scholarly journals Prospects and challenges of gender neutralization in Russian

Author(s):  
Yana Kirey-Sitnikova

AbstractFeminist linguistic activism has gained prominence among Western feminists as a way to eliminate sexism in language and everyday life. In Russian, gender specification (known as feminitivy) represents the mainstream approach practiced by grassroots feminist reformers. However, alternative approaches aimed at gender neutralization proliferate. The paper examines the prospects and challenges of gender neutralization both in writing and oral speech. Results of a survey documenting attitudes of Russian-speaking feminist and LGBTQI communities to language reform attempts are presented, with a special focus on comparison between gender specification and gender neutralization.

Author(s):  
Tjaša Filipčič ◽  
Špela Bogataj ◽  
Jernej Pajek ◽  
Maja Pajek

Hemodialysis (HD) patients have lower functional abilities compared to healthy people, and this is associated with lower physical activity in everyday life. This may affect their quality of life, but research on this topic is limited. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the relationship between habitual physical activity and quality of life in HD patients and healthy controls. Ninety-three HD patients and 140 controls participated in the study. Quality of life was assessed using a 36-item medical outcomes study short-form health survey (SF-36). Human Activity Profile (HAP) was used to assess habitual physical activity. The adjusted activity score (AAS) from HAP, age, gender, fat tissue index (FTI), lean tissue index (LTI), and Davies comorbidity score were analyzed as possible predictors of the Physical Component Summary (PCS) of the SF-36. Three sequential linear models were used to model PCS. In Model 1, PCS was regressed by gender and age; in Model 2 the LTI, FTI, and Davies comorbidity scores were added. Model 3 also included AAS. After controlling for age and gender (ModelHD 1: p = 0.056), LTI, FTI, and Davies comorbidity score effects (ModelHD 2: p = 0.181), the AAS accounted for 32% of the variation in PCS of HD patients (ModelHD 3: p < 0.001). Consequently, the PCS of HD patients would increase by 0.431 points if the AAS increased by one point. However, in healthy controls, AAS had a lower impact than in the HD sample (B = 0.359 vs. 0.431), while the corresponding effects of age and gender (ModelH 1: p < 0.001), LTI, FTI, and Davies comorbidity score (ModelH 2: p < 0.001) were adjusted for. The proportion of variation in PCS attributed to AAS was 14.9% (ModelH 3: p < 0.001). The current study results showed that physical activity in everyday life as measured by the HAP questionnaire is associated to a higher degree with the quality of life of HD patients than in healthy subjects. Routine physical activity programs are therefore highly justified, and the nephrology community should play a leading role in this effort.


Author(s):  
Dirk Adolph ◽  
Wolfgang Tschacher ◽  
Helen Niemeyer ◽  
Johannes Michalak

Abstract Background Previous laboratory findings suggest deviant gait characteristics in depressed individuals (i.e., reduced walking speed and vertical up-and-down movements, larger lateral swaying movements, slumped posture). However, since most studies to date assessed gait in the laboratory, it is largely an open question whether this association also holds in more naturalistic, everyday life settings. Thus, within the current study we (1) aimed at replicating these results in an everyday life and (2) investigated whether gait characteristics could predict change in current mood. Methods We recruited a sample of patients (n = 35) suffering from major depressive disorder and a sample of age and gender matched non-depressed controls (n = 36). During a 2-day assessment we continuously recorded gait patterns, general movement intensity and repetitively assessed the participant’s current mood. Results We replicated previous laboratory results and found that patients as compared to non-depressed controls showed reduced walking speed and reduced vertical up-and-down movements, as well as a slumped posture during everyday life episodes of walking. Moreover, independent of clinical diagnoses, higher walking speed, and more vertical up-and-down movements significantly predicted more subsequent positive mood, while changes in mood did not predict subsequent changes in gait patterns. Conclusion In sum, our results support expectations that embodiment (i.e., the relationship between bodily expression of emotion and emotion processing itself) in depression is also observable in naturalistic settings, and that depression is bodily manifested in the way people walk. The data further suggest that motor displays affect mood in everyday life.


