Feminine Elements Research Articles

De muñecas a dueñas. Una mirada sobre la aparente inversión de roles de género en las narcoseries de Telemundo

In the pioneers narcoseries –Sin tetas no hay paraíso and Las muñecas de lamafia, inter alia– the feminine characters were featured as victims: naiveyoung women seduced by drug dealers who were turning them into trophy.Telemundo (a broadcast television network), in turn, it has changed thisimage including leading protagonists of the drug dealing. Seemingly, itprovokes investment reversal in the traditional gender roles, because thewomen turn into an active agent in a patriarchal world. Nevertheless, theseprotagonists are defined by means of stereotypically feminine elements,such as the kindness, the sacrifice and especially, the maternity that isconcreted, in a literal and metaphorical way in two analyzed narcoseries: LaReina del Sur and Camelia la texana. Notwithstanding, the real subversiveact of these characters –in order to depart from gender prototypes– is herability to analyze and decide. They, rather than consider themselves asvictims of her circumstances, assume her responsibility for the life that theyhave chosen and for the violence with which they act.

Resurfacing Female Identity via Language in Adrienne Rich's Diving into the Wreck

Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) is a representative poet of American women’s poetry. The subject of female identity is a dominant theme of American feminist poetry and Rich plays the leading role in search of this identity. Rich couldn’t find herself as a woman writer in the language she uses because it is a symbolic masculine language; therefore she introduced a new possibility of actualizing the female identity through the restructuring of this language. Thus, the objective of the study is to trace the semiotic aspect of language in Rich’s Diving into the Wreck to see the role of this Semiotic aspect in subverting the fixed-meanings of the symbolic language, which in turn leads to the resurface of the buried female voices within this language. It explores too Rich’s poetic discourse concerning the restructuring of female identity by the means of language. The study employs Kristeva’s concept of The Semiotic and The Symbolic in analyzing Rich’s Diving into the Wreck (1973) to regain the feminine elements within the patriarchal language through the signifying process. Since Kristeva thinks that language can be the means for the subject to gain identity, so the application of her concept of The Semiotic and The Symbolic is relevant here. Rich utilizes the image of ‘Diving’ into history to show the need for a language that resurfaces the long-silenced voices of women in order to help them prove their own female identities far of the oppressive patriarchal discourses. The study concludes that Rich in ‘Diving into the Wreck’ exhibits a transformative understanding of the status of women reclining on the restructuring and resurfacing of female identity through the way of using a unified unbiased language. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s2p245

Gender, Rhetoric and Recognition: Characterizing Jesus and (Re)defining Masculinity in the Gospel of John

Scholars studying the characters of John’s gospel often note the flat or static quality of Jesus’ character. Recently, Colleen M. Conway has investigated Jesus’ static characterization in light of Greco-Roman norms of masculinity, arguing that John’s gospel presents an especially masculine Christology. This article nuances Conway’s reading by digging more deeply into Jesus’ characterization by means of common-places (τόποι) used to formulate gender in classical rhetorical performances and in ancient literary genres similar to the Gospel of John. Making use of the instability inherent to gender, the Gospel of John incorporates a number of feminine elements in its characterization of Jesus alongside the masculine elements, thus de-stabilizing the masculine narratives of its ancient Mediterranean context. Having absolutized Jesus’ identity in its prologue as eternal and entirely consistent with God’s will, the gospel redefines masculinity in a way that casts ‘feminine’ penetrability as a permanent and crucial indicator of God’s identity.

Land, Nation, Water, Body: Reading Gender in Anosh Irani's Dahanu Road

Although Anosh Irani's 2010 novel Dahanu Road is dominated by men, it is the actions of the feminine elements that drive the plot. This paper examines Irani's representations of diasporic identity formation as it relates to land and gender constructions. By constructing a feminized land and water, while maintaining male land ownership, Irani constructs the feminine, as an element and as human body, as the most subordinated yet definitive fragment of the nation. By deconstructing these gendered relationships, we aim to show how Irani utilizes the feminine body as an agent of change to redefine the relationships between male and land, as well as landowners and laborers. It is in the realm of the feminine, land and human body, that the masculine is defined and honed.

