bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Creep and locking of a low‐angle normal fault: Insights from the Altotiberina fault in the Northern Apennines (Italy)
Authors: Anderlini L. , Serpelloni E. , Belardinelli M. E.
Published: April 2016

While low‐angle normal faults have been recognized worldwide from geological studies, whether these structures are active or capable of generating big earthquakes is still debated. We provide new constraints on the role and modes of the Altotiberina fault (ATF) in accommodating extension in the Northern Apennines. We model GPS velocities to study block kinematics, faults slip rates and interseismic coupling of the ATF, which is active and accounts, with its antithetic fault, for a large part of the observed chain normal 3 mm/yr tectonic extension. A wide portion of the ATF creeps at the long‐term slip rate (1.7 ± 0.3 mm/yr), but the shallow locked portions are compatible with M > 6.5 earthquakes. We suggest that positive stress accumulation due to ATF creep is most likely released by more favorable oriented splay faults, whose rupture may propagate downdip along low‐angle normal fault surface and reduce the probability of occurrence of a seismic rupture of the shallower locked portion.
Essentialism
Authors: Stone Alison
Published: April 2016

Essentialism has provoked feminist debate from the 1970s to today. The meanings of essentialism within feminist contexts stem from traditional philosophical essentialism, the belief that things belong to kinds in virtue of essential properties. In feminist contexts, this means that there are properties necessary to being a woman and that all women share – perhaps the property of being sexually subordinated, for some radical feminists. Thus, essentialism is linked to universalism. However, the properties that unite women can be products of the social construction of gender: not all essentialism is biological determinism. Anti‐essentialists have argued that any claims that women share experiences or share an identity or social position are false and harmfully marginalize women who lack the supposedly shared properties. Anti‐anti‐essentialists have responded that anti‐essentialism can undermine feminism as a political movement, defending either strategic essentialism or alternative accounts of women as a social group.
Feminist Objectivity
Authors: Intemann Kristen
Published: April 2016

Many feminist theorists have rejected the traditional conception of “objectivity” that was prevalent in both science and philosophy of science in the twentieth century. Three alternative feminist conceptions of objectivity are explained, compared, and contrasted: procedural objectivity, strong objectivity, and virtue‐based conceptions of objectivity.
Gender Redistributive Policies
Authors: Roth Silke
Published: April 2016

Gender redistributive policies seek to achieve gender equality and address the causes and consequences of a gendered division of labor. Three strategies can be distinguished: first, strategies seeking to provide formally equal access and to remove barriers and discrimination; second, strategies acknowledging the gendered division of labor and addressing the consequences of unpaid care work; and, third, strategies anticipating the gendered impact of policies. Parental leave and day care policies address the double burden of employed parents and seek to ease the reconciliation of employment and unpaid care work. Familialistic and de‐familializing welfare states can be distinguished. Various types of familialism regulate gender relations. Tax and pension systems also have gender redistributive effects. Gender mainstreaming and gender assessment seeks to anticipate and prevent the potentially unequal impact of policies on men and women.
Anti‐Poverty Activism
Authors: Gazso Amber
Published: April 2016

Anti‐poverty activism in the United States and Canada includes any individual, group, or institutional participation in activities and behaviors with the end goal of achieving economic equality or preventing economic inequality. Common forms of activism include advocacy and protest. Creating awareness of the need for change or for preventing change, if not achieving actual change, are also important elements of activism. There are many motivations behind anti‐poverty activism but generally activists share concerns about the social injustices experienced by economically disadvantaged persons in capitalist political economies. Strategies of anti‐poverty activism occur at individual, interactional, institutional, and global levels. Anti‐poverty activism has a special connection with feminist theory and social movements.
Genderqueer
Authors: Kentlyn Sujay
Published: April 2016

Genderqueer is a term that covers a range of gender identities/expressions that do not conform to the binary understanding of gender as exclusively female or male. A combination of the words “gender” and “queer,” it links the understanding of gender identity as socially constructed rather than based exclusively on biological sex differences, with queer theory's figuring of identity itself as a constellation of multiple and unstable positions. Not all people who understand their gender in this way identify as genderqueer; a variety of terms are used, with some declining to identify at all. There are also diverse preferences regarding gendered/gender neutral pronouns and honorifics. Some genderqueer people seek psychiatric care and/or medical treatment to modify their bodies; many do not. Gender identity does not determine sexual orientation, so genderqueer people express the full range of human sexualities. Prevalence is difficult to estimate, but may be as high as 8 percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and questioning (LGBTIQ) populations. People of all ages, not just young people, have been found to identify in this way, sometimes in hybrid forms such as female‐genderqueer‐drag king. Issues of concern for genderqueer people include access to trained and experienced health practitioners; discrimination, abuse, and victimization; and legal recognition of non‐binary gender.
Premenstrual Syndrome (
PMS
)
Authors: Markens Susan
Published: April 2016

