In Dilemmas of Adulthood, Nancy Rosenberger investigates the nature of long-term resistance in a longitudinal study of more than fifty Japanese women over two decades. Between 25 and 35 years of age when first interviewed in 1993, the women represent a generation straddling the stable roles of post-war modernity and the risky but exciting possibilities of late modernity. By exploring the challenges they pose to cultural codes, Rosenberger builds a conceptual framework of long-term resistance that undergirds the struggles and successes of modern Japanese women. Her findings resonate with broader anthropological questions about how change happens in our global-local era and suggests a useful model with which to analyse ordinary lives in the late modern world. Rosenberger's analysis establishes long-term resistance as a vital type of social change in late modernity where the sway of media, global ideas, and friends vies strongly with the influence of family, school, and work. Women are at the nexus of these contradictions, dissatisfied with post-war normative roles in family, work, and leisure and yet-in Japan as elsewhere-committed to a search for self that shifts uneasily between self-actualization and selfishness. The women's rich narratives and conversations recount their ambivalent defiance of social norms and attempts to live diverse lives as acceptable adults. In an epilogue, their experiences are framed by the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which is already shaping the future of their long-term resistance. Drawing on such theorists as Ortner, Ueno, the Comaroffs, Melucci, and Bourdieu, Rosenberger posits that long-term resistance is a process of tense, irregular, but insistent change that is characteristic of our era, hammered out in the in-between of local and global, past and future, the old virtues of womanhood and the new virtues of self-actualization. Her book is essential for anyone wishing to understand how Japanese women have manoeuvred their lives in the economic decline and pushed for individuation in the 1990s and 2000s.

Imagine that murdered primatologist Dr. Dian Fossey of Gorillas in the Mist fame were alive today and able to reflect upon her death as well as her legacy. This is the impetus behind author Georgianne Nienaber's compelling work, Gorilla Dreams: The Legacy of Dian Fossey. At the beginning of Gorilla Dreams, Fossey attends her own funeral and watches her murdered gorillas interacting with the graveside bystanders. She establishes a new relationship with the slain gorilla Digit, who acts as her guide after death as she carefully reviews her life, its challenges, successes, hardships, and the ultimate closure of her murder. Although Fossey's death is officially unsolved, recently released documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, as well as testimony from the International War Crimes Tribunal proceedings, offer new suspects, motives, and opportunities. Every fact about Fossey's life is meticulously annotated. However, the setting of her conversations with the murdered gorillas is obviously fictional, yet steeped in African tradition. the famed primatologist's life that honors the African belief that the dead live on in spiritual form.

Throughout history certain forms and styles of dress have been deemed appropriate - or more significantly, inappropriate - for people as they age. Older women in particular have long been subject to social pressure to tone down, to adopt self-effacing, covered-up styles. But increasingly there are signs of change, as older women aspire to younger, more mainstream, styles, and retailers realize the potential of the 'grey market'. Fashion and Age is the first study to systematically explore the links between clothing and age, drawing on fashion theory and cultural gerontology to examine the changing ways in which age is imagined, experienced and understood in modern culture through the medium of dress. Clothes lie between the body and its social expression, and the book explores the significance of embodiment in dress and in the cultural constitution of age. Drawing on the views of older women, journalists and fashion editors, and clothing designers and retailers, it aims to widen the agenda of fashion studies to encompass the everyday dress of the majority, shifting the debate about age away from its current preoccupation with dependency, towards a fuller account of the lived experience of age. Fashion and Age will be of great interest to students of fashion, material culture, sociology, sociology of age, history of dress and to clothing designers.

Between 1922 and 1996, over 10,000 girls and women were imprisoned in Magdalene Laundries, including those considered 'promiscuous', a burden to their families or the state, those who had been sexually abused or raised in the care of the Church and State, and unmarried mothers. These girls and women were subjected to forced labour as well as psychological and physical maltreatment. Using the Irish State's own report into the Magdalene institutions, as well as testimonies from survivors and independent witnesses, this book gives a detailed account of life behind the high walls of Ireland's Magdalene institutions. The book offers an overview of the social, cultural and political contexts of institutional survivor activism, the Irish State's response culminating in the McAleese Report, and the formation of the Justice for Magdalenes campaign, a volunteer-run survivor advocacy group. Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries documents the ongoing work carried out by the Justice for Magdalenes group in advancing public knowledge and research into Magdalene Laundries, and how the Irish State continues to evade its responsibilities not just to survivors of the Magdalenes but also in providing a truthful account of what happened. Drawing from a variety of primary sources, this book reveals the fundamental flaws in the state's investigation and how the treatment of the burials, exhumation and cremation of former Magdalene women remains a deeply troubling issue today, emblematic of the system of torture and studious official neglect in which the Magdalene women lived their lives. The Authors are donating all royalties in the name of the women who were held in the Magdalenes to EPIC (Empowering People in Care).

