On the Margins of the Periphery: Unassisted Childbirth and the Management of Layered Stigma

This article examines an unusual practice—unassisted childbirth—and the ways in which advocates and practitioners manage the stigma they are accorded. Given their “doubly deviant” status as not only women who birth at home but also as women who choose to give birth without professional assistance, these women provide a unique case for our theoretical understanding of stigma management. As members of homebirth social networks, the women must reckon with what I term layered stigma, the broad stigma of homebirth as well as the deeper in-group stigma within their deviant community that results from their rejection of midwives as appropriate care providers. By examining the dynamics of stigma management among practitioners of unassisted childbirth, I highlight the complex, situation-dependent nature of stigma and the impact of its management on women's sense of self.     

Images and narratives of autism within charity discourses

This research explores awareness of issues and debates concerning images and narratives about disability amongst autism charity brand-management professionals and their counterparts in the creative industries. These include the role of charities in service provision, the social model of disability, and disability stigma. It describes and analyses past and recent charity advertisements in both the United Kingdom and the United States, with attention to the historical context of these and the views and practices of charity and advertising professionals and autistic self-advocates, using David Hevey’s three-stage framework for disability representation by charities. The research concludes by considering emerging counter-narratives, which suggest ways charities may escape the perceived need to produce pathos or fear as part of such campaigns.     

Housework,Housewives, and Domestic Workers

ABSTRACT

This article sets established historical narratives of a mid-twentieth-century turn to privacy, new domestic identities, and new ways of thinking about housework into a broader history of domestic service. I argue that the new forms of domesticity were only ever partially and unevenly established in middle-class households. Domestic service emerges as a tenacious institution, which continued to be influential in the organization of middle-class or privileged homes throughout the mid- to late twentieth century. Middle-class women were exhorted to manage their homes without servants, and were offered the consolation of greater privacy and intimacy within their homes, as well as the dignity and emotional rewards of a housewife identity. But few found that this made the prospect of being “servantless” attractive. I will therefore examine the failures of the “servantless” home and the “strange survival” of domestic service in twentieth-century Britain.     

Boundaries of Frenchness: cultural citizenship and France’s middle-class North African second-generation

Based on 45 interviews in the Paris metropolitan area, I focus on the middle-class segment of France’s North African second-generation and use the framework of cultural citizenship to explain why these individuals continue to experience symbolic exclusion despite their attainment of a middle-class status. Even though they are successful in terms of professional and educational accomplishments and are assimilated by traditional measures, they nonetheless feel excluded from mainstream French society. Because of this exclusion, they do not feel they are perceived as full citizens. I also discuss how this segment of France’s second-generation draws boundaries around being French and how they relate to these boundaries. Despite their citizenship and their ties to France, they are often perceived as foreigners and have their ‘Frenchness’ contested by their compatriots. I argue they are denied cultural citizenship, because of their North African ethnic origin, which would allow them to be accepted by others as part of France. Applying cultural citizenship as an analytical framework provides an understanding of the socio-cultural realities of being a minority and reveals how citizenship operates in everyday life.     

Conceptions of Art Ownership as a Form of Wealth Accumulation Among the Black Middle-Class

While there is a rich sociological tradition of analyzing the consumption of middle-class blacks, theory and research have overwhelmingly conceptualized middle-class blacks as conspicuous consumers. This paper develops an alternative theoretical approach to black middle-class consumption. Using the case of art ownership, I elaborate how middle-class blacks understand consumption as a practice that maintains and reinforces their class position by building wealth. Drawing on 103 in-depth interviews with black middle-class consumers of visual art, I illustrate how middle-class blacks view art as an economic asset and consider investment potential when they purchase art. I also document how middle-class blacks view art as a source of wealth that can be transferred across generations. Theory which accounts for black middle-class consumption from the perspective of wealth building is critical given long-standing arguments that middle-class blacks are a group whose frivolous and status-driven consumption jeopardizes their accumulation of wealth. The theoretical approach outlined in this paper illustrates how middle-class blacks approach consumption with an eye to solidifying their economic position.     

