scholarly journals “It’s Just a Lot Different Being Male Than Female in the Sport”: An Exploration of the Gendered Culture Around Body Pressures in Competitive Figure Skating

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana K. Voelker ◽  
Justine J. Reel
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Figure Skating ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Performance Expectations ◽  
Exercise Behaviors ◽  
Figure Skaters ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Unhealthy Eating ◽  
Body Ideal ◽  
And Performance

Figure skaters experience pressure associated with their sport to change their body weight, shape, or size to meet appearance and performance expectations. Figure skaters may experience different body-related expectations based on gender despite performing in identical or similar training and competition environments. In a qualitative investigation that examined body pressure experiences of male skaters, participants discussed some of their struggles, but seemed compelled to discuss, unexpectedly, the plight of female skaters in facing the skating body ideal. The present findings represent an exploratory analysis of qualitative data elucidating the body pressure experiences of female skaters through the eyes of male skaters. Participants were 13 competitive male figure skaters ages 16–24 (M = 18.53). Analyzed using a social constructivist and critical perspective, the results demonstrated the salience of body pressures for female skaters and afforded insight into sociocultural and historical factors that influence how male and female skaters experience their bodies differently in a skating context. Male skaters reported they faced less extreme body pressures, had certain physical advantages, and tended to be more confident than female skaters, which underscored a gendered body pressure experience. This work explores the intersections of gender and power within figure skating and examines body image concerns and unhealthy eating and exercise behaviors as a larger social justice issue that serves to encourage similar investigations in other sports.

‘Man Is Ill Because He Is Badly Constructed’: Artaud, Klossowski and Deleuze in Search for the Earth Inside

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Dolphijn
Keyword(s):  
Performance Art ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Body ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
Body Without Organs ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
And Performance

Starting with Antonin Artaud's radio play To Have Done With The Judgement Of God, this article analyses the ways in which Artaud's idea of the body without organs links up with various of his writings on the body and bodily theatre and with Deleuze and Guattari's later development of his ideas. Using Klossowski (or Klossowski's Nietzsche) to explain how the dominance of dialogue equals the dominance of God, I go on to examine how the Son (the facialised body), the Father (Language) and the Holy Spirit (Subjectification), need to be warded off in order to revitalize the body, reuniting it with ‘the earth’ it has been separated from. Artaud's writings on Balinese dancing and the Tarahumaran people pave the way for the new body to appear. Reconstructing the body through bodily practices, through religion and above all through art, as Deleuze and Guattari suggest, we are introduced not only to new ways of thinking theatre and performance art, but to life itself.

A Policy Analysis Regarding Education, Career, and Governance of the Nurses in Bangladesh: A Qualitative Exploration

2021 ◽  
pp. 152715442098800
Author(s):  
Taufique Joarder ◽  
Md. Aslam Parvage ◽  
Lal B. Rawal ◽  
Syed Masud Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Education ◽  
Stakeholder Analysis ◽  
The Body ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Governance Challenges ◽  
Directorate General ◽  
The Government ◽  
New Policies ◽  
Lower Castes ◽  
Qualitative Exploration

Nurses, short in production and inequitable in the distribution in Bangladesh, require the government’s efforts to increase enrolment in nursing education and a smooth career progression. Given the importance of an assessment of the current nursing scenario to inform the decision makers and practitioners to implement the new policies successfully, we analyzed relevant policies on education, career, and governance of nurses in Bangladesh. We used documents review and qualitative methods such as key informant interviews ( n = 13) and stakeholder analysis. We found that nursing education faced several backlashes: resistance from diploma nurses while attempting to establish a graduate (bachelor) course in 1977, and the reluctance of politicians and entrepreneurs to establish nursing institutions. Many challenges with the implementation of nursing policies are attributable to social, cultural, religious, and historical factors. For example, Hindus considered touching the bodily excretions as the task of the lower castes, while Muslims considered women touching the body of the men immoral. Nurses also face governance challenges linked with their performance and reward. For example, nurses have little voice over the decisions related to their profession, and they are not allowed to perform clinical duties unsupervised. To improve the situation, the government has made new policies, including upliftment of nurses’ position in public service, the creation of an independent Directorate General, and improvement of nursing education and service. New policies often come with new apprehensions. Therefore, nurses should be included in the policy processes, and their capacity should be developed in nursing leadership and health system governance.