Virginia Woolf’s Maternal Narrative

This article argues that Woolf serves as an exemplary model of women’s writing; a kind of writing through which patriarchal language is subverted. She explores the nature of oppressive male discourse and the conditions necessary to create alternative women’s discourse. In her text, unconscious desires manifest themselves through different languages. Through meticulous analysis of characters’ language in Woolf’s selected works, it becomes evident that so far, patriarchy has repressed the feminine element of the articulations of these unconscious desires. Therefore, Woolf’s text lays bare a language which does not repress pre-symbolic elements, since they are considered as crucial determinants in the process of the construction of subjectivity. Such a language is possible by merging masculine and feminine elements, or in other words, by merging symbolic and semiotic elements. Characters, under an ever-present maternal power, realise the inadequacy and limitations of the patriarchal (symbolic) language and therefore, transcend the rigid boundaries of patriarchal language.

Chopin’s Prophet: The Life of Pianist Vladimir de Pachmann by Edward Blickstein and Gregor Benko (review)

Chopin’s Prophet: The Life of Pianist Vladimir de Pachmann by Edward Blickstein and Gregor Benko (review)

Womanspace: The underground and the labyrinth in Ursula K. Le Guin’s <i>Earthsea</i> narratives

Ursula K. Le Guin’s renowned Earthsea cycle, spanning 20 years and five texts, is often acknowledged to be a textual space for the creative exploration and interrogation of gender. The two spaces in the title – ‘earth’ and ‘sea’ – are held in equilibrium, both by the author’s craft and by magic. Unfortunately, though, few critics have explored how these spaces function in the narrative. In this article, we explore the representation of underground spaces and labyrinths as meaningful landscapes in the Earthsea cycle. These spaces are found throughout Le Guin’s Earthsea fiction, but are foregrounded in four narratives: ‘The finder’ and ‘The bones of the earth’ (Tales from Earthsea), The tombs of Atuan and The other wind. Le Guin’s writing consistently identifies the earth as feminine, in keeping with the archetype of ‘Mother Earth’, and we find that subterranean spaces and labyrinths are depicted as sites of power and empowerment for women. Nevertheless, we argue that Le Guin’s affinity for gender equity and balance prevents these tropes from becoming another tired revisioning of an easy equation of earthy forces and ‘the feminine’. Rather, for Le Guin, the underground and the labyrinth are sites of union between masculine and feminine elements and characters, through the empowerment of the feminine.

Female Figurations in Kiarostami’s the Wind Will Carry Us

L’essai qui suit met en lumière l’importance de la représentation des femmes dans le film The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) du réalisateur Iranien Abbas Kiarostami. L’étude soutient l’idée que les personnages féminins, peu nombreux, ont un impact sur la transformation du personnage principal, Behzad, que l’on nomme, avec déférence, “l’ingénieur”. Dans son affection pour la poésie, il manifeste déjà une ouverture pour l’adoption de nouvelles perspectives face à la vie. De surcroît, le film fait un tableau de l’écriture féminine dans sa circularité, dans sa répugnance à l’achèvement, son accentuation de la beauté de la vie. La poésie, disséminée dans le récit, souligne l’importance de “l’écriture féminine” qui, avec l’accent qu’elle met sur la vie, mène Behzad, qui était initialement obsédé par la mort, à recouvrer l’appréciation de ses beautés multiformes.

Reproductive cycle and embryonic development of the gastropod Melampus coffeus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Ellobiidae) in the Brazilian Northeast

Melampus coffeus belongs to a primitive group of pulmonate mollusks found mainly in the upper levels of the marine intertidal zone. They are common in the neotropical mangroves. Little is known about the biology of this species, particularly about its reproduction. The aim of this study was to 1) characterize the morphology and histology of M. coffeus' gonad; 2) describe the main gametogenesis events and link them to a range of maturity stages; 3) chronologically evaluate the frequency of the different maturity stages and their relation to environmental factors such as water, air and sediment temperatures, relative humidity, salinity and rainfall; and 4) characterize M. coffeus' spawning, eggs and newly hatched veliger larvae. Samples were collected monthly between February, 2007 and January, 2009 from the mangroves of Praia de Arpoeiras, Acaraú County, State of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. The characterization of the gonad development stages was carried out using routine histological techniques. The results of this study show that Melampus coffeus is a simultaneous hermaphrodite. The follicles have masculine and feminine elements, interleaved within the gonad. M. coffeus presents a well-defined synchronous reproductive cycle, showing successive maturation, release and resting periods. The average diameter of the oocytes was negatively correlated with salinity and positively correlated with rainfall. The results show that no reproductive activity occurs during periods of drought. After the dry season, the increasing rainfall levels and reduced salinity lead to the appearance of very dense populations, predominantly composed of small individuals.

