Female Body Research Articles

William Bynum Prize 2023: Highly Commended Overcoming Childlessness: Narratives of Conception in Early Modern North India.

This article discusses early modern North Indian ways of expressing how barrenness could be mapped onto a woman's maternal identity. Scholars have engaged with the historical evolution of women's identities, focusing overwhelmingly on their economic and political potential. This article is the first to use medical and erotological sources from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to study women as procreative agents, and the socio-sexual anxieties prompted by infertile female bodies. Through a critical study of a wide range of medical material, I demonstrate that by the eighteenth century, several transformations in medical discourses can be mapped onto textual transmissions from Sanskrit (and Braj Bhasha) to Persian, as well as between competing but conterminously flourishing medical paradigms, Ayurveda and Yunani. While cures for childlessness have a much longer history, a new genre of 'anonymous' sources, particularly focused on the sexual diseases of men and women emerged in early modern North India. Lastly, my comparative methodological approach to different textual genres will complicate our understanding of early modern medical episteme and its intended audience.

The Pen is the Sword: The Language of Battle in Veronica Franco’s Terze Rime

This article analyzes Veronica Franco’s use of the language of battle and swordsmanship in her Terze Rime, paying particular attention to the poems she wrote in response to a literary attack from an anonymous male writer (usually identified as Maffio Venier). In these texts, Franco describes the act of writing as a sword fight and represents herself as a skilled fencer. I consider Franco’s language of battle and her self-identification as a fighter in relation to the figure of the woman warrior popularized by Renaissance chivalric epics. Moreover, I explore the connections among Franco, her Terze Rime, and the Venetian cult of female figures—most significantly Saint Justina and the Virgin Mary—often represented as defenders of Venetian freedom. More broadly, this article investigates how Franco’s image of the pen as a weapon relates both to contemporary reflections on the position of women in society, as well as on the role and function of the writer in Renaissance Italy.

Life of the Mind >< Life of the Body: Cultivating Discursive Spaces of Possibility for the Leaky (Woman) Body in Academe

ABSTRACT The leaky female body is othered in the workplace. In historically rational, masculine institutions like the academy, leaks are ignored or hidden. In an effort to bring the leaky body back into the conversation, we use collaborative autoethnography to highlight our lived experiences of leaking in the academy, specifically regarding menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and miscarriage. We share these leaks to trouble the public/private, dry/leaky discourses which abound in institutions inviting others to share leaks rather than continuing to plug what cannot be contained. Our hope is that the academy can make space for and embrace leaky bodies.

Impact of Rearing Substrates on Black Soldier Fly Growth and Fertility: A Semi-Industrial Scale Study to Optimize Egg Collection

Juvenile environments can influence adult phenotypes in holometabolous insects. This study examines the effects of larval rearing substrates on the reproductive outcomes of Black Soldier Flies (BSFs) at a semi-industrial scale. Larvae were reared on five substrates. Larval growth, adult size, and reproductive performance were monitored, with a specific focus on egg production and hatching rates across 17 continuous egg collection days. Egg production was positively correlated with female body weight, while male body weight appeared to influence the egg production peak. Extended larval feeding stages and shorter non-feeding periods were associated with an earlier onset of egg-laying, suggesting life-history traits as predictors for reproductive timing. Diets high in carbohydrates but low in protein and fat positively influenced larval growth, egg production, and female body weight, while diets rich in both protein and carbohydrates negatively affected all measured parameters. Notably, higher fecundity did not necessarily correlate with fertility (i.e., more viable larvae for bioconversion), highlighting the need to optimize diets for both egg quantity and hatchability to maximize productivity. These findings provide valuable insights for optimizing larval nutrition and egg collection practices, enhancing reproductive efficiency and overall productivity in industrial BSF farming.

Corticosterone predicts double-brooding in female savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis).

