Korea and the Gender Construction of Female Marriage Immigrants

The purpose of this article is to explore the way gender has been constructed in relation to the recent number of international marriage immigrants in South Korea. In particular, it looks at how the construction of gender at work in this context has been used to create a place and status for these women in Korean society which largely understands itself to be homogeneous. The author argues that nationalistic and patriarchal discourses have served to construct the foreign women’s gender through the roles of wife, mother, and daughter-in-law in particular ways that serve the interests of Korea as a nation.     

Job Search and Sex Segregation: Does Sex of Social Contact Matter?

In this study, we investigate how the sex of the social contact women use to find jobs affects the segregation of women into jobs in female-dominated occupations. Using women in the Metropolitan Employer-Worker Survey (MEWS), we test two competing hypotheses from the literature. One body of literature argues that women who use men as social contacts in job search have a higher probability of finding a non-female-dominated job; another body of literature argues that sex of social contact has no effect on the probability of finding a non-female-dominated job. There are 1131 working women in the MEWS; 73% are white, 20% African American, and 2% other races. Our analysis shows that women are significantly less likely to find jobs in female-dominated occupations when their social contact is a man rather than a woman and this holds true regardless of the strength of the tie to the social contact or whether or not the social contact is work-related. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and research on sex segregation.     

Thinking about the Plurality of Genders

Linda Nicholson argues that because gender is socially constructed, feminist theorizing must be about an expansive multiplicity of subjects called “woman” that bear a family resemblance to each other. But why did feminism expand its category of analysis to apply to all cultures and time periods when social constructionism led lesbian and gay studies to narrow the categories “homosexual” and “lesbian”? And given the multiplicity of genders, why insist that feminist subjects are different, resembling women rather than a multiplicity including women as well as not‐women and not‐men?     

The Orpheus complex

This paper examines the possible psychological implications of two adaptations of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, both of which were completed in 1997. The first is by a man: 'Deconstructing Harry', a film by Woody Allen. The second is by a woman: 'Eurydice in the Underworld', a short story written by Kathy Acker in the last year of her life. The paper argues that there are only four 'necessary events' in the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. It defines the sequence of these events as a 'mythic pattern' that represents the experience of loss, unconscious yearning, depression, and psychological inflation. The film is examined as an expression of an 'Orpheus complex', the short story as an expression of an 'Eurydice complex'. The paper suggests a possible reason for the persistence of interest in the myth throughout the twentieth century. Although it notes that women appear to find it easier to free themselves from identification with the mythic pattern, it also provides reasons for thinking that men may be about to do the same.     

Woman's social status as a reflection of the internal relationship to mother and father in both sexes1

Abstract

Starting with three examples showing different kinds of external barriers which meet a woman in her professional life, the author examines how they are related to internal elements. She points out power as a common factor, and proposes that Freud, as well as many succeeding male and female psychoanalysts, wishfully described women as suffering from deficiencies, while the unconscious image of Mother in children and adults of both sexes is the very opposite of this: a potentially dangerous or ideally good, powerful creature. She argues that both men and women out of fear for this power try to restrict and belittle the capabilities of women. This thesis is further delineated by references to Greek mythology and clinical examples.     

From the Exclusion of Women to the Transformation of Philosophy: Reclamation and its Possibilities

In the mid‐1980s, feminist philosophers began to turn their critical efforts toward reclaiming women in the history of philosophy who had been neglected by traditional histories and canons. There are now scores of resources treating historical women philosophers and reclaiming them for philosophical history. This article explores the four major argumentative strategies that have been used within those reclamation projects. It argues that three of the strategies unwittingly work against the reclamationist end of having women engaged as philosophers. The fourth type, the one that seeks to transform philosophical practice and reconstruct its history, is the only strategy that will result in that engagement because it is the only strategy that pays sufficient attention to the mechanisms by which women have been excluded from philosophy and its history.     

Cognitive therapy with battered women

Violence toward women by their male partners occurs so frequently that it must be considered seriously by every psychotherapist treating women clients. The paper addresses cognitive therapy with women when there has been a history of domestic violence toward them regardless of whether the danger is imminent and regardless of whether they initially identify battering as the presenting problem. Some cognitions which a woman may hold prior to the onset of abuse may contribute to an increased vulnerability once the violence occurs. A second category of cognitions develops through the battering experience itself, including perceptions of severity of abuse, attributions about the cause of the violence, and attributions about the solution to the problem. Working effectively with battered women requires not only an understanding of the dysfunctional cognitions that they may hold, but also a recognition of the dysfunctional cognitions to which therapists ascribe. It is important for a battered woman to accept responsibility for control of a solution to her victimization, not because the responsibility of the cause is hers, but because it represents empowerment over her own life. A third category of cognitions includes the negative psychological effects of violence. It is imperative to keep as the primary goal of intervention that of safety. Although dysfunctional cognitions may be important to alter, it is necessary never to lose sight of the real dangers the battered woman faces.     

