scholarly journals The potency of the butterfly: The reception of Richard B. Goldschmidt’s animal experiments in German sexology around 1920

2020 ◽  
pp. 095269511989054
Author(s):  
Ina Linge

This article considers the sexual politics of animal evidence in the context of German sexology around 1920. In the 1910s, the German-Jewish geneticist Richard B. Goldschmidt conducted experiments on the moth Lymantria dispar, and discovered individuals that were no longer clearly identifiable as male or female. When he published an article tentatively arguing that his research on ‘intersex butterflies’ could be used to inform concurrent debates about human homosexuality, he triggered a flurry of responses from Berlin-based sexologists. In this article, I examine how a number of well-known sexologists affiliated with Magnus Hirschfeld, his Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, and later his Institute of Sexology attempted to incorporate Goldschmidt’s experiments into their sexological work between 1917 and 1923. Intersex butterflies were used to discuss issues at the heart of German sexology: the legal debate about the criminalisation of homosexuality under paragraph 175; the scientific methodology of sexology, caught between psychiatric, biological, and sociological approaches to the study of sexual and gender diversity; and the status of sexology as natural science, able to contribute knowledge about the sexual Konstitution of the organism. This article thus shows that butterfly experiments function as important and politically charged evidence for a discussion at the heart of the sexological project of those involved in the founding of the Institute of Sexology: the question of the nature and naturalness of homosexuality (and sexual intermediacy more broadly) and its political consequences. In doing so, this article makes a case for paying attention to non-human actors in the history of sexology.

2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Hearn ◽  
Marie Nordberg ◽  
Kjerstin Andersson ◽  
Dag Balkmar ◽  
Lucas Gottzén ◽  
...  

This article discusses the status of the concept of hegemonic masculinity in research on men and boys in Sweden, and how it has been used and developed. Sweden has a relatively long history of public debate, research, and policy intervention in gender issues and gender equality. This has meant, in sheer quantitative terms, a relatively sizeable corpus of work on men, masculinities, and gender relations. There is also a rather wide diversity of approaches, theoretically and empirically, to the analysis of men and masculinities. The Swedish national context and gender equality project is outlined. This is followed by discussion of three broad phases in studies on men and masculinities in Sweden: the 1960s and 1970s before the formulation of the concept of hegemonic masculinity; the 1980s and 1990s when the concept was important for a generation of researchers developing studies in more depth; and the 2000s with a younger generation committed to a variety of feminist and gender critiques other than those associated with hegemonic masculinity. The following sections focus specifically on how the concept of hegemonic masculinity has been used, adapted, and indeed not used, in particular areas of study: boys and young men in family and education; violence; and health. The article concludes with review of how hegemonic masculinity has been used in Swedish contexts, as: gender stereotype, often out of the context of legitimation of patriarchal relations; “Other” than dominant, white middle-class “Swedish,” equated with outmoded, nonmodern, working-class, failing boy, or minority ethnic masculinities; a new masculinity concept and practice, incorporating some degree of gender equality; and reconceptualized and problematized as a modern, heteronormative, and subject-centered concept.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Bai

Recent studies show that explicit prejudice is related to explicit support for conservative and opposition for liberal politicians, regardless of their demographics such as race and gender. However, it remains unclear how prejudice is associated with evaluation of candidates on the implicit domain. Furthermore, prior theories assume that these associations exist because of the politicians’ preferences for inequality and status quo, but these assumptions have never been empirically tested. Four pre-registered experiments clarify that politicians’ ideology, not race or gender, determines the association between prejudice and explicit evaluation of politicians, regardless of whether prejudice is measured explicitly or implicitly. These preferences are primarily driven by citizens’ preferences for politicians who support inequality, and to a lesser extent, preferences for those who support the status quo. Together, these findings clarify the political consequences of racism and sexism and further our understanding of the psychological function of prejudice.