Given that double-brooding (rearing two broods within a season) can increase annual fecundity, it is unclear why some females in multi-brooded populations rear only one brood per season. The Quality Hypothesis proposes that double-brooded females are high quality and, thus, have sufficient energetic resources available to bear the costs of rearing two broods per season. Glucocorticoids - endocrine hormones that have a critical role in energy regulation - could reflect female quality, and, therefore, also have the potential to indicate whether a female will rear a second brood. Using 12years of reproductive data on migratory Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) from a population in eastern Canada, we explored whether baseline corticosterone concentrations were correlated with measures of female quality (body condition and fat score) and whether a female's baseline corticosterone concentrations during her first brood would predict whether she attempted a second. We found weak evidence that baseline corticosterone was negatively correlated with female body condition and found strong evidence that baseline corticosterone was negatively correlated with fat score. There was weak evidence for a positive relationship between double-brooding and baseline corticosterone in females sampled during the first brood incubation stage. Additionally, there was moderate evidence to suggest that the probability of double-brooding was negatively related to baseline corticosterone in females sampled during the first brood nestling stage. Our results provide evidence that corticosterone can reflect female condition in the context of double-brooding and demonstrate the importance of considering breeding stage when assessing corticosterone concentrations in parents.

Vulnerability and Shame in the Writing of the Female Body: Emilie Pine’s Notes to Self

Vulnerability and Shame in the Writing of the Female Body: Emilie Pine’s Notes to Self

Under the shadow of violence: are the Banyamulenge experiencing a slow genocide?

ABSTRACT Colonialism, racial categorization, abolishment of local chiefdoms, and the reified post-colonial autochthony have left the Banyamulenge identified as “immigrants, foreigners, and invaders”. The Banyamulenge are specifically targeted by the Congolese state, non-state armed actors, and militias. Killings and massacres are often preceded by demonizing and dehumanizing campaigns. For five decades, attacks have used a similar modus operandi: men, boys, and unarmed military soldiers have constituted the primary target to be killed first and then women and girls afterward. Rape is used to destroy female bodies as survivors were threatened to be allotted for marriage among male perpetrators. They have been subjected to forced displacement and attacks have narrowed their territorial boundaries. The remaining Banyamulenge in South Kivu are currently besieged and starved. Their villages and their economy – source of livelihood were destroyed. Violence has largely targeted their culture and social identity while trying to erase or/and hide evidence. This slow-elimination experience is frozen within the complex violent setting in Eastern DRC that followed the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The violent setting justifies targeted attacks and backs denialist arguments of the Banyamulenge’s vulnerability. This article tries to disentangle genocidal killings embedded in the sense of eliminating “invaders” from widespread violence.

Matrescence performance repetitions: towards ‘letting go’

ABSTRACT In this article we explore the work of artists engaging with matrescence to consider the (im)possibility of repetition in maternal art making and performance. We are keen to think through matrescence and artmaking processes together towards an eventual ‘letting go’ as both the mothers and the children move into a new life stage. We draw on the work of Young, Iris Marion [2005. On Female Body Experience: Throwing Like a Girl and Other Essays. USA: Oxford University Press] to introduce concepts around the home, Halberstam, J. [2011. The Queer Art of Failure. London: Duke University Press] to examine the notion of futurity, repetition and return, and apply a psychoanalytical framing, in particular, the work of Ferenczi, Sándor [1988. “Confusion of Tongues between Adults and the Child.” Contemporary Psychoanalysis 24 (2): 196–206. doi:10.1080/00107530.1988.10746234]. We consider two contemporary shows – GOO:GA (Ballou, Hannah. 2021. GOO:GA (film)) by Hannah Ballou and the 2021 video re-working of Tender (Long, Josie. 2019. Tender (performance)) by Josie Long. In order to aid our engagement with the matrescence in various media representations, we also re-think certain historical examples of maternal creativity and artmaking including both our own and those of renowned women artists Susan Hiller, Mary Kelly and Bobby Baker.