The Fiery Pacific: Volcanic Eruptions and Settler-State Theatricality in Oceania, 1780–1900

2014 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-392
Author(s):  
Diana Looser
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Performance Studies ◽  
Art History ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
The Body ◽  
Red Color ◽  
Form Part ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Grand Opera ◽  
The City

In the closing scene of René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt's melodramaLa Tête de mort; ou, Les Ruines de Pompeïa(1827), audiences at Paris's Théâtre de la Gaîté were presented with the spectacular cataclysm of an erupting Mount Vesuvius that invaded the city and engulfed the hapless characters in its fiery embrace. “The theatre,” Pixérécourt writes, “is completely inundated by this sea of bitumen and lava. A shower of blazing and transparent stones and red ash falls on all sides…. The red color with which everything is struck, the terrible noise of the volcano, the screaming, the agitation and despair of the characters … all combine to form this terrible convulsion of nature, a horrible picture, and altogether worthy of being compared to Hell.” A few years later, in 1830, Daniel Auber's grand operaLa Muette de Portici(1828), which yoked a seventeenth-century eruption of Vesuvius with a popular revolt against Spanish rule in Naples, opened at the Théâtre de Monnaie in Brussels. The Belgian spectators, inspired by the opera's revolutionary sentiments, poured out into the streets and seized their country's independence from the Dutch. These two famous examples, which form part of a long genealogy of representing volcanic eruptions through various artistic means, highlight not only the compelling, immersive spectacle of nature in extremis but also the ability of stage scenery to intervene materially in the narrative action and assimilate affective and political meanings. As these two examples also indicate, however, the body of scholarship in literary studies, art history, and theatre and performance studies that attends to the mechanical strategies and symbolic purchase of volcanic representations has tended to focus mainly on Europe; more research remains to be undertaken into how volcanic spectacles have engaged with non-European topographies and sociopolitical dynamics and how this wider view might illuminate our understanding of theatre's social roles.

scholarly journals A Ten-Year Review of Primary School Flexible Learning Environments: Interior Design and IEQ Performance

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Diksha Vijapur ◽  
Christhina Candido ◽  
Özgür Göçer ◽  
Shirley Wyver
Keyword(s):  
Primary School ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Interior Design ◽  
High Energy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Indoor Environmental Quality ◽  
Flexible Learning ◽  
Physical Infrastructure ◽  
And Performance

Flexible Learning Environments (FLEs) arose as enablers for implementation of student-centric pedagogical approaches. Interior design is the key to the success of FLEs, providing the physical infrastructure needed for students to engage on several learning activities, from individual to group work, which take place in a variety of zones ranging from low to high energy. Therefore, a harmonious synergy between the interior design and subsequent Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) performance of FLEs’ physical configuration and learning activities is needed. The objective of this paper is to systematically review (in accordance with the PRISMA method) existing literature related to FLEs within primary school settings, typically catering to children aged 5–12 years old, to understand the body of work investigating the design and performance of FLEs over the last decade (2010–2020). Key findings suggest that the proximity and acoustic and visual permeability of zones found in FLEs may give rise to inadequate IEQ conditions delivered to students. In addition, it could be inferred from the results of the literature review that interior design and IEQ have not been sufficiently investigated in an integrated manner.

Serviceability Assessment of a Printed Finish on T-Shirts

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-53
Author(s):  
Reannan Riedy ◽  
Meredith McQuerry
Keyword(s):  
Abrasion Resistance ◽  
Dimensional Change ◽  
Test Methods ◽  
Standard Test ◽  
Performance Expectations ◽  
Agricultural Worker ◽  
Soil Release ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Typical Consumer ◽  
Change Material

To improve the comfort of agricultural workers, a T-shirt with a printed active cooling finish was evaluated to determine if it would meet the wash life durability and performance expectations of such an arduous application. Six shirts with a printed phase change material (PCM) finish and six shirts without (control) were washed 50 times to replicate a typical consumer wash life. Shirts were evaluated for absorbency, dimensional change, colorfastness, crocking, abrasion resistance, soil release, and smoothness retention according to AATCC and ASTM standard test methods. Testing was conducted before laundering and after 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, 35, 40, 45, and 50 consumer laundry (CL) cycles. Absorbency and dimensional change were significantly influenced by the PCM finish. Results demonstrate the appropriateness of adopting such a finish technology for agricultural worker clothing applications.

Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Deep Understanding ◽  
The Body ◽  
Artistic Expression ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Improve Technique ◽  
Dance Class ◽  
Dance Improvisation ◽  
Dance Imagery ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Dance Educators

