Journal articles on the topic 'PROMOTE TOXIC FEMINISM'

Christianity, one of the primary world religions, has profound influences in shaping people's views of gender equality. Many Christians perceive feminism to be against Christian doctrine regarding issues like marriage and gender equality. However, Christian feminists refute this with claims that reinterpreting the Bible helps reveal hidden ideas supporting gender equality - leading to further investigation of this relationship between Christianity and feminism. This research topic addresses Christian feminism's development alongside its conflicts with conservative Christian forces - particularly its contributions towards protecting women's rights. Through a systematic review of the historical literature on Christian feminism, the paper analyzes how it has promoted gender equality using the religious framework and examines conservative Christians' responses toward these movements. Findings indicate that many Christians are gradually accepting feminist ideas, although conservative Christians may see it as contradictory to biblical teachings. Christian feminism has made significant contributions towards protecting women's rights despite ongoing challenges from conservative forces. By systematically tracing its development, including conflicts with conservative forces, this paper unveils its contributions towards protecting these rights as well as providing researchers with an in-depth examination of religion-gender relations and gender equality.

Men and feminism is a contentious topic. In theoretical discussions as well as in previous studies, men and feminism have been described as an oxymoron, that being a man and a feminist is a border land position and that it entails experiences of so-called gender vertigo or gender limbo. Still, there are men who identify themselves as feminists and engage in feminist settings, parties and organizations. In this article, I aim to explore how masculinity is constructed and shaped within feminism. The article is based on qualitative interviews with nine young feminist men in Sweden. Using Sara Ahmed’s queer phenomenology and the concepts of disorientation and reorientation, I analyse how the interviewees experience themselves as men and feminists and how they navigate within their feminist settings. The analysis illustrates that in contrast to previous research, the interviewees articulate an assuredness in their position as men and feminists. However, being a man and a feminist is still a somewhat disorienting position that promotes reflexive journeys through which the interviewees seek to elaborate a sensitive, perceptive and “softer” masculinity. Feminism can be seen as a way of doing masculinity, and the ways in which the interviewees (re)orient themselves in their feminist settings can be understood as processes of masculinity construction. These reorientations position the interviewees in the background of their feminist settings, where they carry out what I call political housekeeping and men-feminism. From this position, they also adopt a perspective of a theoretical as well as temporal distance and articulate themselves as actors in the history of feminism. Thus, the article highlights that feminist men can seek out a masculinity that is positioned in the background yet still experience themselves as subjects in the feminist struggle.

This paper explores the counter argument for Chapter 3 of Marriages, Families, and Relationships by Mary Ann Lamanna, Agnes Riedmann, and Susan Stewart, which deals with the topic of Gender Identities and Families, especially regarding feminism. This paper will provide a general summary, main points, and concepts of the chapter that focuses on feminism. Afterwards, this paper will continue to provide a general social, legal, and cultural climate of the time the book was written versus now (2024), and then reflect on some new information and research that disproves the glorification of modern feminism as done in the book. The critique will demonstrate how modern feminism, under the guise of advocating for gender equality, can sometimes promote racist and sexist agendas. Specifically, this paper will detail the mechanisms through which modern feminism disguises itself, manipulating social perceptions to orient one group as superior over others. This will include an analysis of how certain feminist narratives utilize the concepts of victimhood and social proof to establish a hierarchy of suffering and legitimacy, thereby positioning some groups as more deserving of support and resources than others, based on race, class, or historical experiences.

There exists the idea that western societies are now postfeminist, implying that remaining differences between men and women should be understood as a result of the free exercise of individual choice. Yet this postfeminist promise of liberation is overwhelmingly packaged within the crushingly cruel beauty images that western women are judged against and incited to emulate. Theorizing female agency in light of choice and liberation discourses has been the topic of much recent feminist literature, to which this article seeks to contribute. We utilized a feminist post-structuralist framework to examine how young Australian women position themselves as freely choosing and able to throw off oppression. We discuss these findings in relation to the conception of the neoliberal feminine subject; described as someone who playfully expresses herself by freely choosing her level of participation in socially promoted beauty practices; in turn resulting in a resistance to being seen as inflexible, or critical of wider social influences

In this Special Issue we invited an international audience to address the aim to unsettle notions of vulnerability and question the research practices associated with its use in the psychology discipline. The seven articles 1 expose the paradoxes of vulnerability by starting from experience in different countries, such as: India, Chile, South Africa, Finland, and the USA. They do so by critically interrogating the notion of vulnerability, often cutting across intersectionalities such as: institutional constructions of vulnerability, populations identified as “vulnerable”, researcher’s own vulnerabilities, and the lived experience of “vulnerability”. The papers are presented in this editorial through a cohesive narrative, which highlights topic and contextual specificities of each as well as commonalities and intersections across them. By encouraging new practices for how feminist and queer researchers view, read, and interpret experience in psychological research and activism, this special issue aims to inspire different understandings of vulnerability, that reflect discourses and experiences that promote agency, resistance, solidarity, and transformative social change through transnational collaboration and connection.

A school is a place to promote critical thinking, to question power relations, analyse social issues and encourage differences, i.e., a place of being and thinking. In view of this, it was necessary to include the topic in the discussion of school tasks based on academic practices carried out by students, who are scholarship holders in the Institutional Scholarship for Teaching Initiation Program (PIBID). The activities were developed through Yarning Circles and focused on the topic "The Role of Women: New Views", by two undergraduate history students and supervised by both the High School teacher, who is in charge of the groups where the activity was developed, and the university teacher. The main purpose of the activity was to bring issues of gender and feminism up for discussion due to the need to awaken the students’ critical thinking, thus aiming to break with paradigms in favour of a new view at the role of women in society.

The topic of this thesis is to study the performances of female characters in the TV series Nothing But Thirty. The goal is to see if they deconstruct and reimagine female characters' roles in Chinese film and television works. Today, with advances in mass media technology, feminism has become a public issue. In the wake of the #MeToo movement in 2017, there is an emerging trend in the portrayal of women in film and television. The visible presentation of the female image is inseparable from mainstream ideology. Given that Nothing But Thirty can be considered a female-dominated show, it would be interesting to examine the way women are represented on TV. This will help further promote the study of female representation in film and television.

This research contends that the love interest of the protagonist of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight endorses domestic violence, fear of intimacy and discourages female independence. Bella Swan, the protagonist of the novel, is a teenage girl who recently moved in with his father and got interested in a 104-year-old vampire stuck inside the body of a 17-year-old boy. This paper takes an overarching feminist approach with particular focus on the patriarchy displayed in the novel. This paper employs feminist discourse to explore the novel as the primary source while looking through past research papers and filling their gaps as secondary sources. It also infers through the feminist agenda influenced by the protagonist’s love interest. The major objective of this paper is to prove the novel promotes the idea that women are better when they are dull and submissive while looking at the toxic masculinity displayed in the male characters throughout the novel. It also seeks to highlight the emotional magnetism and forced endurance of love throughout the novel. The major findings of the paper allude that Twilight characterizes women through abuse, male dependency, and the presumed inability to successfully function on their own, thus negating the role of the modern, independent woman.

“Dad bloggers” are an emerging community of fathers in North America. These men use social media to document and discuss their experiences as parents and gather annually at the Dad 2.0 Summit. A central topic of discussion both online and offline is how involved fathers negotiate and rework gender roles and expectations. This study examines how dad bloggers create and engage with discourse about masculinities. Using blog posts, fieldwork observations, and interviews as data, I present qualitative findings illustrating the ways in which dad bloggers challenge traditional notions of masculinity, construct “caring masculinities,” and adopt a pro-feminist perspective. Despite certain tensions and contradictions within the community, I argue that dad bloggers are reconstructing fatherhood and masculinities in ways that promote care and equality overall.

Feminist geography and epistemologies, since their beginnings, have encouraged us to start again from our bodies as situated geographies, from their experiences and embodied knowledge, to expose the power relations produced by the capitalist heteropatriarchal order and imprinted in the surrounding spaces. The body represents both the privileged dimension from which dynamics of violence, oppression and exploitation are experienced, and the place where new counter-hegemonic practices and forms of embodied knowledge may be produced. Starting with the notion of Wasteocene (2021) – an era marked by the continuous production of cast-off people, communities and places – by the landscape historian Marco Armiero, I will cross some toxic narratives typical of our society, all dear to neoliberal carelessness that inexorably produce waste and marginality. Opposed to these toxic discursive relations and constructions are the commoning practices, as those collective practices that simultaneously generate common goods and communities oriented towards care and inclusion. Along this path, I will present the Queerinale project promoted by the Agapanto Association for the conversion of a disused public building into a collaborative housing for LGBTQ+ elderly in the city of Rome, to re-signify our housing models and suggest new orientations for public policies.

Though certainly not women's only site of identity or set of responsibilities in conflict settings, motherhood represents a distinct challenge within political violence. Yet, given the paucity of research on the topic, we still are operating without a clear understanding of how political violence jeopardizes maternal well-being and care-taking practices. Drawing on feminist perspectives on mothering, in the analyses presented here, the authors use content analysis to explore mothering and political violence from five focus groups with women in Palestine. Results demonstrate the considerable suffering mothers and children endure in war; the work mothers do to promote children’s well-being in this context; and how these efforts exhaust the psychological resources of mothers. Findings enhance a relatively small body of knowledge about the lived experiences of mothers within conflict settings, and point to the importance of tending to the strategies and needs of mothers who navigate political violence with and for their children.

With the aim of understanding how entrepreneurial attitudes of women in public organizations contribute to their empowerment and advancement in management positions, a systematic review of the literature was conducted. As a result, it was observed that even with challenges in the quest for gender equity, organizations are valuing traditionally feminine characteristics, boosting diversity and innovation. The resilience and adaptability of women, combined with entrepreneurial attitudes, are playing a pivotal role in overcoming obstacles and progressing in their careers. Training, networking, communication, and confidence strengthen the path for women to leadership roles, emphasizing the importance of inclusive policies and education from an early age. The study highlights women's potential to redefine leadership and promote a sustainable future, suggesting the need for further research on cultural, intersectional, and digital aspects of the topic.

The role of dance as a transformative medium for women’s emancipation, tracing its evolution from the Renaissance period to contemporary times. is a topic that necessitates a broad, multidisciplinary analysis. Dance is presented not only as a form of artistic expression but also as a powerful instrument for social change and gender equality. Through historical analysis, the study highlights how dance has facilitated women’s ability to express their identities, challenge patriarchal norms, and advocate for their rights across various epochs. The research underscores significant contributions by key figures and movements that have used dance as a platform for signalling shifts in societal attitudes towards women’s roles and freedoms. By drawing on the works of scholars such as Goldman (2010) on improvisational dance, Hahn (2013) on the role of creative arts in education and social change, Camp (2002) on dance as a form of resistance among enslaved women, and Åhäll (2016) on feminist security studies, the paper elucidates dance’s multifaceted impact on women’s liberation. From the sophisticated court dances of the Renaissance that reflected societal and cultural shifts to the expressive and boundary-pushing performances of the 19th and 20th centuries, dance emerged as a dynamic force in advocating for women’s emancipation. The conclusion reaffirms dance’s ongoing relevance as a medium through which contemporary women continue to explore their identities, challenge existing norms, and promote feminist values, thereby contributing to the broader discourse on gender equality and empowerment.

Nowadays, feminism is a very popular topic throughout the world, and a large number of people attach great importance to female’s rights, even many universities set some course relating to it. But, there are still some problems through the protection of women. Nowadays, women face the discrimination in occupation, which has bad effect on choosing jobs. In order to promote and increase salary, a large number of women are refuse to get married and give birth to babies, which cause lack of labour and do damage to the development of economic. The challenge is that although women have several ally, some of them are “Pseudo-ally”, promoting the legitimate needs of stigmatizing women. This article will discuss the current state of gender equality, the challenges, and the importance of advancing women's rights. a fascinating narrative unfolds in the intricate field of women's studies, a captivating narrative unfolds, encompassing historical shifts, psychological exploration, and a heightened understanding of domestic violence. The article’s aim is that let people to have a better understanding of women, diminish the discrimination of female, and let more real ally to help women.

An analysis of the debut novel “Lessons in Chemistry” (2022) by the American writer and professional copywriter Bonnie Garmus is carried out from the perspective of feminist criticism. In particular, the issue of gender inequality and the struggle for women’s rights in the academic topos is emphasized through the prism of a biographical story about a talented chemical scientist, a single mother, Elizabeth Zott. Such interpolation to the university environment and focusing on the private life and scientific activities of the main character, as well as focusing on the research work of the entire Hastings Research Institute, gives a reason to assume that B. Garmus integrates the synergistic unity of two genre varieties – lablit and Professorroman – into the text. It is emphasized that the patriarchal oppression of a psychological and physical nature in the academic space of the novel “Lessons in Chemistry” is experienced by the scientist Elizabeth Zott and the employee of the human resources department Miss Fresk. Instead, the male personosphere demonstrates deeply rooted gender prejudice and aggression, toxic masculinity, sexism and sometimes misogyny. Intelligence analyzes the interaction of the protagonist Elizabeth with other characters. The author’s focus on gender parity stratifies male images of the Hastings Research Institute into negative (Dr. Myers – sexual harassment, quasi-science, Dr. Donatti and Dr. Boryvaits – violations of academic integrity) and positive (talented Calvin Evans who promotes equal relations, but is not devoid of patriarchal stereotypes), thus forming a gradation in the perception of the characters in the recipients – from misandry (misogyny) to sympathy and affection. The author emphasizes typical for the scientific environment of the 1950s and 60s of the 20th century. Discrimination and prejudice against women in science, criticizes established masculine and feminine roles, condemns academic and social obstacles to women’s career success and the limitation of their personal development. The topical issues raised in the novel for the modern academic center (gender discrimination, sexual harassment, the destructive influence of the patriarchal structure, the violation of academic integrity and ethical norms) and the need to continue the struggle of women scientists for their professional recognition and emancipation are emphasized.

Once, in many countries, the status of women was low. Nowadays, as the feminist movement has become a hot topic, more and more people are paying attention to the changes and progress of the status of women in the society. The movie Raise the Red Lantern from Zhang Yimou shows the life of women in the old society of China. This article will take this film as an example to analyze the oppression suffered by women and the awakening of women's consciousness under the feudal social system and then deeply analyze the problems caused by this phenomenon and make some advice to those countries which are trying to improve the social status of women. This article will observe the behaviors and characteristics of those actors in the film, and then find some common characteristics, at last we can compare different features to find the items of the film. The women shown in the film are greatly oppressed by feudalism and patriarchal societies. Therefore, by analyzing this film, this article hopes that all countries in the world could promote equality between men and women and avoid a recurrence of history.

After the death of Masha Amini at the hands of the Iranian Morality Police for not wearing the hijab, in accordance with what they considered appropriate in September 2022, a social media campaign called “Hair for Freedom” was sparked on different platforms, with videos of women cutting their hair in protest over Iranian women’s rights and Amini’s death. This paper analyzes whether this digital feminist movement enacted an interreligious dialogue (IRD). Based on content analysis and topic modeling of the publications retrieved from three major platforms, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, the results indicate that this was mainly a Western movement focused on women’s bodies as a political symbol in authoritarian Islamic regimes and has not achieved an IRD since most social media posts reproduced the hashtag #HairForFredom without opening a religious discussion. As observed in other digital movements, conclusions indicate that social media activism does not offer an opportunity to engage in dialogues to enlighten the public sphere. On the contrary, the focus appears to provide users with the opportunity to enhance their reputation by engaging in popular social media campaigns that promote social change.

Online communities provide a place that facilitates netizens to share their thoughts and ideas freely and swiftly with the speed of a click; this is relatively free and more convenient compared to traditional methods of socialisation. However, the online world can still reflect the traditional community to some extent. Especially with gender-related topics, women are the most often recipients of cyber shaming. This essay will explore the topic of gender-based double standards both online and offline, focusing on cyber shaming received pertaining to women's outfit choices. The essay argues that the cyber shaming of women's outfit choices is not just a matter of individual taste or preference but is rooted in deeply ingrained gender stereotypes and expectations that constrain women's freedom of expression and limit their opportunities for self-determination. This essay will use qualitative and quantitative research methods to investigate the impact of outfits on criticism directed at women and the implications of gender-based double standards. By shedding light on the gender-based double standards that underpin cyber shaming, the essay aims to raise awareness and promote a more equitable and inclusive online culture that values diversity, respect, and empowerment for all. Moreover, this essay demonstrates that online cyberbullying can cause significant consequences in the offline world; some can even cost lives. There is also a need for progressive changes in criminal and privacy law that promote gender equity and prevent cyber-SV against EYW. The implications of these results for academics and practitioners are discussed, and directions for future research are outlined. Throughout the conducted research on three designed inquiry questions, this study concluded with three key findings: Outfit-based content manifests judgments and criticism in the comment to be harsher for women; the impact of cyberbullying on emerging young women is greater than at other ages; and women to some extent have aggravated the effect of the misogyny complex.

Climate change illustrates the entanglement of “society” and “nature”, and the problems associated with this binary division. For humans, climate change plays out on a social arena. In light of climate change, pre-existing power structures based on categorizations such as gender, class and ethnicity may be reinforced or challenged. I argue that intersectionality, developed within feminist theory, is a useful tool for analyzing the power dynamics of climate change. Feminist research on climate change is still small, and an intersectional perspective has not been applied to the topic to any significant extent. The intersectional framework that I propose is constructivist; even though social categories are highly relevant in their specific contexts, they are subject to constant reconstruction and negotiation, and thereby inherently fluid. This stance enables identifying social categorizations as crucial for how people relate to climate change, comprehending how climate change may (re) construct social categorizations and power dynamics, and finding motivation for engagement and solidarity beyond identity politics. To illustrate how an intersectional perspective is useful in this regard, I present the example of Bolivia. Bolivia is an interesting case because of its recent political development, in which a left-wing assembly of indigenous movements and workers’ unions has reached government power, and because of the vivid debate on climate change within the country. The government has promoted a radical discourse in international climate negotiations, but in turn been criticized by their own supporters for not living up to their high moral standards domestically. In these debates, climate and environment issues have been framed mainly in relation to the categories of ethnicity and class, while for instance gender has until recently remained quite invisible. Climate change and environment debates have thus become a stage for construction and negotiation of social categories in Bolivia. In my article, I provide an analysis of this situation, based on an intersectional understanding.

