scholarly journals Ebuhlanti Amandla ngawethu: Womanism and black theology of liberation, in memory of Vuyani Shadrack Vellem

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fundiswa A. Kobo
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Black Theology ◽  
Black Consciousness ◽  
The West ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Heuristic Device ◽  
A Site ◽  
Theology Of Liberation

The liberation of black humanity has been an area of scholarly reflection by black theologians and the black consciousness communities. The constructs of oppression such as race, class and sexism amongst others have been critiqued in the quest for liberation of a fragmented black humanity. In this article, this quest for liberation happens within ubuhlanti [kraal], a site for which Vuyani Vellem is ‘like a hermeneutical circle, where the mediations of the bonds of spheres and the instantiation of their life take place’. By looking at a fragmented black humanity and black women’s experiences, we posit that no western framework could ever be representative of those bodies, ubuhlanti becomes our solution as a heuristic device and symbol of a communication of the efficacy of integrated life. From a womanist perspective, ubuhlanti decentres the West. Ebuhlanti Amandla ngawethu [power belongs to us], as black women and men dialogue issues that affect black humanity. The whole proposition of this dialogue ebuhlanti is animated by our lived experiences, which already offer alternatives for us to decentre.Contribution: Premised by the lived experiences of black humanity in their quest for liberation, this paper contributes in the dewesternising discourse by presenting alternative epistemologies and spiritualities. A womanist dialogue with black theology of liberation ebuhlanti, a decolonising and decentring praxis for the liberation of black humanity is our solution as blacks.

‘You don’t look autistic’: A qualitative exploration of women’s experiences of being the ‘autistic other’

Autism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136236132199372
Author(s):  
Kate Seers ◽  
Rachel C Hogg
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Social Expectations ◽  
Autism Spectrum Condition ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Spectrum Condition ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Experiences Of Women

There is currently a paucity of literature exploring the experiences of women on the autism spectrum. It is imperative research is conducted to capture the experiences of women on the autism spectrum and ensure appropriate support is provided to this cohort. Drawing upon a social constructionist framework, this qualitative research study sought to understand how psychological and socio-cultural constructions of autism spectrum condition and gender influence the well-being of women on the autism spectrum. Eight participants engaged in a semi-structured interview, with thematic analysis conducted to demonstrate the impact of gender roles and social expectations on the women’s identity and autism spectrum condition expression. The research highlighted the changing understandings of autism spectrum condition across a woman’s lifespan and the process and impact of resisting hegemonic autism spectrum condition categorisation. The findings demonstrate that social constructions of gender and stereotypical understandings of autism spectrum condition, which prioritise a deficit, medical model, have significant consequences for women’s well-being and subjectivity. The women experienced challenging formative years, but with diagnosis and the evolution and acceptance of their identities, they were able to resist negative narratives of autism spectrum condition, embrace their strengths and develop adaptive coping strategies. It is hoped this article generates insights for societal and clinical recognition to better support women on the autism spectrum. Lay abstract Most autism spectrum condition research addresses the neurological and biological causes of autism spectrum condition, focusing upon deficits associated with autism spectrum condition and behavioural interventions designed to minimise these deficits. Little is known about the lived experiences of adult women on the autism spectrum and how they navigate social expectations around gender, autism spectrum condition and gendered understandings of autism spectrum condition. The lived experiences of eight women on the AS will be shared here, with attention to how gendered expectations influence women’s experiences of autism spectrum condition, their sense of self and well-being. Findings showed these women struggled to reconcile the expectations of others, particularly early in life. The women had difficultly conforming to stereotypical ideals of femininity, yet as they aged, they felt less need to conform, valuing their unique style and behaviours. The women also rejected deficit-oriented descriptions of autism spectrum condition generated by the medical community, preferring to focus on their strengths and unique characteristics. It is hoped this article helps psychologists and the wider community to understand and meet the needs of women on the AS.

