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(Wo)men of Bacchus

Dorota M. Dutsch

in Feminine Discourse in Roman Comedy: On Echoes and Voices

This chapter is concerned with the instability of gender boundaries in comedy and with the gendering of instability in Roman culture. After a brief discussion of comedy's association of modus with ... More

This chapter is concerned with the instability of gender boundaries in comedy and with the gendering of instability in Roman culture. After a brief discussion of comedy's association of modus with masculinity, it turns to those instances in which the scripts of Plautus graft (allegedly) masculine attitudes onto feminine utterances or vice versa. The blending of genders in comedy is then compared with the rhetoric surrounding the suppression (in 186 BCE) of the Bacchic cult, which was criticized for endangering the masculinity of its initiates. It argues that Plautine comedy stresses the instability of gender roles and can be read as one voice adding to a larger ongoing debate on gender and boundaries.Less

. The Lure and Danger of the Public Sphere

HYAEWEOL CHOI

in Gender and Mission Encounters in Korea: New Women, Old Ways

One of the most shocking realities that early missionaries found in Korea was the seclusion of women. Korean women were forbidden to go out and contribute to the prosperity of their society. They ... More

One of the most shocking realities that early missionaries found in Korea was the seclusion of women. Korean women were forbidden to go out and contribute to the prosperity of their society. They were confined to their own private homes, and this practice of seclusion and separation of the genders was the central illustration of the shockingly oppressive lifestyle that the Korean women led. This kind of practice was not known in Korea before the Choson dynasty came with the “Confucian transformation of Korea” that set the gender boundary. This chapter examines the ways in which the different social and cultural norms about women's proper domain held by the Korean and American missionaries were challenged, negotiated, and reshaped through their trans-cultural encounters. It traces the shifting and intersecting notions of the public and the private as a site of contest in refashioning gender ideology.Less

Negotiating Pressures in Terms of Gender: Male Dancers and Female Style Dance

Christina Sunardi

in Stunning Males and Powerful Females: Gender and Tradition in East Javanese Dance

This chapter explores some of the ways in which male dancers who performed female style dance (or had performed female style dance prior to the author's fieldwork) have been pushing at dominant ... More

This chapter explores some of the ways in which male dancers who performed female style dance (or had performed female style dance prior to the author's fieldwork) have been pushing at dominant conceptual and physical boundaries of gender and sex by expressing, embodying, and representing male femininity in diverse ways on- and offstage. It argues that male dancers, in so doing, have been contributing to the ongoing cultural production of tradition and maintaining cultural space for males to access and make visible the magnetic power of femaleness. The ways male dancers negotiated boundaries of gender are shown through the ways they talk about various cultural pressures, indicating ways they contend with official discourses of gender.Less

Introduction

Lisa Tiersten

in Marianne in the Market: Envisioning Consumer Society in Fin-de-Siecle France

This introductory chapter explains the theme of this volume, which is about the antagonism between the marketplace and the French Republic. This book examines the contests over the meanings of the ... More

This introductory chapter explains the theme of this volume, which is about the antagonism between the marketplace and the French Republic. This book examines the contests over the meanings of the marketplace and the larger cultural and political transformations in fin-de-siècle France and explores the French encounter with consumer culture by situating fin-de-siècle controversies about taste and the bourgeois Parisienne within a larger struggle over the meaning of the market and the gendered nature of the bourgeois order. It argues that debates about the female consumer were about more than gender boundaries because they illuminate the relationship between the market and the republic and, more broadly, the modern individual and the community.Less

Transgressing Gender Boundaries: Eunuchs in Authority

in The Perfect Servant: Eunuchs and the Social Construction of Gender in Byzantium

Most of the sources of the political and narrative history of Late Antiquity and early Byzantium treat eunuchs with hostility and suspicion. By the ninth through the twelfth centuries, as attitudes ... More

Most of the sources of the political and narrative history of Late Antiquity and early Byzantium treat eunuchs with hostility and suspicion. By the ninth through the twelfth centuries, as attitudes toward eunuchs changed, their gender construct had become more elaborate, and eunuchs were visible in many prominent roles. This chapter looks at some of the evidence for that shift, especially where eunuchs appear as protagonists in the military and political arenas. The roles of eunuchs such as Basil Lekapenos are well known. These powerful court eunuchs filled important roles as confidants and surrogate bearers of imperial power. The sources reveal a number of trusted court eunuchs who held important positions as generals and admirals, and who led major campaigns, acting as protagonists. Some were brilliant successes and others were dismal failures, but there is little to suggest that the ratio of success to failure was any different among generals who were whole men. Moreover, eunuchs continued to be given military and naval commands throughout the period.Less

