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The Colonial and National Politics of Gender, Sex, and Family

T. Fujitani

in Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II

This chapter builds on the discussion in Chapter 7, focusing on the mutually constitutive character of discourses on gender, romance, and family, on the one hand, and nation and colony on the other. ... More

This chapter builds on the discussion in Chapter 7, focusing on the mutually constitutive character of discourses on gender, romance, and family, on the one hand, and nation and colony on the other. Although scholars have paid some attention to mobilization of the discourse on ethnic sameness between Japanese and Koreans to legitimate Japanese colonial rule in Korea, there has been virtually no analysis of the ways in which discourses and practices regarding gender, sex, and the family supplemented and helped constitute those on ethnic unity. Such a problematic will require the untangling of the knots of colonial discourses and practices, and a demonstration of how the simple binary of colonizers and colonized can show us only one dimension, however important, of Japanese colonial rule—especially during the late colonial period, when official discourses and practises increasingly included Koreans in an expanding conception of the Japanese nation.Less

Gender and Society in The Bell Jar

Luke Ferretter

in Sylvia Plath's Fiction: A Critical Study

This chapter places The Bell Jar in the cultural context of the discourses on gender within which Plath lived and wrote. Contemporary discourses on sex, medicine, childbirth, psychiatry, beauty, ... More

This chapter places The Bell Jar in the cultural context of the discourses on gender within which Plath lived and wrote. Contemporary discourses on sex, medicine, childbirth, psychiatry, beauty, marriage and femininity are all discussed in detail. Contemporary marriage manuals, women's self-help books, women's magazines and other texts on gender are examined, particularly those that Plath herself encountered. Feminist critiques of the institutions of obstetrics and gynaecology and of psychiatry, particularly of the practice of ECT, are drawn on in explaining Plath's portrayal of these institutions in the novel. The chapter argues that The Bell Jar reflects the complex and conflicting contemporary discourses on gender within which Plath lived and wrote.Less

Engendering the Post-Liberal Peace in Cyprus: UNSC Resolution 1325 as a Tool

Olga Demetriou and Maria Hadjipavlou

in Post-Liberal Peace Transitions: Between Peace Formation and State Formation

This chapter discusses the role of women in forging paths into post-liberal peace formations. The adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 could be said to have marked ... More

This chapter discusses the role of women in forging paths into post-liberal peace formations. The adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 could be said to have marked the incorporation of key tenets of gender rights discourse in the global liberal peace agenda. The resolution is based on liberal principles of representation and participation of women in all levels of peacebuilding and on democratisation in setting up new institutions and norms of gender equality in the post-conflict processes; it also recognises the specific protection needs of women and girls in conflict situations as well as the underutilised contribution women make to conflict prevention, peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and peacekeeping. Ultimately, the chapter asks whether gender discourse can uphold the promise of peace formation by holding peacebuilders accountable to just, democratic, and equal societies.Less

Gender, Innocence, and Civilization

Helen M. Kinsella

in The Image before the Weapon: A Critical History of the Distinction between Combatant and Civilian

This introductory chapter considers the inconsistencies and ambiguities surrounding the principle of distinction—a juridical principle formally distinguishing between combatants and civilians. The ... More

This introductory chapter considers the inconsistencies and ambiguities surrounding the principle of distinction—a juridical principle formally distinguishing between combatants and civilians. The principle of distinction is a peremptory obligation of international humanitarian law; nonetheless, at the same time as it serves as one of the foundations of contemporary law and politics, the principle of distinction, taken on its own terms, has proved to be remarkably frail. To elaborate on the issues surrounding the principle of distinction and aid in the book's discussion, the chapter introduces a series of discourses—gender, innocence, and civilization—that mark the history of the principle of distinction. It is this series of discourses—each of which is itself composed of a confluence of political, moral, and legal judgments—that conditions the appearance of the civilian and the combatant and invests the distinction with a seemingly indisputable gravity and authority.Less

Doing Gender

Evelyn Blackwood

in Falling into the Lesbi World: Desire and Difference in Indonesia

This chapter examines the ways that tombois and girlfriends produce, maintain, and negotiate their gendered subjectivities in the spaces where they socialize together. It considers tombois' and ... More