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) refers to a wide range of physical and psychological symptoms women may experience in the days prior to the start of their menstrual cycle. A severe form of PMS is referred to as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) in the psychiatric diagnostic manual (DSM). Feminists are critical of PMDD's inclusion in the DSM, and cultural understandings of PMS as a medical disorder, as it pathologizes normal female experiences, reproduces traditional notions of femininity, and emphasizes biological versus social causes for women's experiences of premenstrual distress. By labeling PMS as a socially constructed disease, feminist researchers and activists bring to light the biosocial interactions that produce illness experience and responses to it, as well as the role gender has in normative assumptions about health, illness, and normality.
G
reenham
C
ommon
Authors: Welch Christina
Published: April 2016

Greenham Common was the site of an all‐female peace camp. Established in 1981 at a US military airbase in England housing Cruise nuclear weapons, the camp was occupied until 2000. Known for protest actions inspired by second‐wave feminism, Embrace the Base (1983) saw 50,000 women link arms around the camp, while smaller scale action included daubing menstrual blood on the perimeter fence, and reclaiming terms such as “witch.” With an open lesbian presence, the camp queered and queried social norms, and challenged patriarchy through a range of woman‐oriented activities.
Athletics and Gender
Authors: Page Jennifer K.
Published: April 2016

Sports and athletics have historically been dominated by men, but the inclusion of women since the late nineteenth century has challenged the field's long‐standing association with masculinity, including the stereotypes of aggression, competitiveness, and physical sacrifice. Female athletes of the twentieth century demonstrated through skill and persistence that stereotypes based on biological differences are not necessarily accurate, nor should they be used to exclude or discriminate against anyone wishing to participate in sports. This inclusionary trend in sports is not only allowing modern women greater athletic opportunities than ever before, but it is also relaxing the stoic, self‐sacrificing expectations for male athletes.
Strap‐On Sex
Authors: Houston Lola D.
Published: April 2016

Strap‐on sex is a specific form of sexual practice, one that has had a long, albeit thin, historical record. The components used include a harness and a dildo worn by one individual and applied to another individual. While often seen as a pathology or paraphilia, the current use and application of the strap‐on enjoys a large, worldwide audience.
Masculinities
Authors: Drummond Murray
Published: April 2016

Over the past two decades the term masculinity, and its plural masculinities, has entered into mainstream language. However, the term itself is a difficult concept for many to interpret, understand, and explain. This entry attempts to articulate the various ways in which masculinities is perceived in contemporary Western culture and highlights several key areas of the discussion surrounding “masculinities.”
Cognitive Sex Differences, Debates on
Authors: Clarke Emily K. , Hyde Janet
Published: April 2016

The topic of gender and mathematical ability has been hotly debated. Why are females underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields? Many potential factors have been discussed, ranging from an innate spatial disadvantage to higher levels of math anxiety in females. Traditional stereotypes hold that gender differences were reliably found in math, verbal, and spatial abilities. In older research, males outperformed females on math and spatial tests, whereas females outperformed males on verbal tests. This review examines contemporary evidence on cognitive gender differences such as gender differences in math, verbal, and spatial ability.
Gender, Politics, and the State inAustralia andNewZealand
Authors: Maddison Sarah , Grey Sandra
Published: April 2016

Despite their relative geographic isolation, both Australia and New Zealand were early world leaders in the recognition of women's rights. In 1893, New Zealand women became the first in the world to win the right to vote in national elections, with Australia following their lead in 1902, at the same time becoming the first country in the world to allow women to stand for election. Australia was also a world leader in the creation of an explicitly feminist bureaucracy – or “femocracy” – in the 1970s, an innovation that would have international impact. However, both nations have failed to live up to the egalitarian promise shown in these early innovations for gender equity. For women in both Australia and New Zealand, the roll‐back of the welfare state and entrenchment of neoliberal ideals have hindered feminist progress. A history of British colonialism in both nations also continues to limit the full recognition and protection of the rights of indigenous women.
Bathhouses
Authors: Ashford Chris
Published: April 2016

Bathhouses have long been associated with gay male sexuality and, particularly since the 1980s, with issues of public health and morality. The bathhouse or sauna is a public sex venue (PSV) combining its original sauna, steam room, and (more recently) jacuzzi bath role with a space for men to have sex with men. Recent years have also seen the emergence of lesbian spaces as bathhouses too. The growth in sexually transmitted infection rates and then HIV/AIDS in the 1970s and 1980s led to a series of legal and health code reforms that were to close many bathhouses. This brought to an end the existence of many sexual sites that had been important in constructing a sense of gay community and identity.
Universal Human Rights
Authors: D'Amico Francine J.
Published: April 2016

