Rich Men Research Articles

“just hanging out with you in my back yard”: Mark Zuckerberg and Mediated Paternalism

Abstract In a video that showcases a new Facebook feature, Mark Zuckerberg chats to his users, telling them that he’s “just hanging out with you in my backyard.” In this video-which is on his Facebook page-Zuckerberg discloses the domestic space of his backyard, revealing his interaction with family and friends. Depicted hosting a barbeque while watching the electoral debate, Zuckerberg performs an affective white postfeminist paternity (Hamad, 2014) by talking about hunting, eating meat, and being a father. This video is key in explaining how Zuckerberg affectively models patriarchal power. We argue that this PR exercise (for both him and Facebook which are portrayed as inextricably linked) functions to represent Facebook as enabling an empowered “community,” rather than being just an instrument of data accumulation. In particular, Zuckerberg’s affective paternalism is also a means to recoup and obfuscate patriarchal power structures. Zuckerberg’s Facebook page constructs an intimate paternalism in relation to his domestic sphere, but also to his followers, and this works to legitimate his corporate and global paternalism. The ways in which he is portrayed through signifiers of an emotional fatherhood work to gloss his power as the third richest man in the world.

WAKAF PAKAIAN PERSPEKTIF EKONOMI SYARIAH

Clothes as primary necessity is the most needed especially if there is a disaster such as flood, eruption, fire and some other disasters. It is better if the clothes belong to some unlucky people, and it can be through benefaction instrument. So it can create the economy balancing which then be able to make a development of economy equalization, especially the primary needed (daruriyat) it is about clothes needed. It can be as a solution to the overage clothes which had by the rich men and also as a way to consumptive attitude that has been a life style and character of rich men toward clothes trend mode. The main aim of this study was to review the basic problem: (1) What were the economic values which had on the clothes of syariah economy perspectives? (2) How was the clothes benefaction ijtihad of syariah economy perspectives as economy development?This study was a library reseacrh, where specifically it was mentioned as deductive qualitative descriptive design in frame syariah ecoonomy by using histroical approach, conceptual approach, and syariah economy contextual approach, by using deductive qualitative descriptive analysis model, they were data reduction, data display, and verification. Data collected was analyzed by using retropsective method.The results of the study concluded that: (1) the economic values which had on the clothes of syariah economy perspectives were the function value and the benefit of human sustainability guarantee which placed on priority scale of human’s need. It was primary needed (daruriyat) which can guarantee the equilibrium of doing the life activity whether based on muamalah or worship. (2) the clothes benefaction ijtihad of syariah economy perspectives as economy development were through two models they were consumptives benefaction (using directly without any production process) and productive benefaction (processing the clothes which economical) as a relevant idea to the new paradigm of benefaction in Indonesia and also as solution to consumptive attitude of the community toward the dynamic of clothes trend mode.

Power and discrimination of women as seen in jane austen’s Pride and prejudice

There is always discrimination against women in any field, as experienced by the main character Elizabeth Bennet in the novel Pride and Prejudice. Because women can not accept the inheritance from their fathers, therefore women are required to marry rich men to improve social class and economic life. Discrimination of women in the inheritance of wealth makes women have to struggle in finding rich men to marry. In the data analysis method the author performs a systematic procedure with a novel understanding, the main character of Elizabeth Bennet and also feminist theory, the technique used in this research is a structural technique by analyzing novels based on the elements that make up. The results of this study found that: 1) the discrimination of women in the inheritance of his father's estate, 2) the main character of Elizabeth Bennett describes the strength of women, because of his firm and wise in facing all problems in his life, 3) the women's struggle was carried out by Elizabeth Bennet in Find his true love and marry on the basis of love until it ends happily, but so many obstacles he faces both from the outside and from himself.

La tutela del patrimonio fiscale: pratiche di salvaguardia del pubblico e autorità regia nel regno longobardo del secolo VIII

King Liutprand repeatedly issued new laws in order to protect the fiscal estates, which were subtracted to the public utility by rich and powerful men, thanks to the collusion and the easy corruptibility of the actores , the officers who were in charge of their administration. The following Kings, however, gave up checking in person the fiscal estates and they preferred to adopt a different strategy, which consist in allocating in monasteries the quotas of public assets they wanted to ensure full control over. These monasteries indeed had to sustain many conflicts for the possession and use of fiscal estates, because laymen, clerics and communities that previously had enjoyed of them, did not accept the new system without fighting.