This volume explores how the interpretation of material from the ancient Near East is enriched through the application of diverse methodological and theoretical approaches to studying gender. The contributors to this collection include both established and up-and-coming scholars whose work brings gender studies theories-from Butler's theory of gender as a performance to more recent theories that consider gender as a spectrum-to bear on varied materials and contexts. Their essays increase the visibility of women in ancient history, untangle constructions of masculinity and femininity in diverse contexts, and grapple with big-picture questions, such as the suitability of applying third-wave or postfeminist theories to the ancient Near East. Studying Gender in the Ancient Near East points to a need for-and provides a model of-a more productive agenda for gender studies in furthering our understanding of ancient Near Eastern societies. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Julia M. Asher-Greve, Stephanie Lynn Budin, Megan Cifarelli, M. Erica Couto-Ferreira, Amy Rebecca Gansell, Katrien De Graef, Amelie Kuhrt, Stephanie M. Langin-Hooper, Brigitte Lion, Natalie N. May, Beth Alpert Nakhai, Martti Nissinen, Omar N'Shea, Maria Rosa Oliver, Frances Pinnock, Eleonora Ravenna, Allison Karmel Thomason, Luciana Urbano, Niek Veldhuis, and Ilona Zsolnay.

A compelling story about a boy who learned that he was not like other boys...he learned early in life that he was born with both male and female genitalia...an Intersex child. Follow him on his journey of self-acceptance.

Li Ang (1952-) is a famous and prolific feminist writer from Taiwan who challenges and subverts sociocultural traditions through her daring explorations of sex, violence, women's bodies and desire, and national politics. As a taboo-breaking writer and social critic, she uses fiction to expose injustice and represent human nature. Her political engagement further affords her a visionary perspective for interrogating the problematic intersection of gender and politics. The ambivalence in her fictional representations invites controversies and debates. Her works have thus helped raise awareness of the problems, open up discussions, and bring about social and intellectual changes. Some of her works have been translated into such foreign languages as English, French, German, and Japanese. In her career spanning over forty years, she has won numerous literary awards. Li Ang's Visionary Challenges to Gender, Sex, and Politics is the first collection of critical essays in English on Li Ang and some of her most celebrated works. Contributing historians examine her vital roles in the Taiwanese women's movement and political arenas, as well as the social influence of her publications on extramarital affairs. Contributing literary scholars investigate the feminist controversy over her 1983 award-winning novel, Shafu (Killing the Husband; translated as The Butcher's Wife); offer alternative interpretative strategies such as looking into figurations of "biopower" and relationship dynamics; dissect the subtle political significance in her magnificent novel Miyuan (The labyrinthine garden; 1991) and explosive political fiction, Beigang xianglu renren cha (Everyone sticks incense into the Beigang censer; 1997) from the perspective of gender and national identity; scrutinize the multiple discursive levels in her superb novel Qishi yinyuan zhi Taiwan/Zhongguo qingren (Seven prelives of affective affinity: Taiwan/China lovers; 2009); and analyze the "(dis)embodied subversion" accomplished by her fantastic Kandejian de gui (Visible ghosts; 2004). As the first volume in English to examine Li Ang's trail-blazing discourse on gender, sex, and politics, this work will inspire more studies of her oeuvre and contribute usefully to the fields of modern Taiwanese and Chinese literature, feminist studies, and comparative literature.

Deaths by suicide are high: every 40 seconds, someone in the world chooses to end their life. Despite acknowledgement that suicide notes are social texts, there has been no book which analyzes suicide notes as discursive texts and no attempt at a qualitative discourse analysis of them. Discourses of Men's Suicide Notes redresses this gap in the literature. Focussing on men and masculinity and anchored in qualitative discourse analysis, Dariusz Galasinski responds to the need for a more thorough understanding of suicidal behaviour. Culturally, men have been posited to be 'masters of the universe' and yet some choose to end their lives. This book takes a qualitative approach to data gathered from the Polish Corpus of Suicide Notes, a unique repository of over 600 suicide notes, to explore discourse from and about men at the most traumatic juncture of their lives. Discussing how men construct suicide notes and the ways in which they position their relationships and identities within them, Discourses of Men's Suicide Notes seeks to understand what these notes mean and what significance and power they are invested with.

