The Politics of Women's Bodies

The Politics of Women's Bodies PDF Author: Rose Weitz
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Body, Human
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This anthology of previously published writings on the politics of women's bodies provides a basic overview of significant issues in the fields of gender and women's studies. Taken together, this literature, on such diverse topics as the nature of lesbianism, the sources of eating disorders,and the consequences of violence against women, forms the nucleus of a new field, the politics of women's bodies, and its growing interest. The text features three themes throughout, including how ideas about women's bodies are socially constructed, how these ideas affect women's lives, and howwomen can resist these forces. Covering a wide range of topics and disciplines, and examining issues of class, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation, The Politics of Women's Bodies is an ideal addition to any discussion of women's studies and gender.

The Politics of the Female Body

The Politics of the Female Body PDF Author: Ketu Katrak
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813539307
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
Is it possible to simultaneously belong to and be exiled from a community? In Politics of the Female Body, Ketu H. Katrak argues that it is not only possible, but common, especially for women who have been subjects of colonial empires. Through her careful analysis of postcolonial literary texts, Katrak uncovers the ways that the female body becomes a site of both oppression and resistance. She examines writers working in the English language, including Anita Desai from India, Ama Ata Aidoo from Ghana, and Merle Hodge from Trinidad, among others. The writers share colonial histories, a sense of solidarity, and resistance strategies in the on-going struggles of decolonization that center on the body. Bringing together a rich selection of primary texts, Katrak examines published novels, poems, stories, and essays, as well as activist materials, oral histories, and pamphlets—forms that push against the boundaries of what is considered strictly literary. In these varied materials, she reveals common political and feminist alliances across geographic boundaries. A unique comparative look at women’s literary work and its relationship to the body in third world societies, this text will be of interest to literary scholars and to those working in the fields of postcolonial studies and women’s studies.

The Politics of the Body

The Politics of the Body PDF Author: Alison Phipps
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745682774
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Winner of the 2015 FWSA Book Prize The body is a site of impassioned, fraught and complex debate in the West today. In one political moment, left-wingers, academics and feminists have defended powerful men accused of sex crimes, positioned topless pictures in the tabloids as empowering, and opposed them for sexualizing breasts and undermining their 'natural' function. At the same time they have been criticized by extreme-right groups for ignoring honour killings and other 'culture-based' forms of violence against women. How can we make sense of this varied terrain? In this important and challenging new book, Alison Phipps constructs a political sociology of women's bodies around key debates: sexual violence, gender and Islam, sex work and motherhood. Her analysis uncovers dubious rhetorics and paradoxical allegiances, and contextualizes these within the powerful coalition of neoliberal and neoconservative frameworks. She explores how 'feminism' can be caricatured and vilified at both ends of the political spectrum, arguing that Western feminisms are now faced with complex problems of positioning in a world where gender often comes second to other political priorities. This book provides a welcome investigation into Western politics around women's bodies, and will be particularly useful to scholars and upper-level students of sociology, political science, gender studies and cultural studies, as well as to anyone interested in how bodies become politicized.

Shadow Bodies

Shadow Bodies PDF Author: Julia S. Jordan-Zachery
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813593417
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
What does it mean for Black women to organize in a political context that has generally ignored them or been unresponsive although Black women have shown themselves an important voting bloc? How for example, does #sayhername translate into a political agenda that manifests itself in specific policies? Shadow Bodies focuses on the positionality of the Black woman’s body, which serves as a springboard for helping us think through political and cultural representations. It does so by asking: How do discursive practices, both speech and silences, support and maintain hegemonic understandings of Black womanhood thereby rendering some Black women as shadow bodies, unseen and unremarked upon? Grounded in Black feminist thought, Julia S. Jordan-Zachery looks at the functioning of scripts ascribed to Black women’s bodies in the framing of HIV/AIDS, domestic abuse, and mental illness and how such functioning renders some bodies invisible in Black politics in general and Black women’s politics specifically.

