How menstrual shame affects birth

In Western, industrialised culture, menstruation and birth are commonly seen as unstable, pathological processes requiring medical control. Girls learn to see menstruation as shameful and secretive. Menarche is a nodal event around which girls’ beliefs and attitudes to being female are organised. The perception of menstruation as a liability has foundational implications for future female experiences, particularly birth. Other cultures have recognised menstruation and birth as spiritual phenomena, with menarche and childbirth experienced as powerful initiatory processes. My PhD research explored the links between cultural attitudes to menstruation and spirituality, and women's experiences of birth. My feminist perspective recognised the power imbalances, patriarchal controls and structural inequities that oppress women in their intimate body experiences. Menstrual shame was identified as a core patriarchal organising principle that inculcates and perpetuates male dominance and female subordination. Engendering the perception of female physiology – and thus womanhood – as inherently flawed, menstrual shame was a key factor that predisposed women to approach birth feeling fearful, disempowered and vulnerable to intervention. However, my research also unearthed a counter-cultural group of women who had transformed their relationship with both menstruation and birth. Redesignating menstruation as a spiritual phenomenon enabled these women to dismantle their menstrual shame, connect with their female spirituality and give birth fearlessly and powerfully. For others, the profound spirituality of birth transformed their understanding of menstruation. Contrary to cultural norms, both menstruation and birth can be sacred female experiences which are sources of authority and empowerment.     

Predictors of Feminist Activism among Social Work Students in the United States

While social workers advocate against domestic violence, sexual harassment, and restrictive reproductive practices, there have been virtually no studies on the reasons behind their feminist activism. To address this oversight, this study documented the extent of feminist activism among American undergraduate social work students (n = 159). When moving to explanatory analysis, our data suggest that feminist activism was related to greater educational attainment, knowing activist peers, recognizing heterosexism, and internalizing a commitment to social justice. Moreover, electoral activism was tied to the rejection of traditional gender norms in the family and perceptions of social movement tactics were crucial to protesting for women's rights.     

伊丽莎白·班纳特与夏绿蒂·卢卡斯之比较——兼析简·奥斯丁的女性意识

对《傲慢与偏见》中两位女性人物伊丽莎白·班纳特与夏绿蒂·卢卡斯从女性主义的角度进行了分析、对比,阐释了两位出身相似、社会地位相当的女性最后不同归宿的原因.奥斯丁对伊丽莎白这一正面人物的肯定和高度赞扬充分体现了她进步的女性主义意识,这在当时乃至于现在都具有深远的社会意义.     

Imaging Homelessness and Homeless People: Visions and Strategies Within the Movement(s)

The “deserving versus undeserving” distinctions typically applied to poor people are examined as applied to homeless people. When these labels are applied by others, three categories-Lackers, Slackers, and Unwilling Victims-appear rather than a binary division. Further, the role these images play within antihomelessness movements is examined. Images shape strategies, and strategies shape images, both consciously and unconsciously. Three “clusters” of image and strategy are examined, and the implications for the antihomelessness movements discussed.     

Women's Human Rights Activists as Cross-Cultural Theorists

In addition to offering a basis for the criticism of universal human rights theorizing and practice, women's experience contributes to universal human rights theory building. Women's human rights activists' insights provide the foundation for a theory of universal human rights that is cross-cultural and critical. In sharing their work and strategies, two online working groups of women's human rights activists demonstrate that a theory of universal human rights must offer both (1) common ground on which the parallel efforts of human rights activists around the world can be acknowledged and (2) recognition that though sometimes networked and integrated with those parallel efforts, activism for social change is local, and uses locally appropriate ways to promote women's human rights. Using a theoretical method that treats non-theoretical texts as important sources for theoretical insights, the article introduces an activist-authored cross-cultural theory of human rights, its assumptions, and its theoretical framework. Finally, it draws implications from the activists' theory for human rights scholars.     

CHARISMA,CANNABIS, AND THE CROSSING OF AFRICA

This essay, based on a chapter from a forthcoming study of the exploration of Central Africa, tells the story of the encounter between the German travelers Paul Pogge and Hermann Wissmann and a charismatic extatic cult or movement, the 'Children of Hemp.' With the aid of the movement Wissmann accomplished the first documented crossing of the continent (from West to East). Eventually he was also material in drawing the leaders of what was essentially a modernization movement into the organization of what became the Congo Free State. A tale of trust and friendship betrayed and chances missed, of exploration turning into occupation, and of grave consequences for the Congo up to the present.     

The personal is political: a feminist reflection on a journey into participatory arts-based research with sex worker migrants in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article offers a personal reflection of my journey into participatory arts-based research with sex work migrants in South Africa. It begins by sharing some background information of how my own experience as a migrant woman, and my layered (sometimes conflicted) identities, have continued to shape and influence much of my scholarly work, including my commitment to engaging in research that supports (or at least tries to support) social justice. Through this article, I offer an example of how the ‘personal is political’ is entwined in feminist values of research and engagement. Those who experience the issues under investigation must be considered equal partners in research processes. Collaborative forms of knowledge production can support social justice, particularly if efforts strive to shift the centre from which knowledge is traditionally generated and disseminated.     

二十世纪末女性主义文学批评的回顾与反思

20世纪80年代中期以来,中国女性主义文学批评历经“女性文学批评”(或“妇女文学批评”)、“女权主义文学批评”到“女性主义文学批评”等几次命名的变化,其中每一种命名的背后都蕴含着不同时期对于女性及女性写作的文化心理期待,而女性主义文学批评也因此在20世纪的最后20年间向我们展现出与西方完全不同的发展足迹。