More than an idea: why ectogestation should become a concrete option.

This paper calls for the development of a method of ectogestation as an emancipatory intervention for women. I argue that ectogestation would have a dual social benefit: first, by providing a gestational alternative to pregnancy, it would create unique conditions to reevaluate one's reproductive preferences-which, for women, always include gestational considerations-and to satisfy a potential preference not to gestate. Enabling the satisfaction of such a preference is particularly valuable due to the pressures women face to embrace pregnancy as central to their identity, while at the same time being penalised by it. Second, ectogestation would address certain specific negative social implications of gestation and childbirth, which cannot be avoided through social measures as they are caused by the corporeal nature of these phenomena. Finally, I argue that it is unfair to hold ectogestation to a higher standard than other innovations such as modern contraceptives and non-medical egg freezing.

Empowering Self-Care: Caring Things in Alice Dunbar-Nelson's 1890s "New Woman" Short Fiction.

Alice Dunbar-Nelson is mostly remembered as a poet, activist, and ex-wife of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Her volume The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories (1899) has been largely overshadowed as a result. Yet, the collection contains a portfolio of heroines analogous and contemporaneous to the famed New Woman figure of the fin de siècle. In this article, I consider Dunbar-Nelson's heroines in light of their New Woman-esque agency and autonomy as they find remedies and power in objects and materials steeped in New Orleans's cultural heritage. Ceded neither social nor political self-governance nor domestic comfort, this article reads these transcendental, metaphysical objects as sources of self-care. With close analysis of "The Goodness of St. Rocque," "Tony's Wife," and "Little Miss Sophie," I argue that Dunbar-Nelson's protagonists exert influence over their lives, specifically in the negotiation of romantic relationships, through voodoo charms, Catholic candles, tarot cards, sewing machines, and knitting needles. Covering courtship, break-ups, and unhappy marriages, I demonstrate the ways in which these empowering spiritual objects respond to health concerns, including malnutrition and domestic violence, in turn, situating them as alternatives to patriarchal and historically racist medical institutions. Valorizing the cultural milieu of New Orleans and the customs of the Caribbean and European heritage, and thereby conveying Dunbar-Nelson's resistance to white and male supremacist ideologies in late-nineteenth-century Southern America, the article ultimately assesses the parallels with (predominantly white) New Woman fiction, through shared themes of fraught heterosexual dynamics and women's declining health.

The myth of lesbian generation loss: Finding intergenerational solidarities in digital sexual selfhood projects.

The contemporary preoccupation with lesbian's potential obsolescence relies on implicit assumptions about the (ir)relevance of lesbian feminism to younger generations. In this article, we use the metaphor of "generation loss" to conceptualize the Gordian knot of affective and ideological ties that lie beneath this preoccupation. Contrary to the narrative of generation loss, we show how young people have begun to take up and share lesbian feminist concepts on social media platforms like TikTok. They do so in the name of resituating lesbian as a political project rather than an exclusionary demographic category. Instead of painting over lesbian feminism with the broad brushes of whiteness and trans-exclusivity, some young lesbians seek out other voices in the archive to debate whether and how this history might be recuperated as a challenge to white, cisnormative heteropatriarchy. Far from finding irrelevance, many revisiting lesbian feminism are excited to discover theories of gender, sexuality, and power that can be adapted to relocate lesbian to more durable and less essentializing territory than its current, narrowly biopolitical home. This presents a crucial opportunity to build bridges across generations and collectively resist the cooptation of lesbians as agents of white supremacist and transphobic political agendas.

Lanka Mahila Samiti, Mary Rutnam and girl's education.

This article engages with the maternal education politics in late colonial Sri Lanka by looking at the implementation of maternal health in the gendered syllabus of middle-class girls' schools. After decades of gender-specific education, the 1930s saw a homogenisation of teachings in these schools through the impact of Mary Rutnam's health manuals. Rutnam was a Canadian doctor who had been living in Sri Lanka for most of her adult life and was seen as a local. She was also active in establishing women's and girls' organisations and political groups. Especially the Lanka Mahila Samiti (LMS) was greatly influential and still is today. The LMS specifically aims at educating the rural women in maternal health and other forms of hygiene with the goal to increase their political and cultural agency. This article examines the relationship between Rutnam's handbooks for girls' schools and the globality of the discourse of motherhood, on the one hand, and the hierarchical divide between the urban middle-class woman and the rural woman, on the other hand. I will argue that by applying the classist discourse of eugenics and hygiene, the teaching of maternal health was transformed in Sri Lanka to create a notion of motherhood that was detached from religion, as it previously was so often framed by it but was highly racialised and classist. This notion of motherhood continues to exist and informs the teaching of sexuality in contemporary Sri Lankan middle-class girls' schools.

