scholarly journals Resisting the Mantle of the Monstrous Feminine: Women’s Construction and Experience of Premenstrual Embodiment

2020 ◽  
pp. 215-231
Author(s):  
Jane M. Ussher ◽  
Janette Perz
Keyword(s):  
Fat Body ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Monstrous Feminine ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Fat Bodies ◽  
Self Objectification ◽  
Cultural Constructions

Abstract This chapter uses a feminist material-discursive theoretical framework to examine how women adopt the subject position of ‘monstrous feminine’ via the role of premenstrual embodiment. In this examination, Ussher and Perz draw on interviews they conducted with women who self-diagnose as ‘PMS sufferers.’ They theorize that this self-positioning is subjectification, wherein women take up cultural discourse regarding idealized femininity and the stigmatized fat body; according to the authors, this results in distress, self-objectification, and self-condemnation. However, they argue that women can reduce premenstrual distress and resist negative cultural constructions of premenstrual embodiment and fat bodies through women-centered psychological therapy, which increases awareness of embodied change and leads to greater self-care and acceptance of the premenstrual body.

scholarly journals “I feel fat and ugly and hate myself”: Self-objectification through negative constructions of premenstrual embodiment

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane M Ussher ◽  
Janette Perz
Keyword(s):  
Premenstrual Syndrome ◽  
Fat Body ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Body ◽  
Premenstrual Distress ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Self Objectification ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Cultural Constructions

The body is central to women’s construction of premenstrual change as premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and to experiences of premenstrual distress. Embodied change, such as bloating or breast tenderness, can act as a marker of PMS. Within biomedical models, PMS is located within the body. Women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies is also reported to be higher in the premenstrual phase of the cycle. What is absent from this analysis is the meaning and experience of embodied change, in the context of broader constructions of femininity and embodiment. In this paper, we adopt a feminist material-discursive theoretical framework to examine the role of premenstrual embodiment in women’s premenstrual distress, drawing on open-ended survey responses and interviews with 83 women who self-diagnose as “PMS sufferers”. We theorize premenstrual body hatred as subjectification, wherein women take up cultural discourse associated with idealized femininity and the stigmatization of the fat body, resulting in self-objectification, distress and dehumanization. However, women can resist negative cultural constructions of premenstrual embodiment. We describe the impact of psychological therapy which increases awareness of emotional and embodied change, resulting in greater acceptance of the premenstrual body and self-care, serving to reduce premenstrual distress and self-objectification.

The semantic role of the wh-element and subject position in Spanish and Catalan

2010 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aria Adli
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Results ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
The Subject

AbstractThis work presents experimental results on the position of the subject in

scholarly journals Re-examining the relationship between the subject agreement morpheme and (in)definiteness in Northern Sotho

Literator ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mampaka L. Mojapelo
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Northern Sotho ◽  
Class 1 ◽  
Subject Noun ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Subject Agreement

The grammatical position of the subject noun phrase in Northern Sotho is to the left of the predicate. The subject agreement morpheme is a compulsory link between the subject noun phrase and the predicate. Scholars have examined the role of this morpheme from various perspectives. It is also extensively documented that the morpheme has dual functions. Its primary function is to mark agreement between the subject and the predicate. Its secondary function is pronominal, whereby it is co-referenced to some antecedent. This article reexamined the primary role of the subject agreement morpheme in Northern Sotho in relation to the interpretation of a subject noun phrase as definite or indefinite. This was accomplished by (1) revisiting existing works that are directly or indirectly linked to (in)definiteness and subject agreement, (2) analysing texts that may facilitate discussion on the issue, and (3) relating the findings from previous works to current analyses. The first hypothesis in this article was that when some class 9 subject noun phrases, denoting persons, agree with the verb stem by a class 1 agreement morpheme, the noun phrases are interpreted as definite. The second hypothesis was that although the subject position is considered predominantly topical and definite it may not categorically exclude indefinite noun phrases. Therefore some indefinite noun phrases may also agree with predicates by means of this morpheme.