Protection and Power in Siam: From Khun Chang Khun Phaen to the Buddha Amulet

Today in Thailand wearing of an amulet (phra khrueang), a small image of Buddha or of a famous monk usually enclosed in some form of casing and attached to a cord or chain worn around neck, is among most widespread of religious practices.1) The principal benefit of such amulets is protection from dangers of various kinds, verging into a more positive desire for good fortune. In Khun Chang Khun Phaen (KCKP), a massive folk epic dating back to late Ayutthaya era, demand for protection against dangers is a dominant theme, and many devices are used for this purpose.In study of religion, power, and social ordering in Thai society, key concepts have been merit and power, prowess, patron-client ties, kingship, and so on.2) All these concepts betray a top-down view, a focus on explaining why certain people are powerful. The concept of protection comes into play when angle of vision switches to bottomup and concentrates on what people seek from religion, power, and social institutions. In historical study, nature of few sources available (chronicles, laws) has favored top-down view. However, literary sources that emerged from a popular tradition offer possibility of moving outside this straitjacket. Similarly, in contemporary study, concept of protection or security has emerged with increasing attention to analysis of popular religious practice. In his recent pathbreaking work, Justin McDaniel argues that besides well-known Buddhist qualities of non-attachment, compassion, and enlightenment, everyday practice points to the importance of security and protection (khwam plotphai, kan pongkan), abundance . . . , graciousness . . . , and heritage (McDaniel 2011, 219).In this article, we trace concept of protection from late Ayutthaya era to present. The early sections analyze meaning and prominence of protection in KCKP, and range of devices and practices deployed in its pursuit. The later sections trace emergence of modern amulet and changing role of Buddha in business of protection.Khun Chang Khun Phaen as a SourceKCKP is a long folk epic that developed in an oral tradition of storytelling for local audiences. The plot, set in provincial urban society of central Siam, is a love triangle ending in tragedy. Khun Phaen is handsome and dashing but his family was ruined after his father was executed by king for an error on royal service. Khun Chang is richest man in local town but fat, ugly, and crass. The two compete for lovely Wanthong. Khun Phaen woos and weds her, but Khun Chang then uses his wealth and court connections to take her away. The rivalry continues through two pitched battles, two court cases, trial by ordeal, jail, treachery, abduction, and other mayhem. Tiring of this disorder, king summons three and commands that Wanthong be executed for failing to choose between two men.Probably tale originated around 1600 and developed in an oral tradition of storytelling for local audiences, becoming hugely popular by eighteenth century, and very long (21,000 lines excluding late sequels). It was then adopted by court, converted to written form, extended with new episodes and sequels, and embellished with fancier poetry. The first printed edition appeared in 1872, but work is known today through an edition published in 1916-17 by Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, half-brother of King Chulalongkorn.3)Works like KCKP that develop through repeated interaction between performers and audiences over a long period, as did many of classics of world literature, come to reflect tastes and values of their society. While court revisions greatly changed surface of KCKP, plot, tone, structure, and rhythm of work retained much of their original character. The epic is a rare document that reflects society and mindset of premodern Siam.Protection in Khun Chang Khun PhaenThroughout tale, characters seek protection (khum-khrong, pong-kan) against risks, dangers, and threats (siang, phai, antarai, khuk-kham) in order to ward off sorrowful hardship (thuk) and achieve peaceful contentment (suk). …

Book Review of “The Real Warren Buffett - Managing Capital, Leading People”

This paper reviews and discusses the book titled “The Real Warren Buffett – Managing Capital, Leading People” by James O’Loughlin. The mentioned book details the managerial skills, financial expertise and leadership approach of Warren Buffett. Practical lessons of Warren Buffett are also included in “The Real Warren Buffett – Managing Capital, Leading People” and how he became the second richest man in United States are mentioned.