The Role of Feminism and Gender in Endorsement of Hookup Culture among Emerging Adults.

Hookup culture has transformed the sexual behavior of emerging adults. Feminism, a movement that has advocated for liberating women from sexual repression, may be associated with hookup endorsement attitudes. This study explores the associations among multiple dimensions of feminism, gender, and hookup culture endorsement. Participants included 318 emerging adults (46% women; Mage = 22.2 years; 51% White, 27% Asian, 5% Hispanic/Latinx, 9% Black, 1% Middle Eastern, 1% American Indian, 6% Multiracial) from five Anglophone countries (62% U.S., 23% United Kingdom, 9% Canada, 5% Australia, 1% New Zealand), who completed the Feminist Beliefs and Behavior Scale and Endorsement of Hookup Culture Index via an anonymous, online survey. Participants were categorized according to their feminist identity label (feminist, non-feminist) and feminist belief system (hold feminist beliefs, hold non-feminist beliefs). A series of ANCOVAs was conducted, revealing that women who identified as feminist and/or held feminist beliefs reported significantly higher endorsement of hookup culture compared to non-feminist women with non-feminist beliefs. Neither dimension of feminism predicted hookup culture endorsement in men. When comparing feminist-identifying women and men, the gender disparity in hookup culture endorsement was eliminated. Together, these findings highlight how social movements, such as feminism, may be associated with young women's attitudes towards hookups, and may ultimately shape their sexual experiences.

What is hindering Chinese women from participating in combat sports?

With the awakening of female consciousness, women's participation in sports has gradually gained autonomy and agency. However, Chinese women still face numerous restrictions in combat sports, hindering the development of this industry. Based on years of practice and research experience in the field, we summarize some general and specific issues, such as stigmatization and the constraints of traditional Chinese thinking. These issues need attention and consideration in the pursuit of gender equality in sports in the future.

A psychobiographical analysis of Empress Dowager Cixi: exploring the femininity castrated complex.

In Chinese culture, there is a widely circulated phrase, 'A hen crows in the morning'. This phrase is used to humiliate women who steal power and engage in the political field. It demonstrates the complicated relationship between women and power in the context of Chinese culture. Women are not completely excluded from the politics, but women in power are often stigmatised. This study explores the life of Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), the last female dominator in Chinese history, takes psychobiography as the research method, and attempts to understand the complicated relationship between women and power in Chinese culture through analysing Cixi's life from the perspective of complex and cultural complex theory which originated with C.G. Jung and analytical theory. The research findings show that humiliating and suppressing women with political talent can trigger their complexes, both personal and cultural. This study attempts to propose the femininity castrated complex to better describe the conscious and unconscious psychological dynamics impacting on women within patriarchal, political Chinese culture. This complex further relates to (1) denying her biological sex in order to avoid accusations of superego and, (2) the relationship with her son who is not only her son, but also her enemy regarding (political) power.

"The Children Are Not Controllable Because They Follow Western Values" - Narratives of the Parenting Experiences of African Immigrants in Alberta, Canada.

African immigrants are moving to high-income nations such as Canada in greater numbers in search of a better life. These immigrants frequently struggle with several issues, including limited social support, shifts in gender roles/status, cultural conflicts with their children, and language barriers. We used participatory action research (PAR) to gather data about Sub-Saharan African immigrants residing in Alberta, Canada, with a focus on their viewpoints, difficulties, and experiences of parenting children in Canada. We contextualized our study and its findings using both postcolonial feminism and transnationalism approaches. Study findings show African immigrant parents place a high priority on respect between generations. The absence of assistance, conflicts caused by culture, and language barriers are notable difficulties they encountered in parenting. An additional factor is a lack of acquaintance with and comprehension of the culture of their new home nation. Several implications stem from our findings, including the need for interventional research that explores effective, culturally relevant strategies for enhancing parenting among African immigrants. Our findings demonstrate the need for culturally sensitive policies and practices that support the transition and integration of African immigrant families into Canadian society. It is imperative for health care providers and policy makers to develop and revise culturally appropriate policies that take into consideration the importance of African immigrants in destination countries. Adopting culturally relevant policies and practices will improve the wellbeing of this growing but underprivileged minority of Canadians.

From Lavender Menace to Queer Nation: the transformation of lesbian identity in the baby boom era.

