erotic selves, and a radical approach to visual representation, which portrays forbidden sexualities and desires. She illustrates how visual media participates in and even drives political policies related to pedophilia, prostitution, interracial relationships, and war. By examining such popular film and television shows as Dr. Strangelove, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, and the HBO hits, Sex in the City and Girls, Siegel takes the discussion of radical sex in the movies out of the margins of political discussions and puts it in the center, where, she argues, it has belonged all along.