Lessons from “Around the world with Oprah”: Neoliberalism,race, and the (geo)politics of beauty

On 6 October 2004, viewers went “Around the world with Oprah” and received a rare glimpse inside the lives of 30-year-old women from 17 different countries. When Oprah turned her gaze (and that of middle-class American housewives) eastward, she highlighted South Korean women's penchart for plastic surgery. Oprah's “trip” to South Korea is emblematic of Western discourse surrounding South Korean Women's plastic surgery consumption, most of which focuses on cosmetic eyelid surgery or the sangapul procedure as it is called in South Korea. Given its widespread popularity, the sangapul procedure has come to signify South Korean women's acquiescence to not only patriarchal oppression but racial oppression as well. This essay goes beyond the psychologization of South Korean women in order to ask what such psychological musings obscure about the very political nature of beauty itself. Using “Around the world with Oprah” as a starting point, then, this essay examines beauty at the intersection of race, technology, and (geo)politics in order to show that, in an era of neoliberalism, plastic surgery is often rationalized as an investment in the self towards a more normal, if not better future. As this essay suggests, such a framing of plastic surgery is contingent on Oprah's production of neoliberal feminism based on liberal notions of choice. Given her global reach, these neoliberal feminist subjects are not produced equally, however, but are discursively constructed along a First World/Third World divide.     

The Day I Will Never Forget: an interview with Kim Longinotto

The documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto talks to Catherine Fowler about her latest film The Day I Will Never Forget (2003) about female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa. Longinotto’s films have consistently interrogated our understanding of womens’ place in the world, and her latest film is no exception. She discusses how she found her subjects: Fardohsa, a midwife who has been campaigning against FGM, a group of girls who have (successfully) taken their parents to court in order to prevent FGM being practised, and Fouzia, a girl of nine who reads a poem that she wrote the day after she was circumcised, asking her mother to explain why she put her daughter through such a painful experience. Longinotto also discusses the ethical issues raised by her filming of a circumcision of two sisters, and the wider issues that her film engages: the powerless position of women in African societies, the confusion of religion and culture in discussions of FGM, and the impact of saying ‘no’ to this practice.     

中菲南海争端仲裁案中菲律宾诉求评析

关于中菲南海争端强制仲裁一案,菲律宾向仲裁法庭提出的诉求可合并为针对中国南海传统断续线的诉求、针对南海中中国部分岛礁的诉求和针对中国南海行使管辖权的诉求.对此,中国在应对上可选择向仲裁法庭行使“初步反对的权利”或其他合法方式发表其没有管辖权的理由,并通过反对申请书的可接受性力争结束仲裁.     

土耳其对非洲战略与政策评析

人们往往以为是向非洲开放政策推动了土耳其与非洲关系的发展;但该政策直到2005年才得到落实的事实,证明了隶属于土耳其总体对外战略的对非洲战略的形成才是真正的动力。土耳其对非洲战略是其总体对外战略三大支柱之大周边外交的一部分;因此,其优先次序相对较低,尽管其目标是以恢复和提升土耳其在非洲的软实力为核心推动土非关系全面发展,但也有间接服务于提升自身面对美欧时的话语权的功能。通过官民结合、全面动员,软实力先行带动土非关系全面发展,土耳其与非洲的政治关系机制化水平不断提升,经贸关系日益密切,社会联系和相互了解日益深入,同时也得到了美欧的更大重视,为土非关系的长期发展奠定了坚实基础。     

江南文化资源的类型及其阐释

明清以来形成的江南文化以诗性精神为内核,由物质文化资源、社会文化资源和审美文化资源构成,主要类型有古镇文化资源、农桑文化资源、饮食文化资源、都市文化资源、工业文化资源、运河文化资源、园林和戏曲文化资源.这些文化资源已经成为江南地区再发展的重要基础.对江南文化资源进行系统梳理和价值研究,探索其在城市化和后现代社会背景下的...     

