scholarly journals ‘The Free-Flying Natural Woman Boobs of Yore’? the Body Beyond Representation in Feminist Accounts of Objectification

2020 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-88
Author(s):  
Hannah McCann
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
New Era ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Political Work ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
Representational Politics ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site ◽  
Feminist Movements

This article takes up references to breasts as a key case study to examine white Western feminist debate around embodiment and objectification. Tracking shifting understandings of ‘the gaze’ in these accounts, we find that objectification is often rendered singular, ahistorical and, increasingly, individually internalised. The history of these approaches to objectification helps to explain why during the early 2000s, theorisations of feminist politics-lost were often rhetorically located alongside discussions of surgically modified breasts as a symbol of a new era of ‘fake’ feminism. In contrast, the 2010s saw several feminist movements premised on exposure of flesh and claims to individual recuperation of bodily autonomy. This article contends that both of these perspectives rely on a notion, built over successive eras of white Western feminist thought, that political work can and ought to be done through the body as a site of representational politics. This article subsequently offers a brief insight into how we might queer our approach to breasts to better account for the messiness of experiences of the flesh, considering the personal as political, while not investing in the body as the site where politics must be enacted.

scholarly journals Hating men will free you? Valerie Solanas in Paris or the discursive politics of misandry

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-319
Author(s):  
Léa Védie
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Politics ◽  
Discursive Politics ◽  
Discursive Strategy ◽  
Feminist Movements ◽  
Second Wave

In the wake of contemporary controversies in France over feminist misandry, this article reflects on claimed hatred of men as a feminist discursive resource. I use the reception of Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto by some radical French feminists of the 1970s as a privileged case study, along with historian Colette Pipon’s study on misandry within French second-wave feminist movements and Judith Butler’s works on stigma reversal. I contend that in a seemingly paradoxical way, misandry is both an anti-feminist stigma and a feminist discursive strategy: the inhibiting effects of such injurious term on feminist politics – the aggressive, castrating and hateful feminist you should at all cost avoid to become – can be managed, if not neutralized, by means of feminist misandry. From that point, I argue that claimed hatred of men can open fruitful political venues in challenging the stifling effects of respectability politics.

Scripting Women’s Studies: Neera Desai on Feminism, Feminist Movements and Struggles

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-306
Author(s):  
Veena Poonacha
Keyword(s):  
Women's Studies ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Western India ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Major Work ◽  
Women’S Studies ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
Feminist Movements

Neera Desai’s pioneering effort to introduce women’s studies into the university system was born out of her commitment to women’s equality. She visualized women’s studies as a movement within the academia to challenge the theoretical rationale for oppressive socio-economic and political institutions and structures. Seeking to excavate the intellectual and ideological moorings of this remarkable woman, this paper reviews her last major work, titled, Feminism as Experience: Thoughts and Narratives (2006). The exploration reveals not only her academic interest in the study of movements, but also her intimate connect with the groundswells of feminist politics in India for over six decades. Against this rich and varied history of twentieth century Indian women’s movement in Western India, Neera Desai, presents the oral histories of women, who were in the forefront of the struggle. This paper, then examines her earlier work, entitled The Social Construction of Feminist Consciousness: A Study of Ideology and Self Awareness among Women Leader (1992) to uncover the changing frames of her research.

Lucilla You Min and Her Embodiment of a Cosmopolitan Fantasy

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-140
Author(s):  
Erica Ka-yan Poon
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
The Body ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Hong Kong Cinema ◽  
Star Studies ◽  
Cultural Competition ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Cold War

Lucilla You Min, who acted in Japanese and Hong Kong coproduced films in the early 1960s, is a valuable case study for postwar East Asian border-crossing star studies. This article conceptualizes the body of the star as a site of constructed meaning, and argues that You Min's embodiment of cosmopolitan fantasy as constructed by the studios she worked for was fraught with corporate and cultural competition in the Cold War era. The first part examines how Japanese cinema's discourses of publicity constructed You Min's embodiment of the imaginary of tōyō—an expression of Japan's desire for a leadership role in mediating between Asia and the West. The second part analyzes how Hong Kong cinema constructed the imaginary of the cosmopolitan, embodied by You Min's seemingly natural adaptability in world travel.

