Journal articles on the topic 'FIFA Women's World Cup (1999)'

The staging of the 2006 Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) World Cup brought together a wide ranging coalition of interests in fuelling a moral panic around sex trafficking in Europe. This coalition of diverse groups aimed to protect innocent third world women and prevent organized crime networks from luring them into the sex industry. In this article we will argue that as a result of increased attention prior to the World Cup 'protective measures' imposed by nation-states and the international community to prevent "disastrous human right abuses" (Crouse, 2006) have seriously undermined women's human rights, especially in relation to migration and mobility. We survey media sources in the lead up to the World Cup to identify the nature of the coalition seeking to protect women considered to be vulnerable to trafficking and the discourses relied upon that have served to undermine women's agency and diverse experiences of increased border and mobility controls. We conclude that measures introduced around the 2006 World Cup in relation to sex trafficking did not end with its final whistle.

Durante el 2019 se produjo un cambio radical en lo que se refiere a la publicidad en el fútbol femenino. La llegada de la Copa Mundial Femenina de la FIFA, Francia 2019, provocó que numerosas marcas se interesasen por patrocinar dicho evento. Otro hecho reseñable ha sido la importancia que obtuvo durante la temporada 2018/2019 la Liga Española de Fútbol Femenino (Liga Iberdrola), con partidos relevantes que superaron con creces los registros anteriores de asistencia a los estadios. El objetivo principal de esta investigación es analizar el papel representado por las mujeres en la publicidad emitida en retrasmisiones deportivas, en concreto en el Mundial de Fútbol Femenino de Francia 2019. La metodología supone analizar los spots seleccionados por ser de marcas patrocinadoras de la Selección Española de Fútbol Femenino y de la Copa Mundial de la FIFA Francia 2019, por haber sido producidos para dicho Mundial y patrocinar a otras selecciones participantes del mismo. Todos ellos han sido emitidos en España en la cadena televisiva GOL TV. Para llevar a cabo el análisis se ha diseñado un instrumento metodológico ad-hoc, a partir del cual realizar un análisis de contenido de los spots. Como resultado se presenta la herramienta de análisis desarrollada y se destaca el papel activo, independiente y desvinculado de roles tradicionales que representan las mujeres en la publicidad emitida durante la Copa Mundial de la FIFA, Francia 2019. Palabras clave: Estereotipo de género, estereotipo sexual, deporte femenino, competencia deportiva, football, publicidad televisada, técnica de comunicación. Abstract. During 2019, there was a complete change in terms of advertising in women's soccer. The arrival of the FIFA Women's World Cup, France 2019, caused numerous brands to become interested in sponsoring the event. Another noteworthy fact has been the importance obtained during the 2018/2019 season by the Spanish Women's Football League (Liga Iberdrola), with relevant matches that far exceeded previous stadium attendance records. The main objective of this research is to analyze the role represented by women in advertising broadcast in sports retransmissions, specifically in the Women's World Cup France 2019. The methodology involves analyzing the spots selected for being from brands sponsoring the Spanish Women's National Soccer Team and the FIFA World Cup France 2019, for having been produced for the World Cup and for sponsoring other teams participating in it. All of them have been broadcasted in Spain on the television channel GOL TV. In order to carry out the analysis, an ad-hoc methodological instrument has been designed, from which to perform a content analysis of the spots. As a result, the analysis tool developed is presented and highlights the active, independent and detached from traditional roles that women represent in the advertising broadcast during the FIFA World Cup, France 2019. Keywords: Gender stereotype, sexual stereotype, women’s sport, sport competition, football, television advertising, communication technique.

On the still divided Joseon peninsula, a united Korean women's ice hockey team competed at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. Only a few months later, the French, Croatian and Russian heads of state quite literally invited themselves on to the winners’ podium at the 2018 FIFA men's World Cup in Moscow. Such conspicuous examples are emblematic of the role of modern sport in the realm of international relations.

This article explores why women's sport in Australia still struggles to attract sponsorship and mainstream media coverage despite evidence of high levels of participation and on-field successes. Data are drawn from the largest study of Australian print and television coverage of female athletes undertaken to date in Australia, as well as from a case study examining television coverage of the success of the Matildas, the Australian women's national football team, in winning the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Asian Cup in 2010. This win was not only the highest ever accolade for any Australian national football team (male or female), but also guaranteed the Matildas a place in the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany [where they reached the quarter-finals]. Given the close association between success on the field, sponsorship and television exposure, this article focuses specifically on television reporting. We present evidence of the starkly disproportionate amounts of coverage across this section of the news media, and explore the circular link between media coverage, sponsorship and the profile of women's sport.

Breast cancer is one of the deadliest cancers for women. Early detection of skin cancer gives a high chance for the women to escape from the malady and obtain a cure at the initial stages. In other words, early detection of breast cancer has a direct relation by the women's quality of life. In this case, mammography images are important. Indeed, the main test used for screening and early diagnosis of breast cancer is mammography. In recent years, computer-aided cancer detection has been turned into an active field of research and showed a promising future. In this study, a new optimization algorithm based on thresholding is introduced. A WCO algorithm is employed as the optimization algorithm. WCO is a new meta-heuristic approach which is inspired by the FIFA world cup challenge. The presented method utilizes random samples as candidate solutions from the search space inside the image histogram with considering to the objective function that is utilized by the Kapur's method.

El conocimiento científico sobre el rendimiento táctico en fútbol femenino se ha desarrollado principalmente en los últimos años. Por este motivo, el número de publicaciones en relación con esta temática aún es escaso. Los objetivos de este trabajo fueron describir cómo desarrollaron las posesiones de balón las selecciones mejor clasificadas en la Copa Mundial Femenina de la FIFA Francia 2019 y conocer las diferencias tácticas en el inicio, desarrollo y resultado de las posesiones de balón entre estas selecciones. Para alcanzar estos objetivos, fueron analizadas 1.148 posesiones de balón llevadas a cabo por las selecciones semifinalistas en la fase final de la Copa Mundial Femenina de la FIFA Francia 2019 a partir de la metodología observacional. Los resultados de este estudio permitieron probar la existencia de diferencias entre las selecciones analizadas para los criterios: resultado temporal (p<.001), posicionamiento defensivo rival (p<.05), configuración espacial de interacción (p<.005), intención inicial ofensiva (p<.001) e intención inicial defensiva (p<.05). Por otro lado, no fueron encontradas diferencias en el resultado de la acción (p=.114) entre estas selecciones. Los resultados obtenidos permiten concluir que, a pesar de las diferencias demostradas en el desarrollo de las posesiones de balón, el grado de éxito ofensivo obtenido por las mejores selecciones fue similar. Esto pone de manifiesto la posibilidad de alcanzar el éxito ofensivo en fútbol femenino de élite mediante diferentes estrategias, adaptadas a las características del equipo. Abstract. Scientific knowledge on tactical performance in women's soccer has developed mainly in recent years. For this reason, the number of publications on this topic is still low. The objectives of this work were to describe how the top-ranked teams developed possession of the ball at the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019 and to understand the tactical differences in the start, development and result of possession of the ball between these teams. To achieve these objectives, 1,148 ball possessions carried out by the semifinalist teams in the final phase of the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019 were analyzed using the observational methodology. The results of this study made it possible to test the existence of differences between the selections analyzed for the criteria: match status (p<.001), defensive positioning (p<.05), interaction context (p<.005), initial offensive intention (p<.001) and initial defensive intention (p<.05). On the other hand, no differences were found in the possession outcome (p= .114) between these selections. The results obtained allow us to conclude that, despite the differences demonstrated in the development of ball possession, the degree of offensive success obtained by the best teams was similar. This highlights the possibility of attaining offensive success in elite women's football through different strategies, adapted to the characteristics of the team.

