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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Gender studies
Critically analyzes the discursive relationship between cultural
value and popular feminism in American television. While American
television has long relied on a strategic foregrounding of feminist
politics to promote certain programming's cultural value, Woman Up:
Invoking Feminism in Quality Television is the first sustained
critical analysis of the twenty-first-century resurgence of this
tradition. In Woman Up, Julia Havas's central argument is that
postmillennial "feminist quality television" springs from a
rhetorical subversion of the (much-debated) masculine-coded
"quality television"culture on the one hand and the dominance of
postfeminist popular culture on the other. Postmillennial quality
television culture promotes the idea of aesthetic-generic
hierarchies among different types of scripted programming. Its
development has facilitated evaluative academic analyses of
television texts based on aesthetic merit, producing a corpus of
scholarship devoted to pinpointing where value resides in shows
considered worthy of discussion. Other strands of television
scholarship have criticized this approach for sidestepping the
gendered and classed processes of canonization informing the
phenomenon. Woman Up intervenes in this debate by reevaluating such
approaches and insisting that rather than further fostering or
critiquing already prominent processes of canonization, there is a
need to interrogate the cultural forces underlying them. Via
detailed analyses of four TV programs emerging in the early period
of the "feminist quality TV" trend-30 Rock (2006-13), Parks and
Recreation (2009-15), The Good Wife (2009-16), and Orange Is the
New Black (2013-19)-Woman Up demonstrates that such series mediate
their cultural significance by combining formal aesthetic
exceptionalism and a politicized rhetoric around a "problematic"
postfeminism, thus linking ideals of political and aesthetic value.
Woman Up will most appeal to students and scholars of cinema and
media studies, feminist media studies, television studies, and
cultural studies.
In an era when women were supposed to be disciplined and obedient, Anna proved to be neither. Defying 16th-century social mores, she was the frequent subject of gossip because of her immodest dress and flirtatious behavior. When her wealthy father discovered that she was having secret, simultaneous affairs with a young nobleman and a cavalryman, he turned her out of the house in rage, but when she sued him for financial support, he had her captured, returned home and chained to a table as punishment. Anna eventually escaped and continued her suit against her father, her siblings and her home town in a bitter legal battle that was to last 30 years and end only upon her death. Drawn from her surviving love letters and court records, The Burgermeister's Daughter is a fascinating examination of the politics of sexuality, gender and family in the 16th century, and a powerful testament to the courage and tenacity of a woman who defied the inequalities of this distant age.
Eunuchs tend to be associated with eastern courts, popularly
perceived as harem personnel. However, the Roman empire was also
distinguished by eunuchs - they existed as slaves, court officials,
religious figures and free men. This book is the first to be
devoted to the range of Roman eunuchs. Across seven chapters
(spanning the third century BC to the sixth century AD), Shaun
Tougher examines the history of Roman eunuchs, focusing on key
texts and specific individuals. Subjects met include the Galli (the
self-castrating devotees of the goddess the Great Mother),
Terence's comedy The Eunuch (the earliest surviving Latin text to
use the word 'eunuch'), Sporus and Earinus the eunuch favourites of
the emperors Nero and Domitian, the 'Ethiopian eunuch' of the Acts
of the Apostles (an early convert to Christianity), Favorinus of
Arles (a superstar intersex philosopher), the Grand Chamberlain
Eutropius (the only eunuch ever to be consul), and Narses the
eunuch general who defeated the Ostrogoths and restored Italy to
Roman rule. A key theme of the chapters is gender, inescapable when
studying castrated males. Ultimately this book is as much about the
eunuch in the Roman imagination as it is the reality of the eunuch
in the Roman empire.
There has been an increase in women entrepreneurs participating in
the growth of local, regional, national, and global economies.
While these women showcase crucial skills for strategic leadership
and strategy that can advance companies, they face cultural,
educational, social, and political barriers that impede their
development and participation within the global economy. Women
Entrepreneurs and Strategic Decision Making in the Global Economy
is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on
understanding the value of women entrepreneurs and the strategies
they can use on the economy and examines gender impact on strategic
management and entrepreneurship. While highlighting topics such as
emotional intelligence, global economy, and strategic leadership,
this book is ideally designed for managers, entrepreneurs,
policymakers, academicians, and students.
Gender, Communication, and the Leadership Gap is the sixth volume
in the Women and Leadership: Research, Theory, and Practice series.
This cross-disciplinary series, from the International Leadership
Association, enhances leadership knowledge and improves leadership
development of women around the world. The purpose of this volume
is to highlight connections between the fields of communication and
leadership to help address the problem of underrepresentation of
women in leadership. Readers will profit from the accessible
writing style as they encounter cutting-edge scholarship on gender
and leadership. Chapters of note cover microaggressions, authentic
leadership, courageous leadership, inclusive leadership, implicit
bias, career barriers and levers, impression management, and the
visual rhetoric of famous women leaders. Because women in
leadership positions occupy a contested landscape, one goal of this
collection is to clarify the contradictory communication dynamics
that occur in everyday interactions, in national and international
contexts, and when leadership is digital. Another goal is to
illuminate the complexities of leadership identity,
intersectionality, and perceptions that become obstacles on the
path to leadership. The renowned thinkers and scholars in this
volume hail from both Leadership and Communication disciplines. The
book begins with Sally Helgesen and Brenda J. Allen. Helgesen,
co-author of The Female Vision: Women's Real Power at Work,
discusses the two-fold challenge women face as they struggle to
articulate their visions. Her chapter offers six practices women
can use to relieve this struggle. Allen, author of the
groundbreaking book, Difference Matters: Communicating Social
Identity, discusses the implications of how inclusive leadership
matters to women and what it means to think about women as people
who embody both dominant and non-dominant social identity
categories. She then offers practical communication strategies and
an intersectional ethic to the six signature traits of highly
inclusive leaders. Each chapter includes practical solutions from a
communication and leadership perspective that all readers can
employ to advance the work of equality. Some solutions will be of
use in organizational contexts, such as leadership development and
training initiatives, or tools to change organizational culture.
Some solutions will be of use to individuals, such as how to
identify and respond productively to micro-aggressions or how to be
cautious rather than optimistic about practicing authentic
leadership. The writing in this volume also reflects a range of
styles, from in-depth scholarship that produces new knowledge to
shorter forums that feature interesting ideas worth considering.
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