Saskia Lettmaier
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199569977
- eISBN:
- 9780191722066
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199569977.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
While common law actions for breach of promise of marriage originated in the mid-seventeenth century, it was not until the ‘long nineteenth century’ that they saw their rise to prominence and their ...
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While common law actions for breach of promise of marriage originated in the mid-seventeenth century, it was not until the ‘long nineteenth century’ that they saw their rise to prominence and their subsequent fall from favour. This monograph ties the story of the action's rise and fall between 1800 and 1940 to changes in the prevalent conception of woman, her ideal role in society, sexual relations, and the family, arguing that the idiosyncratic nineteenth-century breach-of-promise suit (a luxuriant blend of both contract and tort) and Victorian notions of ideal femininity were uneasily and fatally, but nonetheless inextricably, entwined. It classifies the ninteenth-century breach-of-promise action as a ‘codification’ of the contemporaneous ideal of true womanhood and explores the longer-term implications of this infusion of mythologized femininity for the law, in particular for the position of plaintiffs. Surveying three consecutive time periods – the early nineteenth century, the high Victorian, and the post-Victorian periods – and adopting an interdisciplinary approach that combines the perspectives of legal history, social history, and literary analysis, it argues that the feminizing process, by shaping a cause of action in accordance with an ideal at odds with the very notion of women going to law, imported a fatal structural inconsistency that at first remained obscured, but ultimately vulgarized and undid the cause of action. Alongside more than two hundred and fifty real-life breach-of-promise cases, the book examines literary and cinematic renditions of the breach-of-promise theme, by artists ranging from Charles Dickens to P. G. Wodehouse, in order to expose the subtle yet unmistakable ways in which what happened (and what changed) in the breach-of-promise courtroom influenced the changing representation of the breach-of-promise plaintiff in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature and film.Less
While common law actions for breach of promise of marriage originated in the mid-seventeenth century, it was not until the ‘long nineteenth century’ that they saw their rise to prominence and their subsequent fall from favour. This monograph ties the story of the action's rise and fall between 1800 and 1940 to changes in the prevalent conception of woman, her ideal role in society, sexual relations, and the family, arguing that the idiosyncratic nineteenth-century breach-of-promise suit (a luxuriant blend of both contract and tort) and Victorian notions of ideal femininity were uneasily and fatally, but nonetheless inextricably, entwined. It classifies the ninteenth-century breach-of-promise action as a ‘codification’ of the contemporaneous ideal of true womanhood and explores the longer-term implications of this infusion of mythologized femininity for the law, in particular for the position of plaintiffs. Surveying three consecutive time periods – the early nineteenth century, the high Victorian, and the post-Victorian periods – and adopting an interdisciplinary approach that combines the perspectives of legal history, social history, and literary analysis, it argues that the feminizing process, by shaping a cause of action in accordance with an ideal at odds with the very notion of women going to law, imported a fatal structural inconsistency that at first remained obscured, but ultimately vulgarized and undid the cause of action. Alongside more than two hundred and fifty real-life breach-of-promise cases, the book examines literary and cinematic renditions of the breach-of-promise theme, by artists ranging from Charles Dickens to P. G. Wodehouse, in order to expose the subtle yet unmistakable ways in which what happened (and what changed) in the breach-of-promise courtroom influenced the changing representation of the breach-of-promise plaintiff in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literature and film.
Efrossini Spentzou
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199255689
- eISBN:
- 9780191719608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199255689.003.0008
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It followed the heroines in their twin roles as lovers and writers, pursuing their darlings and their text. It showed their femininity ...
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This chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It followed the heroines in their twin roles as lovers and writers, pursuing their darlings and their text. It showed their femininity slipping through their closed stasis and tearing the masculine fabric of Ovid's text, advertising a feminine rhetoric. However, their nuances gained substance only through a sympathetic reading, and this book's author's sensitivity to their efforts due to her explicit situation as a female reader. This book has worked on the feminine reading and writing of the Heroides with the aid of contemporary feminist thought.Less
This chapter presents a synthesis of the preceding chapters. It followed the heroines in their twin roles as lovers and writers, pursuing their darlings and their text. It showed their femininity slipping through their closed stasis and tearing the masculine fabric of Ovid's text, advertising a feminine rhetoric. However, their nuances gained substance only through a sympathetic reading, and this book's author's sensitivity to their efforts due to her explicit situation as a female reader. This book has worked on the feminine reading and writing of the Heroides with the aid of contemporary feminist thought.
Olivia Khoo
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622098794
- eISBN:
- 9789882207516
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622098794.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This book examines new representations of diasporic Chinese femininity emerging from Asia Pacific modernities since the late twentieth century. Through an analysis of cultural artefacts such as ...