The Karnataka state government banned the hijab in schools on February 5, 2022, and several women petitioned the Karnataka High Court to overturn it. A panel of three judges concluded on March 15, 2022, that the hijab is not an important Islamic practice. By punishing females for their wardrobe choices, the court stressed conformity above girls' access to education. The hijab prohibition is part of a pattern of discrimination against Muslim women that violates their human rights. With the rise of authoritarianism, a new form of feminism is emerging in which Muslim girls in India are challenging the authorities and resisting asserting their identity and preferences. Previous research has described human rights violations experienced by Indian female students regarding court decisions. Therefore, the purpose of the research is to investigate the human rights violations that have been disclosed as a result of India's hijab ban which employs normative juridical research methodologies. The method refers to a legal research approach that involves the examination of written law from multiple perspectives. The High Court's verdict worsens Muslim girls and women's education-related harassment, trauma, and prejudice. Muslim students removing their hijabs and burqas before entering schools is a difficult topic that requires neutrality. The verdict would affect the Indian Constitution and the Muslim population, especially hijab-wearing women. United Nations (UN) Women has backed all initiatives of India's Ministry of Women and Child Development that seek to advocate for those affected by the hijab ban to promote gender equality and prevent discrimination against women.

Society's current views on gender equality have become a crucial topic of in-depth discussion, especially those widely promoted by modern society in advertising. It proves that the meaning of gender equality recognized in society has shifted from its true meaning. This research aims to raise the issue of gender equality by deconstructing the meaning of gender equality in advertising from a feminist perspective using Critical Discourse Analysis. This research uses a descriptive qualitative research design with a critical discourse analysis approach by Fairclough, which focuses on three dimensions: the textual, discursive, and sociocultural practice dimensions. The data collection technique in this research uses the SBLC (Simak Bebas Libat Cakap) and note-taking techniques, in which the researcher listens to the utterances contained in the advertisement and records the utterances that will be used as data objects. Data sources were obtained from advertisements published on YouTube, totaling four advertisements with the theme of gender equality. The results of this study provide a deep understanding of the meaning of gender equality in the media and society. They can build different stereotypes or realities and be well-accepted by society. In addition, the deconstruction of meaning allows us as researchers or academics to look more critically at the discourse in these advertisements and whether gender equality always puts men in a position that dominates women.

Purpose: This paper sheds light on how the film satirizes capitalist society through the theory of commodity fetishism by Karl Marx, paying particular emphasis to visual motifs and character interactions that reaffirm these commodified relationships. It situates these challenges within the frames of Weimar-era feminist discourse. The paper also explores how the protagonist Ossi, subverts gender norms to capture contemporary debates on women’s roles. She evokes the tensions between individual agency and societal constraints. Through the film’s intense representation of wealth, class, and gender, this paper reveals Lubitsch’s critique of economic relationships and social mobility during a tumultuous historical period. Methodology: This study employs film analysis as its primary method, using textual and discourse analysis to examine the film. The analysis is supported by a theoretical framework drawn from relevant literature and scholarly discussions that align with the topic of commodity fetishism and female agency. This analysis uses Karl Marx's concept of commodity fetishism as a framework to examine the lasting impacts of the film within the context of the economic and social structures of the Weimar Republic. Textual analysis facilitates the identification of the visual motifs and cinematographic techniques used by Lubitsch in relation to his portrayals of relationships and social comment. Each of these interpretative points inspects how the visuals accentuate themes of commodification and capitalist critique. This contextualization establishes the film within the broader socio-political context of Germany in the years following World War 1, addressing the cultural and feminist discourses of the Weimar Republic. Findings: The analysis indicates that Ernst Lubitsch's film The Oyster Princess employs humor to critique the social, economic, and gender dynamics pervasive in post-World War I Germany during the Weimar Republic. The film illustrates absurd patterns of commodity fetishism through its depiction of how human interpersonal relationships undergo manipulation. The analysis shows the transformation of human connections into transactions dictated by wealth and social standing, thereby prompting reflection on their convergence in an era of rapid change. Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: This analysis of The Oyster Princess contributes to discussions on commodity fetishism by merging economic theory with visual and narrative elements. It shows how gendered perspectives deepen our understanding of commodification and agency and emphasize the interplay of class, power, and identity. The study promotes critical conversation on social inequalities, gender relations, and commodification. It emphasizes how these problems still impact modern society and how crucial it is to stop the commodification of human values to create a more just society.

The article analyzes the idea of women’s emancipation, which means the process of liberating women from traditional restrictions and providing them with rights, freedoms and opportunities for social, political and economic progress. The mechanism, strategy and numerous efforts by which women seek to free themselves from the power and control of men and traditional power structures, as well as the need to ensure equal rights for women, eliminate gender discrimination from laws, institutions and behavioral patterns, and establish legal standards that will promote their full equality with men are considered. Various theoretical approaches to emancipation are presented, including feminist concepts that emphasize the need for not only legal but also social changes to ensure equality. The author draws attention to the fact that women’s emancipation is not limited to the struggle for political and economic rights, but also involves cultural and ideological transformations that allow breaking stereotypes and traditional ideas about the role of women in society. An important part of the study is the examination of current challenges to gender equality, including structural barriers such as discrimination in the workplace, gender-based violence, and women’s limited access to resources and opportunities on an equal footing with men. The study emphasizes the importance of empowering women through a comprehensive approach that includes both legislative changes and social support and education programs. Ways to overcome gender inequality are proposed, including strengthening educational initiatives, introducing more effective mechanisms for protecting women’s rights, and promoting gender-sensitive policies at all levels of public life. The issue of women’s emancipation and gender equality is not only a right, but also a prerequisite for building a just and equal society that respects the rights and dignity of every person, regardless of their gender. In turn, the topic of gender discrimination in the public consciousness is inscribed in the context of general social problems. In other words, a weak awareness of the relevance of overcoming gender discrimination leads to a distorted connection between gender discrimination and the main problem of social inequality, which is manifested in gender stereotypes.

Aim/Purpose: Latina doctoral students’ educational experiences are often mediated by their social class status, race, and gender. Latinas have sustained an increasing presence in doctoral programs at various colleges and universities across the United States; yet, they are continually underrepresented in doctoral programs at predominantly White institutions. The author identifies evidence-supported, personal and institutional factors that may contribute to working-class Latina doctoral students’ successful persistence at predominantly White institutions. Background: The tension between personal identities versus academic capability can make the doctoral education experience academically, socially, emotionally, and financially challenging for Latinas from low-income backgrounds. Latina/Latino Critical Race Theory and Multiracial Feminist Theory are introduced as lenses to examine aspects of the doctoral education experience that may impede or support Latina students’ retention. Methodology: As a conceptual article, this paper is an examination of research regarding the experiences of doctoral students of color at predominantly White institutions in the United States and summarizes how Latina doctoral students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds can succeed in these environments. Contribution: This article outlines evidence-supported strategies that may influence working-class Latina doctoral students’ successful persistence at predominantly White institutions. Findings: The research highlighted in this article emphasizes how factors such as embracing familismo, increasing faculty diversity, establishing peer networks, and creating inclusive class-concious academic programs and new student orientations, may contribute to the doctoral persistence of Latinas from economically disadvantaged backgrounds attending predominantly White institutions. Recommendations for Practitioners: Personal and institutional factors are recommended for faculty and student affairs professionals to support the doctoral persistence of Latina students such as embracing personal agency and academic efficacy, embracing familismo, recognizing the myth of meritocracy, establishing peer support networks, creating inclusive academic environments, establishing formal faculty mentorships, and fostering class conscious faculty. Recommendation for Researchers: The literature presented in this paper provides ideas for future research opportunities that could further examine how supportive relationships and inclusiveness promote Latina doctoral students’ educational success. Impact on Society: Latinas experience overlapping forms of privilege and subordination depending on their race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, and academic setting. Future Research: Further development of transformative research on this topic may improve inclusive educational practices and potentially increase access to doctoral-level education for Latinas and other economically disadvantaged students of color.

Objective: Understand the meaning that a group of adult women gives to personal experiences in the process of educational empowerment, when studying a degree within their living conditions, to identify the driving and inhibiting factors that emerge from their collective life stories focused on the stage of childhood in rural communities. Theoretical Framework: This topic presents the main concepts and theories that support the research, among which the following stand out: factors of female empowerment, personal dimension, dimension of close relationships, collective dimension, theories of female empowerment. Method: The research was carried out from the qualitative paradigm under the approach of life stories, within biographical-narrative studies. It was carried out with women from San Antonio Acahualco, a town in the Municipality of Zinacantepec, State of Mexico. To select the participants, a type of convenience sampling was used, selecting the most accessible cases and due to the proximity of the subjects to the researchers. Seven women whose ages ranged between 32 and 40 years collaborated. To select the informants, the following inclusion criteria were considered: being a woman, having finished high school, living in the town of San Antonio Acahualco, being enrolled in the Women Building the Future program and being available to be interviewed in various occasions. Furthermore, to protect the anonymity of the participants, established keys for qualitative research were used: S (Subject); F (Feminine); 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (assigned number). To collect the information, two fundamental techniques were used, the in-depth interview and natural semantic networks. As part of the in-depth interview, the interview script and the stimulus word were generated with the consequent activities to follow in the case of the natural semantic network. A letter of informed consent was also signed by the participating women, and, regarding the interviews and natural semantic network, they were carried out in an appropriate place and with full respect for the privacy of the informants. Results and Discussion: Driving and inhibiting factors of female empowerment were identified, highlighting among the former happiness, affection, study and play, among the latter insecurity, economic and educational problems. In this context, there is a need to investigate proposals to transform adverse situations from the family, socioeconomic and school conditions in which the women lived. The limitation to the childhood stage to collect information from life stories must be recognized, so it is suggested to build the proposals based on the analysis of other life paths. Research Implications: Research like this favors the commitment of women's studies institutes and social management observatories, to generate well-founded proposals for cultural changes and improvements to rural environments. It involves the efforts of those who promote a balanced image of women and promote strategies aimed at eliminating sexism and gender stereotypes. Originality/Value: Research based on life stories is of great theoretical-practical value, since in them the dialectical relationship is discovered, the daily negotiation between aspiration and possibility, between utopia and reality, between creation and acceptance; without forgetting that its information comes from everyday life, common sense, the explanations and reconstructions that as an individual make to live and survive daily. It is an original way of becoming interested in understanding the social phenomenon, from the actor's point of view. In addition, it considers the emotional meaning of the things, situations, experiences and relationships that affect people. Investigating from this vision is relevant to investigate the human factor of women, considering the internal source of empowerment to also incorporate its community scope.

<p>本研究探討警校男同志在學期間所經驗到校園中性別相關的文化，以及這些經驗對他們產生的影響和相對應之因應與調適。研究以女性主義觀點的敘事研究方法，招募四位正在就學或畢業三年內之警校男同志進行半結構式訪談，採「類別-內容」分析法處理資料。研究結果包含四大部分：（1）警校文化可歸類成三部分:官僚體系、傳統封閉、訓練因素；（2）警校男同志除了受其所身處警校文化影響外，也經驗到警校中的性別文化:反女權、異性戀霸權、陽剛文化；（3）在這些多元因素與壓迫相互交織下，警校男同志在校多數時間經歷來自不同對象（老師、隊部師長、同儕）的恐同與歧視；（4）前述經驗使警校男同志感受到身為校內性少數的孤單感及內化恐同所帶來的不舒適感，同時也發展出不同的因應與調適（直接回應、間接調適、尋求支持）。結論:置身於一個父權、官僚體系、結構性的文化脈絡與體制下，警校男同志確實經驗到歧視與恐同，雖然有發展出一些因應策略以利在此環境中生存下來，但還是感受到很深的孤單感。根據研究結果，本文在教育與輔導實務上，建議警校教師、隊部師長及諮商輔導中心進行性平友善校園活動之推展、相關法規與制度之修訂，並期待校方領導階層能有效帶領警校體制與系統進行相關倡議活動；此外，也建議未來研究可更聚焦多元及性少數學生在警校之處境，以促進多元性別相關議題在這些單位受到重視。</p> <p> </p><p>This study aimed to investigate gay men’s gender experiences, their ways of coping, and what strategies they arm themselves with to fight sexual prejudices at the Taiwan Police Academy. This qualitative study used narrative inquiry, based on feminist perspectives, for data analysis. Four gay men who were currently attending the Taiwan Police Academy or had graduated within three years participated in semi-structured interviews. The analysis of their stories revealed the following: (1) The cultural environment of the Taiwan Police Academy is (a) a bureaucracy that is not conducive to promoting the visibility of gender equality issues, (b) traditional closures that cannot keep up with the evolution of the times, and (c) de-gendered collective life management and training. (2) Gender-related cultures are (a) threatened men’s right and anti-feminism, (b) heterosexual hegemony of lecture arrangement, and (c) masculinity of femininity-rejection. (3) Participants reported experiencing homophobia and discrimination from faculty and peers, as well as the intersectionality of multiple oppression. Homophobia and discrimination can be divided into three categories based on the following three topics: (a) Non-heterosexual sexual orientation, (b) atypical gender expression, and (c) gender difference. The first topic of discrimination can be divided into three subcategories: implicit discrimination, personally experienced discrimination, and common ubiquitous discrimination in everyday life. Discrimination against atypical gender expression was targeted toward men who spoke more feminine. The third type of discrimination against gender differences occurs in gender stereotypes and the misogyny or objectification of women. (4) With respect to impact, there are two phenomena from the finding: (a) Feeling alone was the shared experience of the participants in the homophobic and oppressive environment. They all consistently mentioned that they had few gay friends in police academies. (b) The participants experienced different degrees of internalized homophobia; some said that an unfriendly environment made them less self-accepting because of their gay status, whereas others said they would never want to be gay again in life. Additionally, regarding coping strategies, the participants developed different strategies to deal with the discrimination, isolation, and microaggressions they encountered in schools. These strategies included three types: (1) direct responses (self-deprecating, counterattack, and education in an opportune time); (2) indirect self-regulation (pretending to be heterosexual, intentionally ignoring unfriendly comments, assuming that it can divert attention if viewed from a different respective, and choosing an identity with advantageous attributes); and (3) seeking support from friendly peers, professors, and faculty of student corps (especially Captain, Associate Captain, and Lieutenant); furthermore, some participants availed themselves for counseling and guidance resources. Surrounded by a patriarchal, bureaucratic, and heteronormative system with restrictive structures, gay men at the Taiwan Police Academy had indeed experienced real discrimination and homophobia. Although they had developed different coping strategies to survive in the environment, they still needed to protect their educational status and safety by hiding their sexual minority identity. Implications and recommendations for faculty and counselors to reduce oppression or discrimination against LGBTQIA and students studying at the Taiwan Police Academy were provided based on the findings of this study. In future studies, researchers can explore other sexual minorities in police academies, such as lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders. Suggestions for Police Academy teaching and team management can be summarized as follows: (1) School leaders take the lead in promoting gender equity education; (2) Implementing gender-related regulations and laws in traditional closures; (3) Create a gender-equal and friendly life management and training space; (4) Create a learning environment free from gender bias and discrimination. Additionally, practical advice to the Counseling Center in the police academy includes how to reduce the stigma associated with counseling and how to explicitly take a gender-friendly stance. This is the first study to investigate the educational experience of sexual minority students, especially gender experiences, at the Taiwan Police Academy. More research on sexual orientation and gender identity experiences at the Taiwan Police Academy is needed to promote an understanding of gender equity in masculine-dominant educational systems.</p> <p> </p>

A Síndrome de Down é uma alteração genética que leva ao desenvolvimento de complicações clínicas que podem estar associadas a ingestão deficiente de nutrientes. Desse modo, o objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o consumo de micronutrientes, como: vitaminas B1, B6, B9, C, D, E, A, K, minerais Cálcio, Selênio, Manganês, Iodo, Zinco e Cobre em pacientes com Síndrome de Down. Trata-se de um estudo descritivo transversal com 15 adultos com Síndrome de Down, entre 20 a 40 anos, 6 mulheres e 9 homens, que foram atendidos no Centro de Referência à Obesidade no Hospital Universitário Bettina Ferro de Souza em Belém- PA. A maioria apresentou alguma deficiência na ingestão, dentre os micronutrientes avaliados, as vitaminas B1, B9, E, A, K, Cálcio, Selênio e Manganês, estavam inferiores ao estipulado ao grupo feminino. Para o masculino, os nutrientes inadequados foram B1, B6, B9, E e K, Cálcio, Selênio, Manganês, Cobre e Iodo, os quais, nessas condições, podem levar ao comprometimento de funções corporais. As vitaminas C, D e mineral Zinco, em ambos os grupos, B6, Iodo e Cobre nas mulheres e vitamina A nos homens, permaneceram acima da recomendação. Considerando a análise do R24h e as condições fisiopatológicas dos pacientes, há probabilidade de haver carências nutricionais, pois a maioria das amostras apresentou algum grau de deficiência no consumo de micronutrientes. Assim, como não há dados que comprovem as implicações dessas desordens nutricionais nesses pacientes, esse estudo é de extrema importância para impulsionar outros trabalhos sobre essa temática. Palavras-chave: Síndrome de Down. Micronutrientes. Deficiência Nutricional. AbstractDown Syndrome is a genetic alteration that leads to the development of clinical complications that may be associated with deficient nutrient intake. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the consumption of micronutrients, such as: vitamins B1, B6, B9, C, D, E, A, K, minerals Calcium, Selenium, Manganese, Iodine, Zinc and Copper in patients with Syndrome of Down. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study with 15 adults with Down Syndrome, between 20 and 40 years old, 6 women and 9 men, who were treated at the Obesity Reference Center at the Bettina Ferro de Souza University Hospital in Belém- PA. The majority had some deficiency in their intake, among the micronutrients evaluated, vitamins B1, B9, E, A, K, Calcium, Selenium and Manganese, were lower than those stipulated for the female group. For men, the inadequate nutrients were B1, B6, B9, E and K, Calcium, Selenium, Manganese, Copper, and Iodine, which, under these conditions, can lead to compromised bodily functions. Vitamins C, D and the mineral Zinc, in both groups, B6, Iodine and Copper in women and vitamin A in men, remained above the recommendation. Considering the 24hR analysis and the patients' pathophysiological conditions, there is likely to be nutritional deficiencies, as most samples showed some degree of deficiency in the consumption of micronutrients. Therefore, as there is no data that proves the implications of these nutritional disorders in these patients, this study is extremely important to promote further work on this topic. Keywords: Down Syndrome. Micronutrients. Nutritional Deficiency.

