Visibly ageing femininities: women’s visual discourses of being over-40 and over-50 on Instagram

Abstract

This article explores visual discourses about over-40 and over-50 femininities that emerge from women’s own Instagram accounts. It analyses women’s visual and textual rhetoric of what over-40 and over-50 looks like, and whether it could interrupt the ageist, sexist, and body-normative discourses of female ageing and visibility. Intertextual visual discourse analysis of images, captions, and hashtags reveals two dominant themes (fitness and fashion) and two repeating rhetorical elements (motherhood and self-sufficiency) through which women make themselves visible as over-40/50. A few explicitly subversive discourses (i.e., over-40 fatshion account) exist, but a discourse of a healthy, fit, fashionable, independent, self-sufficient, and happy mother over-40/50 is prevalent. It easily lends itself to being interpreted as an insidious reproduction of post-feminist ideology, but I argue that there are moments of critique and subversion within. Thus, a reparative reading that acknowledges moments of disconnect from the discourse that normalizes ageing women’s limited or non-existent visibility is offered.     

Elite women in the Ukrainian Hetmanate

The history of the Ukrainian Hetmanate has been studied from the perspective of war, political struggle, and diplomacy. This article studies various aspects of women’s lives in Cossack society: their legal status, economic rights, role in society, relations with husbands and sons, the tradition of women’s presence at formal receptions, and their interference in political life. It is also about “women in politics,” “witches,” sex and premarital relations, kidnappings, and love affairs. The general argument is that the position of Ukrainian women was closer to that of women in Catholic Poland than in Muscovy.     

Finding the niche to reposition leadership in Africa’s developing economies for the global highway: review of literature on leadership development programmes – methods and techniques*

Africa’s developing economies remain in critical need for leadership. This paper asserts that Africa’s new growth opportunities rest with leadership that could champion organizational performance, innovativeness, and good ethics among others. A review of extant literature on leadership development programmes (LDPs) was done to examine possible initiatives that leadership developers can use to influence leadership practices in Africa. This paper proposes that in Africa, LDPs can be used to inculcate authentic leadership practices and enhance networking and acquisition of innovative skills among others. Furthermore, LDPs could target the youth considering them as an investment into tomorrow’s leadership talent pool. The paper suggests that Africa’s niche for the global highway rests in contextualization of LDPs from other regions to Africa’s unique environment.     

Children’s educational attainment,occupation, and income and their parents’ mortality

Using data from Finland, this paper contributes to a small but growing body of research regarding adult children's education, occupation, and income and their parents' mortality at ages 50+ in 1970–2007. Higher levels of children's education are associated with 30–36 per cent lower parental mortality at ages 50–75, controlling for parents' education, occupation, and income. This association is fully mediated by children's occupation and income, except for cancer mortality. Having at least one child educated in healthcare is associated with 11–16 per cent lower all-cause mortality at ages 50–75, an association that is largely driven by mortality from cardiovascular diseases. Children's higher white-collar occupation and higher income is associated with 39–46 per cent lower mortality in the fully adjusted models. At ages 75+, these associations are much smaller overall and children's schooling remains more strongly associated with mortality than children's occupation or income.     

Initial teacher training: understanding ‘race,’ diversity and inclusion

There is little research which has explored how students on Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses understand and conceptualise discourses of ‘race’, diversity and inclusion. This article will focus on student understandings of racialised identities; it will explore the discourses by which students understand what it means to be White and what it means to be Black, within the context of ITT. The article will examine the different facets and themes of identity within the context of belonging and exclusion which exist within higher education in the cultural and social contexts of English universities. The findings indicate that students’ understandings of ‘race’, diversity and inclusion on ITT courses are complex and multifaceted. The article argues that greater training is needed in relation to the practical assistance that student teachers require in terms of increasing their understanding of diversity and dealing with racism in the classroom.     

民族儿童文学:民族精神的独特呈现和体现——2010、2011少数民族儿童文学略论

在全球化语境中,承扬民族文化、张扬民族精神,是民族儿童文学创作面临的大问题。民族儿童文学作家常以一种世所罕有的审美敏感去表现边地的自然万物,或以魔幻性叙事来构筑民族儿童审美的形象体系,或以发展的、理想的视角展示当下民族儿童的现实,都表达出生命的另一种绚丽和辉煌、生活的另一种奇异和深邃、生性的另一种善良和刚强,使民族精神在民族儿童文学中得到独特的呈现和体现。     

从《文选》书笺看建安文学批评之动因

从《文选》收录的建安时期书笺入手并结合相关史料,通过对当时文士思想与创作的深入考察,从三个角度探究推动建安文学批评发生突破性进展之动因。首先,书笺以其特有的文体优势成为建安文士沟通情感、对话思想的重要载体,其中涉及文学话题的讨论已包涵建安文学批评理论的雏形。其次,建安二十二年诸多偶然与必然事件的爆发对文士造成巨大的心理冲击,作为核心成员的曹丕在此复杂心态下撰文怀人,完成了建安文学批评理论的基本构建。最后,在群体性同题创作风气的影响下．建安文学批评形成了人化与对照的特有方式。它们共同构成促进建安文学批评发生发展之动因。     

《离骚》本草说故里——关于屈原出生地的另类臆断

屈原故里是研究屈原的诸多学术争执中一个常见的话题。关于屈原的故里,最早记载屈原生平事件的《史记·屈原贾生列传》没有文字的记载,后人普遍认为秭归是屈原的故里,及后又有江陵说、奉节说、临湘说、汉寿说等诸多说法。如果从屈原代表作《离骚》中所描写的本草来考察其故里,则会发现,在人们对屈原故里的诸多判断中,秭归说应该是最为合理和科学的。     

政府公共决策的规则限制

政府公共决策是一次利益再分配过程,由于＂经济人＂假设和政府的有限理性,政府公共决策权力时常被滥用,造成政府公共决策失误。制定完善的规则,规范政府公共决策权力,可以有效防止政府公共决策失误,使之解决民生之苦、反映民生之需、实现民生之乐。