Advocates of universal human rights argue that rights to freedom and security of person apply to all people everywhere, as human beings, in contrast to national rights applied only to citizens in a particular country or humanitarian protections applied only to soldiers. In the mid‐1800s, citizens petitioned governments to sign international treaties abolishing the slave trade, trafficking in women and children, and the opium trade. Today, over one hundred human rights treaties prohibit specific acts, such as genocide and torture, and aim to protect specific categories of persons, such as refugees and children. Recent human rights campaigns target gender‐based violence and discrimination against sexual minorities. Domestic and international tribunals enforce these rights, and non‐governmental organizations police state compliance. Critics challenge the concept of universality as Eurocentric and neocolonialist. Supporters contend states are obligated to promote and protect these rights regardless of their political, economic, and cultural systems.
Tattooing and Piercing
Authors: Mascia‐Lees Frances E.
Published: April 2016

Tattooing and piercing are body modifications with deep historical roots, wide geographic distribution, and multiple meanings across societies. They have long been used in non‐Western societies to mark transformations of identity in rites of passage and historically to adorn bodies, enhance sexuality, provide protection, and indicate rank. From the eighteenth to the late twentieth century, European and US men donned them as emblems of masculinity symbolizing adventure, patriotism, and “outlaw” group affiliation. Because of the association of tattoos and piercings with non‐Western and internal “others,” members of various liberation movements and subcultural groups adopted them in the last decades of the twentieth century to challenge conventional notions of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality. Today they are deeply embedded in consumer culture and global fashion, used to create individuality and enhance beauty.
Polygamy, Polygyny, and Polyandry
Authors: Golomski Casey
Published: April 2016

Polygamy, polygyny, and polyandry are forms of plural marriage. This entry provides an overview of plural marriage from the perspective of evolutionary and sociocultural anthropologies, paying particular attention to the multiple ambiguities, choices, and constraints that both men and women face in these relationships. It briefly considers collateral kinship and marriage, the therapeutic potential of polygamy, and religion and polygamy.
Menopause
Authors: Dillaway Heather
Published: April 2016

Menopause refers to the cessation of menstruation at midlife, or the final menstrual period (FMP). The FMP is one point in a much longer physiological process, however. Menopause as a bodily experience can be simultaneously positive, negative, or mixed in meaning, depending on the various everyday contexts of women's lives. There are many cross‐cultural differences in women's attitudes and experiences of menopause. Researchers and providers have varying perspectives on the importance of this physiological transition as well.
Feminist Theology
Authors: Ruether Rosemary Radford
Published: April 2016

Feminist theology is needed because the historical theologies that have been inherited by most religions have been shaped by patriarchy to create male dominant communities. Feminist theology begins in the critique of misogyny and androcentrism in theological thought and then turns to the creation of alternative visions and ways of imaging the divine and human creation and redemption. This includes the social hierarchies of class and race as well. Feminist theologies are becoming global, across all cultures around the world and including Judaism, Islam, and Asian religions as well as Christianity.
Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge
Authors: Anderson Kim
Published: April 2016

Traditional indigenous societies were gendered in terms of roles and responsibilities for men and women. This was determined according to physical capacity and what males and females could contribute toward the survival of people in these land‐based cultures. Men typically engaged in “protecting and providing” while women were responsible for “creating and nurturing.” Within these roles there was flexibility according to capacity, need, and the gendered identity of the individual. Traditional indigenous societies valued gender balance, knowing that all gendered contributions were significant to the well‐being of the collective. Spirituality plays a significant role in traditional and indigenous knowledge of gender, where masculine and feminine are recognized in the natural world as expressions of spirit (e.g., Mother Earth, Father Sky). Individuals could carry varying degrees of masculine and feminine spirit. Two‐spirit or queer individuals were understood to carry a combination of the masculine and feminine, and this allowed for gender variance within traditional indigenous societies. Traditional systems involving gender balance, gender variance, and shame‐free sexuality came under attack through colonialism. Current movements in indigenous feminism, indigenous masculinities studies, and queer indigenous theory document the introduction of heteropatriarchy and provide a vision for a healthier future through reclaiming indigenous and traditional knowledge.
Women's Health Movement in the
U
nited
S
tates
Authors: Fahs Breanne
Published: April 2016