Women of the early baby boom years in the U.S. came out into an environment in which same-sex desire was stigmatized and criminalized. For working-class lesbians, the bar scene provided an environment in which women could find companionship and a way to live a life decoupled from traditional heterosexual roles. For middle class women, bar life was fraught with legal and social risk, and some-mostly white-women worked to establish a more "socially acceptable" communal life through organizations such as the Daughters of Bilitis. As the women's movement flourished in the late 1960s and 1970s, women born in the early years of the baby boom (1946-1950) created distinctive lesbian feminist cultures and identities. In contrast to early baby boomers, women born at the tail end of the baby boom (1960-1964) came out in a vastly different cultural context. Second-wave feminism had already peaked, the AIDS epidemic and debates about sexuality changed the context for lesbian identity and activism, and organizing by women of color created the development of an intersectional view of lesbian identity and activism. Through an analysis of feminist magazines, newsletters, and texts of the late 1960s through the 1990s, this paper explores the cultural contexts through which radical lesbian feminist identities arose and, for a period, flourished in the U.S. By the end of the 1980s and 1990s, as second-wave feminism declined, lesbian feminist identity shifted. Over the last decades of the twentieth century, new queer forms of identification emerged, coupled with a decline of lesbian identification among younger people. I argue that these new forms represent both continuity and disruption with earlier forms of lesbian identification.

Toward diverse SOGIESC-transformative theorizing in nursing: A revisitation and expansion of Im and Meleis' guidelines for gender-sensitive theorizing.

Over two decades have passed since Im and Meleis proposed "gender-sensitive theories" as a category of nursing theories in 2001. Since then, the global conditions of women and minoritized identities across the various spectra of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sexual characteristics (SOGIESC) have changed. Moreover, feminist theorizing has evolved, prompting the need to update how nurses theorize and research the interactions of gender and health in their practice. This discursive essay aims to (1) provide a summary of Im and Meleis' characterization and guidelines in the development of gender-sensitive theories in nursing and present exemplars that use these guidelines; (2) assess the gender-sensitive nursing theory guidelines in terms of gender-responsiveness; and (3) expand the transformative potential of gender-sensitive theorizing in nursing by proposing Diverse SOGIESC-Transformative Theories. Diverse SOGIESC-Transformative Theories include three additional aspects to enhance the transformative potential of gender-responsive theorizing in nursing: inclusion of diverse SOGIESC, elaboration of intersectionality, and consideration of men and masculinities.

Thorny entanglements: feminism, eugenics and the Abortion Law Reform Association's (ALRA) campaign for safe, accessible abortion in Britain, 1936-1967.

For the past two decades anti-abortionists in the Global North have been aggressively instrumentalising disability in order to undermine women's social autonomy, asserting, falsely, there is an insuperable conflict between disability rights and reproductive rights. The utilisation of disability in struggles over abortion access is not new, it has a history dating back to the interwar era. Indeed, decades before anti-abortionists' campaign, feminists invoked disability to expand access to safe abortion. This paper examines the feminist eugenics in the first organisation dedicated to liberalising restrictive abortion laws, the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA), established in England in 1936. ALRA played a vital role in the passage of the Abortion Act 1967 (or the Act) that greatly expanded the grounds for legal abortion, a hugely important gain for women in Britain and beyond seeking legal, safe abortions. In addition, the Act permitted eugenic abortion, which also had transnational effects: within a decade, jurisdictions in numerous Commonwealth countries passed abortion laws that incorporated the Act's eugenics clause, sometimes verbatim. This essay analyses ALRA's role in codifying eugenics in the Abortion Act 1967 and argues that from the outset, ALRA was simultaneously a feminist and eugenist association. Initially, ALRA prioritized their feminist commitment to 'voluntary motherhood' in their campaign whereas starting in the 1940s, they subordinated feminism to negative eugenics, a shift that was simultaneously strategic and a reflection of genuine concern to prevent the birth of children with disabilities.

Introduction: The appeal of the Amazons.

The fearless ancient Amazons have been seen as forebears and prototypes by lesbians, feminists, and transgender men. In this introduction, I will explore why the Greek legends of the Amazons lend themselves to such interpretation. Ancient Greek literature details how the Amazons challenged patriarchy, lived without men, and defeated their male enemies, thus setting a precedent that would later be emulated by feminists and lesbians. Though the Amazons are clearly designated as women they are also identified with men in ancient Greek lore; in ancient Greek vase painting, they wear masculine outfits and engage in masculine habits, including fighting and hunting. Thus I will examine the Amazons' gender transgression in ancient Greek contexts in order to understand how and why these myths set the stage for the adoption of the Amazons as role models by later generations of gender nonconformists. I will also briefly examine the history behind those myths, a history which is just as important to lesbian and other queer communities as the myths which it spawned. Finally, I will weave my analysis of the ancient Greek ideology of Amazons with innovative, new research on the reception of the Amazons found in the six other articles that make up this special edition. These essays explore the powerful place of Amazons and Amazon-like women in the imaginaries of peoples ranging from the ancient Romans to modern lesbian feminists, and the importance of historical and legendary warrior women who defied patriarchy and colonialism in locales ranging from the West to Africa to India.

