Critical Feminist Perspective Research Articles

Change and grassroots movement: reconceptualising women's hockey governance in Canada

In Canada, female hockey governance structures vary as different regions of the country may better suit integrated or partially-integrated governance approaches based upon their unique local histories and individual dynamics. Indeed, the Ontario Women's Hockey Association (OWHA) is the only female hockey provincial association in Canada that endorses and endeavours to maintain a separatist philosophy. However, women's hockey governance in Canada as a whole has not progressed in a manner where the authority of female hockey participants and leaders has increased. This paper initiates dialogue about women's sport governance by utilising women's hockey in Canada and specifically a case study of the OWHA, as a context in which to develop a new perspective and renew efforts to place women's sport governance on the agenda. In order to develop a sport and governance dialogue for women's hockey specifically and women's sport more broadly, we present a theoretical discussion that integrates critical feminist and grassroots movement perspectives.

Making Meaning of Megan's Law

This study of Megan's Law contrasts scholarly narratives that describe and analyze sexual predator laws with a case study of implementation in New Jersey. A critical feminist perspective shows that Megan's Law employs a radically underinclusive notion of sexual violence that conflicts sharply with feminist arguments about the cultural and institutional roots of sexual violence. The law excludes many of the most common offenders from reach of the law, thus deflecting attention away from assaults committed by family and friends in favor of reviving stereotypes about deviant strangers. The most significant effect of Megan's Law is not to expand the power of the punitive state but to advance a political and legal interpretation of rape that undermines the basis for and gains made by feminist rape law reforms of the 1970s.

An Ethics of Testimony

This historical research report presents and analyzes 2 recently identified narratives of women who underwent sterilization experiments at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. A description of the historical and contextual background is presented in which involvement of the prisoner nurse occurred in the sterilization experiments. Using a critical feminist perspective, the ethics of nursing involvement are discussed in these experiments, with an emphasis on the political dimension. Salient implications are explored for contemporary nursing.

La Femme chez Heinrich Heine et Charles Baudelaire: Le langage moderne de l'amour by Sophie Boyer

MLR, 10I.4, 2oo6 I079 La Femme chez Heinrich Heine et Charles Baudelaire: le langage moderne de l'amour. By SOPHIE BOYER. (Allemagne d'hier et d'aujourd'hui) Paris: L'Harmattan. 2004. xi+322pp. ?29. ISBN 2-7475-7822-4. Comparisons of Heine and Baudelaire are not entirely new terrain: the first to iden tify parallels between the two poets was Baudelaire himself, in an unfinished draft letter to Jules Janin in the I86os, defending Heine against the critic's denunciation and aligning himself with Heine's aesthetic, characterized in Baudelaire's eyes by sadness, irony, dissonance, pain, a longing for death, and a sense of decadence. Sub sequent commentators, including Walter Benjamin, Kurt Weinberg, Oliver Boeck, Gert Sautermeister, and Dolf Oehler, have also established comparisons between the two. Sophie Boyer acknowledges and evaluates these contributions, crediting Oehler in particular with revealing the political and historical underpinnings of the anti bourgeois aesthetic shared by Heine and Baudelaire among others. Boyer's study is, however, the first to compare in detail the representations of women, and in particular of the female body, in their poetry and other writings. Her main objective is not to establish or explore the influence of the German poet on his French counterpart, although she does suggest that Baudelaire's 'discours amoureux' originates inHeine; nor is it to reduce their representations of women to themisogyny undoubtedly pre sent in them. Rather, it is to analyse their perspectives to see what they can reveal about contemporary masculine attitudes in all their complexity. The extent towhich these texts can be deemed representative of contemporary attitudes is not made clear, if indeed it ever could be, but Boyer succeeds in identifying in both poets an ideal of beauty associated with melancholy and a discourse on love characteristic of the aesthetic of modernity, inwhich the subject's encounter with the other ismarked by a sense of dissonance rather than harmony. The author is persuasive when engaging directly with the texts and when confronting Heine and Baudelaire. Less well inte grated are the occasional unnecessarily lengthy discussions of thewritings of-among others-Octavio Paz, Sigmund Freud, Jean Baudrillard, and Benjamin, which tend to divert attention from the task at hand (perhaps most strikingly at the very beginning of the avant-propos, where a two-page discussion of Paz's The Double Flame precedes any clarification of its relevance to either Heine or Baudelaire). When eventually the author returns to the poets, the point of her excursions usually becomes clear, al though some readers might prefer concision and more signposting, especially in the case of the occasional sudden shift from, say, apsychoanalytical mode to socio-political questions. There are chapters on Baudelaire's comments on Heine; on the themes of melancholy and pain; on images of the prostitute and the metropolis; on the connec tions established between women, death, and illness; and on woman as sphinx and woman as statue. They lead to a final chapter inwhich the representation of women in relation to revolutionary politics isbrought to the fore. The author's description of this closing chapter as being 'en guise de conclusion' is symptomatic of what might be seen as a lack of overall coherence in the work: individually, Boyer's points are often illuminating, but they represent a varied series of insights into the complex ways in which the two poets represented women rather than elements of a sustained and cohe sive argument. Boyer's is a significant contribution to the comparative study of Heine and Baudelaire; however, there remains significant scope for further work, notably from the feminist critical perspectives sometimes rather summarily dismissed here. UNIVERSITYOFLEEDS PAULROWE ...