Numerous scholars have assessed the status of women in sport during the last decade of the 20th century (Acosta & Carpenter, 2000; Andrews, 1998; Borcila, 2000; Cole, 2000; Eastman & Billings, 1999; McDonald, 1999; Starr & Brant, 1999). Perhaps the nineties can be best characterized by the familiar Dickens adage that “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” At a time when the 1999 U.S. Women's soccer team captured the World Cup and the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) enjoyed increasing popularity, it seemed that women's sports were never more visible. So, how could this be the worst of times? While women now receive heretofore-unprecedented coverage, evidence suggests that certain images continue to be privileged over others. In this paper, we assess the current status of women in sport in light of an article that appeared on the subject a decade earlier.

Women's football has been experiencing remarkable growth in recent years in this part. Scientific research must be at the forefront of this growth, proposing recommendations with scientific endorsement that help improve decision-making in the applied field. In the present study, one of the most studied contextual variables in high-performance men's soccer is analyzed, such as the influence of the partial result on ball possession. To this end, 6063 ball possessions have been collected and analyzed during the two most recent world championships, the FIFA Women's World Cup 2015 and 2019. For this, two types of analysis have been carried out: first, a univariate analysis to know the incidence, efficacy and habitual practices of this type of actions; secondly, at a bivariate level, it is intended to know the possible influence of the partial result (winning, drawing or losing) on the different criteria considered. The available results indicate that possession of the ball are actions that have a high incidence during matches, but with a very low rate of effectiveness). At the bivariate level, the partial result does modulate the behavior of certain criteria such as the form of onset of possession, the duration, the number of passes or the context of interaction. The results of the present study can help soccer coaches during their work in front of the teams. El fútbol femenino está experimentando un notable crecimiento desde hace unos años a esta parte. La investigación científica debe estar a la vanguardia de este crecimiento, proponiendo recomendaciones con aval científico que ayude a mejorar la toma de decisiones en el campo aplicado. En el presente estudio se analiza una de las variables contextuales más estudiadas en fútbol masculino de alto rendimiento, como es la influencia del resultado parcial en las posesiones de balón. Para ello, se han recogido y analizado 6063 posesiones de balón realizadas durante los dos campeonatos del mundo más recientes, el FIFA Women´s World Cup 2015 y 2019. Para ello, se han llevado a cabo dos tipos de análisis: en primer lugar, un análisis univariado para conocer incidencia, eficacia y prácticas habituales de este tipo de acciones; en segundo lugar, a nivel bivariado, se pretende conocer la posible influencia del resultado parcial (ganando, empatando o perdiendo) en los diferentes criterios considerados. Los resultados disponibles indican que las posesiones de balón son acciones que tienen una alta incidencia durante los partidos, pero con un índice de eficacia muy reducido). A nivel bivariado, el resultado parcial sí modula el comportamiento de ciertos criterios como la forma de inicio de la posesión, la duración, el número de pases o el contexto de interacción. Los resultados del presente estudio pueden ayudar a las entrenadoras de fútbol durante su labor al frente de los equipos. O futebol feminino tem experimentado um crescimento notável nos últimos anos nesta região. A pesquisa científica deve estar na vanguarda desse crescimento, propondo recomendações com respaldo científico que ajudem a melhorar a tomada de decisão na área aplicada. No presente estudo, é analisada uma das variáveis contextuais mais estudadas no futebol masculino de alto rendimento, como a influência do resultado parcial na posse de bola. Para tanto, 6.063 posse de bola foram coletadas e analisadas durante os dois campeonatos mundiais mais recentes, a Copa do Mundo Feminina da FIFA 2015 e 2019. Para isso, dois tipos de análise foram realizados: primeiro, uma análise univariada para saber a incidência , eficácia e práticas habituais deste tipo de ações; em segundo lugar, a um nível bivariado, pretende-se conhecer a possível influência do resultado parcial (ganhar, empatar ou perder) nos diferentes critérios considerados. Os resultados disponíveis indicam que a posse de bola são ações que apresentam elevada incidência durante os jogos, mas com baixíssimo índice de eficácia). No nível bivariado, o resultado parcial modula o comportamento de certos critérios, como a forma de início da posse, a duração, o número de passes ou o contexto de interação. Os resultados do presente estudo podem auxiliar os treinadores de futebol em seu trabalho frente às equipes.

<abstract> <p>The global concentration of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) is experiencing an upward trend. This study investigates the utilization of space-time cubes to visualize and interpret PM_2.5 data in South Africa over multiple temporal intervals spanning from 1998 to 2022. The findings indicated that the mean PM_2.5 concentrations in Gauteng Province were the highest, with a value of 53 μg/m³ in 2010, whereas the lowest mean PM_2.5 concentrations were seen in the Western Cape Province, with a value of 6.59 μg/m³ in 1999. In 2010, there was a rise in the average concentration of PM_2.5 across all provinces. The increase might be attributed to South Africa being the host nation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In most provinces, there has been a general trend of decreasing PM_2.5 concentrations over the previous decade. Nevertheless, the issue of PM_2.5 remains a large reason for apprehension. The study also forecasts South Africa's PM_2.5 levels until 2029 using simple curve fitting, exponential smoothing and forest-based models. Spatial analysis revealed that different areas require distinct models for accurate forecasts. The complexity of PM_2.5 trends underscores the necessity for varied models and evaluation tools.</p> </abstract>

In 2019, the U.S. Women’s National Team earned its fourth FIFA Women’s World Cup. Has gendered commentary in media coverage about the U.S. Women’s National Team changed since winning their first World Cup 20 years ago? Drawing on 188 newspaper articles published in three U.S. newspapers in 2019, the analyses contrast media representations of the 2019 team with a previous study focused on coverage of the 1999 team. Our analysis shows important shifts in the coverage over time. The 1999 team was popular because of their contradictory femininity in which they were “strong-yet-soft.” By 2019, the team’s popularity was rooted in their talent, hard work, success, and refusal to be silent about persisting gender-based disparities in sport and the larger society.

Since 1992, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has been ranking senior men’s national soccer teams based on a variety of criteria. In 2003, FIFA extended the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings into ranking senior women’s national soccer teams. The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings published just before the 1994 FIFA World Cup USA, 1998 FIFA World Cup France, 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan, 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, 2003 FIFA World Cup USA, 2007 FIFA World Cup China, 2011 FIFA World Cup Germany, 2015 FIFA World Cup Canada, and the 2019 FIFA World Cup France were considered. These rankings were compared to the final results of those FIFA World Cups based on two different methods of displaying the teams finish and were analyzed. Of the top 16 teams in each of the Men’s FIFA World Cups, 74.1% of those teams advanced to the Round of 16. Meanwhile, 83.9% of the top 12 teams in each of the Women’s FIFA World Cups advanced to the Round of 16 or Quarterfinals. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the Pre-Tournament rankings and final results was calculated using both ranking methods. The Women’s World Cups had higher Pearson correlation coefficients for both methods than the Men’s World Cups. In addition, the Women’s World Cups had higher t-values and z-scores than the Men’s World Cup when tested for independence and association between the Pre-Tournament rankings and final results using both ranking methods. These findings indicate that the Women’s World Cups were more predictable than Men’s World Cups based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings.

