This is a timely collection exploring the politics of female celebrity across a range of contemporary, historical, media and national contexts. "In the Limelight and Under the Microscope" is a timely collection exploring the politics of female celebrity across a range of contemporary, historical, media and national contexts. Amidst concerns about the apparent 'decline' in the currency of modern fame ('famous for being famous'), as well as debates about the shifting parameters of public/private visibility, it is female celebrities who are positioned as the most active discursive terrain. This collection seeks to interrogate such phenomena by forging a greater conceptual, theoretical and historical dialogue between celebrity studies and critical gender studies. It takes as its starting point the understanding that female celebrity is a particularly fraught cultural phenomenon with ideological and industrial implications that warrant careful scrutiny. In moving across case studies from the 19th century to the present day, this book works from the assumption that the case study should play a crucial role in generating debate about the dialogue between 'past' and 'present', and the individual essays will seek to reflect this spirit of enquiry.

Western culture has long regarded black female sexuality with a strange mix of fascination and condemnation, associating it with everything from desirability, hypersexuality, and liberation to vulgarity, recklessness, and disease. Yet even as their bodies and sexualities have been the subject of countless public discourses, black women's voices have been largely marginalized in these discussions. In this groundbreaking collection, feminist scholars from across the academy come together to correct this omission--illuminating black female sexual desires marked by agency and empowerment, as well as pleasure and pain, to reveal the ways black women regulate their sexual lives.
The twelve original essays in "Black Female Sexualities" reveal the diverse ways black women perceive, experience, and represent sexuality. The contributors highlight the range of tactics that black women use to express their sexual desires and identities. Yet they do not shy away from exploring the complex ways in which black women negotiate the more traumatic aspects of sexuality and grapple with the legacy of negative stereotypes.
"Black Female Sexualities" takes not only an interdisciplinary approach--drawing from critical race theory, sociology, and performance studies--but also an intergenerational one, in conversation with the foremothers of black feminist studies. In addition, it explores a diverse archive of representations, covering everything from blues to hip-hop, from "Crash "to "Precious," from Sister Souljah to Edwidge Danticat. Revealing that black female sexuality is anything but a black-and-white issue, this collection demonstrates how to appreciate a whole spectrum of subjectivities, experiences, and desires.

The precious life of Saint Mary Magdalene includes her time spent with Jesus Christ before, during, and after his murderous death by the Roman soldiers and manipulated Jews. Mary Magdalene was the first person Jesus approached and spoke to after he rose from the dead. The most beautiful and sacred story ever written. Saint Mary Magdalene was a misunderstood, lost, but true hearted and dedicated soul. This lost and forgotten book has been resurrected in keeping the exact wording, spelling, punctuation, and format of the original source written in the year 1860. Grace your brain and bookshelf and preserve this story. Reverend Thomas S. Preston (1824-1891) was a Roman Catholic Vicar-General of New York, prothonotary Apostolic, chancellor, author, preacher, and administrator. All monetary profit, if any, derived from this book will be joyfully given, by R. Sirius Kname, to the church in deserving.

Tornado warnings were posted in Canton, Ohio, on the night of author Cherie Kirby Hill Wren's birth in 1943. The storm was just a normal occurrence, but she can't help think it was a precursor of her life to come.

In "Speed Bumps and Angels, " Wren recaps the storms and speed bumps she has experienced in her life: nearly drowning when she was just two years old; being hit by a car; getting jilted, twice; running away from home and marrying a man who was abusive and ultimately tried to kill her; developing type 2 diabetes; being diagnosed with benign essential blepharospasm; having her mitral and aortic valves replaced; gaining a pacemaker; and enduring pulmonary hypertension.

In this memoir, Wren shows how these bumps served their purpose. First, they slowed her down so she didn't run out of control. Second, they gave her a little jolt, sometimes back to reality. Third, they kept her from getting too complacent. She shows that by conquering challenges, we grow and learn. We are here for a purpose, and by living each day to the fullest we can, knowingly or unknowingly, accomplish that purpose.

Epsilon Phi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, has a long and distinguished history of which we are very proud. From its inception to present day, this chapter has provided service to all mankind in an exemplary and noteworthy manner. This is not only reflected in various awards and accolades bestowed upon the membership, but also through its longevity and growth in membership. Furthermore, the tremendous impact this chapter has had in diverse sectors of the community also emphasizes the outstanding works of this chapter. This distinct history will be chronicled through reflective summaries of the chartering of Epsilon Phi Omega and national, regional, and local programs. In addition, there are highlights of chapter membership, celebrations, community outreach, and awards. These narratives begin with notable events during the administration of the chapter's first basileus, Velma Daye. Through her leadership Epsilon Phi Omega was chartered. The history will also include a recapping of current initiatives carried out under the leadership of Dr. Tesha Isler.