Characters and Characterization in Luke-Acts ed. by Frank E. Dicken and Julia A. Snyder

Reviewed by: Characters and Characterization in Luke-Acts ed. by Frank E. Dicken and Julia A. Snyder Christoph Stenschke frank e. dicken and julia a. snyder (eds.), Characters and Characterization in Luke-Acts (LNTS 548; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2016). Pp. x + 254. $114. This collection of essays is the third volume in a series of literary-critical studies on characters and characterization in the NT (Characters and Characterization in the Gospel of John, 2013 [see the review by Francis J. Moloney, S.D.B., in CBQ 77 (2015) 403–5]; and Character Studies and the Gospel of Mark, 2014). Luke-Acts is of particular interest in this quest because of its sheer length and because it contains some of the most famous and memorable characters in the NT. In their introduction, Frank Dicken and Julia Snyder briefly survey previous Lucan character studies and introduce the essays in the volume. Part 1 addresses characterization in Luke’s Gospel. Three essays follow a reader-response approach: James L. Resseguie (“The Woman Who Crashed Simon’s Party: A Reader-Response Approach to Luke 7:36–50”) notes instances of defamiliarization that undermine the readers’ familiar repertoire; it is particularly effective when characters at opposite ends of the status hierarchy do surprising things. John A. Darr (“Levi’s Banquet [Luke 5:29–39] and Lukan Discipleship: Group Characters and Christian Identity Formation”) argues that, with its characterization of Levi and of Jesus, the passage initiates and directs an ongoing discourse that addresses and seeks to legitimate the paradoxes and tensions of Christian identity in Luke’s own time. Hannah M. Cocksworth (“Zechariah and Gabriel as Thematic Characters: A Narratological Reading of the Beginning of Luke’s Gospel [Luke 1:8–20]”) notes that the layers of Gabriel’s message are uncovered through the life and work of Jesus and reach their climax in Luke 24, when Jesus’ identity as Lord and Messiah is fully revealed. David B. Gowler (“The Characterization of the Two Brothers in the Parable of the Prodigal Son [Luke 15:11–32]: Their Function and Afterlives”) traces the reception of the two brothers in music, drama, and art. The examples indicate how the ambiguities in the portrayal of both sons have led to a variety of interpretations, including depictions of reconciliation between the two. The next three essays indicate the contribution of character studies toward understanding social relations and ethics. F. Scott Spencer (“A Woman’s Touch: Manual and Emotional Dynamics of Female Characters in Luke’s Gospel”) offers a study of the manual-emotional characterization of women; women’s touches feature in Luke 2:1–20; 7:36–50; 8:43–48; 10:38–42; 13:20–21; 15:8–10; and 18:2–5). Cornelis Bennema (“The Rich Are the Bad Guys: Lukan Characters and Wealth Ethics”) explores the characterization of rich men in Luke 12:13–21; 16:19–31; 18:18–30; and 19:1–10. Joel B. Green (“A Cognitive Narratological [End Page 737] Approach to the Characterization[s] of Zacchaeus”) examines how textual clues evoke inferences about and experiences of characters on the part of the readers and how readers actively participate in the construction of characters. Part 2 is devoted to characterization in the Book of Acts. Steve Walton (“Jesus, Present and/or Absent? The Presence and Presentation of Jesus as a Character in the Book of Acts”) argues that Jesus is characterized as now present in heaven, at God’s right side. He is there in such a way that he continues to be active on earth. Because he is characterized like God, he deserves the same veneration and honor. Two essays examine the characterization of the disciples. Brittany E. Wilson (“Sight and Spectacle: ‘Seeing’ Paul in the Book of Acts”) notes that Paul’s “optical” characterization intersects with his identity as one who is to suffer. He is portrayed in relation to sight and spectacle, to witness and persecution. Sean A. Adams (“The Characterization of Disciples in Acts: Genre, Method, and Quality”) concludes that the selection of genre influences the method and quality of characterization. Depictions of disciples are rare in historical works. There are similarities in the quality of...

