Writing/Righting Menstruation: a Feminist Analysis of New Zealand Women's Knowledge of the Menstrual Cycle

10.26686/wgtn.17012762.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Vicki Marie Culling

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Menstrual Cycle ◽

Young Women ◽

Cultural Context ◽

Cultural Practices ◽

Historical Context ◽

Discursive Practices ◽

Menstrual Knowledge ◽

Initial Objective ◽

The Impact

This thesis investigates New Zealand women's menstrual knowledge within a cultural, social and historical context. An analysis or dominant menstrual discourses and their impact on women's menstrual knowledge was undertaken from a feminist poststructural perspective. At the outset, my initial objectives were to examine and record the social construction of menstruation and to determine the extent to which it impacted on New Zealand women's menstrual knowledge. Following a reading of feminist poststructuralism, the initial objective of measuring and quantifying women's menstrual knowledge changed to an approach focusing on discourse. Similarly, I moved to a new methodological focus on feminist epistemologies. As a result, the thesis examines the effects of New Zealand cultural practices and social meanings on women's 'knowing' about menstruation. It seeks to establish the boundaries and markers that both construct and constrain women's menstrual knowledge. Thirty-seven New Zealand women ranging in age from fourteen to eighty-six years contributed their narratives during open-ended interviews. The women's stories located various discursive practices that impacted on their menstrual knowledge and on their adherence to a common or popular menstrual etiquette. Discourses that construct and confine what, and how, women know about their menstrual cycle are identified and discussed. These scientific, medical, and consumerist discourses intersect and overlap to constitute a dominant menstrual discourse. Menstrual product advertising is identified as a prevailing context that surrounds young women as they become menstruants. Discursive practices such as euphemisms, notions of cleanliness and hygiene, authority through technology, and the commodification of feminist imagery contribute to representations that devalue and stigmatise menstruation. This dominant menstrual discourse can be maintained or disrupted through the way mothers impart menstrual knowledge to their daughters. Mothers are faced with the contradiction of preparing their daughters for an experience that is presented as normal yet constructed within strategies of concealment that menstruating women are expected to follow. When young women do become menstraunts, they are faced with the menstrual 'script' that includes the emotional themes of embarrassment, anxiety and ambivalence. The formal acquisition of menstrual knowledge takes place in our schools and again is positioned within a contradictory framework. Menstruation is conveyed as 'ordinary' yet the teaching of the menstrual cycle is often 'extraordinary' 'Menstruation' is routinely taught in sex-segregated classes, in the evening, in the company of parents and often located within scientific and medical discourses. This thesis offers new insight into the different ways New Zealand women construct knowledge about our bleeding bodies. Its uniqueness rests with die theoretical framework used to analyse research data. A feminist poststructuralist discourse analysis enabled the positioning of the women's accounts within a social, historical and cultural context, and the identification of a new way of analysing the impact of discursive practices upon meaning and experience of menstruation.

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Reinventing the Squeal: Young New Zealand Women Negotiating Space in the Current Sexual Culture

10.26686/wgtn.16999864.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Lesley Wright