Santa Librada, en las vísperas del Bicentenario

Este artículo analiza cómo ha sido el proceso histórico de representación de la imagen de Santa Librada y su relación con la Independencia; explica por qué esa imagen ha sido olvidada, incluso despreciada, y por qué ha sido en ciertos momentos recuperada. Santa Librada pone de relieve el elemento femenino en la simbólica de la Independencia, pero también establece vínculo con tradiciones religiosos y políticas españolas.

The ‘autistic’ level of the Oedipus complex

In this paper, the author describes some of the tripartite constellations occurring in the material of children on the autistic spectrum. These could be thought of as constituting a primitive, ‘autistic’ level of the Oedipus complex where the fundamental anxieties are existential ones. It is suggested that these fears of annihilation are experienced on a bodily level, and that this physical aspect appears to be a distinguishing feature of the experience of the Oedipal constellation in children with autism. The clinical illustrations concern the experience of bodily mutilation within the feeding relationship; Oedipal aspects of sense perception; the nature of the link between masculine and feminine elements making up the psychic skin; and the balance between the child, the mother, and the mother' internal figures. Some implications for cognitive development are discussed.

Hiperplasia congénita da suprarenal de expressão tardia por deficiência de 21-hidroxilase: revisão da literatura e estudo genético preconcepção de cinco casais.

The deficiency of the enzyme 21-hydroxylase (21-HO) is responsible for about 90% to 95% of all cases of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (HCSR). This disorder is one of the most frequent hereditary illnesses of autosomal recessive trait. The illness can be presented in two clinical forms: 1 - classic, subdivided in saltwasting form and simple virilizing form; 2 - nonclassic or late-onset. The severity of the illness is correlated with the degree of enzymatic activity of 21-HO, which depends on the type of mutation that occurs in gene CYP21A2. The late onset congenital adrenal hyperplasia is that one where the enzymatic blockade is less intense. The clinical is variable: precocious pubarche, polycystic ovaries, hirsutism, oligoamenorrhea, acne and infertility. Gold standard for the diagnosis of late onset congenital adrenal hyperplasia consists on the test of the tetracosactide, considering itself diagnostic positive when 17-hidroxiprogesterona (17-OHP) is higher of 10-15 ng per mL. Many patients don't need treatment; however, if necessary, such a treatment essentially consists on the Administration of glucocorticoids and antiandrogens. Considering that affected individuals and the carriers may have a severe mutation in CYP21A2, they can have descendents with the classic form (if their partner is also a carrier of a severe mutation), it is mandatory the genetic study of the couple. The authors illustrate the importance of this genetic study through five clinical cases, whose common link is the desire to have children, as well as the presence on the feminine element of late onset congenital adrenal hyperplasia. The genetic study of the couple allows adequate pre-conception counseling and also prevents the use of corticoids throughout the pregnancy (if there's no risk of descendents being affected with the classic form). This aspect must be had in account in programming the pregnancy, in order to prevent therapeutics and unnecessary distrusts.

Conrad’s “Woman as Truth” Topos: “Supposing Truth Is a Woman — What Then?”