Movements to advocate for women's health originated during the women's movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States. Originally a movement designed to get women more in touch with and to know more about their bodies, women's health movements have grown to encompass a variety of goals that unite the personal and political spheres. Women's health activists developed the significant and widely read text
Our Bodies, Ourselves
, and famously fought for the right to abortion, resulting in the infamous
Roe v. Wade
decision of 1973. They have also advocated for better breast cancer research, more funding for and access to birth control, the development of the HPV vaccine, reproductive justice for all women, less medicalized childbirth, reusable and less toxic menstrual products, and better recognition of women's unique health and well‐being needs.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM), Feminist Critiques of
Authors: Wheeler Emily E. , Kosterina Elena , Cosgrove Lisa
Published: April 2016

Feminists have contributed to a critical analysis of theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(DSM) since it was first published by the American Psychiatric Association in 1952. These analyses have focused on the philosophical and political dimensions of the manual's underlying theory and approach as well as the ways in which many disorders reinforce gender, class, and race bias. Major areas of criticism include the lack of attention to the sociopolitical context of emotional distress, DSM‐5's ethnocentric framework, and the widening of diagnostic boundaries.
Cisgender and Cissexual
Authors: Cava Peter
Published: April 2016

The term
cissexual
is usually defined as “non‐transsexual,” and the term
cisgender
is usually defined as “non‐transgender.”
Cissexual
and
cisgender
disrupt the marked–unmarked relations between transsexuality and non‐transsexuality and between transgender and non‐transgender. The prefixes
cis‐
and
trans‐
are antonymic.
Cissexual
and
cisgender
entered into circulation in 1991 and 1994, respectively. The variety of the terms' definitions and deployments raises complicated questions about sex, gender, sexuality, and the politics of naming. The terms' alternative forms include
cis
,
cis‐
, and
cisgendered
. Related concepts include the cisgender gaze, cisgenderism, cisnormativity, cisplaining, cissexism, cissexual assumption, and cissexual gender entitlement. The most generative related concept is cissexual/cisgender (cis) privilege. This concept was popularized by the “Cis Privilege Checklist.” The reality of cis privilege is denied by members of a radical feminist subculture. Perhaps the most promising direction for future scholarship on cissexuality and cisgender is intersectional analysis of cis privilege.
Queer Theory
Authors: Fikry Noha , Ryan J. Michael
Published: April 2016

Queer theory is an interdisciplinary paradigm for studying sexualities. It aims at deconstructing identities as coherent or stable, preferring an inclusive and flexible conception of identities. Queer theorists also seek to contextualize categories such as homosexuality or heterosexuality by looking at them discursively and analyzing the different historical and social trajectories they take. This account looks at the main hallmarks of queer theory, and a number of its main contributors including Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. There are a number of critiques regarding queer theory that mainly relate to academia and sexual politics as well as the efficacy of deconstructionism in political action and everyday struggles.
Fundamentalism and Public Policy
Authors: Demy Timothy J.
Published: April 2016

The response of religious fundamentalists across the spectrum of world religions has been mixed and is complex due to differing histories, cultures, and political structures. Some fundamentalists reject participation in the political process while others fully embrace participation and seek to implement laws and cultural practices that reflect the values and commitments of the religious community that are frequently derived from narrow interpretation of religious texts. Use of the term fundamentalist is contested by some due to the historical context in which it arose and came to be used pejoratively in Protestant Christianity in the United States. Compounding discussion of the subject with respect to sexuality and gender issues is the fact that many women within fundamentalist religious communities accept rather than reject the doctrines and practices that are viewed by those outside of the community as restrictive and oppressive. In societies where policies have been implemented reflecting theological beliefs and values, such policies have created strict boundaries of gender activity and focused on attire, reproductive rights, education, sexual orientation, and economic opportunity. The majority of the scholarly research on the topic was done pre‐2000, and the subject has not received much scholarly attention in recent years.
Customary Laws
Authors: Ørebech Peter
Published: April 2016

Customary laws – popular rules established from the bottom up – play a vital role in civil as well as common law countries. Occasionally legislators refer directly to custom and usage as a primary source of law. Even the lack of reference to customary law may not hinder courts from recognition. However, a minimum requirement is that the custom be reasonable, i.e., consistent with the moral and ethical norms of the society. Thus as case law indicates, new norms are invited into the law of the land regardless of legislators' resolutions. Customary laws may sometimes abandon already codified rules.
Household Livelihood Strategies
Authors: Lingam Lakshmi
Published: April 2016

The term household livelihood strategies typically brings together three important strands: (1) the conceptualization of the household as an arena for scrutiny and inquiry; (2) the focus on livelihood as opposed to employment, jobs, and occupations; and (3) the strategies of a household that signify its “agency” in consciously making decisions, exercising choices, and maneuvering its internal resources in response to the broader context within which it is located. This entry covers the subject of household livelihood strategies to broadly explain what it signifies and the current thinking in the development sector.
Honor Killing
Authors: Strange Carolyn
Published: April 2016

