Man/boy love and the American gay movement

The issue of man/boy love has intersected the gay movement since the late nineteenth century, with the rise of the first gay rights movement in Germany. In the United States, as the gay movement has retreated from its vision of sexual freedom for all in favor of integration into existing social and political structures, it has sought to marginalize cross-generational love as a "non-gay" issue. The two movements continue to overlap, amid signs of mutual support as well as tension--a state of affairs that also characterizes their interrelationship in other countries. This article offers an overview and analysis of that interrelationship in the United States since the Stonewall Riots in New York City in June 1969, which marked the beginning of a reinvigorated struggle for gay liberation.     

For the love of love: neoliberal governmentality, neoliberal melancholy, critical intersectionality, and the advent of solidarity with the other mormons

This article performs critical intellectual labor for social and political change against neoliberalism in three ways. First, it explores and connects neoliberal governmentality and neoliberal melancholy, two anchor experiences in our twenty-first century political quotidian. Second, it engages in the sense making of Proposition 8 (a California voter initiative to ban same-sex marriage, which was narrowly passed in 2008) as a case study of religious organizations (the Mormon Church and their religious allies) and their complicity with neoliberal states to foster subjection and subjectivation through critical intersectionality that goes beyond the identity trinity of race, class, and gender. Finally, the article suggests two technologies as a new hand to outplay the excess of neoliberalism for the triumph of our common humanity: 1) mourning over the devastation brought about by neoliberalism and 2) loving our love for those with whom we usually do not form affinity connections, such as the other Mormons, those who are othered because of their departure from church orthodoxy.     

For the love of the children: the coming out process for lesbian and gay parents and stepparents

This research investigated the coming out decision and process for 23 lesbian and gay custodial stepfamilies. We argue that lesbian and gay stepfamilies represent a unique type of family, distinct from heterosexual stepfamilies and from lesbian and gay families who have children within the context of a lesbian or gay relationship. The coming out process is one developmental challenge that distinguishes lesbian and gay stepfamilies from these other types. Through interviews with both lesbian and gay parents and stepparents we explored their coming out process to significant others: the children, families of origin and ex-spouses. We discuss those factors influencing the decision and the consequences that developed in light of these decisions. Findings show that the coming out process for lesbian and gay co-parents is a flexible and familial one, primarily influenced by and centered around the needs of the children.     

A love letter from NADIA (non-anglo dykes in Australia)

This article is a revised version of a paper I presented at the "Sappho Was A Wog Grrrl" conference in Melbourne, 22 October 1995, which was organized by "Interlesbian," a Melbourne-based political and support group for lesbians from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds (NESB). Utilizing a mixed genre format incorporating the first person fictional narrative form of letters to lovers, this parodic piece explores the identity terrains of sexuality, ethnicity and class in Melbourne's lesbian communities. It focuses on how the ethnocentric limits of sexual, cultural and racial identifications constrain the mythical beauty of coming out and staying in. The experiences reported and reflected upon here arose out of my participation as an activist member of Interlesbian. Contextualized in the form of a lover's discourse, this paper is an evocation of a passion towards the (re)visioning of a progressive local lesbian activist politics and community.     

Ex-gay rhetoric and the politics of sexuality: the Christian antigay/pro-family movement's "truth in love" ad campaign

In 1998, a coalition of antigay, pro-family activist organizations published a set of full-page print advertisements in several nationally recognized newspapers. These ads promoted sexual (ex-gay) conversion therapy for homosexuals. I examine these advertisements as a contest over cultural symbols and values, and over the very definition of lesbian and gay identity. This discursive contest had the potential to impact activist politics greatly, but this impact was mitigated significantly by a similar set of ads produced in response by an opposing movement: the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement. The interactive dynamics between opposing movements impact the political field in which activists on each side pursue their goals.     

Man-boy friendships on trial: on the shift in the discourse on boy love in the early twentieth century

Ideas on man-boy friendships prevailing in early 20th century Germany are analyzed in this paper. The friendships based on the concept of pedagogical Eros, as propagated by Gustav Wyneken (1875-1964) in his Wickersdorf Free School Community, are presented as an example. Wyneken's conviction in 1921 for acts of vice with minors and the diverse reactions in the homosexual and youth movements and the popular press shed light on the viewpoints then held regarding these friendships. As a result of this confrontation, the Platonic model was superseded by the medico-sexological model which has continued to dominate thought on man-boy friendships up to the present day.     

On kissing and sighing: Renaissance homoerotic love from Ficino's De Amore and Sopra Lo Amore to Cesare Trevisani's L'impresa (1569)

This essay investigates the homoerotic connotations present in the so-called treatises on love, a popular philosophical and literary genre of the Italian Renaissance. The referential text of this sixteenth- century genre is Marsilio Ficino's De amore (1484), a deeply innovative interpretation of Plato's Symposium. Focusing on the initial section of Ficino's text, Maggi highlights some important structural differences between the De amore and the Symposium. Moreover, by comparing Ficino's Latin text with his own subsequent Italian translation (Sopra lo amore, 1544), Maggi examines how Ficino interprets some key terms such as appearance and splendor. The second part of the essay studies Cesare Trevisani's L'impresa (1569), a later treatise on love with an explicit homoerotic foundation.     

