The Boy in the Dress: queering Mantle of the Expert

In this paper I offer a queer analysis of several key moments during a Mantle of the Expert (MoE) project that resulted in Year 5 children creating performances and engaging with heightened versions of gendered femininity in their primary school. I will refer to theoretical notions of transvestism as a means of challenging the notions of binarism, and the categories of female and male and thus ask if MoE can indeed disrupt the notion of universal meanings often found within its form

Move Over, There's Room Enough: Performance Making Diploma: training for learning disabled adults

In its second year, the Performance Making Diploma at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Central), won the Guardian University Award for Student Diversity and Widening Participation 2015. A one-year, part-time diploma, the first cohort has graduated and many have undertaken their first venture in professional work. This Points and Practice piece is an edited version of an email interview between Sally Mackey and Liselle Terret. Together with Nick Llewellyn from Access All Areas, Liselle created the Diploma

Meiotic spindle stability depends on MAPK-interacting and spindle-stabilizing protein (MISS), a new MAPK substrate

Vertebrate oocytes arrest in the second metaphase of meiosis (metaphase II [MII]) by an activity called cytostatic factor (CSF), with aligned chromosomes and stable spindles. Segregation of chromosomes occurs after fertilization. The Mos/…/MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinases) pathway mediates this MII arrest. Using a two-hybrid screen, we identified a new MAPK partner from a mouse oocyte cDNA library. This protein is unstable during the first meiotic division and accumulates only in MII, where it localizes to the spindle. It is a substrate of the Mos/…/MAPK pathway. The depletion of endogenous RNA coding for this protein by three different means (antisense RNA, double-stranded [ds] RNA, or morpholino oligonucleotides) induces severe spindle defects specific to MII oocytes. Overexpressing the protein from an RNA not targeted by the morpholino rescues spindle destabilization. However, dsRNA has no effect on the first two mitotic divisions. We therefore have discovered a new MAPK substrate involved in maintaining spindle integrity during the CSF arrest of mouse oocytes, called MISS (for MAP kinase–interacting and spindle-stabilizing protein)

Meiotic Maturation of the Mouse Oocyte Requires an Equilibrium between Cyclin B Synthesis and Degradation

AbstractAmong the proteins whose synthesis and/or degradation is necessary for a proper progression through meiotic maturation, cyclin B appears to be one of the most important. Here, we attempted to modulate the level of cyclin B1 and B2 synthesis during meiotic maturation of the mouse oocyte. We used cyclin B1 or B2 mRNAs with poly(A) tails of different sizes and cyclin B1 or B2 antisense RNAs. Oocytes microinjected with cyclin B1 mRNA showed two phenotypes: most were blocked in MI, while the others extruded the first polar body in advance when compared to controls. Moreover, these effects were correlated with the length of the poly(A) tail. Thus it seems that the rate of cyclin B1 translation controls the timing of the first meiotic M phase and the transition to anaphase I. Moreover, overexpression of cyclin B1 or B2 was able to bypass the dbcAMP-induced germinal vesicle block, but only the cyclin B1 mRNA-microinjected oocytes did not extrude their first polar body. Oocytes injected with the cyclin B1 antisense progressed through the first meiotic M phase but extruded the first polar body in advance and were unable to enter metaphase II. This suggested that inhibition of cyclin B1 synthesis only took place at the end of the first meiotic M phase, most likely because the cyclin B1 mRNA was protected. The injection of cyclin B2 antisense RNA had no effect. The life observation of the synthesis and degradation of a cyclin B1–GFP chimera during meiotic maturation of the mouse oocyte demonstrated that degradation can only occur during a given period of time once it has started. Taken together, our data demonstrate that the rates of cyclin B synthesis and degradation determine the timing of the major events taking place during meiotic maturation of the mouse oocyte

Éditorial

Rencontre Ce numéro est le fruit de la rencontre entre CLIO, Histoire Femmes et Sociétés, revue d’histoire des femmes et du genre, et les historiens du sport. S’agit-il d’une stratégie de renforcement et de légitimation réciproque ? Il n’en est rien. Les champs de recherche ne sont pas de même nature : le sport est un objet, le genre un concept devenu catégorie d’analyse. De plus, il est possible d’affirmer, sans naïveté ni arrogance, mais peut-être avec une touche d’optimisme, que l’illégiti..