Politics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandria J Innes ◽  
Robert J Topinka

This article examines the ways in which popular culture stages and supplies resources for agency in everyday life, with particular attention to migration and borders. Drawing upon cultural studies, and specific insights originating from the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, we explore how intersectional identities such as race, ethnicity, class, and gender are experienced in relation to the globalisation of culture and identity in a 2007 Coronation Street storyline. The soap opera genre offers particular insights into how agency emerges in everyday life as migrants and locals navigate the forces of globalisation. We argue that a focus on popular culture can mitigate the problem of isolating migrant experiences from local experiences in migrant-receiving areas.


Author(s):  
Ewa Okoń-Horodyńska

The chapter deals with the search for the sources of broadly understood creativity in solving various problems: social, political, practical (related to everyday life), family, economic, culture, religious, etc. wherever traditional approaches proved ineffective. These creative solutions - unconventional and having their practical application - became innovations. How multi-dimensional one's predispositions to solve problems are affects the person's capabilities to develop innovations. In view of the growing importance of gender studies, the already mentioned elements should be supplemented with one more - gender. Hence, the concept of Innovative Gender is introduced where men and women are granted equality of measures, opportunities, and situations encompassed by the innovation genome model. The starting point for Innovative Gender research is the establishment of four dedicated matrixes containing information (variables) that describes a given area, taking into account gender issuer, with collaboration playing a major role here.


1978 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 244-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maija S. Blaubergs

The existence of sexism in the structure and usage of the English language has recently been extensively documented by linguists, psychologists, feminists, publishers, and others. This awareness of sexism in language has led to numerous suggestions for change, but their implementation has been difficult for the following reasons: (1) alternative proposals were frequently made (e.g., at least 10 alternatives to the use of the masculine pronouns as generics have been proposed); (2) some suggestions contradict each other (e.g., chairman may be retained and contrasted with chairwoman, or chairman may be eliminated from usage and chairperson used for both sexes); (3) misunderstanding of some of the suggestions has occurred (e.g., chairperson has been used in reference to only females, while chairman has been retained for males); (4) a frequent response to some of the suggestions for change has been ridicule, often in the form of overextensions of the original suggestions (e.g., woperson). In this paper, as a first step toward clarifying the inconsistencies, identifying the problems in implementation, and undermining the basis for continued misunderstanding and ridicule, I have categorized the various suggestions regarding changing sexist language according to their underlying rationale. I have identified the following alternative approaches: (1) indirect change, (2) change via circumvention, and (3) change via emphasis on feminine terms. Within these approaches, various alternative strategies for implementation are discussed, and the arguments and research supportive of and critical of the underlying rationales are identified and evaluated. The paper concludes with a recommendation of changes in usage that are suggested by the latter two approaches. The need for further research on the differing psychological effects of those alternatives is noted.


2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 666-677 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Mulinari

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the different ways in which experiences of marginalisation within organisations are named and acted upon. Of particular interest is examining the ways in which the visibility of gender discrimination and the invisibility of ethnic discrimination indicate what the professionals in the study identify as horizons of possible individual and collective resistance. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes as its point of departure Cho et al. (2013) notion of “intersectionality as an analytical sensibility” (p. 795). The material consists of qualitative semi-structured interviews with 15 chief medical doctors employed in two Swedish hospitals. Findings – The findings indicate that while there is an organisational visibility of gender inequality, there is an organisational invisibility of ethnic discrimination. These differences influence the ways in which organisational criticism takes place and inequalities are challenged. Female Swedish identified doctors acted collectively to challenge organisations that they considered male-dominated, while doctors with experience of migration (both female and male) placed more responsibility on themselves and established individual strategies such as working more or des-identification. However, they confronted the organisation by naming ethnic discrimination in a context of organisational silence. Research limitations/implications – The paper does not explore the different forms of racism (islamophobia, racism against blacks, anti-Semitism). In addition, further research is needed to understand how these various forms of racism shape workplaces in Sweden. Originality/value – The paper offers new insights into the difference/similarities between how processes of ethnic and gender discrimination are experienced among employees within high-status professions. The value of the paper lies in its special focus on how forms of resistance are affected by the frames of the organisation. The findings stress the importance of intersectional analyses to understand the complex patterns of resistance and consent emerging within organisations.