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Young Women ◽

Public Discourse ◽

Instant Messaging ◽

Sexual Experience ◽

Casual Sex ◽

Adult Women ◽

Sexual Culture ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Impact

The sexual behaviour of young emergent adult women in New Zealand has become a target of media attention and commentary. Moralising language is prevalent in the public discourse, describing young women negatively with respect to character and psychology. Research investigating the increase of cultural artefacts such as hooking up or casual sex is often risk-focused, concentrating predominantly on detrimental impacts such as STIs, rape-risks, and depression. Some feminist analyses describe behaviour as postfeminist or as examples of false consciousness. Despite these positions, young New Zealand women are engaging in these and other non-relationship sexual activities in growing numbers, suggesting that current approaches are failing to capture salient explanatory information. Due to the negative impacts of social constraints such as the sexual double standard, traditional femininity and moralising social commentary on young women it is important to present a more holistic image of their behaviour so as to provide a deeper explanatory view which better accounts for young women’s experiences and motivations. In this study I utilise a mixed method research design to access a wide range of participants on a sensitive research topic. A self-selecting sample of 163 young women aged between 18 and 30, recruited from various university campuses around New Zealand, completed an online survey. From this group 18 heterosexually-identifying young women were selected to participate in instant messaging, email and face to face interviews, and an online discussion group. To analyse the material they provided I use a Third Wave feminist theoretical lens in order to give primacy not only to their voices but also their claims to agency and the importance of subjective positionality. I use Sexual Script Theory as a framework to illuminate the impact of cultural dialogues on individuals, and space was conceptualised as a way to illustrate performances and agency. Results suggest that young New Zealand women are strongly affected by risk-focused and moralising dialogues to the effect that they have internalised a risk-focused cultural script that guides their sexual interactions and behaviours within socio-sexual culture in constrained and avoidant ways. Other performed scripts such as ‘good girl’ femininity, traditional masculinity, and the normative performance of heterosex also presented as barriers to subjective sexual experience/development. However, many young women in this study were resistant to some of these scripts, as evidenced in their attempts to occupy traditionally masculine and/or social spaces where non-normative behaviours are (partially) permitted. Their behaviour suggests critical engagement with their socio-sexual environment and some awareness of script elements that dictate acceptable feminine behaviour, and how these constraints can be (at least temporarily) resisted as a means to not only developing sexual subjectivity but also to refashioning modern femininity.

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The Impact of Socio-Historical Context on Identity: An Analysis of Ngāi Tamarāwaho Identity in the Colonisation Era

Te Kaharoa ◽

10.24135/tekaharoa.v9i1.2 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Melissa Derby

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Social Context ◽

Historical Context ◽

Major Focus ◽

Common Trends ◽

The Third ◽

Indigenous Groups ◽

The Social ◽

Waitangi Tribunal ◽

The Impact

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the influence that socio-historical context has on the identity of a group. The identity of the hapū (tribe) Ngāi Tamarāwaho is examined to demonstrate the impact that specific phenomena associated with colonisation had on hapū identity, and the major focus of this chapter is the interplay between Ngāi Tamarāwaho and the phenomenon of colonisation. This article concentrates specifically on hapū identity during the colonisation era, which, in the context of this article, commenced with the arrival of Pākehā (British) settlers in New Zealand in 1814, and concluded with the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal in 1975. For comparative purposes, parallels are drawn with other indigenous groups globally to highlight similarities between the colonisation experiences of these groups and those of Ngāi Tamarāwaho, and to illustrate common trends that occur as a result of colonisation and its associated phenomena. The first section in this article discusses the need to consider socio-historical context in research pertaining to identity, and provides examples of research that has been conducted to this effect. The second section establishes the social context of Ngāi Tamarāwaho, and the third section outlines the historical context. Following this is an analyis of the effects of aspects of colonisation on Ngāi Tamarāwaho identity, and this article concludes by discussing ways in which the hapū revived and reasserted their identity

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Tauhi Vā Māfana: Tongan leadership and culture in the New Zealand Public Service

10.26686/wgtn.17013560 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Mele Katea Paea

