Feminist Poststructuralist Theory Research Articles

Analysing constructions of childbirth in the media; Moving possibilities for childbirth beyond gender essentialism

ProblemBirth can be a contentious issue with maternity care providers and consumers alike advocating fiercely defended and polarising views. These positions are largely shaped by opposing biomedical and natural childbirth constructions of birth. Contemporary debate on homebirth is one such example which illustrates this divide. AimTo reconceptualise birth by deconstructing current constructions of childbirth contained in homebirth articles published by one online media source in Australia. MethodsAustralia’s self-acclaimed largest women’s media company was searched for articles pertaining to homebirth. Articles which met inclusion criteria were analysed using poststructural feminist theory and deconstruction techniques informed by Davies and Gannon, Butler and others. FindingsGender essentialism present in both the biomedical and natural childbirth approaches constructs birth as an act of nature, dictated by biology rather than one with a sociohistorical location. DiscussionGender essentialism at birth serves to obscure the sociohistorical determinants of birth, making it appear as a static, immutable sort of act, rather than one which is defined by its sociohistorical location and which can be redefined, even reinvented, by its sociohistorical location. ConclusionGender essentialism is an enduring phenomenon, underpinning seemingly opposing constructions of childbirth. Disengaging childbirth from essentialisms of woman’s nature may create possibilities and meanings of childbirth that could be useful for childbearing women.

Shouldn’t Leisure Scholars Know Better? How the Work/Leisure Dichotomy Affects Policy and Culture for Academic Mothers

This study was designed to understand the impact of university policy and departmental culture on academic mothers’ employment, family, and leisure experiences. Telephone interviews were conducted with 17 mothers employed as academics in the field of leisure and closely aligned disciplines to provide insight into the effects of parenting within academia, current corporate university culture, and work–life balance. Qualitative analysis, guided by post-structural feminist theory, revealed three major themes in the findings, which together suggest flawed administrative applications of the work/leisure dichotomy are negatively impacting mothers in academia. Rather than prolific researchers and proponents of leisure serving as exemplars to the academic community of success in employment, family, and leisure, this study’s findings suggest otherwise. As participants shared their struggles with unrealistic expectations, unsupportive colleagues, and conflicting workplace policies, this research instead supports a particularly critical review of leisure scholars and the employment policies of their academic departments.

Language, Women and Discourse in Toni Morrison’s Fiction

The present study, grounded in the qualitative research paradigm, is an interpretive and explanatory analysis of Toni Morrison's fiction from the critical perspective of post structuralist feminist literary theory and fiction. In my reading of Toni Morrison's fiction as the manifestation/materialization of the knowledge in terms of discursive (re)configuration of women and to analyze their works from "feminine sentence" perspective, I have used Feminist poststructuralist theories in the discourse-theoretical/methodological background. As part of the methodology, this project draws extensively upon feminist theories, particularly those propounded by French Feminists Helene Cixous and Julia Kristeva, which I have used in the backdrop of discourse analysis methods proposed by Michel Foucault. This fusion of Feminist theories as a theoretical framework and discourse analysis as a methodology has illuminated systematically the process of the discursive formation, dissemination, and institutionalization of the knowledge about women. For my analysis of the discourse spectrum of the texts-to-be-analyzed, I have used extensively Foucault's notions about discourse and knowledge as discussed comprehensively in his books, articles, and interviews.

“Growing your own herbs” and “cooking from scratch”: Contemporary discourses around good mothering, food, and class‐related identities

AbstractIn a cultural climate of “intensive parenting” and concerns about the “obesity epidemic,” parents are expected to take responsibility for their children's health, particularly through the provision of a “healthy” diet. This study involved intergenerational dyad interviews with both middle‐class and working‐class mothers and daughters from the United Kingdom. Analysing the data using discourse analysis informed by feminist poststructuralist theory, we found that mothers were positioned as having prime responsibility for the nurturing of family members, including the provision of a healthy diet. However, providing a healthy diet alone was insufficient; mothers needed to demonstrate that time and effort had been taken in the preparation of meals using fresh ingredients. Those who failed to do so were positioned as “lazy,” thus inviting the blaming of mothers for any current or future health problems encountered by family members (especially children). However, talk from some of the working‐class mothers pointed to the unattainable and “classed” ideals that are set by such cultural expectations.