Honor killing is a term that emerged in political discourse in the late twentieth century. Honor killings typically involve the murder of women and girls by male relatives, who justify homicide as a necessary means to guard family honor. Some feminists object to the term because it obscures the connections between honor killing and domestic violence more broadly. Others consider honor killing to be a culturally specific form of patriarchal violence that calls for distinct public policy interventions. The United Nations has led the global campaign to combat all forms of violence against women. It has compiled data to document the extent of honor crimes and it has urged nations to repeal laws that excuse honor killings on the basis of culture. A growing consensus has emerged that legal reform must be supplemented by community education to protect women from honor killings.
Third Genders
Authors: Richards Christina
Published: April 2016

Third gender people, more often called pangender, bigender, genderqueer or queer, are those people who do not identify as male or female and so fall outwith the gender binary. This group of people are fairly ubiquitous across time and geography/culture, are mentally healthy, and are perhaps best understood as another part of the diversity of natural expression.
Gaze
Authors: Smelik Anneke
Published: April 2016

The gaze pertains to gendered structures of voyeurism and narcissism in visual culture. In cinema, the male gaze is a threefold way of voyeuristically looking at a woman, comprising the point of view of the camera, the male character, and the spectator. The narcissistic look involves identification with the active and powerful hero on the screen. As the female character is a passive object to be looked at, she can neither own an active look nor offer a point of identification for the female spectator. In society at large there is also a panoptic gaze, effected through technologies of surveillance that function as a disciplinary power.
Gender, Politics, and the State: Overview
Authors: Randall Vicky
Published: April 2016

The field of gender and politics has been transformed over the last half century. This entry presents development of the field in three broad stages. First, it looks at early feminist critiques of political studies. Then, as both the field of study and women's actual public political role became better established, it traces the emergence of new research agendas, centered on gender and political institutions. Finally, it considers the yet more complex situation today where “gender” is being reinterpreted to include masculinity and intersectionality, whilst the field addresses an ever‐growing range of countries and political contexts.
Gender Violence
Authors: Tosh Jemma
Published: April 2016

Theories regarding gender violence have moved beyond a simple dichotomy, where women are positioned as victims and men are perpetrators. This complexity is through a nuanced analysis of privilege, power, and oppression, drawing on intersectionality theory, as well as problematizing the gender binary itself.
Women's and Feminist Activism in
W
est
A
frica
Authors: Medie Peace A.
Published: April 2016

This entry discusses the contributions that women's organizations have made to the advancement of women's rights and to political development in countries across West Africa. It highlights their roles in the anti‐colonial struggle and in conflict resolution and peacebuilding, and explores the challenges that they face. It also introduces new research that studies the impact of women's organizations on women's rights in West Africa.
AIDS
‐Related Stigma
Authors: Kamau Nyokabi
Published: April 2016

Stigma generally refers to prejudice, discounting, discrediting, and discrimination directed at people perceived not to be fitting into a certain normative culture. Anyone can be stigmatized if they do not “fit.” Some of the issues used to stigmatize people include: nationality, race, political affiliation, level of education, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, religion, preferences including clothing, food, and language. In the context of HIV and AIDS, stigma has become more pronounced as those with HIV suffer the double stigma of being seen to have brought it on themselves through immorality.
Domestic Technology
Authors: Heisig Jan Paul
Published: April 2016

Domestic technologies have advanced and diffused enormously over the last two centuries. In the richest economies access to reliable public utilities has been practically universal for many decades and the vast majority of households now possess a large set of domestic appliances. There is a broad consensus that this development has fundamentally changed the process of household production and facilitated enormous increases in housekeeping standards related to cleanliness, hygiene, or food quality. A more controversial question is if domestic technologies have also reduced the housework time of women, who have long been the primary providers of unpaid domestic work across the world. This entry highlights key findings of the empirical literature on this issue. It concludes that, on the whole, domestic technologies appear to lower women's housework time and promote their labor force participation, although individual technologies may sometimes work in the opposite direction.
Gender Indices
Authors: de Bonfils Laura , Humbert Anne Laure , Ivaškaite‐Tamošiune Viginta , Manca Anna Rita , Nobrega Ligia , Reingarde Jolanta , Lestón Irene Riobóo
Published: April 2016

Gender equality is a complex and multidimensional concept, as well as a normatively and politically controversial subject, with a diversity of meanings across Europe. It is not consistently defined in EU policy texts. Furthermore, although definitions attempt to be gender neutral, there is a general tendency to conflate this approach with one that focuses on women specifically.
Postcolonialism, Theoretical and Critical Perspectives on
Authors: Carbin Maria
Published: April 2016