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Empirical Study ◽

Public Service ◽

Cultural Context ◽

Leadership Practices ◽

Cultural Practices ◽

Research Question ◽

Oral Communication ◽

Cultural Practice ◽

Central Value

How does knowledge of cultural practices help us think differently about how leadership is understood and practised in a particular context? This thesis presents a Tongan leadership model from a Tongan perspective. It is based on a study of cultural practices that shape the ways in which Tongans perceive and experience leadership differently. The location of the study is the New Zealand Public Service, and the approach taken here is to reflect on Tongan leadership from a strength-based perspective, promoting the leadership capabilities that Tongans bring with them into another cultural context. The core of this thesis is a deep empirical study of Tongan leadership based on Tongan public servants’ perceptions and experiences of Tongan identity and Tongan leadership practices in New Zealand. The theoretical framework is based primarily on a Tauhi Vā (nurturing relationships) approach that draws on sources, which explore and discuss the key conceptual foundations of Tongan culture. It draws on the central value of māfana (warm love/inner warm passion) as the driver for leadership as Tauhi Vā Māfana (nurturing warm relationships). The thesis also argues that the methodology for exploring leadership as cultural practice should be located in the cultural practices being studied. It further explores the research question, what is the most culturally appropriate way to study leadership as cultural practice? In this case, the methodology for this study is therefore grounded in a Tongan perspective called Talanoa Māfana (talking about the truth in love/warm relationships). This is based on a type of ‘oral communication’, carried out in both group and individual contexts. The thesis set out to build on existing talanoa methodology to develop Talanoa Māfana providing new insights into cultural practice as methodology alongside cultural practice as the topic of study. The study first asked participants what ‘being Tongan’ meant to them and what their experiences of leadership were. Moving into the public service context, it asked how their Tongan identities shaped their work in the New Zealand Public Service, and how they would like to see their leadership practices supported in this context. Drawing on the findings, this study conceptualises Tongan leadership as Tauhi Vā Māfana. It is based on the dynamic interplay between fāmili (familial relationships), māfana, fua fatongia (fulfilling obligations), and faka`apa`apa (sacred wisdom) within a given socio-cultural context. Tauhi Vā Māfana presents leadership as a cultural practice of nurturing warm relationships, in which people are influenced to change in a given context. This concept describes the types of leadership capabilities that Tongan participants bring to the New Zealand Public Service and goes on to explore the challenges that they face in trying to act on these capabilities in a non-Tongan cultural context. This thesis presents a Tongan model of leadership, and so brings to the wider leadership literature an empirical study that considers leadership as cultural practice. It is part of the emerging wider conversation about the importance of understanding leadership in terms of how people perceive and experience it from within their own socio-cultural backgrounds and in specific contexts. It challenges leadership scholars and practitioners to think about how they could use the knowledge of cultural practices to understand and utilise leadership differently, in the face of the dominance of Western leadership models. This study is also a wider invitation to consider the relevance of its themes and methodology to developing alternatives to organisational research based on Western perspectives, such as the emerging literature on Pacific and indigenous perspectives.

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Reinventing the Squeal: Young New Zealand Women Negotiating Space in the Current Sexual Culture

10.26686/wgtn.16999864 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Lesley Wright