The purpose of the present study was threefold i.e., to investigate and document the history of women's football in India, tracing its evolution, milestones, and key developments over the years, to contextualize the study within the broader landscape of women's football in India, examining the challenges, successes, and unique aspects of the sport in the country and to analyze the achievements of women's football, including the accomplishments of individual footballers, and assess their impact on the sport's growth and recognition in India. By addressing these objectives, the study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the history and status of women's football in India, shedding light on its past, present, and the contributions of players to the sport's development. This research can be valuable in promoting awareness and facilitating further advancements in women's football within the Indian context. The Indian women's national football team is under the control of the All-India Football Federation and represents India in women's international football competitions. After a nearly year-long hiatus, the women's team resumed playing on 7 September 2012. The team operates under the global jurisdiction of FIFA and is governed in Asia by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Additionally, the team is a member of the South Asian Football Federation. During the mid-70s to early 80s, the Indian women's national team was among the best teams in Asia. They achieved notable success by becoming runners-up in the 1979 and 1983 AFC Women's Asian Cup. These achievements highlighted their competitiveness and skill on the Asian football stage. In more recent times, the Indian team achieved a significant milestone by winning its first gold medal in the 2010 South Asian Games held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Players like Bembem Devi and Ansha were standout performers during this period, contributing to the team's success. This history underscores the rich legacy of women's football in India and the potential for future growth and success on both the Asian and international stages. The Indian women's national football team continues to inspire and pave the way for future generations of female footballers in the country. To find out the data and various information Researcher reviewed different websites, Google, Wikipedia, Newspaper, Sports magazines, Books, etc. Initially, the author went through literature related to women's sports. Further, he shortened his area of focus and restricted it to the area of Women's football in the Olympics and other sports. He went through all sorts of information available in the form of secondary sources like books, journals, articles, magazines, newspapers, the internet, etc., and accumulated all important data relevant to the topic and presented in the thesis. In conclusion, while progress has been made in the realm of women's football, there is still much work to be done to ensure that female athletes receive the same rights, recognition, and opportunities as their male counterparts. It is imperative that stakeholders in the football world and society at large continue to push for greater gender equality in sports, fostering an environment where female football players can thrive both on the field and in their social lives..

Abstract The FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament consists of a group stage and a knockout stage. We identify several issues that create competitive imbalance in the group stage. We use match data from all Women’s World Cup tournaments from 1991 through 2019 to empirically assess competitive imbalance across groups in each World Cup. Using least squares, we determine ratings for all teams. For each team, we average the ratings of the opponents in the group to calculate group opponents rating. We find that the range in group opponents rating varies between 2.5 and 4.5 goals indicating substantial competitive imbalance. We use logistic regression to quantify the impact of imbalance on the probability of success in the Women’s World Cup. Specifically, our estimates show that one goal less in group opponents rating can increase the probability of reaching the quarterfinal by 33%. We discuss several policy recommendations to reduce competitive imbalance at the Women’s World Cup.

The FIFA Women's World Cup disseminates ideas about gender, women, and sport to a global audience. I report on a short-term ethnography involving participant observation at the 2019 Women's World Cup and in-depth interviews with fan attendees to examine the gender discourses produced through the tournament and fans’ responses to them. Integrating the concept of neoliberal postfeminism with an affective lens, I illustrate how discourses of empowerment and the progress of women's sport circulate positive affects in order to bring fans into neoliberal postfeminist ideas, ultimately presenting tournament organizers as benevolent supporters of women. While fans sometimes produced these discourses themselves, finding them emotionally resonant, they also championed a discourse of inequality that was skeptical about organizations’ true commitments and circulated an affect of frustration to call public attention to gender inequality. Fans’ simultaneous embrace and rejection of empowerment and progress discourses reveal both their reflexive agency and the powerful emotional pull that these discourses present.

The aim of this study is to compare the technical analysis of the successful and unsuccessful countries in the FIFA Women's World Cup held in France in 2019. The study group of the research consisted of the countries that finished their groups in the first 2 places and the countries that finished their groups in the last 2 places in the FIFA World Cup held in France in 2019. As match technical analysis criteria, Instat Index, Goal, Position, Successful Goal Position, Goal from Penalty, Counter attack, Corner, Shot, Accurate Shot, Pass, Accurate Key pass and midfield were considered. SPSS v25 package program was used to analyze the data obtained from the research. The data obtained are shown as mean and standard deviation. Independent T test was used for pairwise comparisons of the obtained data. Pearson correlation test was used in the relational evaluations of performance parameters. In all evaluations, the significance level was taken as p

Football is one of the most important sports branches in the world that people adopt and show interest in. It has also become an indispensable tool for countries to emphasise their unique cultures and to promote themselves. Based on these points, in football, which has become an industry and a source of commercial income with the passing of time, it has been important to follow the competitions meticulously, to examine every detail, and to minimise the errors to the minimum level. Especially in big organisations, this situation is more prominent. In this regard, the video assistant referee system, which is a product of teamwork, has been developed through digital platforms to assist and support the referee during the match. The aim of this study is to reveal the effect of the VAR system on the matches played in the 2022 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Women's EURO 2022. In the study, 64 matches played in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, 31 matches played in the UEFA Women's EURO 2022 and 95 matches in total were analysed. VAR decisions in the tournaments were evaluated separately on 11 parameters (accuracy of the goal awarded, accuracy of the goal not awarded, goal cancellation, goal awarded, accuracy of the penalty awarded, accuracy of the penalty not awarded, penalty cancellation, penalty awarded, red card awarded, red card cancelled and other). The data were analysed in SPSS 25.0 package program and descriptive statistics, percentage and frequency values were used in the analysis. According to the results obtained, it was determined that VAR had a direct effect on the 2022 World Cup only in some of the group matches; in the UEFA Women's EURO 2022, in some group matches and in the France Netherlands quarter-final match. As a result, it can be said that although the VAR system faced some reactions when it was first used, it contributed to the accuracy and reliability of the decisions made in the match and the tournament or league was shaped in line with the results that the teams deserved.

Football is one of the most important sports branches in the world that people adopt and show interest in. It has also become an indispensable tool for countries to emphasise their unique cultures and to promote themselves. Based on these points, in football, which has become an industry and a source of commercial income with the passing of time, it has been important to follow the competitions meticulously, to examine every detail, and to minimise the errors to the minimum level. Especially in big organisations, this situation is more prominent. In this regard, the video assistant referee system, which is a product of teamwork, has been developed through digital platforms to assist and support the referee during the match. The aim of this study is to reveal the effect of the VAR system on the matches played in the 2022 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Women's EURO 2022. In the study, 64 matches played in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, 31 matches played in the UEFA Women's EURO 2022 and 95 matches in total were analysed. VAR decisions in the tournaments were evaluated separately on 11 parameters (accuracy of the goal awarded, accuracy of the goal not awarded, goal cancellation, goal awarded, accuracy of the penalty awarded, accuracy of the penalty not awarded, penalty cancellation, penalty awarded, red card awarded, red card cancelled and other). The data were analysed in SPSS 25.0 package program and descriptive statistics, percentage and frequency values were used in the analysis. According to the results obtained, it was determined that VAR had a direct effect on the 2022 World Cup only in some of the group matches; in the UEFA Women's EURO 2022, in some group matches and in the France Netherlands quarter-final match. As a result, it can be said that although the VAR system faced some reactions when it was first used, it contributed to the accuracy and reliability of the decisions made in the match and the tournament or league was shaped in line with the results that the teams deserved.

