Search

The feminisation of religion is a category used for organizing the knowledge on sexual difference in modern imaginary. Concerning Spain at the turn of the twentieth century, the analysis of data on the participation of men and women in pious activities can serve to enrich the study of the feminisation and re-masculinisation of religion. First, it allows us to assess that the pious practices related to the most significant dates in the Catholic calendar was, regularly, similar for both sexes. Moreover, the use of data can test the hypothesis that sometimes there existed a notion of feminisation of religion even in a context where there was no substantial difference de facto between sexes concerning religious practice. This phenomenon could be explained by such a notion being imported from places where such a trend was indeed underway. I do not argue for a return to the ways and methods typical of social history in its heyday; what I strive for is to engage with the current lines of research on the feminisation and re-masculinisation of religion and carry out a nuanced analysis of the available data that would enrich or modify the prevailing interpretation of both phenomena.

According to common sense, fashion and feminism do not get along. Often in history, male fashion designers have exploited the female body for their artistic whims, and just as often, women have refused to comply with the dictates of fashion as the embodiment of an aestheticizing and fetishistic male gaze. However, on many occasions, feminists have reappropriated and resemantized the domestic practices of knitting, sewing and embroidery, conceptualizing them as different ways to think about politics, community, the self, and relationality. Among the many philosophers and activists of Italian second wave feminism, the most influential is undoubtedly Carla Lonzi. Over the years, Carla Lonzi has almost been turned into an idol, exploring every nuance of her thought both in feminism and art criticism. However, her image has remained unexplored, probably considered not particularly relevant. Through her work, this article analyzes the complex dynamics between fashion and feminism, and reconstructs Carla Lonzi’s wardrobe starting from the photographs in her books and in archives, interpreting it with the help of her diary Taci, anzi parla, and of her collection of poems Scacco ragionato.

This essay examines the relation between scientific inquiry and philosophical thought in the context of a Thomistic account of human sexual difference. I begin by considering Thomas’s own view and its explicit though brief appeal to biological observation. In particular, I focus on his claim that being male or female stems more from a substance’s matter than from its form. Then, I look at a fairly recent exchange between William Newton and myself, in which, drawing upon Thomistic thought in the context of contemporary science, we argued opposing positions. Mine held that sex stems more from form than from matter, while Newton maintained that Thomas’s original position is better. In reviewing this exchange, I note strengths in Newton’s argument and suggest a further distinction, even while concluding that my fundamental position is still a better account. Lastly, I turn to further questions and the necessity of continued partnership between philosophy and science.

Technofeminism has long known that it must be a multi-scalar feminism, that is, able to think, encounter, and negotiate these increasing scales of complexity that comprise our world, from the pharmacological to the planetary-computational. We read technofeminism as constitutively defined by its commitment to both realism and anti-essentialism, and contemporary technofeminisms to be epitomised by, on the one hand, the flat vitalist ontology of new materialism, and on the other, the trans-scalar rationalism of Xenofeminism. By examining these contemporary technofeminisms through contemporary theorisations of the concept of scale, we show that they have a problem with what the latter identify as ‘scalar collapse’; these technofeminisms conceptualise the multi-scalarity of reality, in the last instance, via a collapse into either the ‘master scale’ of new materialist ‘matter’, or via the ‘trans-scalar zoom’ of Xenofeminist rationalism. As such, they recoil from the reality of scalar differences, undermining their commitment to realism (and therefore technics), as well as reducing scalar difference to one unitary, ‘metaphysical’ ground, placing them back within an essentialist collapse. Through examining contemporary theorisations of scale, we claim that in order to avoid such scalar collapse, any truly multi-scalar theory must think difference as both ontogenetic, in the Simondonian sense, and irreducibly at-least-two, in the sense of Irigaray’s concept of sexuate difference. Against any concerns that Irigaray’s notion of sexuate difference may be essentialist or determinist, we show that the ontogenetic character of this difference means it is irreducible and yet also open-ended, that is, open to multiply complex, topologically scalar transformations throughout subsequent individuations. It is this thinking of difference as this ontogenetic ‘at least two’ that can enable contemporary technofeminisms to be truly multi-scalar feminisms.

This article proposes a feminist reading of Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams and Other Prose Writings (1977) by Sylvia Plath. Its main purpose is to deconstruct Ted Hughes’ critical analysis of Plath’s stories which claims their aesthetic « weakness » (« Introduction », Johnny Panic). Moreover, this paper analyzes a selection of Plath’s stories by showing their political dimension and their connections with several concepts of the sexual difference feminism. In conclusion, this article retraces the evolution of Plath’s political awareness as well as her new interest in History and in her contemporary socio-political world.

