Reverse tomboy: (Re)definitions of gender fluidity through sensory engagement with material culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 149-170
Author(s):  
Charlie Athill
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Sensory Ethnography ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Cross Dressing ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Embodied Practice

This narrative case study explores how material culture, in the form of dress, grooming and accessories, is utilized to establish a gender-fluid presentation of the self. It focuses on Tim Mustoe, a 42-year-old heterosexual creative living and working in London, whose embodied practice contributes to the problematization of gender normativity through a disruption of culturally established links between appearance, gender and sex. The study considers how a particular form of non-spectacular cross dressing is used to integrate into a work environment and also operate within a non-queer social environment. The study explores the affective power of material culture in the reification of subject position and as a means of resilience and empowerment through everyday practice and also considers its significance on a social, intersubjective level. The methodology used for this case draws on sensory ethnography and includes a queer reflexive turn to consider parallels and contrasts between my own and Tim’s experience and practice. Conceptualizations of subjectivity, sex, gender are considered in relation to those on material culture, and the study draws on scholarship related to cross-dressing in the United Kingdom. Tim identifies as a man, as do I; however, his embodied practice and gender identification proffer a particular response to culturally embedded norms relating to the binaries of sex and gender. Therefore, in relation to male femininity, I propose the notion of feminizing as an amendment to the concept of femaling, which assumes the identification with or transition to a cisgender position. This study explores the phenomenology of dress as an expressive tool of gratification and as a means of integration for which the imperatives of professionalism, age and respectability are key factors.

scholarly journals Sex-Gender Variable: Methodological Recommendations for Increasing Scientific Value of Clinical Studies

Cells ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavia Franconi ◽  
Ilaria Campesi ◽  
Delia Colombo ◽  
Paola Antonini
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Randomized Clinical Trials ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Scientific Value ◽  
Racial Ethnic

There is a clear sex–gender gap in the prevention and occurrence of diseases, and in the outcomes and treatments, which is relevant to women in the majority of cases. Attitudes concerning the enrollment of women in randomized clinical trials have changed over recent years. Despite this change, a gap still exists. This gap is linked to biological factors (sex) and psycho-social, cultural, and environmental factors (gender). These multidimensional, entangled, and interactive factors may influence the pharmacological response. Despite the fact that regulatory authorities recognize the importance of sex and gender, there is a paucity of research focusing on the racial/ethnic, socio-economic, psycho-social, and environmental factors that perpetuate disparities. Research and clinical practice must incorporate all of these factors to arrive at an intersectional and system-scenario perspective. We advocate for scientifically rigorous evaluations of the interplay between sex and gender as key factors in performing clinical trials, which are more adherent to real-life. This review proposes a set of 12 rules to improve clinical research for integrating sex–gender into clinical trials.

scholarly journals Intersectional observations of the Human Brain Project’s approach to sex and gender

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-144
Author(s):  
B. Tyr Fothergill ◽  
William Knight ◽  
Bernd Carsten Stahl ◽  
Inga Ulnicane
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Horizon 2020 ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
And Gender

Purpose This paper aims to critically assess approaches to sex and gender in the Human Brain Project (HBP) as a large information and communication technology (ICT) project case study using intersectionality. Design/methodology/approach The strategy of the HBP is contextualised within the wider context of the representation of women in ICT, and critically reflected upon from an intersectional standpoint. Findings The policy underpinning the approach deployed by the HBP in response to these issues parallels Horizon 2020 wording and emphasises economic outcomes, productivity and value, which aligns with other “equality” initiatives influenced by neoliberalised versions of feminism. Research limitations/implications Limitations include focussing on a single case study, the authors being funded as part of the Ethics and Society Subproject of the HBP, and the limited temporal period under consideration. Social implications The frameworks underpinning the HBP approach to sex and gender issues present risks with regard to the further entrenchment of present disparities in the ICT sector, may fail to acknowledge systemic inequalities and biases and ignore the importance of intersectionality. Shortcomings of the approach employed by the HBP up to March, 2018 included aspects of each of these risks, and replicated problematic understandings of sex, gender and diversity. Originality/value This paper is the first to use an intersectional approach to issues of sex and gender in the context of large-scale ICT research. Its value lies in raising awareness, opening a discursive space and presenting opportunities to consider and reflect upon potential, contextualised intersectional solutions to such issues.

