Eyes Of Women Research Articles

Through Sunni Women's Eyes: Black Feminism and the Nation of Islam

This article portrays and analyzes the narratives of two Sunni women who were formerly members of the Nation of Islam. Their Nation stories vividly show how Muslim women accommodated dress codes as well as traditional gender roles that position men as the financial supporters of women and children. The article shows why Sunni African-American Muslim women have advocated male accountability in the past and present, and how doing so situates them within Black feminist tradition.

Through the eyes of women: The partners’ perspective on tadalafil

Objectives To evaluate patient and female partner responses on the efficacy of, and overall satisfaction with, tadalafil to treat erectile dysfunction using sexual encounter profile (SEP) diaries. Methods Data were pooled from four double-blind, placebo-controlled, 12-week trials that included 746 couples. Patients were randomized to placebo or tadalafil 10 or 20 mg. Efficacy was evaluated by the mean per-patient/per-partner percentage of “yes” responses to patient SEP questions 1, 2, and 5 and partner SEP questions 1 to 3 (erection achievement, penetration, and overall satisfaction with the sexual experience, respectively) for tadalafil versus placebo. For each SEP question, the number of postbaseline intercourse attempts when each couple agreed on the outcome was tabulated and divided by the total number of postbaseline attempts to calculate the mean percentage of agreement by couple. The overall satisfaction with successful postbaseline intercourse attempts was determined. Results Tadalafil significantly improved the responses for the patient and partner-evaluated SEP questions ( P <0.001, both doses versus placebo). Partners tended to report greater overall satisfaction than patients at baseline and postbaseline. The mean percentage of agreement by couple was approximately 98% for erection achievement and penetration and 85% for overall satisfaction. For successful intercourse attempts, patients and partners treated with tadalafil reported more overall satisfaction than those treated with placebo ( P <0.05, tadalafil versus placebo comparisons). Conclusions Partners reported significantly improved overall sexual satisfaction and corroborated the man’s report of improved erections and penetration ability with tadalafil 10 mg or 20 mg. Men reported improved erection achievement, penetration, and overall satisfaction with the sexual experience after taking tadalafil.

The Red Riviera: gender, tourism, and postsocialism on the Black Sea

Kristen Ghodsee. The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism, and Postsocialism on the Black Sea. New Directions in Women's Studies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005. xii, 226 pp. Photographs. Bibliography. Index. Notes. Appendices. $74.95, cloth. $21.95, paper.In The Red Riviera: Gender, Tourism, and Postsocialism on the Black Sea, Kristen Ghodsee offers a compelling and beautifully-crafted ethnographic study of women and the Bulgarian tourism industry. In a refreshing intervention to the existing literature on post-Soviet women, which stresses the mostly negative effects of socialist collapse on East and Central European women's lives, Ghodsee convincingly argues that women employed in the tourism sector have successfully navigated post-socialist economic and social transformations. This success, she shows, is in large part thanks to the education and experience that women were offered under the socialist system, which has translated into valuable cultural and economic capital in contemporary Bulgaria. Ghodsee thus challenges the assumption that economic transition has been more detrimental for all women than for men in Bulgaria, although she does acknowledge that, while a small group of women experiences an increase in their standard of living, the majority of Bulgarian women slide into poverty (p. 5). Ghodsee's inspiring work should encourage scholars to ponder whether women employed in tourism in Bulgaria represent an interesting exception, or if there are other economic niches across the post-socialist region where women are regrouping and successfully forging careers.Ghodsee takes her major theoretical inspiration from Bourdieu's ideas about social and cultural capital and from the trajectory adjustment theory of Gil Eyal, Ivan Szelenyi, and Kleanor Townsley. Throughout the book, she draws on ethnographic examples to illustrate how women in the socialist-era tourism industry in Bulgaria developed unique and valuable portfolios of different forms of capital (especially cultural capital consisting of general education, work experience with foreigners, and fluency in foreign languages) that have allowed women to thrive-or at least survive-in the tourism industry. Although some readers may wonder whether the women profiled in The Red Riviera truly represent post-socialist success stories-job security seems perilous, and some women are supporting their nuclear and extended families single-handedly-Ghodsee helps the reader see the situation through the women's eyes, and convincingly shows that these women are faring much better than many in post-socialist Bulgaria. Her analysis includes a valuable combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including several surveys the author conducted among tourism workers on the Black Sea coast. Ghodsee gracefully moves between the historical and macro- (Bulgarian, post-socialist) contexts and the specific cases she describes; general trends and statistics are humanized as Ghodsee connects them to the experiences and narratives of everyday Bulgarians. …