Counting Frequency

Social Text ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-49
Author(s):  
Christen A. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Female ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Body Counting

Abstract Examining Black women's experiences with policing, this article argues that police terror is not predicated upon gender; rather, it enacts gender by undoing gender. Thus, it requires a new arithmetic of time and space in order to read beyond normative, hypermasculine narratives of police violence. While the dominant discourse of race and policing asserts that police terror disproportionately affects Black men, the frequency of Black women's experiences with police terror attunes to a lingering yet deadly impact beyond the linear, Cartesian dimensions of body counting, a frequency the article terms sequelae. Policing stretches and bends time and space as part of its (un)gendering practice. Through a brief survey of cases in Brazil and the United States, this article considers sequelae as a new arithmetic for calculating the multiple frequencies of police terror against Black women. Specifically, the article examines the case of Luana Barbosa dos Reis, a Black lesbian mother who was beaten to death by police officers in São Paulo in 2016. The article argues that her beating was an act of (un)gendering—a desire to both discipline her as a Black female/mother and erase her potential humanity by denying her desired gender identification (female). In this sense, her death was an act of anti-Black terror “in the wake.” Through a close reading of the police ledger, the police report, and the physical violence she endured, the article argues that her story teaches us the need for a new way of counting the frequency of police terror in relationship to time, space, and the Black female/mother body.

scholarly journals Subjective (Re)positioning in Musical Improvisation

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc E. Hannaford
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Conceptual Space ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Musical Improvisation

This article analyzes the music of five female improvisers. I employ these women’s lived experiences of discrimination as a basis for my analysis of improvisation in terms of what I call subjective (re)positioning.Given these women’s experiences of discrimination, trust means something far richer than musically working together during performance. Trusting improvising partners create a conceptual space in which musicians are able to position and reposition themselves, thus expressing agency.

scholarly journals Un-thinking the West: The spirit of doing Black Theology of Liberation in decolonial times

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vuyani S. Vellem
Keyword(s):  
Black Theology ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
The Self ◽  
Gender Violence ◽  
The West ◽  
Black African ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Theology Of Liberation

It is indisputable that Black Theology of Liberation (BTL) intentionally un-thinks the West. BTL has its own independent conceptual and theoretical foundations and can hold without the West if it rejects the architecture of Western knowledge as a final norm for life. This, however, is a spiritual matter which the article argues. The historical arrest of the progression of liberative logic and its promises might be self-inflicted by rearticulating and reinterpreting liberation strong thought. At a time when neofascism, which is virtually an open display of psychological and ideological confusion, racism, classism, sensibilities of integralism and gender violence, having become rife, liberal democracy is arguably in crisis today. BTL has to move beyond rethinking and repeating its tried and tested ways of response to black pain caused by racism and colonialism. Un-thinking the West is not only cognitive but also spiritual. Umoya, the spirit of life, the article argues, to un-think the West, constitutes inter alia, the rejection of Hellenocentric concepts as a starting point of knowledge. Umoya should reject the self-serving periodisation of history centred on Europe, dualistic obfuscating secularism and willingness by black to occlude their knowledge systems. Without this, the article argues, the lethargic sleep, the mocking laughter of the West at the self-wounding black African remains a syndrome that arrests the translation of liberation knowledge from history.

Soviet and American Childbearing Experiences and Attitudes: A Comparison

Slavic Review ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Ispa
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The West ◽  
Obstetrical Care ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Pregnancy And Childbirth ◽  
Uterine Contractions ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Women’S Perceptions ◽  
Pregnancy And Delivery

In 1951, and again in 1955, Dr. Fernand Lamaze, a French obstetrician, traveled to the Soviet Union to study “psychoprophylaxis,” a method designed by Soviet psychologists, obstetricians, and neurologists to help women overcome pain and fear during childbirth. The method, which was rooted in the medical use of hypnosis and suggestion to alleviate pain, involved training women to take their minds off uterine contractions by concentrating instead on other bodily functions, such as breathing. Lamaze refined the method and brought it to the West.Lamaze's account of his indebtedness to Soviet scientists suggests that it may be useful to learn more about Soviet women's experiences during pregnancy and childbirth. Perusal of the literature, however, indicates that, while general descriptions in English of Soviet obstetrical care are available, very little is known about Soviet women's perceptions of and attitudes toward pregnancy and delivery.