Sex Work,Office Work: Women Working Behind the Scenes in the US Adult Film Industry

Women currently working behind the scenes in the adult film industry both inform considerations of the contemporary experiences of sex work in the USA and shed some light on differential experiences of gendered workplace organizations. Based on ethnographic observations and informal interviews conducted at a typical adult film production company and on examining the industry's historical development, I have found that a diverse range of occupations and occupational opportunities are available for women in the adult film industry and women workers in the US adult film industry experience their gendered workplace in unique ways. I suggest that this is due in part to the adult film industry's wider social network, which has itself been shaped by the historical development of the adult film industry and the stigma of sex work.     

The moral middle-class in market socialism: An investigation into the personhood of women working in NGOs in Vietnam

The paper uncovers the values that Vietnamese women produce and accumulate from the NGO sector to acquire a morality central to their middle-class identity. They present an idea of a moral middle-class that conforms to the neoliberal criteria of self-reliance and self-optimisation within the economic segment, in which values are generated in the forms of sacrifice and giving away. I argue that this idea is associated with a mode of governmentality whereby the socialist state shapes the moral subject for the sake of governance in the context of marketisation. Morality, as a governing device, motivates and polices women's compliance with their subordinate position. This paper presents findings that illustrate the slipperiness of the notion of middle-class between theories and practices and from women's perspectives. Perceived in part in terms of women's sacrifices, this study illustrates how middle-class identity is negotiated through moral, gender and class divisions in a post-socialist society.     

“Smuggled Refugees”: The Social Construction of North Korean Migration

In this paper, I demonstrate the identity transformation of North Korean women in interaction with state and non-state actors and domestic and regional structures, which I formulate for the purposes of this paper. From a state-centric social constructivist perspective in politics and international relations, I examine how the identities and interests of North Korean women are constituted and reconstituted in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the People's Republic of China and five South-East Asian countries along their migration routes before they reach the Republic of Korea – the so-called “Seoul Train in the Underground Railway”. Back in their country of origin, North Korean women are socially constructed as Confucian communist mothers. In China, the most frequently depicted images of North Korean women are trafficked wives. By paying for smugglers to cross borders to neighbouring South-East Asian countries, North Korean women finally become the agents of their own destiny, refugees in waiting to be transferred to South Korea.     

The gendered contours of North Korean Migration: sexualized bodies and the violence of phenotypical normalization in South Korea

This article examines the gendered and sexualized contours of North Korean experiences in South Korea at a time when nearly 70% of the North Korean emigrants are women. South Korean television shows – e.g. reality programs – and marriage matchmaking organizations seek to portray North Korean women in a ‘positive’ way to the South Korean public, although, as this article will illustrate, these representations are of a very particular, sexualized kind. These representations are sometimes negative, and there is stigma attached to North Korean women, in which South Koreans assume, for example, that they are victims of human trafficking or that they have had relations with Chinese men during their migration. Furthermore, poor nutrition and other forms of structural violence in North Korea have molded North Korean bodies; there are often physical disparities between North and South Koreans. In South Korean society where short height is viewed as undesirable and where idealized, surgical notions of beauty dominate, the violence of gendered phenotypical normalization mark North Korean bodies as smaller, foreign, and strange. Based on ethnographic research in South Korea, this article argues that these gendered contours of North Korean migration amount to a different sort of structural violence in South Korea.     

Pregnant Women's Experiences of Crisis Pregnancy Centers: When Abortion Stigmatization Succeeds and Fails

There is broad consensus that abortion is stigmatized, but the role of interpersonal interaction in this process is underspecified. I examine interviews with 25 women in the United States who visited crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs)—antiabortion organizations that offer one‐on‐one “prolife counseling”—for how and when interactions matter for abortion stigmatization. I identify two primary ways CPC counselors stigmatized abortion and describe variation in their impact: counselors' efforts were “successful,” were misrecognized as ideologically‐neutral, or were resisted. The findings demonstrate the importance of women's current consideration of abortion and preexisting beliefs for understanding how interpersonal interactions contribute to abortion stigma.     