In my postgraduate formation during the last years of the 80’s, we had close to thirty hospital beds in a pavilion called “sépticas” (1). In Colombia, where abortion was completely penalized, the pavilion was mostly filled with women with insecure, complicated abortions. The focus we received was technical: management of intensive care; performance of hysterectomies, colostomies, bowel resection, etc. In those times, some nurses were nuns and limited themselves to interrogating the patients to get them to “confess” what they had done to themselves in order to abort. It always disturbed me that the women who left alive, left without any advice or contraceptive method. Having asked a professor of mine, he responded with disdain: “This is a third level hospital, those things are done by nurses of the first level”.
 Seeing so much pain and death, I decided to talk to patients, and I began to understand their decision. I still remember so many deaths with sadness, but one case in particular pains me: it was a woman close to being fifty who arrived with a uterine perforation in a state of advanced sepsis. Despite the surgery and the intensive care, she passed away. I had talked to her, and she told me she was a widow, had two adult kids and had aborted because of “embarrassment towards them” because they were going to find out that she had an active sexual life. A few days after her passing, the pathology professor called me, surprised, to tell me that the uterus we had sent for pathological examination showed no pregnancy. She was a woman in a perimenopausal state with a pregnancy exam that gave a false positive due to the high levels of FSH/LH typical of her age. SHE WAS NOT PREGNANT!!! She didn’t have menstruation because she was premenopausal and a false positive led her to an unsafe abortion. Of course, the injuries caused in the attempted abortion caused the fatal conclusion, but the real underlying cause was the social taboo in respect to sexuality.
 I had to watch many adolescents and young women leave the hospital alive, but without a uterus, sometime without ovaries and with colostomies, to be looked down on by a society that blamed them for deciding to not be mothers. I had to see situation of women that arrived with their intestines protruding from their vaginas because of unsafe abortions. I saw women, who in their despair, self-inflicted injuries attempting to abort with elements such as stick, branches, onion wedges, alum bars and clothing hooks among others. Among so many deaths, it was hard not having at least one woman per day in the morgue due to an unsafe abortion.
 During those time, healthcare was not handled from the biopsychosocial, but only from the technical (2); nonetheless, in the academic evaluations that were performed, when asked about the definition of health, we had to recite the text from the International Organization of Health that included these three aspects. How contradictory!
 To give response to the health need of women and guarantee their right when I was already a professor, I began an obstetric contraceptive service in that third level hospital. There was resistance from the directors, but fortunately I was able to acquire international donations for the institution, which facilitated its acceptance. I decided to undertake a teaching career with the hope of being able to sensitize health professionals towards an integral focus of health and illness.
 When the International Conference of Population and Development (ICPD) was held in Cairo in 1994, I had already spent various years in teaching, and when I read their Action Program, I found a name for what I was working on: Sexual and Reproductive Rights. I began to incorporate the tools given by this document into my professional and teaching life. I was able to sensitize people at my countries Health Ministry, and we worked together moving it to an approach of human rights in areas of sexual and reproductive health (SRH). This new viewpoint, in addition to being integral, sought to give answers to old problems like maternal mortality, adolescent pregnancy, low contraceptive prevalence, unplanned or unwanted pregnancy or violence against women. With other sensitized people, we began with these SRH issues to permeate the Colombian Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, some universities, and university hospitals. We are still fighting in a country that despite many difficulties has improved its indicators of SRH.
 With the experience of having labored in all sphere of these topics, we manage to create, with a handful of colleagues and friend at the Universidad El Bosque, a Master’s Program in Sexual and Reproductive Health, open to all professions, in which we broke several paradigms. A program was initiated in which the qualitative and quantitative investigation had the same weight, and some alumni of the program are now in positions of leadership in governmental and international institutions, replicating integral models. In the Latin American Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FLASOG, English acronym) and in the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology (FIGO), I was able to apply my experience for many years in the SRH committees of these association to benefit women and girls in the regional and global environments.
 When I think of who has inspired me in these fights, I should highlight the great feminist who have taught me and been with me in so many fights. I cannot mention them all, but I have admired the story of the life of Margaret Sanger with her persistence and visionary outlook. She fought throughout her whole life to help the women of the 20th century to be able to obtain the right to decide when and whether or not they wanted to have children (3). Of current feminist, I have had the privilege of sharing experiences with Carmen Barroso, Giselle Carino, Debora Diniz and Alejandra Meglioli, leaders of the International Planned Parenthood Federation – Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF-RHO). From my country, I want to mention my countrywoman Florence Thomas, psychologist, columnist, writer and Colombo-French feminist. She is one of the most influential and important voices in the movement for women rights in Colombia and the region. She arrived from France in the 1960’s, in the years of counterculture, the Beatles, hippies, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean-Paul Sartre, a time in which capitalism and consumer culture began to be criticized (4). It was then when they began to talk about the female body, female sexuality and when the contraceptive pill arrived like a total revolution for women. Upon its arrival in 1967, she experimented a shock because she had just assisted in a revolution and only found a country of mothers, not women (5). That was the only destiny for a woman, to be quiet and submissive. Then she realized that this could not continue, speaking of “revolutionary vanguards” in such a patriarchal environment.
 In 1986 with the North American and European feminism waves and with her academic team, they created the group “Mujer y Sociedad de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia”, incubator of great initiatives and achievements for the country (6). She has led great changes with her courage, the strength of her arguments, and a simultaneously passionate and agreeable discourse. Among her multiple books, I highlight “Conversaciones con Violeta” (7), motivated by the disdain towards feminism of some young women. She writes it as a dialogue with an imaginary daughter in which, in an intimate manner, she reconstructs the history of women throughout the centuries and gives new light of the fundamental role of feminism in the life of modern women. Another book that shows her bravery is “Había que decirlo” (8), in which she narrates the experience of her own abortion at age twenty-two in sixty’s France.
 My work experience in the IPPF-RHO has allowed me to meet leaders of all ages in diverse countries of the region, who with great mysticism and dedication, voluntarily, work to achieve a more equal and just society. I have been particularly impressed by the appropriation of the concept of sexual and reproductive rights by young people, and this has given me great hope for the future of the planet. We continue to have an incomplete agenda of the action plan of the ICPD of Cairo but seeing how the youth bravely confront the challenges motivates me to continue ahead and give my years of experience in an intergenerational work.
 In their policies and programs, the IPPF-RHO evidences great commitment for the rights and the SRH of adolescent, that are consistent with what the organization promotes, for example, 20% of the places for decision making are in hands of the young. Member organizations, that base their labor on volunteers, are true incubators of youth that will make that unassailable and necessary change of generations. In contrast to what many of us experienced, working in this complicated agenda of sexual and reproductive health without theoretical bases, today we see committed people with a solid formation to replace us. In the college of medicine at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and the College of Nursing at the Universidad El Bosque, the new generations are more motivated and empowered, with great desire to change the strict underlying structures.
 Our great worry is the onslaught of the ultra-right, a lot of times better organized than us who do support rights, that supports anti-rights group and are truly pro-life (9). Faced with this scenario, we should organize ourselves better, giving battle to guarantee the rights of women in the local, regional, and global level, aggregating the efforts of all pro-right organizations. We are now committed to the Objectives of Sustainable Development (10), understood as those that satisfy the necessities of the current generation without jeopardizing the capacity of future generations to satisfy their own necessities. This new agenda is based on:
 - The unfinished work of the Millennium Development Goals
 - Pending commitments (international environmental conventions)
 - The emergent topics of the three dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic, and environmental.
 We now have 17 objectives of sustainable development and 169 goals (11). These goals mention “universal access to reproductive health” many times. In objective 3 of this list is included guaranteeing, before the year 2030, “universal access to sexual and reproductive health services, including those of family planning, information, and education.” Likewise, objective 5, “obtain gender equality and empower all women and girls”, establishes the goal of “assuring the universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights in conformity with the action program of the International Conference on Population and Development, the Action Platform of Beijing”. It cannot be forgotten that the term universal access to sexual and reproductive health includes universal access to abortion and contraception.
 Currently, 830 women die every day through preventable maternal causes; of these deaths, 99% occur in developing countries, more than half in fragile environments and in humanitarian contexts (12). 216 million women cannot access modern contraception methods and the majority live in the nine poorest countries in the world and in a cultural environment proper to the decades of the seventies (13). This number only includes women from 15 to 49 years in any marital state, that is to say, the number that takes all women into account is much greater. Achieving the proposed objectives would entail preventing 67 million unwanted pregnancies and reducing maternal deaths by two thirds. We currently have a high, unsatisfied demand for modern contraceptives, with extremely low use of reversible, long term methods (intrauterine devices and subdermal implants) which are the most effect ones with best adherence (14).
 There is not a single objective among the 17 Objectives of Sustainable Development where contraception does not have a prominent role: from the first one that refers to ending poverty, going through the fifth one about gender equality, the tenth of inequality reduction among countries and within the same country, until the sixteenth related with peace and justice. If we want to change the world, we should procure universal access to contraception without myths or barriers. We have the moral obligation of achieving the irradiation of extreme poverty and advancing the construction of more equal, just, and happy societies.
 In emergency contraception (EC), we are very far from reaching expectations. If in reversible, long-term methods we have low prevalence, in EC the situation gets worse. Not all faculties in the region look at this topic, and where it is looked at, there is no homogeneity in content, not even within the same country. There are still myths about their real action mechanisms. There are countries, like Honduras, where it is prohibited and there is no specific medicine, the same case as in Haiti. Where it is available, access is dismal, particularly among girls, adolescents, youth, migrants, afro-descendent, and indigenous. The multiple barriers for the effective use of emergency contraceptives must be knocked down, and to work toward that we have to destroy myths and erroneous perceptions, taboos and cultural norms; achieve changes in laws and restrictive rules within countries, achieve access without barriers to the EC; work in union with other sectors; train health personnel and the community. It is necessary to transform the attitude of health personal to a service above personal opinion.
 Reflecting on what has occurred after the ICPD in Cairo, their Action Program changed how we look at the dynamics of population from an emphasis on demographics to a focus on the people and human rights. The governments agreed that, in this new focus, success was the empowerment of women and the possibility of choice through expanded access to education, health, services, and employment among others. Nonetheless, there have been unequal advances and inequality persists in our region, all the goals were not met, the sexual and reproductive goals continue beyond the reach of many women (15). There is a long road ahead until women and girls of the world can claim their rights and liberty of deciding. Globally, maternal deaths have been reduced, there is more qualified assistance of births, more contraception prevalence, integral sexuality education, and access to SRH services for adolescents are now recognized rights with great advances, and additionally there have been concrete gains in terms of more favorable legal frameworks, particularly in our region; nonetheless, although it’s true that the access condition have improved, the restrictive laws of the region expose the most vulnerable women to insecure abortions.
 There are great challenges for governments to recognize SRH and the DSR as integral parts of health systems, there is an ample agenda against women. In that sense, access to SRH is threatened and oppressed, it requires multi-sector mobilization and litigation strategies, investigation and support for the support of women’s rights as a multi-sector agenda.
 Looking forward, we must make an effort to work more with youth to advance not only the Action Program of the ICPD, but also all social movements. They are one of the most vulnerable groups, and the biggest catalyzers for change. The young population still faces many challenges, especially women and girls; young girls are in particularly high risk due to lack of friendly and confidential services related with sexual and reproductive health, gender violence, and lack of access to services. In addition, access to abortion must be improved; it is the responsibility of states to guarantee the quality and security of this access. In our region there still exist countries with completely restrictive frameworks.
 New technologies facilitate self-care (16), which will allow expansion of universal access, but governments cannot detach themselves from their responsibility. Self-care is expanding in the world and can be strategic for reaching the most vulnerable populations. There are new challenges for the same problems, that require a re-interpretation of the measures necessary to guaranty the DSR of all people, in particular women, girls, and in general, marginalized and vulnerable populations. It is necessary to take into account migrations, climate change, the impact of digital media, the resurgence of hate discourse, oppression, violence, xenophobia, homo/transphobia, and other emergent problems, as SRH should be seen within a framework of justice, not isolated.
 We should demand accountability of the 179 governments that participate in the ICPD 25 years ago and the 193 countries that signed the Sustainable Development Objectives. They should reaffirm their commitments and expand their agenda to topics not considered at that time. Our region has given the world an example with the Agreement of Montevideo, that becomes a blueprint for achieving the action plan of the CIPD and we should not allow retreat. This agreement puts people at the center, especially women, and includes the topic of abortion, inviting the state to consider the possibility of legalizing it, which opens the doors for all governments of the world to recognize that women have the right to choose on maternity. This agreement is much more inclusive:
 Considering that the gaps in health continue to abound in the region and the average statistics hide the high levels of maternal mortality, of sexually transmitted diseases, of infection by HIV/AIDS, and the unsatisfied demand for contraception in the population that lives in poverty and rural areas, among indigenous communities, and afro-descendants and groups in conditions of vulnerability like women, adolescents and incapacitated people, it is agreed: 
 33- To promote, protect, and guarantee the health and the sexual and reproductive rights that contribute to the complete fulfillment of people and social justice in a society free of any form of discrimination and violence.
 37- Guarantee universal access to quality sexual and reproductive health services, taking into consideration the specific needs of men and women, adolescents and young, LGBT people, older people and people with incapacity, paying particular attention to people in a condition of vulnerability and people who live in rural and remote zone, promoting citizen participation in the completing of these commitments.
 42- To guarantee, in cases in which abortion is legal or decriminalized in the national legislation, the existence of safe and quality abortion for non-desired or non-accepted pregnancies and instigate the other States to consider the possibility of modifying public laws, norms, strategies, and public policy on the voluntary interruption of pregnancy to save the life and health of pregnant adolescent women, improving their quality of life and decreasing the number of abortions (17).

Gender, which has changed from a grammatical term to a socio-cultural construct, is one of the indicators of the development of the society today. Besides, it is a topical scientific problem and is studied intensively from social, philological, economic, biological and various other perspectives. Gender theories developed considerably in XX century based on the studies by Simone de Beauvoir, Lévi-Strauss, Freud, Jacques Lacan, and other well-known scientists. These works cover philosophical, anthropological, psychological and historical aspects as well, and show the complexity and diversity of this issue, which is due to the fact that in this or that socio-economic and political system the stereotypes of female and male role models are closely linked to the values and cultural traditions of the society itself. The perception of the social functions of men and women formed over the centuries was related to the images of women as weak creatures, caregivers, mothers, and of men – as strong creatures, protectors and leaders. Such determination of the historical roles of men and women reveals the masculine-feminine binarity, the inherently contradictory nature of this opposition. In the second half of XIX century the issue of the status of women is particularly acute in America and Europe. At the same time, the discussions around the gender situation in Georgia can also be observed, which was the result of the spread of liberal views, socio-economic and cultural-educational changes in the society. The topic of equality between women and men is discussed in the publicist letters by famous Georgian figures of the second half of XIX century: Ilia Chavchavadze, Akaki Tsereteli, Sergey Meskhi, Niko Nikoladze, etc. They respond to and argue with European thinkers, and consider the role of women and men to be equally important in the advancement of society and make the harsh reality the subject of criticism. In the second half of XIX century, the issue of women's emancipation was directly related to women's education. Famous and less famous Georgian figures agreed that personal freedom had to be based on education. In general, when writing about these problems, Georgian publicists and writers foresaw the difficulties that would arise as women became more active in the public arena. Georgian figures thought it was unfair that men and women did not have the equal rights. It is no coincidence that in his letter “Motherhood and Women's Education” Ilia Chav­chavadze focuses on human education in general. According to Ilia, education helps both men and women to better define their duties, civic interests, state and family obligations. Sergey Meskhi's famous letter – “What Have Women Lost and What Are They Looking for?” is significant in many ways. It is clear from the publication that the idea of equality between men and women is generally acceptable and no one opposes it, but it is not easy for women to overcome the existing inertia. The publicist draws attention to the extent of the stereotype established as a result of the gender perceptions characteristic of the society during that period. The critical review of the famous publicist and public figure, Niko Nikoladze – “Our Writing” is noteworthy. The author makes a special mention of the Georgian women and highly evaluates the literary collection for reading translated and published by them. Niko Nikoladze attaches great importance to the role of fiction in changing public consciousness and advises Georgian women to translate works created on the theme of romantic love, because he believes that such works help men to overcome their animal instincts, women – to gain respect, change the way of family life, the relationship between a husband and a wife, children’s fate. Fiction not only participates in the change of public consciousness, first of all, it preserves the attitude, views, opinions characteristic of this society, describes their specific manifestations from different perspectives, creates a comprehensive picture to understand the character of this or that era, to grasp its essence. The complexity of the inevitable and necessary process of changing the social role of women in the society, which is full of traditional, and often of false clichés, has been well demonstrated by the Georgian literature at the turn of XIX-XX centuries. The works of Georgian writers of this period reflected the stereotypes characteristic of the society at that time, which made a person subject to the will of others and did not identify him/her as an individual. In such a situation, gaining personal freedom by a woman, along with education, required courage as well. One of the famous prose writers of the late XIX and the early of XX century, Shio Aragvispireli, depicts the lack of the values of the contemporary society through different artistic planes, always connecting to the essence of humanity, and the layers of a man’s psyche. This viewpoint also encompasses the gender issue which is often used by the writer to show discrimination against women and he presents it as a cornerstone of the moral dilemma. However, the writer never looks at it from only one perspective. In this case, he depicts the society of his time from many angles, brings forward the unfair nature of a number of existing stereotypical views. In the stories by the writer, the gender issue is presented considering several aspects and artistically reflects the influence of the firmly established views in the society of those times on the life of an individual. When writing on the painful topic of the unjust society, the dehumanization of a person Shio Aragvispireli, along with other authors at the turn of XIX-XX centuries (Eg. Ninoshvili, D. Kldiashvili, Ek. Gabashvili...), pays special attention to the plight of women and the factors leading to the latter, gives us an idea about the gender awareness and existing stereotypes in the society. At the same time, with his characteristic psychologism, he depicts the difficulties that exist in the patriarchal society. Aragvispireli promotes the breaking of established views, critical judgment and unique reflection through showing gender inequality and discrimination of women (economic, social, personal). The fact that the gender issue is linked to the problems of social and rank inequality and injustice makes it clear that it cannot be solved without social progress. At the same time, it highlights the inherent internal contradictions between masculine and feminine which contributes to the ongoing relevance of the issue.