Conrad’s “Woman as Truth” Topos: “Supposing Truth Is a Woman — What Then?” William Freedman The topos of the dangerous woman in many of Conrad’s narratives is more than an emblem of authorial gynophobia — it stands for the danger of truth or knowledge, typically for the protectively hidden truths of the instinctual, uncontrollable, or savage self whose trampling of self possession is tantamount to death. Is Conrad’s presentation of woman as the alluring and intimidating object of knowledge to be construed literally or metaphorically? I believe that the two options are compatible and belong to the tradition in which woman, like truth itself, holds special claim as the fascinating object of male desire, forbidden, and inscrutable — this last largely as a defense against the danger of what so irresistibly draws men. The ambivalent attitude toward hidden truth in Conrad’s fiction typically derives from its association with woman as both carnal reality and the symbolic incarnation of forbidden knowledge. I In Conrad’s “The Planter of Malata,” on four occasions the ironically named Felicia announces her identity as truth itself, e. g. “Here I stand for truth itself” (WT 78; cf. also 43, 47, 75). In numerous other cases the association is latent—for instance, in the feminization of the natural landscapes which, as in Heart of Darkness, speak the savage truth to those brave or foolhardy enough to pay attention. Woman merges with nature as the unfathomable other; Conrad’s male narrators and protagonists often identify her with the enigmatic, mysterious, and unfathomable—the sea, the wilderness, “truth” itself. In The Arrow of Gold, for example, Rita embodies “that something secret and obscure which is in all women” (146).1 [End Page 67] In “The Return” woman is explicitly identified as a form of the world’s impenetrable and unutterable secret. Groping at the feet of the wife who has betrayed him (as the sea, the wilderness, and other objects of hungering curiosity tend to do), Alvan Hervey is “penetrated by an irresistible belief in an enigma, by the conviction that within his reach and passing away from him was the very secret of existence — its certitude, immaterial and precious” (TU 176). In Under Western Eyes Razumov regards Natalie Haldin “not as an individual, but as the symbol of transcendent value”; his desire for her “is transposed metonymically into desire for the truth, the removal of the last obstacle to full utterance” (Cave 1998: 5). In Chance “the ‘inwardness’ of events becomes symbolically female, so that knowledge and ignorance of women function as paradigms of all knowledge and ignorance” (Roberts 1993: 98). And in “Falk,” as in “The Planter of Malata,” the link is literal and explicit. The narrator of “Falk,” gazing at Hermann’s niece, gifted with a bewitching “profusion of sensuous charms,” identifies her as “the eternal truth of an unerring principle” (TLS 236). It is tempting to dismiss this claim as ironic, the heated untruth man is heir to when dazed by desire.2 But the narrator’s perception is familiar. With magnificent hair — abundant, long, thick, and of the lion’s tawny color (TLS 151),3 Hermann’s niece, unnamed, is woman dangerously incarnate, the eternal and predatory principle of feminine sensuality. She is “an allegoric statue of the Earth” (152), a “siren” singing irresistibly the female sensuality that threatens to unravel man’s self-possession and overpower his hold on reason and self-control; she represents “the eternal truth of an unerring principle,” sufficiently threatening to demand the obfuscating reduction of her character to enigma. At the end, feebly and gratuitously, both Hermann and the narrator declare that it is “impossible to make women out” (236—37; cf. also 152, 160, 200, 201, 206, 208, 213, 216, 217, 236, and 239).4 The dark specter of the female endangers the vulnerable feminine element in man. The chilling suspicion that what she wants is man’s weakness, his capitulation, his enslavement, breeds the ostensibly irresolvable Freudian perplexity about the nature of female desire. [End Page 68] Some recent criticism of Conrad has turned away from the earlier prevailing charge of misogynistic fear or loathing toward a more complex view of his representation of...

