Syllabus - Selling Sex: Feminist Discourses on the Sex Work Industry (Cornell College, Women\u27s Studies Course)

e examined competing feminist discourses regarding women’s involvement/portrayal in the sex work industry. Grounded in feminist theoretical and methodological perspectives, our discussions were guided by the following considerations: (1) What are the competing feminist discourses regarding sex work, and what are the similarities/differences between these discourses? (2) How are these competing discourses deployed in a global context, and what issues/concerns arise within a global consideration of sex work? (3) Is sex work inherently degrading/objectifying to women, or can one allow that it may also be sexually liberating? (4) How might one’s social situatedness (i.e. social class, race/ethnicity, gender, education, non-sex worker, sex worker etc.) influence his/her perspective of sex work? How does this problematize these perspectives? (5) What other social discourses regarding sex work (e.g., freedom-of-speech, religious) clash and/or complement the feminist discourses? (6) How do discourses deployed by women outside of the sex work industry (i.e. academics, human rights activists) clash and/or complement those of sex workers

Meaning and social reality of sexuality in the lives of children in Aotearoa New Zealand

How sexuality in pre-pubescent childhood is spoken about varies enormously within societies: almost swinging like a pendulum between perspectives of healthy and normal exploration, to panic of children being victims of abuse and ideas of sexualisation by the media (Egan and Hawkes 2008; Jackson 1982, 1990; Postman 1994). Reflecting initially from my practice as a family counsellor, and more recently as a counsellor educator and researcher, this chapter explores multiple discourses in children’s lives on the meaning and social reality of sexuality. The aim is to question and deconstruct concepts that have shaped discourse of childhood and sexuality, and which is currently a binary position of children who are safe (i.e. asexual or un-sexual) or not (sexualised) (see, for example, Postman 1994). The intention behind this questioning of constructions is not to deny this dominant discourse, but to expose the presence of multiple discourses, and multiple meanings for children’s words and actions. Put simply: children’s sexual actions are frequently ascribed adult notions of sexuality, or taken to mean that maltreatment has occurred. My argument here from counselling practice and research is that sexual actions by children do not necessarily mean some harm has occurred, but that adults’ understandings and responses are informed by discourses that guide them to assume the worst. This can have effects for children’s identities, through disruption of their relationships within family, in addition to experiences of isolation and exclusion within school, neighbourhood and friendship contexts

The Impact of Feminism on Sociology

The paper investigates the impact of feminism on British sociology over the last 60 years. It focuses on changes in the intellectual content of the discipline, including epistemology, methodology, theory, concepts and the fields of economy, polity, violence and civil society. It situates these changes in the context of changes in gendered organisation of sociology, the rise of women's/gender studies, the ecology of social sciences and societal changes, especially the transformation of the gender regime from domestic to public and the neoliberal turn. It concludes that feminism has had a major impact on sociology, but that the process through which this has taken place is highly mediated through organisational, disciplinary and social processes.[No keywords]

Faking like a woman? Towards an interpretative theorization of sexual pleasure.

This article explores the possibility of developing a feminist approach to gendered and sexual embodiment which is rooted in the pragmatist/interactionist tradition derived from G.H. Mead, but which in turn develops this perspective by inflecting it through more recent feminist thinking. In so doing we seek to rebalance some of the rather abstract work on gender and embodiment by focusing on an instance of 'heterosexual' everyday/night life - the production of the female orgasm. Through engaging with feminist and interactionist work, we develop an approach to embodied sexual pleasure that emphasizes the sociality of sexual practices and of reflexive sexual selves. We argue that sexual practices and experiences must be understood in social context, taking account of the situatedness of sex as well as wider socio-cultural processes the production of sexual desire and sexual pleasure (or their non-production) always entails interpretive, interactional processes

Takarazuka for the Family: Japanese All-Women’s Musical Theater and Traditional Gender Perceptions

Takarazuka, the Japanese all-female musical theater troupe has been inspiring Japanese audiences since 1913, when it first began as a place for training young girls to becoming ryosai kenbo, or “good wives, wise mothers.” The women are assigned either as a musumeyaku (daughter-role) or otokoyaku (male-role) when performing on stage. The founder, Ichizo Kobayashi hoped that the training through the Takarazuka Music School as well as the experience of performing male roles would strengthen the character of these young women, ultimately preparing them for marriage. Around 1930, he also created the school motto, “Kiyoku, tadashiku, utsukushiku,” meaning “[With] purity, righteousness and beauty,” to clearly state the type of women Takarazuka was promoting. This paper will closely examine how Takarazuka influences the audience’s perception on gender roles and sexuality, and whether it challenges or supports the traditional family idealism