In this essay, I suggest an entangled analysis of sexual difference theory via Luce Irigaray and creolization via Édouard Glissant. I argue that these two distinct discourses share a critical stance against Western sameness and assimilation into a closed metaphysical system. However, each is born of particular historical socio-political struggles that should not be collapsed. I bring them together to demonstrate that their claims are productively entangled and that a critical re-reading of melancholia can unite readers to locate sources of sexual-racial-colonial violence in disparate locations and epochs, holding collective memory and acting beyond critique. Relying on Francoise Vergès’s account of métissage and anamnesis, I will suggest that Antillean geographical vantages reveal complexities of racial and colonial relation to one’s mother, the state, and the sea. By interrogating psychoanalytic and linguistic claims, I forward a South-South circulation of coordinated but distinctive political reimaginations that challenge static notions of race, gender, and sexual difference.

The researchers intend to analyze John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant's Woman to depict how the female protagonists reject the notion of being eunuchs and experience liberation and revolution within the social context. To carry out this study, the researchers analyze the female characters. This masterpiece revolves around the notions of love and sexuality. The French Lieutenant's Woman has been analyzed from different aspects of feminism. However, in this research, the purpose is to depict how Victorian women are able to break the phallocentric discourse by negating sexual differences and becoming eunuch subjects. The beginning of the novel shows Charles’ engagement with Ernestina mostly based on the social doctrines of the Victorian era. In fact, there is no love between them and what binds them together is social expectation. Ernestina is the symbol of a woman who desires to be a female eunuch and obey the principles of the nuclear family. On the other hand, Sarah is a rebellious character who selects love over the social doctrines of Victorian society. The present research is conducted based on Luce Irigaray and Germaine Greer's theories in which the role of Victorian women is analyzed.

Abstract Flowers play a central role in plant reproduction by dispersing and receiving pollen grains delivered by animal vectors or air. They are rich in various nutrients, and therefore, provide an ideal habitat for many microbes. Recent studies have revealed that flower microbial communities can be highly variable among species, individuals, or even floral parts. However, sexual differences in flower microbial communities have rarely been investigated. In this study, we analyzed the flower prokaryotic communities of a dioecious plant (male and female flowers are produced on different individuals), Mallotus japonicus, in its natural habitat in Otsu, Japan. Using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we found a differentiation in microbial communities between male and female flowers. Procaryotes on male flowers were relatively diverse, and included several dominant amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), mainly from the Gammaproteobacteria. These ASVs were also found on the body surface of flower visitor insects, suggesting that the visitors dispersed these microbes when they visited the flowers. On the other hand, female flower samples were overwhelmingly dominated by a single bacterial sequence from the Alphaproteobacteria, which showed a peak of relative abundance at the middle of the flowering season. The bacterium had already been present at anthesis, and its relative abundance on flower visitors was low. Flower visitors may have little effect on the microbial composition on female flowers. The lower diversity of microbes on female flowers than on male flowers suggests that the female flowers function as a stronger filter, possibly related to a strong defense against antagonists. These differences may be associated with different reproductive strategies of male and female flowers. This study indicates that dioecious plants provide unique opportunities to study roles of microbes in the evolution of floral traits that have mostly been overlooked in pollination ecology.

Hematological parameters are essential indices for assessing the function of blood and reflecting not only the health status of animal but also their physiological adaptation to the environment. Herein, the composition of blood cells and the hematological parameters of wild Batrachuperus karlschmidti were examined for the first time, and the effects of sex, body size, body mass, and age on the hematological parameters were explored. The morphology and morphometric data of the blood cells, as well as the hematological parameters, of B. karlschmidti were slightly differ from those of its congener. However, hematological differences between sexes were only found in erythrocyte and leukocyte count, and mean cell volume (MCV), which possibly reflecting the need for better oxygen distribution and stronger immune protection for reproduction. Hematocrit (Hct) and mean cell hemoglobin (MCH) were strongly dependent on body mass. These also might have been attributed to higher oxygen requirements with larger body masses. This is a pilot project exploring the hematology of this species that may help establish hematological parameters in future for supporting species protection and monitoring studies, as well as help understanding the physiological adaptation of this species.

Based on interdisciplinary research on the conservative “gender ideology” trend that has appeared in several Latin American countries in the last five years, this article argues that childhood(s) are at the centre of this trend as captive subjects and hostages of a symbolic struggle. The documentary analysis of different judicial, legal, political or educational elements, focused on three specific cases — Brazil, Peru and Mexico —, allows an examination of sexual difference as an unquestionable truth and of the parental hierarchy as the foundation of the generational power struggle.