This chapter examines the ways that tombois and girlfriends produce, maintain, and negotiate their gendered subjectivities in the spaces where they socialize together. It considers tombois' and girlfriends' self-descriptions, their social interactions with each other, and the linguistic strategies they use to identify themselves and each other. In particular, it explores how individual tombois and their women partners identify themselves in gendered terms, drawing on the rhetoric of gender difference to make sense of themselves. It uses three overlapping spheres as metaphors to represent space: household space, community space, and public space. It also discusses tomboi masculinity and girlfriends' embodiment of their understanding of femininity, along with the relationship between tomboi/girlfriend self-identities and gender binary. The chapter concludes by showing how hegemonic ideologies of gender difference allow tombois and their girlfriends to reproduce state and Islamic gender discourses.Less

Community safety, the family and domestic violence

Paula Wilcox

in Community safety: Critical perspectives on policy and practice

This chapter looks at the historical development of initiatives against ‘domestic violence’ (which have largely resulted from feminist organising), examining the influence of community safety ... More

This chapter looks at the historical development of initiatives against ‘domestic violence’ (which have largely resulted from feminist organising), examining the influence of community safety discourse and activity. It explores why community safety approaches have been less influential in relation to ‘domestic violence’ than feminist approaches. It considers feminist theory on the family and women's safety and how this has impacted on feminist initiatives against male violence. It examines community safety initiatives, and the deconstruction of ‘community’ and ‘safety’. It examines how Western understandings of ‘domestic violence’ have led to a focus on state/agency responses, and how this has been underpinned by gendered discourses of caring.Less

General Orders 100, Union General Sherman’s March to Atlanta, and the Sand Creek Massacre

Helen M. Kinsella

in The Image before the Weapon: A Critical History of the Distinction between Combatant and Civilian

This chapter investigates the identification and protection of civilians during the American Civil War and the U.S.-Indian wars, focusing on the period 1861–1865. Specifically, the chapter ... More

This chapter investigates the identification and protection of civilians during the American Civil War and the U.S.-Indian wars, focusing on the period 1861–1865. Specifically, the chapter concentrates on General William Sherman's march to Atlanta in 1864 and compares the descriptions and justifications of it to those of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, in which over two hundred Indians were slaughtered. It illustrates how the discourses of gender and of civilization are applied in various contexts, with the statements of General Sherman most vividly capturing these differences. In reference to the American Civil War, he argued, “war is at best barbarism, but to involve all—children, women, old, and helpless—is more than can be justified.” In contrast, in the U.S.-Indian wars, he instructed his men to “act with vindictiveness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women, and children.”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

Feminine Virtue, Female Agency, and the Legacy of Eiximenis

Nuria Silleras-Fernandez

in Chariots of Ladies: Francesc Eiximenis and the Court Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Iberia

This concluding chapter considers the legacy of Eiximenis in the gender discourse of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. It examines how this discourse had changed during the time of the writing ... More

This concluding chapter considers the legacy of Eiximenis in the gender discourse of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. It examines how this discourse had changed during the time of the writing of the Llibre de les dones from the late fourteenth century to Vives's De institutione and Eiximenis's Carro de las donas in the early sixteenth. More broadly, the chapter asks what these literary works can tell us about ideology, gender, and religion; and how these compare with the real-life experiences of the women to whom these works referred, from Sanxa Ximenis d'Arenós to Maria de Luna, and from Isabel the Catholic to Catalina of Habsburg.Less

Introduction

Reem Bassiouney

in Arabic Sociolinguistics

This introductory chapter begins by explaining what sociolinguistics is and why Arabic is important. It then sets out the purpose of the book, which is to provide an up-to-date account of major ... More

This introductory chapter begins by explaining what sociolinguistics is and why Arabic is important. It then sets out the purpose of the book, which is to provide an up-to-date account of major themes in Arabic sociolinguistics. It discusses trends in research on diglossia, code-switching, gendered discourse, language variation and change, and language policies in relation to Arabic. In doing so, it introduces and evaluates the various theoretical approaches, and illustrates the usefulness and the limitations of these approaches with empirical data. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less

Heroines and victims, brothers and sisters

Natalya Vince

in Our fighting sisters: Nation, memory and gender in Algeria, 1954-2012

This chapter examines colonial and nationalist propaganda produced about women during the war, and how interviewees ignored, resisted or appropriated these gendered discourses, then and now. It also ... More

This chapter examines colonial and nationalist propaganda produced about women during the war, and how interviewees ignored, resisted or appropriated these gendered discourses, then and now. It also considers how potentially seismic social change in gender relations – increased contact between men and women as a result of war – has been subsequently made less socially disruptive through interviewees’ insistence on a pseudo-familial language of ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ when describing interactions between male and female participants.Less

“Becoming Visible”: Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the Liberal State

Sabina Donati (ed.)

in A Political History of National Citizenship and Identity in Italy, 1861-1950

“Becoming Visible”: Italian Women and Their Male Co-Citizens in the Liberal State