2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Palmowski

Followingthe GDR's surprising collapse in 1989, historians have produced a range of studies that have added new contours to its state and society and contributed to a much fuller understanding of the reasons for East Germany's implosion. As scholars became more aware of the “limits of dictatorship” in the GDR, however, the longevity of a state that lasted for almost as long as the second German Empire became all the more perplexing. In response to this problem, a number of historians reflected on approaches practiced by historical anthropologists and sociologists, to explore the distinctive nature of GDR life in its everyday manifestations. Inspired by the pioneering work of Alf Lüdtke and Lutz Niethammer, they began to investigate the history of everyday life at the workplace, within and across generational and gender divides, and in areas such as consumption and leisure.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-135
Author(s):  
Marie Helene Sauner-Leroy

Abstract: Based on a survey carried out with middle-class, married, practicing and non-practicing Muslim women living in Istanbul, this work is focused on female relational networks, their link to cooking and gender relations. The article argues that the disruptions, modifications and accommodations put in place by women and men in their management of everyday life are reflected through daily food practices. The study emphasises the pivotal role of older women in the changes in male/female relationships. The disruptions do not seem to be based on one’s positional relation to religion, but rather on one’s belonging to age, class, or social status.Résumé : Fondé sur une enquête réalisée avec des femmes de la classe moyenne, mariées, musulmanes pratiquantes et non-pratiquantes et résidant à Istanbul, ce travail s’est intéressé aux réseaux relationnels féminins, à leur lien au culinaire et aux relations de genre. Par le biais des pratiques alimentaires sont ainsi abordés les ruptures, les évolutions et accommodements mis en place par les femmes et les hommes dans leur gestion du quotidien. L’article insiste sur le rôle pivot des aînées dans les changements des rapports homme / femme. Les fractures ne semblent pas fondées sur le positionnement vis-à-vis de la religion, mais bien plutôt sur l’appartenance à une classe d’âge, ou à une classe sociale.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Yu. A. Bazhenova ◽  
Yu. S. Mokhova

Introduction. The article is devoted to the study of the features of inflection skills of the preschoolers with a general speech disorders. The problem of studying the grammatical structure of speech plays a leading role in modern scientific and practical research, and the question of the mechanisms of the formation of grammatical patterns of language of children having general speech underdevelopment and the development of recommendations for speech therapy effects on this basis is especially relevant. Taking this factor into consideration, it is important to study the characteristics of inflection skills of preschoolers with a general speech disorders, as one of the categories of the grammatical structure. Accordingly, the purpose of the study was to investigate the characteristics of inflection skills of preschoolers with general speech underdevelopment. In accordance with the purpose, the course of the study is described, its results are analyzed, and conclusions are formulated. Accordingly, recommendations for speech therapy have been developed.Materials and methods. The study of the features of inflection skills of preschoolers with a general underdevelopment of speech was carried out in several stages. At the stage of analysis, synthesis, generalization and comparison of scientific literature data, the main theoretical and practical works of leading specialists were studied, dealing with the problem of formation and development of inflection skills in both normal and impaired speech development process. At the stage of the ascertaining experiment, preschoolers were offered a test aimed at determining the level of formation of inflection skills. At the final stage, empirical methods for processing empirical data (quantitative and qualitative analysis) were used.Results. As a result of the study, it was found that the inflection skills  of preschool children with general speech disorders are mainly formed at a lower-than-average level, while their peers with normal speech development are formed at a high level. The hypothesis of the study, which suggested that the word-modification skills of preschoolers with General speech disorders, in contrast to preschoolers with normal speech development, are characterized by inconsistencies in gender, number, case of nouns and adjectives, errors in the use of forms of number and gender of verbs, was confirmed.Discussion and Conclusions. Taking into consideration the results of the study, we concluded that there is a need for speech therapy to compensate for the underdevelopment of inflection skills, as a result, logopedic recommendations were developed for developing inflection skills of preschool children with general speech disorders, which are part of a comprehensive speech therapy on the development of oral speech.


2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey

The Spanish language has been described as a sexist language due to the peculiar characteris-tics of its gender morphology. It is indicated by the o ('masculine') and a ('feminine') gender morphemes which generally represent male and female respectively. This has led to an appar-ent confusion between grammatical gender and biological sex. Against this background, this paper attempts to discover the impact of anti-sexist language proposals on the Spanish language by analyzing sample Spanish newspapers. Of the 40 articles analysed from 20 representative newspapers, findings suggest that although some anti-sexist language elements have been adopted, their usage is erratic and the masculine generics are still used extensively. The results suggest that despite the challenges facing language reform at-tempts, the reinforcement of positive language policies is possible.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document