The latest health statistics paints a grim picture of India’s mental health of men revealing that one person commits suicide every four minutes. The National Health 2019 raises alarm over the increasing numbers of suicide deaths to 1,39,123 in a year. This makes it to 381 suicide deaths every day and 16 an hour. The data also show the increasing vulnerability of Indian men versus Indian women. There is a deep rooted bias against MEN in the society. Government, Legislators, Judiciary, Police, Women NGOs / Ministries & Media always judge MEN with a misandrist & stereotype mindset. Undoubtedly; Media always takes the side of Women and publish the narrative that suits to their feminist and misandrist agenda. Media often publishes one sided and incomplete facts which creates a perception among the society that no matter women are always on receiving side and always a victim. MEN can never be a victim and always a perpetrator. Both of these BBC and The Hindu reports contradicts its header with its news. The Hindu news says globally 1.2 million females are missing but in India its 46 million. Not sure learned Editors of The Hindu or other media studied in which school which teach them 1.2 million is greater than 46 million. If its 46 million in India alone then how come its 1.2 million Globally? Anyway this is how they want to sell their news highlighting with big statistics header in women name which sells like a hot cake. Government of India use billion on AD campaign to promote its vested interest which indirectly pay them back to its Party funds through main stream media. Who are the beneficiary of these AD campaign? Media houses. It’s clear now as there is Nexus between Government of India, WCD/NCW and Media.

<strong>Abstract</strong> &nbsp; This study analyzes the depiction of domestic violence in the primetime television dramas of Pakistan. Domestic Violence is an international issue that is affecting women all around the globe. Television dramas shape the mindset of people and the culture of any country. Pakistani dramas have normalized and romanticized domestic violence against women. This study analyzes six primetime dramas on three of the famous private TV channels by using content analysis research methodology. In these dramas, women are portrayed as submissive and compromising and do not give up on their toxic spouses. Violence against women and the way these dramas have normalized domestic violence is analyzed through purposive random sampling. The study finds out that such dramas promote and normalize domestic violence. Although the ending of most of the dramas portrays domestic violence as a curse, the storyline of most of the dramas has many loopholes that create a stereotypical mindset of viewers, especially women. Instead of portraying women as submissive waiting for miracles, they should be portrayed as empowered women who can take a stand for themselves. <strong>Key Words; </strong><em>Domestic Violence, Pakistani Dramas, Television drama serials, Violence against women, Feminism in Pakistan</em>

How do women’s business networks help to advance women’s freedom? Drawing on Zerilli’s freedom-centred feminism, our study sets out to answer this question at the intersection of freedom, feminism and work. Critics argue that women’s business networks promote a postfeminist view of freedom focusing on individual self-realisation and thus participate in rolling back collective, feminist efforts to dismantle structural inequalities. We reconceptualise women’s business networks as political arenas and argue that making claims about shared interests and concerns in such an arena constitutes a feminist practice of freedom. With an original, inductive and qualitative research design combining topic modeling and dialectical analysis, we examine the claims made in 1529 posts across four women’s business network blogs. We identify postfeminist claims and new forms of change and transformation that can help to advance women’s freedom across three ‘dialectics of freedom’: conformity and imagination; performative care and relational care; sameness and openness. Our findings show that uncertain and contradictory ways of defining and engaging with women’s freedom can emerge through claim-making in such arenas. The fragility of the process and its outcomes are, then, what can move feminism forward at work and beyond.

This article argues that gender studies are a sensitive indicator for the quality of Romanian democracy. How gender studies have been established and (partly) institutionalized, the ideological and institutional obstacles that they have faced, as well as the political values and stakes that are present when they are promoted or contested are significant elements for understanding the process of democratization within the academic space, as well as the extent and quality of democracy in the country after 1989. In the first part, I analyze the dynamics of the establishment and institutionalization of gender studies in Romania, filling the gaps of current literature on the topic, especially when it comes to the more recent developments. This investigation allows the identification of relevant factors that are specific to the Romanian context and favoured or hindered the presence of these studies in local universities. In the second part, I analyze briefly the academic, ideological and political opposition to feminism, feminist studies and gender studies in Romania.

ABSTRACT Objectives: to investigate the implications of the emergence and development of feminist bioethics in Brazil for nursing practice. Methods: integrative literature review. In April 2023, we searched PubMed, EBSCO, BVS, Web of Science, and Scopus databases, selecting nine studies. Inclusion criteria comprised year and language of publication; we excluded foreign publications and those unrelated to feminist bioethics and nursing. Results: we identified a gap in research on this topic from 2006 to 2020; most studies discussed the theme of valuing nursing and concluded that political engagement in health is a viable strategy. Final Considerations: feminist bioethics encourages nurses to discuss gender roles in the workplace and to address vulnerabilities in care delivery. Furthermore, it seeks to promote a more balanced and equitable ethical decision-making process by incorporating the voices of nurses and patients in shaping patient care.

Algorithmic content moderation is becoming a common practice employed by many social media platforms to regulate ‘toxic’ language and to promote democratic public conversations. This paper provides a normative critique of politically liberal assumption of civility embedded in algorithmic moderation, illustrated by Google’s Perspective API. From a radical democratic standpoint, this paper normatively and empirically distinguishes between incivility and intolerance because they have different implications for democratic discourse. The paper recognises the potential political, expressive, and symbolic values of incivility, especially for the socially marginalised. We, therefore, argue against regulation of incivility using AI. There are, however, good reasons to regulate hate speech but it is incumbent upon the users of AI moderation to show that this can be done reliably. The paper emphasises the importance of detecting diverse forms of hate speech that convey intolerant and exclusionary ideas without using explicitly hateful or extremely emotional wording. The paper then empirically evaluates the performance of the current algorithmic moderation to see whether it can discern incivility and intolerance and whether it can detect diverse forms of intolerance. Empirical findings reveal that the current algorithmic moderation does not promote democratic discourse, but rather deters it by silencing the uncivil but pro-democratic voices of the marginalised as well as by failing to detect intolerant messages whose meanings are embedded in nuances and rhetoric. New algorithmic moderation should focus on the reliable and transparent identification of hate speech and be in line with the feminist, anti-racist, and critical theories of democratic discourse.

In this perspective article, I invite readers to accompany me on a personal journey of self-discovery and transformation as a male researcher within the field of feminist Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). I will delve into the specific topic of gender-opposite research in socio-technical environments and reflect on my experiences, especially the associated challenges and opportunities. My journey exposed me to critical literature and engaged me in long-term fieldwork simultaneously, expanding my understanding of the dynamics that shape our society. My perspectives, sensitization, and awareness of gender-related issues evolved significantly over the course of more than 3 years of being dedicated to a feminist research project. By sharing this narrative, I hope to promote critical discussions about the significance of both, personal growth, and transformation as well as the need for reflexivity in the pursuit of feminist research (with a focus on the specific context of gender-opposite research in socio-technical environments). I will dive into the complexities that I encountered in the settings and compromises I felt obliged to make which were influenced by the embodied nature of my research. As I will furthermore show, there had been an impact on my research practices in terms of planning, observation, analysis, and writing.

Cross-language research involving translation is prevalent in the social sciences yet under-discussed in terms of its ethical impact on participants or the translator her/himself. This paper applies a feminist ethics of ‘care’ to the topic of translation in cross-cultural, cross-language research. We argue for the importance of emotional intelligence and awareness of emotional labor involved in meaningful, ethical translation between the researcher, translator, and participants. The paper itself is a reflexive conversation between a translator and researcher following six months of data collection involving over 120 interviews and 10 work-life histories. We discuss the opportunities and limitations for more emotionally evolved translation in cross-cultural research, discussing specific strategies for caring about, taking care of, caregiving and care receiving through translation. Applying the ‘caring through translation’ framework promotes deeper collaboration and relationality between researchers, translators, and participants, grounded in feminist ideals of equitable, ethical knowledge production.

The inadequate representation of Italian women writers in the Italian school curriculum has been a topic of concern over the last few years, raising questions about their exclusion from the literary school canon despite their contributions. Through an examination of the relationships between gender, literature, and education, altogether with the feminist critique work carried out since the 1970s, this paper seeks to explore digital learning environments that promote gender-related reflections in Italian secondary schools and to examine key factors that have contributed to the invisibility of Italian women writers in educational contexts. Through the specific quantitative analysis of the digital textbook Letteratura Oggi, tomes 3A and 3B, intended for the students of the Italian lyceum last year, this article addresses the presence of any improvements made for major equity between writers.

AbstractThis study investigates the relevance of violence in the context of South African education, a country which has a history of institutionalised violence against the oppressed, including women. Using a feminist pedagogy as a theoretical lens, violence and its implications for the South African educational system are examined. Scholars such as Freire believe that in order to engage the topic of violence in education, it needs to be framed not only from a physical, but also from a structural and symbolic way since violence is deeply rooted in social inequalities and power imbalances. Violence can be perpetuated through education, which can reproduce dominant ideologies and structures which are biased against women. Therefore, Freire advocates a pedagogical approach that challenges violence and empowers students to become critical agents of social change. In the South African educational environment, violence is a prevalent issue, especially for women and girls who face high rates of gender-based violence and sexual harassment in schools. This research also examines the relevant legal frameworks and policies in South Africa that address gender-based violence and education. This research proposes a feminist pedagogy can help create safe and empowering learning environments that promote social justice and equality.

