“I’m Not Really 100% a Woman If I Can’t Have a Kid”: Infertility and the Intersection of Gender, Identity, and the Body

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann V. Bell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Constraints ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Do So

Despite establishing the gendered construction of infertility, most research on the subject has not examined how individuals with such reproductive difficulty negotiate their own sense of gender. I explore this gap through 58 interviews with women who are medically infertile and involuntarily childless. In studying how women achieve their gender, I reveal the importance of the body to such construction. For the participants, there is not just a motherhood mandate in the United States, but a fertility mandate—women are not just supposed to mother, they are supposed to procreate. Given this understanding, participants maintain their gender by denying their infertile status. They do so through reliance on essentialist notions, using their bodies as a means of constructing a gendered sense of self. Using the tenets of transgender theory, this study not only informs our understanding of infertility, but also our broader understanding of the relationship between gender, identity, and the body, exposing how individuals negotiate their gender through physical as well as institutional and social constraints.

Gender Identity, the Sexed Body, and the Medical Making of Transgender

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 1005-1033
Author(s):  
Tara Gonsalves
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
External Genitalia ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
New Formulation ◽  
The Relationship

In this article, I argue that the medical conceptualization of gender identity in the United States has entered a “new regime of truth.” Drawing from a mixed-methods analysis of medical journals, I illuminate a shift in the locus of gender identity from external genitalia and pathologization of families to genes and brain structure and individualized self-conception. The sexed body itself has also undergone a transformation: Sex no longer resides solely in genitalia but has traveled to more visible parts of the body, implicating racialized aesthetic ideals in its new formulation. The re-imagining of gender identity as genetically and neurologically inscribed and the expanding locus of sex correspond to an inversion of the relationship between gender identity and the sexed body as well as shifts in medical jurisdiction. Whereas psychiatrists in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s understood gender as stemming from genital sex, the less popular idea that gender identity precedes the sexed body has gained traction in recent decades. If gender identity once derived from the sexed body, the sexed body must now be brought into alignment with gender identity. The increasing legitimacy of self-defined gender identity, the expanding definition of racialized sex, and the inversion of the sex–gender identity relationship elevates the role of surgeons in producing racialized and sexed bodies.

Psyche and Soul in America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Abzug
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The United States ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Relationship

Rollo May (1909‒1994), internationally known psychologist and popular philosopher, came from modest roots in the small town Protestant Midwest intending to do “religious work” but eventually became a psychotherapist and in best-selling books like Love and Will and The Courage to Create he attracted an audience of millions of readers in the United States, Europe, and Asia. During the 1950s and 1960s, these books combined existentialism and other philosophical approaches, psychoanalysis, and a spiritually-philosophy to interpret the damage bureaucratic and technocratic aspects of modernity and their inability of individuals to understand their authentic selves. Psyche and Soul in America deals not only with May’s public contributions but also to his turbulent inner life as revealed in unprecedentedly intimate sources in order to demonstrate the relationship between the personal and public in a figure who wrote about intimacy, its loss, and ways to regain an authentic sense of self and others.

The United States under President Trump: Gravedigger of International Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 645-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Talmon
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Trump Administration ◽  
Do So

Abstract The United States’ recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Syrian Golan has been widely considered a flagrant breach of international law. This illegal act gives reason to examine the relationship between the United States under President Trump and international law more generally. Unlike its predecessors, the Trump administration has not just violated international law whenever U.S. economic, political, or strategic interests demanded it to do so, it has rather challenged international law and its institutions as such, and has actively undermined them. The attitude of the Trump administration towards international law and its institutions is marked by an unparalleled contempt or disdain. This article delivers a powerful “J’accuse” against this international law nihilism.

scholarly journals The relationship between the body mass index and in‐hospital mortality in patients admitted for sudden cardiac death in the United States

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Rozen ◽  
Gabby Elbaz‐Greener ◽  
Ibrahim Marai ◽  
E. Kevin Heist ◽  
Jeremy N. Ruskin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Body Mass Index ◽  
Sudden Cardiac Death ◽  
Hospital Mortality ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Cardiac Death ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Relationship

scholarly journals Clothing Fit Issues for Trans People

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Andrew Reilly ◽  
Jory Catalpa ◽  
Jenifer McGuire
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Consumer Group ◽  
Trans People ◽  
Clothing Fit ◽  
Line Analysis

As many as nine million people identify as a transperson in the United States, yet mass clothing designing and manufacturing do not meet the needs of this consumer group. This research examines the role of fit in ready-to-wear (RTW) clothing using qualitative research methods. 90 transpeople from the United States, Canada, and Ireland participated in interviews and data from interviews were analyzed using line-by-line analysis, resulting in three themes. Theme 1 explored current fit problems with RTW clothing, Theme 2 explored the desire to use clothing to hide parts of the body that did not align with one’s gender identity, and Theme 3 explored the desire to use clothing to highlight parts of the body that did align with one’s gender identity. Findings from this research confirm the assumption that current RTW clothing does not meet the needs of the transperson population and offers areas where designers and manufactures can reassess their methods relative to this consumer group.

scholarly journals Bridging the Financial Gap Among Young People

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Torres ◽  
Russell Rudman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Low Income ◽  
College Graduates ◽  
The United States ◽  
Student Loan ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Financial Decisions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Relationship