The Politics of the Female Body in Contemporary Turkey

The Politics of the Female Body in Contemporary Turkey PDF Author: Hilal Alkan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 075561741X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
In Turkey, the Justice and Development Party government has introduced new regulations about reproductive rights, and shifted family and gender policies. Women's central role in reproductive and domestic work was swiftly reaffirmed, and abortion and IVF were newly debated. Taking Turkey as the case study, this is the first book to examine the various ways neoliberal modes of governing women's bodies interact with conservative and authoritarian measures. The contributions focus on reproduction, maternity and sexuality, to explore the three main areas of governmental interventions into the female body. Topics for discussion include: the expansion of IVF and egg markets, the privatization of gynaecological and obstetrical care, differential treatment of poor and ethnic minority women's fertility/sexuality, and women's multiple responses to these shifts. While focusing on Turkey, the book presents analytical tools applicable under rising authoritarianisms and conservatisms worldwide.

Body Politics in Development

Body Politics in Development PDF Author: Wendy Harcourt
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848136188
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Body Politics in Development sets out to define body politics as a key political and mobilizing force for human rights in the last two decades. This passionate and engaging book reveals how once-tabooed issues, such as rape, gender-based violence, and sexual and reproductive rights, have emerged into the public arena as critical grounds of contention and struggle. Engaging in the latest feminist thinking and action, the book describes the struggles around body politics for people living in economic and socially vulnerable communities and covers a broad range of gender and development issues, including fundamentalism, sexualities and new technologies, from diverse viewpoints. The book's originality comes through the author's rich experience and engagement in feminist activism and global body politics and was winner of the 2010 FWSA Book Prize.

Beauvoir and Her Sisters

Beauvoir and Her Sisters PDF Author: Sandra Reineke
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252093224
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
Beauvoir and Her Sisters investigates how women's experiences, as represented in print culture, led to a political identity of an "imagined sisterhood" through which political activism developed and thrived in postwar France. Through the lens of women's political and popular writings, Sandra Reineke presents a unique interpretation of feminist and intellectual discourse on citizenship, identity, and reproductive rights. Drawing on feminist writings by Simone de Beauvoir, feminist reviews from the women's liberation movement, and cultural reproductions from French women's fashion and beauty magazines, Reineke illustrates how print media created new spaces for political and social ideas. This sustained study extends from 1944, when women received the right to vote in France, to 1993, when the French government outlawed anti-abortion activities. Touching on the relationship between consumer culture and feminist practice, Reineke's analysis of a selection of women's writings underlines how these texts challenged traditional gender models and ideals. In revealing that women collectively used texts to challenge the state to redress its abortion laws, Reineke renders the act of writing as a form of political action and highlights the act of reading as an essential but often overlooked space in which marginalized women could exercise dissent and create solidarity.

Writing on the Body

Writing on the Body PDF Author: Katie Conboy
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231105453
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
This work comprises a collection of influential readings in feminist theory. It is divided into four sections: "Reading the Body"; "Bodies in Production"; "The Body Speaks"; and "Body on Stage".

Body Politics

Body Politics PDF Author: Nadia E. Brown
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000682986
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
The politics of the body is often highly contested, culturally specific, and controlled, and this book calls our attention to how bodies are included or excluded in the polity. With governments regulating bodies in ways that mark the political boundaries of who is a citizen, worthy of protection and rights, as well as those who transgress socially proscribed norms, the contributors to this volume offer a systematic investigation of both theoretical and empirical account of bodily differences broadly defined. These chapters, diverse in both the populations and the political behaviours examined, as well as the methodological approaches employed, showcase the significance of body politics in a way few edited works in political science currently do. Arguing that the body is an important site to understand power relations, this book will be of interest to those studying the unequal application of rights to women, racial and ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ community, and people with disabilities. This book was originally published as a special issue of Politics, Groups, and Identities.

Seizing Our Bodies

Seizing Our Bodies PDF Author: Claudia Dreifus
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN:
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description