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This book examines new representations of diasporic Chinese femininity emerging from Asia Pacific modernities since the late twentieth century. Through an analysis of cultural artefacts such as films, popular fiction, food, and fashion cultures, the book challenges the dominant tendency in contemporary cultural politics to define Chinese femininity from a mainland perspective that furthermore equates it with notions of primitivism. Rather, it argues for a radical reconfiguration of the concept of exoticism as a frame for understanding these new representations. The study raises questions on the relationship between the Chinese diasporas and gender, and provides a critical intervention into the current visualizations of diasporic Chinese femininity. It contends that an analysis of such images can inform the reconfigured relations between China, the Chinese diasporas, Asia, and the West in the context of contemporary globalization, and in turn takes these new intersections to account for the complex nature of modern definitions of diasporic Chinese femininity.Less
This book examines new representations of diasporic Chinese femininity emerging from Asia Pacific modernities since the late twentieth century. Through an analysis of cultural artefacts such as films, popular fiction, food, and fashion cultures, the book challenges the dominant tendency in contemporary cultural politics to define Chinese femininity from a mainland perspective that furthermore equates it with notions of primitivism. Rather, it argues for a radical reconfiguration of the concept of exoticism as a frame for understanding these new representations. The study raises questions on the relationship between the Chinese diasporas and gender, and provides a critical intervention into the current visualizations of diasporic Chinese femininity. It contends that an analysis of such images can inform the reconfigured relations between China, the Chinese diasporas, Asia, and the West in the context of contemporary globalization, and in turn takes these new intersections to account for the complex nature of modern definitions of diasporic Chinese femininity.
Iris Marion Young
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195161922
- eISBN:
- 9780199786664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195161920.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This essay contends that one of the privileges of femininity in rationalized instrumental culture is an aesthetic freedom — the freedom to play with shape and color on the body, don various styles ...
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This essay contends that one of the privileges of femininity in rationalized instrumental culture is an aesthetic freedom — the freedom to play with shape and color on the body, don various styles and looks — and through them exhibit and imagine unreal possibilities. Such female imagination has liberating possibilities because it subverts and unsettles the order of respectable, functional rationality in a world where that rationality supports domination. In the context of patriarchal consumer capitalism, however, such liberating aspects of clothing fantasy are intertwined with oppressing moments. This essay asks how women’s pleasure in clothes can be described. It adopts a method derived from Luce Irigaray in an attempt to extricate the liberating and valuable in women’s experience of clothes from the exploitative and oppressive.Less
This essay contends that one of the privileges of femininity in rationalized instrumental culture is an aesthetic freedom — the freedom to play with shape and color on the body, don various styles and looks — and through them exhibit and imagine unreal possibilities. Such female imagination has liberating possibilities because it subverts and unsettles the order of respectable, functional rationality in a world where that rationality supports domination. In the context of patriarchal consumer capitalism, however, such liberating aspects of clothing fantasy are intertwined with oppressing moments. This essay asks how women’s pleasure in clothes can be described. It adopts a method derived from Luce Irigaray in an attempt to extricate the liberating and valuable in women’s experience of clothes from the exploitative and oppressive.
SARAH BILSTON
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199272617
- eISBN:
- 9780191709685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272617.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book has presented a historical account of the role of the transitional girl in later 19th-century literature. Focusing on the position of the girl in women's writing, it has argued that ...
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This book has presented a historical account of the role of the transitional girl in later 19th-century literature. Focusing on the position of the girl in women's writing, it has argued that fictional treatments of girls' growth helped clear a literary and cultural space for representations of the New Woman's awakening to disaffected consciousness. The book's primary objective has been to treat Victorian women's writing with respect — to consider the novels of once-popular writers worthy of sustained literary criticism. The texts have yielded complex yet intelligible narratives about the operations of gender in 19th-century England. This book has revealed that, as a matter of historical fact, the construction of femininity and the concept of separate spheres were open to interpretation in even some of the most conservative women's literature. This book serves as a reminder that the New Women were not fighting alone and that theirs was not the only mode of progress.Less
This book has presented a historical account of the role of the transitional girl in later 19th-century literature. Focusing on the position of the girl in women's writing, it has argued that fictional treatments of girls' growth helped clear a literary and cultural space for representations of the New Woman's awakening to disaffected consciousness. The book's primary objective has been to treat Victorian women's writing with respect — to consider the novels of once-popular writers worthy of sustained literary criticism. The texts have yielded complex yet intelligible narratives about the operations of gender in 19th-century England. This book has revealed that, as a matter of historical fact, the construction of femininity and the concept of separate spheres were open to interpretation in even some of the most conservative women's literature. This book serves as a reminder that the New Women were not fighting alone and that theirs was not the only mode of progress.