Early identification and development of “talented” athletes in youth sport is of primary interest to national governing bodies of sport and sport clubs across all sports. Selection bias during recruitment and planning the developmental pathways of athletes is a critical problem to address, and relative age effect (RAE) is one of the concepts to be investigated in this regard. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of RAE in U17 and U20 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and to investigate the role of age category, playing position and continents with regard to RAE. A total of 2016 female soccer players (U17=1008, U20=1008), who participated in the last three consecutive U17 and U20 FIFA Women's World Cups, were evaluated based on the birth month distributions. Inter-quartile differences were assessed using the Chi-square (χ²) goodness-of-fit test, and odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to compare quartiles. RAE was more prevalent in U17 compared to U20 (χ2=43.865, p

There is a correlation between soccer's popularity and states that traditionally vote Democrat in US elections. This has led to claims that where democrats lead, soccer follows. Yet, this relationship may not be entirely stable, as soccer may stimulate the Democratic party vote through its multicultural elements. Using the 1994 World Cup as a plausibly exogenous shock that positioned US soccer, we investigate whether US states that hosted the tournament increased their Democratic vote in future Presidential elections. A two-way fixed-effects estimator and a dynamic difference-in-difference estimator shows that if a US state was a 1994 World Cup host, it increased its Democratic vote share. However, when examining Major League Soccer franchises, this relationship breaks down but recovers when investigating the women's World Cup in 1999 and 2003. As the swing states of Florida and Georgia are hosting 2026 World Cup matches, the findings may hold key insights for the 2028 Presidential election.

Video assistant referee (VAR) has been implemented in women's football, aiming to improve referees' decision-making, but its impact has not yet been analyzed. This study intended to explore how the VAR affects refereeing decisions at Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Women's World Cup competitions. The sample includes all 52 matches played in the 2015 tournament before VAR was introduced and all 52 matches played in the 2019 competition where VAR was deployed. For each match, data on ten variables were collected: first half playing time, second half playing time, total playing time, penalties, offsides, fouls, goals, corner kicks, yellow cards, and red cards. The match variables were compared before and after VAR implementation using a Mann–Whitney U test, a Bayesian analysis, a generalized linear model, and a non-clinical magnitude-based inference. The results demonstrated that after VAR was introduced, playing time during the first half [p &lt; 0.001, BF10 = 547.05, Cohen's d = 1.06, 90%CI (0.71, 1.40)], the second half [p &lt; 0.001, BF10 = 57.09, Cohen's d = 0.91, 90%CI (0.57, 1.25)], and the entire match [p &lt; 0.001, BF10 = 1,120.39, Cohen's d = 1.33, 90%CI (0.97, 1.69)] increased significantly with moderate to large effect sizes, while the number of penalties, offsides, and fouls did not vary significantly neither did the number of goals, corner kicks, yellow cards, and red cards. This study has practical implications for professionals in terms of a better understanding of VAR's impact on elite women's football.

Recruiting companies recommend elite female soccer players be ≥165 cm (5′5″) in stature. This study investigated if stature limits match-playing time and performance in elite World Cup soccer among players, positions, and countries. We hypothesized stature would not affect match-playing time or performance. Descriptive data were collected on 552 players from 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. Odds ratios determined likelihood of starting for players &lt;165 cm and ≥165 cm. ANOVAs compared playing time between stature groups, among positions, and between countries. Performance factors including assists, goals, attempts, corners, shots blocked, and defending blocks were reported. Independent t-tests compared differences between players (≥165 cm, &lt; 165 cm). Data are reported, mean difference [95% confidence interval] [MD (95%CI)] and effect sizes (ES). On average, 32.3% of players were &lt;165 cm. Of total players, no differences existed in total minutes (F = 0.98, p = 0.32), matches (F = 0.27 p = 0.59), or average minutes per match (F = 0.48, p = 0.49) between stature groups, regardless of position. No differences existed in playing time between players &lt;165 cm and ≥165 cm among any positions (p &gt; 0.05), or between countries (p &gt; 0.05). Taller mid-fielders exhibited greater performance in goals, assists, attempts, shots blocked, and defending blocks (MD [95%CI] ES; assists, −0.44[−0.76,−0.11]0.59, p = 0.009; goals, −0.35[−0.69,−0.01]0.44, p = 0.047); attempts, 3.14[1.38, 4.90]0.80, p = 0.001; corners, 2.04[0.12, 3.95]0.48, p = 0.037; shots blocked, 0.96[0.40, 1.51]0.75, p = 0.001; defending blocks, 0.43[0.32,0.82]0.48, p = 0.035), however, actual differences were minimal. Our findings indicate stature does not inhibit playing and performing elite women's soccer, as nearly one-third of players were &lt;165 cm.

The UEFA Women's EURO 2022 and the FIFA 2023 Women's World Cup set new attendance records, thereby reflecting the growing popularity of women's football. In this context, social media platforms have become critical tools for women athletes offering opportunities for sponsorship and activism. This study focuses on the Instagram activity of five individual players from the Norwegian national team during the UEFA Women's EURO 2022. It examines the following research questions. (a) What type of content did the players post throughout the UEFA Women's EURO 2022 Championship period? (b) How did content type and posting frequency vary throughout the championship period? (c) How did audiences engage with the various types of content posted on Instagram throughout the championship period? Methodologically, this article is based on a quantitative content analysis of posts, stories and comments shared by the players during the championship period. Our findings reveal a diverse content sharing pattern that is indicative of strategic impression management. Players predominantly shared sports-related content to enhance their profiles as committed athletes; a tactic aligning with audience expectations. Their posting frequency peaked around matchdays, reduced post-loss and indicated a strategic approach to maintain a positive online presence. Post-elimination, players diversified their content by incorporating business and personal aspects, thereby indicating a shift to a more multifaceted self-presentation. Audience engagement was largely positive, with interactions showing support and encouragement, which reinforced the effectiveness of sports-focused content in garnering positive reactions. However, the posts relating to LGBTIQA+ activism prompted a notable amount of negative feedback, which highlighted the challenges and potential backlash when engaging in social media activism.

