Postmodern Feminist Perspective Research Articles

FOOD AND MOOD IN THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) written by Aimee Bender presents the relation between foods and female moods. Aimee Bender implemented a mixture of real and imagery in her magic realist novel in which the female protagonist, Rose Edelstein, experiences some important changes in her life starting from her ninth birthday. These changes are closely related to food and affect Rose physiologically, psychologically, and emotionally. Rose loves lemon cake and her mother who starts spending most of her time in the kitchen cooks this cake for her ninth birthday. However, Rose feels hollowness aftertaste and feels that her mother is unhappy because she realizes that she can sense the feelings of people from the foods she consumes. Thus, this study aims to reveal the relationship between foods and feelings by analysing Aimee Bender's novel from a postmodern feminist perspective focusing on foods, feelings, gender roles, and female identity.

Migration and Sex Work through a Gender Perspective

Abstract The trajectories of migration and prostitution are embedded in representations of body, gender, sex and sexuality. This article seeks to understand the articulation between migration and sex work through the lens of gender. To this end, this article relies on a typological approach that aims to clear some ground in the ongoing debate on the issues of prostitution, sex trafficking and migration of sex workers. It explores the theoretical cross-contribution as well as the conceptual limitations of radical, liberal, post-colonial, critical and postmodern feminist perspectives on the issues of prostitution, sex workers’ mobility and sex trafficking. It gives special focus to the contributions of the postmodern feminist reading, especially by highlighting how it has challenged conventional feminist theories, hitherto grounded in dualistic structures. In fact, the postmodern feminist approach makes a stand against the simplistic dichotomies such as First/Third World, passivity/agency, vulnerability/empowerment, innocence/conscience, sexual trafficking/voluntary prostitution or ‘trafficked victim’/‘autonomous sex worker.’ As such, postmodern feminism disrupts all fixed demarcations and homogeneous forms of categorisation on which the dominant feminist theories were based, allowing thus for the emergence of new practices of subjectivity as well as new forms of flexible identities.

Responding to the Sociopolitical Complexity of Trauma: An Integration of Theory and Practice

This article calls attention to the complexity of trauma by enhancing the awareness of the intersectionality of race, class, and gender among oppressed groups, specifically women from marginalized populations, and underscores that consideration of such is essential for the creation of systems of care that are truly trauma-informed. Advancing the integration of theory and practice, we provide a rationale for adopting a postmodern feminist perspective to facilitate the creation of trauma-informed systems of care that take into account the complexity of trauma among this population, leading to comprehensive treatment that furthers the social work mission of social justice.

가슴 성형 경험자의 성형 동기와 성형 후 평가 -이상적 신체이미지 내면화를 통한 의복 소비행동의 변화-

This study analyzes the motives of Korean women for choosing breast augmentation in a cultural and relational context; in addition, it investigates their evaluations after surgery. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with 10 Korean women in their 20s and 30s who have received cosmetic breast augmentation. Enlarged and made-up breasts are a form of clothing that symbolizes the socio-economic status of women. In the vertical and individualized Korean society, the desire of women for a fashionable body invigorated the appearance management market. Fashion consumers have passively internalized the ideal body trends as the concept of the ideal body-image, which has been constructed by the social structure, markets, and the media. The analysis was rooted in post-modern feminist perspectives on the female body. The ideal body-image internalization process through the social interactions of participants was the main cultural factor to choose breast surgery. The self-image and conformity/individuality of participant were categorized as relational factors for the motivation to undergo breast surgery. The result showed that after surgery the participants achieved positive feedback from their social relationships. They expressed or hid their socio-economic statuses through their purchased fashion bodies. They also showed higher self-esteem and feelings of satisfaction by pursuing individuality and conformity as a member of society. Moreover, they achieved wider fashion options and greater controls over their public/private/secret clothing choices for certain occasions. Cosmetic breast surgery positively empowered individual women while reinforcing the socially manipulated body ideals that oppress women at the same time. Participants internalized socially constructed values and justified their surgery choices.