GENDER, JEALOUSY, AND REASON

Abstract— Research has suggested that men are especially bothered by evidence of their partner's sexual infidelity, whereas women are troubled more by evidence of emotional infidelity. One evolutionary account (Buss, Larsen, Westen, & Semmelroth, 1992) argues that this is an innate difference, arising from men's need for paternity certainty and women's need for male investment in their offspring. We suggest that the difference may instead be based on reasonable differences between the sexes in how they interpret evidence of infidelity. A man, thinking that women have sex only when in love, has reason to believe that if his mate has sex with another man, she is in love with that other. A woman, thinking that men can have sex without love, should still be bothered by sexual infidelity, but less so because it does not imply that her mate has fallen in love as well. A survey of 137 subjects confirmed that men and women do differ in the predicted direction in how much they think each form of infidelity implies the other, proposing innate emotional differences may, therefore, be gratuitous.     

Theological reflections on violence and abuse

This article examines the contemporary problem of intimate violence and sexual assault within a larger theoretical and theological context. It does so by tracing two trajectories in theological thinking: first, that suffering is sent from God and requires obedience; and, second, that the roles of men and women are not only specific and hierarchical but must remain so lest society risk moral chaos. It argues that many messages from traditional Christian theology continue to haunt abused women in such a way as to at times facilitate domestic violence. It offers suggestions for transforming common theological interpretations in ways that are empowering for battered women. These recommendations include attempts to emphasize resources within a tradition that may help transform unjust power relations like those in abusive relationships.     

“Cow Is a Mother,Mothers Can Do Anything for Their Children!” Gaushalas as Landscapes of Anthropatriarchy and Hindu Patriarchy

This article argues that gaushalas, or cow shelters, in India are mobilized as sites of Hindutva or Hindu ultranationalism, where it is a “vulnerable” Hindu Indian nation—or the “Hindu mother cow” as Mother India—who needs “sanctuary” from predatory Muslim males. Gaushalas are rendered spaces of (re)production of cows as political, religious, and economic capital, and sustained by the combined and compatible narratives of “anthropatriarchy” and Hindu patriarchy. Anthropatriarchy is framed as the human enactment of gendered oppressions upon animal bodies, and is crucial to sustaining all animal agriculture. Hindu patriarchy refers to the instrumentalization of female and feminized bodies (women, cows, “Mother India”) as “mothers” and cultural guardians of a “pure” Hindu civilization. Both patriarchies commodify bovine motherhood and breastmilk. which this article frames as a feminist issue. Through empirical research, this article demonstrates that gaushalas generally function as spaces of exploitation, incarceration, and gendered violence for the animals. The article broadens posthumanist feminist theory to illustrate how bovine bodies, akin to women's bodies, are mobilized as productive, reproductive, and symbolic capital to advance Hindu extremism and ultranationalism. It subjectifies animal bodies as landscapes of nation‐making using ecofeminism and its subfield of vegan feminism.     

Edith Stein's Philosophy of Woman and of Women's Education

Edith Stein, Husserl's brilliant student and assistant, devoted ten years of her life to teaching in a girls’ secondary school, during which time she gave a series of lectures on educational reform and the appropriate education to be provided to girls. She grounds her answer to these questions in a philosophical account of the nature of woman. She argues that men and women share some universally human character’ istics, but that they have separate and distinct natures. Her awareness of the rich variety of different personality types and specific differences among individuals allows her to hold an essentialist view of the nature of woman without either stereotyping individual women or assuming that woman's nature is in any way inferior to man's.     

女性选择辅助生殖技术的文化动力

在现代医学的语境中,女性的身体究竟是什么?是被当作肉体还是视作活生生的身体?这在很大程度上影响着女性的地位和命运。辅助生殖技术迎合了社会的主流需要,使女性的身体客观化为肉体,女性作为活生生的身体已被淡漠和遗忘。辅助生殖技术只有成为女性的自主选择才是合理的。     

A Good Abortion Is a Tragic Abortion: Fit Motherhood and Disability Stigma

In the context of abortion stigma, most abortion stories remain untold. The stories we do tell of abortion are often told to morally recuperate the status of the woman who has an abortion through a recourse to tragedy. Tragedy frames experiences where every choice produces some suffering, so decisions are geared toward maintaining individual integrity rather than adherence to absolute moral truths. This article argues that one dominant tragic abortion narrative, that of the disabled fetus, works to recuperate the moral status of “fit” mothers while actively constructing disabled lives as unlivable and undesirable. The option to stigmatize disability in recuperating the moral status of the woman who has an abortion relies on eugenic logics that also construct a variety of women (racialized, poor, disabled, and young) as illegitimate reproductive subjects. The article analyzes narratives of Sherri Finkbine's 1962 abortion in relation to contemporary narratives of late‐term abortions involving nonviable fetuses to expose how investment in medical judgments of good births enables particular women to make use of tragic narratives to maintain their status as moral mothers without disturbing broader abortion stigma or eugenic logics.     