Contemporary culinary discourse in Australia has been dominated by the notion that migration and the increased mobility of Australians is responsible for filling a culinary void, as though, because we have had no peasantry we have no affinity with either the land or its produce. This argument serves to alienate Australians of British descent and its validity is open to questioning. It's an argument in urgent need of debate because cuisine stands out as the signifier of a 'multicultural' nation. Despite all the political posturing, food has 'long been the acceptable face of multiculturalism' (Gunew 13). We argue that the rhetoric of multiculturalism serves to widen the chasm between Australians of British descent and other migrants by encouraging the 'us' and 'them' mentality. We have examined the common links in the food stories of three women from disparate backgrounds. The sample is small in quantitative terms but we felt that if the culinary histories of just three women ran counter to the dominant discourse, then they would provide a new point of departure. In doing this we hope to question the precept driving culinary discourse which gives more weight to what men have said and done, than what women have cooked and how; and propagates mythologies about the eating habits of 'ethnic' migrants. Multiculturalism The terminology surrounding policies that seek to manage difference and diversity is culturally loaded and tends to perpetuate binaries. "Multiculturalism, circulates in Australia as a series of discursive formations serving a variety of institutional interests" (Gunew 256). In Australia multicultural policy seeks to "manage our cultural diversity so that the social cohesion of our nation is preserved" (Advisory Council on Multicultural Affairs 4). The result is to allow diversity that is sanctioned and is to some extent homogenised, while difference is not understood and is contained (see Newman). Multicultural? Who does it include and exclude? Gunew points out that official formulations of multiculturalism exclude people of 'Anglo-Celtic' origin, as though they had no 'ethnicity'. Multiculturalism, while addressing some of the social problems of immigration, is propelled at government level by our need for national cultural policy (see Stratton and Ang). To have a national cultural policy you need, it would seem, a film industry, a music industry, and a cuisine. In his history of Australian cuisine, Symons has only briefly alluded to women's role in the development of Australia's 'industrial cuisine'. One Continuous Picnic presents an essentially masculinist history, a pessimistic derogatory view giving little value to domestic traditions passed from mother to daughter. Women are mentioned only as authors of cookbooks produced throughout the 19th century and as the housewives whose role in the 1950s changed due to the introduction of labour-saving devices. Scant reference is made to the pre-eminent icon of Australian rural culinary history, the Country Women's Association1 and their recipe books. These books have gone through numerous editions from the 1920s, but Symons refers to them dismissively as a 'plain text' arising from the 'store-shelf of processed ingredients' (Symons 201). What of the 'vegie' patch, the afternoon tea? These traditions are mentioned, but only in passing. The products of arduous and loving baking are belittled as 'pretty things'. Is this because they are too difficult to document or because they are women's business? Female writers Barbara Santich and Marion Halligan have both written on the importance of these traditions in the lives of Australian women. Symons's discourse concentrates on 'industrial cuisine', but who is to say that its imperatives were not transgressed. The available data derives from recipe books, sales figures and advertising, but we don't actually know how much food came from other sources. Did your grandmother keep chickens? Did your grandfather fish? Terra Australis Culinae Nullius2 Michael Symons's precept is: This is the only continent which has not supported an agrarian society ... . Our land missed that fertile period when agriculture and cooking were created. There has never been the creative interplay between society and the soil. Almost no food has ever been grown by the person who eats it, almost no food has been preserved in the home and indeed, very little preparation is now done by a family cook. This is the uncultivated continent. Our history is without peasants. (10, our emphasis) This notion of terra Australis culinae nullius is problematic on two levels. The use of the word indigenous implies both Aboriginal and British settler culinary tradition. This statement consequently denies both traditional Aboriginal knowledge and the British traditions. The importance of Aboriginal foodways, their modern exploitation and their impact on the future of Australian cuisine needs recognition, but the complexity of the issue places it beyond the bounds of this paper. Symons's view of peasantry is a romanticised one, and says less about food and more about nostalgia for a more permanent, less changing environment. Advertising of 'ethnic' food routinely exploits this nostalgia by appropriating the image of the cheerful peasant. These advertisements perpetuate the mythologies that link pastoral images with 'family values'. These myths, or what Barthes describes as 'cultural truths', hold that migrant families all have harmonious relationships, are benevolently patriarchal and they all sit down to eat together. 'Ethnic' families are at one with the land and use recipes made from fresher, more natural produce, that are handed down through the female line and have had the benefit of generations of culinary wisdom. (See Gallegos & Mansfield.) So are the culinary traditions of Australians of British descent so different from those of migrant families? Joan, born near her home in Cunderdin in the Western Australian wheatbelt, grew up on a farm in reasonably prosperous circumstances with her six siblings. After marrying, she remained in the Cunderdin area to continue farming. Giovanna was born in 1915 on a farm four kilometres outside Vasto, in the Italian region of Abruzzi. One of seven children, her father died when she was young and at the age of twenty, she came to Australia to marry a Vastese man 12 years her senior. Maria was born in Madeira in 1946, in a coastal village near the capital Funchal. Like Giovanna she is the fifth of seven children and arrived in Australia at the age of twenty to marry. We used the information elicited from these three women to scrutinise some of the mythology surrounding ethnic families. Myth 1: 'Ethnic' families all eat together. All three women said their families had eaten together in the past and it was Joan who commented that what was missing in Australia today was people sitting down together to share a meal. Joan's farming community all came in for an extended midday meal from necessity, as the horses needed to be rested. Both women described radio, television, increasing work hours and different shifts as responsible for the demise of the family meal. Commensality is one of the common boundary markers for all groups 'indicating a kind of equality, peership, and the promise of further kinship links stemming from the intimate acts of dining together' (Nash 11). It is not only migrant families who eat together, and the demise of the family meal is more widely felt. Myth 2: Recipes in 'ethnic' families are passed down from generation to generation. Handing recipes down from generation to generation is not limited to just 'ethnic' families. All three women describe learning to cook from their mothers. Giovanna and Maria had hands-on experiences at very young ages, cooking for the family out of necessity. Joan did not have to cook for her family but her mother still taught her basic cookery as well as the finer points. The fluidity of the mother-daughter identity is expressed and documented by the handing on of recipes. Joan's community thought the recipes important enough to document in a written form, and so the West Australian version of the CWA cookbook became a reality. Joan, when asked about why the CWA developed a cookbook, replied that they wanted to record the recipes that were all well tried by women who spent the bulk of their days in the kitchen, cooking. Being taught to cook, teaching your children to cook and passing on recipes crosses borders, and does not serve to create or maintain boundaries. Myth 3: 'Ethnic' food is never prepared from processed products but always from homegrown produce. During their childhoods the range of food items purchased by the families was remarkably similar for all three women. All described buying tinned fish, rice and sugar, while the range of items produced from what was grown reflected common practices for the use and preservation of fresh produce. The major difference was the items that were in abundance, so while Joan describes pickling meat in addition to preserving fruits, Maria talks about preserving fish and Giovanna vegetables. The traditions developed around what was available. Joan and her family grew the food that they ate, preserved the food in their own home, and the family cook did all the preparation. To suggest they did not have a creative interplay with the soil is suggesting that they were unskilled in making a harsh landscape profitable. Joan's family could afford to buy more food items than the other families. Given the choice both Giovanna's and Maria's families would have only been too eager to make their lives easier. For example, on special occasions when the choice was available Giovanna's family chose store-bought pasta. The perception of the freshness and tastiness of peasant cuisine and affinity with the land obscures the issue, which for much of the world is still quantity, not quality. It would seem that these women's stories have points of reference. All three women describe the sense of community food engendered. They all remember sharing and swapping recipes. This sense of community was expressed by the sharing of food -- regardless of how little there was or what it was. The legacy lives on, while no longer feeling obliged to provide an elaborate afternoon tea as she did in her married life, visitors to Joan's home arrive to the smell of freshly baked biscuits shared over a cup of tea or coffee. Giovanna is only too eager to share her Vastese cakes with a cup of espresso coffee, and as new acquaintances we are obliged to taste each of the five different varieties of cakes and take some home. Maria, on the other hand, offered instant coffee and store-bought biscuits; having worked outside the home all her life and being thirty years younger than the other women, is this perhaps the face of modernity? The widespread anticipation of the divisions between these women has more to do with power relationships and the politics of east, west, north, south than with the realities of everyday life. The development of a style of eating will depend on your knowledge both as an individual and as a collective, the ingredients that are available at any one time, the conditions under which food has to be grown, and your own history. For the newly-arrived Southern Europeans meat was consumed in higher quantities because its availability was restricted in their countries of origin, to eat meat regularly was to increase your status in society. Interest in 'ethnic' food and its hybridisation is a global phenomenon and the creolisation of eating has been described both in America (see Garbaccia) and in Britain (James 81). The current obsession with the 'ethnic' has more to do with nostalgia than tolerance. The interviews which were conducted highlight the similarities between three women from different backgrounds despite differences in age and socioeconomic status. Our cuisine is in the process of hybridisation, but let us not forget who is manipulating this process and the agendas under which it is encouraged. To lay claim that one tradition is wonderful, while the other either does not exist or has nothing to offer, perpetuates divisive binaries. By focussing on what these women have in common rather than their differences we begin to critically interrogate the "culinary binary". It is our intention to stimulate debate that we hope will eventually lead to the encouragement of difference rather than the futile pursuit of authenticity. Footnotes 1. The Country Women's Association is an organisation that began in Australia in the 1920s. It is still operational and has as one of its primary aims the improvement of the welfare and conditions of women and children, especially those living in the country. 2. The term terra australis nullius is used to describe Australia at the point of colonisation. The continent was regarded as "empty" because the native people had neither improved nor settled on the land. We have extended this concept to incorporate cuisine. This notion of emptiness has influenced readings of Australian history which overlook the indigenous population and their relationship with the land. References Advisory Council on Multicultural Affairs. Towards A National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia. Canberra, 1988. Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Trans. A. Lavers. London: Vintage, 1993. Belasco, Warren. "Ethnic Fast Foods: The Corporate Melting Pot". Food and Foodways 2.1 (1987): 1-30. Gallegos, Danielle, and Alan Mansfield. "Eclectic Gastronomes or Conservative Eaters: What Does Advertising Say?" Nutrition Unplugged, Proceedings of the 16th Dietitians Association of Australia National Conference. Hobart: Dietitians Association of Australia, 1997. Gallegos, Danielle, and Alan Mansfield. "Screen Cuisine: The Pastes, Powders and Potions of the Mediterranean Diet". Celebrate Food, Proceedings of the 17th Dietitians Association of Australia National Conference. Sydney: Dietitians Association of Australia, 1998. Garbaccia, D.R. We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans. Boston: Harvard UP, 1998. Gunew, Sneja. "Denaturalising Cultural Nationalisms; Multicultural Readings of 'Australia'." Nation and Narration. Ed. Homi Bhabha. London: Routledge, 1990. 245-66. Gunew, Sneja. Introduction. Feminism and the Politics of Difference. Eds. S. Gunew and A. Yeatman. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1993. xiii-xxv. Halligan, Marion. Eat My Words. Melbourne: Angus & Robertson, 1990. Harvey, D. The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989. James, Alison. "How British Is British Food". Food, Health and Identity. Ed. P. Caplan. London: Routledge, 1997. 71-86. Mennell, Stephen. All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1996. Nash, Manning. The Cauldron of Ethnicity in the Modern World. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1989. Newman, Felicity. Didn't Your Mother Teach You Not to Talk with Your Mouth Full? Food, Families and Friction. Unpublished Masters Thesis, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia, 1997. Santich, Barbara. Looking for Flavour. Adelaide: Wakefield, 1996. Stratton, Jon, and Ien Ang. "Multicultural Imagined Communities: Cultural Difference and National Identity in Australia and the USA". Continuum 8.2 (1994): 124-58. Symons, Michael. One Continuous Picnic. Adelaide: Duck, 1992. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Danielle Gallegos, Felicity Newman. "What about the Women? Food, Migration and Mythology." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.7 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/women.php>. Chicago style: Danielle Gallegos, Felicity Newman, "What about the Women? Food, Migration and Mythology," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 7 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/women.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Danielle Gallegos, Felicity Newman. (1999) What about the women? Food, migration and mythology. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(7). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/women.php> ([your date of access]).