Introduction: Eiximenis, His Patronesses, and Female Virtue in Late Medieval and Early Modern Iberia

Nuria Silleras-Fernandez

in Chariots of Ladies: Francesc Eiximenis and the Court Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Iberia

This introductory chapter lays out the groundwork for a threefold study on a discourse relating to the works of Francesc Eiximenis, the women behind his books, as well as the larger scope of female ... More

This introductory chapter lays out the groundwork for a threefold study on a discourse relating to the works of Francesc Eiximenis, the women behind his books, as well as the larger scope of female virtue in the late medieval and early modern Iberia, by examining in brief the works of Eiximenis—particularly the Llibre de les dones in its three iterations (Libre de les dones, Libro de las donas, Carro de las donas), along with the Scala Dei—and how they reveal insights as to the evolution of gender discourse, female literary stereotypes, queenship, piety and devotion, and the role of translation in the Iberian Peninsula and beyond, from the fourteenth through the sixteenth century.Less

Responsibility

Helen M. Kinsella

in The Image before the Weapon: A Critical History of the Distinction between Combatant and Civilian

This concluding chapter discusses the continuing challenges of interpreting and implementing the principle of distinction. In considering the principle, both its critics and advocates note that ... More

This concluding chapter discusses the continuing challenges of interpreting and implementing the principle of distinction. In considering the principle, both its critics and advocates note that compliance with and the implementation of this principle are circumscribed by evaluations of military necessity and calculations of proportionality. Moreover, the evolution of technologies and different techniques of war may also mar compliance and implementation, or may render the distinction ambiguous in practice. In the midst of these and other dilemmas surrounding the topic, the chapter concedes that the series of discourses—gender, innocence, and civilization—that brace the principle of distinction may, paradoxically, undermine its utility. An analysis of this relationship not only points to the constitutive power of the series but also underscores the complex and contradictory ways in which compliance can be understood and defined within their parameters.Less

Gender in Sámi Shamanism: The Past as a Premise for new Gender Constructions

Trude Fonneland

in Contemporary Shamanisms in Norway

Religion is a core unit in terms of how gender stereotypes are produced and realized. By exploring how shamans in Norway use the past to construct narratives of gender in the present, my presentation ... More

Religion is a core unit in terms of how gender stereotypes are produced and realized. By exploring how shamans in Norway use the past to construct narratives of gender in the present, my presentation in this chapter represents an attempt to localize religion and culture in a social and gendered reality.Less

Occupation, Monarchy, and Customary Law: Tribalizing Women

Noga Efrati

in Women in Iraq: Past Meets Present

This chapter examines the customary law or “tribal custom” introduced by British occupying forces in Iraq and its enforcement through the TCCDR. Customary law became the central component of ... More

This chapter examines the customary law or “tribal custom” introduced by British occupying forces in Iraq and its enforcement through the TCCDR. Customary law became the central component of government gender discourse in Iraq. The discussion points to how British and Iraqi perceptions of state and society influenced the implementation of the regulation and then focuses on the consequent ramifications for women. The chapter analyzes how British policies constructed rural women as tribal possessions rather than as citizens of the emerging state, as well as how their welfare was sacrificed. Under the TCCDR, the shaikhs' judicial authority over their respective tribes was bolstered. It was designed to arrange for the speedy settlement of various civil and criminal disputes in accordance with tribal customs. Unfortunately, these customs were uncompromising to women, as evidenced in numerous tenets such as prohibiting women from inheriting land property and forced marriages.Less

Eiximenis on the Atlantic: The Chariot of Ladies and Catalina of Habsburg (Portugal, c. 1525–78)

Nuria Silleras-Fernandez

in Chariots of Ladies: Francesc Eiximenis and the Court Culture of Medieval and Early Modern Iberia

This chapter analyzes a new appropriation and translation of the Carro de las donas (Chariot of Ladies)—one that combined the Llibre de les dones with new material developed by a new translator, ... More

This chapter analyzes a new appropriation and translation of the Carro de las donas (Chariot of Ladies)—one that combined the Llibre de les dones with new material developed by a new translator, taken in part from Joan Lluís Vives's De institutione feminae christianae (On the Education of a Christian Woman) and other sources—so as to serve both a queen of Portugal, Catalina of Habsburg, and her daughter, Maria Manuela of Portugal, as well as other Habsburg women, and the broader female audience in the mid-sixteenth century. Analyzing these additions in the light of the advantages and difficulties that royal women faced in this new era can help us appreciate the changes in gender discourse that took place in the transition from the Middle Ages to the early modern period.Less