scholarly journals Lived desistance: understanding how women experience giving up offending

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Abusive Relationships ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Violent Relationship ◽  
Experiences Of Women

This chapter extends the analysis of gender, in this instance exploring the lived experiences of women in a period of change. While women’s experiences are similar to men’s in many respects, the author’s discussions over a period of time with a sample of women attending a day centre, reveal some intriguing differences. She highlights the significance of living in long-term abusive relationships for confidence and self-perception. Additionally, she questions assumptions about desistance necessarily involving a ‘replacement identity’; aspects of self may be reworked and, on occasions, the process is more akin to finding a ‘lost’ self after ending a violent relationship or seeking drug use. For the women in this study, identities were often precarious, reflecting the early and fragile nature of their desistance. Being or becoming a caregiver – a more socially available role for women than for men – was often a key element in the women’s accounts of change.

Contextualizing the Experiences of Black Women Arrested for Intimate Partner Violence in Canada

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110567
Author(s):  
Patrina Duhaney
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Greater Toronto Area ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Surrounding Areas

This qualitative study was informed by critical race feminism and explored Black women’s experiences with the police with a particular focus on how issues of race, racism, oppression, and subordination inform their experiences. It sought to answer three research questions: (1) What is known about Black women’s experiences with the police in the context of intimate partner violence? (2) Given their experiences with the police, what is their perception of the police? and (3) To what extent do women construct counter-narratives of their experiences with the police and what does that involve? The sample was comprised of 25 participants, 15 of whom were arrested. The women were over the age of 18 and lived in the Greater Toronto Area and surrounding areas. Most women expressed that they had negative encounters with the police, which was influenced by the police’s negative perceptions of them. Black women who called the police to intervene in an intimate partner violence incident were subjected to great scrutiny and vulnerable to racialized and gendered police violence. Consequently, women were fearful and distrustful of the police and were less likely to seek help from them in the future. The study answers the call for research that examines Black women’s experiences with the police from their perspective. It has implications for social service providers and provides strategies to improve future police interactions with Black communities.

scholarly journals Racial Discrimination, Disease Activity, and Organ Damage: The Black Women’s Experiences Living With Lupus (BeWELL) Study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H Chae ◽  
Connor D Martz ◽  
Thomas E Fuller-Rowell ◽  
Erica C Spears ◽  
Tianqi Tenchi Gao Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Lupus Erythematosus ◽  
Organ Damage ◽  
Rapid Progression ◽  
Systemic Lupus ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Activity Questionnaire

Abstract Black women are disproportionately affected by systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a chronic, potentially debilitating autoimmune disease, and they also experience more rapid progression and worse outcomes compared with other groups. We examined if racial discrimination is associated with disease outcomes among 427 black women with a validated diagnosis of SLE, who live in the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area, and were recruited to the Black Women’s Experiences Living with Lupus Study (2015–2017). Frequency of self-reported experiences of racial discrimination in domains such as employment, housing, and medical settings was assessed using the Experiences of Discrimination measure. SLE activity in the previous 3 months, including symptoms of fatigue, fever, skin rashes, and ulcers, was measured using the Systemic Lupus Activity Questionnaire; irreversible damage to an organ or system was measured using the Brief Index of Lupus Damage. Results of multivariable linear regression analyses examining the Systemic Lupus Activity Questionnaire and log-transformed Brief Index of Lupus Damage scores indicated that increasing frequency of racial discrimination was associated with greater SLE activity (b = 2.00, 95% confidence interval: 1.32, 2.68) and organ damage (b = 0.08, 95% confidence interval: 0.02, 0.13). Comprehensive efforts to address disparities in SLE severity should include policies that address issues of racial discrimination.

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