Wife (1975) is a novel ostensibly about immigration, but it is also about gender, ethnicity, and power. Bharati Mukherjee's well-known essay, "An Invisible Woman" (1981), describes her experience in Canada as one that created "double vision" because her self-perception was put so utterly at odds with her social standing (39). She experienced intense and horrifying racism in Canada, particularly in Toronto, and claims that the setting of Wife, her third novel, is "in the mind of the heroine...always Toronto" (39). Mukherjee concludes the article by saying that she eventually left Toronto, and Canada, because she was unable to keep her "twin halves" together (40). In thinking about "mixing," Mukherjee’s work provides entry points into "mixed" or interlocking structures of domination; the diasporic female subject in Mukherjee’s Wife struggles to translate this powerful "mix" in her attempt to move across and within national borders, feminisms, and cultural difference. "An Invisible Woman", in many ways, illuminates the issues that are at stake in Mukherjee's Wife. The protagonist Dimple Dagsputa, like Mukherjee, experiences identity crisis through the cultural forces that powerfully shape her self-perception and deny her access to control of her own life. I want to argue that Wife is also about Dimple's ability to grasp at power through the connections that she establishes between her mind and body, despite the social forces that attempt to divide her. Through a discussion of Dimple's negotiations with Western feminisms and the methods by which she attempts to reclaim her commodified body, I will rethink Dimple's violent response as an act of agency and resistance. Diasporic Feminisms: Locating the Subject(s): Mukherjee locates Wife in two very different geographic settings: the dusty suburbs of Calcutta and the metropolis of New York City. Dimple’s experience as a diasporic subject, one who must relocate and find a new social/cultural space, is highly problematic. Mukherjee uses this diasporic position to bring Dimple’s ongoing identity formation into relief. As she crosses into the space of New York City, Dimple must negotiate the web created by gender, class, and race in her Bengali culture with an increasingly multiple grid of inseparable subject positions. Avtar Brah points out that diaspora is useful as a "conceptual grid" where "multiple subject positions are juxtaposed, contested, proclaimed or disavowed" (208). Brah points to experience as the site of subject formation; a discursive space where different subject positions are inscribed, repeated, or contested. For Brah, and for Mukherjee, it is essential to ask what the "fields of signification and representation" are that contribute to the formation of differing subjects (116). Dimple’s commodification and her submission to naming in the Bengali context are challenged when she encounters Western feminisms. Yet Mukherjee suggests that these feminisms do little to "liberate" Dimple, and in fact serve as another aspect of her oppression. Wife is concerned with the processes which lead up to Dimple’s final act of murder; the interlocking subject positions which she negotiates with in an attempt to control her own life. Dimple believes that the freedom offered by immigration will give her a new identity: "She did not want to carry any relics from her old life; given another chance she could be a more exciting person, take evening classes perhaps, become a librarian" (42). She is extremely optimistic about the opportunities of her new life, but Mukherjee does not valourize the New World over the Old. In fact, she continually demonstrates the limited spaces that are offered on both sides of the globe. In New York, Dimple faces the unresolved dilemma between her desire to be a traditional Indian wife and the lure of Western feminism. Her inability to find a liveable place within the crossings of these positions contributes to her ultimate act of violence. At her first party in Manhattan, Dimple encounters the diaspora of Indian and Pakistani immigrants who provide varying examples of the ways in which being "Indian" is in conversation with being "American." She hears about Ina Mullick, the Bengali wife whose careless husband has allowed her to become "more American than the Americans" (68). Dimple quickly learns that Amit is sharply disapproving of women who go to college, wear pants, and smoke cigarettes: "with so many Indians around and a television and a child, a woman shouldn’t have time to get any crazy ideas" (69). The options of education and employment are removed from Dimple’s grasp as soon as she begins to consider them, leaving her wondering what her new role in this place will be. Mukherjee inserts Ina Mullick into Dimple’s life as a challenge to the restrictions of traditional wifehood: "Well Dimple...what do you do all day? You must be bored out of your skull" (76). Ina has adopted what Jyoti calls "women’s lib stuff" and Dimple is warned of her "dangerous" influence (76). Ina engagement with Western feminisms is a form of resistance to the confines of traditional Bengali wifehood. Mukherjee, however, uses Ina’s character to demonstrate the misfit between Western and Third World feminisms. Although the oppressions experienced in both geographies appear to be similar, Mukherjee points out that neither Ina nor Dimple can find expression through a feminism that forces them to abandon their Indianess. Western feminist discourse has been much maligned for its Eurocentric construction of a monolithic Third World subject that ignores cultural complexity. Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s "Under Western Eyes" (1988) is the classic example of the interrogation of this construction. Mohanty argues that "ethnocentric universality" obliterates the differences within the varied category of female (197), and that "Western feminist writings on women in the third world subscribe to a variety of methodologies to demonstrate the universal cross-cultural operation of male dominance and female exploitation" (208-209). Mukherjee addresses these problems through Ina’s struggle; Western feminisms and their apparent "liberation" fail to provide Ina with a satisfying sense of self. Ina remains oppressed because these forms of feminism cannot adequately deal with the web of cultural and social crossings that constitute her position as simultaneously "Indian" and "American." The patriarchy that Ina and Dimple experience is not simply that of the industrialized first world; they must also grapple with the ways in which they have been named by their own specific cultural context. Mohanty argues that there is no homogenous group called "women," and Mukherjee seems to agree by demonstrating that women's subject positions are varied and multi-layered. Ina’s apparently comfortable assimilation is soon upset by desperate confessions of her unease and depression. She contrasts her "before" and "after" self in caricatures of a woman in a sari and a woman in a bikini. These drawings represent, "the great moral and physical change, and all that" (95). Mukherjee suggests, however, that the change has been less than satisfactory for Ina, "‘I think it is better to stay a Before, if you can’...’Our trouble here is that we imitate badly, and we preserve things even worse’" (95). Ina’s confession alludes to her belief that she is copying, rather than actually living, a life which might be empowering. She has been forced to give up the "before" because it clashes with the ideal that she has constructed of the liberated Western woman. In accepting the oppositions between East and West, Ina pre-empts the possibility of being both. Though Dimple is fascinated by the options that Ina represents, and begins to question her own happiness, she becomes increasingly uncomfortable with the absolutes that Ina insists upon. Ina’s feminist friends frighten Dimple because of their inability to understand her; they come to represent a part of the American landscape that Dimple has come to fear through her mediated experience of American culture through the television and lifestyle magazines. Leni Anspach’s naked gums, "horribly pink and shiny, like secret lips, only more lecherous and lethal, set themselves up as enemies of decent, parsimonious living" (152). Leni’s discourse threatens to obliterate any knowledge that Dimple has of herself and her only resistance to this is an ironic reversal of her subservient role: "After Leni removed her cup Dimple kept on pouring, over the rim of Leni’s cup, over the tray and the floating dentures till the pregnant-bellied tea pot was emptied" (152). Dimple’s response to the lack of accommodation that Western feminism presents is tied to her feeling that Ina and Leni live with unforgiving extremes: "that was the trouble with people like Leni and Ina who believed in frankness, happiness and freedom; they lacked tolerance, and they abhorred discussions about the weather" (161). Like Amit, Ina offers a space through her example where Dimple cannot easily learn to negotiate her options. The dynamic between these women is ultimately explosive. Ina cannot accept Dimple’s choices and Dimple is forced to simplify herself in a defence that protects her from predatory Western feminisms: I can’t keep up with you people. I haven’t read the same kinds of books or anything. You know what I mean Ina, don’t you? I just like to cook and watch TV and embroider’...’Bravo!’ cried Ina Mullick from the sofa where she was sitting cross legged. ‘And what else does our little housewife do? ‘You’re making fun of me,’ Dimple screamed. ‘Who do you think you are?’ (169-170. Dimple lacks the ability to articulate her oppression; Ina Mullick can articulate it but cannot move outside of it. Both women feel anger, depression, and helplessness, but they fail to connect and help one another. Mukherjee demonstrates that women from the Third World, specifically those who come into contact with the diaspora, are not homogenous subjects; her various representations of negotiation with processes of identity constitution show how different knowledges of self are internalized and acted out. Irene Gedalof’s recent work on bringing Indian and Western feminisms into conversation proceeds from the Foucauldian notion that these multiple discursive systems must prevail over the study of woman or women within a single (and limiting) symbolic order (26). The postcolonial condition of diaspora, Gedalof and other critics have pointed out, is an interesting position from which to begin talking about these complex processes of identity making since it breaks down the oppositions of South and North, East and West. In crossing the South/North and East/West divide, Dimple does not abandon her Indian subject position, but rather attempts to keep it intact as other social forces are presented. The opposition between Ina and Dimple, however, is dissolved by the flux that the symbol "woman" experiences. This process emphasizes differences within and between their experiences in a non-hierarchical way. Rethinking the Mind/Body Dichotomy: Dimple’s Response This section will attempt to show how Dimple’s response to her options is far more complex than the mind/body dichotomy that it appears to be upon superficial examination. Dimple’s body does not murder in an act of senseless violence that is divorced from her mental perception of the world. I want to rethink interpretations like the one offered by Emmanuel S. Nelson: "Wife describes a weak-minded Bengali woman [whose]...sensibilities become so confounded by her changing cultural roles, the insidious television factitiousness, and the tensions of feminism that, ironically, she goes mad and kill her husband" (54-55). Although her sense of reality and fantasy become blurred, Dimple acts in accordance with the few choices that remain open to her. In slowly guiding us toward Dimple’s horrifying act of violence, Mukherjee attempts to examine the social and cultural networks which condition her response. The absolutes of Western feminisms offer little space for resistance. Dimple, however, is not a victim of her circumstances. She reclaims her body as a site of inscription and commodification through methods of resistance which are inaccessible to Amit or her larger social contexts: abortion, vomiting, fantasies of mutilating her physical self, and, ultimately, through using her body as a tool, rather than an object, of violence. These actions are responses to her own lack of power over self representation; Dimple creates a private world in which she can resist the ways her body has been encoded and the ways in which she has been constructed as a divided object. In her work on the body in feminist discourse, Elizabeth Grosz argues that postructuralist feminists such as Luce Irigaray, Helene Cixous, and Judith Butler conceptualize female bodies as: "crucial to understanding women’s psychical and social existence, but the body is no longer understood as an ahistorical, biologically given, acultural object. They are concerned with the lived body, the body insofar as it is represented and used in specific ways in particular cultures" (Grosz 18). In emphasizing difference within the sexes, these postructuralist thinkers reject the Cartesian dualism of mind and body and do much for Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s project of considering the ways in which "woman" is a heterogenously constructed and shifting category. Mukherjee presents Dimple’s body as a "social body": a "social and discursive object, a body bound up in the order of desire, signification and power" (Grosz 18-19). Dimple cannot control, for example, Amit’s desire to impregnate her, to impose a schema of patriarchal reproduction on her body. Yet, as I will demonstrate, Dimple resists in ways that she cannot articulate but she is strongly aware that controlling the mappings of her body gives her some kind of power. This novel demonstrates how the dualisms of patriarchal discourse operate, but I want to read Dimple’s response as a reclaiming of the uncontrollable body; her power is exercised through what Deleuze and Guattari would call the "rhizomatic" connections between her body and mind. Their book, A Thousand Plateaus (1980), provides a miscellany of theory which, "flattens out the relations between the social and the psychical," and privileges neither (Grosz 180). Deleuze and Guattari favour maps and rhizomes as conceptual models, so that all things are open, connectable, and subject to constant modification (12). I want to think of Dimple as an assemblage, a rhizomatic structure that increases in the dimensions of a multiplicity that changes as it expands its connections (8). She is able to resist precisely because her body and mind are inseparable and fluid entities. Her violence toward Amit is a bodily act but it cannot be read in isolation; Mukherjee insists that we also understand the mental processes that preface this act. Dimple’s vomit is one of the most powerful tropes in the novel. It is a rejection and a resistance; it is a means of control while paradoxically suggesting a lack of control. Julia Kristeva is concerned with bodily fluids (blood, vomit, saliva, tears, seminal fluid) as "abjections" which necessarily, "partake of both polarized terms [subject/object, inside/outside] but cannot be clearly identified with either" (Grosz 192). Vomiting, then, is the first act that Dimple uses as a means of connecting the mind and body that she has been taught to know only separately. Vomiting is an abjection that signifies Dimple's rhizomatic fluidity; it is the open and changeable path that denies the split between her mind and her body that her social experiences attempt to enforce. Mukherjee devotes large sections of the narrative to this act, bringing the reader into a private space where one is forced to see, smell, and taste Dimple’s defiance. She initially discovers her ability to control her vomit when she is pregnant. At first it is an involuntary act, but she soon takes charge of her body’s rejections: The vomit fascinated her. It was hers; she was locked in the bathroom expelling brownish liquid from her body...In her arrogance, she thrust her fingers deep inside her mouth, once jabbing a squishy organ she supposed was her tonsil, and drew her finger in and out in smooth hard strokes until she collapsed with vomiting (31) Dimple’s vomiting does contain an element of pathos which is somewhat problematic; one might read her only as a victim because her pathetic grasp at power is reduced to the pride she feels in her bodily expulsions. Mukherjee’s text, however, begs the reader to read Dimple carefully. Dimple acts through her body, often with horrible consequences, but she is resisting in the only way that she is able. In New York, as Dimple encounters an increasingly complicated sociocultural matrix, she fights to find a space