Young women's leisure time physical activity determinants: a mixed methods approach.

Introduction: The aim of the study was to analyze the habits, motives and barriers related to Leisure Time Physical Activity (LTPA) among young women of Gipuzkoa, from a mixed approach. Methods: A total of 526 women aged 18-29 (24.60 ± 3.30 years) responded to the Gipuzkoa Women's Physical Activity Questionnaire (GWPAQ), seven of which were later interviewed. Results: The main motives for LTPA were intrapersonal - related to health and enjoyment - and to interpersonal networks. However, the main barriers facing LTPA were mostly intrapersonal, such as lack of time, tiredness, and laziness. Contextual factors such as the availability of safe spaces, previous negative experiences, or negative self-perception of motor competence also emerged as conditioning factors in young women's LTPA habits. Discussion: This study may help to promote policies aimed at incentivizing LTPA for young women based on their needs and interests, by addressing the diversity of factors.

[Breastfeeding behind bars: Experiences of incarcerated mothers in the Spanish penitentiary system]. / Lactancia materna entre rejas: experiencias de las madres encarceladas en el sistema penitenciario español.

This research aims to analyze the breastfeeding experiences of incarcerated mothers in the prisons of the Spanish penitentiary system. Additionally, it explores whether these mothers have perceived practices related to obstetric violence during pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period. An exploratory-descriptive study was conducted using a qualitative approach and a critical ethnographic method. Fieldwork, including participant observation and semi-structured interviews, was carried out between December 2021 and April 2022. The study involved 30 adult women from Africa, Europe, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, all serving sentences with their infants in Mother Units located in the Spanish cities of Alicante, Barcelona, Madrid, and Seville. The main findings highlight the need for penitentiary policies with a gender and feminist perspective. These policies should aim to eliminate severe inequalities and discriminations faced by incarcerated women while protecting the basic rights of both mothers and infants.

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo analizar la experiencia con respecto a la lactancia materna de las madres encarceladas en las prisiones del sistema penitenciario español, así como estudiar si han percibido prácticas que aludan a la violencia obstetricia durante la gestación, el parto y el puerperio. Se realizó un estudio exploratorio-descriptivo con abordaje cualitativo y método etnográfico crítico. Entre diciembre de 2021 y abril de 2022, se efectuó el trabajo de campo con observación participante y entrevistas semiestructuradas a 30 de las mujeres mayores de edad procedentes de África, Europa, Europa del Este y Latinoamérica, que se encontraban cumpliendo condena junto a sus criaturas en las Unidades de Madres de las ciudades españolas de Alicante, Barcelona, Madrid y Sevilla. Las principales conclusiones señalan la necesidad de aplicar políticas penitenciarias con perspectiva de género y feminista, que consigan erradicar las graves desigualdades y discriminaciones que sufren las mujeres encarceladas y que sirvan para proteger los derechos básicos de madres y criaturas.

'Just a colour?': Exploring women's relationship with pink alcohol brand marketing within their feminine identity making.

BACKGROUND: The pinking of alcohol products and marketing (i.e. the (over) use of the colour pink as a feminine aesthetic) is a form of gendered marketing that is used by the industry to target and appeal to the female market, and encourage sales and alcohol consumption. However, little is known about how women relate to and view such marketing, and how such products feature in their performance of femininities through drinking practice. METHODS: Semi-structured individual (N = 39) and group (N = 79) interviews with 117 women who drank alcohol and participated in the night time economy in the city of Liverpool in North West of England were conducted to gain insight into their attitudes towards the use of pink in alcohol product design and marketing content, and how this relates to their feminine identity making in intersectional ways. Interviews with individuals (N = 23) working in alcohol brand marketing locally, nationally and globally were also conducted to explore the use of pink marketing. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. FINDINGS: The pinking of products and marketing was considered the most obvious form of female targeted marketing by both women and marketers. Discussion of pink drinks generated in depth discussions of the femininities and connotations attached to the colour. Reflecting a conventional and normative femininity, women conformed to, and/or rejected pink products and marketing, within their feminine identity making. Four themes are presented that draw attention to the similarities and differences between marketers and women's perspectives on pink marketing, and how women's relationship with pink marketing and products were nuanced, varied in relation to their feminist identities, and intersected with other social positions such as sexuality and class. CONCLUSION: The article makes an original and significant contribution to the field on gendered drinking practices and identity making and the influence of alcohol marketing on these processes, and is novel in addressing the usual omission of industry voice in discussions of marketing. It concludes that in the current context of contemporary feminism, in which (young) women are endorsing feminist identities, women's relationship with feminism influences their attitudes to marketing such as pinking, and their likelihood of consuming such products.