Psicólogo na Assistência Social: O lugar do homem e diálogos epistemológicos feministas na prática profissional

Traduzir a experiência de corpos cisnormativos masculinos, categorizados como homens, na participação de lugares reconhecidos como femininos, Política Pública de Assistência Social, e feministas, Teorias Feministas Pós-estruturalistas, é o objetivo que nos propomos alcançar. Partimos da compreensão de que a experiência, história encenada pela linguagem, produz o sujeito e não algo que o sujeito tenha como propriedade ou que seja anterior a ele. Assim, relatamos nossos percursos nas teorias feministas e a contribuição destas na construção de nossas práticas no Sistema Único de Assistência Social, por meio de três perguntas: Quem somos? De onde víemos? Para onde vamos? Com elas, concluímos que, justamente por sermos homens, precisamos denunciar os privilégios para construir pontes para mudanças e não abismos para a manutenção, rompendo com a generalização da categoria homem, explicitando que estamos em um lugar de homem generificado, produzido pelas normas de gênero, mas que buscamos a desestabilização deste lugar.

Single, Stay-at-Home, and Gay Fathers’ Perspectives on their 4-12-Year-Old Children’s Outdoor Risky Play Behaviour and ‘Good’ Fathering

ABSTRACTIn this study, we address the question, ‘What are single, stay-at-home, and gay fathers’ perspectives of their 4– 12-year-old children’s outdoor risky play behaviours and how do they relate to discourses of good fathering?’ Through the use of semi-structured interviews, poststructural feminist theory, and critical discourse analysis, we identified five key discourses: Children’s play is safer now than when the participants were children; fathers need to know what each child needs for the child to be safe outdoors; fathers need to protect their children from danger; it’s good to expose children to outdoor risky play; experiencing scrapes and bruises is a part of growing up. The results both reaffirm and resist dominant discourses on good fathering. Further research on this topic is crucial, as fathers play an important role in their children’s experiences of outdoor risky play and injury.

Accidental Teachers: The Journeys of Six Japanese Women from the Corporate Workplace into English Language Teaching

ABSTRACTThis study explores the processual identity formation of six Japanese women who gave up a job, turned to higher education, and became university EFL teachers in Japan. My research questions include: (1) How did they change their careers and become university EFL teachers? (2) Since they entered the university EFL teaching profession, how have they felt about their own gender? and (3) How did their working experience influence their EFL teaching? Drawing on a poststructural feminist theory of identity, I examine their nonlinear, changing and contested teacher identities in social, economic and political contexts. Their stories help us understand the complex relations between individuals and the gendered social world and hidden issues involving self-conflict, a sense of unfairness, the burden of gender-differentiated expectation, and emotional strain. I also draw attention to the use of their former identities as a component of their pedagogy, which leads to feminist teaching.

Women’s entrepreneurship policy research: a 30-year review of the evidence

This paper focuses on women’s entrepreneurship policy as a core component of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We use a systematic literature review (SLR) approach to critically explore the policy implications of women’s entrepreneurship research according to gender perspective: feminist empiricism, feminist standpoint theory, and post-structuralist feminist theory. Our research question asks whether there is a link between the nature of policy implications and the different theoretical perspectives adopted, and whether scholars’ policy implications have changed as the field of women’s entrepreneurship research has developed. We concentrate on empirical studies published in the “Big Five” primary entrepreneurship research journals (SBE, ETP, JBV, JSBM, and ERD) over a period of more than 30 years (1983–2015). We find that policy implications from women’s entrepreneurship research are mostly vague, conservative, and center on identifying skills gaps in women entrepreneurs that need to be “fixed,” thus isolating and individualizing any perceived problem. Despite an increase in the number of articles offering policy implications, we find little variance in the types of policy implications being offered by scholars, regardless of the particular theoretical perspective adopted, and no notable change over our 30-year review period. Recommendations to improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem for women from a policy perspective are offered, and avenues for future research are identified.

Vulnerable Girls and Dangerous Boys

The study explores the gendered institutional practices and rationalities applied to young people placed in Danish secure institutions. The study draws on ethnographic research, combining participant observation and interviews to gain insight into professionals’ gendered practices and rationalities, and young people’s experiences of confinement. Drawing on Foucauldian power analytics and post-structuralist feminist theory on subjectivity, the study finds that the disciplining practices are gendered to promote working-class masculinity for boys and normative femininity and (hetero)sexuality for girls, with minorizing effects on some boys and girls. The study provides unique insights from a gender-integrated context for confined young people and supplements scholarship on the gendered logics that underpin interventions operating within the penal–social work nexus.