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Young Women ◽

Public Discourse ◽

Instant Messaging ◽

Sexual Experience ◽

Casual Sex ◽

Adult Women ◽

Sexual Culture ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Impact

The sexual behaviour of young emergent adult women in New Zealand has become a target of media attention and commentary. Moralising language is prevalent in the public discourse, describing young women negatively with respect to character and psychology. Research investigating the increase of cultural artefacts such as hooking up or casual sex is often risk-focused, concentrating predominantly on detrimental impacts such as STIs, rape-risks, and depression. Some feminist analyses describe behaviour as postfeminist or as examples of false consciousness. Despite these positions, young New Zealand women are engaging in these and other non-relationship sexual activities in growing numbers, suggesting that current approaches are failing to capture salient explanatory information. Due to the negative impacts of social constraints such as the sexual double standard, traditional femininity and moralising social commentary on young women it is important to present a more holistic image of their behaviour so as to provide a deeper explanatory view which better accounts for young women’s experiences and motivations. In this study I utilise a mixed method research design to access a wide range of participants on a sensitive research topic. A self-selecting sample of 163 young women aged between 18 and 30, recruited from various university campuses around New Zealand, completed an online survey. From this group 18 heterosexually-identifying young women were selected to participate in instant messaging, email and face to face interviews, and an online discussion group. To analyse the material they provided I use a Third Wave feminist theoretical lens in order to give primacy not only to their voices but also their claims to agency and the importance of subjective positionality. I use Sexual Script Theory as a framework to illuminate the impact of cultural dialogues on individuals, and space was conceptualised as a way to illustrate performances and agency. Results suggest that young New Zealand women are strongly affected by risk-focused and moralising dialogues to the effect that they have internalised a risk-focused cultural script that guides their sexual interactions and behaviours within socio-sexual culture in constrained and avoidant ways. Other performed scripts such as ‘good girl’ femininity, traditional masculinity, and the normative performance of heterosex also presented as barriers to subjective sexual experience/development. However, many young women in this study were resistant to some of these scripts, as evidenced in their attempts to occupy traditionally masculine and/or social spaces where non-normative behaviours are (partially) permitted. Their behaviour suggests critical engagement with their socio-sexual environment and some awareness of script elements that dictate acceptable feminine behaviour, and how these constraints can be (at least temporarily) resisted as a means to not only developing sexual subjectivity but also to refashioning modern femininity.

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From K Road to iTunes: Social and cultural changes in New Zealand recorded music communities

Back Story Journal of New Zealand Art, Media & Design History ◽

10.24135/backstory.vi2.17 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 27-44

Author(s):

Lewis Tennant

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Cultural Practices ◽

Cultural Changes ◽

Recorded Music ◽

The Social ◽

Brick And Mortar ◽

History Of ◽

Community Spaces ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

This article explores how recent technological changes have affected the social and cultural practices of New Zealand communities that are based on recorded music. It considers the shrinking number of brick-and-mortar record shops in the wider context of discussing how now widespread Internet usage has forever changed the music producer-distributor-consumer relationship, as well as the relationship audience members have with one another. The account tracks the history of the record retail space in 20th Century New Zealand, before drawing on conversations with 30 highly-engaged music consumers in order to explore the relevance of the record shops that remain today. Participants also discuss the impact Internet access has had on New Zealand-based music aficionados. The central theme that emerges during these conversations is that though ‘something’ is lost with increasingly less physical community spaces to congregate, the Internet provides a potentially more inclusive and expansive platform for a greater cross-section of audience members to feel involved.

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The Impact of Antenatal Breastfeeding Education on Young Women’s Breastfeeding Self-efficacy and Breastfeeding Rates

10.26686/wgtn.17008369.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Nicola Jane Jackson

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Young Women ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

Short Form ◽

Breastfeeding Initiation ◽

Young Mothers ◽

Antenatal Education ◽

Breastfeeding Education ◽

Breastfeeding Rates ◽

The Impact

Background: Despite the known benefits of breastfeeding to the mother, baby and society as a whole, young women’s breastfeeding rates are generally poor compared to older mothers. Effective antenatal education has been identified as one way to improve these rates. Whether or not antenatal breastfeeding education for young women can make a significant impact on their breastfeeding success is of paramount concern in this research. An important and modifiable variable, identified in the literature as influencing breastfeeding outcomes, is self-efficacy (confidence in ability to breastfeed). This breastfeeding self-efficacy in young mothers is of great interest due to this group and their infants being vulnerable in terms of breastfeeding initiation and continuation. Aim: This study aimed to identify the effects of antenatal breastfeeding education on the self-efficacy, experience and duration of breastfeeding for young women. It also aimed to replicate aspects of prior research in this area conducted overseas to see if those findings could be generalized to a New Zealand setting. Method: A repeated measure design using an existing validated tool was utilised to quantify breastfeeding self-efficacy, prior to and following, an antenatal breastfeeding education session for young pregnant women aged less than 25 years old. Findings: Breastfeeding antenatal education improved breastfeeding self-efficacy scores in urban young women less than 25 years of age. The Breastfeeding Self-efficacy Scale (short form), was found to be a reliable tool to test this. Whilst initiation rates were high in this group, there was no statistically significant link with breastfeeding self-efficacy and the duration and continuation of breastfeeding. Conclusion: Whilst breastfeeding antenatal education was shown to increase breastfeeding self-efficacy, there are many confounding factors influencing breastfeeding initiation and continuation for young women. The findings have contributed to the knowledge about breastfeeding patterns of young New Zealand women. It may be that despite international findings, an increased breastfeeding self-efficacy in this setting doesn’t impact on the rates of breastfeeding of urban New Zealand young mothers. Further research with an increased sample size and comparison groups is warranted.