Spirit of the Shepherd BoyVanishing Point—Part BThe Rich Men

Spirit of the Shepherd BoyVanishing Point—Part BThe Rich Men

The Working Poor: Two Perspectives on Reality—A Communication to the Editor Inviting a Discussion

The Working Poor: Two Perspectives on Reality—A Communication to the Editor Inviting a Discussion

Post-Socialist Femininity Unleashed/Restrained: Reconfigurations of Gender in Chinese Television Dramas

In post-socialist China, gender norms are marked by rising divorce rates (Kleinman et al.), shifting attitudes towards sex (Farrer; Yan), and a growing commercialisation of sex (Zheng). These phenomena have been understood as indicative of market reforms unhinging past gender norms. In the socialist period, the radical politics of the time moulded women as gender neutral even as state policies emphasised their feminine roles in maintaining marital harmony and stability(Evans). These ideas around domesticity bear strong resemblance to pre-socialist understandings of womanhood and family that anchored Chinese society before the Communists took power in 1949. In this pre-socialist understanding, women were categorised into a hierarchy that defined their rights as wives, mothers, concubines, and servants (Ebrey and Watson; Wolf and Witke). Women who transgressed these categories were regarded as potentially dangerous and powerfulenough to break up families and shake the foundations of Chinese society (Ahern). This paper explores the extent to which understandings of Chinese femininity have been reconfigured in the context of China’s post-1979 development, particularly after the 2000s.

Review: Paris Ville Lumière: Une transformation urbaine et sociale, 1855–1937, by Joanne Vajda

Joanne Vajda Paris Ville Lumiere: Une transformation urbaine et sociale, 1855–1937 Paris: L'Harmattan, 2015, 422 pp., 133 b/w illus. €40 (cloth), ISBN 9782343055633 Behind an imprecise title and lackluster cover lies a book that lovers of the French capital will enjoy. Joanne Vajda discusses the urban and social transformation of the City of Light that was mediated by high-class tourism in the period 1855–1937. We learn how the members of the “traveling elite” helped transform the neighborhoods they patronized, originally near the Grands Boulevards, then moving westward, always on the Right Bank; the scholastic Latin Quarter and artistic Montparnasse are not featured, and Montmartre makes only a cameo appearance. The beginning and end dates in the book's title relate to the first and last international expositions Paris hosted, and the bulk of the research concerns the Second Empire and the Belle Epoque. In this study, which originated in her doctoral research at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Vajda taps into a multitude of print and archival sources, taking the painstaking path necessary to comprehend the sociocultural, financial, and environmental dynamic between, on one hand, Paris's business and high-end districts as well as residential beaux quartiers and, on the other, the rich men and women attracted to the city from all over the world. Her sources include guidebooks (including multilingual pamphlets published by hotels), essays by fashionable French writers, hotel guest books, building permits, citizenship applications, bankruptcy files, auction catalogues, and police reports. The first section sets the cultural stage for the “the city of the guidebooks,” the “Paris desœuvre, sensuel et cosmopolite” (389) shaped by, and for, foreigners. Indeed, attracting upscale tourism was one of Baron Haussmann's objectives, and such tourism remains a key economic engine for the Parisian economy. Among other intriguing facts, we learn that by 1855 foreigners were allowed entry on a daily basis into many monuments and museums that the French could patronize only on Sundays; …