Abstract Natural selection favors animals that evolve developmental and behavioral responses that buffer the negative effects of food restrictions. These buffering responses vary both between species and within species. Many studies have shown sex‐specific responses to environmental changes, usually in species with sexual size dimorphism (SSD), less found in species with weak or no SSD, which suggests that sizes of different sexes are experiencing different selections. However, previous studies usually investigated development and behavior separately, and the balanced situation where males and females of sexually dimorphic species respond in the same way to food restriction remains little known. Here, we investigated this in Phintelloides versicolor (Salticidae) that presents sexual dimorphism in color and shape but weak SSD. We examined whether food restriction induced the same responses in males and females in development duration, adult body size and weight, daily time allocated to foraging, and hunting. We found food restriction induced similar responses in both sexes: both exhibited longer development duration, smaller adult body size and weight, higher probability of staying outside nests and noticing prey immediately, and higher hunting success. However, there were sexual differences regardless of food condition: females showed faster development, smaller adult body size, higher probability of staying outside of nests, and higher hunting success. These indicated the differential selection on male and female sizes of P. versicolor could be under a balanced situation, where males and females show equal developmental and behavioral plasticity to environmental constraints.

Effects of wind erosion on growth and adaptability have been widely reported in many plants, but little attention has been paid to dioecious plants. Recent studies have shown that sex-specific responses to environmental changes in many plants exist. To explore sexual differences in response to wind erosion, female and male Salix gordejevii saplings growing on inter-dune land (no erosion) and on the windward slope of the dune (20cm wind erosion) in Hunshandake Sandy Land were chosen and their morphology, biomass and physiological traits were investigated, respectively. Wind erosion significantly reduced plant growth, biomass accumulation, gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence, and obviously disrupted osmotic regulation function and antioxidant enzyme system in both sexes, especially in males. Under wind erosion condition, females exhibited higher sapling height (SH), basal diameter (BD), leaf dry mass (LDM), root dry mass (RDM), total dry mass (TDM), root percentage in total dry mass, net photosynthesis rate (Pn), maximum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), effective quantum yield of PSII (ΦPSII), relative water content (RWC) of leaves, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activities, but lower malondialdehyde (MDA), proline as well as soluble sugar content than did males. However, no significant sexual differences in most of these traits were observed under no erosion condition. Our results demonstrated that females possess a greater resistance to wind erosion than do males, with females having a better photosynthetic capacity, stronger water retention capacity and more efficient antioxidant system to alleviate negative effects caused by aeolian environment.

Background & objectives: Sex impacts the manner in which a person responds to such disease as susceptibility and progression. The aim of this study was to investigate the sex differences in the genotype distribution and allele frequency of some of the adiponectin gene polymorphisms and the comparison of the interaction of the studied polymorphisms and type 2 diabetes-related environment risk factors between males and females. Methods: This study included 103 males and 79 females with type 2 diabetes and 94 healthy males and 61 healthy females for control. Genotyping was performed using amplification refractory mutation system-PCR (T-ARMS-PCR). Statistical analysis was done using SPSS-26.0. The interaction between SNP-SNP and SNPs-environmental factors was analyzed using MDR (version 3.0.2) software. Results: Sex-genotype interaction effect was significantly associated only for triglycerides with SNP-11391G/A (p= 0.027). For SNP+45T/G, the difference genotypes were distinctly associated with hemoglobin A1c (p=0.024), body mass index (p=0.033) and body fat percentage (p=0.018). For +276G/T fasting insulin level detected a potential difference in genotypes (p=0.016). Regarding to the results of MDR analysis, the combination of fasting blood glucose, rs17300539 and sex was the best three-factor model. In this model, the distribution of patients according to sex is demonstrated that most men with GA and AA genotypes of -11391G/A had Hemoglobin A1C more than 8.5 while in women there was no relation to genotype found. Conclusion: Sexual difference impact the interaction between adiponectin gene polymorphisms and environmental risk factors. According to the findings of this study, the effect of environmental risk factors on the progression of type 2 diabetes related to Adiponectin gene polymorphisms are demonstrated within the males more than females.

The quarterly journal Lapis. Percorsi della riflessione femminile began life in Milan on 1 January 1987, and remained active until 1996, publishing a total of 32 issues. The editor-in-chief was Lea Melandri, a philosopher, essayist, and activist in the feminist movement in Italy. The publishing project was not driven by a clearly defined and permanent group of female writers. On the contrary, Lapis sought to create an open space for reflections, testimonies, and stories from the world of women, starting with individual experiences, beyond any temptation to symbolism and metaphysics. Our paper aims to highlight how Lapis engaged in the most innovative and potentially revolutionary feminist practices of the 1970s, particularly the analysis of suppressed themes—such as the connection between love and violence, the dynamics of emotional and sexual life, and the problems created by the dualist vision specific to the patriarchy—which silently influence the network of human relations in both private and public life.

