scholarly journals Rival Bodies: Negotiating Gender and Embodiment in Women’s Bikini and Figure Competitions

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Favor Campbell ◽  
Timothy Haverda ◽  
John P. Bartkowski
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Fast Growing ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Primary Relationships ◽  
Physical Functionality

Women’s bodybuilding has attracted attention from gender researchers. However, increasingly popular fitness shows that feature different competitive tracks—bikini and figure—have garnered very limited scholarly consideration. This study draws on interview data from twenty bikini and figure competitors as well as ethnographic research conducted at several prominent bodybuilding shows in Texas with fitness competition tracks. Our investigation provides a comparative analysis of women’s participation in bikini versus figure fitness competitions as an embodied gender practice. Participation in this relatively new sport underscores the interconnections between gender and variegated forms of embodiment that we call athletic, aesthetic, erotic, and everyday bodies. Pre-competition regimens pose challenges for women’s management of their bodies due to dietary deprivation, rigorous workouts, and the specter of track-specific judging criteria. Pre-competition strains are often evident in primary relationships as women’s bodies are prepared for aesthetic presentation in a way that, for bikini and especially figure competitors, can undermine physical functionality and social capabilities. Competitions themselves reveal relationships marked by a mix of camaraderie and hierarchy among competitors, with those in the figure track often viewed as more “serious” athletes but less conventionally “feminine” than their bikini counterparts. Post-competition, women often struggle to accept the return of their “normal” everyday body. This study reveals the agency of women and their bodies in the context of a fast-growing sport while considering the broader social implications of fitness competitions given their tracking of women’s bodies.

Negotiating Political Power at ‘Critical Junctures’: Women and Constitution Drafting in South Africa and India

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110258
Author(s):  
Nila Mohanan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Gain Access

From a feminist institutionalist perspective, this article engages in a comparative analysis of South Africa, one of the only post-transition democracies where women organized as a distinct interest group representing gender interests were able to negotiate and gain access to political power, and India, where women’s participation was predominantly as ‘nationalist women’. It argues that constitution drafting is a decisive critical juncture when descriptive representation can be translated very effectively into the substantive representation of women as equal citizens, provided women qua women and as gender-conscious agents are able to intervene to promote the cause of their effective political participation.

scholarly journals Transgressive Textualities: Translating References to Gender, Sexuality and Corporeality in Nelly Arcan’s Putain and Paradis, clef en main

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Henry-Tierney
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Female Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Sexual Agency ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Gendered Identity ◽  
Translation Practice ◽  
Neutral Tone ◽  
Target Culture

In this paper I examine how transgressive references to gender, sexuality and the body are translated in two texts by the Québécoise writer Nelly Arcan, her debut autofictional narrative Putain (2001) and her final (retroactively auto)fictional title Paradis, clef en main (2009). Throughout her oeuvre, Arcan seeks to liberate women from stereotypical frameworks of reference by asserting women’s gendered, sexual and corporeal subjectivities in previously taboo discourses on prostitution, incest, sexuality, anorexia, matrophobia and suicide. Through her candid and explicit writing style, Arcan elaborates her own specific écriture au féminin which incorporates a linguistic, thematic and physical visualization of women within her texts.These two novels have been translated into English as Whore (2005) by Bruce Benderson and Exit (2011) by David Scott Hamilton respectively. However, analysis of the target texts suggests that neither translator adopts a gender-conscious approach which compromises the specificity of Arcan's idiolect in the Anglophone context. Through a comparative analysis of examples from the source texts and translations under the categories of gender, sexuality and the body, I discuss how the translation practices work counterproductively to obfuscate Arcan’s textual visualisations of women. In terms of references to gendered identity, by removing or neutralising Arcan's grammatically feminised language in Putain, the translator obfuscates Arcan's idea of the importance gender plays in shaping maternal relationships. Similarly, in Exit, Arcan's subversive feminist wordplay is distorted resulting in women being reinserted into patriarchal frameworks of reference. My analysis on Arcan's portrayal of sexuality underlines how sexual euphemisms in the translation downplay the narrator's potential for sexual agency in Whore, while misleading translation choices for feminist neologisms relating to women's sexuality in Exit eschew Arcan's efforts to verbalise women's lived sexual realities. Lastly, inconsistency in the translation of female corporeal vocabulary distorts the neutral tone Arcan employs in Putain to ensure women's bodies are not eroticised and the translator's decision to condense references to the female body in Exit undermines the significance Arcan places on corporeal connections between women. Thereafter, I move on to consider the wider implications of the translative process such as how paratextual elements also have an impact upon Arcan's reception in the target culture. I argue that in both Whore and Exit, the paratranslators intentionally sensationalise the autofictional elements of Arcan's texts. In short, my analysis contends that through a non-gender conscious translation practice, the celebrity of Arcan is promoted in the Anglophone context but to the detriment of Arcan’s écriture au féminin.