Introduction This article aims to explore some of the ideological discourses that reinforce marriage as a central social and cultural institution in US-American society. Andrew Cherlin argues that despite social secularisation, rising divorce rates and the emergence of other, alternative forms of love and living, marriage “remains the most highly valued form of family life in American culture, the most prestigious way to live your life” (9). Indeed, marriage in the US has become an ideological and political battlefield, with charged debates about who is entitled to this form of state-sanctioned relationship, with the government spending large sums of money to promote the value of marriage and the highest number of people projected to get married (nearly 90 per cent of all people) compared to other Western nations (Cherlin 4). I argue here that the idea of marriage as the ideal form for an intimate relationship permeates US-American culture to an extent that we can speak of a marital hegemony. This hegemony is fuelled by and reflected in the saturation of American popular culture with celebratory depictions of the white wedding as public performance and symbolic manifestation of the values associated with marriage. These depictions contribute to the discursive production of weddings as “one of the major events that signal readiness and prepare heterosexuals for membership in marriage as an organizing practice for the institution of marriage” (Ingraham 4). From the representation of weddings as cinematic climax in a huge number of films, to TV shows such as The Bachelor, Bridezillas and Race to the Altar, to the advertisement industry and the bridal magazines that construct the figure of the bride as an ideal that every girl and woman should aspire to, popular discourses promote the desirability of marriage in a wide range of media spheres. These representations, which I call bridal fictions, do not only shape and regulate the production of gendered, raced, classed and sexual identities in the media in fundamental ways. They also promote the idea that marriage is the only adequate framework for an intimate relationship and for the constitution of an acceptable gendered identity, meanwhile reproducing heterosexuality as norm and monogamy as societal duty. Thus I argue that we can understand contemporary bridal fictions as a symbolic legitimation of marital hegemony that perpetuates the idea that “lifelong marriage is a moral imperative” (Coontz 292). Marital Hegemony By drawing on Gramsci’s term and argument of cultural hegemony, I propose that public, political, religious and popular discourses work together in intersecting, overlapping, ideologically motivated and often even contradictory ways to produce what can be conceptualised as marital hegemony. Gramsci understands the relationship between state coercion and legitimation as crucial to an understanding of constituted consensus and co-operation. By legitimation Gramsci refers to processes through which social elites constitute their leadership through the universalizing of their own class-based self-interests. These self-interests are adopted by the greater majority of people, who apprehend them as natural or universal standards of value (common sense). This ‘hegemony’ neutralizes dissent, instilling the values, beliefs and cultural meanings into the generalized social structures. (Lewis 76-77)Marital hegemony also consists of those two mechanisms, coercion and legitimation. Coercion by the social elites, in this case by the state, is conducted through intervening in the private life of citizens in order to regulate and control their intimate relationships. Through the offering of financial benefits, medical insurance, tax cuts and various other privileges to married partners only (see Ingraham 175-76), the state withholds these benefits from all those that do not conform to this kind of state-sanctioned relationship. However, this must serve as the topic of another discussion, as this paper is more interested in the second aspect of hegemony, the symbolic legitimation. Symbolic legitimation works through the depiction of the white wedding as the occasion on which entering the institution of marriage is publicly celebrated and marital identity is socially validated. Bridal fictions work on a semiotic and symbolic level to display and perpetuate the idea of marriage as the most desirable and ultimately only legitimate form of intimate, heterosexual relationships. This is not to say that there is no resistance to this form of hegemony, as Foucault argues, eventually there is no “power without resistances” (142). However, as Engstrom contends, contemporary bridal fictions “reinforce and endorse the idea that romantic relationships should and must lead to marriage, which requires public display—the wedding” (3). Thus I argue that we can understand contemporary bridal fictions as one key symbolic factor in the production of marital hegemony. The ongoing centrality of marriage as an institution finds its reflection, as Otnes and Pleck argue, in the fact that the white wedding, in spite of all changes and processes of liberalisation in regard to gender, family and sexuality, “remains the most significant ritual in contemporary culture” (5). Accordingly, popular culture, reflective as well as constitutive of existing cultural paradigms, is saturated with what I have termed here bridal fictions. Bridal representations have been subject to rigorous academic investigation (c.f. Currie, Geller, Bambacas, Boden, Otnes and Pleck, Wallace and Howard). But, by using the term “bridal fictions”, I seek to underscore the fictional nature of these apparent “representations”, emphasising their role in producing pervasive utopias, rather than representing reality. This is not to say that bridal fictions are solely fictive. In fact, my argument here is that these bridal fictions do have discursive influence on contemporary wedding culture and practices. With my analysis of a bridal advertisement campaign later on in this paper, I aim to show exemplarily how bridal fictions work not only in perpetuating marriage, monogamy and heteronormativity as central organizing principles of intimate life. But moreover, how bridal fictions use this framework to promote certain kinds of white, heterosexual, upper-class identities that normatively inform our understanding of who is seen as entitled to this form of state-sanctioned relationship. Furthermore my aim is to highlight the role of postfeminist frames in sustaining marital hegemony. Second Wave feminism, seeing marriage as a form of “intimate colonization” (in Finlay and Clarke 416), has always been one of the few sources of critique in regard to this institution. In contrast, postfeminist accounts, now informing a significant amount of contemporary bridal fictions, evoke marriage as actively chosen, unproblematic and innately desired state of being for women. By constructing the liberated, self-determined figure of the postfeminist bride, contemporary bridal fictions naturalise and re-modernise marriage as framework for the constitution of modern feminine identity. An analysis of postfeminist bridal identities, as done in the following, is thus vital to my argument, because it highlights how postfeminist accounts deflect feminism’s critique of marriage as patriarchal, political and hegemonic institution and hence contribute to the perpetuation and production of marital hegemony. The Postfeminist Bride Postfeminism has emerged since the early 1990s as the dominant mode of constructing femininities in the media. Angela McRobbie understands postfeminism as “to refer to an active process by which feminist gains of the 1970s and 80s come to be undermined”, while simultaneously appearing to be “a well-informed and even well-intended response to feminism” (“Postfeminism” 255). Based on the assumption that women nowadays are no longer subjected to patriarchal power structures anymore, postfeminism actively takes feminism into account while, at the same time, “undoing” it (McRobbie “Postfeminism” 255). In contemporary postfeminist culture, feminism is “decisively aged and made to seem redundant”, which allows a conscious “dis-identification” and/or “forceful non-identity” with accounts of Second Wave feminism (McRobbie Aftermath 15). This demarcation from earlier forms of feminism is particularly evident with regard to marriage and wedding discourses. Second wave feminist critics such as Betty Friedan (1973) and Carole Pateman were critical of the influence of marriage on women’s psychological, financial and sexual freedom. This generation of feminists saw marriage as a manifestation of patriarchal power, which is based on women’s total emotional and erotic loyalty and subservience (Rich 1980), as well as on “men’s domination over women, and the right of men to enjoy equal sexual access to women” (Pateman 1988 2). In contrast, contemporary postfeminism enunciates now that “equality is achieved, in order to install a whole repertoire of new meanings which emphasise that it [feminism] is no longer needed, it is a spent force” (McRobbie “Postfeminism” 255). Instead of seeing marriage as institutionlised subjugation of women, the postfeminist generation of “educated women who have come of age in the 1990s feel that the women’s liberation movement has achieved its goals and that marriage is now an even playing field in which the two sexes operate as equal partners” (Geller 110). As McRobbie argues “feminism was anti-marriage and this can now to be shown to be great mistake” (Aftermath 20). Accordingly, postfeminist bridal fictions do not depict the bride as passive and waiting to be married, relying on conservative and patriarchal notions of hegemonic femininity, but as an active agent using the white wedding as occasion to act out choice, autonomy and power. Genz argues that a characteristic of postfemininities is that they re-negotiate femininity and feminism no longer as mutually exclusive and irreconcilable categories, but as constitutive of each other (Genz; Genz and Brabon). What I term the postfeminist bride embodies this shifted understanding of feminism and femininity. The postfeminist bride is a figure that is often celebrated in terms of individual freedom, professional success and self-determination, instead of resting on traditional notions of female domesticity and passivity. Rather than fulfilling clichés of the homemaker and traditional wife, the postfeminist bride is characterised by an emphasis on power, agency and pleasure. Characteristic of this figure, as with other postfemininities in popular culture, is a simultaneous appropriation and repudiation of feminist critique. Within postfeminist bridal culture, the performance of traditional femininity through the figure of the bride, or by identification with it, is framed in terms of individual choice, depicted as standing outside of the political and ideological struggles surrounding gender, equality, class, sexuality and race. In this way, as Engstrom argues, “bridal media’s popularity in the late 20th and early 21st centuries in the United States as indicative of a postfeminist cultural environment” (18). And although the contemporary white wedding still rests on patriarchal traditions that symbolise what the Second Wave called an “intimate colonization” (such as the bride’s vow of obedience; the giving away of the bride by one male chaperone, her father, to the next, the husband; her loss of name in marriage etc.), feminist awareness of the patriarchal dimensions of marriage and the ritual of the wedding is virtually absent from contemporary bridal culture. Instead, the patriarchal customs of the white wedding are now actively embraced by the women themselves in the name of tradition and choice. This reflects a prevailing characteristic of postfeminism, which is a trend towards the reclamation of conservative ideals of femininity, following the assumption that the goals of traditional feminist politics have been attained. This recuperation of traditional forms of femininity is one key characteristic of postfeminist bridal culture, as Engstrom argues: “bridal media collectively have become the epitomic example of women’s culture, a genre of popular culture that promotes, defends, and celebrates femininity” (21). Bridal fictions indeed produce traditional femininity by positioning the cultural, social and historical significance of the wedding as a necessary rite of passage for women and as the most important framework for the constitution of their (hetero)sexual, classed and gendered identities. Embodied in its ritual qualities, the white wedding symbolises the transition of women from single to belonging, from girlhood to womanhood and implicitly from childlessness to motherhood. However, instead of seeing this form of hegemonic femininity as a product of unequal, patriarchal power relations as Second Wave did, postfeminism celebrates traditional femininity in modernised versions. Embracing conservative feminine roles (e.g. that of the bride/wife) is now a matter of personal choice, individuality and freedom, characterised by awareness, knowingness and sometimes even irony (McRobbie “Postfeminism”). Nevertheless, the wedding is not only positioned as the pinnacle of a monogamous, heterosexual relationship, but also as the climax of a (female) life-story (“the happiest day of the life”). Combining feminist informed notions of power and choice, the postfeminist wedding is constructed as an event which supposedly enables women to act out those notions, while serving as a framework for gendered identity formation and self-realisation within the boundaries of an officialised and institutionalised relationship. “Modern” Brides I would like to exemplarily illustrate how postfeminism informs contemporary bridal fictions by analysing an advertising campaign of the US bridal magazine Modern Bride that paradigmatically and emblematically shows how postfeminist frames are used to construct the ‘modern’ bride. These advertisements feature American celebrities Guiliana Rancic (“host of E! News”), Daisy Fuentes (“host of Ultimate Style”) and Layla Ali, (“TV host and world champion”) stating why they qualify as a “modern bride”. Instead of drawing on notions of passive femininity, these advertisements have a distinct emphasis on power and agency. All advertisements include the women’s profession and other accomplishments. Rancic claims that she is a modern bride because: “I chased my career instead of guys.” These advertisements emphasise choice and empowerment, the key features of postfeminism, as Angela McRobbie (“Postfeminism”) and Rosalind Gill argue. Femininity, feminism and professionalism here are not framed as mutually exclusive, but are reconciled in the identity of the “modern” bride. Marriage and the white wedding are clearly bracketed in a liberal framework of individual choice, underpinned by a grammar of self-determination and individualism. Layla Ali states that she is a modern bride: “Because I refuse to let anything stand in the way of my happiness.” This not only communicates the message that happiness is intrinsically linked to marriage, but clearly resembles the figure that Sharon Boden terms the “super bride”, a role which allows women to be in control of every aspect of their wedding and “the heroic creator of her big day” while being part of a fairy-tale narrative in which they are the centre of attention (74). Agency and power are clearly visible in all of these ads. These brides are not passive victims of the male gaze, instead they are themselves gazing. In Rancic’s advertisement this is particularly evident, as she is looking directly at the viewer, where her husband, looking into another direction, remains rather face- and gazeless. This is in accord with bridal fictions in general, where husbands are often invisible, serving as bystanders or absent others, reinforcing the ideal that this is the special day of the bride and no one else. Furthermore, all of these advertisements remain within the limited visual repertoire that is common within bridal culture: young to middle-aged, heterosexual, able-bodied, conventionally attractive women. The featuring of the non-white bride Layla Ali is a rare occasion in contemporary bridal fictions. And although this can be seen as a welcomed exception, this advertisement remains eventually within the hegemonic and racial boundaries of contemporary bridal fictions. As Ingraham argues, ultimately “the white wedding in American culture is primarily a ritual by, for, and about the white middle to upper classes. Truly, the white wedding” (33). Furthermore, these advertisements illustrate another key feature of bridal culture, the “privileging of white middle- to upper-class heterosexual marriage over all other forms” (Ingraham 164). Semiotically, the discussed advertisements reflect the understanding of the white wedding as occasion to perform a certain classed identity: the luscious white dresses, the tuxedos, the jewellery and make up, etc. are all signifiers for a particular social standing. This is also emphasised by the mentioning of the prestigious jobs these brides hold, which presents a postfeminist twist on the otherwise common depictions of brides as practising hypergamy, meaning the marrying of a spouse of higher socio-economic status. But significantly, upward social mobility is usually presented as only acceptable for women, reinforcing the image of the husband as the provider. Another key feature of postfeminism, the centrality of heterosexual romance, becomes evident through Daisy Fuentes’ statement: “I’m a modern bride, because I believe that old-school values enhance a modern romance.” Having been liberated from the shackles of second wave feminism, which dismissed romance as “dope for dupes” (Greer in Pearce and Stacey 50), the postfeminist bride unapologetically embraces romance as central part of her life and relationship. Romance is here equated with traditionalism and “old school” values, thus reinforcing sexual exclusiveness, traditional gender roles and marriage as re-modernised, romantic norms. Angela McRobbie describes this “double entanglement” as a key feature of postfeminism that is comprised of “the co-existence of neo-conservative values in relation to gender, sexuality and family life […] with processes of liberalisation in regard to choice and diversity in domestic, sexual and kinship relations” (“Postfeminism” 255–56). These advertisements illustrate quite palpably that the postfeminist bride is a complex figure. It is simultaneously progressive and conservative, fulfilling ideals of conservative femininity while actively negotiating in the complex field of personal choice, individualism and social conventions; it oscillates between power and passivity, tradition and modern womanhood, between feminism and femininity. It is precisely this contradictory nature of the postfeminist bride that makes the figure so appealing, as it allows women to participate in the fantasy world of bridal utopias while still providing possibilities to construct themselves as active and powerful agents. Conclusion While we can generally welcome the reconfiguration of brides as powerful and self-determined, we have to remain critical of the postfeminist assumption of women as “autonomous agents no longer constrained by any inequalities or power imbalances whatsoever” (Gill 153). Where marriage is assumed to be an “even playing field” as Geller argues (110), feminism is no longer needed and traditional marital femininity can be, once again, performed without guilt. In these ways postfeminism deflects feminist criticism with regard to the political dimensions of marital femininity and thus contributes to the production of marital hegemony. But why is marital hegemony per se problematic? Firstly, by presenting marital identity as essential for the construction of gendered identity, bridal fictions leave little room for (female) self-definition outside of the single/married binary. As Ingraham argues, not only “are these categories presented as significant indices of social identity, they are offered as the only options, implying that the organization of identity in relation to marriage is universal and in no need of explanation” (17). Hence, by positioning marriage and singledom as opposite poles on the axis of proper femininity, bridal fictions stigmatise single women as selfish, narcissistic, hedonistic, immature and unable to attract a suitable husband (Taylor 20, 40). Secondly, within bridal fictions “weddings, marriage, romance, and heterosexuality become naturalized to the point where we consent to the belief that marriage is necessary to achieve a sense of well-being, belonging, passion, morality and love” (Ingraham 120). By presenting the white wedding as a publicly endorsed and visible entry to marriage, bridal fictions produce in fundamental ways normative notions about who is ‘fit’ for marriage and therefore capable of the associated cultural and social values of maturity, responsibility, ‘family values’ and so on. This is particularly critical, as postfeminist identities “are structured by, stark and continuing inequalities and exclusions that relate to ‘race’ and ethnicity, class, age, sexuality and disability as well as gender” (Gill 149). These postfeminist exclusions are very evident in contemporary bridal fictions that feature almost exclusively young to middle-aged, white, able-bodied couples with upper to middle class identities that conform to the heteronormative matrix, both physically and socially. By depicting weddings almost exclusively in this kind of raced, classed and gendered framework, bridal fictions associate the above mentioned values, that are seen as markers for responsible adulthood and citizenship, with those who comply with these norms. In these ways bridal fictions stigmatise those who are not able or do not want to get married, and, moreover, produce a visual regime that determines who is seen as entitled to this kind of socially validated identity. The fact that bridal fictions indeed play a major role in producing marital hegemony is further reflected in the increasing presence of same-sex white weddings in popular culture. These representations, despite their message of equality for everyone, usually replicate rather than re-negotiate the heteronormative terms of bridal culture. This can be regarded as evidence of bridal fiction’s scope and reach in naturalising marriage not only as the most ideal form of a heterosexual relationship, but increasingly as the ideal for any kind of intimate relationship. References Bambacas, Christyana. “Thinking about White Weddings.” Journal of Australian Studies 26.72 (2002): 191–200.The Bachelor, ABC, 2002–present. Boden, Sharon. Consumerism, Romance and the Wedding Experience. Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Bridezillas, We TV, 2004–present. Cherlin, Andrew. The-Marriage-Go-Round. The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today. New York: Vintage, 2010. Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage. A History. New York: Penguin, 2005. Currie, Dawn. “‘Here Comes the Bride’: The Making of a ‘Modern Traditional’ Wedding in Western Culture.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies 24.3 (1993): 403–21. Engstrom, Erika. The Bride Factory. Mass Portrayals of Women and Weddings. New York: Peter Lang, 2012. Fairchild Bridal Study (2005) 27 May 2012. ‹http://www.sellthebride.com/documents/americanweddingsurvey.pdf›. Finlay, Sara-Jane, and Victoria Clarke. “‘A Marriage of Inconvenience?’ Feminist Perspectives on Marriage.” Feminism &amp; Psychology 13.4 (2003): 415–20. Foucault, M. (1980) “Body/Power and Truth/Power” in Gordon, C. (ed.) Michel Foucault: Power/Knowledge, Harvester, U.K. Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. Ringwood: Penguin Books, 1973. Geller, Jaqlyn. Here Comes the Bride. Women, Weddings, and the Marriage Mystique. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2001. Genz, Stéphanie. Postfemininities in Popular Culture. New York: Palgrave, 2009. Genz, Stéphanie, and Benjamin Brabon. Postfeminsm. Cultural Texts and Theories. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009. Gill, Rosalind. “Postfeminist Media Culture. Elements of a Sensibility.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 10.2 (2007): 147–66. Gramsci, Antonio. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1971. Howard, Vicki. Brides, Inc. American Weddings and the Business of Tradition. Philadelphia: U of Pen Press, 2006. Ingraham, Chrys. White Weddings. Romancing Heterosexuality in Popular Discourse. New York: Routledge, 1999. Lewis, Jeff. Cultural Studies. London: Sage, 2008. McRobbie, Angela. “Post-Feminism and Popular Culture.” Feminist Media Studies 4.3 (2004): 255– 64. McRobbie, A. (2009). The Aftermath of Feminism. Gender, Culture and Social Change. London: Sage. Modern Bride, Condé Nast. Otnes, Cele, and Elizabeth Pleck. Cinderella Dreams. The Allure of the Lavish Wedding. Berkeley: U of California P, 2003. Pateman, Carole. The Sexual Contract. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988. Pearce, Lynn, and Jackie Stacey. Romance Revisited. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1995. Race to the Altar, NBC, 2003. Rich, Adrienne. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.” Signs Summer.5 (1980): 631–60. Taylor, Anthea. Single Women in Popular Culture. The Limits of Postfeminism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Wallace, Carol. All Dressed in White. The Irresistible Rise of the American Wedding. London: Penguin Books, 2004. Advertisements Analysed Guiliana Rancic. 29 Sept. 2012 ‹http://slackerchic.blogspot.de/2008/06/im-modern-bride-because-my-witness-was.html›. Daisy Fuentes. 29 Sept. 2012 ‹http://slackerchic.blogspot.de/2008/06/im-modern-bride-because-my-witness-was.html›. Layla Ali. 29 Sept. 2012 ‹http://slackerchic.blogspot.de/2008/06/im-modern-bride-because-my-witness-was.html›.

This study examines how cultural constructs of masculinity contribute to gender-based violence (GBV) in the Pakistani context. Using a feminist social constructivist paradigm, it investigates how cultural norms and expectations influence masculine identities and behaviors, which perpetuate or reduce GBV. This study draws on interviews with 12 participants, including 6 males and 6 females respondents, aged 20 to 30, from diverse socioeconomic and regional backgrounds in Pakistan. The study employs thematic analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with university students, identifying key themes such as dominance, emotional suppression, and societal expectations of aggression. According to the findings, society’s endorsement of harmful values of masculinity and control contributes to the ongoing GBV, while stifling the possibility of other forms of masculinity which are non-violent. This study is important, because it brings out cultural factors that contribute to gender-based violence in Pakistan, thus providing an insight on how societal characteristics breed toxic masculinities. With the aim of addressing such constructs, it seeks to promote gender equity and lessen gender violence. Further research also supplements development studies through emphasizing that cultural masculinity operates in wider societies and culture and this opens the way for strategies on GBV that are multidisciplinary in nature. This research shows how culture and violence are interlinked and calls for specific action to counter unhealthy masculine ideologies and practices and promote gender equality.

Menstruation is a barrier to women’s sport participation through stigmas, silence, a lack of coach and athlete education, discomfort in communication, and risk of menstrual disorders, especially at nonelite levels. This study provides a qualitative and quantitative, poststructuralist feminist examination of the barriers and facilitators to positive coach–athlete communication and relationships around menstruation. The aim of the study is to create a gender-responsive model of coaching about menstruation. An online questionnaire was completed by 494 athletes aged 16 years or older. Utilizing poststructuralist feminist theory, qualitative and quantitative analysis highlighted women athletes’ experiences with menstruation, particularly surrounding coach–athlete communication. The results illustrated the heterogeneity of menstruation experiences, with athletes’ previous gendered experiences leading them to resist and/or uphold traditional, masculine-centric gender norms in sport. Most athletes experienced negative menstruation symptoms, but many did not speak with coaches about menstruation, highlighting menstruation’s current position as a siloed topic in sport, usually reserved just for women coaches. Athletes did not discuss menstruation due to discomfort, coach ignorance, menstruation stigmas, and fears of consequences. Athletes largely agreed coaches knowing and discussing menstruation would bring benefits, such as performance improvements, stronger coach–athlete relationships, and erasure of menstruation stigma. Overall, barriers to menstruation discussions include stigma, antagonism and pessimism, and maintenance of a masculine norm. A model of gender-responsive coaching around menstruation is proposed for coaches and sport organizations, which promotes integration and proactivity, tolerance and trust, and protection of athlete voice and agency.

In recent years, there has been a notable increase in the demand for feminist discourse. Furthermore, the subject of how to portray women in television dramas has also become a topic of public interest. The Korean drama ‘Reply 1988’, which has gained considerable popularity in recent years, has been identified as a significant contributor to the evolving representation of women in the media. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research in this area. This study aims to analyse the role of women’s image design in the drama’s success, employing case studies, questionnaires and other methods to collect and investigate the data. This study collects the opinions of Chinese female viewers aged 20-50 on the female image design in Reply 1988. The findings indicate that a well-designed female image can promote the development of the drama and leave a lasting impression on the viewers. The female image design represents the external manifestation of the characters’ personalities and inner activities in the drama. Furthermore, China and South Korea are situated within the same East Asian cultural circle and share a similar cultural background, which also provides a reference point for Chinese dramas. Consequently, the female image design has the potential to enhance the popularity of the drama and exert a significant and enduring influence.