Hamlin Garland in the “Third House”: A Pragmatic Romancer of American Politics

Hamlin Garland in the “Third House”A Pragmatic Romancer of American Politics Roark Mulligan (bio) [A] social state is possible in which poverty would be unknown, and all the better qualities and higher powers of human nature would have opportunity for full development. (557) —Henry George, 18791 He [President Grant] has associated himself with rich men, rather than with statesmen and patriots. In his desire to avoid politicians, he seemed likely to fall among thieves. (410) —Hamlin Garland, 18982 In 1892, the year that the People’s Party peaked in popularity, winning four Western states in the presidential election, Hamlin Garland published two political novels: A Spoil of Office and A Member of the Third House, the former depicting the rise of the Farmers’ Alliance (a faction of the People’s Party), the latter fictionalizing a Massachusetts bribery scandal. Largely forgotten, these progressive works, informed by Garland’s political activism and his radical economic theories, document the ascent of the Populist movement but also portend its demise.3 B. O. Flower, the Arena magazine editor who sponsored Garland’s reporting for A Spoil of Office and who later published the novel, characterized the work as “the most graphic picture of the influence of money in corrupting legislation that has even been penned” (43). And more recently, Martin Quentin has corroborated this claim: “A Spoil of Office (1892), Hamlin Garland’s most sustained Populist novel, captures as no other work of American fiction does the tremendous growth and difficulties of the post Civil War agrarian uprisings [End Page 103] in the West” (29). Although Donald Pizer also admires Garland’s depictions of the Populist movement, he has pointedly questioned Garland’s skill as a political novelist: “Despite the excellence of A Spoil of Office as contemporary social history, it is undoubtedly a failure as a novel” (Hamlin Garland’s Early Work and Career 105). For Pizer, the romantic plot fails, as does the realism, when the setting shifts east, away from Midwest farms and small town politics. In evaluating A Spoil of Office, Pizer presents a literary crux on which Garland criticism has rested for the past century, a crux that posits a dichotomy between Garland’s realistic Midwest sketches, which appear in his early edition of Main-Travelled Roads (1891), and his sentimental novels, even his nostalgic autobiographies, which move away from the realism for which he is still admired. Written in 1892, Garland’s two political novels exemplify this dichotomy well in that they are marked by a blend of sentimental melodrama and gritty realism. For Garland, the sentimental plots allow him to imagine a utopian future, and the naturalistic realism exposes the corrupt political forces that inspire but that also thwart utopian plans. To promote a new social order and to reveal why such a transformation was needed, Garland employed complex modes of literary expression, experimental blendings of melodrama and realism, as several recent scholars have noted.4 For example, Christine Holbo, in “Hamlin Garland’s Modernism” (2013), embraces Garland’s mixed modes, finding in his fiction traits of modernism: “Reduced to representing Midwestern identity, the Midwestern realist quickly becomes not self-identical, but self-contradictory. It is only by reading realism as modernism that the opposition between realism’s social concerns and symbolism’s aesthetic rebellions disappears” (1231). As modern amalgams, Garland’s political novels present Populist, utopian solutions as denouements to sentimental plots, but they also employ brutal realism to call for but also to call into question Populist panaceas. In accurately depicting the political failings that prevented utopian solutions, Garland adroitly, but reluctantly, enters the “third house,” where lobbyists control legislators with bribery, where pragmatic unions between financiers and politicians make possible urbanization, industrialization, and Westward expansion. In realistically representing the marriage of corporate capitalism and legislative bodies, Garland’s political works emerge, not as utopian answers nor as dystopian warnings, but as pragmatic explorations that depict ordinary individuals grasping for Populist solutions, solutions that may have done them more harm than good. [End Page 104] Political Romances As a pair, Garland’s political novels loosely form a continuous tale, a melodramatic success story. A Spoil of Office is a bildungsroman, dramatizing the...

Radical Shakespeare: Politics and Stagecraft in the Early Career. Chris Fitter. New York: Routledge, 2012. Pp. xi+330.

<i>Radical Shakespeare: Politics and Stagecraft in the Early Career</i>. Chris Fitter. New York: Routledge, 2012. Pp. xi+330.

The Yellow Flower of Norway: Trauma and Repetition in Hans Henny Jahnn'sPerrudja

In Hans Henny Jahnn's Perrudja (1929), the eponymous hero, who is the world's richest man and lives alone in the Norwegian mountains, is repeatedly thwarted in his attempts to pursue romantic absolution by what he describes as his predestination to romantic failure. He explains this predestination via the metaphor of the “gelbe Blume,” with which he identifies himself. In this essay, I argue that Perrudja's self-identification as “gelbe Blume,” and his repeated, ritualized enactments of romantic failure, represent the performance of a repetition compulsion that has its roots in trauma. Perrudja compulsively repeats his alienation within a homosocial triangle, in which he always plays the role of vanquished rival. It is only with respect to his special relationship with animals that Perrudja is able to overcome the ritualized repetition of repressed trauma and to live authentically.

Early Islam and the birth of capitalism

The Richest Man in Arabia Markets without Government Family Matters A Mosque, a Market, and a War Muhammad's Household Finances Muhammad's Executive Office Muhammadan Taxation Succession Rise of the Rashidun Caliphs Decline of the Rashidun Caliphs Journey to Jerusalem Islamic Gold Currency Bankers of Baghdad Islamic Philanthropy: Waqfs Islamic Venture Capital: Qirads Islamic Trade Centres: Funduqs Law in Early Islam From Law to Economics Market Economics in Early Islam Muslim Merchants Abroad Shifting Alliances Tax Havens in the Holy Land The Economic Consequences of Saladin Lives of the Merchants Early Law and Economics in Christendom Conclusion Bibliography Index