Experts have determined that the cost of attending college is rising (Williams, 2006) and as a result, it has altered college graduates’ cumulative debt levels. In addition, research shows that those who attend college are more likely to earn higher salaries (Ma et al., 2016). Consequently, the existence of a low-income college graduate population would be considered a paradox. Simultaneous to such changes mentioned, homeownership among young individuals is declining in the United States (Dettling & Hsu, 2014). As of today, research has focused on the relationship between student loan debt and homeownership but has neglected the relationship between cumulative debt and homeownership. This study will answer the following question: What is the relationship between cumulative debt acquired by low-income college graduates between the ages of 23-40 in the United States in the 21st century and the corresponding likelihood of homeownership? Through interviews with five low-income college graduates, I collected narratives describing their outlooks on cumulative debt and its influences on homeownership. Through thematic analysis, I drew connections between common themes that indicated how cumulative debt affected one’s actions or thoughts regarding purchasing a home.  The results showed that cumulative debt has negative effects on homeownership. Subjects disclosed that their struggle to pay their cumulative debt and inability to accumulate wealth were the two most common hindrances of purchasing a home. This is significant because cumulative debt predetermines how the subject manages their finances to pursue purchasing a home and such data may influence the financial decisions of future generations.

Théophilus Conneau: The Saga of a Tale

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 97-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce L. Mouser
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Motion Picture ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Life Story ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

Rare has been the book on Africa that has acquired a history and become the subject of study in its own right. One such is the autobiography of Théophilus Conneau, a slave dealer of French and Italian background, who lived on the west coast of Africa during the 1830s and 1840s. Various accounts of Conneau's experiences in Guinea and Liberia have been translated into four languages, and were even incorporated into a successful novel in 1933, on which was based a motion picture. The latest version of Conneau's life story (and the occasion for this paper) was published as recently as 1976.Conneau's story first came to press in 1854 through the editorial assistance and skill of Brantz Mayer, a lecturer, author, and journalist of the Baltimore area, known principally for his writings about Latin America. Having obtained experience and contacts with publishers by editing manuscripts and letters, Mayer was a valuable asset to a new author in 1853. Recently discovered letters from Conneau to Mayer and Mayer's own account of the relationship between them suggest an interesting beginning for this literary enterprise. Conneau found himself in 1853 in Baltimore where he met James Hall, whom he had known previously in Liberia. Hall had been an enthusiastic supporter of the Maryland settlement for freed Blacks at Cape Palmas and had served as that settlement's first governor from 1833 to 1836. Concluding that Conneau's story of a repentant slave trader would be of value to the cause of anti-slavery and black emigration from the United States to Africa, Hall suggested that Conneau write his memoirs and introduced him to Mayer.

scholarly journals The politics of zero-sum thinking: The relationship between political ideology and the belief that life is a zero-sum game

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. eaay3761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shai Davidai ◽  
Martino Ongis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
The Status ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Do So

The tendency to see life as zero-sum exacerbates political conflicts. Six studies (N = 3223) examine the relationship between political ideology and zero-sum thinking: the belief that one party’s gains can only be obtained at the expense of another party’s losses. We find that both liberals and conservatives view life as zero-sum when it benefits them to do so. Whereas conservatives exhibit zero-sum thinking when the status quo is challenged, liberals do so when the status quo is being upheld. Consequently, conservatives view social inequalities—where the status quo is frequently challenged—as zero-sum, but liberals view economic inequalities—where the status quo has remained relatively unchallenged in past decades—as such. Overall, these findings suggest potentially important ideological differences in perceptions of conflict—differences that are likely to have implications for understanding political divides in the United States and the difficulty of reaching bipartisan legislation.

Pilots Who Are Perceived as Unsociable Are Perceived as More Likely to Have a Mental Illness

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott R. Winter ◽  
Stephen Rice
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

The mental state of pilots involved in commercial airlines incidents has been the subject of much debate. The current study seeks to use affective theory to address public perceptions of pilot behaviors and likelihood of perceived mental illness. Participants from India and the United States were given hypothetical scenarios about pilots who were presented as either sociable or unsociable. They were asked to give ratings of affective measures and likelihood of mental illness. The results indicate that pilots who were presented as behaving in an unsociable manner were rated as more likely to have a perceived mental illness compared with those who were behaving sociably. Affect appeared to at least partially mediate the relationship between sociability and perceived likelihood of mental illness for both cultural groups.

State Speech vs. Hate Speech

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Michael Weinman ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Do So ◽  
New View

This is, indeed, another work on the subject of hate speech regulation in the United States. And yet, it is not just another such work. For my goal here is not to settle the jurisprudential arguments regarding the possibility of any specific hate speech regulation, either extant or yet to be conceived, withstanding a Constitutional test. Nor is it my intention to demonstrate, on the basis of a comparative study of existing legislation, that such regulation either is or is not effective in addressing or redressing the social ills of hatred, discrimination, and inequality. Rather, I will achieve greater analytical clarity about just what the harms of hate speech are. I do so in order to reinvigorate the question about regulation with a new view of what exactly the object needing attention is, by demonstrating that though there are real harms here, the state cannot provide a regulatory remedy (at least qua criminal justice). Thus, in my conclusion I will assert that the question of what we might do differently in response to hate speech can only be answered —however provisionally—insofar as we first confront how we need to think differently about it. Specifically, I will argue that we need to replace the emphasis on redressing harms once they have occurred with a new emphasis on addressing, and ultimately eliminating, the conditions which make those harms possible in the first place.

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