Abstract Introduction Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, is contentious due to societal and religious taboos in the Javanese Muslim community and being misunderstood as a potential catalyst for the premarital sex of unmarried adolescents. The existing practice of SRH education cannot guarantee reliable information about adolescent sexuality. The research aims to understand the intergenerational perception of SRH education conducted at high schools, which has not been comprehensively researched. This qualitative study was conducted in 2016 to explore the perspectives of adults and adolescents regarding school-based SRH education. Focus group discussions and individual interviews were used for data collection, while data analysis was conducted using a feminist perspective. Content The study identified gaps in the delivery of SRH education among Javanese Muslim, Indonesia. SRH education had not adequately addressed how adults and adolescents perceived sexuality as taboo due to moral panic about premarital sex and societal expectations placed on girls to maintain their virginity. Peer counsellors, responsible for imparting SRH information and facilitating communication with adolescents, reproduced adult moral values toward their peers, leading to a reluctance among adolescents to share their issues. Consequently, SRH education failed to reach those experiencing unwanted pregnancy or a toxic intimate relationship. Summary and Outlook The results of the study indicate the need to challenge intergenerational perceptions regarding sexuality and gender expectations to promote a positive gender perspective within SRH education in Indonesia.

AbstractThe study describes that gender conceptions, understanding what is considered masculine or feminine, have impacted the women’s activity named entrepreneurship. Attention is drawn to the fact that in Latin languages, such as the Portuguese language, there is a predominance of grammatical sexism, using male predicates to indicate male gender as well as human gender. In that scenario, this paper presents a literature review focused on female entrepreneurship in Brazil by gathering 88 articles in English and Portuguese from the following bibliographic sources: ProQuest, Web of Science, and Lilacs. The data were categorised and analysed using R, a software environment for statistical computing. In that regard, a text-mining analysis has been carried out by adopting the statistical package Iramuteq for performing assisted lexicometrical analysis. The overall frequency of linguistic utterances (explorative statistics), a simplified factor analysis about absolute frequency (word cloud), and a hierarchical descendant classification of stable lexical classes are used. Results indicate that even when the topic is women’s entrepreneurship, female terms are not mentioned or considered when discussing entrepreneurship and its professional aspects. It seems that it is necessary to listen to the voice of women if the literature intends to produce knowledge about entrepreneurship in Brazil in the way it promotes impact and social relevance.

PurposeInternationalisation in higher education (HE) has always been romanticised and idealised but there has been limited focus on the internationalisation of gender equality and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) certification and the role of international partnerships. Certification and Award Schemes (CAS), such as the Athena Swan Charter, can promote gender equality, best practices exchanges and foster institutional changes. Nevertheless, simply transferring strategies or frameworks without careful consideration of the nuances of the destination context can inadvertently lead to the perpetuation or exacerbation of gender inequalities and reproduce hierarchical relations between the Global South and North. Brazil's cultural and political context highlights the need for adapting the CAS framework to align with the unique conditions of the country, as well as institutional transformations in order to accommodate such a framework. This study aims to critically explore how gender equality and EDI certification can be internationalised in the Global South and how international partnerships can play a role in this process.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on a collaborative UK–Brazil funded project on advancing gender equality in Brazilian academia, we critically reflect on the assumptions of the funding call for operationalising international collaborations, and how we built solidarity – informed by our positionalities – against underlying colonial patterns. As part of our partnership, we were consulted to provide feedback on the introduction of an Athena SWAN framework in Brazil. We reflect on how the Athena Swan framework was “internationalised” in Brazil, especially in relation to its focus, the challenges of implementing gender equality and EDI efforts and the conditions required for such efforts to be meaningful in the Brazilian context. Thus, we assess and critically reflect on the current situation in Brazil, the role that certification can play for EDI and which conditions are required to enact change. In addition, we reflect on our positionalities and working practices as part of this collaboration as feminist researchers from different disciplinary and geographical backgrounds.FindingsWe trace colonial logics in the operationalisation of the funding scheme on setting international collaborations valorising the UK system and reinforcing geopolitical production of knowledge hierarchies between the Global North and Global South. Furthermore, reflecting on the Brazilian political, cultural context with a focus on HE we find similar challenges – to the UK – in implementing gender and EDI efforts. However, there are particular nuances in the Brazilian context that exacerbate these obstacles and make the implementation of an EDI certification framework in Brazil particularly challenging. Overcoming these barriers requires a collective effort from government, funding bodies, scientific associations and HE institutions, for the implementation of impactful and sustainable initiatives beyond mere rhetoric. Finally, while we had a positive collaboration, we felt ambivalent towards certain dimensions of the way the partnerships and the EDI internationalisation were operationalised.Practical implicationsWe provide insights and practical recommendations that enhance the understanding of the issues surrounding the implementation of EDI efforts internationally such as CAS in the Brazilian context.Social implicationsReflecting on the internationalisation of EDI can lead to more tailored context-sensitive frameworks and activities that have the potential to influence societal attitudes and expectations towards gender roles and inclusivity, contributing to a more equitable and just society at large. It also touches upon the dynamics of international partnerships and collaborations across different contexts that can have implications for how such partnerships should be developed and funded beyond a mainstream colonial approach of “mentoring less advanced institutions”.Originality/valueWe reflect and critically discuss the internationalisation of EDI certification in HE and the role of international collaborations towards this process, a topic that has not been often examined within the literature on the internationalisation of HE as a romanticised and positive discourse. From our experience, we explore how such efforts can bring up ambivalence in the way they are operationalised and have the potential to both reinforce and disrupt colonial hierarchies.

Pat Buchanan’s infamous speech to the 1992 Republican convention (Buchanan), has often been understood as a defining moment in the US culture wars (Hartman). The speech’s central claim that “there is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America” oriented around the idea that the US was a nation divided between two opposing values systems. On one side were Democrat defenders of “abortion on demand” and “homosexual rights” and on the other those who, like then Republican presidential candidate George Bush, stood by the “Judeo-Christian values and beliefs upon which this nation was built.”Buchanan’s speech helped popularise the idea that the US was riven by fundamental cultural divides, an idea that became a media staple but was hotly contested by scholars.The year before Buchanan’s speech, James Davison Hunter’s Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America advanced a “culture wars thesis” based in claims of a growing “political and social hostility rooted in different systems of moral understanding” (Hunter 42). Hunter cited increasing polarisation in debates on “abortion, child care, funding for the arts, affirmative action and quotas, gay rights, values in public education, or multiculturalism” (Hunter 42) and claimed that the defining religious divides in the US were no longer between religions but within them. In the intense scholarly debate that followed its publication, as Irene Taviss Thomson has summarised, little empirical evidence emerged of any real divide.Yet this lack of empirical evidence does not mean that talk of culture wars can be easily dismissed. The culture wars, as I have argued elsewhere (Davis), were and are a media product designed to sharpen social divides for electoral gain. No doubt because of the usefulness of this product, culture wars discourse remains a persistent feature of public debate across the west. The symbolic discourse that positions the culture wars and its supposedly intractable differences as real, I argue, deserves consideration in its own right.In what follows, I analyse the use of culture wars discourse in two defining documents. The first, Pat Buchanan’s 1992 “culture wars” speech, reputedly put the culture wars front and centre of US politics. The second, Allum Bokhari and Milo Yiannopoulos’s 2016 article in Breitbart News, “An Establishment Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right” (Bokhari and Yiannopoulos), sought to define its moment by affirming the arrival of a new political movement, the “alt-right”, as a force in US politics. With its homage to Buchanan and written in the belief that “politics is downstream from culture” the article sought to position the alt-right as an inheritor of Buchanan’s legacy and to mark a new defining moment in an ongoing culture war.This self-referential framing, I argue, belies deep differences between Buchanan’s rhetoric and that of Bokhari and Yiannopoulos. Buchanan’s defence of American values, while spectacularly adversarial, is at base democratic, whereas, despite its culturalist posturing, one project of “An Establishment Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right” is to reinstate biological notions of race and gender difference in the political agenda.Culture Wars ThenBuchanan’s speech came after decades of sniping. The emergence of the “counterculture” of the 1960s helped create a basis for the idea that US politics was defined by an irreducible clash of values (Thomson). Buchanan played a direct role in fostering such divides. As he famously wrote in a 1971 memo to then President Richard Nixon in which he suggested exploiting racial divides, if we “cut … the country in half, my view is that we would have far the larger half.” But the language of Buchanan’s 1992 speech, while incendiary, is nevertheless democratic in its emphasis on delineating rival political platforms. Much culture wars discourse focuses on the embodied politics of gender, sexuality and race. A principal target of Buchanan’s speech was abortion, which since the Roe versus Wade judgement of 1973 that legalised part-term abortion in the US has been a defining culture wars issue. At the “top” of Democrat candidate Bill Clinton’s agenda, Buchanan claimed, is “unrestricted abortion on demand.” Buchanan singled out Hillary Clinton for special attack:friends, this is radical feminism. The agenda Clinton &amp; Clinton would impose on America–abortion on demand … homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat … is not the kind of change America wants.Buchanan then pledges to support George Bush, who had beaten him for the Republican nomination, and Bush’s stance “against the amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women.” He also supports Bush on “right-to-life, and for voluntary prayer in the public schools.” Buchanan’s language here references essentialist ideas of morality and contrasts them against the supposed immorality of his opponents but is ultimately predicated in the democratic languages of law-making and rights and the adversarial language of electoral politics. Through these contrasts the speech builds to its famous centrepiece:my friends, this election is about much more than who gets what. It is about who we are. It is about what we believe. It is about what we stand for as Americans. There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself.Buchanan, here, sharpens and maps the contrasts he has been working with onto differences in identity. Politics, here, is not about the distribution of resources but is about identity, values and a commensurate difference in belief systems. On one side are righteous Americans, on the other a culture of immorality that threatens the proper religious basis of the nation. Notably, the speech makes no direct mention of race. It instead uses code. Evoking the LA riots that took place earlier that year, Buchanan sides with the troopers who broke up the riots.they walked up a dark street, where the mob had looted and burned every building but one, a convalescent home for the aged. The mob was heading in, to ransack and loot the apartments of the terrified old men and women. When the troopers arrived, M-16s at the ready, the mob threatened and cursed, but the mob retreated. It had met the one thing that could stop it: force, rooted in justice, backed by courage … and as they took back the streets of LA, block by block, so we must take back our cities, and take back our culture, and take back our country. God bless you, and God bless America.Unsaid here is that the “mob” were black and reacting against the injustice of the beating of a black man, Rodney King, by police. The implication is that to “take back our culture … take back our country” is to vanquish the restive black enemy within. By using code Buchanan is able to avoid possible charges of racism, positioning the rioters not as racially different but as culturally different; their deficit is not genetic but patriotic.Culture Wars NowSince the 1990s culture wars discourse has become entrenched as a media staple. Supposedly intractable values divides between “conservatives” and “liberals” play out incessantly across a conservative media sphere that spans outlets (Fox News), platforms (Breitbart News), broadcasters (Rush Limbaugh), and commentators such as Ann Coulter, in debate over issues ranging from gun control, LGBTQI rights, American history and sex education and prayer in schools. This discourse, crystalised in divisive terms such as “cultural Marxist,” “social justice warrior” and “snowflake”, is increasingly generated by online bulletin boards such as the 4chan/pol/(politically incorrect) and /b/-Random boards, which function as a crucible for trolling and meme-making (Phillips) that routinely targets minorities, women and especially feminists. As Angela Nagle has said (24), Gamergate, the 2014 episode in which female game reviewers and designers critical of sexism in the gaming industry were targeted with organised trolling, played a pivotal role in “uniting different online groups and spreading the tactics of chan culture to the broad online right.” Other conduits for extremist discourse to the mainstream include sites such as the white supremacist Daily Stormer, alt-right sites, and “men’s rights” sites such as Return of Kings. The self-described aim of this discourse, as the white nationalist Jared Swift has said, has been to move the “Overton window” of what constitutes acceptable public discourse far to the right (in Daniels).The emergence of this diverse conservative media sphere provided opportunities for new celebrities willing to parse older forms of culture wars discourse with new forms of online extremism and to announce themselves as ringmasters of whatever circus might result. One such person is Milo Yiannopoulos. Quick to read the opportunities in Gamergate, he announced himself a sudden convert to the gaming cause (which he had previously dismissed) and helped turn the controversy into a rallying point for a nascent alt-right (Yiannopoulos). In 2014 Yiannopoulos was recruited by Breitbart News as a senior editor. Breitbart’s founder, Andrew Breitbart, is perhaps most famous for his dictum that “politics is downstream from culture”, an apt motto for a culture war.In 2016 Yiannopoulos, working with Bokhari, another Breitbart staffer, published, “An Establishment Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right”, which, written with Andrew Breitbart’s dictum in mind, sought to announce the radicalism of a new antiestablishment conservative political force and yet to make it palatable for a mainstream audience. The article claims the “paleoconservative movement that rallied around the presidential campaigns of Pat Buchanan” as one of the origins of the alt-right. Donald Trump is praised as “perhaps the first truly cultural candidate for President since Buchanan.” The rest, they argue, is little more than harmless online mischief. The alt-right, they claim, is a fun-loving “movement born out of the youthful, subversive, underground edges of the internet,” made up of people who are “dangerously bright.” Similarly, the “manosphere” of “men’s rights” sites, infamous for misogyny, are praised as “one of the alt-right’s most distinctive constituencies” and positioned as harmless alongside an endorsement of masculinist author Jack Donovan’s “wistful” laments for “the loss of manliness that accompanies modern, globalized societies.” Mass trolling and the harassment of opponents by “the alt-right’s meme team” is characterised as “undeniably hysterical” and justifiable in pursuit of lulz.The sexism and racism found on bulletin boards such as 4 chan, for Bokhari and Yiannopoulos, is no less harmless. Young people, they claim, are drawn to the alt right not because of ideology but because “it seems fresh, daring and funny” contrasted against the “authoritarian instincts of the progressive left. With no personal memories or experience of racism, they “have trouble believing it’s actually real … they don’t believe that the memes they post on/pol/ are actually racist. In fact, they know they’re not—they do it because it gets a reaction.”For all these efforts to style the alt-right as mere carnivalesque paleoconservatism, though, there is a fundamental difference between Buchanan’s speech and “An Establishment Conservative’s guide to the Alt-Right.” Certainly, Bokhari and Yiannopoulos hit the same culture wars touchstones as Buchanan: race, sexuality and gender issues. But whereas Buchanan’s speech instances the “new racism” (Ansell) in its use of code to avoid charges of biological racism, Yiannopoulos and Bokhari are more direct. The article presents as an exemplary instance of how to fight a culture war but epitomises a new turn in the culture wars from culture to biologism. The alt-right is positioned as unashamedly Eurocentric and having little to do with racism. Yiannopoulos and Bokhari also seek to distance the alt-right from the “Stormfront set” and “1488ers” (“1488” is code for neo-Nazi). Yet even as they do so, they embrace “human biodiversity” ideology (biological racism), ethnic separatism and the building of walls to keep different racial groups apart. “An Establishment Conservative’s guide to the alt-right” was written in secret consultation with leading white supremacist figures (Bernstein) and namechecks the openly white supremacist Richard Spencer who is given credit for helping found “the media empire of the modern-day alternative right.”Spencer has argued that “Race is something between a breed and an actual species” and a process of “peaceful ethnic cleansing” should take place by which non-white Americans leave (Nagle 59). He is an admirer of the Italian ‘superfascist’ and notorious racist Julius Evola, who Yiannopoulos and Bokhari also namecheck. They also excuse race hate sites such as VDARE and American Renaissance as home to “an eclectic mix of renegades who objected to the established political consensus in some form or another.” It is mere happenstance, according to Yiannopoulos and Bokhari, that the “natural conservatives” drawn to the alt-right are “mostly white, mostly male middle-American radicals, who are unapologetically embracing a new identity politics that prioritises the interests of their own demographic.” Yet as they also say,while eschewing bigotry on a personal level, the movement is frightened by the prospect of demographic displacement represented by immigration. Border walls are a much safer option. The alt-right’s intellectuals would also argue that culture is inseparable from race. The alt-right believe that some degree of separation between peoples is necessary for a culture to be preserved.“Demographic displacement” here is code for “white genocide” a meme assiduously promoted over many years by the US white supremacist Bob Whitaker, now deceased, who believed that immigration, interracial marriage, and multiculturalism dilute white influence and will drive the white population to extinction (Daniels). The idea that “culture is inseparable from race” and that “some degree of separation between peoples is necessary for a culture to be preserved” echo white supremacist calls for a white “ethno-state.”“An Establishment Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right” also namechecks so-called “neoreactionaries” such as Nick Land and Curtis Yarvin, who according to Yiannopoulos and Bokhari regard egalitarianism as an affront to “every piece of research on hereditary intelligence” and see liberalism, democracy and egalitarianism as having “no better a historical track record than monarchy.” Land and Yarvin, according to Yiannopoulos and Bokhari, offer a welcome vision of the conservative future:asking people to see each other as human beings rather than members of a demographic in-group, meanwhile, ignored every piece of research on tribal psychology … these were the first shoots of a new conservative ideology—one that many were waiting for.Culture Wars FuturesAs the culture wars have turned biological so they have become entrenched ever more firmly in mainstream politics. The “new conservative ideology” Yiannopoulos and Bokhari mention reeks of much older forms of conservative ideology currently being taken up in the US and elsewhere, based in naturalised gender hierarchies and racialised difference. This return to the past is fast becoming institutionalised. One of the stakes in the bitter 2018 dispute over the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court was the prospect that Kavanaugh’s vote will create a conservative majority in the court that will enable the revisiting of a talismanic moment in the culture wars by overturning the Roe versus Wade judgement. Alt-right calls for a white ethno-state find an analogue in political attacks on asylum seekers, the reinforcement of racialised differential citizenship regimes around the globe, the building of walls to keep out criminalised Others, and anti-Islamic immigration measures. The mainstreaming of hate can be seen in the willingness of Donald Trump as a presidential candidate and as president to retweet the white supremacist tweets of @WhiteGenocideTM, his hesitation to repudiate a campaign endorsement by Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, his retweeting of bogus black crime statistics, his accusations that illegal Mexican immigrants are criminals, drug dealers and rapists, and his anti-Islamic immigration stance. It can be seen, too, in the recent electoral successes of white nationalist parties across Europe.For all their embrace of Eurocentrism and “the preservation of western culture” the alt-right revisiting of issues of race and gender in terms that seek to reinstate biological hierarchy undermines the Enlightenment ethics of equality and universalism that underpin western human rights conventions and democratic processes. The “Overton window” of acceptable public debate has moved far to the right and long taboo forms of race and gender-based hate have returned to the public agenda. Buchanan’s 1992 Republican convention speech, by contrast, for all its incendiary rhetoric, toxic homophobia, sneering anti-feminism, and coded racism, somehow manages to look like a relic from a kinder, gentler age.ReferencesAnsell, Amy Elizabeth. New Right, New Racism: Race and Reaction in the United States and Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, 1997.Bernstein, Joseph. “Here’s How Breitbart and Milo Smuggled Nazi and White Nationalist Ideas into the Mainstream.” BuzzFeed News, 10 May 2017. 4 Dec. 2018 &lt;https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/heres-how-breitbart-and-milo-smuggled-white-nationalism&gt;.Bokhari, Allum, and Milo Yiannopoulos. “An Establishment Conservative’s Guide to the Alt-Right.” Breitbart, 29 Mar. 2016. 4 Dec. 2018 &lt;http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/03/29/an-establishment-conservatives-guide-to-the-alt-right/&gt;.Buchanan, Pat. “1992 Republican National Convention Speech.” Patrick J. Buchanan - Official Website, 17 Aug. 1992. 4 Dec. 2018 &lt;http://buchanan.org/blog/1992-republican-national-convention-speech-148&gt;.Daniels, Jessie. “Twitter and White Supremacy, A Love Story.” Dame Magazine, 19 Oct. 2017. 4 Dec. 2018 &lt;https://www.damemagazine.com/2017/10/19/twitter-and-white-supremacy-love-story/&gt;.Davis, Mark. “Neoliberalism, the Culture Wars and Public Policy.” Australian Public Policy: Progressive Ideas in the Neoliberal Ascendency. Eds. Chris Miller and Lionel Orchard. Policy Press, 2014. 27–42.Hartman, Andrew. A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars. University of Chicago Press, 2015.Hunter, James Davison. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Control the Family, Art, Education, Law, and Politics in America. Basic Books, 1991.Nagle, Angela. Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right. Zero Books, 2017.Phillips, Whitney. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. MIT Press, 2015.Thomson, Irene Taviss. Culture Wars and Enduring American Dilemmas. University of Michigan Press, 2010.Yiannopoulos, Milo. “Feminist Bullies Tearing the Video Game Industry Apart.” Breitbart, 1 Sep. 2014. 4 Dec. 2018 &lt;http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/09/01/lying-greedy-promiscuous-feminist-bullies-are-tearing-the-video-game-industry-apart/&gt;.