Caran always wondered about her family's secrets. Her search for the truth took many years to unravel the mysteries-and then to eventually disclose those secrets she herself was keeping. What the Skeletons in the Closet Tell Me invites readers along on a riveting, adventurous spy mission of self-discovery and quest for the truth. From her rough and tumble childhood in the Pacific Northwest, through the "hell" of her military service, the massive ongoing government cover-ups, and it's complex aftermath. Caran reflects with candid honesty on a life she never expected to last this long. She recounts the relentless battles with injustice, discrimination, and the stigma of mental illness, brutal abuse and betrayal from the hands of people she trusted. She escapes death with the help of her mystical allies, beloved animal companions, and "The Voice" who leads her to discover the goldmine, the hidden treasure of hope, healing, and transformation.

Schooling Diaspora relates the previously untold story of twentieth-century female education and Chinese students living overseas in British Malaya and Singapore. Traversing more than a century of British imperialism, Chinese migration, and Southeast Asian nationalism, this book explores the pioneering English- and Chinese-language girls' schools in which these women studied and worked, drawing on school records, missionary annals, colonial reports, periodicals, and oral interviews. The history of educated overseas Chinese girls and women reveals the surprising reach of transnational female affiliations and activities in an age commonly assumed to be male dominated. These women created and joined networks in schools, workplaces, associations, and politics. They influenced notions of labor and social relations in Asian and European societies. They were at the center of political debates over language and ethnicity, and were vital actors in struggles over twentieth-century national belonging. Their education empowered them to defy certain socio-cultural conventions, in ways that school founders and political authorities did not anticipate. At the same time, they contended with an elite male discourse that perpetuated patriarchal views of gender, culture, and nation. Even as their schooling propelled them into a cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic public space, Chinese girls and women in diaspora often had to take sides as Malayan and Singaporean society became polarized-sometimes falsely-into mutually exclusive groups of British loyalists, pro-China nationalists, and Southeast Asian citizens. They negotiated these constraints to build unique identities, ultimately contributing to the development of a new figure: the educated transnational Chinese woman.

This groundbreaking book challenges the medicalized approach to women's experiences including menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause and suggests that there are better ways for women to cope with real issues they may face. Before any woman diets, douches, botoxes, reduces, reconstructs, or fills a prescription for antidepressants, statins, hormones, menstrual suppressants, or diet pills, she should read this book. Contesting common medical practice, the book addresses the many aspects of women's lives that have been targeted as "deficient" in order to support the billion-dollar profits of the medical-pharmacological industry and suggests alternatives to these "remedies." The contributors-psychologists, sociologists, and health experts-are also gender experts and feminist scholars who recognize the ways in which gender is an important aspect of the human experience. In this eye-opening work, they challenge the marketing and "science" that increasingly render women's bodies and experiences as a series of symptoms, diseases, and dysfunctions that require treatment by medical professionals who prescribe pharmaceutical and surgical interventions. Each article in the book addresses the marketing of a specific "condition" that has been constructed in a way that convinces a woman that her body is inadequate or her experience and behavior are not good enough. Among the topics addressed are menstruation, menopause, pregnancy, post-partum adjustment, sexual desire, weight, body dissatisfaction, moodiness, depression, grief, and anxiety. Addresses popular topics including the "thin ideal," the health realities of weight, cosmetic surgery, birth as a medical emergency, sexual desire and menopause, depression, and mourning Critiques the "science" and marketing that sees all women's complaints as symptoms, diseases, and dysfunctions requiring medical treatment Explains how psychological and social factors affect women's health and argues for a more well-founded approach such as using talk therapy first Explains why events like menopause, sexual desire, body dissatisfaction, and grief are examples of issues often not best treated with drugs, but with psychotherapy for permanent resolution Will appeal to all adult women who might, or do, question current medical approaches and media promises