Sexual dysfunctions in women with chronic pelvic pain. A modified sex-therapeutic model

Pelvic pain in women is frequently associated with sexual disturbances: inhibited sexual desire, excitement disorders (dyspareunia) and orgasmic dysfunctions. Women with chronic pelvic pain have a disturbed relationship with their own body. They lost the ability of living the body as a place of sensual joy and mutual communication. The goal of therapy is not only relieving from pain, but also that the women should learn (again) to enjoy life as much as the capacities allow this. Therapeutic measures include guidance and appropriate treatment: a biopsychosocially oriented approach. Formal psychotherapy, implying the working trough of deep, unconscious conflicts, anxieties, and angers from childhood, is not necessary and mostly not possible. Also formal sextherapy or psychosexual therapy (Kaplan) is not indicated. This paper describes the different steps of an appropriate and modified sextherapy on psychosomatic and psychodynamic lines. Difficulties, risks and chances of each step are demonstrated; a careful physical examination, information, counselling and emotional support, physical and psychological rest, drug therapy, the way of individual counselling and sexual enrichment program, couple sexual counselling and sextherapeutical sessions. Through these steps the woman can be accompanied to a new life style. The participation in a self-help group for women with emancipatoric goals opens some women's eyes for yet unused capacities and talents. Through these sessions both partners can learn how to live up a new partnership.

Brutal neglect: Australian rural women's access to health services

Access to health services in rural Australia has been particularly problematic because of the vast geographical areas and the sparse population distribution across the inland. The focus on health servicing has been very much on primary health care with most attention being giving to the distribution of doctors in rural Australia. This study takes a closer look at rural health servicing through the eyes of women in rural Australia. Drawing on a survey of 820 women, the study revealed that a focus on primary health care may be resulting in a lack of attention to women's health in areas, such as maternity models of care, domestic violence and mental health. The study also reveals the disquiet of Australian rural women at the poor state of health services.

Not through women's eyes: photo‐essays and the construction of a gendered tsunami disaster

PurposeThis paper aims to critically appraise the representation of women through photo‐essays used immediately following the December 26, 2004 tsunami disaster. Through analysis of photo‐essay images published online, the author argues that women were largely represented in the samples as helpless victims who are passive, prone and inhabiting domestic or quasi‐domestic settings. The paper argues that a “disaster genre” has emerged, and that disaster images matter. The disaster community needs to care about the “ethics of seeing”, so that the viewer can “see” women, not simply as domesticated, vulnerable, passive and prone but in their diverse and complex lives and roles.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilizes methodology developed within the emerging discipline of visual sociology, as applied to a sample of photo‐essays published online by international aid agencies in the weeks following the tsunami disaster. Data sorting of the four visual essays was done in response to three interpretative questions. In total, 65 images were interpreted across four visual essays.FindingsA total of 26 images included women, and in these “the look” of the women suggested passivity, distress, and being in a state of being “cared for”. Relationally, women were represented in terms of domestic or quasi‐domestic locales. About 60 percent of the images included men, whereas 35.5 percent included women. There were no images in the 65 surveyed showing women actively involved in the physical labor of disaster response. In comparison, 35 percent of the images showed men involved in physical labor associated with disaster recovery.Practical implicationsThe participation of women in pre‐ and post‐disaster planning and recovery is complex, and this complexity should not be made invisible by the visual representation of their lived experience. Agencies should actively develop policies and practices to ensure that women's diverse participation in disaster recovery is reflected in their choice of photographic materials published online.Originality/valueHigh originality. The gendered nature of visual representation following a disaster is explored through the interpretation of four photo‐essays published online. An argument is put that disaster images matter, and that aid agencies have a responsibility to ensure that the complexity and diversity of women's disaster experiences are represented.

International Dimensions of Women's Suffrage: ‘at the crossroads of several interlocking identities’[1

This article surveys recent suffrage histories in a range of countries across the world with a focus on the neglected period of the interwar years. It asks what the suffrage movement would look like if viewed through the eyes of women from outside Britain and North America and to what extent it was possible for women, despite their differences, to identify with other women both inside individual countries and across national boundaries. It is suggested here that a comparative approach encourages us to take a fresh look at key features of the suffrage movement and to question conventional wisdoms.