The term postcolonialism has been applied to signal a historical condition, an era, and also, perhaps most commonly, to describe critical perspectives or theories. When postcolonialism signals a critical theory, or perspective, it has come to mean interrogations of the knowledge production of the West. At the center of the analysis is a critique of how the Western self has been constructed, and how Western institutions have been producing knowledge about what they perceive to be other places, and other peoples, thereby constructing the center and the margins. In his groundbreaking work
Orientalism
, literary theorist Edward Said explores how the Western project of civilization, modernization, progress, and enlightenment is built upon the premise that there is some other (the Oriental) that is seen as the opposite. Orientalism can be characterized as a hegemonic discourse that builds upon the idea that European culture and identity are superior to all others. Postcolonial scholars scrutinize colonial discourses and decolonizing projects all over the world. Scholars like Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak have developed the work of Orientalism in various ways, by deconstructing identity and introducing class, gender, and global capitalism into the analysis of colonial discourse.
Intersex Movement
Authors: Clune‐Taylor Catherine
Published: April 2016

The intersex movement refers to work undertaken by various organizations and individuals in the Global North from 1993 to the present to publicize the existence of intersex conditions (and intersex bodies) and to critique both their pathologization and their traditional medical management in infants and children. Activists attacked the generally secretive and unexplained submission of infants and children with intersex conditions to physiologically unnecessary, experimental medical interventions such as genital normalizing surgeries and gonadectomies without their consent that left individuals sterile, and, often, with impaired sexual function and a deep sense of shame. This movement was dominated for many years by the US‐based Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), founded by intersex activist Cheryl Chase/Bo Laurent. However, following the group's controversial endorsement of the 2006 reclassification of intersex conditions as “disorders of sex development” (DSDs) and its practical and political transformation from an activist organization engaged in a queer identity politics to an apolitical medical lobby group, the Accord Alliance, in 2008, the movement has continued through the efforts of an array of international online‐based organizations of varying politics and approaches, such as Intersex Initiative Portland, Bodies Like Ours, Organisation Intersex International, and Advocates for Informed Choice.
Mestiza Consciousness
Authors: Thomas Valorie
Published: April 2016

This entry summarizes Gloria Anzaldúa's theorizing of “mestiza consciousness,” ormestizaje, inBorderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, published in 1987. Mestiza consciousness deconstructs the impact of patriarchy and colonialism on the Chicana psyche, reclaims indigenous spirituality and feminist cultural archetypes, and remaps the border zones created by empire by voicing the experience of living in marginalized, interstitial cultural spaces that serve as zones of resistance to racism, gender discrimination, class oppression, sexual repression, and colonial domination. Anzaldúa offersmestizajeas a critical methodology and a locus of Chicana and woman‐of‐color feminist agency.
Anti‐Globalization Movements
Authors: Conway Janet M.
Published: April 2016

The anti‐globalization movement is associated with the 1999 Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization but more accurately describes the convergence of many social forces worldwide opposed to neoliberal economic and political restructuring – a particular project of “globalization‐from‐above.” Composed of myriad local‐ and national‐scale resistances and emerging transnational networks and campaigns, the anti‐globalization movement is increasingly densely connected through the Internet, the World Social Forum process, and periodic manifestations protesting summits of global governance and has given rise to a diverse literature across the social sciences.
Chick Flicks
Authors: Radner Hilary
Published: April 2016

The film genre known as the “chick flick” refers very broadly to films targeting female audiences. More specifically, it refers to successful popular movies made during the late twentieth and early twenty‐first centuries, largely romantic comedies, that are ironic and self‐conscious in tone, highlight fashion and consumer culture more generally as necessary to femininity, and promote heterosexuality and marriage. These films endorse some aspects of second‐wave feminism, without affirming the movement as a whole; as a consequence they are often characterized as postfeminist or neofeminist.
Male Circumcision
Authors: Sardi Lauren M.
Published: April 2016

Male circumcision involves the removal of the foreskin from the head of the penis. The practice of circumcision dates back several thousands of years and has been performed for both cultural and religious reasons among many societies. Male circumcision is reportedly the most common medical procedure performed in the United States and became routinized during the Victorian era. While male circumcision has popularly and medically been touted as a way to improve cleanliness and prevent the spread of infectious diseases, other scholars and activists have noted that the procedure is not necessary, does not assist in hygienic practices or disease prevention, and that in the case of neonatal circumcision, it violates the rights of individuals who are too young to consent to the procedure themselves. Scholars also note that circumcision may permanently alter a male's sexual experiences, although such data are currently inconsistent.
Sexual Minorities
Authors: Licona Adela C. , Watson Ryan J.
Published: April 2016