Wybrane aspekty prawne macierzyństwa zastępczego

Despite decades of debates on the moral and legal permissibility of surrogate motherhood, it remains a controversial practice with significantly diversified national regulations. The aim of this article is to discuss the issue of surrogacy through the prism of existing legal solutions, with particular emphasis on Polish law. Surrogacy is an arrangement in which the surrogate becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child for another person(s) — so-called intentional parent(s). Critics of surrogacy argue that economic coercion remains the main motive for surrogate mother’s decisions to participate in the arrangement, leaving them at risk of exploitation, abuse, and commercialization of both the female body and the children themselves. Pro-surrogacy scholars and activists tent to emphasize the altruistic motivations of surrogate mothers, the impact of surrogacy on reproductive justice (e.g. among queer individuals) as well as the postulate of looking at surrogacy through the prism of the bonds formed between parties involved. Three basic types of legal regulations regarding surrogacy may be distinguished: the permissibility of both altruistic and commercial surrogacy (e.g. Ukraine), the prohibition of commercial surrogacy with the simultaneous permissibility of altruistic surrogacy (e.g. Great Britain and Israel), and a complete ban of all forms of surrogacy (e.g. Germany). Poland remains one of the countries where no surrogacy solutions have been introduced so far. This lack of legislation should be assessed negatively as it poses a threat to all actors involved in the surrogacy process, including children born as a result of surrogacy arrangement. While introducing such regulations, both the experience of countries with various forms of surrogacy regulations and the transnational context should be taken into account. The legislator should also distinguish the comprehensive nature of surrogacy and the need to create a nuanced solution that will combine the issue of socio-economic coercion and the protection of surrogate mothers with the experiences of surrogate mothers themselves, including full recognition of their agency.

Novel anatomical variations of the internal thoracic artery: implications for coronary artery bypass grafting surgery and autologous breast reconstruction.

The unique structure and location of the internal thoracic artery make it an ideal conduit for coronary artery bypass grafting surgery and autologous breast reconstruction. Variants with different characteristics have the potential to impact surgical success. This report presents a female body donor with a novel bilateral variation of the internal thoracic artery. The vessel arose from third segment of the subclavian artery, distal to it coursing deep to the anterior scalene muscle, and then proceeded to course anterior to the first rib, instead of posteriorly. This variation could detract from the desirability of the internal thoracic artery as a graft. Tractioning the artery over the first rib may render it too stenotic for surgical utility. In an individual who has undergone autologous breast reconstruction, this variation may prohibit adequate length preservation for use in subsequent coronary artery bypass grafting. Also, in the setting of thoracic outlet syndrome, this arterial variation may cause unforeseen complications post-grafting.

In search of the female formImmaculate Forms: A History of the Female Body in Four Parts Helen King Basic Books, 2025. 480 pp.

Bodies have long resisted easy categorization.

Quantitative assessment of the academic adaptability of first-year students of higher education institutions

The article analyzes the factors that cause educational stress, the prerequisites for the formation of the ability of first-year students to adapt to the educational process and its importance in the formation of future specialists, identifies predictive markers of educational adaptation and resistance to educational stress, reveals gender-specific features of the body's adaptation to stresses, including those related to education. It is shown that the process of adaptation to the educational process has a biopsychosocial nature, identifies predictive markers of educational adaptation and resistance to educational stress. An integral assessment of students' educational adaptability is proposed based on indicators of psychosocial adaptability of the individual and the functional potential of the body. The scale for assessing the integral indicator of students' educational adaptability is modified based on the sum of points for indicators of psychosocial adaptability (P. Kuznetsov's questionnaire) and adaptive capabilities of the cardiovascular system of the body (R. Baievskyi method). The psychophysiological prerequisites of the adaptive reactions of the body of first-year students to the educational process were studied. It was established that the female body is more resistant to physiological stresses due to a higher level of vitality, however, the course and symptoms of psycho-emotional stress, adaptation to new conditions in men are easier due to lower emotional lability, higher balance and self-regulation. It was confirmed that the level of social adaptability in young men is higher, and the level of functional adaptability is lower than in girls. At the same time, it was recorded that almost every fifth young man and every third girl have a low level of the integral indicator of educational adaptability. Quantitative assessment of students' integral educational adaptability will allow for the differentiation of the parameters of motor loads in the educational process of physical education in order to increase the psychofunctional resources of the body of student youth.