Through Women's Eyes: The Challenges of Integrating Women's History and U.S. History in the Writing of a College Textbook

After more than three decades of astonishing discoveries and productivity in the field of U.S. women's history, the time has finally come for a comprehensive college level textbook on American history from the perspective of women. Does not such a thing already exist, you ask? There are indeed many wonderful teaching tools currently in use for women's history: collections of primary sources (1); anthologies of classic secondary articles (2); comprehensive encyclopedias (3); even narrative accounts that weave together the rich literature on the history of women from the Revolution to the present day (4). But what there has not been is a full fledged text which covers the total range of American history, placing women—their experiences, contributions, and observations—at the center. To put it another way, what is lacking is a women's history textbook that is also a U.S. history text....

Book Review: Voices behind the Veil: The World of Islam through the Eyes of Women

Book Review: Voices behind the Veil: The World of Islam through the Eyes of Women

Male Body and Space in the Representation of Tobacco Advertisements in Contemporary Japan

The consideration of male bodies is a significant issue for gender studies in geography since they are an influential factor in constructing gendered spaces. Few studies, however, have paid attention to male bodies, a fact that contrasts starkly with the amount of attention directed toward female bodies. Thus, the objective of this study is to clarify how male bodies contribute to the construction of gender-differentiated spaces by investigating the representation of tobacco advertisements in Japan.In Japan, smoking is primarily a male behavior; the smoking rate for men is about 47%, whereas that for women is about 12%. This is because Japanese tobacco advertisements tend to represent male bodies and their spaces around them.This study uses Japanese tobacco advertisements in Japanese magazines during 1987-2000. Surveying these advertisements, the following five characteristics were more significantly associated with represented male bodies than with female bodies.First, male bodies are represented with natural scenery whereas female bodies are represented in artificial environments. This implies that male bodies are intended to challenge nature. The images also emphasize the vastness of their space.Second, male bodies are represented with few words, while female bodies are accompanied by many words. This means that male space is emphasized by quiet, dignified male bodies through the elimination of words.Third, male bodies are accompanied by women's eyes. This representation of women gazing deeply at smoking men leads to the acknowledgement of male smoking space. This also means that male space is supported by female bodies.Fourth, male bodies are represented with the gesture of exhaling smoke, whereas such representation of female bodies is controlled. This difference indicates that only males are allowed to control their space by breathing out smoke.Fifth, male bodies are represented with distance between each other, contrary to women's bodies. Male relationships are defined only by their work, women, and smoking in order to bridge the distance.In conclusion, Japanese tobacco advertisements represent male bodies and contribute to the construction of male space as well as suggesting how men's personal space is associated with the wide open spaces. On the other hand, this finding also means the advertisements are prejudiced and biased toward men and the spaces they occupy. Therefore, it follows that we need to elucidate the meanings of ordinary male bodies in daily spaces.

Something in the way she moves: dancing women from Salome to Madonna

With heroines like Josephine Baker, Colette, Isadora Duncan, and the cancaneuses of the Moulin Rouge, this is far from a conventional history.Rich with both fascinating anecdotes (such as the New Jersey girl picked up by the police for dancing the very sexy turkey trot one day during the Roaring Twenties), and astonishing facts (the first geishas were men), Something in the Way She Moves shows us the world of and sex through women's eyes. Best-selling author Wendy Buonaventura brings us from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where immigrants created the delicious tango, to Paris and the bawdy, leggy cancan dancers of the Moulin Rouge, to New York, where struggling African-Americans cakewalked, Charlestoned, and shimmied into the public eye, creating jazz dance (originally--and tellingly--called jass dance). This is a book for lovers of and lovers of history alike, and an engrossing introduction to a slightly seamy side of a cultural legacy.

Situating sadness: women and depression in social context

It is well known that depression occurs more often in women than in men. It is the most commonly encountered mental health problem among women and ranks overall as one of the most important women's health problems. Researchers have studied depression a great deal, yet women's depression has rarely been the primary focus. The contexts of women's lives which might contribute to their depression are not often addressed by the mental health establishment, which tends to focus on biological factors. Situating Sadness sheds light on the influence of sociocultural factors, such as economic distress, child-bearing or child-care difficulties, or feelings of powerlessness which may play a significant role, and points to the importance of context for understanding women's depression. Situating Sadness draws on research in the United States and other parts of the world to look at depression through the eyes of women, exploring what being depressed is like in diverse social and cultural circumstances. It demonstrates that understanding depression requires close attention to the social context in which women become depressed.