Sexual minority/minorities refers to people who identify, or are identified, as distinct from a presumed dominant and thereby normativized population in terms of their sexual designations, desires, expressions, attractions, behaviors, performances, and/or pleasures. This entry, focused on the United States, addresses sexual minority both as a concept and as a term. The concept of a sexual minority can be traced to practices that medicalized, pathologized, psychologized, and bureaucratized homosexuality beginning in the late nineteenth century. In the United States, the term emerged as a self‐identification and in rights‐based discourses after World War II. “Sexual minority” circulates in but functions differently across contexts ranging from those focused on activism, medicine, social sciences, and law. Critiques have focused on the minoritizing function of the term, and the lingering traces of medicalization, as well as the ways in which the term can obscure sexual and gender fluidities, intersecting social locations, abilities, erotic justice, and pleasure.
Human–Animal Studies
Authors: Taylor Nik
Published: April 2016

Human–animal studies is a relatively new field of inquiry, having developed over the last two to three decades. Its primary focus is the varied and multiple relations between human and other animals. This includes historical, current, real, and symbolic relationships. Gender is a key variable in human relations with other animals as it affects both attitudes toward and treatment of other animals.
Lesbian Cultural Criticism
Authors: Stahl Lynne
Published: April 2016

Lesbian cultural criticism is part of the broader field of lesbian studies, which began in the 1960s and 1970s as a series of grassroots intellectual and activist movements within and alongside second‐wave feminism. With roots in communitarian activism, the field of lesbian cultural criticism has been particularly open to voices and perspectives from outside of the traditional academic milieu, emphasizing the importance of remaining cognizant of the institutional nature and privileged position of the university system and of academia more broadly. While much lesbian cultural criticism focuses on identifying, exposing, and repudiating patriarchal, heteronormative structures and ideologies, it is also deeply invested in exploring the specificities of the category of “lesbian” and the possibility of a lesbian aesthetics. Critics debate, for instance, what might constitute a lesbian gaze, lesbian voice, or lesbian narrative, as well as the potential merits and perils of such taxonomies. Yet even among these critics, the usefulness of “lesbian” as a category of identity and critical analysis remains an unresolved question. Lesbian cultural criticism may take the form of traditional scholarly essays and monographs, though it also frequently appears in other media, including film, comic strips, theater, visual arts, and music.
Abortion and Religion
Authors: Maguire Daniel C.
Published: April 2016

The world religions address the ethical issues of living and dying; all of them treat abortion. However, there is no unanimous view bonding all religions on the liceity of abortion. Opinions range from very conservative – permitting no abortions for any reason – to more permissive views, especially for early abortions. Very often, there is a variety of views within the individual religious tradition. In understanding the position of any religion on abortion, it is thus important not to look for a single “official” position in any religion, even in the most hierarchical religions. Many factors are involved in fertility choices, such as educational level, status of women, and culturally ensconced folkways.
Homosexual Reparative Therapy
Authors: Robinson Christine M.
Published: April 2016

Homosexual reparative therapy (HRT) is a therapeutic approach used by some conversion therapists and “ex‐gay” religious counselors today to treat homosexuality (and non‐normative gender identity and expression) as if it is a psychological disorder. Originating in the United States, reparative therapists and ex‐gay organizations have sought to disseminate reparative therapy and the etiology of homosexuality that informs it to many countries beyond the United States. Reparative therapy has been discredited by major medical and mental health organizations in the United States and elsewhere. Importantly, reparative therapy is also a political movement. Reparative therapists (as well as ex‐gay and conservative Christian organizations) have used the ideology that informs the reparative etiology of homosexuality as a political tool to justify the oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the United States and abroad, seeking to undermine legal family recognition for same‐sex couples and LGBT parents, to prevent or reverse legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and in many cases to justify or defend laws that criminalize private, adult, consenting sexual relations between people of the same sex.
Clitoridectomy, Female Genital Cutting Practices, and Law
Authors: Wade Lisa
Published: April 2016

The phrase female genital cutting (FGC) refers to a set of controversial practices that involve varying degrees of physical alteration to women's genitals. A wide range of practices are included under the label and the reasons communities provide for the cutting also vary, as do the conditions under which they occur. While beliefs about the harmful psychological and physical consequences of the practices are widespread, research documenting these relationships is new and supports only some of the claims of harm. Nevertheless, there is widespread consensus among global powers that the practices should end, making FGC a flashpoint for the theoretical and practical difficulties involved in transnational politics. Efforts to end the practice of FGC in long‐practicing communities have been only marginally successful, while immigrants to Western countries tend to voluntarily abandon the practices. The practices, opposition to them, and proposed strategies to promote abandonment remain contentious.
Discursive Theories of Gender
Authors: Deane Laura
Published: April 2016