Virtuous leadership revisited: the case of Hüsnü Özyeğin of FIBA Holding

In 2006, we, the authors, and David Waldman wrote an article for the Journal of Management, Spirituality &amp; Religion describing a theoretical model of how we thought virtuous leadership might manifest and perpetuate itself in modern organizations, particularly in relation to organizational learning. The article was inspired because of two things. First, we witnessed many dramatic cases of executive malfeasance and lack of virtue in organizations, which was a bit dispiriting, as we were and still are executive educators. Second, we had a lot of hope for the future and all worked in the areas of positive organizational behavior and positive psychology. Thus, we desired to articulate a more positive model for organizations. Today, we revisit that model and test it, if you will, using the case of the self-made billionaire and richest man in Turkey – Hüsnü Özyeğin – who is also a well-known philanthropist and social entrepreneur.

Right Before the Wake, and: A Word on Regression

Right Before the Wake, and: A Word on Regression Samantha Lynn Cole (bio) RIGHT BEFORE THE WAKE Charlie Fraley, I seen your facefirst thing upon my passingfrom this side to the next,that devil’s box shoved upand underneath your chin,sweat on your brow, all beadedand dancing right along with the ductiletune your bow eked out,like silver in a jeweler’s hands. And there were leaves on the tree,just out the window. I noticedthem while moving throughthe streaked glass. The windowlooking half melted with age,and those leaves reachedout to wrap themselves aroundmy hands, and the branchesof that oak stretchedto run themselves throughmy hair, just like my mommaused to with her knotty hands. Charlie, you kept right on playingwhile everything in sight kept time,Lord, I can’t blame them.This was what I asked for,my last hymnal, not a hymn at all. [End Page 40] All the while, that tree pulled me closerto hollowed-out ground. I was done,but that song, Charlie, I reckon it is still playing. [End Page 41] A WORD ON REGRESSION Hand reaching backwards throughtime, and which was I? The murdereror the murdered? Likely,never a nobledressed in lace,not even a damn general.A farmer, perhaps.One who watchedthe sun crane slowly acrossthe sky, creep from pole to pole,who died with a spottedface and shock-white hair.Or a bum who killedhis wife when he foundher tucked away in some roomwith another man, more sober,laid the knife to her, red openinglike tulips. Just as easily, his woman,spread on sheets stained with heartblood,those figures later dullingto the color of iron. It isn’t, dear friends,that I romanticize these things.Such are marks of shame on the human head.But, all-in-all, it is much more likelythan an Egyptian courtesan,or the richest man in Prague. [End Page 42] Samantha Lynn Cole Samantha Lynn Cole is a native of Lee County, Kentucky, who graduated from Berea College. Berea is now her home. There, she writes, works, and bakes. Copyright © 2014 Berea College

Why Aren’t Middle-Class White Women Laughing in Eudora Welty’s Fiction?

