A paradox of support seeking and rejection among the stigmatized

Individuals perceiving stigma may be unwilling to seek support directly. Instead, they may use indirect strategies due to fear of rejection. Ironically, indirect seeking leads to unsupportive network responses (i.e., rejection). In Study 1, data collected from structured interviews of a sample of U.S. women in poverty (N= 116) showed that perceived poverty‐related stigma was related to increased fear of rejection, which in turn partially mediated perceived stigma and indirect seeking. In Study 2, data gathered from structured interviews of a sample of U.S. abused women (N= 177) revealed that perceived abuse‐related stigma was linked to increased indirect seeking, which in turn related to increased unsupportive network responses. By contrast, direct support seeking was related to increased supportive and decreased unsupportive responses.     

Comments on Ofelia Schutte's Work in Feminist Philosophy

This paper on Ofelia Schutte's work discusses five main themes: gender oppression in the context of Latin American theories of social liberation; normative heterosexuality in Beauvoir and Irigaray; Schutte's analysis of women and capitalist globalization processes; her work on cultural identities; and the possibility of feminist transnational identities. 1 conclude with a comment on her postcolonial epistemological method in addressing cultural incommensurability and the possibility of a common agenda for transnational feminism.     

The Productive Power of Ambiguity: Rethinking Homosexuality through the Virtual and Developmental Systems Theory

This paper juxtaposes Deleuze's notion of the virtual alongside Oyama's notion of a developmental system in order to explore the promises and perils of thinking bodily identity as indeterminate at a time when new technologies render bodily ambiguity increasingly productive of both economic profit and power relations.     

Assimilation and Otherness: the Theological Significance of Négritude

This article argues that otherness is a root concept in Christian theology, functioning as such in Christology and the doctrines of the Trinity, creation, sanctification and consummation. Recent philosophical and theological treatments of otherness or alterity have, however, focused on its problematic aspects, its link to ills such as racism, sexism and genocide. The thought of the Senegalese statesman and poet Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–2001) is proposed as an aid in mediating between the tradition's conceptions of otherness and contemporary debates and contexts, illuminating root concepts which have not been recognized as such, their systematic interconnectedness and their enduring relevance.