Figuring Gender in the Picaresque Novel: From Lazarillo to Zayas

The picaresque genre's narrations of the misadventures of rogues have tended to privilege the masculine gender of its protagonists, and the male-centered plot of these canonical novels is further evinced not only in the maternal abandonment suffered by the young boy and his contact with a series of amoral father figures, but through the mature picaro's failed amorous relations with women. While most critical studies have diminished the significance of women's roles in these novels, aptly calling her la gran desconocida [the great unknown], Julia Martinez-Gonzalez points out that the picaro's mother in particular has received little attention. Yet, while the female figures are often overlooked by critics and repressed by the male protagonists, they assume a key part in the novels and their function takes on overt significance in those whose protagonists are picaras. Indeed, a major issue addressed by both the female and male picaresque is the representation of gender difference, since the genre, due both to the homosocial economy of its canonical male exemplars (Davis, Breaking 138) and to the numerous novels with female protagonists, illustrates the many theories that circulated regarding the behavior and treatment of women in the literary and moral discourses of the early modern period. Thus, no matter how devalued, the feminine element refuses to disappear from this new genre. Lazarillo de Tormes sets up one of the genre's main characteristics by drawing attention to the child's degraded family origins: born to a thief and a prostitute, Lazarillo attempts to cover up his parents' behavior by ironically portraying them in the best possible light. The father's death is ambiguously ascribed either to his service in the war against the Turks at Djerba or to his desertion of his post as muleteer, a job traditionally assigned to moriscos, who often sided with the enemy. His widowed mother takes up with Zaide, a Moor who feeds the starving family by stealing from his employer. By handing over the young boy to the blind man, she launches Lazarillo on his picaresque career, Hijo, ya se que no te vere mas. Procura de ser bueno y Dios te guie. Criado te he y con buen amo te he puesto; valete por ti (25). Her illicit relations with the heretic Moor, a thief like her previous partner, further corroborate her debased nature, significantly prefiguring all women's dissoluteness. The mother's negative portrait, in fact, is mirrored in the novel's last tratado in the image of the Archpriest's servant and lover, whom Lazaro takes as his wife, as the picaro's desecrated marriage to the adulterous servant ensures the novel's circular structure by linking her with his own prostitute mother. Lazaro's faithless wife substitutes metonymically for Lazarillo's absent mother, since the adult picaro receives from the former the food and shelter that as a child he had been denied by the latter. (1) It is well to remember, however, that his wife had previously abandoned three children (133). By conflating the wife's sexuality with her desertion of her progeny, the narrative retraces the mother's behavior: both women assume the dual roles of prostitute and unnatural mother. Because the wife's continuing service at the Archpriest's house ensures the picaro's welfare, when he is interpellated by Vuestra Merced, Lazaro shields her false honor by swearing on the holy host that she is virtuous (134). Yet Vuestra Merced's interrogation--the letter on which Lazarillo's case is famously centered--is meant to uncover the truth about the ongoing sexual liaison between his wife and the churchman. The shadowy inquisitor is scarcely interested in a humble town crier's cuckoldry. To the degree that Vuestra Merced wishes to investigate the cover-up the marriage provides for the Archpriest's illicit sexual transgressions, Lazaro's purported innocence will nonetheless be seriously questioned by him. The wife's misconduct, as well as Lazaro's corrupt complaisance, threatens to return the picaro to his original status by replicating the mother's early abandonment. …

Have they learnt to interrupt?

PurposeChanging language ideology and the decreased popularity of overt feminism suggest that aspiring female managers may be less influenced than senior women managers by the gender of the speaker in evaluating whether specific communication strategies are effective and probable. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this issue.Design/methodology/approachA total of 255 second‐year female management students evaluate strategies for the same workplace dilemmas as senior women managers (Barrett).FindingsFor short‐ and medium‐term dilemmas students, like senior women managers, regard masculine communication strategies with a feminine element as effective. They are less influenced by the speaker's gender than senior women managers in evaluating the strategies' probability. But when seeking promotion, students avoid some strategies they consider effective, and believe men would use. Students' confidence as communicators affects their personal choice of strategy.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper investigates a limited number of dilemmas and sought information about a limited number of demographic factors, limiting the results' generalizability. Nevertheless, it suggests future women managers could learn from their senior counterparts if they want to advance at work. Future research should investigate whether future male managers' reactions to these dilemmas are similar to women students and senior managers, and whether scenarios using female dyads yield similar results. Cross‐cultural extensions of the research are also possible.Originality/valueThis is the first study comparing aspiring and senior women managers' reactions to classic workplace communication problems. The findings show similarities between aspiring managers and their senior sisters, but also differences which could affect aspiring managers' career success.