This essay seeks to analyse Reti. Pratiche e saperi di donne, a feminist journal launched in Rome in 1987 and published on a bi-monthly basis until 1992. Reti published articles on current political and cultural topics and was founded by feminist members of the Italian Communist Party. The editorial staff was made up of a large number of women including Ida Dominijanni, Paola Gaiotti de Biase, Rossana Rossanda, Chiara Saraceno, Giglia Tedesco, Livia Turco and Silvia Vegetti Finzi, under the leadership of Maria Luisa Boccia. The journal covered the confrontation between thinking on sexual difference and the communist culture. It was launched amid a national and international context characterised by many important changes; the most important of all being the fall of the Berlin Wall. Reti dealt mainly with Italian feminism, but kept a keen eye on European and international feminism.

In order to investigate the relationship between feather mites and their hosts taking into account host ecology I examined relationships among feather mite load, and sex, age, wing length and body‐condition in the white wagtail Motacilla alba lugens. I captured 288 wagtails in January (the first period) 2002 at a communal roost in Osaka, central Japan. All the wagtails were ringed individually, aged as yearlings (first‐winter) or adults (older) and sexed. I measured wing length, tarsus length and body mass, calculated a body condition index (BCI) and determined the feather mite loads (FML) of each individual by visual examination of the flight feathers of one wing, giving a score using the range 0–5. I recaptured 121 wagtails after an average of 45 days (the second period), and redetermined their FML. FML was not correlated with wing length or body‐condition. Yearlings had higher FML than adults in both periods. Males had greater FML than females in the second period. No significant differences in FML between the first and second periods were detected among yearling females, or adult males, but adult females had significantly lower FML and yearling males had significantly higher FML than the other age–sex classes in the second period. The sexual difference was caused by the lower FML of adult females and the higher FML of yearling males. The BCI of yearling males was the lowest among the four combinations of sex and age‐class. I conclude that wagtails may be able to prevent overpopulation of feather mites on their own plumage. The ability to control mite populations may be related to the condition of the host.

Maximus the Confessor’s Ambiguum 41 contains some rather atypical observations concerning the distinction of sexes in the human person. There is a certain ambiguity as to whether the distinction of the sexes was intended by God and is ‘by nature’ (as found in Genesis and asserted by most Church Fathers) or a product of the Fall. Namely, Christ is described three times as “shaking out of nature the distinctive characteristics of male and female”, “driving out of nature the difference and division of male and female” and “removing the difference between male and female”. Different readings of those passages engender important implications that can be drawn out from the Confessor’s thought, both eschatological implications and otherwise. The subject has been picked up by Cameron Partridge, Doru Costache and Karolina Kochanczyk-Boninska, among others, but is by no means settled, as they draw quite different conclusions. The noteworthy and far-reaching implications of Maximus’ theological stance and problems are not the object of this paper. In a 2017 paper I attempted to demonstrate what Maximus exactly says in these peculiar and oft-commented passages through a close reading, in order to avoid a two-edged Maximian misunderstanding: to either draw overly radical implications from those passages, projecting decidedly non-Maximian visions on the historical Maximus, or none at all, as if those passages represented standard Patristic positions. Here, I am revisiting this argument, given that the interest in what the Confessor has to say on the subject seems to be increasing.

Nitric oxide (NO), a bioactive molecule, is often involved in the regulation of physiological and biochemical processes in stressed plants. However, the effects of NO donors on dioecious plants remain unclear. Using a pot experiment, female and male Torreya grandis were used to study the role of sex and NO in salt stress tolerance. In the present study, female and male T. grandis seedlings pretreated with an NO donor (sodium nitroprusside, SNP) were exposed to salt stress, and then leaf relative water content (RWC), photosynthetic pigments, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, NO and glutathione levels, oxidative damage, and antioxidant enzyme activities were investigated. Female T. grandis plants had better tolerance to salinity, as they were characterized by significantly higher RWC, pigment content, and photochemical activities of photosystem II (PSII) and fewer negative effects associated with higher nitrate reductase (NR) activity and NO content. Pretreatment with an NO donor further increased the endogenous NO content and NR activity of both female and male T. grandis plants compared with salt treatment. Moreover, pretreatment with an NO donor alleviated salt-induced oxidative damage of T. grandis, especially in male plants, as indicated by reduced lipid peroxidation, through an enhanced antioxidant system, including proline and glutathione accumulation, and increased antioxidant enzyme activities. However, the ameliorating effect of the NO donor was not effective in the presence of the NO scavenger (Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester, L-name). In conclusion, enhanced salt tolerance in T. grandis plants is related to nitric oxide levels and the supply of NO donors is an interesting strategy for alleviating the negative effect of salt on T. grandis. Our data provide new evidence to contribute to the current understanding of NO-induced salt stress tolerance.

For Nietzsche, a phenomenon, a belief, a mode of knowledge, or of subjectivity, confronts us with the possibility of creating, rather than presupposing, the criteria for its evaluation. In his Untimely Meditations, he widened the parameters of criticizability in just this way, proposing that history might be evaluated from the criterion of whether it is good or bad for life. Nietzsche provokes us to ask what the right question is to bring to history. Stepping back to formulate a response might allow us to appreciate the difference between interrogating the accuracy of historical accounts and assessing their effects.