scholarly journals Reconstructing sexual divisions of labor from fingerprints on Ancestral Puebloan pottery

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (25) ◽  
pp. 12220-12225 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kantner ◽  
David McKinney ◽  
Michele Pierson ◽  
Shaza Wester
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Chaco Canyon ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Pottery Production ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Ancestral Puebloan ◽  
The Us ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
And Gender

An understanding of the division of labor in different societies, and especially how it evolved in the human species, is fundamental to most analyses of social, political, and economic systems. The ability to reconstruct how labor was organized, however, especially in ancient societies that left behind few material remains, is challenged by the paucity of direct evidence demonstrating who was involved in production. This is particularly true for identifying divisions of labor along lines of age, sex, and gender, for which archaeological interpretations mostly rely upon inferences derived from modern examples with uncertain applicability to ancient societies. Drawing upon biometric studies of human fingerprints showing statistically distinct ridge breadth measurements for juveniles, males, and females, this study reports a method for collecting fingerprint impressions left on ancient material culture and using them to distinguish the sex of the artifacts’ producers. The method is applied to a sample of 985 ceramic sherds from a 1,000-y-old Ancestral Puebloan community in the US Southwest, a period characterized by the rapid emergence of a highly influential religious and political center at Chaco Canyon. The fingerprint evidence demonstrates that both males and females were significantly involved in pottery production and further suggests that the contributions of each sex varied over time and even among different social groups in the same community. The results indicate that despite long-standing assumptions that pottery production in Ancient Puebloan societies was primarily a female activity, labor was not strictly divided and instead was likely quite dynamic.

scholarly journals Losing sight of women's rights: the unregulated introduction of gender self-identification as a case study of policy capture in Scotland

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kath Murray ◽  
Lucy Hunter Blackburn
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Public Consultation ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Intense Debate ◽  
Roll Out

Within the last two years, respective proposals by the Scottish and UK Governments to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA) to allow people to change their legal sex based only on making a legally-registered self-declaration have sparked an intense debate on how sex and gender identity should be defined in law and policy. This paper examines how gender self-identification had in fact become a feature of Scottish policy-making and practice, long before public consultation on GRA reform began. The analysis is structured as two case-studies that examine firstly, policy development on the census in relation to the ‘sex’ question, and second, Scottish Prison Service policy on transgender prisoners. The analysis shows that the unregulated roll-out of gender self-identification in Scotland has taken place with weak or non-existent scrutiny and a lack of due process, and that this relates to a process of policy capture, whereby decision-making on sex and gender identity issues has been directed towards the interests of a specific interest group, without due regard for other affected groups or the wider population. The paper raises questions about the adequacy of institutional safeguards against well-organised and highly purposeful lobbying, particularly where any groups detrimentally affected do not have effective representation.

Motivational Influences for Higher Education (HE) Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Costello ◽  
Murray Lambert
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Motivational Influences ◽  
Student's Perceptions ◽  
Games Development

This article offers a novel innovative gamification approach for undergraduates within higher education. To support the innovative approach, a mixed method data analysis investigation was conducted to capture the case study. The authors propose a gamification model to support student's perceptions and views while they were undertaking their Level 5 Games Technologies and Level 6 Games Development courses at a higher education institute within the northeast of the United Kingdom. The model used within gamification will provide a supportive approach for game thinking challenges, to help build upon excitement and motivational influences to improve retention, engagement, motivation, and problem solving, whilst using a competition between the two-year groups as an incentive. The authors' analysis suggests there are key factors between competition and using motivation through gamification to influence the learners.

Queering Prehistory on the Frontier

2019 ◽  
pp. 55-80
Author(s):  
Mark P. Toussaint
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Preliminary Study ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship

The Mierzanowice Culture (MC) is the name given to an archaeological complex that existed from about 2400/2300–1600 BCE, in the Early Bronze Age of Central Europe. Mierzanowice Culture cemeteries provide a unique opportunity to investigate and theorize the relationship between sex and gender in prehistory, due to their tradition of mirror-opposite, seemingly sex-differentiated burials. This chapter questions interpretations of these burial characteristics in terms of rigid, sex-based binaries, and investigates whether they may correspond more closely with social constructions of identity, including gender and status. Furthermore, it explores the relationship between salient biological and social categories and health in Mierzanowice communities. Although the case study explored in this chapter was based on a small sample of individuals, a few patterns have begun to emerge. Certain aspects of burial orientations may correspond more to gender than to sex. Furthermore, it is not out of the realm of possibility that some atypical burial orientations may correspond to a non-binary gender category. This preliminary study also indicated that while all individuals were at fairly equal risk of perimortem trauma, females were more likely than males to incur antemortem trauma.