Caring for Women Living With Sjögren's Syndrome

T his article advises nurses about providing care to women who are living with Sjögren's syndrome. A chronic, autoimmune condition, Sjögren's syndrome affects mostly women and leads to visual, vocal, and vaginal problems related to dryness. A review of the literature indicates that not many women are aware of Sjögren's, and when diagnosed, are not informed about the possibility that they will have the vaginal dryness associated with the condition. Nursing implications include interventions that involve pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic methods to moisturize women's eyes, mouth, and vagina, increasing the comfort of those with Sjögren's syndrome.

Through the Eyes of Women: Photovoice and participatory research as tools for reimagining place

In this article, the author explores how one particular group of working-class women living in Belfast, the North of Ireland, experience the place(s) in which they live. The perspective of place that this exploration is embedded in represents the accumulation of multiple person-place relationships that are mediated by the sociopolitical history of the North of Ireland, as well as by the gendered, classed, and religious-mediated contexts in which the women live. The author explores the relationship between place and identity by describing a feminist participatory action research (PAR) project that she engaged in with a group of women living in Belfast (which included the use of photovoice as a tool for investigating people's lives) that provided them with a culturally relevant lens through which to view the relationship between place and the everyday lives of Irish women. Out of that investigation, the author and the women designed a photo-text exhibit that provides knowledge to local and international communities about the ways in which women engage in the formulation and reformulation of place and identity within contexts of everyday life.

Feminist aesthetics in music

Introduction: For Women's Eyes Only? Feminist Aesthetics in Music Music in Context and Practice The Power of Sound, The Power of Sex: Alma Mahler-Werfel's Ansturm Sexing the Subject of Musical Analysis: Rebecca Clarke and Elisabeth Lutyens Meditations on Feminist Aesthetics: Anne Boyd's Cycle of Love Framing the Case for a Feminist Reading of Elena Kats-Chernin's Postmodern Tast-en Sexual Signatures: Feminist Aesthetics in the Music of Moya Henderson after the Death of the Author This Music which is between Two Bibliography Discography Index

Androgen deficiency, Meibomian gland dysfunction, and evaporative dry eye.

We have recently discovered that women with primary and secondary Sjögren's syndrome are androgen-deficient. We hypothesize that this hormone insufficiency contributes to the meibomian gland dysfunction, tear film instability, and evaporative dry eye that are characteristic of this autoimmune disorder. If our hypothesis is correct, we predict: (1) that androgens regulate meibomian gland function, control the quality and/or quantity of lipids produced by this tissue, and promote the formation of the tear film's lipid layer; and (2) that androgen deficiency, due to an attenuation in androgen synthesis (e.g., during Sjögren's syndrome, menopause, aging, complete androgen-insensitivity syndrome [CAIS] and anti-androgen use), will lead to meibomian gland dysfunction and evaporative dry eye. The following studies were designed to test these predictions. Experimental procedures included clinical studies, animal models, and histological, biochemical, molecular biological, and biomedical engineering techniques. Our results demonstrate that: (1) androgens regulate the meibomian gland. This tissue contains androgen receptor mRNA, androgen receptor protein within acinar epithelial cell nuclei, and Types 1 and 2 5alpha-reductase mRNAs. Moreover, androgens appear to modulate lipid production and gene expression in mouse and/or rabbit meibomian glands; and (2) androgen deficiency may lead to meibomian gland dysfunction, altered lipid profiles in meibomian gland secretions, tear film instability, and evaporative dry eye. Thus, we have found that anti-androgen therapy in men is associated with meibomian gland disease, a decreased tear film breakup time, and functional dry eye. Furthermore, we have discovered that androgen receptor dysfunction in women with CAIS is associated with meibomian gland changes and a significant increase in the signs and symptoms of dry eye. Of interest, we have also found that androgen deficiency is associated with significant and striking alterations in the neutral and polar lipid patterns of human meibomian gland secretions. Our findings show that the meibomian gland is an androgen target organ and that androgen deficiency may promote meibomian gland dysfunction and evaporative dry eye. Overall, these results support our hypothesis that androgen deficiency may be an important etiologic factor in the pathogenesis of evaporative dry eye in women with Sjögren's syndrome.