Benigna Preziosi Mazzarella led a life that seemed the epitome of ordinariness, except that it also embodied a perfect storm for longevity: amazing genes, adherence to a Mediterranean diet, and almost compulsive physical activity. Benigna imbued her days with an energy all her own. Even more remarkable, she lived to be over one hundred and seven years old.

David Mazzarella, a journalist and the son of Benigna, shares a cooking, eating, and lifestyle guide based on his mother's philosophies that a lifetime of hard work was not bad, that laughter was even better, and that the only enemy in her life was fat. Known as a wizard in the kitchen, Benigna possessed uncharacteristic dislikes for a lady who exclusively cooked Italian food-she had little use for garlic, oregano, unpeeled tomatoes, wine, and the insides of bread. Mazzarella offers a glimpse into a typical day in his mother's kitchen along with the recipes of her most sought-after dishes, including one made with a mysterious herb.

"Always Eat the Hard Crust of the Bread" shares a wonderful tribute to a tough matriarch and inspiring cook through entertaining anecdotes, personal foibles, unforgettable sayings, and practical recipes that share one woman's secret of how to live a long and happy life.

"A delightful tribute to a long-lived mother and some quirky family members with dozens of Mama's unique recipes, including one made with an obscure herb that few know how to use."
-Gwen Romagnoli, co-author of "Italy the Romagnoli Way: A Culinary Journey"

Misconceptions regarding gender identity and issues of inequality that women around the world face have become a predominant concern for not only the citizens impacted, but global political leaders, administrators, and human rights activists. Revealing Gender Inequalities and Perceptions in South Asian Countries through Discourse Analysis explores how an analysis of language use in the South Asian region exposes issues related to gender identity, representation, and equality. Emphasizing emerging research and case studies focusing on the concept of gender in Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Nepal, this publication is an essential resource for social theorists, activists, linguists, media professionals, researchers, and graduate-level students.

"Standing Our Ground: Women, Environmental Justice, and the Fight to End Mountaintop Removal" examines women's efforts to end mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia. Mountaintop removal coal mining, which involves demolishing the tops of hills and mountains to provide access to coal seams, is one of the most significant environmental threats in Appalachia, where it is most commonly practiced.
The Appalachian women featured in Barry's book have firsthand experience with the negative impacts of Big Coal in West Virginia. Through their work in organizations such as the Coal River Mountain Watch and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, they fight to save their mountain communities by promoting the development of alternative energy resources. Barry's engaging and original work reveals how women's tireless organizing efforts have made mountaintop removal a global political and environmental issue and laid the groundwork for a robust environmental justice movement in central Appalachia.

Allegorical Bodies begins with the paradoxical observation that at the same time as the royal administrators of late fourteenth and early fifteenth-century France excluded women from the royal succession through the codification of Salic law, writers of the period adopted the female form as the allegorical personification of France itself. Considering the role of female allegorical figures in the works of Eustache Deschamps, Christine de Pizan, and Alain Chartier, as well as in the sermons of Jean Gerson, Daisy Delogu reveals how female allegories of the Kingdom of France and the University of Paris were used to conceptualize, construct, and preserve structures of power during the tumultuous reign of the mad king Charles VI (1380-1422). An impressive examination of the intersection between gender, allegory, and political thought, Delogu's book highlights the importance of gender to the functioning of allegory and to the construction of late medieval French identity.

Foluke Joyce Omosule never forgot the love she received as a child and all the kindhearted people she grew up with in the southwestern part of Nigeria.

Raised by her grandparents, her parents were always in her life, and their caring and concern gave her the strength to overcome the many challenges she faced as she fought to get an education.

Her hard work paid off in the form of opportunities--and one of them was the chance to go to the United States to continue her education. Even after leaving home, she was constantly reminded of who she was and where she came from, and trust and intuition helped her move from one stage of life to the next.

Whether you're seeking to fit into a new place or trying to create a better life for yourself, you can find inspiration in the challenges, fears, and pain that Foluke overcomes in Behind the Glass Door.