CREATING A CONTEMPORARY ARCHIVE: ALONZO KING LINES BALLET AT TWENTY-FIVE

2010 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-119
Author(s):  
Jill Nunes Jensen
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
The Body ◽  
Critical Writing ◽  
Critical Studies ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Hayden White ◽  
A Site ◽  
Ballet History ◽  
A Company

In the title essay from Choreographing History, Susan Leigh Foster interrogates the belief that the body serves as a site for dance to be enacted upon and through. She, along with several others in this edited volume, sought to reposition and consequently enhance the contribution of dancers' bodies by not limiting the essays within to observational accounts or choreographic reviews. Instead Foster and her colleagues query “the possibility of a body that is written upon but that also writes” as means of urging dance scholars to “move critical studies of the body in new directions.” I take this position as an entry point and use it to contemplate the process of making and writing about contemporary ballet history using Alonzo King LINES Ballet, a San Francisco–based troupe, as a case study. In this essay, I describe the challenges I and others have faced in our efforts to collect and interpret a visual and verbal archive for this dance troupe, which has been performing for more than a quarter of a century. This process highlights a larger issue for dance historians, namely, how to create a critically sensitive archive for a company when the most reliable (and oftentimes the only available) source is the personal memory of its choreographer. I anchor this analysis to the different models of critical writing about bodies offered by Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Jacqueline Shea Murphy, and Hayden White and suggest that companies such as LINES offer challenges to those engaged in the archival process and in the practice of writing history.

Anterior fracture dislocation of the odontoid peg in ankylosing spondylitis as a cause for rhinolalia clausa: a case study

2007 ◽  
Vol 122 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
J M Hilton ◽  
P Tassone ◽  
J Hanif ◽  
B Blagnys
Keyword(s):  
Ankylosing Spondylitis ◽  
The Body ◽  
Fracture Dislocation ◽  
Nasal Airways ◽  
Radiological Images ◽  
Computed Tomography Scans ◽  
History Of ◽  
One Year

AbstractWe present an unusual cause of rhinolalia clausa secondary to an oropharyngeal mass. A 69-year-old male presented to the otorhinolaryngology clinic with a one year history of a ‘plummy’ voice. He had a longstanding history of severe ankylosing spondylitis. Examination revealed an obvious hyponasal voice and a smooth hard mass in the midline of the posterior nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal walls. Subsequent computed tomography scans and lateral plain neck X-ray showed a fracture dislocation of the odontoid peg, secondary to ankylosing spondylitis, which had eroded through the body of the C1 vertebra to lie anteriorly, resulting in the aforementioned impression into the pharyngeal mucosa. The radiological images, the role of the nasal airways in phonation and the causes of hyponasal speech are discussed.

scholarly journals EMOTION, BODIES, SEXUALITY, AND SEX EDUCATION IN EDWARDIAN ENGLAND

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
HERA COOK
Keyword(s):  
Sex Education ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
The Body ◽  
History Of Emotion ◽  
Cultural Mores ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Cognitive Experience

ABSTRACTThe history of emotion has focused on cognition and social construction, largely disregarding the centrality of the body to emotional experience. This case-study reveals that a focus on corporeal experience and emotion enables a deeper understanding of cultural mores and of transmission to the next generation, which is fundamental to the process of change. In 1914, parents in Dronfield, Derbyshire, attempted to get the headmistress of their school removed because she had taught their daughters sex education. Why did sex education arouse such intense distress in the mothers, born mainly in the 1870s? Examination of their embodied, sensory, and cognitive experience of reproduction and sexuality reveals the rational, experiential basis to their emotional responses. Their own socialization as children informed how they trained their ‘innocent’ children to be sexually reticent. Experience of birth and new ideas relating disease to hygiene reinforced their fears. The resulting negative conception of sexuality explains why the mothers embraced the suppression of sexuality and believed their children should be protected from sexual knowledge. As material pressures lessened, women's emotional responses lightened over decades. The focus on emotion reveals changes that are hard to trace in other evidence.