Ross Shepard Kraemer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199743186
- eISBN:
- 9780199894680
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199743186.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World
In Unreliable Witnesses, Ross Shepard Kraemer shows how her mind has changed or remained the same since the publication of her groundbreaking study, Her Share of the Blessings (1992). Unreliable ...
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In Unreliable Witnesses, Ross Shepard Kraemer shows how her mind has changed or remained the same since the publication of her groundbreaking study, Her Share of the Blessings (1992). Unreliable Witnesses scrutinizes more closely how ancient constructions of gender undergird accounts of women’s religious practices in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean. Kraemer analyzes how gender provides the historically obfuscating substructure of diverse texts: Livy’s account of the origins of the Roman Bacchanalia; Philo of Alexandria’s envisioning of idealized, masculinized women philosophers; rabbinic debates about women studying Torah; Justin Martyr’s depiction of an elite Roman matron who adopts chaste Christian philosophical discipline; the similar representation of Paul’s fictive disciple, Thecla, in the anonymous Acts of (Paul and) Thecla; Severus of Minorca’s depiction of Jewish women as the last hold-outs against Christian pressures to convert, and more. While attentive to arguments that women are largely fictive proxies in elite male contestations over masculinity, authority, and power, Kraemer retains her focus on redescribing and explaining women’s religious practices. She argues that gender-specific or not, religious practices in the ancient Mediterranean routinely encoded and affirmed ideas about gender. As in many cultures, women’s devotion to the divine was both acceptable and encouraged only so long as it conformed to pervasive constructions of femininity as passive, embodied, emotive, insufficiently controlled, and subordinated to masculinity. Extending her findings beyond the ancient Mediterranean, Kraemer proposes that more generally, religion is among the many human social practices that are both gendered and gendering, constructing and inscribing gender on human beings and on human actions and ideas. Her study thus poses significant questions about the relationships between religions and gender in the modern world.Less
In Unreliable Witnesses, Ross Shepard Kraemer shows how her mind has changed or remained the same since the publication of her groundbreaking study, Her Share of the Blessings (1992). Unreliable Witnesses scrutinizes more closely how ancient constructions of gender undergird accounts of women’s religious practices in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean. Kraemer analyzes how gender provides the historically obfuscating substructure of diverse texts: Livy’s account of the origins of the Roman Bacchanalia; Philo of Alexandria’s envisioning of idealized, masculinized women philosophers; rabbinic debates about women studying Torah; Justin Martyr’s depiction of an elite Roman matron who adopts chaste Christian philosophical discipline; the similar representation of Paul’s fictive disciple, Thecla, in the anonymous Acts of (Paul and) Thecla; Severus of Minorca’s depiction of Jewish women as the last hold-outs against Christian pressures to convert, and more. While attentive to arguments that women are largely fictive proxies in elite male contestations over masculinity, authority, and power, Kraemer retains her focus on redescribing and explaining women’s religious practices. She argues that gender-specific or not, religious practices in the ancient Mediterranean routinely encoded and affirmed ideas about gender. As in many cultures, women’s devotion to the divine was both acceptable and encouraged only so long as it conformed to pervasive constructions of femininity as passive, embodied, emotive, insufficiently controlled, and subordinated to masculinity. Extending her findings beyond the ancient Mediterranean, Kraemer proposes that more generally, religion is among the many human social practices that are both gendered and gendering, constructing and inscribing gender on human beings and on human actions and ideas. Her study thus poses significant questions about the relationships between religions and gender in the modern world.
Arieh Bruce Saposnik
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195331219
- eISBN:
- 9780199868100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331219.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter begins with the centrality of the Hebrew language in the creation of the Yishuv's culture. Aside from the goal of establishing linguistic unity in a multilingual reality, the language ...