Postmodern feminist perspectives and nursing research: a passionately interested form of inquiry

The challenges posed by postmodern and poststructural theories profoundly disrupt the certainties of feminist and nursing research, yet at the same time offer possibilities for developing new epistemologies. While there are an increasing number of accounts discussing the theoretical implications of these ideas for nursing research, I wish to discuss the practical and the methodological implications of using postmodern feminist theories within empirical research. In particular, I identify the challenges I encountered through an examination of specific aspects of the research process and through examples drawn from empirical research. I conclude that using postmodern feminist theories requires a continuous engagement with, and interrogation of, the modern epistemological and ontological assumptions of qualitative, feminist nursing research and, in so doing, presents the possibility for nurse scholars to begin to develop a 'passionately interested' methodological approach to nursing inquiry.

Toward a Critical Feminist Perspective of Culture and Self

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

Toward a Critical Feminist Perspective of Culture and Self

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

Reconceptualizing vulnerability: deconstruction and reconstruction as a postmodern feminist analytical research method.

Nursing research informed by postmodern feminist perspectives has prompted many debates in recent times. While this is so, nurse researchers who have been tempted to break new ground have had few examples of appropriate analytical methods for a research design informed by the above perspectives. This article presents a deconstructive/reconstructive secondary analysis of a postmodern feminist ethnography in order to provide an analytical exemplar. In doing so, previous notions of vulnerability as a negative state have been challenged and reconstructed.

Toward a Dialectical Model of Family Gender Discourse: Body, Identity, and Sexuality

The goal of this article is to propose a dialectical model representing gender discourse in families. A brief review of literature in sociology, psychology, and gender studies focuses on three dialectical issues: nature versus culture, similarity versus difference, and stability versus fluidity. Deconstructing gender theories from a postmodern feminist perspective, the authors discuss agency and context in families' gender discourse. Narrative excerpts from interviews with an adolescent daughter and her mother illustrate three emergent themes in the social construction of gender: body, identity, and sexuality. The article concludes with recommendations for family researchers.

Gendered Differences: Postmodern Feminist Perspectives and Young Women Identified as “Emotionally Disabled”

Little consideration has been given to adolescent girls identified as having emotional disabilities in either the research or clinical literature. Social workers continue to use developmental theories that are based on males, and thus contribute to the persistent silence about the needs of this population. Feminist and postmodern perspectives can serve to highlight how dominant discourses around “gender,” “emotional disabilities,” and “psychological development” influence social work theory and practice with this population. This paper uses feminist and postmodern re-visions of developmental theories to deconstruct the current research and clinical practices with female adolescents and shows how these re-visions can inform our thinking about adolescent girls identified as having emotional or behavioral disabilities.

Book Review: Practice and Research in Social Work: Postmodern Feminist Perspectives

Book Review: Practice and Research in Social Work: Postmodern Feminist Perspectives

A Postmodern Feminist Approach to Teaching Human Sexuality

Postmodern feminist theory provides a valuable perspective for designing and teaching human sexuality courses. The utility of this approach is explained and strategies for helping students understand a constructivist framework presented. The theory is put into action, and the following course goals are addressed: (a) shift from a problem‐oriented to a strengths approach, (b) provide information and skills that are relevant and useful, (c) expand students' thinking about diversity, and (d) help students maximize their own sexual health and minimize exploitation of themselves and others. The article concludes with a discussion of pedagogical and ethical challenges of teaching from a postmodern feminist perspective.

It’s business doing pleasure with you: Sh! A women’s sex shop case

An exploratory case study of the features of the service encounter within the concept shop Sh! forms the starting‐point for building theory to describe and conceptualize such encounters. Sex shops exclusively targeted at women are a new and ground‐breaking phenomenon, challenging the traditional notion of sex shops as male domains. Illustrates a shift towards a postmodernist merging of production and consumption patterns. The participant observation study investigates the drama perspective of the servuction systems model as a potential framework applicable to the intersubjective construction of a postmodern feminist perspective of hedonistic consumption. Concludes that Sh! offers unique opportunities for co‐creations of a new service encounter ‐ a female playspace.