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to compare the anthropology of gender by Vasil Rozanov and the ethics of sexual difference by Luce Irigaray, to identify similarities and distinctions between these theories, and to assess their role in the development of the gender studies. Theoretical basis combines the comparative method and the gender approach, which is based not only on describing the difference of statuses, roles and other aspects of men’s and women’s lives, but also on overcoming the androcentrism in the contemporary world. Originality of the work consists in the fact that, in the context of the gender studies, the special philosophical and anthropological comparison of the gender concepts by Rozanov and Irigaray were carried out for the first time. This allowed reckoning Rozanov’s theory in essentialism, and Irigaray’s theory in anti-essentialism. The article also reveals the similarity in the anthropology of gender by Rozanov and the ethics of sexual difference by Irigaray in terms of sexuality concept, analyzes and details their main ideas. Conclusion. The important similarity between Rozanov’s and Irigaray’s concepts is the assertion of female subjectivity as equivalent to male one. The female equivalent of sexuality by Rozanov manifests itself in the concept of "cunnicentrism", but by Irigaray, it is in the metonymy of "two lips". The methodological basis of their concepts is the insuperable opposition of "masculine" and "feminine". Rozanov seeks to identify "masculine" and "feminine", but Irigaray rather concentrates on their radical distinction. According to Rozanov, sexual differences are determined biologically or metaphysically, which defines their eternal and unchanging nature. In turn, Irigaray argues that phallocentric culture is the condition of sexual differences, which may be overcome with changing linguistic structures. The fundamental similarity of the anthropology of gender and the ethics of sexual difference is that not only "masculine", but also "feminine" principles are sexualized in them. Thus, Rozanov in his style and attention to physicality is surprisingly close to the modern gender anthropology and may be regarded as its forerunner. At the same time, the influence of Irigaray’s philosophical concepts on the contemporary gender studies is that she was the first to point out the need to create a woman’s other discourse that respects sexual difference and revealed the problematical character of singling out the distinctions between the female different and any other different in it.

Qiaoqiao Lu,1,2 Jianbo Lai,1,3–4 Yanli Du,2 Tingting Huang,2 Pornkanok Prukpitikul,2 Yi Xu,1,3–4 Shaohua Hu1,3–41Department of Psychiatry, First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, 310003, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, People’s Republic of China; 3Brain Research Institute of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, People’s Republic of China; 4Key Laboratory of Mental Disorder Management in Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of ChinaAbstract: The neuropeptides oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (VP) are hormones that are known to mediate social behavior and cognition, but their influence may be sex-dependent. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the sex-related influence of OT and VP on social cognition, focusing on partner preference and sexual orientation, trust and relevant behaviors, memory modulation, and emotion regulation. Most studies have suggested that OT facilitates familiar-partner preference in both sexes, with females being more significant, increased trust in others, especially for male, enhanced memory in either sex, and reduced anxious emotion in males. However, VP-regulated social cognition has been less studied. Other relevant studies have indicated that VP facilitated familiar-partner preference, improved memory, induced empathy formation, increased positive-emotion recognition, and induced anxiety without any sex difference. However, there was a male preponderance among studies, and results were often too complex to draw firm conclusions. Clarifying the interplay between OT/VP and sex hormones in the regulation of social cognition is necessary for further applications.Keywords: oxytocin, vasopressin, sexual difference, social cognition, social behavior

This article crosses the approach of the feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray, making reference mainly to her work An Ethics of Sexual Difference and the philosopher Merleau-Ponty, highlighting, especially, the chapter "The Intertwining- the Chiasm," of the book The Visible and the Invisible. The first author quoted has a kind of relation of ambivalence and self-subordination in the way she puts herself in front of the texts of male philosophers, attributing power to them. Incorporating for her own text the philosophical tradition. Irigaray gets involved with Merleau-Ponty by an "interweaving", which will characterize the relations of flesh. It is worth noting that this article is unified by the purpose of the elaboration of what Irigaray calls an ethical relationship between the sexes. For her this relationship consists of the question "Who are you?” The vast debate involving ethics, sexual difference, and otherness of the flesh is being woven under the analysis of the two great philosophers mentioned.

Through an account of the history of women-studies-movements in India, the paper aims to interrogate the ‘temporality’ of feminist response to the neoliberal reality. By juxtaposing two dominant narratives situated differently, the paper appeals for a reevaluation of contemporary feminist knowledges that bemoan the loss of ‘welfare state’ and collective political struggles. Through a critical account of women-studies-movements in India, and the inability of their dominant stories to respond to the current conundrums of responding to the ‘neoliberal’ subject, the paper argues that it is not just the neoliberal reality which is hegemonic and all too powerful, but also the feminist stories that constitute it.