Building a ‘counter-community of emotions’: feminist encounters and socio-cultural difference in 1970s Turin1

Modern Italy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maud Anne Bracke
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Health Clinic ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Educational Backgrounds ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
Women’S Sexual Health ◽  
History Of ◽  
Working Class Women

The article analyses cross-class encounters within 1970s feminist campaigning from the perspective of the history of emotions. It is based on a case study of a feminist women's sexual health clinic (consultorio autogestito) in a working-class district near Turin, the Falchera, in the mid-1970s. The article investigates the role played by emotions in the creation of a sense of community among women from different socio-economic and educational backgrounds. The encounters between feminist activists from Turin and working-class women living at the Falchera are understood as framed by these emotional exchanges, which led the women involved to question in new ways their own life-stories, aspirations and understanding of libertà. It is argued that these exchanges led to a reshaping of feminist politics at the grass-roots, specifically in the articulation of strongly situated notions of liberation. The analysis is based on original interviews and interviews published at the time.

scholarly journals Pentecostalising the Voice in Zambian Charismatic Church History: Men of God’s Expression of Spiritual Identities, 1990 to Present

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelly Mwale ◽  
Joseph Chita
Keyword(s):  
Church History ◽  
The Body ◽  
Spiritual Identity ◽  
Vocal Cords ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Religious Landscape ◽  
Over Time

The strides to historicise Pentecostalism in Zambia have attempted to account for the growth of Pentecostal and charismatic churches without delving into the prominent features of Pentecostalism that have been popularised over time. One such characteristic is the “spiritual voice” that has been associated with the Pentecostal “Men of God” (clergy) in contemporary Zambia. Hence, this article explores the use of the voice as the power of articulation, understood as a spiritual vocal gift, as an expression of spiritual identity among the “Men of God” using the identity theory as a lens in Zambian Pentecostal church history. This is deemed significant not only for contributing to the body of knowledge but also to underscore the neglected attribute of Pentecostal influence on Zambia’s religious landscape. An interpretivist case study was employed in which raw data (video of sermons and pastoral ministries) and documents were analysed and interpreted. It was established that these “Men of God” perceived “broken vocal cords” as spiritual vocal gifts. As such, the voice not only evoked the power of articulation to communicate the spiritual emotions, but was also used to appeal, attract, and satisfy congregants (religious marketing) through assuming a ministerial “identity.” The article argues that the history of Pentecostalism in Zambia could not be detached from the romanticisation of the voice as a symbol of spirituality, and an imprint of identity on the “Men of God.”

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alys Moody
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Pierre Bourdieu ◽  
The Body ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Human Potential ◽  
Aesthetic Autonomy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Failure ◽  
A Site

The introduction maps out the broad intellectual history of hunger, modernism, and aesthetic autonomy, sketching the prehistories that led to their convergence in the art of hunger. It sets out two competing definitions of aesthetic autonomy: a sociological definition, deriving from the writing of Pierre Bourdieu; and a philosophical one, deriving from the German philosophical tradition. It argues that the art of hunger represents a crisis in both definitions of aesthetic autonomy. At the same time, the art of hunger reflects a changing understanding of the body more broadly, as it becomes increasingly understood as a limit to human potential in the nineteenth century. The confluence of these failed modes of aesthetic autonomy and the new understanding of the body as a site of human failure and limitation, creates the conditions within which the art of hunger emerges as a modernist trope.

Experiment, Inscription and the Archive: Kathy Acker’s Manuscript Practice

2020 ◽  
pp. 74-98
Author(s):  
Georgina Colby
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Original Artwork ◽  
Reading Practices ◽  
Kathy Acker ◽  
Genetic Criticism ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
Duke University ◽  
A Site

This chapter explores the significance of the archive to a reading of avant-garde writing, taking the work of Kathy Acker as a case study. Utilising a framework of genetic criticism, the chapter explores the relation between the avant-texte and an avant-garde politics of materiality. Examining Acker’s original artwork for Blood and Guts in High School (1978) housed in the Kathy Acker Papers at Duke University, the chapter contends that the avant-textes reveal a feminist politics of materiality at work in Acker’s compositions. Through the lens of Johanna Drucker’s work on diagrammatic writing and performative materiality, the chapter argues for the avant-texte as a site of socio-political material resistance. The diagrammatic in Acker’s work demands new reading practices commensurate with this resistance.

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