“Fertility fear” on Chinese social media: The disciplined female reproductive bodies and resistance towards motherhood

ABSTRACT Despite China’s shift to the ‘comprehensive two-child’ policy in 2019, fertility rates continue to decline. This study examines the discourse of ‘fertility fear’ (kongyu 恐育) among young, unmarried Chinese women, particularly on social media platforms like Weibo, RED, and Douban. By analysing trending hashtags such as #Marriage and Fertility Fear, the study explores the anxieties surrounding motherhood. Anchored in the theoretical frameworks of biopolitics and feminist studies on motherhood, it explores historical and current state controls over female reproductive autonomy. The study discusses how patriarchal norms and societal pressures enforce strict reproductive timelines, stigmatizing deviations and maintaining gender inequalities. Online discourses often blame male irresponsibility for reproductive fears while overlooking systemic issues like inadequate family policies and capitalist labour dynamics. Moreover, the antithetical narrative dichotomy between childless women and mothers reflects a broader rejection of traditional motherhood constructs, with the latter criticized for capitulating to patriarchal dictates. By dissecting the ‘fertility fear’ discourse, this study illuminates the interplay between state policies, societal norms, and personal agency in reproductive decisions. It provides insights into the evolving dynamics of gender, motherhood, and female autonomy in post-reform China, emphasizing the need to address both individual and structural aspects of reproductive governance.

"She Looks Like She'd Be a Filthy Pig in Bed": Online Misogyny and Denigration of Women Politicians.

This article summarizes the main results of a study about the disparagement of women politicians in Spain. The thematic analysis of 1,245 comments spontaneously posted on the Burbuja.info forum reveals that the commenters feel entitled to humiliate and disparage the eight female politicians embattled by the hate speech posts. While the main targets of this form of harassment have been women representatives of left-wing parties, the focus of the disparaging attacks has been the female body. This explains why those who were overweight were the most vilified, even during periods when they had a lower profile in the media.

Physical factors in treatment of inflammatory diseases of female reproductive system: Principles and approaches

Physical therapy methods have found wide application in various fields of clinical medicine, including when treating various diseases and pathological conditions of the female body. The vast majority of studies deals with the issues of the drug-free treatments of chronic inflammatory diseases of the lesser pelvis organs, which negatively impact the health of women of reproductive age. It should be noted that the works dealing with the possibility and evaluation of the effectiveness of including physical therapy methods in the combination treatment of the acute stage of nonspecific inflammatory diseases of the lesser pelvis organs are less numerous. A number of works on the use of the hyperbaric oxygenation and general magnetic therapy as components of combination therapy in forming the therapeutic effect deal with this area of research. The article presents the basic principles of using physical therapy modalities in gynecology and the conditions for optimizing the results of treatment of gynecological patients, including the results of combination therapy with the earliest possible integration of physical therapy modalities in the programs of standard anti-inflammatory treatment of patients with acute nonspecific inflammatory diseases of the lesser pelvis organs, allowing to optimize its efficacy.

Le R-Imaginaire, interrogation de la figure mythologique de la femme et prolégomènes d’une condition de vie heureuse de la femme dans Mâ et Le cri que tu pousses ne réveillera personne

Mâ and Le cri que tu pousses ne réveillera personne by Gaston-Paul Effa, like La Répudiation by Rachid Boudjedra and Cueillez-moi pretty gentlemen by Bessora, explore the condition of women. In the two novels by the Franco-Cameroonian, the female and feminist characters summon up genetic imaginations that question the figure of man and woman. This contextualized recovery of imagination is what should be called the RImaginary. A comparative analysis of the treatment of male and female figures in these myths allows them to be classified into two categories. A first category made up of a single myth holds women responsible for the advent of death in humanity, and a second category made up of four myths presents women as a sacred, vigilant and loyal creature, contrary to the demonized man. If the first category is invoked by the female characters as the anchor of their social unease, they evoke the imaginations valorizing the female figure to justify their original dignity and consequently their merit of a preponderant social place. A behavioral analysis of female and male characters on the basis of this feminine awareness makes it possible to notice a fair living environment where women and men enjoy the same life chances and can perform the same tasks.