Why Aren’t Middle-Class White Women Laughing in Eudora Welty’s Fiction? Rebecca Mark The subject of Eudora Welty and humor is fascinating, but humor is not the main focus of this essay. The subject of this essay is instead: why, when, and if middle-class white women characters in Welty’s fiction laugh. In her article “Strange Felicity: Welty’s Women, Laughing, Disguising, Revising, Seizing Speech,” Lois Welch makes the astute observation that when reading Welty’s texts, we are caught in a strange liminal state unable to laugh and unable to keep from laughing. While Welty’s readers may find themselves in a passive position laughing and not laughing against their will, Welty’s female characters try to wield more power over the laugh act. Welty’s women characters often laugh or do not laugh for strategic reasons. Manfred Pfister in A History of English Laughter notes that the traces of laughter found in artistic representation reveal “the fault lines of the anxieties and the social pressures at work at a given historical moment” (vii). Pfister argues that these representations “do not only ‘represent’ the laughter of a particular society, but … give a pointed and pregnant shape to it, analyse and frequently problematise it,” and he argues that “actual laughter itself always contains a more or less marked element of self-conscious performance and theatrical representation, complete with actors and audiences” (vii). Pfister’s parameters help us recognize that each time Welty marks the text with laughter, her marks are “pointed” and “pregnant” and comment on the historical anxieties of the time. Each time a character laughs in a Welty text, we are standing on a social fault line. Welty makes us acutely aware of this fault line and, like a discerning movie critic, she comments on exactly how a character performs their laugh. In the already liminal performance of laughter in Welty’s texts, the laughter of women is even more opaque. Women laugh where we least expect them to and do not always laugh when other characters, or the plot line, or a funny joke, calls upon them to do so. Throughout her essay, Welch views laughter as a potentially liberating force for women, referencing the spiritual power of laughter in the Native American community. She quotes Joseph Epes Brown who argues that “there is no access to a deeper spiritual reality if there is not the opening force of laughter present” (qtd. in Welch 153 from Lincoln 67). [End Page 39] For Welch, women characters’ laughter is feminist, essential to breaking the bonds that keep them subservient in a patriarchal world. Although I am indebted to almost every aspect of Welch’s argument, I think that Welty’s women have a much more nuanced and strategic relationship to laughter. I argue that when Welty’s women characters withhold their laughter, they are often being more politically radical, more feminist, than when they join in the laughter of the group. Their withholding becomes a strategic self-preservation, a social commentary, a silent disapproval, and the controlling force of the comedian. Welty scores laughter in her text quite consciously; whether the “Hee! hee!” and “Hee! hee! hee!” of Keela in “Keela, the Outcast Indian Maiden” or the “AHA HA HA HA HA HA HA!” of the owl in Losing Battles, she marks each laugh with a unique sound and rhythmic pattern (49, 50, 53, 806). For Welty, laughter functions simultaneously as textual and extra-textual, literally breaking out of the confines of the narrative. Laughter, as Ingvild Saeilid Gilhus argues in Laughing Gods, Weeping Virgins: Laughter in the History of Religion, “is situated at the intersection between body and mind, individual and society, the rational and the irrational,” and as such always unsettles any plot structure (10). Laughter invades narrative progress and often supersedes literal meaning. A thorough survey of key words in The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, Delta Wedding, The Ponder Heart, Losing Battles, and The Optimist’s Daughter reveals, that, in Welty’s fiction, poor white women laugh, poor white men laugh, rich white men laugh, and rich white men laugh at others. Big men like Uncle Noah Webster and Battle laugh whole...

Socioeconomic Inequalities in Adult Obesity Prevalence in South Africa: A Decomposition Analysis

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in low and middle income countries. However, there is limited research in these countries showing the prevalence and determinants of obesity. In this study, we examine the socioeconomic inequalities in obesity among South African adults. We use nationally representative data from the South Africa National Income Dynamic Survey of 2008 to: (1) construct an asset index using multiple correspondence analyses (MCA) as a proxy for socioeconomic status; (2) estimate concentration indices (CI) to measure socioeconomic inequalities in obesity; and (3) perform a decomposition analysis to determine the factors that contribute to socioeconomic related inequalities. Consistent with other studies, we find that women are more obese than men. The findings show that obesity inequalities exist in South Africa. Rich men are more likely to be obese than their poorer counterparts with a concentration index of 0.27. Women on the other hand have similar obesity patterns, regardless of socioeconomic status with CI of 0.07. The results of the decomposition analysis suggest that asset index contributes positively and highly to socio-economic inequality in obesity among females; physical exercise contributes negatively to the socio-economic inequality. In the case of males, educational attainment and asset index contributed more to socio-economic inequalities in obesity. Our findings suggest that focusing on economically well-off men and all women across socioeconomic status is one way to address the obesity problem in South Africa.

The Negative Effects of Privilege on Educational Attainment: Gender, Race, Class, and the Bachelor's Degree

ObjectiveTo show that in the contemporary United States, traditionally privileged categories of people—men, whites, and the super‐rich—complete four‐year college degrees at rates lower than their nonprivileged counterparts—women, nonwhites, and the “99 percent.”MethodsLogistic regression and an educational transitions method are used on the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Waves 1 and 4) to predict, given college entrance, who completes a bachelor's degree.ResultsWomen, the lower 99 percent of the income distribution, and when economic resources are present, nonwhites all complete college at higher rates than men, the richest 1 percent, and whites, respectively. In a final model, rich white men as a single category are shown to complete college less than everyone else.ConclusionAs previously excluded categories of people have gained access to higher education, the privileged are shifting their reproduction strategies away from schooling.