Only Contradictions on Offer

Segal addresses feminism's future at a time when political energies are apparently in decline. She explores the contradictory models of feminism operating in political and media representations: the dominance of gender questions and gender anxieties, including the marked concern with models of 'proper' masculinity, inevitably implicates feminists in the political arena. The decline in political engagement among feminists is in any case disturbing, because women without power have been made the central targets of neo-conservative social policies in the United States, Britain and elsewhere, with the female 'welfare dependent' becoming particularly demonized. The failure of feminists to address such issues results from the decline of socialist feminisms, and a general failure within feminism to make class and race differences, and the inequalities that result from them, the central plank of its theories and politics. Segal calls attention to the divorce between feminist theory and feminist activism, and argues that the politics of the academy have largely contributed to a disciplinary specialization which militates against feminism's productive interdisciplinarity. While the literary paradigms that now dominate feminist thought have produced rich models for subjectivity and identity, the decrease in social science contributions to the field has led to a lessening of attention to existing social relations. Segal insists upon the necessity of a continuing engagement with cultural questions, but argues that these need to be combined with a commitment to radical social transformation if feminisms, in all their complexity and multifariousness, are to have a future.     

Differentiating human bone from animal bone: a review of histological methods

This review brings together a complex and extensive literature to address the question of whether it is possible to distinguish human from nonhuman bone using the histological appearance of cortical bone. The mammalian species included are rat, hare, badger, racoon dog, cat, dog, pig, cow, goat, sheep, deer, horse, water buffalo, bear, nonhuman primates, and human and are therefore not exhaustive, but cover those mammals that may contribute to a North American or Eurasian forensic assemblage. The review has demonstrated that differentiation of human from certain nonhuman species is possible, including small mammals exhibiting Haversian bone tissue and large mammals exhibiting plexiform bone tissue. Pig, cow, goat, sheep, horse, and water buffalo exhibit both plexiform and Haversian bone tissue and where only Haversian bone tissue exists in bone fragments, differentiation of these species from humans is not possible. Other primate Haversian bone tissue is also not distinguishable from humans. Where differentiation using Haversian bone tissue is undertaken, both the general microstructural appearance and measurements of histological structures should be applied. Haversian system diameter and Haversian canal diameter are the most optimal and diagnostic measurements to use. Haversian system density may be usefully applied to provide an upper and lower limit for humans.     

Psychological resilience of Western Australian police officers: relationship between resilience,coping style,psychological functioning and demographics

This study examines the relationships between resilience, coping style, psychological functioning and the demographic variables of gender, age, rank and length of service in a sample of 285 Western Australian Police officers. Regression analysis indicated that resilience was predicted by greater use of rational coping and less use of emotional coping, but not psychological functioning. Increased age, rank and length of service were all correlated with significantly lower resilience scores. Significant differences in coping styles were found for all demographic variables. Implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Gender,war and militarism: making and questioning the links

Feminist Review - The gender dynamics of militarism have traditionally been seen as straightforward, given the cultural mythologies of warfare and the disciplining of ‘masculinity’ that...     

The politics of publishing: Selection and rejection of women's words in print

The commercial publishing industry is controlled by men and under the guise of rational and objective decision-making, it manages to produce and disseminate material that it claims to be ‘universal’ and representative of all humanity. In fact, through gatekeeping, the publishing industry selects and promotes the ideas and knowledge that effectively maintain and support the dominant male view of the world. This constitutes a rarely acknowledged ‘political’ dimension in the production of knowledge and in the publishing industry. Alternative views, such as those presented by feminists, are contained at a level where they inevitably remain marginal and without the legitimacy that the sheer volume of production and expensive promotion accord to masculist ideals and practices. Feminist publishing cannot compete in terms of scale or influence and feminist writers and feminists in publishing have to contend with the issue of marginality — both ideological and pragmatic — in a male-dominated area. ‘Book publishing, like all industries, is controlled by rich, white heterosexual men’. (West, 1978:6)