韩国北极综合政策及其实施评析

随着全球气候变暖,北极的各种利益优势正在显现,而且超越区域范畴而成为全球的问题,因此对于非北极国家也具有重要意义。韩国出于国内和国际两方面的长远考虑,综合采取法律、政治、经济、行政、科学、科技等多种手段,拓展其北极利益。中国同样在北极有着重要战略利益。当前,及时跟踪北极相关国家政策动态并加以分析,对中国北极战略利益的实现不无裨益。     

云南中缅边境打击走私制毒物品战略及对策

易制毒化学品是海洛因以及冰毒等新型毒品“生产”的必要条件，是防止易制毒化学品流入境外毒源地，是“四禁并举”标本兼治的根据。只有遏制易制毒化学品原料非法出境，才能从源头上减少毒品犯罪。在强调积极查处案件、及时移交运输制毒物品案件的同时，还应当保障执法单位缴获的制毒物品能及时鉴定、涉案制毒物品依法及时处理（回收、拍卖、变卖或销毁）。     

“南方谈话”与今日中国之改革开放

改革开放分为三个阶段,分别处于抬脚起步阶段、大脚快步阶段和合脚正步阶段。较之于前两个阶段的改革开放,当前的改革开放可以预见和不可预见的困难将会更大,矛盾也更为集中。改革开放仍然是中国发展红利,要拿出壮士断腕的勇气推进改革开放。     

Significance of the BRICS Mechanism

正The two-day Sixth BRICS(Brazil,Russia,India,China,South Africa)Summit,which convenes on July 15 in Fortaleza,Brazil,marks the fi rst session of the second cycle of BRICS Summits.Formulated as a global investment concept a decade or more ago,the BRICS group has held summits respectively in Yekaterinburg,Brasilia,Sanya,New Delhi,and Durban.Inter-BRICS cooperation began with the foreign ministers’meeting during the 2006 UN General Assembly,and progressed to the First BRICS Summit of 2009.The mechanism has since evolved into a framework for building partnerships in international politics,international economy and pragmatic cooperation.Centering on BRICS Summits,the partnership is buttressed     

Tony Blair's 'Media' Speech: The Commentators

Tony Blair's speech challenged the media over its standards in his valedictory lecture. Many of his charges about the absence of balance, attacks on motive and a pack mentality stand up, even if some are exaggerated and also applied well before his arrival in 10 Downing Street. Mr Blair's solutions did ot match his critique. What is required is a more self‐questioning media, being held to account on the internet and on specialist blogging sites. Vigorous criticism, requiring justification, is a more credible rout than tighter regulation. Tony Blair's speech on the changing pressures on the media is both interesting and convincing in its diagnosis (although generally reported in ways that did not reveal this). It is less convincing in suggestions for change: the fact that on‐line media will fall under Of‐com, and so under its minimal ‘content regulation’ will have little impact. Effective change could begin with other types of (self or other regulation). Some steps towards change might include minimal requirements for journalists and editors to accept elementary forms of accountability, such as disclosing conflicts of interest and payments made for ‘stories’. The scale of media coverage may be crucial in determining the allocation of aid, yet the attention the media pays to particular causes is arbitrary. Many serious disasters are not reported and as a consequence do not receive adequate aid, so that the victims of the crisis will lose out. Chronic long term problems, like famine, are ignored in favour of ‘sudden emergencies’. Reporting seeks sensation and simple stories which influences the way that aid agencies respond to the media. The complex background to a faraway disaster is often overlooked and not properly reported. Tony Blair's speech describing some of the news media as ‘feral beasts’ contained one paragraph which contained an insight into his views on new media. It was known that the outgoing Prime Minister was uncomfortable with some aspects of new technology but his remarks reveal a wider disappointment with how new media has failed to deliver changes which he had hoped for in political communications.This paper records Mr Blair's problems with new media and argues that by focusing on how the new technologies might provide a better way for politicians to by‐pass the traditional media he has missed the point of their wider benefits.