Perceptions of Sport Fans: An Exploratory Investigation Based on Aggressive and Cheating Propensities

This exploratory investigation examined female non sport fans’ (NSFs) impressions of male and female sport fans (SFs) who were supporting either a male or female sextyped sport. Based on the basic tenets of contemporary models of person perception (Bodenhausen et al., 2007; Brewer, 1988; Devine, 1989; Fiske & Neuberg, 1990), we predicted that processes of stereotyping would take place amongst our sample of female NSFs so that masculine elements (i.e., gender and sex‐typing) would foster negative perceptions of SFs, whereas feminine elements would yield positive perceptions. To this end, 176 female students (Mage = 20.31 years) completed scales assessing their perceptions of a sport fan described in one of four hypothetical scenarios (i.e., female SF supporting a female or male sport and male SF supporting a male or female sport). As expected, the results of a MANOVA indicated that female SFs supporting a female sport were perceived more positively (i.e., as less likely to engage in deviant behaviors such as aggression and cheating). In addition, participants identified themselves more strongly with female SFs supporting a female sport than with SFs of the other three groups. These findings are discussed in terms of the literature on sports stereotypes and literature on the media.

Histoire littéraire du mouvement monastique dans l'antiquité , Première partie: Le monachisme latin , Tome XI: La Gaule franque et l'Espagne wisigothique (VI e -VII e siècle) (review)

Reviewed by: Histoire littéraire du mouvement monastique dans l'antiquité, Première partie: Le monachisme latin, Tome XI: La Gaule franque et l'Espagne wisigothique (VIe-VIIe siècle) Philip Rousseau Histoire littéraire du mouvement monastique dans l'antiquité, Première partie: Le monachisme latin, Tome XI: La Gaule franque et l'Espagne wisigothique (VIe–VIIe siècle). By Adalbert de Vogüé, O.S.B. [Patrimoines christianisme.] (Paris: Éditions du Cerf. 2007. Pp. 317. €39 paperback. ISBN 978-2-20408-257-0.) This is the eleventh volume of Adalbert de Vogüé's monumental history of le monachisme Latin (the twelfth volume has also now appeared). Its completion marked as well his sixtieth anniversary (in 2004) as a Benedictine monk. It is an histoire littéraire only in the special sense of textual analysis and rather less a study of Rules and Lives as literary forms. This means that there is more narrative précis than historical reflection; but one values, of course, the authoritative judgment about interweavings and dependencies, and the author consistently identifies, in relation to much more than regulae, both the pathways and the mechanics of transmission. De Vogüé has become in our time so towering a figure in the historiography of late antique and early medieval monasticism that we can forget his genius for clear summary, for essays both precise and sympathetic, informed always by what one might term his lateral wisdom. This volume covers the period between the great pioneers (Pachomius, Cassian, and Benedict) and the Carolingian age. It focuses, in other words, on a period marked especially by the Irish and the confluence of their culture with both Gallic and Italian traditions. The regulae in particular were the instruments that mediated the earliest patterns of organization to men living in [End Page 540] rather different circumstances. It is always striking how loyally these "middle-phase" rule-writers remembered their own forebears. So the Regula Donati bears witness to the way Caesarius had begun to inject specifically feminine elements into his own broader heritage and Columbanus, with his interest in confession, regularized more fully the notion of obedience. Similar shifts can be observed in Jonas of Bobbio's Life of John of Réomé. Of two major components of the book, the first concerns precisely Jonas of Bobbio and Columbanus (chapters 3–5). De Vogüé is surely right in suggesting that Jonas's portrait of Columbanus himself was less important, in terms of histoire littéraire, than his account of what followed Columbanus's death. He regards the triumph of the Irish as at least coterminous with, if not the explanation of, the "decline" of the Lérins tradition—that is, the Lérins tradition as conceived of by de Vogüé himself: still a problematic interpretation. It is also convincing to suggest that we are witnessing here (in Jonas) a challenge to the influence of Gregory the Great and of the Benedictine legacy that the Carolingians would so ardently revive. That makes all the more apposite the second major section, the Spanish, beginning with Leander of Seville (well known, of course, to Gregory). It would probably have been useful to note more clearly that Leander was operating in circumstances marked not only by the definitive adhesion of the Visigoths to Catholic orthodoxy but also by their close if volatile relations with the Franks. When we come to Leander's brother, Isidore, we see a firm allegiance to the legacy of Augustine (and his contemporaries) rather more than to Benedict; and Isidore betrays a clear sense that Spain might not yet be ready for the detailed discipline of the sixth century. De Vogüé is skillful in his appropriate reference to what we might call Isidore's monastic temper, evident even in the Sententiae; but he also provides a very full analysis of the Regula monachorum. The concluding emphasis of the book, therefore, is invaluable, since Spain, in relation to monasticism as to so much else, is a neglected bridge between late antiquity and the high Middle Ages. De Vogüé's treatment is centered, not surprisingly, on Fructuosus of Braga; but he provides excellent reflections in chapter 8, "Le Monachisme espagnol à l...