The politics of love in three recent U.S. and U.K. films of young gay romance: a symptomatic reading of Beautiful Thing, Get Real, and Edge of Seventeen

A symptomatic representation, from a Marxist critical vantage point, of three prototypical recent U.S. and U.K. films of young gay romance-Beautiful Thing, Get Real, and Edge of Seventeen-shows these films (as well as the larger, insurgent cinematic subgenre of which they serve as particularly exemplary instances) do significant ideological work, contrary to what might appear to be the case from a superficial (and uncritical) reading that dismisses them as pure escapism. These films confront contradictions central to contemporary U.S. and U.K. gay politics and culture-contradictions involving the unity and struggle of tendencies toward gay assimilation versus gay separation, gay normalization versus gay differentiation, and gay integration versus gay dissidence. While these films do not provide formal resolutions to these real social contradictions as much as they engage in processes of formal dissolution and irresolution (i.e., suspension) of these contradictions, they cannot fully elide the existence of these contradictions because to do so would effectively undermine the empathetic appeal of the romantic tales they tell. We can observe this ideological tension most clearly by examining (1) the fraught ways in which the films represent their protagonists' struggle to substitute individual acquisition of a seemingly secure private place for engagement in social struggle to extend collective control over public space, as well as (2) the abstractly utopian manner in which these films celebrate the power of love.     

社会安全阀机制与贫富差距调适

当前,我国贫富差距较大已是一客观不争的社会事实。社会安全阀机制则起着调适贫富差距的作用,从而缓解了贫富差距所可能导致的利益和社会冲突,维持和促进了社会的稳定与发展。研究立足于贫富差距较大的客观现实,着重对现有社会安全阀机制进行分析,并指出在健全和完善相应社会安全阀机制的基础上消除较大的贫富差距。     

Retired women and volunteering: the good, the bad, and the unrecognized

In this article, we examine varied attitudes and practices toward volunteering in later life, as shared by a group of 40 retired women. We categorize women based on their engagement in retirement and label the categories according to societal expectations as follows: traditional volunteers as "good," nonvolunteers as "bad," and caregiving volunteers as "unrecognized." Using critical gerontology and a feminist framework, we juxtapose the lived experiences of retired women with a prevailing discourse on successful aging and civic engagement. We advocate for societal recognition of caregiving as a valuable form of volunteering, as well as the need to respect multiple ways in which older women experience and find meaning in later life.     

父母与公婆之间的权衡:农村女性家庭权力与养老资源的分配

本文尝试探讨身具"儿媳—女儿"双重身份的农村已婚女性在家庭养老资源分配过程中,如何在公婆与父母之间进行权衡.通过对山东省莒南县868份问卷调查数据的分析,发现公婆与父母所获得的养老支持存在显著性差异,女性更倾向于将家庭养老资源给予自己父母而非公婆.家庭资源的多寡对女性承担公婆与父母的赡养义务均有很重要的影响作用,且家庭...     

The formal dynamics of controlled populations and the echo,the boom and the bust

This paper analyzes the pattern of fluctuations of births in an age-structured population whose growth is subject to environmental or economic constraint. It synthesizes the traditional demographic analysis of age-structured renewal with constant vital rates and the economic analysis which treats population change endogenously. When cohort fertility depends on relative cohort size, or when period fertility depends on labor force size, fluctuations of forty or more years replace the traditional "echo" or generation-length cycle. Twentieth-century U. S. fertility change agrees well with the theory, as the "Easterlin Hypothesis" suggests; but the period model fits better than the cohort model.     

社会文化变迁对婚姻家庭的影响及趋势

婚姻家庭既是人类文化的积淀,是社会文化的载体,也是传递社会文化的重要组成部分。在人类发展的历史长河中,婚姻家庭与社会文化变迁密切相关,社会文化变迁以各种方式影响着婚姻家庭的建立、形成与发展。以社会文化变迁为视角,通过对社会文化变迁与婚姻家庭的建立、形成与发展之间的互动关系的历史考察,从婚姻家庭形式、婚姻家庭制度、婚姻家庭观念、婚姻家庭习俗、婚姻家庭关系等方面探讨人类社会文化变迁与婚姻家庭变化发展之间的内在关系,揭示人类社会不同历史阶段社会文化变迁及其特点对人类社会婚姻家庭建立、形成与发展的影响,探索社会文化变迁与婚姻家庭变化规律,探寻在当代社会文化交汇、冲突、融合加快趋势下,社会文化变迁与婚姻家庭变化的趋势。     

Education and Health Conditions Among the Currently Incarcerated and the Non-incarcerated Populations

Population Research and Policy Review - Previous research has found a strong link between educational attainment and health, where the highly educated live longer and healthier lives than those...     

宁夏保护农民权益构建和谐社会的调查与研究

建设社会主义新农村,是缩小城乡差距、建设全面小康社会的重大举措。农民是中国最大的社会团体,也是最弱势的群体,建设社会主义新农村必须要解决农民权益保护问题。