Examining Bilingual Children's Gender Ideologies through Critical Discourse Analysis

This article presents a case study of young bilingual students' discussionsof literature in a second-grade Spanish/English bilingual classroom in the US. Sociocultural, critical, and Chicana feminist perspectives informed an analysis of the ways the children worked at understanding, marking, and resisting gender boundaries. This critical discourse analysis helped reveal students' emergent gender ideologies and their awareness of gender inequities as they discussed the picture book Oliver Button Is a Sissy. Contrary to common assumptions that question young language minority children's ability to engage in critical discussions, the children's talk revealed sophisticated understandings of various gender issues in contemporary US society. The results of the study show how young bilingual children are developing and negotiating sometimes contradictory gender ideologies, and how the literacy events in primary classrooms can create a context where that negotiation can take place, while also supporting the development of children's academic and social identities.

‘Doing’ Security As Though Humans Matter: A Feminist Perspective on Gender and the Politics of Human Security

A feminist perspective can make security discourse more reflective of its own normative assumptions. In respect of an expanded human security concept, a feminist perspective highlights the dangers of masking differences under the rubric of the term ‘human’. A critical feminist perspective is geared towards addressing the politics of multiple overlapping identities. Since gender is intertwined with other identities such as race, class and nationality, the dichotomy between universalism and cultural relativism is overcome by connecting individual experiences in a particular location to wider regional and global structures and processes. An overview of a number of feminist and security-studies schools of thought reveals the extent of universalizing tendencies and gender silences within such discourses. The conceptual and political commensurability of the gender and security constructs is often overlooked. An emphasis on identity politics may thus help to clarify the ambivalence of human security as both a political project of emancipation and an analytical framework. A case is therefore made for more fluid context-based interpretations of gender in human security. In this regard it is posited that alternative feminist approaches, such as those rooted in the African context, could facilitate dialogue within and across supposedly irreconcilable standpoints.

Gender Enactments in Immigrants' Discursive Practices: Bringing Bakht into the Dialogue

Drawing on the narratives of four East European couples, this article offers a discourse-centered analysis of their gendered experiences in the second language (L2). The analysis of the data integrates critical feminist perspectives with a Bakhtinian lens to language and the self. Espousing Bakhtin's concepts of dialogue, answerability, and emotional-volitional tone, the article illustrates how the participants in this study enact their positional identities on two planes of L2 use: relative to native speakers of English and within the couples. It shows the discourses these men and women voice in responding to their everyday realities with a particular focus on discourses of emotions and linguistic expertise. It also stresses that these responses are created on the boundary between the self and the Other. The article suggests that a Bakhtinian approach would allow us to add another dimension to viewing the gendered self: that of the ever-shifting relations between the self and the Other which, uniquely to Bakhtin, are fused with a sense of dialogic responsibility.