A Cultural History of The Human Body presents an authoritative survey from ancient times to the present. This set of six volumes covers 2800 years of the human body as a physical, social, spiritual and cultural object. Volume 1: A Cultural History of the Human Body in Antiquity (1300 BCE - 500 CE) Edited by Daniel Garrison, Northwestern University. Volume 2: A Cultural History of the Human Body in The Medieval Age (500 - 1500) Edited by Linda Kalof, Michigan State University Volume 3: A Cultural History of the Human Body in the Renaissance (1400 - 1650) Edited by Linda Kalof, Michigan State University and William Bynum, University College London. Volume 4: A Cultural History of the Human Body in the Enlightenment (1600 - 1800) Edited by Carole Reeves, Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College London. Volume 5: A Cultural History of the Human Body in the Age of Empire (1800 - 1920) Edited by Michael Sappol, National Library of Medicine in Washington, DC, and Stephen P. Rice, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Volume 6: A Cultural History of the Human Body in the Modern Age (1900-21st Century) Edited by Ivan Crozier, University of Edinburgh, and Chiara Beccalossi, University of Queensland. Each volume discusses the same themes in its chapters: 1. Birth and Death 2. Health and Disease 3. Sex and Sexuality 4. Medical Knowledge and Technology 5. Popular Beliefs 6. Beauty and Concepts of the Ideal 7. Marked Bodies I: Gender, Race, Class, Age, Disability and Disease 8. Marked Bodies II: the Bestial, the Divine and the Natural 9. Cultural Representations of the Body 10. The Self and Society This means readers can either have a broad overview of a period by reading a volume or follow a theme through history by reading the relevant chapter in each volume. Superbly illustrated, the full six volume set combines to present the most authoritative and comprehensive survey available on the human body through history.

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) exert a great influence on global activities. ITC has affected the structure of governments, economies, cultures, and even human health. Another area in which ICT has had a tremendous impact is within the developing world and nations where women face repression and fewer opportunities. Overcoming Gender Inequalities through Technology Integration is a critical source for understanding the role of technology adoption within female empowerment and equality in developing nations and beyond. This publication examines the strategies applicable to the use of technology in the purist of societal recognition of women in addition to the trajectory and visibility of women in developing as well as developed countries in which they have access to ICTs. This book is an essential reference source for students and teachers of gender studies or information technology, women's advocacy groups, policy makers, NGOs, and technology developers.

A DOROTHY KOOMSON BOOK OF THE YEAR AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Such a beautiful read, like chatting to a friend over a cuppa. This is the intimate, insightful read that I didn't know I needed. Just brilliant.' Dorothy Koomson Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah spent decades talking openly and intimately to African women around the world about sex. In this book, she brings together their extraordinary stories, whilst also chronicling her own journey towards sexual freedom. From finding queer community in Egypt to living a polyamorous life in Senegal to understanding the intersectionality of religion and pleasure in Cameroon, their necessary narratives are individual and illuminating. This stunning collection provides crucial insight into our quest for sexual power and offers all women inspirational examples to live a truly liberated life. 'Touching, joyful, defiant - and honest.' Economist, Books of the Year 2021 'Fascinating.' Bernadine Evaristo 'Honest and moving. A vital treasure.' Bolu Babalola, author of Love in Colour 'Stunning. Essential read! I couldn't put it down.' Nicole Dennis-Benn, bestselling author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun 'Leaves you feeling deliciously empowered.' Lola Shoneyin, author of The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives 'Boundary-breaking, fascinating and deeply affirming.' Otegha Uwagba, author of Little Black Book

This book presents the first feminist translation of Rosalia de Castro's seminal poetic anthology En las orillas del Sar [On the Edge of the River Sar] (1884). Rosalia de Castro (1837-1885) was an artist of vast poetic vision. Her understanding of human nature and her deep sensitivity to the injustices suffered by women and by such marginalized peoples as those of her native region, Galicia, are manifest in verses of universal yet rarely translated significance. An outspoken proponent of both women's rights and her region's cultural and political autonomy, Castro used her poetry as a vehicle through which to decry the crushing hardships both groups endured as Spain vaulted between progressive liberal and conservative reactionary political forces throughout the nineteenth century. Depending upon what faction held sway in the nation at any given time during Castro's truncated literary career, her works were either revered as revolutionary or reviled as heretical for the views they espoused. Long after her death by uterine cancer in 1885, Castro was excluded from the pantheon of Spanish literature by Restoration society for her unorthodox views. Compellingly, the poet's conceptualization of the individual and the national self as informed by gender, ethnicity, class, and language echoes contemporary scholars of cultural studies who seek to broaden present-day definitions of national identity through the incorporation of precisely these same phenomena. Thanks to the most recent works in Rosalian and Galician studies, we are now able to recuperate and reevaluate Rosalia de Castro's poems in their original languages for the more radical symbolism and themes they foreground related to gender, sexuality, race and class as they inform individual and national identities. However, although Castro's poetic corpus is widely accessible in its original languages, these important features of her verses have yet to be given voice in the small number of English translations of only a sub-set of her works that have been produced in the last century. As a result, our understanding of Castro's potential contributions to contemporary world poetries, gender studies, Galician and more broadly cultural studies is woefully incomplete. An English translation of Castro's works that is specifically feminist in its methodological orientation offers a unique and thought-provoking means by which to fill this void.