scholarly journals Re-rigging Othering: Subversive Infantilisation in Contemporary Bosnian-Herzegovinian Prose

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 1259-1273
Author(s):  
Fedja Borčak
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
The Other ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Western Discourse ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Way

In this article I put forward the concept of subversive infantilisation to designate a phenomenon in contemporary Bosnian literature, which by using a certain kind of childish outlook on the world undermines paternalistic and balkanist Western discourse on Bosnia and Herzegovina. By analysing primarily the portrayal of the role of mass media in a few literary texts, principally books by Nenad Veličkovié and Miljenko Jergovié, I highlight the way in which these texts “re-rig” and by means of irony and exaggeration illuminate the problematic logic inherent in the subject position from which one represents the other. Textual characteristics of subversive infantilisation are contextualised further and seen as a discursive continuation of experiences of the 1990s war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Big Girls Having Fun: Reflections on a ‘fat accepting space’

Somatechnics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Colls
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Fat Body ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Fat Studies ◽  
Life Narratives ◽  
Fat Acceptance ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Fat Bodies ◽  
Gastric Bands

Recent work in Fat Studies has begun to develop academic, artistic, online and real-life narratives, events and activist interventions that provide challenges and alternatives to dominant and harmful understandings of the fat body and fatness more generally. Implicit within this body of work and associated activities is a discursive, political and practical manoeuvre to re-figure ‘the fat subject’ which in some instances involves the creation of ‘fat accepting spaces’. Such spaces aim to facilitate the acceptance of fat bodies and fatness and in some cases the celebration of fat bodies by acknowledging their rights, experiences and desires. This article critically interrogates one such ‘fat accepting space’ by drawing on qualitative fieldwork carried out at a nightclub event for Big Beautiful Women (BBW) and Big Handsome Men (BHM) and their admirers (FA or fat admirers) called LargeLife. The article will explore the ambiguities and tensions of fat accepting and acceptance through considering examples of ‘feeling and facilitating acceptance’, ‘dancing’ and ‘admiring’. These examples will draw attention to the temporal and spatial contingency of fat acceptance in the club, the presence of different fat subjectivities, including those with bodies with or are planning to have gastric bands and the role of fat (male) admirers in determining which bodies are or are not ‘accepted’.

Imagined Selves

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-149
Author(s):  
Yurika Wakamatsu
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Art Making ◽  
Alternative Perspective ◽  
Heterosexual Relationship ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Modes Of Engagement

Abstract Beauty by Plum and Window, a hanging scroll produced in 1907 by the Japanese artist Okuhara Seiko, calls into question fundamental presumptions about literati art, a mode of art-making often seen as a means of self-representation. Instead of creating a singular subject that indexes the artist's self, this work deploys diverse pictorial and literary tropes to construct multiple personae, enabling the viewer (including the artist) to shift among them. The scroll effects the viewer's movement from one subject position to another, undermining the binary of spectator and spectacle, heterosexual relationship and homosocial bond, and subject and object. Engaging with Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, this article argues that if we do not assume a direct alignment between the subject of representation and the represented subject, a literati artwork can become a mediator of multiple shifting “selves” rather than an extension of a singular, unified “I.” Literati art thus functions not merely as a repository of self-expression but also as a generative mediator of identities and social relations. In staging multivalent modes of engagement, Seiko's scroll ultimately offers an alternative perspective on the role of subjectivity in the interpretation of literati art.

scholarly journals The role of the nameless in isiXhosa ntsomi

Literator ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.B. Mkonto
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
The Creation