Assessing power issues in Canadian and Jamaican women's experiences in learning via distance in higher education

This paper examines a qualitative research study which examines the experiences of ten Jamaican and Canadian women engaged in learning via distance in a graduate adult education program. Using a critical feminist perspective, three power issues emerged as topics for discussion that are important for distance educators in higher education to take into consideration. These are some of the ethical and practical challenges of teaching internationally and cross‐culturally, gender differences in power relationships in the distance learning classroom, and the impact of relationships in the homeplace and how this may affect women's learning experiences.

Eros and Violence

Rita Nakashima Brock, Carter Heyward and Susan Thistlethwaite intend, in their respective theological projects, to create a vision of feminist eros uncomplicated by violence. They envision feminist eros as a means to bring theology back to earth and into the body, and encourage women to seek the good within themselves and their relationships with others. Brock, Heyward and Thistlethwaite resist social injustices, particularly the intertwined structures of patriarchy and multi-national capitalism. According to these feminist theologians, the structures of injustice have sedimented into a seemingly intractable and unobserved geography of habits and attitudes. Brock, Heyward and Thistlethwaite want to expand theological imagination to territories that lie beyond these oppressive systems through a critical feminist perspective, and to recover possibilities inherent in a hitherto unattended and constant feature of the landscape, the connections between all that exists, inanimate, animate, animal, human. This revisioning constitutes a new and dynamic gospel of feminist eros.

Toward a Critical Feminist Perspective of Culture and Self

The overall aim of this article is to provide a critical feminist perspective of culture and self. Five main points of view are presented. First, cultural feminists’ essentialist claims of ‘gendered’ experience for all women are critiqued. Second, a deconstructive reading of essentialist self from postmodern feminist perspective is discussed. Third, the ongoing critique of western autonomous self is critically reviewed. Fourth, a further deconstructive reading of dualist thinking in cultural literature is suggested. Finally, a critical feminist perspective and its implications to feminist research and clinic work are provided.

Toward a Critical Feminist Perspective of Culture and Self

The overall aim of this article is to provide a critical feminist perspective of culture and self. Five main points of view are presented. First, cultural feminists’ essentialist claims of ‘gendered’ experience for all women are critiqued. Second, a deconstructive reading of essentialist self from postmodern feminist perspective is discussed. Third, the ongoing critique of western autonomous self is critically reviewed. Fourth, a further deconstructive reading of dualist thinking in cultural literature is suggested. Finally, a critical feminist perspective and its implications to feminist research and clinic work are provided.

The Aftermath of Pregnancy Loss

Although 15%-20% of pregnancies end in miscarriage (Borg & Lasker, 1989; Swanson, 1999), many health care professionals do not recognize miscarriage as a psychologically taxing event, and thus women are not routinely provided with follow-up care (Lee, Slade, & Lygo, 1996; Reinharz, 1988). The purpose of this article is to explore some of the issues that arise for women who experience pregnancy loss and to offer some suggestions for therapists working with women and their families. The psychological literature on perinatal loss is reviewed from a critical feminist perspective. I argue that therapists must privilege the personal meanings of a woman's stillbirth or miscarriage experience, while simultaneously appreciating the sociopolitical context in which the loss is embedded.