Being a mother with multiple sclerosis: Negotiating cultural ideals of mother and child

Multiple sclerosis can impact affected women’s experiences of motherhood through physical and cognitive impairment. This study examined how women construct and experience motherhood while living with multiple sclerosis. Twenty mothers diagnosed with multiple sclerosis took part in semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were analysed using theoretical thematic analysis, drawing on feminist poststructuralist theory to organise and interpret themes. Two main themes were identified: “Performing motherhood in the context of MS” and “Bringing up a ‘good’ child”. “Performing motherhood in the context of MS” comprises the subthemes, “The self-sacrificing mother: Negating women’s needs”, “The unreliable mother: Adjusting day-to-day mothering practices”, and “Resisting discourses of idealised motherhood”. “Bringing up a ‘good’ child”, comprises the subthemes, “The damaging mother: Fear of harming the child” and “The good mother: Caring and building resilience in the child”. Women positioned themselves as failing to be good mothers, because of limitations to their mothering, and fear of damaging children. Focusing on building children’s emotional resilience functioned to restore constructions of “good” mothering. Acknowledging how Western cultural ideals influence women’s experience of mothering when living with chronic illness is important. Health professionals can provide support by addressing women’s feelings of failure as mothers and supporting communication with children.

Safe Kids Week: Analysis of gender bias in a national child safety campaign, 1997–2016

Background and Purpose Child safety campaigns play an important role in disseminating injury prevention information to families. A critical discourse analysis of gender bias in child safety campaign marketing materials...

Women’s constructions of heterosex and sexual embodiment after cancer

The significant impact of cancer on women’s sexual well-being has been acknowledged increasingly within research. However, the role of cultural discourse in shaping women’s construction and embodied experience of sexuality has received less attention. In this study, we examined heterosexual women’s constructions of sexual embodiment in the context of cancer. Sixteen women across a range of ages (20–71 years), cancer types and stages took part in in-depth semi-structured interviews. A thematic decomposition analysis was conducted on the interview transcripts, drawing on feminist poststructuralist theory. A main theme was identified in which the women took up subject positions of “Embodying sexuality” and “Embodying the absence of sexuality”. Accounts of “Embodying sexuality” included “Experiencing bodily ease during sex” and “Managing a dysfunctional body during sex”. The women’s positioning of “Embodying the absence of sexuality” included “Asexuality and the absence of desire” and “Unsuccessful attempts to renegotiate sex”. Women’s intrapsychic negotiation of sexual and gendered discourse, the materiality of embodied change and relationship context influenced their constructions of sexual subjectivity. These findings indicate a need for researchers and clinicians to acknowledge cultural discourses of sex and gender that shape the possibilities and constraints for women’s sexual well-being after cancer.

Elite Female Distance Runners and Advice During Pregnancy: Sources, Content, and Trust

More elite female distance runners are opting to have children during their athletic careers. Despite this, there is a dearth of information regarding pregnancy and physical activity for elite level athletes. Further, current pregnancy physical activity guidelines are not relevant for this population`s needs. Two research questions frame this study: are elite female distance runners’ pregnancy informational needs being met?; where do they seek and find trustworthy advice on physical activity during pregnancy? Open-ended, semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 women who experienced at least one pregnancy within the past five years, had achieved a minimum of the USA Track and Field 2012 Olympic Team marathon trials ‘B’ entry standard or equivalent performances for distance running events 1,500m or longer. The participants had between one—three children, hail from five countries and participated in 14 Olympic Games and 72 World Championships. Utilizing poststructuralist feminist theory and thematic analysis, our findings revealed that the participants received advice from three main sources, both in person and online: medical professionals, coaches, and other elite female distance runners. However, we found that they also received unsolicited advice and comments from community members where they lived. The participants identified fellow elite female distance runners as the most reliable and trustworthy sources of information, followed by medical professionals, then coaches. Ultimately, the women revealed a lack of formal sources they could turn to for trustworthy advice about how to have a safe and healthy pregnancy while continuing to train at a high intensity. These results illuminate the need to meet female elite athletes’ informational needs in terms of well-being during pregnancy.

Are we teaching critical literacy? Reading practices in a township classroom

Despite improvements in educational provision in South Africa since 1994, the opportunities for learners from historically under-resourced schools to gain access to powerful English resources remain limited and unequal (Prinsloo 2012). In this article I will provide a detailed description of literacy practices in a township high school in Cape Town, specifically of the orientations to text that are made available to learners. I will draw on feminist poststructuralist theory, in which the subject is theorised as constructed and contested in language to construct difference. The analysis of classroom discourse and text-based tasks shows that the orientations to reading that were offered were characterised by a focus on the surface meaning of the texts and by an absence of critical engagement, despite the latter being required in the new Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement. The analysis reveals how the power dynamics of our racialised past and dominant ideologies about gender, class and race continue to define teaching in our classrooms in ways that limit access to the English resources that learners in under-resourced schools need for academic success.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the Perception of Reality from the Visual Field of the Other: Analysis of the Relation between Ordinary Language Philosophy and Poststructural Critique of Vision

The first objective of this work is to establish a parallel between the ordinary language philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein as well as the philosophy of Stanley Cavell and poststructuralism and its theories through their apprehension of vision and seeing as conceptual categories. The second objective is the analysis of perception of reality from the visual field of the other (children, women, other civilizations and peripheral parts of society) as a place of position of the subject in the frame of Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic poststructural theory, Jacques Derrida’s deconstructivism and psychoanalytic poststructural feminist theories (Irigaray, Kristeva).