This issue of M/C Journal explores the notion of "impact" and the capacity of contemporary research work to influence not only academia but the direction of current debates in the public sphere surrounding social, political and cultural agendas. The nine papers selected cover a broad range of topics: experimental research methodologies which confront the problem of 'measuring' research impact in the world of work; the creative industries and documentary films; identity politics debates address queer, migrant, racial issues; as well as investigations into the use of storytelling and autoethnography to promote cultural understanding and social inclusion. "Impact" for the vast majority of these contemporary cultural and social researchers is a moot term, especially the idea that the impact of research outcomes is a measurable quantity. However measuring and assessing the affect and applicability of research outcomes is an all too familiar reality, particularly since the majority of funding applications expect such a consideration. Even at the very early stages in a researcher's career, the doctoral Confirmation of Candidature demands a discussion of the proposed study's significance and potential wider cultural and social purpose. The comments of UK-based academic Ananya Kabir support this concern for the "state of research" that resonates far beyond the UK context: Academics cannot afford not to want to be impactful, or their work to be 'applicable'. On every application for funding we make to any Research Council, a 'statement of impact' is not merely desirable; it is very much a demand. This is certainly true of the situation in Australia with the previous government's 2005 planned Research Quality Framework (RQF) which advocated a strong focus on impact and the measuring of it, and the subsequent establishment in 2007 of the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) initiative (McDonald). While ERA's main aim is the assessment of research quality with no specific reference to "impact" as such, one of ERA's evaluation indicator categories—research application—requires such a consideration (ERA 2). Moreover, the very recent publication Measuring the Impact of Research by the Group of Eight illustrates the Australian academia's concern with the term, stressing that impact measures would greatly complement ERA's assessment (Rymer 3). However, there is substantial debate and questions raised concerning these government policy developments. Notwithstanding the difficulties of finding reliable measurement methods and differing perspectives on the evaluation of findings (cf. Group of Eight); will a single regime of measurement suit all disciplines equally? As Stefano Harney stresses impact will "subject the humanities to the same pressure as knowledge transfer did engineering and science. And meanwhile the professional schools, business, law, medicine, use their regulative status to prove impact easily, putting yet more pressure on the humanities." Stephen Shapiro paints an even darker picture: "The lesson is clear: 'impact' is the Trojan horse designed to institutionalize entrepreneurial interests that will be the 'invisible hand' policing the British academy." However, does measuring impact really restrict us to a particular definition of the term? It is impact that should be at the heart of these types of discussions not the obsession with measurement. Perhaps the challenge is to encourage high impact research without the constraint of a specific metrics. As Rick Rylance puts it: For me, thinking about impact as a challenge and not as a threat is part of this recognition. This is because impact encourages us to conceive of the disparate kinds of benefit research produces which are of many kinds. Sometimes the outcomes are of direct practical advantage. What is needed then is a greater flexibility with the term and a clearer distinction between impact and impact evaluation or measurement. Although, to some extent, we have to acknowledge the significance of impact evaluation as a necessity in demonstrating that research funding is fairly distributed and spent. Like government funding for the arts for example, it is difficult to demonstrate the value of research aside from the ability to attract financial support. Paula Gilligan observes: "The defence of the Humanities is invariably linked to the defence of the 'Arts'. We are seen to have common cause, united against the scientists, who are 'winning'. We need to start questioning this assumption." In particular, Hadley and Gattenhof's paper in this issue of M/C Journal engages a number of discourses surrounding these concerns, with their response to the Australian Government's "National Cultural Policy Discussion Paper", suggesting an approach for measuring and assessing the impact of the work of artsworkers. Central to their model is the demands of policy requirements for progress to be 'measurable' and therefore the necessity to train arts, cultural and creative workers to conduct such an assessment and to make the impact of this work evident to stakeholders. This investigation also raises questions for scholars, educators and employers about what artsworkers actually do, the worth of their work and how it could be improved upon. Two other papers propose diverse methodologies for addressing the problematic area of measurement and assessment. Humphrey's unique approach to the often neglected area of contemporary work and media, introduces the term "officing" (the daily use of information and communication technology) to explore new ways to approach the identification and measurement of the space, time and technology in everyday work practices. Drawing on the ideas of Anselm Strauss to analyse the office workplace as a "contingent and provisional arrangement or process", the author highlights the benefits of this investigation and its impact on productivity and work-life balance, with the ultimate aim to "contribute to the design of more sustainable work environments". Karlin and Johnson, on the other hand, explore another under-researched area where assessment is required: measuring the impact of films on individual attitudes and cultural narratives and evaluating its importance for documentary film campaigns. The authors argue that though it is increasingly necessary for "issue-based" films to provide information on their social investment returns to justify production costs, of equal importance is that the questions asked and the methods used to answer such queries are "valid and respectful." The paper proposes an "emerging research agenda" for the examination of documentary film which allows investigation of the importance of such evaluations and the key issues relevant to assessing their impact. The power of personal narratives is explored when Hummel investigates the tension between culture and autoethnographic performance. The author questions the "capacity of gender identification to justify the crisis of representation" and the impact of autoethnography with its "resistance to traditional culture and power divisions through its emphasis on shared experience, emotion and subjectivity." This researcher presents a highly personal narrative of her experience as a woman in Bangladesh to highlight the potential of autoethnography to promote alternate ways of understanding and transcend cultural boundaries. Hancox also examines the potential and capacity of storytelling and personal narratives to contribute to cultural research and social inclusion. Through a 2009 digital storytelling project conducted with a group of Forgotten Australians prior to the public apology in the Australian Parliament, the paper explores how the "endemic, institutionalised abuse of a group of people was translated to the broader community and galvanised support through the impact of their personal stories." This approach is advocated as a way of enhancing broader issues, such as public understanding of the needs of marginalized groups, which can result in changes to social inclusion through policy and community based solutions as "personal narratives energise public narratives and shape our ways of thinking and collective understandings" (Harter et al. 4). The effect of Government policy on citizenship and its impact on individuals and communities is examined by two writers: Chisari and Raj. Through a Foucaultian genealogical analysis of Becoming an Australian Citizen, (the resource booklet that prepares a potential new Australian for the citizenship test), Chisari explores Australian identity and how subjects are shaped by the operations of governance and the interrelationship of truth, power and knowledge. In an attempt to move beyond the History Wars, the author problematises the notion of historical "objective truths," endeavouring to influence policy-making surrounding issues of civil education for the Australian migrant. Chisari argues that such an approach has the potential to impact upon historical narratives and promote the inclusion of multiple, alternate stories of Australia and Australian identity. Raj's paper tackles the hot topic of gay marriage in policy and activist debates. With reference to the writings of Judith Butler and Michael Warner, Raj explores neo-liberal political arguments, queer theory and community politics to critique issues such as intimacy, citizenship and equality. Advocating the belief that by "understanding cultural difference(s) rather than conforming to a norm," this paper proposes a critical framework for "intimate citizenship" that provides a platform for further policy and activist dialogues. Another arena of contemporary debate is explored by Malatzky's article which examines representations surrounding what Western women should "look like as mothers," and the importance of cultural research projects for the broader community in terms of their potential to inform and direct discussions. Utilising qualitative feminist methodologies', this researcher investigates the media's role in shaping contemporary expectations surrounding the postnatal body, arguing that such investigations can influence the "creation of alternate mothering discourses, and can direct current debates that have a direct impact on, and relevance for, everyday Australian women and men." Identity is also an issue for our last early career researcher's paper. Al-Natour uses his personal experiences as a researcher investigating the controversy over a proposed Islamic school in Sydney to examine the ways a researcher's identity can affect their participants, and whether this relationship impacts data collection processes. As an outcome of these field work experiences, Al-Natour proposes a series of suggestions for fellow cultural studies researchers in dealing with such dilemmas. An exploration of the impact of cultural and social researchers in this issue of M/C Journal has ranged from the problems of measuring research outcomes to debates surrounding citizenship and identity and the power of narratives to transcend cultural boundaries. A shared belief that emerges from these explorations and proposals is that though the measurement of impact is problematic, by introducing new discourses, perspectives and paradigms which have the capacity to sway policy making, cultural researchers can position themselves as intermediaries to inform societal groups and various communities. The outcomes of these research projects can then address this concern about the affect and applicability of their findings which have the potential to present accessible, transparent and practicable forms of cultural understanding and genuine solutions to social and cultural problems. ReferencesERA. Excellence in Research for Australia – National Report. Canberra: Australian Research Council, 2010.Gilligan, Paula. "'Creative' Functionalism and Continental Philosophy at Middlesex." SocialText - Periscope (Aug. 2010). 12 Dec. 2011 ‹http://www.socialtextjournal.org/periscope/2010/08/impact-innovation-and-creative-functionalism-in-the-uk-the-case-of-the-department-of-philosophy-at-m.php›.Harney, Stefano. "The Real Knowledge Transfer." SocialText - Periscope (Aug. 2010). 12 Dec. 2011 ‹http://www.socialtextjournal.org/periscope/2010/08/the-real-knowledge-transfer.php›.Kabir, Ananya. "The Impact of 'Impact'." SocialText - Periscope (Aug. 2010). 12 Dec. 2011 ‹http://www.socialtextjournal.org/periscope/2010/08/the-impact-of-impact.php›.McDonald, Kate. "New ERA for Research Quality - Science Minister Kim Carr Announces Replacement for Dumped RQF." LifeScientist 27 Feb. 2008. 12 Dec. 2011 ‹http://www.lifescientist.com.au/article/207244/new_era_research_quality/›.Rymer, Les. "Measuring the Impact of Research – The Context for Metric Development." Go8 Backgrounder 23 (2011).RQF. Assessing the Quality and Impact of Research in Australia - Issues Paper. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2005.Rylance, Rick. "The Impact Effect." SocialText - Periscope (Aug. 2010). 12 Dec. 2011 ‹http://www.socialtextjournal.org/periscope/2010/08/the-impact-effect.php›.Shapiro, Stephen. "Deepwater Impact." SocialText - Periscope (Aug. 2010). 12 Dec. 2011 ‹http://www.socialtextjournal.org/periscope/2010/08/deepwater-impact.php›.

To sin by silence, when we should protest,Makes cowards out of men.— Ella Wheeler WilcoxProtest is culturally entwined in historical and juro-political realities and is a fundamental element of the exercise of individual and collective rights. As our title notes, while there are currently many ‘protests in progress’ around the world, there is also a great deal of ‘progress in protest’ in terms of what protests look like, their scale and number, how they are formed and conducted, their goals, how they can be studied, as well as the varying responses formed in relation to protest. The etymology of protest associates two important dynamics pertaining to the topic. Firstly, a protest is something that is put forward, forth, or toward the front (from the Latin pro); essentially, it is in one manner or another, made publically. Secondly, it suggests that a person or persons have beared witness (testis) and instead of remaining silent, have made a declaration or assertion (testari). In other words, someone has made public their disapproval or objection. The nine articles that comprise this issue of M/C Journal on ‘protest’ reminds us of these salient elements of protest. Each, in their own way, highlight the importance of not remaining silent when faced with an injustice or in order to promote social change. As Bill McKibben (7) outlines in his foreword to an excellent collection of protest documents, ‘voices of protest ... are often precisely what propels human civilisation forward and allows it to become unstuck’. However, not all forms of contemporary protest shares ideological or progressive aims. Here, we might consider the emergence of contentious formations such as the alt-right and antifa, what is considered ‘fake’ or ‘real’, and ongoing conflicts between notions of individual and collective rights and state sovereignty.This modest but insightful collection demonstrates the broad scope of this field of inquiry. This issue explores the intersections among social justice, identity and communications technology, as well as the convergences and divergences in the form, function and substance of protest. Through an analysis of protest’s relationship to media, the author’s highlight the possibilities of protest to effect social change. The issue begins with Lakota screenwriter and activist Floris White Bull’s (Floris Ptesáŋ Huŋká) discussion of the documentary AWAKE, a Dream from Standing Rock (2017) and the #NODAPL protest. The film, split into three parts, takes a poignant and quite personal look at the native-led peaceful resistance at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota in 2016. This protest involved tens of thousands of activists from all over the world who opposed the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) which was to transport fracked oil directly underneath the Missouri River and through sovereign Lakota land (see Image 1). However, the events at Standing Rock were not a single-issue protest and brought activists together over a range of interrelated issues including environmental protection, human rights, water security, community health and Native American sovereignty. The Water Protectors were also forced to contest racist and disparaging media representations. As such, Standing Rock remains a site of cultural exchange and learning. These protests are not historical, but instead, are an ongoing struggle. The film AWAKE is important as testimony to the injustices at Standing Rock. A short description of the film is first provided in order to provide some additional context to perspectives addressed in the film. From there, White Bull has been invited to respond to questions posed by the editors regarding the Standing Rock Protests and documentary films such as AWAKE. As an Indigenous person fighting for justice, White Bull reminds readers that ‘[t]he path forward is the same as it has always been – holding on to our goals, values and dignity with resilience’.Image 1: Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters, 2016. Photo credit: Indigenous Environmental Network.Cat Pausé and Sandra Grey use an example of fat shaming to investigate how media impacts body politics and determines who is enfranchised to voice public dissent. Media becomes a mechanism for policing and governing bodily norms and gendered identities. As well as outlining a brief history of feminist body activism, the authors draw on personal experience and interview material with activists to reflect on fat embodiment and politics. Also informed by intersectional approaches, their work alerts us to the diverse vectors by which injustice and oppression fall on some bodies differently as well as the diverse bodies assembled in any crowd.Greg Watson suggests that “[c]ontemporary societies are increasingly becoming sites in which it is more difficult for people to respectfully negotiate disagreements about human diversity”. Drawing on his experiences organising Human Libraries throughout Australia, Watson argues these spaces create opportunities for engaging with difference. In this sense Human Libraries can be considered sites which protest the micropublics’ “codes of civility” which produce everyday marginalisations of difference.Micropolitics and creative forms of protest are also central to Ella Cutler, Jacqueline Gothe, and Alexandra Crosby’s article. The author’s consider three design projects which seek to facilitate ethical communication with diverse communities. Drawing on Guy Julier’s tactics for activist design, each project demonstrates the value of slowing down in order to pay attention to experience. In this way, research through design offers a reflexive means for engaging social change.Research practices are also central to making visible community resistance. Anthony McCosker and Timothy Graham consider the role of social networking in urban protests through the campaign to save the iconic Melbourne music venue The Palace (see Image 2). Their article considers the value of social media data and analytics in relation to the court proceedings and trial processes. Given the centrality of social media to activist campaigns their reflections provide a timely evaluation of how data publics are constituted and their ongoing legacy.Image 2: Melbourne’s Palace Theatre before demolition. Photo Credit: Melbourne Heritage Action.For Marcelina Piotrowski pleasure is central to understanding data production and protest. She draws on a Deleuze and Guattarian framework in order to consider protests against oil pipelines in British Columbia. Importantly, through this theoretical framework of ‘data desires’, pleasure is not something owned by the individual subject but rather holds the potential to construct generative social collectivities. This is traced through three different practices: deliberation in online forums; citizen science and social media campaigns. This has important implications for understanding environmental issues and our own enfolding within them. Nadine Kozak takes a look at how Online Service Providers (OSPs) have historically used internet ‘blackouts’ in order to protest United States government regulations. Kozak points to protests against the Communications Decency Act (1996) which sought to regulate online pornographic material and the Stop Online Piracy Act (2011) which proposed increased federal government power to take action against online copyright infringement. Recently, the United States Congress recently passed the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), which hold OSPs liable for third-party content including advertising for prostitution. However, despite condemnation from the Department of Justice and trafficking victims, OSPs did not utilise blackouts as a means to protest these new measures. Kozak concludes that the decision to whether or not to utilise blackout protests is dependent on the interests of technology companies and large OSPs. It is evident that most especially since Donald Trump popularised the term, ‘fake news’ has taken a centre stage in discussions concerning media. In fact, the lines between what is fake and what is official have become blurred. Most recently, QAnon proponents have been attending Trump rallies and speeches giving further visibility to various conspiracy narratives stemming from online message boards (see Image 3). Marc Tuters, Emilija Jokubauskaitė, and Daniel Bach establishe a clear timeline of events in order to trace the origins of ‘#Pizzagate’; a 2016 conspiracy theory that falsely claimed that several U.S. restaurants and high-ranking officials of the Democratic Party were connected with human trafficking and an alleged child-sex ring. The authors investigate the affordances of 4chan to unpack how the site’s anonymity, rapid temporality and user collectivisation were instrumental in creating ‘bullshit’; a usage which the authors suggest is a “technical term for persuasive speech unconcerned with veracity”. This provides an understanding of how alt-right communities are assembled and motivated in a post-truth society. Image 3: QAnon proponents at Trump rally in Tampa, 31 July 2018. Photo credit: Kirby Wilson, Tampa Bay Times.Finally, Colin Salter analyses protests for animal rights as a lens to critique notions of national identity and belonging. Protests on whaling in the Southern Ocean (see Image 4) and live export trade from Australia continue to be highly contested political issues. Salter reflects on the ABC’s 2011 exposé into Australian live animal exports to Indonesia and the 2014 hearings at the International Court of Justice into Japanese whaling. Salter then traces the common elements between animal rights campaigns in order to demonstrate the manner in which the physical bodies of animals, their treatment, and the debate surrounding that treatment become sites for mapping cultural identity, nationhood, and sovereignty. Here, Salter suggests that such inquiry is useful for promoting broader consideration of efficacious approaches to animal advocacy and social change.Image 4: The ship Bob Barker, rammed by the Japanese whaling vessel Nishin Maru. Photo credit: Sea Shepherd Facebook Page. As indicated in the opening paragraphs, it is crucial for people committed to social justice to publically raise their voices in protest. As such, we would like to thank each of the authors for their important contributions to this issue on ‘protest’. In its own way, each contribution serves doubly as a form of protest and a means to understand the topic more clearly. There is solidarity evidenced in this issue. Taken as a whole, these articles attest to the importance of understanding protest and social change.ReferencesMcKibben, B. "Foreword." Voices of Protest: Documents of Courage and Dissent. Eds. Frank Lowenstein, Sheryl Lechner, and Erik Bruun. New York: Black Dog &amp; Leventhal Publishers, 2007. 7-8.Wilcox, E.W. "Protest." Poems of Problems. Chicago: W.B. Conkey Company, 1914.