Engendering Global Capital: How Homoerotic Triangles Facilitate Foreign Investments into Risky Markets

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-572
Author(s):  
Kimberly Kay Hoang
Keyword(s):  
Status Quo ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Foreign Investments ◽  
New Markets ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Global Capital ◽  
The Status ◽  
Eve Sedgwick ◽  
Economic Elites

Engaging with the work of C. Wright Mills and Eve Sedgwick, in this article I theorize how homoerotic relations facilitate the flow of global capital into risky market economies. Drawing on interview data with more than 60 financial professionals managing foreign investments in Vietnam, I examine the co-constitution of gender and global capital by identifying three categories of deal brokers. System maintainers are men and women who accept that women’s bodies are necessary for male homosocial bonding between political and economic elites. System transformers are men and women who disrupt the status quo and develop alternative ways of deal brokering outside of erotic spaces. System defectors are those break the triangle altogether and work to create new markets.

scholarly journals Udmurt woman headwear ayshon in descriptions and graphics of the XVI–XVIII centuries

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 728-738
Author(s):  
E. E. Nechvaloda ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Xviii Century ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Source Studies ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time

Introduction: the article is devoted to the analysis of the early sources on the Udmurt ancient woman headwear. The chronological framework of the study is limited, on the one hand, by the very first confirmation of the ayshon (XVI century), and on the other hand, by the era of the first expeditions in Russia (XVIII century), which laid the foundation for future ethnographic research. Objective: to determine the degree of reliability and informativity of descriptions and images of the Udmurt headwear of the XVI–XVIII centuries. Research materials: works of travelers of the XVI–XVIII centuries, containing data about ayshon. Results and novelty of the research: the article provides a comparative analysis of materials about ayshon in the sources of the XVI–XVIII centuries. Texts, engravings with texts, and early sources with ethnographic materials of the end of the XIX – beginning XX centuries are compared. For the first time, all original graphic images and descriptions of this headwear related to the specified time period are published together. The characteristics of the ayshon in the descriptions generally correspond to each other, as well as its known images and later ethnographic data. The materials of the article can be used in ethnographic and source studies.

Centering community in COVID-19 responses: refugee women's livelihoods in a global pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi ◽  
Grace Fortson ◽  
Katherine Harder ◽  
Trevor Riedmann
Keyword(s):  
Original Data ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Limited Mobility ◽  
Refugee Women ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Research Interviews ◽  
And Gender

PurposeThe purpose of this commentary is to share preliminary findings from our ethnographic research on refugee women's livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portland, Oregon (USA), and to highlight the significance of community efforts in providing gender-responsive measures that address the specific needs and challenges of refugee women.Design/methodology/approachThis commentary draws on a mixed-method approach, including ethnographic research (interviews and observations) as well as an analysis of emerging research on the social implications of COVID-19 in the fields of migration and gender.FindingsRefugee women's livelihoods have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in various specific ways: from losing jobs and healthcare to becoming essential workers and assuming additional caretaker roles, to finding oneself again in unprecedented situations of limited mobility and social isolation. These impacts have been informed by restricted access to resources and services, lack of information about resources and services, and paramount fear due to ever-changing policy. Based on interviews and observations the authors conducted, they find that in many ways, community efforts have addressed the specific needs and challenges of refugee women in the absence of gender-responsive COVID-19 measures across institutional levels and policy areas.Originality/valueIn this commentary, the authors present original data from their ethnographic research on a particularly marginalized, yet resilient population: refugee women. By centering refugee women's experiences, the authors highlight the lack of gender-responsiveness in COVID-19 measures and provide insights into social implications of COVID-19 that often remain overlooked and understudied in discourse and politics.

Analyzing Interviews

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-171
Author(s):  
Kathleen Gerson
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Complex Material ◽  
Analytic Process ◽  
Time Order ◽  
Logic Of Inquiry

Chapter 6 describes the process of analyzing interview transcripts, which involves a search for the patterns concealed within the complex material that these transcripts contain. Analyzing interview data involves a number of methodological strategies. These include immersing oneself in the findings; developing concepts and organizing the material conceptually; attending to non-relationships and contradictory findings; and applying the basic rules of the logic of inquiry, such as conducting a comparative analysis and examining the time order of events and responses to events. All these steps provide ways to impose order on messy material, which then increases the chances of making empirical discoveries and theoretical breakthroughs. The chapter provides a step-by-step consideration of how coding and categorizing can be used to make sense out of the material. By dividing the analytic process into separate concrete steps, analysis becomes more manageable, less intimidating, and more fun. This systematic approach also increases confidence in the findings, enhances their credibility, and raises the potential for making theoretical breakthroughs.

scholarly journals Comparative analysis between traditional businesses and startups

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-31
Author(s):  
T. Botello Velasto ◽  
J. González-Bueno
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Business Model ◽  
The Other ◽  
Organizational Agility ◽  
Fast Growing

Traditional business companies and startups are decidedly different organizations. Each has what the other lacks. Traditional business company has the resources, scale, power and routines needed to execute a proven business model efficiently. Startup has none of that, but usually has promising ideas, organizational agility, willingness to take risks, and fast-growing aspirations. Considering the above introduced considerations, the aim and contribution of this paper is to make a comparative analysis between traditional business companies and startups.

Contractually Sterilized: Migrant Mothers and Carceral Politics in the Gulf Coast Cooperation (GCC) Countries

2020 ◽  
pp. 089124162096365
Author(s):  
Pardis Mahdavi
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
The Past ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Gcc Countries ◽  
Gulf Countries

Migration to the Gulf Countries of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait has become increasingly feminized in the past two decades. Women make up the majority of migrants to the Gulf, and while they often migrate during their most fertile reproductive years while they labor in the Gulf, they are prohibited by contract from becoming pregnant—leading to a situation of what I call “contractual sterilization.” The purpose of this essay is twofold: first, to look at the impacts of contractual sterilization on migrant women’s experiences as they labor abroad; and second, to look at how becoming a parent (or the possibility of reproducing) while in the host country structures a discourse and series of actions that can lead migrant women into challenging situations of becoming undocumented and illegal, detained, abused, or deported. Drawing on several years of ethnographic research in the UAE and Kuwait between 2004 and 2014, I contrast women’s experiences of parenthood in Kuwait City, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi with conversations and discourses constructed about migrant women’s bodies, reproductive capabilities, and sexualities. Beyond looking at the question of intimate labor, I aim to look at the intimate lives of those engaging in intimate labor and ask what of the personal, affective, and emotional ties of those working in spheres of intimate labor?

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