Gender, Identities, and Material Culture in the Italic Peninsula: Burial Practices and Loom Weights in Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 18-35
Author(s):  
Arianna Esposito ◽  
Airton Pollini
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Gender Studies ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Classical Archaeology ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Methodological Difficulties

Abstract This paper discusses the complex relationship between material culture and gender studies from a methodological point of view, with the aim of contributing to discussions in the field of Classical archaeology. First, we provide a few historiographical benchmarks for key epistemological developments, while evidencing the methodological difficulties inherent in the variability of our interpretations of burial practices and data. Then, in a second section, a case study focuses on simple objects of daily life. Discussing approaches inspired by gender studies, and considering the place of loom weights, we wish to tackle the presumption of textile work as an eminently female activity. The aim of this paper is to suggest a more nuanced and fluid approach to gender in relation to material culture.

Populist Discourse and Desire for Social Justice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erzsébet Barát
Keyword(s):  
Gender Ideology ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Sex And Gender ◽  
The People ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Empty Signifier

This chapter reviews research on populism by describing the role of discourse in articulating a “we” as an empty signifier. The emergence of “gender-ideology” discourse is presented as key to contemporary forms of exclusionary populism, as demonstrated in a case study of Hungary’s recent modification of the national register to prevent transgender individuals from retroactively changing their “sex at birth” status. The chapter argues that the discrediting of gender as an ideology mobilizes not only exclusionary right-wing populism but also feminisms asserting binary distinctions of a biologized sex and gender. While the government defends “us, the Hungarian people” against a “gender” that is not material but pure propaganda, self-identified progressive feminists dismiss trans-politics for focusing on identity instead of political economy. Both groups thus use “gender ideology” to mobilize an exclusionary rhetoric of hate. The chapter proposes that “us, the people” may instead be used to motivate a radical left populism organized around a “feminist people” of flexible inclusivity.

Gender and Material Culture: the Archaeology of Religious Women

1996 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-136
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Religious Women ◽  
Ground Plan ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
And Gender

Space and gender have been two of the ‘buzz words’ in archaeology over the last few years; and quite rightly so, since they identify two of the most crucial aspects of human experience. As we move around buildings today, we are all well aware of norms and restrictions — public spaces and doors marked ‘private’, lounges and bedrooms, stairways and corridors. We negotiate and respect these according to customs and habits learned mainly in childhood. What is true of our own society is true of every other society, past and present, and one of the challenges — not to say obligations — facing archaeologists is to gain some understanding of these spatial mores, even when presented with little more than a ground plan.In Gilchrist's case-study of medieval English nunneries, the evidence is rather more substantial. Not only has some of the fabric survived — both of churches and their associated buildings — but there is a rich body of textual information about the nunneries, the nuns who inhabited them, and the Christian symbolism and belief which underlay the whole institution.What better place to study gender and its material expression than in such a uniquely female institution as the medieval nunnery? Fezv would deny that archaeology can play a powerful role in helping us to understand these religious communities — enabling us to see beyond the confines of written records. The application of particular theoretical approaches, however, is somewhat more contentious. Just how well do they fit such a body of evidence? And on a subject where we already have a great deal of textual evidence, can study of the material remains — in layout of buildings, evidence of their use, and iconography — truly reveal new levels of meaning? In sum, how successful is this new analysis?These are among the key issues which are discussed in the following pages. As usual, we begin this Review Feature with an introduction by the author herself, Roberta Gilchrist. Then follow four contrasting reactions, from archaeologists and historians, rounded off by Gilchrist's reply. Whatever our assessment, the interplay of gender and space has profound and far-reaching significance, and raises issues that no serious historical archaeologist — or indeed prehistorian — can afford to ignore.

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