Footballers' wives: the role of the soccer player's partner in the construction of idealized masculinity

This article is concerned with the media image of some of the women associated with professional football players in England. More specifically, a textual analysis of multiple media sources was conducted, the results of which connect media portrayals of, and narratives about, the image of football players' partners with the social (re)production of masculine hegemony. Media accounts of the heterosexual practices of a number of elite football players were examined. The focus of this examination was not the footballers per se, but the women implicated in their ‘off the pitch’ lives, whose media image, we posit, is constructed in accordance with a traditionally feminine, hetero‐sexy, and ‘expressive/supportive’ role. Adopting a critical feminist perspective, two principal typologies were developed to explore this role: the beautiful, erotic woman and the devoted and supportive woman, both of which, we argue, are complicit to the stalwart hegemonic project happening in English football. A further typology was developed to incorporate the most media‐visible of all footballers' partners, Victoria Beckham, whose ‘image’ is both complicit and contradictory. It is worth noting that certain articles referencing Victoria were the only challenge – in this study – to the hegemonic patterns apparent in the image of the footballer's wife.

Social Security privatization and older women: A feminist political economy perspective

Gender is a crucial organizing principle in society that profoundly shapes the experience of old age and aging and the distribution of resources to older women. Using a critical feminist perspective, this paper looks at privatization in the context of the state, the capital, and the sex and gender system that conjointly reproduce the dominant institutions that render women, and particularly women of color, vulnerable and dependent throughout their life courses. The substantial dependency of older women on the state and its reasons are described. The proposed privatization of Social Security is examined in terms of its gender-biased ideological underpinnings and assumptions about the nature and norms of work, productivity, individualism, interdependence, and exchange. Negative effects are particularly harsh for those older women who do not conform to the model of family status as married with male breadwinner and for those already disadvantaged by race, ethnicity, and class.

Antifeminism and Family Terrorism: A Critical Feminist Perspective

Antifeminism and Family Terrorism: A Critical Feminist Perspective

Militarism and Family Terrorism: A Critical Feminist Perspective

“Repeat a lie often enough, and people will believe you” Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, Nazi Party.

What Counts? Examining Academic Values and Women's Life Experiences from a Critical Feminist Perspective

Women comprise the majority of students in adult education, but the experiences of women continue to be marginalized and devalued in the academic sphere. This article provides an exploration of the current critical analysis of the marketplace influence on adult education, and a comparative feminist analysis with a critical perspective. I argue for the development of a critical feminist approach to adult education that acknowledges the importance of women's life experiences and connections to the homeplace. Various research studies are correlated with my own experience to provide an alternative value set from which to challenge existing marketplace influences within academia, and redefine the way society assesses "what counts" as important work and learning experiences. The critical discourse I advocate supports the work that women do in the homeplace, as students and as academics; the process can lead to a more holistic and inclusive approach to adult education. Résumé Bien que les femmes représentent la majeure partie de l'effectif étudiant dans les programmes de formation pour adultes, leurs expériences continuent à être marginalisées et dévalorisées dans les milieux universitaires. Cet article explore l'analyse critique actuelle portant sur l'influence du marché dans le domaine de la formation pour adultes et offre une analyse féministe comparative fondée sur une perspective critique. J'y prône le développement d'une approche féministe critique en matière de formation pour adultes, qui tienne compte de l'importance des expériences vécues par les femmes et des liens qu'elles entretiennent avec la maison. L'article présente diverses études qui corroborent mon expérience et mettent de l'avant un nouvel ensemble de valeurs. Ces valeurs contribuent à remettre en question l'influence du marché dans les milieux universitaires et à redéfinir la manière par laquelle on évalue 'ce qui compte' vraiment sur les plans du travail et des expériences d'apprentissage. Par ce discours critique, j'entends appuyer le travail que font les femmes à la maison, en tant qu'étudiantes et en tant que chercheurs; ce processus est susceptible de mener à une approche en matière de formation pour adultes qui soil plus globale et respectueuse des différences.