School leadership, sex and gender: welcome to difference

The biological basis for differences between the sexes has become increasingly clear in recent years. The nature–nurture debate has made way for the view that the individual is a product of the interaction between genes and environment. For the world of school leadership this means that instead of arguing about them, we should acknowledge the differences between female and male leadership and turn the differences to our advantage with respect to the effectiveness of school leadership. This is becoming all the more necessary now that the principal’s job is progressively becoming more complicated. Men and women working together have a wider range of alternative strategies at their disposal than either acting alone, creating a case for mixed teams. A mix of masculine and feminine elements in school management leads to a broader repertoire of behaviour and consequently to more flexible action.

Fear of the Trannies: On Filmic Phobia of Transvestism in the New Latin American Cinema

The transvestite, as a fi gure that contests both heteronormativity and machismo, has remained in the cinema of Latin America, unlike its literature, a rather unexplored theme. Although some fi lms have attempted to deal with such a fi gure, they have devoted very little diegetic time either to the process of physi- cal and psychological transformation from man to woman or to showing trans- vestism as the externalization of the character's self-perceived gender identity. This article aims to show that the lack of on-screen transvestism in Arturo Rip- stein's El lugar sin limites (1978), Miguel Barreda's Simon, el gran varon (2002), and Karim Ainouz's Madame Sata (2002) is caused by a kind of het- eronormative fi lmic fear to depict the fl uidity of sexuality beyond the biologi- cally oriented binary man-woman. I suggest that Latin American audiences do not respond positively to transvestitic images (i.e., the cinematic acknowledg- ment of transvestism) because they transgress the fi xity of gender roles within heteronormativity. In Latin American popular culture (especially its literature), the trans- vestite has become a fi gure that functions to destabilize the heteropatri- archal system. He crosses the boundaries that divide the hegemonic con- structs of femininity and masculinity; yet for him the act of crossdressing not only permits the transgression of heterosexual normativity but also allows for the intersection of other social and cultural discourses such as those of race, class, and politics. As Ben Sifuentes-Jauregui (2002, 10) rightly points out in his analysis of transvestism in Latin American lit- erature, the fi guration of the Latin American national subject involves the selection of desirable fragments to compose 'identity.' Likewise, transvestism might involve picking and choosing desirable objects to create a gender effect. He observes that for the Latin American male subject, to make sense of his own persona, he must choose those aspects of the given culture that best fi t his idea of the self in much the same way that transvestites articulate their own feminine persona through a collection of feminine elements that will re-create a sense of wom- anliness. The articulation of the transvestite character's feminine per- sona allows for questioning of the fi xity of the sexual parameters with

Bibel in gerechter Sprache - beabsichtigte und unbeabsichtigte Wirkungen

Critical evaluation of "The Bible in Correct Language" can happen in respect to systematic-theological, ecumenical, and interreligious concerns. From the viewpoint of systematic-theology, one can criticize its obvious distance from Reformation theology alongside its problematic use of God's name. With this standpoint, it is unable to bring the voice of Protestantism to the ecumenical discussion, although Orthodoxy as well as Roman Catholicism could obtain fruitful impulse from this Bible version. Its interreligious influence is limited. Jewish readers may feel addressed by the attempt to include Judaism in a scholarly manner, but they may also feel repulsed by the feminization of the names of God. Unfortunately, even though there already exists a feminine element in Asian religions, it can contribute little of significance to the emancipation of women there. In Islam, "The Bible in Correct Language" will be seen as a (further) step toward the self-destruction of Christianity but hopefully also as a fruitful provocation. Undoubtedly it attempts to motivate and to enable Bible study in a new way. In its commitment to the marginalized and women, it still corresponds to a central emphasis of Jesus, despite several individual weaknesses.