South Carolina History Through Women's Eyes

In A Family of Women, Jane and William Pease set out to narrate the story of three generations of female descendants in the Petigru family, from the 1810s to the 1890s. They detail their rise to prominence in the higher echelons of the South Carolina aristocracy and they follow the demise of their fortunes with the coming of the Civil War, after which the Petigru family's influence and power considerably declined. However, the authors achieve much more than just providing scholars with a detailed reconstruction of the parable of rise and fall of a remarkable southern family. The story of the Petigrus is so much linked to the history of South Carolina that an important feature of the book is the attention to the larger context of the events occurring in the state during the central decades of the nineteenth century. The reader follows these events through the lives of representative elite women who struggled to adapt to changing social conditions as they progressed from poverty to richness and then plunged into poverty again amidst eighty years of momentous shifts in South Carolinian fortunes. 1

Sex Selection: A Gender-based Preference for a Pregnancy

T HE article by Oomman and Ganatra raises important ethical, moral and legal questions with regard to the non-medical (mis)use of antenatal diagnostic technologies for sex selection. The focus of my discussion will be on sex determination and sex selective abortion and the meaning and consequences these technologies have for women, who are its direct users. While I will be addressing the non-medical use of fetal diagnostic technologies, it is important to point out that all practices – medical or non-medical – of these technologies are deeply influenced by subjective notions of ‘‘normalcy’’ and adult preference for certain kinds of offspring. Furthermore, most abortion decisions are not a consequence of fetal diagnosis. Sex selective abortion, however, is solely on the basis of the use of diagnostic technologies for sex determination. This is different from the medical use of antenatal technologies and abortion related to fetal malformation. This is important, because the failure to make these distinctions can result in condemnation of the use of these technologies and abortion as a whole, and result in quick-fix legal and ethical prescriptions that can further restrict women’s reproductive rights and autonomy. For the past two decades feminist scholars, women’s health advocates and bioethicists among many others have examined and identified the medical use of antenatal diagnostic technologies as dramatically transforming the experience of pregnancy and gestation. There has also been concern amongst some that these technologies have served to sustain and deepen medical control over birth to the detriment of women [1,2]. Additionally, there has been recognition that these technologies often place women and their partners in a position of making difficult emotional and moral decisions related to abortion based on fetal detection of genetic abnormality or mental or physical disability. However, the more contemporary phenomenon of non-medical use of antenatal technologies for sex determination is distinct, and based solely on a gender-based preference for a pregnancy. Only when the pregnancy is the ‘‘right kind’’, which in regions like South Asia, means the birth of a boy, is it continued. The decision is not based on ‘‘unconditional acceptance’’ of the child but rather children are ‘‘treated as custom-ordered commodities to satisfy personal or social preferences’’ [3]. Antenatal sex determination through ultrasonography leads to a heightened visibility and gender-based characterisation of the fetus. The resultant importance accorded to the male fetus is in inverse proportion to the interest and concern for women and their well-being. In India, for example, women’s experience of pregnancy and the duration of her pregnancy is often reduced to being one kind of ‘‘tentative pregnancy’’ [4]. However, this does not in any way imply the lack of women’s role or agency in obtaining sex determination and undergoing sex selective abortion. These technologies and the ‘‘choice’’ they offer have gained considerable validity in the eyes of women, who are the direct users. Many women have described the process of decision-making as being empowering, allowing them to negotiate the terms of their existence and to gain status. However, it is important to recognise that though women are the direct users of these technologies, the decision to undergo sex selective abortion is never only an individual decision. It must be understood and evaluated through family and community practices that make it appear to be a desirable and for many, the only viable option [5]. More importantly in societies where giving birth to sons defines women’s status and rights as wives, daughters-in-law and mothers, sex determination and sex selective abortion allow women to gain control over what has earlier been seen as an immutable process of birth and kinship-building [6]. To many families, these technologies are seen today as cost-effective tools for patrilineal kinship-building by eliminating the expense of rearing unwanted daughters. PII: S0968-8080 (02 )00031-9

Dowry and Dowry Harassment in India: An Assessment Based on Modified Capitalist Patriarchy*

ABSTRACT Listen to the many women Listen to the many voices Spoken and unspoken1 On March 27, 1984, "The Times of India" reported that in Delhi, "a bride is burnt to death every twelve hours." 2 The number of dowry deaths has steadily increased in the 1980s and 1990s. Even though the official number of dowry deaths rose from 6,758 in 1996 to 7,543 in 1997,3 unofficial estimates of dowry deaths figure around a staggering 25,000 annually. 4 Classical socialist feminist traditions have inadequately addressed the widespread prevalence of this social practice. Drawing from primary and secondary sources, this article reconceptualizes and reframes the "legitimate" practice of dowry from a modified socialist feminist perspective. A modified capitalist patriarchal approach that includes caste and religion is necessary to expound the primacy of the phenomenon. As well, this critique suggests recommendations for social change. For: Through the eyes of women It is another way of seeing It is another way of knowing 5

Russia Through Women’s Eyes: Autobiographies from Tsarist Russia (review)

Russia Through Women’s Eyes: Autobiographies from Tsarist Russia (review)