Contemporary understandings of gender are informed by key concepts in poststructuralist theory, which posits that human subjects are shaped by and enact dominant and subordinated discourses of gender that circulate in culture. These are traced through the work of the French phenomenologist and feminist Simone de Beauvoir, the contributions of French feminists Luce Irigaray, Hélène Cixous, and Julia Kristeva, and the formulation of the subject in the work of Michel Foucault. Drawing on these understandings, feminist philosophers Elizabeth Grosz and Judith Butler contend that bodies are produced by discourse and ideology, and performed according to, or against, culturally dominant discourses of gender and heterosexuality. This has led to the rethinking of gender as primarily discursive.
Strong Objectivity
Authors: Grasswick Heidi
Published: April 2016

Strong objectivity is a key concept in Sandra Harding's version of standpoint theory, operationalizing the idea that knowledge is socially situated. In contrast to traditional models of value‐free objectivity, strong objectivity insists that researchers critically examine the role of social situation in the formation of knowledge, exposing background assumptions and cultural agendas. It offers the methodological advice that researchers “start thought from marginalized lives.”
Fathers and Parenting Interventions
Authors: Burgess Adrienne
Published: April 2016

Among interventions that seek to improve parenting skills, the evidence base on fathers' participation is small, methodologically weak and overwhelmingly from the global north (Western contexts). A systematic review (Panter‐Brick et al. 2014) identified only 92 interventions that disaggregated findings by sex‐of‐parent. Sample sizes of fathers were usually small, the impact of engaging with both parents was almost never measured and evaluation design was weak. Mothers, fathers, and children benefit when fathers are engaged in parenting support. Engaging both parents is usually more effective than engaging just one. Content, style, methods, goals, and facilitator training may need to be modified if fathers are to be successfully included. Fathers' impact on children's development is substantial, for good and ill. Marginalizing such important players in parenting interventions, amounts to poor professional practice and may compromise the safety of mothers and children.
Hybridity and Miscegenation
Authors: Edwards Leigh H.
Published: April 2016

Hybridity and miscegenation refer to race mixing. Both terms came into popular usage during the nineteenth century in the United States in the context of race slavery and scientific racism. Since the 1980s, hybridity has been used more broadly in postcolonial theory to refer to cultural mixture that can critique colonization.
Rape Law
Authors: McMahon‐Howard Jennifer
Published: April 2016

A rape law is a criminal statute that prohibits and punishes certain forced and/or nonconsensual sex acts (i.e., oral, anal, and/or vaginal penetration). While the crime of rape is prohibited under almost all penal codes, the specific elements of these rape laws have varied across jurisdictions and over time. Originally, most forcible rape laws defined rape as the carnal knowledge of a female, not a spouse, forcibly and against her will. Over the past several decades, many countries have made efforts to reform their rape laws. Looking at the outcomes of the rape law reform movement, it is clear that there has been significant variation in the success of these reforms. This entry reviews the purpose of the original rape laws, the limitations of the original rape laws, and the efforts and outcomes of the rape law reforms.
Mail‐Order Brides
Authors: Heston Laura V.
Published: April 2016

“Mail‐order bride” is a term applied to women of the Global South looking for husbands in the Global North. These women participate in commercial marriage migration by listing their pictures and profiles on International Marriage Agency (IMA) websites used to attract men of the Global North into initiating courtship. IMAs, which collect fees from men who purchase women's email addresses, expanded profiles, and other services, are complicit in promoting racial/ethnic stereotyping of women on their sites setting up unrealistic expectations in their future husbands. Women looking to immigrate through IMAs are less conservative than men expect, often wanting full employment outside the home in order to send money back to their families. In contrast, men are looking for “traditional” women focused on marriage and family they feel are no longer available in the Global North. Ultimately, the symbol of the “mail‐order bride” both consolidates Northern anxieties about globalization in the bodies of “foreign” immigrant women and assuages those anxieties through the simultaneous recapture of the traditional homemaker.
History of Women's Rights in International and Comparative Perspective
Authors: Richmond Stephanie J.
Published: April 2016

The history of women's rights spans over 600 years of history and every nation. Women began seeking rights in an organized fashion during the Renaissance, the movement grew in the Enlightenment and continued to gather steam through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Women sought political, economic, and social equality through suffrage, the demand for equal pay, and maternity benefits. Around the world women have engaged with the political discourses of their locality and sought to have a voice in local and global issues that impact them and their children. Not all of these struggles have been helped by Western ideas; as women in former colonies have sought equality, the legacy of colonialism has shaped their struggle and intercessions from Western feminists have not always been welcome.