In recent times, Feminism has been declared a mass phenomenon, as if it thereby was attributed a plural character. Yet, what kind of plurality is at stake for the Mass as a subject? According to the philosophical notion of das Man, the Mass serves indifference, and it therefore stands as the paradigmatic subject of neoliberalism, fascism, and right-wing populism. The logic of the Mass is the logic of the One. Yet difference makes operative another logic, namely the logic of Plurality, a relational logic that allows for the new, the unexpected, and the improbable. Given its radically material and non-discursive complex character, the Body actualizes this true transformation by enacting sexual difference. By taking the Body into account, that is, by taking difference specifically into account, both in ontological as well as in epistemological and in ethico-political terms, Feminism might become an antidote to the totalitarian logic of the One.

This paper revisits elements of second wave feminism—in its psychoanalytic, radical, materialist, Marxist and deconstructionist aspects—the better to understand how it is we might define sexual difference today. The vexed question of sexuation, of what it means to be a woman in particular has today generated great tensions at the theoretical, legal and philosophical level. This paper is an attempt to return to aspects of the second wave—an unfinished project where many enduring feminist concerns were for the first time thoroughly and metaphysically articulated—the better to defend the importance of sexual difference. To this end, the transcendental and parallax dimensions of sexed life will be discussed, alongside a defence of the centrality of the mother to our thinking about the relevance and necessity of preserving the importance of sexual difference, not only for thought but also for political and legal life. Author(s): Nina Power Title (English): Revisiting Second Wave Feminism in the Light of Recent Controversies Journal Reference: Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 17, No. 2-3 (Winter 2020) Publisher: Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities - Skopje Page Range: 28-35 Page Count: 8 Citation (English): Nina Power, “Revisiting Second Wave Feminism in the Light of Recent Controversies,” Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 17, No. 2-3 (Winter 2020): 28-35. Author Biography Nina Power, Independent Researcher Nina Power is a philosopher and writer, and the author of many articles on politics, feminism and culture. She is the author of One-Dimensional Woman (2009) and the forthcoming What Do Men Want? (2021). She is currently teaching at Mary Ward and has previously taught at the University of Roehampton and many other institutions

Viraha in high literature is constituted on the idea of separation, or “loss,” the pining to get back to the primordial relationship with the supreme. This sacred “emotion” is operationalized through de-transcendentalization of divinity in a novel affective economy in both Bhakti and Sufi traditions. Though this new devotional sect sets forth a direct communion with the divine, the absolute other, the mainstream Bhakti traditions introduce the symbol of Radha and the High Sufi theology envisions an ideal Beauty realized in the body of the unique Woman as the medium or intermediary to the path of attaining the divine. This female other is considered to be the source of psycho-sexual plenitude necessary for the experience of union with the divine. Alongside this proposition, the new norm gets new dimension with the feminization of worship, i.e., the male devotee taking up the role of the female. Thus, the gendered phenomena takes on a new impetus in this mode of expression characterized as the female voice. Such an inversion of gender envisages a new Female Body which obliterates the flesh-bodied woman. Through a new presence, woman becomes absent in this symbolism through denial of their sexual difference.

In The Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha, the descriptions of “no women” and “transforming the female body” cause criticism and defense among modern researchers. However, “woman” as the central discourse has not been clarified. In the Buddhist gender myth, the fundamental distinction between men and women is the realization of “sexual difference”, which means that the subject orientates its desire and ways to satisfy the desire in the world of the conditioned co-arising. Therefore, what the Land of Bliss negates is more desire itself than women. “No women” eliminates the desire and ego-grasping of male Buddhists, and “transforming the female body” enlightens female Buddhists as to the emptiness of herself and the impossibility of desire. As a result, all sentient beings are liberated from sexuality and practice the act of truth.

Francisca Bohigas has generally been perceived and analysed as the only conservative deputy in the Spanish Second Republic. However, her persistent attempts at transgressing and/or redefining the gender roles defended by the rights-wings parties are extremely interesting. Therefore, her life and thought can be key elements for the study of the construction of sexual difference in the Spanish conservative sectors of the first half of the twentieth century.