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This chapter begins with the centrality of the Hebrew language in the creation of the Yishuv's culture. Aside from the goal of establishing linguistic unity in a multilingual reality, the language was also deemed critical in molding the character of Palestine's “Hebrews”—the men and women who were to constitute the new nation. Accent and mannerism were considered reflections of central elements of the new culture, shaping new masculinities and femininities and placing the Hebrews in their new “Oriental” environment. Educational institutions, new popular songs, journalism, fashion, theater, and more were all enlisted in the effort to fashion a new Hebrew‐speaking person in a national Hebrew public sphere. Rooted in part in Jewish mystical tradition in which Hebrew was deemed a cosmically creative force, the Hebrew language emerges as a leading tool in the formation of the nation.Less
This chapter begins with the centrality of the Hebrew language in the creation of the Yishuv's culture. Aside from the goal of establishing linguistic unity in a multilingual reality, the language was also deemed critical in molding the character of Palestine's “Hebrews”—the men and women who were to constitute the new nation. Accent and mannerism were considered reflections of central elements of the new culture, shaping new masculinities and femininities and placing the Hebrews in their new “Oriental” environment. Educational institutions, new popular songs, journalism, fashion, theater, and more were all enlisted in the effort to fashion a new Hebrew‐speaking person in a national Hebrew public sphere. Rooted in part in Jewish mystical tradition in which Hebrew was deemed a cosmically creative force, the Hebrew language emerges as a leading tool in the formation of the nation.
Derek B. Scott
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195151961
- eISBN:
- 9780199870394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195151961.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
A sexual division of musical composition emerged in 19th-century Britain: during that period, metaphors of masculinity and femininity solidified into truths about musical style. Contemporary social ...
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A sexual division of musical composition emerged in 19th-century Britain: during that period, metaphors of masculinity and femininity solidified into truths about musical style. Contemporary social theory, domestic sphere ideology, the new scientia sexualis, and aesthetics of the sublime and the beautiful ensured that certain musical styles were considered unsuitable or even unnatural for women composers. Female creativity was also denied or inhibited by educational and socioeconomic pressures born of ideological assumptions. In consequence, many women found themselves marginalized as composers, restricted to “acceptable” genres such as the drawing-room ballad. Men, too, were affected by the sexual politics of the age, because the supposed revelation of biological truths in music meant that the presence of feminine qualities in their compositions could lead to invidious comparison with the less elevated output of women.Less
A sexual division of musical composition emerged in 19th-century Britain: during that period, metaphors of masculinity and femininity solidified into truths about musical style. Contemporary social theory, domestic sphere ideology, the new scientia sexualis, and aesthetics of the sublime and the beautiful ensured that certain musical styles were considered unsuitable or even unnatural for women composers. Female creativity was also denied or inhibited by educational and socioeconomic pressures born of ideological assumptions. In consequence, many women found themselves marginalized as composers, restricted to “acceptable” genres such as the drawing-room ballad. Men, too, were affected by the sexual politics of the age, because the supposed revelation of biological truths in music meant that the presence of feminine qualities in their compositions could lead to invidious comparison with the less elevated output of women.
Lisa Odham Stokes
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622099708
- eISBN:
- 9789882207257
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099708.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This raucous, gender-stretching comedy follows the disruptions of a glamorous Hong Kong music couple's tumultuous romance by an “ordinary” fan's noisy arrival in their lives. With great comic story ...
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This raucous, gender-stretching comedy follows the disruptions of a glamorous Hong Kong music couple's tumultuous romance by an “ordinary” fan's noisy arrival in their lives. With great comic story development, the film confronts social stereotypes of masculine females, male anxieties about homosexuality, and the limits of male femininity.Less
This raucous, gender-stretching comedy follows the disruptions of a glamorous Hong Kong music couple's tumultuous romance by an “ordinary” fan's noisy arrival in their lives. With great comic story development, the film confronts social stereotypes of masculine females, male anxieties about homosexuality, and the limits of male femininity.
Steven Huebner
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195189544
- eISBN:
- 9780199868476
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189544.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter focuses on criticisms against Massenet's appeal to women. The reception of Massenet was strongly gendered from Manon on, and critics portrayed audiences as a reflection of the music ...
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This chapter focuses on criticisms against Massenet's appeal to women. The reception of Massenet was strongly gendered from Manon on, and critics portrayed audiences as a reflection of the music itself, and vice versa. This typecasting as a specialist in feminine behaviour, with corresponding applications to musical style, has meant that Massenet always faced an uphill battle with critics when it came to larger heroic subjects such as Le Cid, or male characters such as Werther and Don Quichotte. It was in the Wagnerian camp of critics — the Fourcauds, the Ernsts, the Servières — that the invective against Massenet became most virulent: his supposed insincerity, desire for flattery, superficiality, all tainted more or less (depending on the writer and the circumstance) with the brush of femininity.Less
This chapter focuses on criticisms against Massenet's appeal to women. The reception of Massenet was strongly gendered from Manon on, and critics portrayed audiences as a reflection of the music itself, and vice versa. This typecasting as a specialist in feminine behaviour, with corresponding applications to musical style, has meant that Massenet always faced an uphill battle with critics when it came to larger heroic subjects such as Le Cid, or male characters such as Werther and Don Quichotte. It was in the Wagnerian camp of critics — the Fourcauds, the Ernsts, the Servières — that the invective against Massenet became most virulent: his supposed insincerity, desire for flattery, superficiality, all tainted more or less (depending on the writer and the circumstance) with the brush of femininity.
