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.     

Interrogating ‘invisibilization’ and ‘instrumentalization’: women and current citizenship trends in Canada

This paper examines current citizenship discourses and practices in Canada, focusing on the implications not only of marketization, but also of growing securitization vis-à-vis citizenship, and the gendered ramifications of such developments. The repercussions of marketization and securitization and their interrelations, for women in general, as well as racialized and immigrant women in particular, are outlined and assessed. In this way, we see how women are at the receiving end of highly contradictory processes in that they are both ‘invisibilized’, in other words, rendered invisible, by the Canadian state, but are also are increasingly ‘instrumentalized’, in other words, used in strategic ways. Yet, women also challenge these trends and tactics, thereby interrogating these processes that serve to limit the terms and scope of citizenship in Canada.     

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.     

不一样的留守生活——对农村留守妇女上班族的个案研究

以苏北S村为例对农村留守妇女上班族的时间配置、社会支持网络、社会身份认同等方面进行的调查发现，农村留守妇女上班族在时间配置上，工作和家务劳动占据了主要部分，闲暇时间她们的生活较为丰富；留守妇女上班族的社会支持网中，同事和工作中认识的留守妇女为她们提供了情感支持和信息支持，在工具性支持上，她们和一般农村留守妇女没有差别；留守妇女上班族对社会身份的认同是通过经济独立、家庭地位提高等维持的；留守妇女上班族在工作获得途径、安全保障和工作保障方面面临困境。     

女性与科举

自科举学创立以来,学者对科举的研究更多的是侧重于以男性为中心的制度和文化层面的研究,对女性与科举关系的探讨非常缺乏.但是,身处科举社会的女性必定与科举在某些方面有着巧妙而不可避免的联系.女性对以科举为业的男性及其家族有不可避免的作用和影响,对科举所做出了自己的贡献.     

女性领导力提升的非制度性障碍及对策分析

随着经济全球化和信息时代的发展,越来越多的女性领导者出现在政府机关和企事业单位的领导岗位上。女性领导者自身所拥有的特殊性格和品质使其在社会经济发展过程中的地位和作用不断提高,但传统文化、心理特性、社会习惯及女性群体自身的特质等一些非制度性的障碍因素仍制约着女性领导力的提升,因此,在新形势下,积极提升女性领导者的领导意愿、塑造女性领导者的人本主义精神和人性化的领导风格、提高女性领导者的科学决策水平、保障女性领导者的权益和工作时间对提升女性领导力显得尤为必要。     

新时期中国女子高等教育发展问题探讨

该文指出,学习先进国家女子高校办学理念和方针,进一步加强全民基础教育,关注贫困落后地区教育设施与资源的建设配备,促进教育平等政策的贯彻落实,并在此基础上重视发展女子高等教育,在中国新时期发展规划中有着深远意义。     

加强社会主义新农村建设进程中的农村妇女素质教育

在社会主义新农村建设进程中,加强农村妇女的素质教育十分重要。目前,农村妇女存在着思想意识滞后、科学文化素质低和自身定位低诸多问题。必须把农村妇女素质教育作为一项基本战略,提高农村妇女的科技文化素质以适应新农村建设的需要,加强农村妇女的思想道德教育来提高她们的整体素质。     

社会支持网络与农村妇女发展——女村长与村落发展的案例分析

社会支持网络有助于缓解贫困妇女的社会处境。要建立农村妇女的社会支持网络,首先,要通过与外界的交流唤醒农村妇女自身的发展意识;其次要增强她们的人力资本,发挥她们所处的家庭与村落的即时支持性功能;最后,构建农村妇女异质化的村外社会支持网络,达到增强其自身发展能力,改善其发展环境,从而提高其社会地位的目的。     

从和谐的视野看亲密关系的冲突——家庭暴力与女性犯罪

家庭是社会的细胞,构建和谐家庭是构建和谐社会的基础。但在当前中国,许多家庭中男女两性并未达到真正的平等与和谐。男性对女性的家庭暴力及其所引发的女性犯罪就是这种两性冲突的极端反映。制止家庭暴力、预防女性犯罪、建构和谐家庭,是我们成功建构和谐社会的基石。