Por una parte, el feminismo de la diferencia señala el carácter androcéntrico del pensamiento occidental, el cual universaliza lo masculino y relega lo femenino a la otredad. Esta corriente de pensamiento construye una política feminista cuya finalidad es el reconocimiento de lo femenino partiendo de la experiencia específica de ser mujer. En consecuencia, la diferencia sexual aparece como una categoría de análisis central. Por otra parte, la teoría del género resalta el carácter heterosexual de la categoría de sexo. El presente estudio aborda dicha problemática tomando en consideración los escritos de Wittig sobre el pensamiento heterosexual y su influencia en el pensamiento de Butler, así como la obra de Braidotti, una de las principales teóricas de la diferencia sexual. El objetivo será clarificar la tensión entre la teoría del género y el pensamiento de la diferencia sexual con el fin de encontrar una estrategia que evite la exclusión. ABSTRACT: On the one hand, the difference feminism points out the androcentric character of the Western thought which universalizes the masculine and relegates the feminine to otherness. This school of thought makes feminist politics whose aim is the recognition of the feminine considering the specific experience of being a woman. As a consequence, the sexual difference appears as a central analytic category. On the other hand, gender theory remarks the heterosexual implication of the category of sex. This research deals with that subject taking into account Wittig´s writings about the straight mind and its influence on Butler’s thought, as well as Braidotti’s work, one of the main theorists of sexual difference. The objective will be to clarify the tension between gender theory and the thought of sexual difference in order to find a strategy that would avoid exclusion.

The phototaxis of insects is closely related to light source factors, such as spectrum and light intensity. The cane grub, Exolontha castanea Chang (Coleoptera: Melolonthidae), is an important underground pest of sugarcane in Guangxi province of China. To clarify the effect of spectral sensitivity and light intensity response on the phototactic behavior of E. castanea, the phototactic behavior responses of male and female adults to 13 monochromatic lights in the wavelength range of 365–630 nm and different light intensities were measured. We found that both male and female adults had positive phototaxis to 13 monochromatic lights. The phototactic response rate of males and females at ultraviolet and violet light was the highest in the wavelength range of 365–420 nm. Among them, the most sensitive spectrum of females and males was at 365 nm and 420 nm, respectively. From the intensity response of phototactic behavior to different spectrum, the G1 (strong phototaxis) response rates of females at 365 nm and males at 420 nm were the highest. In addition, the phototactic response rate of females and males increased with the light intensity, showing a significant positive correlation. This study showed that the spectrum and light intensity were the key factors affecting the phototactic behavior of E. castanea. The sensitive spectrum of males and females were different, with a similar trend in phototaxis.

The ways scientists think the difference of the sexes evolve, as Laqueur showed it, in the 17th-18th centuries, which lead to a complete re-evaluation of the figures of the hermaphrodite and the homosexual in the 19th century. Built as anomalies rather than as diseases strictly speaking, the hermaphroditism and the homosexuality take part to the elaboration of a device of medical thought of the difference of the sexes, ontologicaly constituted to establish a scientific, social and political order.

This article focuses on the choice of a nomination by a subject when it comes to describing their sex, whether it be a ‘third sex’, or quite simply their hetero- homo- or transexuality. The author reminds us that Lacanian-oriented psychoanalysis does not make a fetish of either anatomy or sexual difference. The author reviews a series of prejudices, albeit oedipal, which endeavour to see in analytical discourse a vector of normalisation.

This paper examines cross-dressing in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. Reading the novel’s gender topsy-turviness in light of the carnivalesque 1910 Dreadnought Hoax, for which Woolf cross-dressed as an Abyssinian Prince, I explore the seductiveness of queer non-conformity. Rather than focusing on Butlerian socio-political theories on gender, I underline the existential dimension of clothes trouble. Focusing on Orlando’s love relationships and following Clotilde Leguil’s Lacanian reading of gender vacillation, I contend that Woolf’s fanciful biography pertains to Cixous’s écriture feminine as it connects sexual difference, love and writing.

Background and Objectives: Seasonal climatic changes may affect the development of the rash that is characteristic of treatment with anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibodies. We evaluated the association between seasons and rash incidence among patients with cancer. Materials and Methods: Data from patients with colorectal or head and neck cancer treated with cetuximab or panitumumab during summer (S group; n = 34) or winter (W group; n = 37) between June 2014 and February 2019 were collected to retrospectively examine patient characteristics and rash incidence ≤ 8 weeks after treatment initiation. Results: Rashes were observed in 73.5% (n = 25) and 78.4% (n = 29) and grade 3 rashes were observed in 17.6% (n = 6) and 2.7% (n = 1) of the patients in the S and W groups, respectively. The incidence of grade ≥ 2 rashes in males in the S group was higher than that in the rest of the patient groups (p < 0.01). Conclusions: The higher incidence of skin rashes in males during summer might be attributed to the effects of ultraviolet light, lack of skincare, male hormones, and secretion of anti-EGFR antibodies in sweat. These findings highlight the need for research on preventive measures for such rashes.