Viewing equitable practices through the lens of intersecting identities

This review explores Archer, Dawson, Seakins, and Wong’s “Disorienting, fun or meaningful? Disadvantaged families’ experiences of a science museum visit” by examining the analytic frameworks guiding this study. To expand on Archer et al.’s use of feminist post-structuralist theories of identity we draw from the theory of intersectionality to provide a more robust framework for analyzing barriers to engagement within an informal learning space. Our response to this work ends by exploring the types of solutions generated from an intersectionality framework—solutions aimed at transforming institutional programs and practices to create more equitable spaces for learning.

Taking time between g-string changes to educate ourselves: Sinéad O’Connor, Miley Cyrus, and celebrity feminism

This article examines the feminist response to a 2013 online “feud” between singers Miley Cyrus and Sinéad O’Connor that began when Cyrus connected the video for her single “Wrecking Ball” to O’Connor’s video for “Nothing Compares 2 U.” O’Connor’s response criticised Cyrus’ sexualised image, and the exchanges that followed sparked debate among feminists over the limits of sexual “agency,” and the sexual politics of feminism. This took place within a wider media context that has seen an apparent increase in female celebrities explicitly identifying themselves as feminist. Critics of this “celebrity feminism” argue that the sexualised star systems of its proponents are at odds with the aims of feminist politics. This article draws on post-structuralist feminist theory to question the positioning of celebrity feminism as exterior to an imagined “feminist movement.” Using the Cyrus/O’Connor feud, I argue that such a binary potentially reaffirms the structures of power that feminism seeks to oppose, and ignores the ways celebrity culture and contemporary media practice might combine to produce new understandings of the field of feminism.

<i>Broken promises</i> – A novel’s impact on shaping youth identity

In many emerging economies worldwide, and in South Africa in particular, sizeable investments have been made in education with the hope of increasing literacy rates and hence producing a workforce that will fit into the job market. Thus it is important to understand the context and literacy materials within South African classrooms and their impact. This article looks at the novel Broken promises by Roz Haden, which is read in many South African classrooms. From a post-structural feminist theory and functional language theory, we analyse how the portrayal of characters and storyline can have an impact on young readers’ identity construction in relation to the novel’s predominant discourses. The findings show that men are still portrayed as dominant in their own right within society whereas women are defined in relation to men. Unchallenged, this portrayal can continue to perpetuate gendered stereotypes, which would affect young people’s functionality in society. We therefore argue that while novels are good for improving literacy among young people, the messages they contain should be deconstructed and challenged so that young people can make informed decisions regarding their gender identities.

Women's Construction of Embodiment and the Abject Sexual Body After Cancer.

Cancer and cancer treatments can cause significant changes to women's sexual well-being. We explored how women construct a sense of their bodies and sexual "selves" in the context of cancer. Sixteen women, across a range of ages (20-71 years), cancer types, and cancer stages, took part in in-depth semistructured interviews. We conducted a thematic discourse analysis, drawing on feminist poststructuralist theory, identifying "the abject body" as a dominant theme. Participants constructed abject bodies as being "beyond abnormality," "outside idealized discourses of embodied femininity," and "out of control." The women's accounts varied in management and resistance of the abject body discourse, through bodily practices of concealment, resisting discourses of feminine beauty, and repositioning the body as a site of personal transformation. The corporeality of the cancerous body can be seen to disrupt hegemonic discourses of femininity and sexuality, with implications for how women practice and make meaning of embodied sexual subjectivity.

Higher Education Learning Experiences Among Vietnamese Immigrant Women in Taiwan

Based on a sociocultural approach to adult learning and poststructural feminist theories, this study draws on interviews with 11 married Vietnamese women to explore the higher education learning experiences of Vietnamese immigrant women in Taiwan. On the basis of their husbands’ permission and support, Vietnamese immigrant women embraced the instrumental value of education and pursued higher education to play their expected motherhood roles. During the higher education learning process, the women persevered in learning with resilience, negotiated their voices and cultural identity, and fulfilled multiple roles. Participating in and even completing higher education in Taiwan empowered these women through learning based on their bicultural competence.