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Social and Literary Constraints On Women Writers In New Zealand 1945-1970

10.26686/wgtn.16985308 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Michael O'Leary

Keyword(s):

Women Writers ◽

New Zealand ◽

Historical Context ◽

Feminist Movement ◽

Women Poets ◽

Feminist Methodology ◽

World War ◽

Starting Date ◽

The Individual ◽

The Impact

This study explores the reasons why so few women writers in Aotearoa New Zealand were seen as prominent figures in the literary scene from the end of World War Two up to the time when the feminist movement gained momentum, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Using feminist methodology, I examine whether women writers were deliberately under-represented and their work trivialised by the male writers, critics and publishers of the time. What were the factors accounting for this under-representation? I also discuss to what extent there were successes and achievements, either literary or commercial, for the women writers of the time despite their real and/or perceived exclusion from the canon. Literary writers by definition create public documents, including manuscripts, working papers, and letters. The existence of such records means that perhaps more so than for many groups, we have evidence regarding attitudes, intentions, motives and responses to situations of the individual women writers of this period with which to answer these questions. The Georgians vs Modernists debate is examined. The starting date of 1945 for this thesis is significant for it was in that year that Allen Curnow's anthology A Book of New Zealand Verse was published. One of the striking things about the collection is that only two of the sixteen poets represented are women: Ursula Bethell and Robin Hyde. He did invite and encourage Eileen Duggan to contribute but she declined. Curnow‘s book went into a second edition in 1951 with twenty three poets, three of whom were women, Ruth Dallas being the third. In 1953 a book titled POEMS: Anthology of New Zealand Women Writers was published. This could be seen as an attempt to make up for Curnow's omissions. As evidence, I look to women writers of the time to see what restrictions on writing and publishing existed. In 1957 the literary magazine numbers published a letter by Willow Macky in which she criticises the critics of the New Zealand literary scene for their unfavourable reviews of the latest book by the poet Ruth Gilbert, The Sunlit Hour. Macky's letter was both a plea to her male colleagues and an indictment against them for their treatment of their female counterparts. She states: 'Most women, if they wish for success, will try to conform, monkey-like, to the masculine pattern; others, by remaining true to their feminine insight, risk opposition and failure in male-dominated fields' (Macky, 1957: 26). Was this the case and if so why? The 1970 cut-off date for this thesis coincides approximately with the development of the feminist movement in New Zealand. However, according to lesbian-feminist poet Heather McPherson, prejudice continued. McPherson had poems published in Landfall and had approached Leo Bensemann, then Caxton Press and Landfall editor, with a collection of poems. She mentioned to him that she had become a feminist. His reply was that Rita Cook (Rita Angus) had become a feminist 'but it didn‘t do her any good either' (McPherson, 2007: 116). These two examples illustrate some of the difficulties and antipathies that existed between the male and female literary figures, like Curnow and Macky, of the period which inform this thesis. To answer the questions posed above, I explore the social and historical context for women in this period, including the impact of the Second World War, and cover the careers of women poets and novelists, including some detailed case studies. I also examine the particular issues facing Māori and lesbian writers. I conclude that a supportive and encouraging environment was rarely available for women writers from 1945 to 1970, that most struggled to be published and appreciated, and that only later, if at all, were many of these important writers properly recognised.