Intersectional Feminism and Diverse Perspectives in Contemporary Romance

The lack of intersectional feminism and diverse perspectives has long been a critique of the literary canon. While the Academy has shifted toward a more progressive course of literary study in recent decades, there are still some genres that are treated as undeserving of scholarly analysis in spite of their unique and diverse perspectives. The contemporary romance genre embodies the very intersectional feminism that the traditional literary canon lacks, yet it is still treated as unworthy of consideration. Contemporary romance novels such as The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert and The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams all incorporate diverse perspectives and epitomize intersectional feminism. These novels explore sexual identity, race, disabilities, autism and a plethora of other perspectives that are severely underrepresented in both general media and academic literature. Despite the shift in canon in recent decades, there is still a sense of intellectual gatekeeping that designates the romance genre as inferior despite the many ways it realizes intersectionality. In this paper I will explore the reasons why traditional academia fails to consider contemporary romance as a valid study of intersectional feminism and diverse perspectives. Through research on the evolution of the contemporary romance genre and landmark intersectional feminist texts I am exploring the merits of studying contemporary romance as a source of intersectionality and diverse perspectives in literature. In addition to the novels mentioned, I will focus my research on texts such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own as well as essays from intersectional feminist writers such as Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich. This research illuminates the need for traditional academia to consider contemporary romance as a valid format to explore and realize the intersectional and feminist perspectives that are currently underrepresented in the Academy

Woman Position In Iron Man Movies

Aninditha, Annisa. 2014. Woman Position in Iron Man movies. Study Program ofEnglish, Department of Language and Literature, Faculty of Cultural Studies,Universitas Brawijaya, Malang. Supervisor: Fariska Pujiyanti. Co Supervisor: NurulLaily Nadhifah. Keywords: Movie, Patriarchal, Iron Man. Movie is one of literary works and electronic media. Movie becomes the best strategy to communicate and deliver message about what happens in this world. The movie makers or directors can express critics, complains or opinions about something as an aspiration. Many movie genres appear to satisfy the audience, especially Action movies. Iron Man is one of action genres that focus on the male character physical appearance as main character, for example strong, charismatic, charming and powerful. Man as main character or hero can lead the plot of the movie, hence he always becomes primary view. In Iron Man movies there are extra characters as the assistants of the main character, they are women, the use of female characters as a show the stereotype about the use of woman as the second sex. This movies describe the condition where women are inferior and men are superior portray about the gender bias. This research used patriarchal and mise-en-scene approach as the groundingtheory to analyze the Iron Man movie sequel which is reflected the Tony Stark (Iron Man) as the main character and Pepper Potts, Natalie Rush Man, Christine Everhart and Maya Hansen as the extra characters. The characters in Iron Man movie sequel and reference about patriarchal condition are used as supporting information for the analysis. The result of this study shows the weakness and inferiority of woman. Womanposition in sub-ordinate greatly describes Pepper Potts, Natalie Rush Man, Christine Everhart and Maya Hansen as extra character. It is suggested for further researcher use deconstruction approaches to analyze Tony Stark (Iron man) character, there are many interesting aspects related to the characterization of the main character as hero which is different from the stereotypes of a hero which can be analyzed using deconstruction theory

Music and Erotic Agency – Sonic Resources and Social-Sexual Action

Comment l’être et le corps se nouent-ils dans une configuration culturelle ? Comment les produits culturels sont-ils mobilisés, et comment les textes, les images, les structures et les représentations sonores « entrent-elles en action » ? Ce sont là des questions fondamentales pour les études culturelles, la sociologie et la psychologie sociale. Pourtant elles n’ont guère été abordées de front jusqu’ici, et elles ne sauraient faire l’objet d’une « mise à l’épreuve empirique » à partir d’une théorisation de l’agentivité déjà complète. Cet article suggère que l’on peut développer une bonne théorie de l’agentivité en observant des milieux sociaux et des matériaux culturels particuliers. Dans ce but, après quelques considérations théoriques sur les liens entre culture, nature et agentivité sociale, je pars de la question érotique pour développer un propos plus général sur la relation entre les moyens expressifs et l’agentivité sociale. Plus spécifiquement, je me penche sur la question de comment l’agentivité érotique peut être « composée musicalement », c’est-à-dire comment l’agentivité peut se déployer par des moyens musicaux.How does the cultural configuration of being and body happen? Just how are cultural products mobilized and how do texts, images, sonic structures and representations inform and thereby “get into” action? These are key questions for cultural studies, sociology and social psychology. They have so far not been addressed head on, and they by no means entail a mere “empirical implementation” of an otherwise already complete theorization of agency. In this article, I suggest that a good theory of agency can be developed through specific considerations of particular social realms, and with reference always to particular cultural materials. To this end, after some initial theoretical clarification of the links between culture, nature and social agency, I focus on the erotic, in order to pursue a more general concern with the interrelationship of expressive media and social agency. More specifically, I consider the question of how erotic agency maybe “musically composed”, by which I mean how agency may take shape with reference to musical media