Amy J. Binder and Kate Wood
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691145372
- eISBN:
- 9781400844876
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691145372.003.0007
- Subject:
- Sociology, Education
This chapter examines how gender influences college conservatism, focusing on what is known as “conservative femininity”—the set of national-level ideas found in politics and the media. It considers ...
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This chapter examines how gender influences college conservatism, focusing on what is known as “conservative femininity”—the set of national-level ideas found in politics and the media. It considers the extent to which ideas about conservative femininity are shared across campuses at Eastern Elite University and the Western Public system, and whether and how gender may intersect with other demands of being a conservative member of campus. The example of conservative women reveals that individuals' differing experiences can encourage or discourage their embrace of local political styles. The chapter shows that women across both campuses show a strong distaste for mainstream feminism while seeking to recapture femininity. It also dicusses the career plans of women on the two campuses and how they use conservatism as a gender strategy.Less
This chapter examines how gender influences college conservatism, focusing on what is known as “conservative femininity”—the set of national-level ideas found in politics and the media. It considers the extent to which ideas about conservative femininity are shared across campuses at Eastern Elite University and the Western Public system, and whether and how gender may intersect with other demands of being a conservative member of campus. The example of conservative women reveals that individuals' differing experiences can encourage or discourage their embrace of local political styles. The chapter shows that women across both campuses show a strong distaste for mainstream feminism while seeking to recapture femininity. It also dicusses the career plans of women on the two campuses and how they use conservatism as a gender strategy.
Karen W. Tice
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199842780
- eISBN:
- 9780199933440
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199842780.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
Universities are unlikely venues for grading, branding, and marketing gendered beauty, bodies, poise, and style. Nonetheless, thousands of college women have sought not only college diplomas but ...
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Universities are unlikely venues for grading, branding, and marketing gendered beauty, bodies, poise, and style. Nonetheless, thousands of college women have sought not only college diplomas but campus beauty titles and tiaras throughout the twentieth century. The cultural power of beauty pageants continues into the 21st century as campus beauty pageants, especially racial/ethnic pageants and pageants for men, have soared in popularity. Tice asks how, and why, does higher education remain in the beauty and body business and with what effects on student bodies and identities. She explores why students compete in and attend pageants as well as why campus-based etiquette and charm schools are flourishing. Based on archival research and interviews with contemporary campus queens and university sponsors as well as hundreds of hours observing college pageants on predominantly black and white campuses, Tice examines how campus pageant contestants express personal ambitions, desires, and, sometimes, racial/political agendas to resolve the incongruities of performing in evening gowns and bathing suits on stage while seeking their degrees. Tice argues the pageants help to illuminate the shifting iterations of class, race, religion, region, culture, sexuality, and gender braided in campus rituals and student life. Moving beyond a binary of objectification versus empowerment, Tice offers a nuanced analysis of the contradictory politics of higher education, feminism and post-feminism, empowerment, consumerism, race and ethnicity, class mobility, and popular culture on student bodies and cultures, the making of idealized collegiate masculinities and femininities, and the stylization of higher education itself.Less
Universities are unlikely venues for grading, branding, and marketing gendered beauty, bodies, poise, and style. Nonetheless, thousands of college women have sought not only college diplomas but campus beauty titles and tiaras throughout the twentieth century. The cultural power of beauty pageants continues into the 21st century as campus beauty pageants, especially racial/ethnic pageants and pageants for men, have soared in popularity. Tice asks how, and why, does higher education remain in the beauty and body business and with what effects on student bodies and identities. She explores why students compete in and attend pageants as well as why campus-based etiquette and charm schools are flourishing. Based on archival research and interviews with contemporary campus queens and university sponsors as well as hundreds of hours observing college pageants on predominantly black and white campuses, Tice examines how campus pageant contestants express personal ambitions, desires, and, sometimes, racial/political agendas to resolve the incongruities of performing in evening gowns and bathing suits on stage while seeking their degrees. Tice argues the pageants help to illuminate the shifting iterations of class, race, religion, region, culture, sexuality, and gender braided in campus rituals and student life. Moving beyond a binary of objectification versus empowerment, Tice offers a nuanced analysis of the contradictory politics of higher education, feminism and post-feminism, empowerment, consumerism, race and ethnicity, class mobility, and popular culture on student bodies and cultures, the making of idealized collegiate masculinities and femininities, and the stylization of higher education itself.