between her role as a loyal Indian wife and the apparent temptations of the United States. Ina Mullick’s Western feminism asks her to abandon her Bengali self, and Amit asks her to retain it. In the face of these absolutes, Dimple continues to attempt her resistance through her body, but it is often weak and ineffectual: "But instead of the great gush Dimple had hoped for, only a thin trickle was expelled. It gravitated toward the drain, a small slimy pool full of bubbles. She was ashamed of it; it seemed more impersonal than a cooking stain" (150). Mukherjee asks us to read Dimple through her abjections--through both mind and body (not entirely distinct entities for Mukherjee)--in order to understand the murder. We must gauge Dimple's actions through the open and connectable relationships of body and mind. Her inability to vomit "pleasurably" signifies a growing inability to locate a space that is tolerable. Vomiting becomes a way for Dimple to tie her multiple subject positions together: "Vomiting could be pleasurable; thinking of all the bathrooms she had vomited in she felt nostalgic, almost middle-aged" (149). This moment at the kitchen sink occurs when Leni and Ina have fractured her sense of a stable Indian identity. In an interview, Mukherjee admits that Dimple’s movement to the United States means that she begins to ask questions about her oppression; she begins to ask herself questions about her own happiness (Hancock 44). These questions, coupled with Leni and Ina’s challenging presence, leads to Dimple to desire a reconnection and a sense of control. Undoubtedly, Dimple’s act of murder is misguided, but Mukherjee sensitively demonstrates that Dimple has very little choice left. Dimple does not simply break down into a body and mind that are unaware of their connections, rather she begins to operate on several levels of consciousness. Shen Mei Ma interprets Dimple’s condition as schizophrenic, and explores this as a prominent trope in Asian diaspora literatures. She uses R.D. Laing’s classic explanation of schizophrenia as a working definition: The term schizoid refers to an individual the totality of whose experience is split in two main ways: in the first place, there is a rent in his relation with his world, and, in the second, there is a disruption of his relation with himself...Moreover, he does not experience himself as a complete person but rather as ‘split’ in various ways, perhaps a mind more or less tenuously linked to a body, as two or more selves, and so on (Ma 43) Ma analyses this condition (which can be seen, like gender and race, as a socially constructed state of being), as a "defense mechanism" against an unbearable world; the separation in space and memory that the diasporic subject experiences results in a schizophrenic, or divisive, tendency. I agree with Ma's use of Laing's definition of schizophrenia in the sense that this understanding is certainly more useful than Emmanuel Nelson's insistence on Dimple's "madness." Reading Dimple's response with an interest in Deleuze and Guattari's conceptual rhizomes, however, leads me to resist using a definition that is linked to mental illness. This may be a prominent trope in Asian diaspora literature, but it is also necessary, and perhaps more useful, to recognize that Dimple's act of violence and her debatable "madness" are ultimately less important than reading her negotiation as a means of survival and her response as an act of resistance. Many critics interpret the final act of murder as "an ironic twist of Sati, the traditional self-immolation of an Indian wife on the funeral pyre of her husband" (Ma 58). This suggestion draws up Dimple’s teenage desire to be like Sita, "the ideal wife of Hindu legends" who walks through fire for her husband (6). The violence perpetrated against women who naturalize Sita’s tradition is wrenched into an act in which Dimple is able to exercise some control over her fate. The act of murder is woven with the alternate text of industrial/commercial culture in a way that demonstrates Dimple’s desperate negotiation with the options available to her: The knife stabbed the magical circle once, twice, seven times, each time a little harder, until the milk in the bowl of cereal was a pretty pink and the flakes were mushy and would have embarrassed any advertiser, and then she saw the head fall off - but of course it was her imagination because she was not sure anymore what she had seen on TV and what she had seen in the private screen of three A.M. (212-213) The tragedy of this conclusion surely lies in the events that are left unsaid: what is Dimple’s fate and how will society deal with her violent choice? Ma’s article on schizophrenia points to the most likely outcome--Dimple will be declared insane and "treated" for her illness. Yet my reading of this act has attempted to access a careful understanding of how Dimple is constructed and how this can contribute to rethinking her violent response. Dimple's mind is not an insane one; her body is not an uncontrollable, hysterical one. Murder is a choice for Dimple--albeit a choice that is exercised in a limited and oppressive space. "Mixing" is an urgent topic; as globalization and capitalist homogenization make the theorization of diaspora increasingly necessary, it is essential to consider how gendered and raced subject positions are constituted and how they are reproduced within and across geographies. This novel is important because it forces the reader to ask the difficult questions about "mixing" that precede Dimple’s act of spousal violence. I have attempted to address these questions in my discussion of Dimple’s negotiations and her resistance. Much has been written about this novel in terms of Dimple’s "split," but very few critics have tried to examine Dimple’s character in ways that penetrate our limited third person access to her. Mukherjee’s own writing in "An Invisible Woman" suggests the urgency of rethinking characters like Dimple and the particular complexities of immigration for non-English speaking housewives. Mukherjee’s relative position of privilege has given her access to far more choices than Dimple has, but notably, she avoids turning Dimple’s often suicidal violence inward. Instead, Mukherjee shows how the inward is inescapable from the outward: in murdering Amit, the violence Dimple perpetrates is, after all, a rearticulation of the violence from which her limited subject position cannot completely escape. Footnote: In thinking about Dimple's response, it is important to note that, of course, her actions and her words are always conditioned by the position that she has naturalized. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's "Can the Subaltern Speak?"(1988) argues that the subaltern subject cannot "speak" because no act of resistance occurs that can be separated from the dominant discourse that provides the language and the conceptual categories with which the subaltern voice speaks (Ashcroft et al 1998 217-218).The violence of Dimple's response must be seen as an ironic subversion of a television world that enforces patriarchal norms. References Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. Key Concepts in Postcolonial Studies. London: Routledge, 1998. Brah, Avtar.Cartographies of Diaspora - Contesting Identities. London: Routledge, 1996. Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus - Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1980. Gedalof, Irene. Against Purity - Rethinking Idenity With Indian and Western Feminisms. London: Routledge, 1999. Grosz, Elizabeth. Volatile Bodies - Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1994. Ma, Sheng-mei. Immigrant Subjectivities in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Literatures. Albany: State U of NY P, 1998. Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses." Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. Laura Chrisman and Patrick Williams, eds. NY: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993: 196-220. Mukherjee, Bharati. Wife. Toronto: Penguin, 1975. -- "An Invisible Woman." Saturday Night 1981, 96: 36-40. Nelson, Emmanual S. Writers of the Indian Diaspora - A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook.Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1993. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. Laura Chrisman and Patrick Williams, eds. NY: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993: 196-220.