Nobody Puts Baby in the Container: The Foetal Container Model at Work in Medicine and Commercial Surrogacy

This article argues that a particular metaphysical model permeates cultural practices surrounding pregnancy: the foetal container model. Widespread uncritical reliance on this view of pregnancy has been highly detrimental to women's liberty and reproductive autonomy. In this article, I extend existing critiques of the medical treatment of pregnant women to the context of the burgeoning commercial surrogacy industry. In doing so, I aim to show that our philosophical analysis in both spheres is constrained by the presupposition that the foetus and pregnant woman are metaphysically and ethically distinct entities. By exploring the similarities and differences between the expectations placed on pregnant women in these two spheres, I show that the foetal container model is not a homogeneous understanding of pregnancy applied consistently across contexts; rather, it has been used to justify various practices and attitudes toward pregnancy and pregnant women through different moral frameworks, in the service of different overarching aims.     

Vulnerable Women and Neo-Liberal Globalization: Debt Burdens Undermine Women's Health in the Global South

Contemporary processes of globalization havebeen accompanied by a serious deterioration inthe health of many women across the world. Particularly disturbing is the drastic declinein the health status of many women in theglobal South, as well as some women in theglobal North. This paper argues that thehealth vulnerability of women in the globalSouth is inseparable from their political andeconomic vulnerability. More specifically, itlinks the deteriorating health of many Southernwomen with the neo-liberal economic policiesthat characterize contemporary economicglobalization and argues that this structure issustained by the heavy burden of debtrepayments imposed on many Southern countries. In conclusion, it argues that many Southerndebt obligations are not morally bindingbecause they are not democraticallylegitimate.     

Pregnancy: A social stigma?

Experimental evidence is presented which explores the social stimulus value of pregnancy. It was found that, for men especially, the pregnant woman elicits avoidance and staring and that these responses occur primarily because pregnancy is a novel visual stimulus. For women, avoidance seems to be tied less to the stimulus aspects of the pregnant woman than to role expectations about her behavior. The pregnant woman is expected to be passive, but is simultaneously rejected for being so. It is argued that this constellation of responses may produce discomfort and withdrawal in the pregnant woman herself, since avoidance and staring are easily interpreted as negative reactions. How these reactions fit into the cultural response to pregnancy is discussed.     

“Where are the Gothic Jewish women? On the non-iconography of the Jewess in the Cantigas de Santa Maria”

No distinctive symbol, costume, or physiognomy was devised for Jewish women in high medieval art, in sharp contrast to Jewish men, who from the late eleventh century were endowed with increasingly graphic—and virulent—marks of identity. This article attempts to explain this fact by comparing the outward appearance, narrative role, and ideological import of Jewish men and women in the Escorial Cantigas de Santa Maria. It argues that the caricatured male Jew epitomizes crucial aspects of Jewish “testimony” as articulated by high medieval theologians: its rigid obsolescence, its blind literalism, the severity and intractability of its law: qualities that female flesh was considered ill-suited to convey. To recognize the inability of the Jewish woman to embody Jewish ritual, exegesis, and law is not, however, to assert that this figure has nothing to say about Judaism. The other component of the doctrine of “Jewish witness”, which served to justify the continued presence of Jews within Christendom, insisted on protecting Jews who respected Christian primacy, and held out hope that they might ultimately turn to Christ. These are notions effectively embodied in the sign of the Jewish woman, whose face and body encode receptivity to dominance and potential for change. By mapping select aspects of Jewishness onto hyper-gendered images, the illuminations of the Cantigas model the ideal—punishment and conversion—while implicitly acknowledging the imperfect real, the necessary compromises of mundane co-existence, reflecting Alfonso?el?Sabio’s meticulously modulated Jewish policy*.     

The two-woman phenomenon

A distinct type of phenomenon that has not been previously noted as such is named and described. Men who present a two-woman phenomenon retain a commitment to wife and marriage while loving another woman. Conflict arises only when one of the women has to be relinquished. It is postulated that many men with this pattern of loving have experienced a traumatic childhood and an oedipal conflict which defensively involved two maternal objects in fantasy or reality. One mother was hated, the other loved. This dynamic is one possible determinant leading to the two-woman phenomenon.     

It's for your own good: benevolent sexism and women's reactions to protectively justified restrictions

Three studies examined women's reactions to ostensibly protective restrictions. In Study 1, only benevolently sexist women accepted a protectively justified (hypothetical) prohibition against driving on a long trip, but only when imposed by a husband (not a coworker). In Study 2, when women's actual romantic partners opposed their participation in a practicum counseling dangerous men, most reacted positively to a personalized protective justification ("I am concerned for your safety"), but only benevolently sexist women reacted positively when no justification was given. In Study 3, only benevolently sexist women accepted an explicitly group-based protective justification ("It is not safe for any woman") for a partner's imagined opposition to an internship that involved interviewing criminals. By fusing benevolence with dominance, protective paternalism can lead women (especially those who are high on benevolent sexism) to accept restrictions.