scholarly journals Playing it Fashionably Queer: Mae West’s Performing Sexuality

Pólemos ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-80
Author(s):  
Giada Goracci

Abstract “Marriage is a fine institution, but I’m not ready for an institution.” With this challenging innuendo, the American actress and author Mae West offers an insight into gender performativity and heteronormativity through marriage in a period, the “Roaring Twenties,” in which sexual and gender politics could not be put into scrutiny. Her vamp persona and the elaborated iconography that she crafted on her character gave birth to a meticulous semiotics of the body that eventually undermined the American social context of the time fostering on the one hand, an image of heterosexual desire, and on the other hand an appealing icon to a gay market. This article ventures a queer-oriented perspective on West’s charismatic character and on the intertwined effects that tie semiotics to body language, especially focussing on the plays Sex (1926) and The Drag (1927).

2020 ◽  
pp. 219-234
Author(s):  
Nao Sawada

Abdelkébir Khatibi, who was seduced by the land of the Rising Sun, left us a few texts on Japan and its culture such as Japanese Shadow and “Tanizaki Revisited” in which he refers, in particular, to the great Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki. These texts indeed present a dual interest: on the one hand, they allow us to discover unknown aspects of Abdelkébir Khatibi – his deep attraction for Japanese culture, not only for literature but also calligraphy and other fine arts – and, on the other hand, his subtle and brilliant reading of Tanizaki's text, which gives us another insight into Japanese culture. In these two texts, we can identify several elements that Khatibi discovers in Japan via Tanizaki: exoticism beyond the simple exotic, eroticism, and ‘exophony’. We therefore examine Khatibi's Japanese culture, as inflected through the lens of Junichiro Tanizaki, following three problematics: exoticism, the body and languages, and Eros/Thanatos. Far from separate, all these elements are intertwined for Tanizaki as well as for Khatibi. In other words, this is a phenomenon, as the Moroccan writer points out, of ‘intersemiotics’.


Author(s):  
Zoran Vrucinic

The future of medicine belongs to immunology and alergology. I tried to not be too wide in description, but on the other hand to mention the most important concepts of alergology to make access to these diseases more understandable, logical and more useful for our patients, that without complex pathophysiology and mechanism of immune reaction,we gain some basic insight into immunological principles. The name allergy to medicine was introduced by Pirquet in 1906, and is of Greek origin (allos-other + ergon-act; different reaction), essentially representing the reaction of an organism to a substance that has already been in contact with it, and manifested as a specific response thatmanifests as either a heightened reaction, a hypersensitivity, or as a reduced reaction immunity. Synonyms for hypersensitivity are: altered reactivity, reaction, hypersensitivity. The word sensitization comes from the Latin (sensibilitas, atis, f.), which means sensibility,sensitivity, and has retained that meaning in medical vocabulary, while in immunology and allergology this term implies the creation of hypersensitivity to an antigen. Antigen comes from the Greek words, anti-anti + genos-genus, the opposite, anti-substance substance that causes the body to produce antibodies.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 380
Author(s):  
Matthew John Paul Tan

This paper will focus on one element of the pushback against the massive influx of immigrants taken in for humanitarian purposes, namely, an identity-based chauvinism which uses identity as the point of resistance to the perceived dilution of that identity, brought about by the transformation of culture induced by the incorporation of a foreign other. The solution to this perceived dilution is a simultaneous defence of that culture and a demand for a conformity to it. While those in the critical tradition have encouraged a counter-position of revolutionary transformation by the other through ethics, dialogue, or the multitude, such a transformation is arguably impeded by what is ultimately a repetition of the metaphysics of conformity. Drawing on the personalism of Emmanuel Mounier and the Eucharistic theology of Creston Davis and Aaron Riches, this paper submits an alternative identity politics position that completes the revolutionary impulse. Identity here is not the flashpoint of a self-serving conflict, but the launch-point of politics of self-emptying, whose hallmarks include, on the one hand, a never-ending reception of transformation by the other, and on the other hand, an anchoring in the Body of Christ that is at once ever-changing and never-changing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-430
Author(s):  
Maja Tabea Jerrentrup

Abstract The art of bodypainting that is fairly unknown to a wider public turns the body into a canvas - it is a frequently used phrase in the field of bodypainting that illustrates the challenge it faces: it uses a three-dimensional surface and has to cope with its irregularities, but also with the model’s abilities and characteristics. This paper looks at individuals who are turned into art by bodypainting. Although body painting can be very challenging for them - they have to expose their bodies and to stand still for a long time while getting transformed - models report that they enjoy both the process and the result, even if they are not confident about their own bodies. Among the reasons there are physical aspects like the sensual enjoyment, but also the feeling of being part of something artistic. This is enhanced and preserved through double staging - becoming a threedimentional work of art and then being staged for photography or film clips. This process gives the model the chance to experience their own body in a detached way. On the one hand, bodypainting closely relates to the body and on the other hand, it can help to over-come the body.