Casino Gambling Among Older Adults in North Dakota: A Policy Analysis

This article examined social issues surrounding casino gambling among older adults both nationally and in the state of North Dakota. An exploratory review of gambling trends among older adults and an examination of policies to protect older gamblers revealed that older adults are targeted by the gaming industry as a lucrative market (Singh et al. J Retail Leisure Property 2007, 6(1):61–68). The authors used the national literature to frame their qualitative study, which explored gambling issues among older adults in North Dakota from the perspective of six counselors trained in gambling addiction who provide treatment services in the state. Findings indicated that relatively few policies existed at the state and national levels to protect older, more vulnerable adults who gamble. Further, the six casinos in North Dakota were viewed as very effective in marketing their casino gaming opportunities to older citizens by the gambling treatment providers interviewed. Additionally, barriers to gambling addiction treatment involved lack of available services and distance to receive services in this rural state. Based on the findings of this study, social policy changes which could lead to increased protection for older adult gamblers in the state were included.     

Marriage matters for Black middle-class women: A review of Black American marriages,work, and family life

It is well documented that Black women tend to experience lower marriage participation than non-Black women because of the marriage squeeze, including an unequal sex-ratio within age cohorts, and the increase in economic precarity among Black men. The experience of the marriage squeeze impacts poor, and college educated Black women, but this is only one viewpoint. Drawing on work and family research at the intersection of racial identity, gender, and class, I argue that marriage provides Black middle-class women access to privileges and resources like safety and kin networks within a U.S. nation-state constrained by racism and sexism. By relying on marriage, Black middle-class women can realize personal and familial desires, as well as encounter patriarchal oppression. I end this review with a discussion on future directions for research in this area, and a discussion on imagined futures for Black women that incorporates self-love and self-actualization.     

What It Feels Like for a Whore: The Body Politics of Women Performing Erotic Labour in Hong Kong

This article seeks to investigate the complexity of the working experiences of female prostitutes in Hong Kong, using an oral history approach. Based on 13 in‐depth interviews, I depict my respondents as performing the skilled emotional labour of sex in exchange for their clients’ money. Looking at the ways in which the women manage the job, the self and the business, I argue that their major problem is not with the commercial transaction (that is, the content of the work itself), nor with the ‘conflict’ between their personal and work selves, but with the social stigma, surveillance and dangers at their workplaces. Inspired by a post‐structuralist conception of power and identity formation, I propose a women‐centred lived‐experience feminist approach in the hope of filling the gap between the bipolar imageries of ‘sexual slavery’ or ‘sex radical’ that have been thrown up in the feminist debate over the meaning of prostitution. This approach emphasizes the inter‐relationships among women’s lived experiences, the micro‐sites of social surveillance and the macro‐condition of wider society. Although Hong Kong female prostitutes are not ‘political’ in fighting for their rights and benefits, they have tended to take the path of micro‐resistance in combating societal domination. They negotiate an identity of the ‘prostitute’ that is sensitive and flexible to different institutional areas that seems to jeopardize the neat binaries of madonna/whore, good girl/bad girl, victim/warrior, conformist/radical. This allows them to create their own space to work and survive.     

Women and philanthropy in nineteenth-century Ireland

Religion played a major role in directing the philanthropy of Irish women in the nineteenth century. The most extensive systems of welfare were provided by Catholic female religious communities, but substantial and extensive charity was also provided by Protestant denominations. There was much rivalry between Catholic and Protestant charity workers, particularly in work relating to orphaned and destitute children. While the denominational basis of charity work prevented women of different religious persuasions from working together as philanthropists, lay Catholic women were profoundly affected by the limits placed on their activities by nuns. Lay Catholic women had no major tradition of organising in institutions or societies for charity work and, in consequence, the experience of organising for social change came later to Catholic women than it did to Protestant women. Catholic women were slow not only to join reform organisations but also to campaign for changes in social legislation or to demand suffrage.     

Childless in an IVF-nation: online stigma-coping strategies in support groups for childless Israeli women

Drawing from stigma theory, this study examines strategies for coping with stigma in online support forums for Israeli childless women. Quantitative content analysis of two online support forums and in-depth interviews with group members ? for voluntarily childless and for infertile Israeli women ? are used to address the study’s research questions. Childbearing is highly valued in Israeli society and women who do not become mothers end up to be widely and deeply stigmatized. Results indicate that the type of stigma and the social context play an important role in the use of online stigma-coping strategies. Posts discussing stigma dominate both forums. Members of both groups use group identification as a stigma-coping strategy and develop a sense of community to cope with stigma. Nevertheless, group identification is more common in the fertility group, while the stigma challenging occurs significantly more in the voluntarily childless group. Excerpts from interviews with group members shed light on the motivations and benefits of becoming forum members. By addressing the role of computer-mediated communication in coping with the Israeli childless stigma, this study contributes to the stigma and feminist literature by highlighting the ways local pronatalist norms influence the manifestation of different coping strategies in online environments.     

