Romantic Love, Gender Imbalance and Feminist Readings in Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea

Even though Iris Murdoch’s novels depict a profoundly patriarchal society, most scholars have generally failed to identify any feminist aspirations in her work. This article aims to reassess her legacy as a writer by analysing from a feminist perspective one of her most acclaimed novels, The Sea, The Sea (1978). The tension between the androcentric approach of a self-deluded male narrator and a female author whose worldview is strongly influenced by her gender results in a feminist critique which is not based on the recovery of a female voice, but on the exploration of patriarchy within the novel and the production of a feminist epistemology derived from a dialogue between Murdoch’s fiction and philosophy.

For feminist geographies of austerity

Austerity policies and austere socio-economic conditions in the UK have had acute consequences for everyday life and, interconnectedly, the political and structural regimes that impact upon the lives of women and marginalised groups. Feminist geographies have arguably been enlivened and reinvigorated by critical engagements with austerity, bringing to light everyday experiences, structural inequalities and multi-scalar socio-economic relations. With this paper I propose five areas of intervention for further research in this field: social reproduction, everyday epistemologies, intersectionality, voice and silence, and embodied fieldwork. To conclude, I argue for continuing feminist critique and analyses given the legacies and futures of austerity.

Perpetuating Gender Bias in Children’s Cartoons: Portrayal of Female Characters in Shin Chan and Doraemon

This paper will study the portrayal of female characters in cartoons with special reference to Shin Chan and Doraemon. Through a feminist critique, the paper would discuss how gender bias is perpetuated through the gender roles assigned to the characters in these shows. Gender discrimination is perpetuated by such external factors and consolidated by the children’s communication with their friends and classmates. This paper endeavours to examine how different stereotypes of gender are pushed through the veil of “child entertainment” via the cartoons and how these issues can be addressed.

Flipping the Record

This interstitial chapter considers the discourse of postmodernism as it applies to Laurie Anderson’s Big Science. Placing the concept in its historical context, the chapter ultimately downplays postmodernism, using Sara Ahmed’s feminist critique of its apparent relevance to “everything.” In recognizing what postmodernism fails to encompass or relate to, the chapter likewise notices the qualities of everythingness on the album and points out the gaps and cracks therein. It also takes up the circa 1982 concerns of the vinyl LP as a physical medium for music.

Mary Astell on the Social Nature of the Cartesian Passions

Scholars have long recognised that Mary Astell builds her feminist critique of society on a foundation of Cartesian views about human nature and the passions. At the same time, the full extent of the influence of Descartes’ view of embodiment on the solution Astell proposes in her Serious Proposal to the Ladies is only beginning to come to light. In this paper, I contribute to this ongoing project by arguing that Astell builds on Descartes’ ideas by addressing a blind spot in his view, namely, that that the embodied self is socially situated, and that therefore, our social context plays a crucial formative role in the development of our passions. In doing so, I show Astell extends Cartesian philosophy beyond an egalitarian feminist critique of society, but also to a positive political theory offering a solution to the problems she identifies. Thusly, Astell shows the political potential of Cartesian philosophy as a framework for social critique and to seek solutions to the problems such a critique can bring out.

A Feminist Critique of Clinical Psychology Training Programmes in Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>This thesis provides a feminist critique of clinical psychology training programmes in Aotearoa New Zealand. Taking a feminist standpoint epistemological position I argue that most clinical psychology training programmes do not adequately incorporate analyses of gender, or convey an understanding of the connection between women's sociopolitical positioning and psychological health. The central focus of the thesis is to examine the way analyses of gender and other relations of power are included in clinical psychology curricula. The curriculum is important because it reflects and reproduces dominant psychological knowledge and impacts on the way clinical psychology is practiced. To examine these issues, questionnaires were administered to fifty clinical psychology students and twelve academic clinical psychology staff in six Aotearoa New Zealand universities. Some of these participants also completed a further interview. Additional interviews were undertaken with eleven feminist clinical psychologists. Taking a feminist methodological position, my research involved systematic thematic analysis using a constant comparative approach, as well as the use of quantitative analysis. The research findings, in conjunction with attention to the broader ontological, epistemological, theoretical and methodological foundations of the clinical psychology curriculum, highlight the ways in which psychology's dominant discourses minimise the effects of gendered structural relations and continue to marginalise women's experiences, realities and material lives. As such, an underlying argument of this thesis is that clinical psychology participates in the reproduction of gender inequities, and may perpetuate rather than alleviate the 'psychological' difficulties women experience. The thesis concludes by offering ideas for the future development of clinical psychology training which takes a critical-realist approach to the construction of knowledge, offers multi-level epistemological analyses grounded in the diverse experiences of women and other marginalised groups, and locates gender and other analyses of power as central to the clinical curriculum.</p>

A Feminist Critique of Clinical Psychology Training Programmes in Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>This thesis provides a feminist critique of clinical psychology training programmes in Aotearoa New Zealand. Taking a feminist standpoint epistemological position I argue that most clinical psychology training programmes do not adequately incorporate analyses of gender, or convey an understanding of the connection between women's sociopolitical positioning and psychological health. The central focus of the thesis is to examine the way analyses of gender and other relations of power are included in clinical psychology curricula. The curriculum is important because it reflects and reproduces dominant psychological knowledge and impacts on the way clinical psychology is practiced. To examine these issues, questionnaires were administered to fifty clinical psychology students and twelve academic clinical psychology staff in six Aotearoa New Zealand universities. Some of these participants also completed a further interview. Additional interviews were undertaken with eleven feminist clinical psychologists. Taking a feminist methodological position, my research involved systematic thematic analysis using a constant comparative approach, as well as the use of quantitative analysis. The research findings, in conjunction with attention to the broader ontological, epistemological, theoretical and methodological foundations of the clinical psychology curriculum, highlight the ways in which psychology's dominant discourses minimise the effects of gendered structural relations and continue to marginalise women's experiences, realities and material lives. As such, an underlying argument of this thesis is that clinical psychology participates in the reproduction of gender inequities, and may perpetuate rather than alleviate the 'psychological' difficulties women experience. The thesis concludes by offering ideas for the future development of clinical psychology training which takes a critical-realist approach to the construction of knowledge, offers multi-level epistemological analyses grounded in the diverse experiences of women and other marginalised groups, and locates gender and other analyses of power as central to the clinical curriculum.</p>

Knowledge versus Education in the Margins: An Indigenous and Feminist Critique of Education

This article highlights the perceptions and expectations of knowledge that many people, including educators and policy makers, take for granted. Our focus of understanding is Indigenous studies and gender studies. Our aim is to show how modern education undermines these fields of studies. We use an autoethnographic method, reflecting more than 75 years as pupils/students and more than 90 years as educators. We have carefully chosen narratives of exposure to knowledge outside the educational system, as well as narratives of limitations posed upon us by the educational system. This narrative approach makes it possible for us to investigate and discuss our grief about areas of knowledge that society cries for, but the educational system continuously finds ways to resist. Our conclusion is that crucial knowledge is located outside the educational system, where individuals, groups, and communities cherish, protect, and guard knowledge that the educational system marginalises or excludes. As this knowledge is fundamental for life, our message is that the educational system needs to re-evaluate its strategies to stay relevant.