Author(s):  
Ben Tran

The purpose of this chapter is to clearly define and address the original intended usage of terms among academicians, the law, and businesses regarding diversity: workforce diversity (cultural diversity and gender diversity) and global diversity (cultural diversity and multicultural diversity). The proposed comprehensive Guidelines for Diversity Training Program as common ground to shared gain takes into consideration different paradigms of various parties (academicians, politicians, and practitioners) in two ways. First, the Diversity Training Program utilizes the academicians' rhetorical definitions of diversity, incorporates the legality component of diversity, and transforms it into a functional strategy to assist firms with hiring diverse competent staffs who possess the appropriate KSAOs qualifications as common ground to shared gain. Second, the Diversity Training Program starts with diversity from the beginning (with the recruiting and selecting), supports diversity through its process (with diversity appreciation), and continues to promote diversity thereafter (with mentorship).


2021 ◽  
pp. 345-365
Author(s):  
Fraser Riddell

AbstractRiddell explores how tropes of breath and breathlessness articulate the relationship between materiality, desire, and loss for queer subjects in Victorian literature. The essay presents readings of A. E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad, John Addington Symonds’s Memoirs, and Walter Pater’s ‘Sebastian van Storck’ (from Imaginary Portraits). It also examines nineteenth-century sexology (including writings by Magnus Hirschfeld) to demonstrate how certain modes of breathing were directly associated with non-normative sexuality in the period. Riddell draws upon insights from contemporary queer theory, in its turns toward negative affect and phenomenology, to examine precarious forms of embodied subjectivity in the history of homosexuality. By doing so, he demonstrates how experiences of embodiment are never universal but closely bound up with individual subject positions (such as sexuality and gender).


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarida Maria Araujo Bispo ◽  
Maria Helena Santana Cruz

This article addresses sexual diversity, the historic struggle for the rights of LGBTQIA + groups, and the silencing they have suffered over the centuries. The text discusses the history and progress of this struggle to break the barriers of silencing, and confirm their rights in society and in educational practices in two State Schools located in the municipality of Tobias Barreto/SE. The theoretical approach will be post-structuralist based on scholars who approach the trajectory of homosexuals and transgenders in the historical and social context. Although the battle was fought at the beginning of the fight quietly, the achievements are still minimal in view of the full range of violence suffered by homosexuals and transsexuals in the social environment that they are part of. The violence suffered by LGBTQIA+ is a problem to be discussed in the educational environment, through the history of struggle as an element of empowerment for these young people.


Author(s):  
Tegar Rismanuar Nuryitmawan

This study aims to answer whether or notfinancial distribution can play a role in development and poverty alleviation in Indonesia. Households who receive credit are treated as the analysis level and research object. Credit is an instrument to help households escaping from poverty. Some opinions believe that by being given credit, households will be able to boost their economic capacity both in terms of purchasing power or business development capacity. However, to prove this opinion as well as to answer the question, using panel data from the Indonesian Family Live Survey (IFLS) in 2007 and 2014 will attempt to estimate the effect of the probability of households receiving credit on their poverty status. The probability of a credit recipient householdwill be calculated using Propensity Score Matching so that a similarity score of household characteristics will be obtained between those who get credit and those who do not. Using Double Differences, this study will address the description of changes in household poverty status after receiving credit from financial institutions. The PSM calculations results show that there are four variables as credit recipient household’s characteristics, namely collateral ownership, the status of property ownership, history of natural disasters, and gender. Meanwhile, the estimation results on poverty status indicate that credit recipient households have a greater probability of escaping poverty than those who do not receive credit. Therefore, the anti-poverty policy through the transmission of financial institutions is relevant to be prepared. The anti-poverty policy is related to low credit interest rates through government subsidies, public fund placement with low cost of fund, increasing financial literacyand knowledge of the society, and adjusting credit approval based on regional economic conditions.


2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Zarb ◽  
Ryan F. Birch ◽  
David Gleave ◽  
Winston Seegobin ◽  
Joel Perez

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