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The impact of FGM on Shangani women in Zimbabwe

International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare ◽

10.1108/ijhrh-05-2015-0013 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 52-61

Author(s):

Darlington Mutanda ◽

Howard Rukondo

Keyword(s):

Young Women ◽

Design Methodology ◽

Cultural Practices ◽

Cultural Practice ◽

Content Type ◽

Genital Mutilation ◽

Secondary Material ◽

The Impact ◽

Female Genital ◽

Hiv Aids

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the context of gender and HIV/AIDS among the Shangani people in Zimbabwe. Broadly, the discussion ais to fcus on how FGM has been used as tool to maintain the subordinate position of women in the Shangani community. Design/methodology/approach – In addition to secondary material, the paper hugely benefited from interviews with Shangani women in order to appreciate the challenges of eradicating FGM in their society. The sources pointed to the fact that in addition to being exploitative, FGM has no direct health benefits to women. Findings – The paper confirms that eliminating FGM is difficult because it is deeply entrenched in the patriarchal establishment of the Shangani society. As a result of the patriarchal nature of the society, women find themselves subjected to positions of powerlessness as compared to their male counterparts. Originality/value – The paper confirms that FGM is a widespread practice in many African communities including Zimbabwe. As communities grapple with the challenges of eradicating or minimising the practice, it is important in the meantime to modernise cultural practices like FGM as a way of doing away with the spreading of HIV/AIDS. Indonesia has already taken that route. FGM as a cultural practice exposes young women to HIV infection because of blood conduct.

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A Mountain Feeling: the Narrative Construction of Meaning and Self Through a Commitment to Mountaineering in Aotearoa/New Zealand

10.26686/wgtn.16958857.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Lee Davidson

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Sense Of Self ◽

Leisure Activities ◽

Historical Context ◽

Leisure Activity ◽

Narrative Approach ◽

Mountain Climbing ◽

Primary Attraction ◽

The Impact ◽

The Way

Mountaineering is commonly associated with feats of daring in a landscape of extreme danger. Past theories of mountain climbing, and other adventurous leisure activities, have predominantly focused on uncovering the motives for participation; and risk has been posited as a primary attraction. A number of studies have concluded that identity and meaning are factors related to participation. However, none to date have examined the dynamics by which these factors are constructed and maintained in the lives of participants. This thesis places meaning and self or identity at the centre of its enquiry into how New Zealand mountaineers sustain their commitment to an adventurous leisure activity. Thus, it seeks to address the current lack of knowledge regarding the way in which activities such as mountain climbing can contribute to participants' sense of who they are and what their lives are about. A biographical narrative approach was adopted to achieve this central aim as, it is argued, self and meaning are constructed through the stories told about life experiences. Narrative interviews were conducted with twenty-two committed New Zealand mountaineers; and supporting materials were collected from publications and other relevant sources. The interpretation of the research material was facilitated by theories of the interrelationship between narrative, meaning and self, and the implications of current social conditions for their construction. By applying a narrative approach to the study of mountaineers for the first time, this thesis sheds new light on our understanding of mountaineering. It demonstrates the way in which mountaineers weave together the biographical particulars of their lives with a 'folk psychology' of mountaineering to produce a strong sense of self. In addition, it shows how these 'mountaineering selves' are influenced by a communal narrative, or shared discourse, about what it means to be a mountaineer in New Zealand. The research also reveals the complexities in approaches to the dangers of mountain climbing, and offers an alternative conceptualisation of this issue which does not characterise mountaineers as principally risk seeking individuals. These findings provide an empirical basis by which to consider theories relating to the impact of socio-historical conditions upon individual experience, and the efficacy of certain strategies for addressing dilemmas of meaning and self. Finally, although the study is situated within a specific social and historical context, it contributes - in the spirit of interpretive hermeneutics - to an on-going exchange of meanings about mountaineering and leisure in contemporary society.

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