John Wilson Foster
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199232833
- eISBN:
- 9780191716454
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199232833.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter analyzes Irish novels that reflect the religious sentiments and tribulations of the times. These novels depict sermons, Anglican Protestantism in internal difficulty, perceived conflict ...
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This chapter analyzes Irish novels that reflect the religious sentiments and tribulations of the times. These novels depict sermons, Anglican Protestantism in internal difficulty, perceived conflict between the authority of the Pope and the Church and private judgement, altruism, and femininity.Less
This chapter analyzes Irish novels that reflect the religious sentiments and tribulations of the times. These novels depict sermons, Anglican Protestantism in internal difficulty, perceived conflict between the authority of the Pope and the Church and private judgement, altruism, and femininity.
Jerome Neu
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195314311
- eISBN:
- 9780199871780
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195314311.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
The issues of domination and submission central to insult have an often hidden, often not (“Up yours!”), sexual significance. Central are anal erotism and phallic aggression, which are written large ...
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The issues of domination and submission central to insult have an often hidden, often not (“Up yours!”), sexual significance. Central are anal erotism and phallic aggression, which are written large in insult rituals and cultural practices in Turkey and other Mediterranean cultures, Mexico, Ancient Greece, modern prisons, and elsewhere. Anxieties over gender, masculinity‐femininity, and activity‐passivity play out in the language and customs of insult. The psychoanalysis of sado‐masochistic fantasy and the “narcissism of minor differences” can help us understand the power play and the issues of identity at work in insult.Less
The issues of domination and submission central to insult have an often hidden, often not (“Up yours!”), sexual significance. Central are anal erotism and phallic aggression, which are written large in insult rituals and cultural practices in Turkey and other Mediterranean cultures, Mexico, Ancient Greece, modern prisons, and elsewhere. Anxieties over gender, masculinity‐femininity, and activity‐passivity play out in the language and customs of insult. The psychoanalysis of sado‐masochistic fantasy and the “narcissism of minor differences” can help us understand the power play and the issues of identity at work in insult.
Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199280520
- eISBN:
- 9780191594878
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280520.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book explores the emergence of modern male and female bodies within the context of debates about racial fitness and active citizenship in Britain from the 1880s until 1939. The book ...
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This book explores the emergence of modern male and female bodies within the context of debates about racial fitness and active citizenship in Britain from the 1880s until 1939. The book analyses the growing popularity of hygienic regimen or body management to cultivate beauty, health, and fitness such as dietary restrictions, exercise, sunbathing, dress reform, and birth control. These bodily disciplines were advocated by a loosely connected group of life reform and physical culture promoters, doctors, and public health campaigners against the background of rapid urbanization, the rise of modern lifestyles, a proliferation of visual images of beautiful bodies, and eugenicist fears about racial degeneration. This book shows that body management was an essential aspect of the campaign for national efficiency before 1914. The modern nation state needed physically efficient, disciplined citizens and the promotion of hygienic practices was an integral component of the Edwardian welfare reforms. Anxieties about physical deterioration persisted after the First World War as demonstrated by the launch of new pressure groups which aimed to transform Britain from a C3 to an A1 nation. These military categories became a recurrent metaphor throughout the interwar years and the virtuous habits of the healthy and fit A1 citizen were juxtaposed with those of the C3 anti‐citizen whose undisciplined lifestyle was attributed to ignorance and lack of self‐control. Practices such as vegetarianism, nudism, and men's dress reform were utopian and appealed to only a small minority, but activities such as sunbathing, hiking, and keep‐fit classes became mainstream and they were promoted in the National Government's ‘National Fitness Campaign’ of the late 1930s.Less
This book explores the emergence of modern male and female bodies within the context of debates about racial fitness and active citizenship in Britain from the 1880s until 1939. The book analyses the growing popularity of hygienic regimen or body management to cultivate beauty, health, and fitness such as dietary restrictions, exercise, sunbathing, dress reform, and birth control. These bodily disciplines were advocated by a loosely connected group of life reform and physical culture promoters, doctors, and public health campaigners against the background of rapid urbanization, the rise of modern lifestyles, a proliferation of visual images of beautiful bodies, and eugenicist fears about racial degeneration. This book shows that body management was an essential aspect of the campaign for national efficiency before 1914. The modern nation state needed physically efficient, disciplined citizens and the promotion of hygienic practices was an integral component of the Edwardian welfare reforms. Anxieties about physical deterioration persisted after the First World War as demonstrated by the launch of new pressure groups which aimed to transform Britain from a C3 to an A1 nation. These military categories became a recurrent metaphor throughout the interwar years and the virtuous habits of the healthy and fit A1 citizen were juxtaposed with those of the C3 anti‐citizen whose undisciplined lifestyle was attributed to ignorance and lack of self‐control. Practices such as vegetarianism, nudism, and men's dress reform were utopian and appealed to only a small minority, but activities such as sunbathing, hiking, and keep‐fit classes became mainstream and they were promoted in the National Government's ‘National Fitness Campaign’ of the late 1930s.
