Feminism

Cunt: A Cultural History.

Via Purse Lip Square Jaw.

From my inbox--a new journal, Critical Discourse Studies:

Critical Discourse Studies has been established in response to the proliferation of critical discourse studies across the social sciences and humanities. We will consider for publication papers that meet the needs of scholars in diverse disciplines and areas of study which develop critical perspectives on the relationship between discourse and social dynamics. Relevant areas and disciplines include: anthropology, communication, linguistics, sociology, politics, political economy, education, psychology, media studies, geography, urban studies, cultural studies, management studies, literary studies, history, technology studies, legal studies, philosophy, gender studies, migration studies, ethnic studies and others. We also welcome papers which connect critical academic research with practical concerns and agendas, including those of activist and grassroots political movements.

Becky has posted her proposal for her master's thesis on Revolve. I like the way she's using Kenneth Burke's theory here.



A...dare I say?...vapid speech given by Alan Greenspan on intellectual property. Via Sivacracy.



Feministe has a thorough post on rape culture with a lot of links.



Many of our convictions on bioethics are no longer being represented on Bush's bioethics panel. As if we needed another reason to boot him out of office.



Hydrogen peroxide discovered in Mars' atmosphere.

A new collection of essays, Reading Sex and the City, has just been published, and you can read an excerpt of one of the chapters by David Greven on representations of men in Sex and the City. It's quite a scathing critique of the show, and it really makes me look at the show differently. This claim is particularly thought-provoking:

The freakshow mentality of Sex and the City ends up being neither a post-feminist nor post-gay interrogation of privileged white male heterosexuality - despite the depiction of members of this group as freaks - but a reification of the very privileged status of the category. It is the women themselves, shakily stuck in their haunted liminal position between representing both "real" women and gay men, who are ultimately revealed as the chief freaks.

According to this article, gender roles in Kenya are changing for the better. Via Mary Otieno.

Seeing as how I talked about writing this piece a few days ago, thought you might want to see how it turned out. I don't have full bibliographical citations here--I might include a list later today or tonight. But if you want any of the citations in particular, email me at ratli008@umn.edu.

Research that is classified as “feminist” usually meets one or both of the following broad criteria: It takes gender or a specific group of women as its object of analysis, and it is designed in the service of an emancipatory political agenda. In the 1970s and 1980s, feminist standpoint theory, the theory that the feminist standpoint has epistemological privilege because the perspective of the oppressed provides a more accurate view of reality than that of the ruling class, who only sees the world in ways that legitimate their power, was considered a favorable approach to feminist research. In the 1990s, however, the influence of poststructuralist and postmodern theory, which is marked by the rejection of universality, truth, totalizing top-down structures of power, and essentialism in favor of the view that society, identities, and ideologies are discursively constructed and that power is multiplicitous and malleable, became evident in feminist research. The following essay is an attempt to review systematically the problematics in feminist standpoint theory and its knowledge claims that the postmodernist and poststructuralist critique brought to the fore.

I'm afraid I don't have anything insightful to say about either of these articles. All I can say is that I am saddened by both, and you need to read them.

An "Uppity" Memoir and some "Cheeky" tips: On what it is like for me to be a woman of colour at a university whose structure is still predominantly white and Eurocentric in its focus

Sex and Silence at Yale

How very cool. I might have to do a little weekend trip to Moorhead for this!

First Woman President Symposium

September 24-25, 2004 - Minnesota State University Moorhead, Moorhead, MN (USA)

MSU Moorhead will hold an interdisciplinary conference that unites leaders in politics, media, and academia to explore the history, culture, and future possibilities of electing a female president of the United States of America. This two-day conference will feature special invited guests who are active in national and international politics and media as well as prominent academics in the arts, humanities, and social sciences who have substantially contributed to our knowledge of women in politics. Laura Liswood, Secretary-General of the Council of World Women Leaders at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, is the keynote speaker. Paper proposals are invited in the following categories: the history of women in politics, analysis of party platforms, creation of candidates, missed opportunities, mechanisms and forces of exclusion, international examples of women in politics, media and cultural representations of women in power, the demonization of women in politics, and the role of the 'First Lady,' among others. The conference organizers especially encourage paper proposals from all levels of academics in American Studies, Economics, History, Mass Communication and Journalism, Multicultural Studies and Humanities, Political Science, Sociology, Speech Communications, and Women's Studies.

Required: Submit an abstract of 250 words and a c.v. (including phone, fax, and e-mail addresses) to contact below.

Deadline: March 1, 2004

Contact: Dr. Christopher Corley, c/o Dean of Arts and Humanities, 250 Bridges Hall, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Moorhead, MN 56563 USA

ATTN: First Woman President Symposium

E-Mail: corley@mnstate.edu

Via thirdspace chora.