Biopolitics and “becoming-woman” in postcolonial society: on Naminata Diabate’s Naked Agency: Genital Cursing and Biopolitics in Africa (2020)

In connection with Naminata Diabate’s Naked Agency: Genital Cursing and Biopolitics in Africa (Duke: 2020), this article enquiries how woman’s body, in its material and spiritual reality, becomes both a space and tool of resistance in the postcolonial time and space. Reflecting on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of “becoming-woman” developed in A Thousand Plateaus in 1980, as well as on the slow transformation of biopolitical logics towards necropolitical practices, this essay highlights the need for a deconstruction of domination dynamics deeply enshrined in the patriarchal and capitalist imaginary that legitimizes the appropriation and exploitation of territories and (female) bodies considered as resources and reified realities.

Influence Dynamics of Ratu Dwi Anjani as a Sacred Female Figure on Mount Rinjani Lombok: An Ecofeminist Study of the Nahdatul Wathan Organisation

This article explores ethnographically the relationship between the feminine and indigenous sasak ideas through the figure of the sacred female jinn spirit queen Dewi Anjani who rules Lombok. As a sacred woman who rules Lombok from Mount Rinjani, Ratu Dwi Anjani is embedded in the beliefs and traditions of the Sasak people that shape the praxis of feminine spirituality of women in the Nahdatul Wathan organisation. Ratu Dwi Anjani is a representation of the agency of indigenous Sasak Lombok women who form mystical and sacred experiences and provide a comprehensive meaning of life between gender and the maintenance of goddesses or female ancestors who are respected and have power in invisible myths. The approach used is a qualitative data analysis approach withlibrary research. This research aims to deepen understanding of the complexities embedded in the interaction of sacred women, gender, nature and Islam in Lombok. The results of this research present a new argument that shows how the indigenous Ratu Jin as a feminine form of God influences the discourse of Muslim holy women to carry out an integral role in the orthopraxy of the Nahdatul Wathan organization.

Penerimaan Audiens Pada Konten Campaign untuk Palestina di Akun Instagram @ariekuntung

This study discusses the audience's acceptance of the campaign content for Palestine on the Instagram account @ariekuntung. The content is in the form of embedded content on Arie Untung's Instagram account, the content shows several female public figures reading poetry as a form of support for Palestine and the second content contains Arie Untung's invitation to the public, especially his followers, to take action to take to the streets. The Instagram account @ariekuntung is known to be active in voicing support for Palestine where Arie Untung uses this platform for social campaigns, sharing the latest information, inviting participation in mass actions, donating, and encouraging solidarity with Palestine. The success of this campaign message depends not only on its content, but also on how the audience receives and responds to it. Audience acceptance is influenced by various factors such as social background, culture, education, and how the message is delivered. In the campaign for Palestine, audience acceptance becomes more complex because the Palestinian issue involves sensitive political, humanitarian, and religious aspects. Through various uploads that are informative, persuasive, and emotional, @ariekuntung's posts have attracted the attention of many followers who show varying responses to the content posted. The content shared by Arie Untung has raised various opinions from the audience regarding the posts shared, this is because it is seen from the credibility and background of his public figure. This study aims to analyze how the audience receives, understands, and responds to the campaign content. This study uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive method, and applies reception analysis developed by Stuart Hall. Data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews and documentation. The number of informants in this study was 8 people. From the results of the interviews and analysis that have been carried out by the researcher, it was found that 5 people were included in the dominant hegemonic position category, namely informants 1, 2, 5, 7, and 8. Then 3 other people were included in the negotiated position category, namely informants 3, 4, and 6. The researcher did not find any informants in the oppositional position. Keywords: Audience Reception, Palestine Campaign, Instagram Content

The effect of the difference in female body shapes on clothing fitting

The effect of the difference in female body shapes on clothing fitting