Martha H. Verbrugge
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195168792
- eISBN:
- 9780199949649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195168792.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century, American History: 19th Century
Chapter 2 examines how female physical educators (primarily white teachers) conceptualized active womanhood: How did female bodies resemble and/or differ from male anatomy, physiology, and physical ...
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Chapter 2 examines how female physical educators (primarily white teachers) conceptualized active womanhood: How did female bodies resemble and/or differ from male anatomy, physiology, and physical aptitude? Were women’s and men’s psychosocial traits similar and/or divergent? What did sex differences imply for female exercise, recreation, and sports? Answering these questions proved difficult as American notions of fitness and femininity changed, scientific debates over human differences intensified, and professional physical educators sought social legitimacy between the 1890s and 1940s. White gym teachers fashioned complicated views that sustained the value of their profession, affirmed bourgeois whiteness and heterosexual femininity, justified both sex segregation and gender equity in the gym, and left room for new ideas about active womanhood.Less
Chapter 2 examines how female physical educators (primarily white teachers) conceptualized active womanhood: How did female bodies resemble and/or differ from male anatomy, physiology, and physical aptitude? Were women’s and men’s psychosocial traits similar and/or divergent? What did sex differences imply for female exercise, recreation, and sports? Answering these questions proved difficult as American notions of fitness and femininity changed, scientific debates over human differences intensified, and professional physical educators sought social legitimacy between the 1890s and 1940s. White gym teachers fashioned complicated views that sustained the value of their profession, affirmed bourgeois whiteness and heterosexual femininity, justified both sex segregation and gender equity in the gym, and left room for new ideas about active womanhood.
Martha H. Verbrugge
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195168792
- eISBN:
- 9780199949649
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195168792.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century, American History: 19th Century
Chapter 4 contrasts two prominent physical educators: Mabel Lee (1886-1985), a white woman who spent much of her career at the University of Nebraska, and Maryrose Reeves Allen (1899-1992), a black ...
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Chapter 4 contrasts two prominent physical educators: Mabel Lee (1886-1985), a white woman who spent much of her career at the University of Nebraska, and Maryrose Reeves Allen (1899-1992), a black woman who worked at Howard University. Physical activities were highly gendered at both institutions between the 1920s and 1950s: elite competition and the public display of masculinity for male students versus mass participation and the cultivation of inconspicuous heterosexual femininity among female students. This differentiation by sex suited Lee and Allen’s philosophy of separate programs of, by, and for women. Sex separation, however, also entailed modest budgets, second-rate facilities, and limited clout for women’s programs—disparities that offended both teachers. The chapter analyzes how Lee and Allen handled the “difference dilemma” by comparing their concepts of gender and race, instructional philosophies and programs, and efforts to attain fair treatment for their students and themselves at male-dominated coed institutions.Less
Chapter 4 contrasts two prominent physical educators: Mabel Lee (1886-1985), a white woman who spent much of her career at the University of Nebraska, and Maryrose Reeves Allen (1899-1992), a black woman who worked at Howard University. Physical activities were highly gendered at both institutions between the 1920s and 1950s: elite competition and the public display of masculinity for male students versus mass participation and the cultivation of inconspicuous heterosexual femininity among female students. This differentiation by sex suited Lee and Allen’s philosophy of separate programs of, by, and for women. Sex separation, however, also entailed modest budgets, second-rate facilities, and limited clout for women’s programs—disparities that offended both teachers. The chapter analyzes how Lee and Allen handled the “difference dilemma” by comparing their concepts of gender and race, instructional philosophies and programs, and efforts to attain fair treatment for their students and themselves at male-dominated coed institutions.
Christina L. Baade
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195372014
- eISBN:
- 9780199918287
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195372014.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
Chapter 7 focuses on the women singers who broadcast to British troops stationed in North Africa and the Middle East, under the auspices of the Empire Entertainments Unit and its director, Cecil ...