This article looks into the custom of not giving names to pivotal characters in some selected Xhosa tales. Given that the word “tales” means different things to different people, it is used in this article to refer to both fables (stories which deal with animals only) and folktales (stories dealing with both animals and humans). The unnaming practice is not uncommon in all types of tales and is applied to both males and females, young and old, as well as to strange mysterious beings. The motive for unnaming is analysed and its functions are alluded to. References to popular generic names of animals found in Xhosa tales are made for the sake of clarifying the need for naming, though these are not the subject of discussion here. It is therefore most fitting to use onomastics as the theoretical framework of this article in order to capture convincing patterns of the unnaming system and the creation of faceless characters in indigenous Xhosa tales.

scholarly journals Where to place inaccessible subjects in Dutch: The role of definiteness and animacy

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 369-398
Author(s):  
Jorrig Vogels ◽  
Geertje Van Bergen
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Syntactic Variation ◽  
Syntactic Position ◽  
Accessible Information ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Topical Information

AbstractCross-linguistically, both subjects and topical information tend to be placed at the beginning of a sentence. Subjects are generally highly topical, causing both tendencies to converge on the same word order. However, subjects that lack prototypical topic properties may give rise to an incongruence between the preference to start a sentence with the subject and the preference to start a sentence with the most accessible information. We present a corpus study in which we investigate in what syntactic position (preverbal or postverbal) such low-accessible subjects are typically found in Dutch natural language. We examine the effects of both discourse accessibility (definiteness) and inherent accessibility (animacy). Our results show that definiteness and animacy interact in determining subject position in Dutch. Non-referential (bare) subjects are less likely to occur in preverbal position than definite subjects, and this tendency is reinforced when the subject is inanimate. This suggests that these two properties that make the subject less accessible together can ‘gang up’ against the subject first preference. The results support a probabilistic multifactorial account of syntactic variation.

Bodies of Silence and Resilience: Writing Marginality

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 174-181
Author(s):  
Natalie Zervou
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
The Past ◽  
Greek History ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

Since 2009, the financial crisis in Greece has brought about a need to revisit the past and challenge previous historical assumptions in order to understand the socio-political present more effectively. Dance, and performing arts in general, have reflected this urge by giving voice to marginalized events and perspectives in Greek history, and by challenging the dominant rhetoric of ancient Greek lineage and continuity that often overlooked the significance of ethnic minorities. As such, the focus has shifted away from a sense of unity toward a fragmented understanding of Greek identity that is re-envisioning history and documenting the present by taking into consideration under-represented communities, such as ethnic minorities and immigrants.Drawing on a series of collaborative video-dance projects by Despina Stamos and Jill Woodward (passTRESpass and Bodies of Resilience), which engage with the subject position of immigrants in Greece during the crisis, this paper examines the relationship between marginality and dominant national histories, as well as the role of dance in (re)writing these “margins” and rendering them visible. Especially at a time when extreme nationalism and racism are on the rise in Greece, can dance provide the subjects of discrimination with agency, and create a space for them to “speak” against racist violence? How are these immigrants’ embodied histories in dialogue with the current rewriting of Greek identity and history?

scholarly journals To Speak or not to Speak? Theoretical Framework of Willingness to Communicate

2021 ◽  
pp. 37-47
Author(s):  
Emina Kahrimanović
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Willingness To Communicate ◽  
Specific Situation ◽  
Private Lives ◽  
World Languages ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right

The decision of a speaker whether to communicate in a specific situation or not, assuming they have the right to choose, has been identified in the current literature as the speaker's willingness to communicate (WTC). In recent times, with the communication becoming the backbone of successful professional and private lives and the role of world languages ever increasing, the importance of willingness to communicate in one of the world languages (English, French, German, etc.) comes to the fore. Therefore, many authors have embarked on a journey to prove why willingness to communicate shall be put under the spotlight and why should language instructors set the engendering of WTC as one of the main aims of language instruction. Among the abundance of reasons, it is often argued that willingness to communicate may facilitate language learning itself. This paper represents a theoretical framework of research conducted on the subject of willingness to communicate over the past several decades, with emphasis on WTC in language learning.

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