STRANGE YET STYLISH HEADGEAR VR consumption and the construction of gender

This article examines how gender is inscribed and reproduced in the consumption of Virtual Reality (VR) technologies. The focus is on how virtual reality systems become embedded in 'everyday life' through leisure and consumption, and how the spectacles and disciplines associated with consumption sites produce gendered virtual subjects. Studies of new communications technologies have tended to polarize between 'cyberpunk'/'cyberfeminist' visions of bodily transcendence in 'cyberspaces', and the critique of such visions from social theorists who focus on the reproduction of social and cultural inequalities through technical systems. These approaches tend to neglect the specific sites in which the social relations of VR are played out. A 'multi-sited' ethnographic study of immersive virtual reality systems is the basis for discussion of how virtual reality technologies produce gender in specific sites. Virtual systems are positioned and used differently in various locales such as arcades and art galleries, bars and theme parks and cafes. The article discusses the practices of consumption which (re)produce and maintain conventional bodily and subjective boundaries. What relationships are becoming institutionalized? Are new conventions of gender created in these consumption relationships? The construction of spectacle and space, and the specific bodily disciplines required for participation in virtual realities in locations of consumption is particularly important in the formation of gender dynamics. Multiple subject positions are offered through competing technical, economic and cultural practices in diverse sites. These positions can establish new conventions of virtual identities and experiences, but also remain shot through with familiar operational categories of gendered identities and bodily practices. This article argues that immersive virtual reality technologies cannot be understood without some consideration of the locales in which they are embedded, and the social identities they make possible or constrain. A local, reflexive and feminist orientation assists in understanding the gendered dynamics associated with 'becoming virtual'.     

Gender,Migration and Place of Qualification of Doctors in the UK: Perceptions of Inequality,Morale and Career Aspiration

This article draws on a large British Medical Association (BMA) survey which allows the comparison of doctors who qualified in the UK with International Medical Graduates (IMG) who qualified overseas. It does this with respect to inequality, morale and career aspiration. The paper argues that the human-capital protection of qualifications, profession and status is not sufficient to equal the experiences of migrant doctors with those of doctors who qualified in the UK. Moreover, the article provides a gendered analysis which demonstrates clear differences between women and men and shows that place of qualification intensifies the gendered experience of a medical career. Drawing on intersectional insights shows that women IMGs are the most disadvantaged despite the apparent protection of high human capital.     

从再婚人口的性别差异看城市女性的再婚困境——以北京为例

随着我国婚姻解体数量的增多，再婚也日益普遍。基于北京市人日抽样调查数据和婚姻登记数据的计算结果表明，北京近年来失婚女性的再婚率只有男性的40％左右。通过对再婚人口的婚次、年龄、教育程度和户籍等方面的特征及其匹配特点的分析，可以看到女性在再婚过程中相对男性处于明显的弱势地位，而“男高女低”的婚配模式则是造成城市女性再婚困境的主要原因。     

Gender differences in risk behaviour in financial decision-making: An experimental analysis

This paper examines whether gender differences in risk propensity and strategy in financial decision-making can be viewed as general traits, or whether they arise because of context factors. It presents the results of two computerised laboratory experiments designed to examine whether differences in risk preference and decision strategies are explained by the framing of tasks and level of task familiarity to subjects. The results show that females are less risk seeking than males irrespective of familiarity and framing, costs or ambiguity. The results also indicate that males and females adopt different strategies in financial decision environments but that these strategies have no significant impact on ability to perform. Because strategies are more easily observed than either risk preference or outcomes in day to day decisions, strategy differences may reinforce stereotypical beliefs that females are less able financial managers.     

Out of the shadows?: Grandfatherhood,age and masculinities

Recent years have witnessed an increasing recognition of the role of grandparents in contemporary families. However, there has been little if any research which emphasises the roles and relationships of grandfathers. And while the more limited contribution of grandfathers compared to grandmothers remains a widespread perception, recent studies suggest that the importance of grandfatherhood for men has been considerably underestimated. Through reviewing the place of grandfathers within grandparenthood research, the article argues that understandings of grandfathers in terms of gender difference can be seen to reflect a feminised conception of grandparenting derived from the experience of grandmothers. The article then builds on this review by exploring how intersections of age identity and masculinity may influence the different ways in which grandfatherhood is understood and enacted.     

从性别自觉到文化自觉——中国当代女性电影思潮的流变、意义及悖论

1980年代以来的女性电影完成了一个从性别自觉到文化自觉,从潜意识场景到历史场景,从成长的神话到生存的寓言,从差异性的苦恼到差异性的维护,从电影主题的女性自觉到电影语言的女性自觉,从造型表现主义到静观写实主义的转变。这个转变一方面是女性意识日益深化并世俗化的结果,另一方面则是女性社会文化空间的初步建立。女性电影的生成不仅仅是一个基于性别政治的文化实践,同时也是基于民族/阶级/代际政治的影像建构,在一个复杂的意识形态体系中对于性别政治的突出,往往成为主流文化遮蔽其他文化冲突的有效途径,中国的女性电影在与主流文化的对抗中也是一个共谋的角色。     

A Confucian War over Childcare? Practice and Policy in Childcare and Their Implications for Understanding the Korean Gender Regime

We ask about the development of childcare policies in Korea and what these mean for our understanding of the gender assumptions of Korean governments. Women's labour market participation has been increasing rapidly, with married women now much more likely to be in the labour market. The provision and regulation around support for women's employment, and especially for mothers’ employment, is a key issue and problem for Korean women and for governments. A number of policies give the impression that the Korean government is moving rapidly towards a policy for reconciling work and family based on a dual‐earner model of the family. But we argue that a close inspection of these policies suggests that the state is still playing a residual role, legislation is not effectively implemented, and government is giving way to the private sector and to the family in responsibility for childcare. Mothers’ accounts of their lives centre on a childcare war played out beneath the apparently harmonious Confucian surface, with resisting husbands supported by powerful mothers‐in‐law, and daily struggles over the management of services. The Korean government and its policy‐makers, far from moving rapidly towards a dual‐earner model of the family, are still rooted in Confucian ideals.     

出生性别比异常的社会性别理论分析

国内已有的对出生性别比异常的原因研究缺乏对成因背后运行机制的思考。只有以社会性别理论为分析框架,才能对性别比异常的深层社会运行机制进行比较清晰的解读。对策设想主要有“提升社会性别意识,构建性别和谐社会”等方面。     

Women, Language and Identity

This paper explores the ways in which women and men use language to mark gender boundaries, and to convey femininity and masculinity in the construction of a gendered identity. The first section of the paper examines evidence that language serves as a gender identity marker not only in the particular phonological variants used more by women than by men, but also in the wider stylistic range evident in women's discourse in some communities. The gender distribution and social meanings associated with particular pragmatic particles and interactional devices provide another indication of the ways in which women and men construct and express femininity and masculinity in interaction. The final section analyses the construction of stereotypical gender identities through conversational interaction, firstly by means of a narrative and secondly through the carefully crafted dialogue of an advertisement. The paper demonstrates the complementary nature of macro-level quantitative studies and qualitative ethnographic analysis in gender research.