Drawing upon popular magazines, newspapers, blogs, Web sites, and videos, this essay compares the media framing of six, “fat” political figures from around the world. Framing refers to the suggested interpretations that are imbedded in media reports (Entman; McCombs and Ghanem; Seo, Dillard and Shen). As Robert Entman explains, framing is the process of culling a few elements of perceived reality and assembling a narrative that highlights connections among them to promote a particular interpretation. Frames introduce or raise the salience of certain ideas. Fully developed frames typically perform several functions, such as problem definition and moral judgment. Framing is connected to the [covert] wielding of power as, for example, when a particular frame is intentionally applied to obscure other frames. This comparative international study is an inquiry into “what people and societies make of the reality of [human weight]” (Marilyn Wann as quoted in Rothblum 3), especially in the political arena. The cultural and historical dimensions of human weight are illustrated by the practice of force-feeding girls and young women in Mauritania, because “fat” women have higher status and are more sought after as brides (Frenkiel). The current study, however, focuses on “fat” politics. The research questions that guide the study are: [RQ1] which terms do commentators utilize to describe political figures as “fat”? [RQ2] Why is the term “fat” utilized in the political arena? [RQ3] To what extent can one detect gender, national, or other differences in the manner in which the term “fat” is used in the political arena? After a brief introduction to the current media obsession with fat, the analysis begins in 1908 with William Howard Taft, the 330 pound, twenty-seventh President of the United States. The other political figures are: Chris Christie (Governor of New Jersey), Bill Clinton (forty-second President of the United States), Michelle Obama (current First Lady of the United States), Carla Bruni (former First Lady of France), and Julia Gillard (former Prime Minister of Australia). The final section presents some conclusions that may help readers and viewers to take a more critical perspective on “fat politics.” All of the individuals selected for this study are powerful, rich, and privileged. What may be notable is that their experiences of fat shaming by the media are different. This study explores those differences, while suggesting that, in some cases, their weight and appearance are being attacked to undercut their legitimate and referent power (Gaski). Media Obsession with Fat “Fat,” or “obesity,” the more scientific term that reflects the medicalisation of “fat” (Sobal) and which seems to hold sway today, is a topic with which the media currently is obsessed, both in Asia and in the United States. A quick Google search using the word “obesity” reports over 73 million hits. Ambady Ramachandran and Chamukuttan Snehalatha report on “The Rising Burden of Obesity in Asia” in a journal article that emphasizes the term “burden.” The word “epidemic” is featured prominently in a 2013 medical news report. According to the latter, obesity among men was at 13.8 per cent in Mongolia and 19.3 per cent in Australia, while the overall obesity rate has increased 46 per cent in Japan and has quadrupled in China (“Rising Epidemic”). Both articles use the word “rising” in their titles, a fear-laden term that suggests a worsening condition. In the United States, obesity also is portrayed as an “epidemic.” While some progress is being made, the obesity rate nonetheless increased in sixteen states in 2013, with Louisiana at 34.7 per cent as the highest. “Extreme obesity” in the United States has grown dramatically over thirty years to 6.3 per cent. The framing of obesity as a health/medical issue has made obesity more likely to reinforce social stereotypes (Saguy and Riley). In addition, the “thematic framing” (Shugart) of obesity as a moral failure means that “obesity” is a useful tool for undermining political figures who are fat. While the media pay considerable attention to the psychological impact of obesity, such as in “fat shaming,” the media, ironically, participate in fat shaming. Shame is defined as an emotional “consequence of the evaluation of failure” and often is induced by critics who attack the person and not the behavior (Boudewyns, Turner and Paquin). However, in a backlash against fat shaming, “Who you callin' fat?” is now a popular byline in articles and in YouTube videos (Reagan). Nevertheless, the dynamics of fat are even more complicated than an attack-and-response model can capture. For example, in an odd instance of how women cannot win, Rachel Frederickson, the recent winner of the TV competition The Biggest Loser, was attacked for being “too thin” (Ceja and Valine). Framing fat, therefore, is a complex process. Fat shaming is only one way that the media frame fat. However, fat shaming does not appear to be a major factor in media coverage of William Howard Taft, the first person in this study. William Howard Taft William Howard Taft was elected the 27th President of the United States in 1908 and served 1909-1913. Whitehouse.com describes Taft as “Large, jovial, conscientious…” Indeed, comments on the happy way that he carried his “large” size (330 pounds) are the main focus here. This ‹happy fat› framing is much different than the media framing associated with ‹fat shaming›. His happy personality was often mentioned, as can be seen in his 1930 obituary in The New York Times: “Mr. Taft was often called the most human President who ever sat in the White House. The mantle of office did not hide his winning personality in any way” (“Taft Gained Peaks”). Notice how “large” and “jovial” are combined in the framing of Taft. Despite his size, Taft was known to be a good dancer (Bromley 129). Two other words associated with Taft are “rotund” (round, plump, chubby) and “pudgy.” These terms seem a bit old-fashioned in 2015. “Rotund” comes from the Latin for “round,” “circular,” “spherical.” “Pudgy,” a somewhat newer term, comes from the colloquial for “short and thick” (Etymology Online). Taft was comfortable with being called “pudgy.” A story about Taft’s portrait in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. illustrates the point: Artist William Schevill was a longtime acquaintance of Taft and painted him several times between 1905 and 1910. Friendship did not keep Taft from criticizing the artist, and on one occasion he asked Schevill to rework a portrait. On one point, however, the rotund Taft never interfered. When someone said that he should not tolerate Schevill's making him look so pudgy in his likenesses, he simply answered, "But I am pudgy." (Kain) Taft’s self-acceptance, as seen in the portrait by Schevill (circa 1910), stands in contrast to the discomfort caused by media framing of other fat political figures in the era of more intense media scrutiny. Chris Christie Governor Christie has tried to be comfortable with his size (300+ pounds), but may have succumbed to the medicalisation of fat and the less than positive framing of his appearance. As Christie took the national stage in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy (2012), and subsequently explored running for President, he may have felt pressure to look more “healthy” and “attractive.” Even while scoring political points for his leadership in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, Christie’s large size was apparent. Filmed in his blue Governor jacket during an ABC TV News report that can be accessed as a YouTube video, Christie obviously was much larger than the four other persons on the speakers’ platform (“Jersey Shore Devastated”). In the current media climate, being known for your weight may be a political liability. A 2015 Rutgers’ Eagleton Poll found that 53 percent of respondents said that Governor Christie did not have “the right look” to be President (Capehart). While fat traditionally has been associated with laziness, it now is associated with health issues, too. The media framing of fat as ‹morbidly obese› may have been one factor that led Christie to undergo weight loss surgery in 2013. After the surgery, he reportedly lost a significant amount of weight. Yet his new look was partially tarnished by media reports on the specifics of lap-band-surgery. One report in The New York Daily News stressed that the surgery is not for everyone, and that it still requires much work on the part of the patient before any long-term weight loss can be achieved (Engel). Bill Clinton Never as heavy as Governor Christie, Bill Clinton nonetheless received considerable media fat-attention of two sorts. First, he could be portrayed as a kind of ‹happy fat “Bubba”› who enjoyed eating high cholesterol fast food. Because of his charm and rhetorical ability (linked to the political necessity of appearing to understand the “average person”), Clinton could make political headway by emphasizing his Arkansas roots and eating a hamburger. This vision of Bill Clinton as a redneck, fast-food devouring “Bubba” was spoofed in a popular 1992 Saturday Night Live skit (“President-Elect Bill Clinton Stops by a McDonald's”). In 2004, after his quadruple bypass surgery, the media adopted another way to frame Bill Clinton. Clinton became the poster-child for coronary heart disease. Soon he would be framed as the ‹transformed Bubba›, who now consumed a healthier diet. ‹Bill Clinton-as-vegan› framing fit nicely with the national emphasis on nutrition, including the widespread advocacy for a largely plant-based diet (see film Forks over Knives). Michelle Obama Another political figure in the United States, whom the media has connected both to fast food and healthy nutrition, is Michelle Obama. Now in her second term as First Lady, Michelle Obama is associated with the national campaign for healthier school lunches. At the same time, critics call her “fat” and a “hypocrite.” A harsh diatribe against Obama was revealed by Media Matters for America in the personal attacks on Michelle Obama as “too fat” to be a credible source on nutrition. Dr. Keith Ablow, a FOX News medical adviser said, Michelle Obama needs to “drop a few” [pounds]. “Who is she to be giving nutrition advice?” Another biting attack on Obama can be seen in a mocking 2011 Breitbart cartoon that portrayed Michelle Obama devouring hamburgers while saying, “Please pass the bacon” (Hahn). Even though these attacks come from conservative media utterly opposed to the presidency of Barack Obama, they nonetheless reflect a more widespread political use of media framing. In the case of Michelle Obama, the media sometimes cannot decide if she is “statuesque” or “fat.” She is reported to be 5’11 tall, but her overall appearance has been described as “toned” (in her trademark sleeveless dresses) yet never as “thin.” The media’s ambivalence toward tall/large women is evident in the recent online arguments over whether Robyn Lawley, named one of the “rookies of the year” by the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, has a “normal” body or a “plus-size” body (Blair). Therefore, we have two forms of media framing in the case of Michelle Obama. First, there is the ‹fat hypocrite› frame, an ad hominem framing that she should not be a spokesperson for nutrition. This first form of framing, perhaps, is linked to the traditional tendency to tear down political figures, to take them off their pedestals. The second form of media framing is a ‹large woman ambiguity› frame. If you are big and tall, are you “fat”? Carla Bruni Carla Bruni, a model and singer/songwriter, was married in 2008 to French President Nicolas Sarkozy (who served 2007 to 2012). In 2011, Bruni gave birth to a daughter, Giulia. After 2011, Bruni reports many attacks on her as being too “fat” (Kim; Strang). Her case is quite interesting, because it goes beyond ‹fat shaming› to illustrate two themes not previously discussed. First, the attacks on Bruni seem to connect age and fat. Specifically, Bruni’s narrative introduces the frame: ‹weight loss is difficult after giving birth›. Motherhood is taxing enough, but it becomes even more difficulty when the media are watching your waist line. It is implied that older mothers should receive more sympathy. The second frame represents an odd form of reverse fat shaming: ‹I am so sick and tired of skinny people saying they are fat›. As Bruni explains: “I’m kind of tall, with good-size shoulders, and when I am 40 pounds overweight, I don’t even look fat—I just look ugly” (Orth). Critics charge that celebs like Bruni not only do not look fat, they are not fat. Moreover, celebs are misguided in trying to cultivate sympathy that is needed by people who actually are fat. Several blogs echo this sentiment. The site Whisper displays a poster that states: “I am so sick and tired of skinny people saying they are fat.” According to Anarie in another blog, the comment, “I’m fat, too,” is misplaced but may be offered as a form of “sisterhood.” One of the best examples of the strong reaction to celebs’ fat claims is the case of actress Jennifer Lawrence. According The Gloss, Lawrence isn’t chubby. She isn’t ugly. She fits the very narrow parameters for what we consider beautiful, and has been rewarded significantly for it. There’s something a bit tone deaf in pretending not to have thin or attractive privilege when you’re one of the most successful actresses in Hollywood, consistently lauded for your looks. (Sonenshein) In sum, the attempt to make political gain out of “I’m fat” comments, may backfire and lead to a loss in political capital. Julia Gillard The final political figure in this study is Julia Eileen Gillard. She is described on Wikipedia as“…a former Australian politician who served as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, and the Australian Labor Party leader from 2010 to 2013. She was the first woman to hold either position” (“Julia Gillard”). Gillard’s case provides a useful example of how the media can frame feminism and fat in almost opposite manners. The first version of framing, ‹woman inappropriately attacks fat men›, is set forth in a flashback video on YouTube. Political enemies of Gillard posted the video of Gillard attacking fat male politicians. The video clip includes the technique of having Gillard mouth and repeat over and over again the phrase, “fat men”…”fat men”…”fat men” (“Gillard Attacks”). The effect is to make Gillard look arrogant, insensitive, and shrill. The not-so-subtle message is that a woman should not call men fat, because a woman would not want men to call her fat. The second version of framing in the Gillard case, ironically, has a feminist leader calling Gillard “fat” on a popular Australian TV show. Australian-born Germaine Greer, iconic feminist activist and author of The Female Eunuch (1970 international best seller), commented that Gillard wore ill-fitting jackets and that “You’ve got a big arse, Julia” (“You’ve Got”). Greer’s remarks surprised and disappointed many commentators. The Melbourne Herald Sun offered the opinion that Greer has “big mouth” (“Germaine Greer’s”). The Gillard case seems to support the theory that female politicians may have a more difficult time navigating weight and appearance than male politicians. An experimental study by Beth Miller and Jennifer Lundgren suggests “weight bias exists for obese female political candidates, but that large body size may be an asset for male candidates” (p. 712). Conclusion This study has at least partially answered the original research questions. [RQ1] Which terms do commentators utilize to describe political figures as “fat”? The terms include: fat, fat arse, fat f***, large, heavy, obese, plus size, pudgy, and rotund. The media frames include: ‹happy fat›, ‹fat shaming›, ‹morbidly obese›, ‹happy fat “Bubba›, ‹transformed “Bubba›, ‹fat hypocrite›, ‹large woman ambiguity›, ‹weight gain women may experience after giving birth›, ‹I am so sick and tired of skinny people saying they are fat›, ‹woman inappropriately attacks fat men›, and ‹feminist inappropriately attacks fat woman›. [RQ2] Why is the term “fat” utilized in the political arena? Opponents in attack mode, to discredit a political figure, often use the term “fat”. It can imply that the person is “unhealthy” or has a character flaw. In the attack mode, critics can use “fat” as a tool to minimize a political figure’s legitimate and referent power. [RQ3] To what extent can one detect gender, national, or other differences in the manner in which the term “fat” is used in the political arena? In the United States, “obesity” is the dominant term, and is associated with the medicalisation of fat. Obesity is linked to health concerns, such as coronary heart disease. Weight bias and fat shaming seem to have a disproportionate impact on women. This study also has left many unanswered questions. 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