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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Gender studies
The discovery of gold in the southern Black Hills in 1874 set off
one of the great gold rushes in America. In 1876, miners moved into
the northern Black Hills. That's where they came across a gulch
full of dead trees and a creek full of gold and Deadwood was born.
Practically overnight, the tiny gold camp boomed into a town that
played by its own rules that attracted outlaws, gamblers and
gunslingers along with the gold seekers. Deadwood was comprised
mostly of single men, a ration of men to women as high as 8 to 1,
never less than 3 to 1.The lack of affordable housing, the hostile
environment, the high cost of travel, and the expense of living in
Deadwood prevented many men from bringing their wives, girlfriends
and families to the growing town. Hoards of prostitutes and madams
came to Deadwood to capitalize on the lack of women. By the
mid-1880s, there were more than a hundred fifty brothels in the
mining community. The most notorious cat house in Deadwood was
owned and operated by Al Swearengen. Swearengen was an
entertainment entrepreneur who opened the house of ill-reputed
shortly after he arrived in town in the spring of 1876.Initially
known as The Gem, the brothel was host to a number of well-known
soiled doves of the Old West from Eleanor Dumont to Nita Celaya.
The brothel was in continual operation for more than sixty years.
The business changed hands a number of times during the six decades
it was in existence. Among the many madams who ran the cat house
were Poker Alice Tubbs, Mert O'Hara, and Gertrude Bell. The
business also changed names a number of times. It was known as
Fern's Place, The Combination, and The Meoldian. When the brothel
officially closed in 1956, it was known as The Beige Door. In the
spring of 2022, The Beige Door will once again be open for
business. This time as a museum. The South Dakota Historical
Society have invested in refurbishing the brothel and making it
ready for the public to tour. The book Deadwood's Red-Light Ladies:
Behind the Beige Door will focus on the infamous cat house, those
that managed the business, their employees, its well-known
clientele, the various crimes committed at the location, and its
ultimate demise.
The Female Body in Medicine and Literature features essays that
explore literary texts in relation to the history of gynaecology
and women's surgery. Gender studies and feminist approaches to
literature have become busy and enlightening fields of enquiry in
recent times, yet there remains no single work that fully analyses
the impact of women's surgery on literary production or,
conversely, ways in which literary trends have shaped the course of
gynaecology and other branches of women's medicine. This book will
demonstrate how fiction and medicine have a long-established
tradition of looking towards each other for inspiration and
elucidation in questions of gender. Medical textbooks and pamphlets
have consistently cited fictional plots and characterisations as a
way of communicating complex or 'sensitive' ideas. Essays explore
historical accounts of clinical procedures, the relationship
between gynaecology and psychology, and cultural conceptions of
motherhood, fertility, and the female organisation through a broad
range of texts including Henry More's Pre-Existency of the Soul
(1659), Charlotte Bronte's Villette (1855), and Eve Ensler's Vagina
Monologues (1998). The Female Body in Medicine and Literature
raises important theoretical questions on the relationship between
popular culture, literature, and the growth of women's medicine and
will be required reading for scholars in gender studies, literary
studies and the history of medicine. This collection explores the
complex intersections between literature and the medical treatment
of women between 1600 and 2000. Employing a range of methodologies,
it furthers our understanding of the development of women's
medicine and comments on its wider cultural ramifications. Although
there has been an increase in critical studies of women's medicine
in recent years, this collection is a key contributor to that field
because it draws together essays on a wide range of new topics from
varying disciplines. It features, for instance, studies of
motherhood, fertility, clinical procedure, and the relationship
between gynaecology and psychology. Besides offering essays on
subjects that have received a lack of critical attention, the
essays presented here are truly interdisciplinary; they explore the
complex links between gynaecology, art, language, and philosophy,
and underscore how popular art forms have served an important
function in the formation of 'women's science' prior to the
twenty-first century. This book also demonstrates how a number of
high-profile controversies were taken up and reworked by novelists,
philosophers, and historians. Focusing on the vexed and convoluted
story of women's medicine, this volume offers new ways of thinking
about gender, science, and the Western imagination. List of
contributors: Janice Allan, Madeleine K. Davies, Greta Depledge,
Laurie Garrison, Joanna Grant, Lori Schroeder Haslem, Dominic
Janes, Emma L. Jones, Karin Lesnik-Oberstein, Pam Lieske, Andrew
Mangham, Emma L. E. Rees, Sheena Sommers, Susan C. Staub, and
Carolyn D.Williams.
Twenty-three countries currently allow women to serve in front-line
combat positions and others with a high likelihood of direct enemy
contact. This book examines how these decisions did or did not
evolve in 47 countries. This timely and fascinating book explores
how different countries have determined to allow women in the
military to take on combat roles-whether out of a need for
personnel, a desire for the military to reflect the values of the
society, or the opinion that women improve military
effectiveness-or, in contrast, have disallowed such a move on
behalf of the state. In addition, many countries have insurgent or
dissident factions, in that have led armed resistance to state
authority in which women have been present, requiring national
militaries and peacekeepers to engage them, incorporate them, or
disarm and deradicalize them. This country-by country analysis of
the role of women in conflicts includes insightful essays on such
countries as Afghanistan, China, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Russia, and
the United States. Each essay provides important background
information to help readers to understand the cultural and
political contexts in which women have been integrated into their
countries' militaries, have engaged in combat during the course of
conflict, and have come to positions of political power that affect
military decisions. Delineates the ways in which women are
incorporated into national militaries in both the United States and
countries around the world Offers in each entry the distinct
national context in which countries have decided to employ women in
warfare Reveals how different nations choose to include or exclude
women from the military, providing key insight into each nation's
values and priorities Examines how governments treat women serving
in combat: battlefield experience can "earn" a woman citizenship or
be cause for shunning her, depending on the state
This book is a collection of essays highlighting different
disciplinary, topical, and practical approaches to the study of
kink and popular culture. The volume is written by both academics
and practitioners, bringing the essays a special perspective not
seen in other volumes. Essays included examine everything from Nina
Hartley fan letters to kink shibari witches to kink tourism in a
South African prison. The focus is not just on kink as a sexual
practice, but on kink as a subculture, as a way of living, and as a
way of seeing popular culture in new and interesting ways.
A fascinating look at the lives of women who bore the heat of day
in Christian mission, but who were often forgotten by history until
now.
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