Renowned master teacher Eric Franklin has thoroughly updated his classic text, Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance, providing dancers and dance educators with a deep understanding of how they can use imagery to improve their dancing and artistic expression in class and in performance. These features are new to this edition: • Two chapters include background, history, theory, and uses of imagery. • 294 exercises offer dancers and dance educators greater opportunities to experience how imagery can enhance technique and performance. • 133 illustrations facilitate the use of imagery to improve technique, artistic expression, and performance. Franklin provides hundreds of imagery exercises to refine improvisation, technique, and choreography. The 295 illustrations cover the major topics in the book, showing exercises to use in technique, artistic expression, and performance. In addition, Franklin supplies imagery exercises that can restore and regenerate the body through massage, touch, and stretching. And he offers guidance in using imagery to convey information about a dancer’s steps and to clarify the intent and content of movement. This new edition of Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance can be used with Franklin’s Dynamic Alignment Through Imagery, Second Edition, or on its own. Either way, readers will learn how to combine technical expertise with imagery skills to enrich their performance, and they will discover methods they can use to explore how imagery connects with dance improvisation and technique. Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance uses improvisation exercises to help readers investigate new inner landscapes to create and communicate various movement qualities, provides guidelines for applying imagery in the dance class, and helps dancers expand their repertoire of expressiveness in technique and performance across ballet, modern, and contemporary dance. This expanded edition of Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance supplies imagery tools for enhancing or preparing for performance, and it introduces the importance of imagery in dancing and teaching dance. Franklin’s method of using imagery in dance is displayed throughout this lavishly illustrated book, and the research from scientific and dance literature that supports Franklin’s method is detailed. The text, exercises, and illustrations make this book a practical resource for dancers and dance educators alike.

Barre Matters: Hybrid Formations of Ballet and Group Fitness

Somatechnics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-210
Author(s):  
Pirkko Markula
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
The Body ◽  
Material Object ◽  
Group Exercise ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Gendered Identities ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Fitness Industry ◽  
Body Ideal ◽  
Health Eating

Employing a variety of theoretical approaches, feminist researchers have critiqued the fitness industry of its singular emphasis on the impossible, narrowly defined feminine body ideal that is likely to cause more mental (e.g., body dissatisfaction) and physical ill health (eating disorders, injuries) than improve fitness. With the focus on social construction of gendered identities, there has been less problematisation of the materiality of the fitness practices and their impact on the cultural production of the moving body. In this article, I adopt a Latourian approach to seek for a more complete account of the body in motion and how it matters in the contemporary world. A barre class as a popular group exercise class that combines ballet and exercise modalities offers a location for such an examination due to the centrality of a non-human object, the barre, that distinguishes it from other group exercise classes. I consider how exercise practices may be constituted in relation to a material object, the barre, and how the physical and material intersect, historically, with the cultural politics of fitness and dance from where the barre originates. To do this, I trace the journey of the barre from ballet training to the fitness industry to illustrate how human and non-human associations create a hybrid collective.

Subjects of Technology: An Auto-Archeology of Attention Deficit Disorder in Neoliberal Time(s)

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-115
Author(s):  
Joshua S. Hanan
Keyword(s):  
Learning Disability ◽  
Attention Deficit ◽  
Attention Deficit Disorder ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Psychiatric Diagnoses ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Close Family

This essay (re)presents my own experiences living with attention deficit disorder (ADD) as a child and adult to provide a radically historical, contextual, and critical autoethnographic conceptualization of this “learning disability.” Specifically, by building upon Ragan Fox’s “auto-archeological” method, a critical perspective that “unite[s] autoethnography and Foucault’s theories of discourse,” I draw upon institutional artifacts, psychiatric diagnoses, and interviews with close family members to show that ADD is a “technology of the self” that economizes the body in accordance with a distinctly neoliberal temporality. This temporalizing process, I show, is reinforced by a range of other neoliberal technologies of selfhood and ultimately cultivates the very “deficit framework” that ADD diagnoses are aimed at healing. The conclusion questions the legitimacy of ADD outside of the various technological interfaces that make the disability visible as a public problem and considers the intimate connections between neoliberalism, ableism, and the contemporary university.

scholarly journals Body Flexibility Enhances Maneuverability in the World’s Largest Predator

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
P S Segre ◽  
D E Cade ◽  
J Calambokidis ◽  
F E Fish ◽  
A S Friedlaender ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Ocean ◽  
The Body ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Active Surfaces ◽  
Aquatic Locomotion ◽  
And Performance ◽  
And Control ◽  
Blue Whales ◽  
Control Surfaces ◽  
Complex Trajectories

Abstract Blue whales are often characterized as highly stable, open-ocean swimmers who sacrifice maneuverability for long-distance cruising performance. However, recent studies have revealed that blue whales actually exhibit surprisingly complex underwater behaviors, yet little is known about the performance and control of these maneuvers. Here, we use multi-sensor biologgers equipped with cameras to quantify the locomotor dynamics and the movement of the control surfaces used by foraging blue whales. Our results revealed that simple maneuvers (rolls, turns, and pitch changes) are performed using distinct combinations of control and power provided by the flippers, the flukes, and bending of the body, while complex trajectories are structured by combining sequences of simple maneuvers. Furthermore, blue whales improve their turning performance by using complex banked turns to take advantage of their substantial dorso-ventral flexibility. These results illustrate the important role body flexibility plays in enhancing control and performance of maneuvers, even in the largest of animals. The use of the body to supplement the performance of the hydrodynamically active surfaces may represent a new mechanism in the control of aquatic locomotion.

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