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Chapter 7 focuses on the women singers who broadcast to British troops stationed in North Africa and the Middle East, under the auspices of the Empire Entertainments Unit and its director, Cecil Madden. While their work could be described using the “Rosie the Riveter” trope of women replacing men on the home front, their contemporaries praised their unique abilities to represent the values of home to men stationed abroad. Their songs and personalities rendered “croonettes” like Vera Lynn and Anne Shelton into what Madden called “radio pin-ups.” Popular with troops, they attracted a hostile response from many civilians when in February 1944 the BBC instituted the General Forces Programme to replace the popular domestic Forces Programme. The ambivalent response to women performers revealed the ways in which authority on the airwaves was gendered masculine, the difficulties of performing both femininity and good wartime citizenship, and the rift in taste between younger and older listeners.Less
Chapter 7 focuses on the women singers who broadcast to British troops stationed in North Africa and the Middle East, under the auspices of the Empire Entertainments Unit and its director, Cecil Madden. While their work could be described using the “Rosie the Riveter” trope of women replacing men on the home front, their contemporaries praised their unique abilities to represent the values of home to men stationed abroad. Their songs and personalities rendered “croonettes” like Vera Lynn and Anne Shelton into what Madden called “radio pin-ups.” Popular with troops, they attracted a hostile response from many civilians when in February 1944 the BBC instituted the General Forces Programme to replace the popular domestic Forces Programme. The ambivalent response to women performers revealed the ways in which authority on the airwaves was gendered masculine, the difficulties of performing both femininity and good wartime citizenship, and the rift in taste between younger and older listeners.
Joanne Bailey
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199565191
- eISBN:
- 9780191740664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199565191.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Family History
This chapter assesses the historiography of childhood, family, masculinity, and femininity where it relates to mothers and fathers. It then sets out a new research agenda intended to open up the ...
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This chapter assesses the historiography of childhood, family, masculinity, and femininity where it relates to mothers and fathers. It then sets out a new research agenda intended to open up the world of parents in the long eighteenth century. This takes an updated ‘history of sensibilities’ approach, which recognises that different structures of beliefs, values, feelings, sense and taste mark different eras and peoples. The chapter details the wide array of primary sources used, from print culture, to visual culture to autobiographies and correspondence. It explains that the terms in which literate British parents experienced the world of parenting in the period 1760–1830 were rooted in three cultural frameworks: Christianity, sensibility, and domesticity.Less
This chapter assesses the historiography of childhood, family, masculinity, and femininity where it relates to mothers and fathers. It then sets out a new research agenda intended to open up the world of parents in the long eighteenth century. This takes an updated ‘history of sensibilities’ approach, which recognises that different structures of beliefs, values, feelings, sense and taste mark different eras and peoples. The chapter details the wide array of primary sources used, from print culture, to visual culture to autobiographies and correspondence. It explains that the terms in which literate British parents experienced the world of parenting in the period 1760–1830 were rooted in three cultural frameworks: Christianity, sensibility, and domesticity.
Annmarie Hughes
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748639816
- eISBN:
- 9780748653522
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748639816.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Scottish Studies
This book offers a unique contribution to gender and Scottish history breaking new ground on several fronts: there is no history of inter-war women in Scotland, very little labour or popular ...
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This book offers a unique contribution to gender and Scottish history breaking new ground on several fronts: there is no history of inter-war women in Scotland, very little labour or popular political history, and virtually nothing published on women, the home, and family. This book is a history of women in the period that integrates class and gender history as well as linking the public and private spheres. Using a gendered approach to history it transforms and shifts our knowledge of the Scottish past, unearthing the previously unexplored role that women played in inter-war socialist politics, the General Strike, and popular political protest. It re-evaluates these areas and demonstrates the ways in which gender shaped the experience of class and class struggle. Importantly, the book also explores the links between the public and private spheres and addresses the concept of masculinity as well as femininity and pays particular reference to domestic violence. The books illuminates the complex interconnections of culture and economic and social structure. Although the research is based on Scottish evidence, the book also uses material to address key debates in gender history and labour history that have wider relevance and will appeal to gender historians, labour historians, and social and cultural historians as well as social scientists.Less
This book offers a unique contribution to gender and Scottish history breaking new ground on several fronts: there is no history of inter-war women in Scotland, very little labour or popular political history, and virtually nothing published on women, the home, and family. This book is a history of women in the period that integrates class and gender history as well as linking the public and private spheres. Using a gendered approach to history it transforms and shifts our knowledge of the Scottish past, unearthing the previously unexplored role that women played in inter-war socialist politics, the General Strike, and popular political protest. It re-evaluates these areas and demonstrates the ways in which gender shaped the experience of class and class struggle. Importantly, the book also explores the links between the public and private spheres and addresses the concept of masculinity as well as femininity and pays particular reference to domestic violence. The books illuminates the complex interconnections of culture and economic and social structure. Although the research is based on Scottish evidence, the book also uses material to address key debates in gender history and labour history that have wider relevance and will appeal to gender historians, labour historians, and social and cultural historians as well as social scientists.