The dynamics of welfare stigma

Drawing on the symbolic interactionist tradition, this paper focuses on the construction and management of welfare stigma in female welfare recipients' daily lives. In-depth interviews with ten women on welfare are analyzed, particularly in terms of how respondents manage their use of food stamps as stigma symbols. The complex and often contradictory pictures the women in this study painted of their feelings of stigma do not support the assumption, which underlies most research on welfare stigma, that welfare stigma is a coherent and relatively constant entity. The results of this study suggest instead that welfare stigma may vary depending on the social audience, situation, and recipient's life history. This analysis suggests that a symbolic interactionist approach to studying welfare stigma illuminates complex and dynamic aspects of welfare stigma that are obscured in other approaches and that future research on welfare stigma would benefit from drawing on the symbolic interactionist tradition.     

Normal Queers: Straight Parents Respond to Their Children's “Coming Out”

This article explores how normative understandings of gender, family, and sexuality provide the foundation for stigma, an avenue out of deviance, and the means by which stigma is perpetuated. Using participant‐observation and interview data from a support group for families of lesbian women and gay men, I examine the destigmatizing identity work with which straight parents responded to their children's lesbian and gay identities. The parents' reliance on conventional understandings of gender, sexuality, and parenting invoked and affirmed heteronormative conceptions of normalcy. This redrawing—and not fundamentally challenging—of the lines defining sexual normalcy left intact systemic logics supporting heterosexist sexual hierarchies.     

‘Trial by fire’: forms of impairment disclosure and implications for disability identity

This article examines the ways in which people living with non-apparent impairments, sometimes called ‘invisible disabilities,’ choose to disclose their impairments to friends, colleagues, and supervisors. Drawing on life-history narratives conducted with 12 men and women who acquired non-apparent impairment through accident, injury, or illness, this analysis demonstrates that people who have acquired non-apparent impairment use three primary forms of disclosure – confessional, pragmatic, and validating – serving as mechanisms by which individuals internalize the stigma associated with disability, pragmatically acquire accommodations, or resist and challenge ableist views. This analysis shows the ways that disclosure more broadly, and these forms specifically, play important roles in developing and negotiating disability identity.     

Foundational stigma: Place-based stigma in the age before advanced marginality

This paper joins the debate on the formation of territorial stigma by uncovering the existence of a form of “foundational stigma” that preceded place-based stigma of the era of advanced marginality. I show that not only were the traces of stigma present prior to the era of advanced marginality but that these early traces facilitate later forms of stigma by providing the necessary foundations upon which adhesive and detrimental stigma was operationalized. Following a critical discourse analysis approach, this paper examines coverage in the British press of Toxteth, Liverpool between 1900 and 1981 as a paradigmatic case study to show that this primitive stigma existed in three key ways: relating to inter-community strife, to crime, and to substandard housing conditions. These traces of stigma laid the foundations for later forms of stigma based on the presence of the poor, violent, deviant other that would be operationalized by dominant voices during the era of advanced marginality.     

Issues Related to HIV Stigma in Nepal

ABSTRACT

We conducted a qualitative study to understand and describe experiences of people living with HIV and AIDS with regard to HIV-associated stigma in Nepal. The study has revealed four key themes associated with HIV stigma: a hierarchy of stigma (sexual transmission and women stigmatized more than injecting-drug transmission and men); exclusion and rejection (denial of care services, rejection from family); death as a form of punishment (untimely death is seen as a punishment for something done wrong in the past); and Mumbaiya disease (caught from working in “other places”). Cultural contexts are the best ways to understand HIV stigma in Nepal along with socially and culturally established gender roles. This study has confirmed that stigma manifests at different levels: individual, social, and structural, with denial and rejection being a key mechanism of stigma.