Redefining global cardiac surgery through an intersectionality lens.

Although cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, six billion people lack access to safe, timely and affordable cardiac surgical care when needed. The burden of cardiovascular disease and disparities in access to care vary widely based on sociodemographic characteristics, including but not limited to geography, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, indigeneity, socioeconomic status and age. To date, the majority of cardiovascular, global health and global surgical research has lacked intersectionality lenses and methodologies to better understand access to care at the intersection of multiple identities and traditions. As such, global (cardiac) surgical definitions and health system interventions have been rooted in reductionism, focusing, at most, on singular sociodemographic characteristics. In this article, we evaluate barriers in global access to cardiac surgery based on existing intersectionality themes and literature. We further examine intersectionality methodologies to study access to cardiovascular care and cardiac surgery and seek to redefine the definition of 'global cardiac surgery' through an intersectionality lens.

Reframing the public/private debate on healthcare services: Tracking boundaries in the National Health Service.

This paper intervenes in the dichotomous debate on the 'privatisation' of the UK's National Health Service (NHS). Whilst research suggests that involving private-sector actors and principles deviates from the founding aims of the NHS to deliver equitable healthcare for all, the opposing argument to 'keep our NHS public' also limits understanding and alternative possibilities. Through focusing on maintaining overarching structures, these campaigns fail to address everyday medical practices that have long been critiqued by those allied with the sociology of health and illness. This paper draws on feminist critiques of public/private to expand the structural economic lens of mainstream political debates and explore how multiple forms of economic, social, cultural, and symbolic capital, operate in everyday healthcare practices. Through an historically-informed ethnographic exploration of routine hip replacements, I find that capital itself emerges through relations between people and things, and that public/private boundaries play an integral role in forming these relations to instil value on particular patients and forms of labour, demarcating what kind of healthcare is given to whom. I therefore suggest future action should focus on assembling healthcare relations beyond the dualism of public/private categories, to create multiple safe places and relations for all.

(Un)blurred lines? Sex, disability, and the dynamic boundaries of mental capacity law.

In this article, we consider the approach to decisions regarding capacity and sexual relations in the Court of Protection in England and Wales, and the boundaries drawn through its application of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). We discuss recent developments in the law following the UK Supreme Court case A Local Authority v JB [2021] UKSC 52, which recast how capacity in relation to sexual relations ought to be assessed. Noting that this case has been warmly received by some feminist theorists for the centrality it affords to mutual consent, we draw on critical approaches from feminist, Black feminist, and disability scholarship, to call attention to the legal techniques and judicial reasoning in this case and the ways in which this embeds problematic norms and reinforces the marginalisation of disabled people. We call attention to the impoverished notions of equality advanced in the case and the assumptions that this appears to rely upon which obscure the realities and histories of legal intervention in disabled people's lives. We further argue that the approach in sexual relations cases appears to use capacity determinations as a vehicle to supplement gaps left by the criminal law, blurring their distinct rationalities and enabling further opportunities for control. We suggest that important insights can be gained from bringing these critical perspectives into conversation, including unsettling assumptions contained in the judgment and in mental capacity scholarship more broadly, manoeuvring us out of the perceived intractability of legal reasoning in this context, and offering productive ways forward.

Adolescents and sexual assault: A critical integrative review.

Adolescents are sexually assaulted at remarkably high rates. Adolescents are also unique given the specific dynamics of adolescent sexual assault, their current stage in human development, their limited legal standing and rights, and their experiences navigating postassault services and resources. While literature exists within each of these domains, it is somewhat disconnected and overlooks how adolescents are often relegated to the margins in research and practice. The purpose of this integrative review is to (1) provide a more complete understanding of adolescent sexual assault and survivors' nuanced needs; (2) frame adolescent survivors as a too-often-overlooked oppressed group that researchers and responders must consider and center in their work, lest contribute to their further marginalization; and (3) inspire and orient social justice-minded scholar activists to various action steps to take to center and prioritize adolescents in research and practice. Through our intersectional feminist approach, we offer specific action steps for social justice-minded scholar activists to recenter adolescents in their research and practice.