The Egalitarian Agenda: Sources of Inspiration and Modes of Implementation

Ada Rapoport-Albert

in Women and the Messianic Heresy of Sabbatai Zevi, 1666 - 1816

This chapter talks about the attraction inherent in Sabbatianism that sectarian messianism held for women, which accounts for women's active involvement with both the overt and the clandestine ... More

This chapter talks about the attraction inherent in Sabbatianism that sectarian messianism held for women, which accounts for women's active involvement with both the overt and the clandestine frameworks in which the movement persisted. It examines how women continued to be drawn to the sectarian fellowships as messianic prophetesses. It also describes Judaism that traditionally stressed a religious life bounded by the commandments. The chapter analyses the dense web of gendered prescriptions and rituals which segregated the sexes and assigned them different spheres of activity. It demonstrates how faith transcended the gender boundaries that were built into the halakhic system and opened a single arena of action to both sexes.Less

Rhythm Kings and Riveter Queens: Race, Gender, and the Eclectic Populism of Wartime Western Swing

Peter La Chapelle

in Proud to Be an Okie: Cultural Politics, Country Music, and Migration to Southern California

This chapter suggests that cultural borrowings and musical syncretism proliferated during wartime as local performers perfected their own version of western swing, a jazz-influenced country ... More

This chapter suggests that cultural borrowings and musical syncretism proliferated during wartime as local performers perfected their own version of western swing, a jazz-influenced country performance style originating in Texas and Oklahoma. It allowed migrants to test gender boundaries; dabble in African American, Latino, and immigrant musical traditions; and figuratively reshape themselves into worldly cosmopolitans and urban sophisticates, the Okie hepcats and rhythm kings. The relatively loose organizational structures of live radio and ballroom performances gave performers room to experiment with the more liberal threads of the New Deal and even some degree of racial egalitarianism.Less

Afterword

Sylvia D. Hoffert

in Jane Grey Swisshelm: An Unconventional Life, 1815-1884

Jane Grey Swisshelm is a well-known journalist in mid-nineteenth century America who was very dedicated to the cause of women's rights throughout her career. She argued in her editorials that women ... More

Jane Grey Swisshelm is a well-known journalist in mid-nineteenth century America who was very dedicated to the cause of women's rights throughout her career. She argued in her editorials that women have the right to their property and their children, to vote and run for office, and to receive equal pay for equal work. This book demonstrates that while she struggled in private to be a dutiful daughter, wife, mother, and housekeeper, she was able to transgress gender boundaries and place herself in the male world of commerce, journalism, and politics.Less

Sublime Passion and the Remarkable Woman

Keith McMahon

in Polygamy and Sublime Passion: Sexuality in China on the Verge of Modernity

This chapter focuses on the notion of qing, “sublime passion,” and the remarkable woman in the late-Ming and early- to mid-Qing literature. The idealization of the woman has a long history in China, ... More

This chapter focuses on the notion of qing, “sublime passion,” and the remarkable woman in the late-Ming and early- to mid-Qing literature. The idealization of the woman has a long history in China, but in the late Ming it had received a new burst of energy under the influence of this notion. The term evokes a sense of universality that lifts all burdens of social hierarchy and individual constraint. It is an equalizer, however, that does not extend to the real world outside qing's glowing environs. Real women patterned their behavior after the prescribed models of feminine behavior, and they also suffered the pressures and condemnations directed at them in case of deviation from the norms. Their ordeals are the focus of qing-inspired male authors who create scenarios in which the inherent imbalances of social and gender boundaries fleetingly evaporate.Less

A Different Sort of Politics

Sylvia D. Hoffert

in Jane Grey Swisshelm: An Unconventional Life, 1815-1884

This chapter discusses Jane Grey Swisshelm's role in partisan politics in the mid-nineteenth century. When Jane pursued her interests in partisan politics, she was determined to see slavery abolished ... More

This chapter discusses Jane Grey Swisshelm's role in partisan politics in the mid-nineteenth century. When Jane pursued her interests in partisan politics, she was determined to see slavery abolished but had no confidence that either the Democrats or the Whigs could be counted on to take a strong stand against slavery. The chapter examines how Jane dealt with the challenges in partisan politics when she transgressed gender boundaries by intruding into the male world of political journalism. It also describes how Jane promoted the interests of Free Democracy in Pennsylvania and attempted to expand women's roles in society.Less

Epilogue

in Of War and Men: World War II in the Lives of Fathers and Their Families

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the effects and after effects of World War II on fatherhood in the U.S. It offers suggestions on how best one can understand the history culture ... More

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the effects and after effects of World War II on fatherhood in the U.S. It offers suggestions on how best one can understand the history culture and conduct of fatherhood in America. This chapter examines how the war further reified lore and law and led to the creation of more sharply delineated gender and sexual boundaries and evaluates how the brutality of combat affected the men who lived through it.Less