2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-72
Author(s):  
Håkan Larsson

Håkan Larsson: Sport and gender This article concerns bodily materialisation as it occurs in youth sport. It is based on interviews with teenagers 16 to 19 years of age doing track and field athletics. The purpose of the article is to elucidate how the notion of a “natural body“ can be seen as a cultural effect of sports practice and sports discourse. On the one hand, the body is materialised as a performing body, and on the other as a beautiful body. The “performing body“ is a single-sexed biological entity. The “beautiful body“ is a double-sexed and distinctly heterosexually appealing body. As these bodies collide in teenager track and field, the female body materialises as a problematic body, a body that is at the same time the subject of the girl’s personality. The male body materialises as an unproblematic body, a body that is the object of the boy’s personality. However, the body as “(a problematic) subject“ or as “(an unproblematic) object“ is not in itself a gendered body. Rather, these are positions on a cultural grid of power-knowledge relations. A girl might position herself in a male discourse, and a boy might position himself in a female discourse, but in doing so, they seem to have to pay a certain price in order not to be seen as queer.


Author(s):  
Touré Bassamanan

This paper highlights the different layers of meaning that characterize the notion of manhood in Gaines’ fiction. The quest for manhood represents an imperative for the frustrated men in the framework of the social context wherein they are emasculated. Here, manhood should be grasped through a binary paradigm. On the one hand, the expression of manhood equates with male domination and violence. On the other hand, due to social expectations, manhood refers to the struggle for freedom. It undermines the white racial superiority and it claims blacks’ humanity. Manhood fosters humanistic principles. Thus, it takes on a universal dimension.


2007 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Andrey Kurtenkov

It is related leg problems to the realization of the necessity of doing a detailed analysis of the phenotype correlations between body weight and exterior measurements. As a result of the study, lower coefficients have been obtained of the correlation between the girth of the tarso metatarsus on one hand, and the body weight and the girth behind the wings, on the other hand (respectively 0.563 and 0.608), compared with the one between the body weight and the girth behind the wings (0.898). It is advisable in the selection of ostriches to take into consideration the necessity of a higher phenotypic correlation between the girth of the tarso metatarsus on the one hand, and the body weight and the girth behind the wings on the other hand, with a view to preventing leg problems.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
Robert Dobrowolski

Wzniosłe i cielesne pożywienie w sztuce jedzenia i nie-jedzeniaPrzenikające współczesną sztukę rozmaite, często przeciwstawne, strategie estetyczne manifestują się w  kulinarnym artyzmie nowoczesnej kuchni, a  także w  zmieniających się pod jej wpływem postawach i  zwyczajach żywieniowych. Z  jednej strony — abiektualizacyjny porządek dadaistycznej dezynwoltury, perwersyjna obrona przed całkowitym nihilizmem, w  perwersyjny sposób dekonstruuje estetykę jedzenia w  kuchni fusion; z  drugiej — zupełnie odmienna i  szczególnie zaskakująca w  wypadku sztuki jedzenia, charakterystyczna dla kuchni molekularnej, estetyka wzniosłości, zbliżająca się niekiedy do anorektycznej awersji wobec ciała, ale też nigdy nieporzucająca perspektywy smaku i  związanej z  nią zmysłowej przyjemności. The sublime and carnal food in the art of eating and not eatingVarious aesthetic strategies present in modern art, often contradictory, are not only manifested in culinary art of modern cuisine, but also in changing dietary attitudes and habits. On the one hand — abject order of dadaistic unceremoniousness, defense against complete nihilism, perversely deconstructs the food aesthetics in fusion cuisine; on the other hand — completely surprising in the context of food art, characteristic of molecular cuisine, aesthetics of sublime acquires sometimes anorectic aversion to the body, but never abandons the taste and connected with it sensual pleasure.


Author(s):  
Vita Heinrich-Clauer

This article focuses on bioenergetic principles and the link between emotions and the voice, discussing various approaches to vocal expression in the psychotherapeutic process. There is an examination of the idiosyncrasies of bioenergetic work with the voice in contrast to therapeutic approaches that work solely with the body. There is an important distinction for practical bioenergetic work between liberating vocal discharge on the one hand and the build-up of tone, boundaries and self-efficacy on the other hand (cf. Shapiro, 2006, 2008, 2009).


Author(s):  
Teerink Han

This chapter offers insight into a typical initial public offering (IPO) process, highlighting key practical and legal considerations around disclosure, through the IPO prospectus and otherwise. The prospectus plays a key role in the preparations for, and execution of, an IPO. As an IPO prospectus typically constitutes a company's first public dissemination of financial and business information, the company and other parties involved in the IPO process must carefully consider the right balance between, on the one hand, drafting the IPO prospectus as a marketing document introducing the company and its business to potential investors, whilst, on the other hand, being able to use the prospectus as a disclosure document that protects the company against liability arising from claims from investors or others after the IPO. Here, the chapter summarizes the different phases in an IPO process and the most important documents and parties involved, focusing on the central role of the IPO prospectus. In addition, a number of changes resulting from the enactment of the Prospectus Regulation are likely to be of particular relevance to IPO processes. The expected impact of these changes is therefore also discussed.


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