The Trials of "Las Mujeres Pensantes": Juana Inés and María Luisa Find a Room of Their Own

... after making Sor Juana, after telling dramatic story of this extraordinary woman--I don't think in world there's been a woman with competence and richness of mind of Sor Juana--I said to my own sex, to my beloved sisters, here are five films each with questioning women. Here are examples by which to model your own identities. Maria Luisa Bemberg, qtd. in Caleb Bach 27. Maria Luisa Bemberg is one of more significant among handful of women filmmakers working in contemporary Latin American cinema (recognizing her death in 1995). During her brief career, she made films that are not only examples of quality cinematographic production in Latin American context, but also important feminist interventions into filmmaking. Even she noted her unique position, describing herself and her positive reception as the first successful grandmother filmmaker in [Argentina] (qtd. in Bach 23). Her exceptional status in male-domi-nated spheres--be they artistic, intellectual or social is distantly parallel to another avis rara, woman considered by many to be first feminist of America, (1) Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. It is therefore significant that one of her last projects is a film on life of Sor Juana, Yo, la peor de todas (1990). True to life and work of her subject, director identified project as part of her continued efforts to break with traditional stereotypes of women: Para mi era imperativo contar la historia de esta mujer, porque uno de los compromisos eticos y morales que asumi cuando decidi hacer cine era tratar de romper el cliche tradicional que tiene el cine sobre la mujer, estereotipo con el cual es dificil que las mujeres pensantes puedan identificarse (Burton-Carvajal 78, my emphasis). The basis of film is monumental literary psycho-biography of Sor Juana, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, o las trampas de la fe (1982), by Octavio Paz. Stephanie Merrim contends in her introduction to Feminist perspectives on Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1991) that Paz's work has widened parameters for feminist study on this notable woman: Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz at once represents a milestone and a watershed in critical reception of Baroque writer's works: as it rounds off both Paz's own intellectual endeavors and critical tradition surrounding Sor Juana, study also paves way for a more enlightened feminist understanding of its subject.... [T]he work avoids ideological blunders regarding its female subject, be they overt or implicit, so rife in other critical studies. (16) Merrim takes necessary steps of problematizing his analysis, yet she also acknowledges its success in dispelling earlier psychologistic readings that were overtly negative and sexist in their assessment of Sor Juana. (2) Merrim's largely favorable treatment of Paz provides an unintentional apology for Bemberg's sole reliance on his work, a fact that may otherwise be unpalatable to many feminists to extent that her feminist film does not utilize in anyway work by feminist scholars such as Dorothy Schons, Rosario Castellanos, Anita Arroyo, or Marie-Cecile Benassy-Berling, all of whom, between 1925 (Schons) and 1982 (Benassy-Berling)--i.e. before screenplay for film was written--have contributed greatly to a biographical, cultural, literary and historical understanding of Sor Juana from a feminist critical perspective. Despite this deficiency, Bemberg uses work of Paz to inserta clear and direct feminist message into her film, explicitly highlighting Sor Juana's struggles as a woman in a restricted patfiarchal environment. Consequently, Iris recognition of Sor Juana as a revolutionary and singular figure, most notably for her position as a woman intellectual in a male-centered and male-dominated universe, becomes motive and driving force of Bemberg's feminist recovery. …

Young Women's Perceptions of Print Cigarette Advertising

Twenty-eight middle-school-aged girls participated in focus group interviews designed to elicit their perceptions of images and messages embedded in print cigarette advertising directed at women. Five themes emerged from the transcribed group discussions: attraction of romantic partners, escape from stress, attraction of peers as friends, accumulation of material wealth, and health and vitality. We applied a critical feminist perspective to analyze the use of these five themes to appeal to an adolescent female audience.

The Elusive/Ubiquitous Representation of Rape: A Historical Survey of Rape in U.S. Film, 1903-1972

This article offers a historical analysis of rape in U. S. films from 1903 to 1972, using a criticalfeminist perspective that addresses gender, class, race, nationality, and their intersectionality. Despite the fact that the Hollywood Production Code forbade rape scenes, rape did appear; however, the strategies for representing it shifted. This essay examines the ubiquitous representations of implicit and explicit rape during this period and argues that rape is a central theme in American cinema.