The elusiveness of identity in social work practice with women: A postmodern feminist perspective

During the 1980s, feminist literature proposed the existence of a silent, tongue-tied, “different” woman who craves to exercise her own voice. The more recent postmodern feminism raises questions about the existence of woman, self, and identity as categories, promoting instead the idea of multiple selves and multiple identities. This article visits the concept of “identity” and its partner “self” in psychological, feminist, and postmodern feminist literature and discusses why self/identity is problematic for women. An alternative narrative identity is proposed with narrative identity reconstruction integrated into clinical social work practice with women. A narrative excerpt from an interview illustrates the process.

A Postmodern Feminist Perspective on Organizations in the Natural Environment

Concern over the natural environment has been a persistent problem for industrialized society. One possible reason for the enduring anxiety over the condition of the ecosystem may be that the masculinist perspective dominant in business education, research, and practice does not allow us to envision sustainable solutions. This manuscript traces the rise of masculinist hegemony in organizational science and counters with a postmodern feminist alternative that may provide more workable, long-term solutions to environmental degradation. Examples of changes in business language and heuristics that may be derived from such a postmodern feminist perspective are discussed.

Women and Families: Feminist Reconstructions

Families--often a source of satisfaction, growth, and fulfillment for women--can also be an arena of domination, abuse, and pain. This volume uses a postmodern feminist perspective to elucidate women's myriad experiences in the family, providing an integrated analysis of critical aspects of intimate relationships, sexuality, childbearing decisions, care giving, and work within the family context. Throughout, the book focuses on the nature of the choices women must make as they attempt to meet their own needs while nurturing and sustaining their intimate and family relationships.Challenging traditional definitions of the family, WOMEN AND FAMILIES reveals the rich diversity of family relationships that women actually construct. The proliferation of new family configurations, the diversity of connections that women form with intimate partners, and the multiplicity of choices they make regarding paid work and parenting are examined. With a focus on heterosexual and lesbian family experiences, the book provides an inclusive perspective rarely found in the family studies literature. Drawing upon current research and theory, the volume creates a vision of what families might be when relationships are based on mutual respect, equality, and choice.A comprehensive introduction to postmodern feminism, WOMEN AND FAMILIES incorporates feminist thinking and research from a variety of disciplines. It provides an integrated analysis of the connections among women, their families, and the wider culture, and illuminates both the differences and the similarities among women. Action-oriented, the book stresses themes of economic autonomy, choice and equality, reproductive freedom, and education for critical awareness, and presents pragmatic recommendations for empowerment.Offering a unique perspective on the reciprocal influences between women and their families, this volume will be of interest to a wide range of professionals including family specialists, therapists, social workers, psychologists, and sociologists. Ideal as a primary text for upper division undergraduate- or graduate-level family studies, women's studies, and gender studies courses, WOMEN AND FAMILIES also serves as a supplemental text for courses in counseling, sociology, psychology, social work, and life-span development.

Madonna's postmodern feminism: Bringing the margins to the center

Within the context of ongoing debate between feminism and postmodernism, this essay adopts a postmodern feminist perspective to examine how pop‐star Madonna uses postmodern strategies of representation to challenge the foundational “truths” of sex and gender. Specifically, the music videos Express Yourself and Justify My Love are analyzed to illustrate gender deconstruction and sexual multiplicity. While such a postmodern challenge may not be amenable to feminisms based on an identity politics, it does bring previously marginalized “others,” such as gay men and lesbians, to the center as a model from which a multi‐faceted coalitional politics can be built.

Ethical and Epistemological Tensions in Applying A Postmodern Perspective to Feminist Research

We examine tensions that arise in applying postmodernism to feminist research. First, we consider epistemological tensions generated in the process of deconstructing existing knowledge and constructing new knowledge that benefits women. Second, we examine six ethical issues that reflect the tensions in feminist practice as we attempt to justify the dialectic between knowledge and power. In keeping with a postmodernist perspective, we pose these six issues as questions: Is feminist postmodernism “postfeminist”? Does postmodernist language mystify feminist practice and goals? Are qualitative methods more feminist than quantitative ones? Must feminists have a liberatory purpose in their research? Is the personal too personal? Whose aims are served, feminists or their collaborators? We conclude that by adopting a postmodern feminist perspective, we can embrace the struggle between knowledge and practice rather than privilege one over the other.