Nutrias (Myocastor coypus) were imported to South Korea for farming in 1985; individuals escaped captivity and established wild populations in natural ecosystems in the late 1990s. Numerous studies have focused on their monitoring and management; however, information on the continuous movement of individuals is not available. In this study, telemetry data from field conditions were used to identify the nearest-neighbor distances of individuals in association with environmental factors, including plant type, land cover, and biological parameters. The minimum nearest-neighbor distances for the different sexes were, overall, according to the minimum distances for the same sex. Local co-occurrences of individuals, either of the same or different sex, were seasonal. Tall grasslands, followed by herbaceous vegetation, were associated with the co-occurrence of different sexes. Conversely, floating-leaved hydrophytes, followed by xeric herbaceous vegetation, were correlated with the co-occurrence of the same sex. Local female–male co-occurrences were negatively associated with male–male co-occurrences but not with female–female co-occurrences, suggesting male dominance in group formations. Movement and co-occurrence information extracted using Geo-self-organizing maps furthers our understanding of population dispersal and helps formulate management strategies for nutria populations.

This article analyzes narratives of women teachers inserted into the context of teaching Catholicism in a traditionally masculine space structured to be unintelligible to women. The aim is to show how these teachers, who work in the field of theological knowledge, are formed and assert themselves positively as feminine subjects. The study is qualitative, based on the hermeneutic interpretation of the narratives of fourteen teachers, inserted into three Catholic institutions located in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil. In order to analyze how women theologians become subjects in their positions and policy strategies, we adopt theoretical presuppositions of feminism, gender studies and, especially, the notion of sexual difference of Rosi Braidotti, as one of the epistemological fields of feminist theory. The study shows that the teachers deessentialize the content of difference from its situated action as a political strategy in the production of an ethics of the self. This situation indicates that the redefinition of sexual difference and gender subjectivity, in this context, functions positively, even if it remains marked by a symbolic, hierarchical, celibate and masculine structure in which difference frequently continues being driven, in a negatively meaningful way by the aforementioned essentializations, to lower levels of competence regarding women.

It is a review on a recently published book.

Critical Reviews of the Gender Concept. Notes for the Contemporary Social Theory Abstract This work proposes in a critic way different conceptions regarding gender, and states that it is a powerful cultural construction that organizes social life. Initially, three conceptions are introduced: origins of patriarchy, Marxist theories and feminism, and French psychoanalytic theory. To conclude, some contributions of the poststructuralist theory –in terms of displacement and political relocation- are established. Basically, the work aims at questioning the normative conceptions of gender.

In “The Ends of an Idiom: ‘Sexual Difference’ in Translation,” Anne Emmanuelle Berger reflects on the different uses and meanings of the notion of “sexual difference” in the Francophone and Anglophone worlds. “Sexual difference” was elevated to the status of a quasi-concept by psychoanalysis and became subsequently one of the key terms in thinking about sex and gender. Looking at the pluralization of its uses and the inflection of its meaning in North-American gender and queer theory, the author stresses its “becoming-queer” and ponders over the contemporary queering of feminist thought. Through her examination of the unending differentiations of the meaning of “sexual difference”, she seeks to bring out the conceptual heterogeneity – in her eyes as irreducible as it is productive – of the theoretical field of gender studies. This is also a way of interrogating the modes of constitution of the Franco-Anglo-American theoretical axis, which has dominated feminist thought in the 20th century.

Objectives: The current study was performed to compare the bee venom pharmacopuncture skin test reactions among groups with different sexes and Sasang constitutions. Methods: Between July 2012 and June 2013, all 76 patients who underwent bee venom pharmacopuncture skin tests and Sasang constitution diagnoses at Oriental Medicine Hospital of Sangji University were included in this study. The skin test was performed on the patient’s forearm intracutaneously with 0.05 ml of sweet bee venom (SBV) on their first visit. If the patients showed a positive response, the test was discontinued. On the other hand, if the patient showed a negative response, the test was performed on the opposite forearm intracutaneously with 0.05 ml of bee venom pharmacopuncture 25% on the next day or the next visit. Three groups were made to compare the differences in the bee venom pharmacopuncture skin tests according to sexual difference and Sasang constitution: group A showed a positive response to SBV, group B showed a positive response to bee venom pharmacopuncture 25%, and group C showed a negative response on all bee venom pharmacopuncture skin tests. Fisher’s exact test was performed to evaluate the differences statistically. Results: The results of the bee venom pharmacopuncture skin tests showed no significant differences according to Sasang constitution (P = 0.300) or sexual difference (P = 0.163). Conclusion: No significant differences on the results of bee venom pharmacopuncture skin tests were observed according to two factors, Sasang constitution and the sexual difference.

This article describes the organization of sex differences of personality of Chinese and Russian students. Comparative characteristics of organization of young men and women.

Mature Chinese mitten crabs, Eriocheir sinensis, were exposed to brackish water or seawater as an obligatory part of their reproductive migration. Physiological and biochemical reorganization were needed to adapt them to this migration. To understand the digestive adjustments of Eriocheir sinensis at biochemical level during this transformation from freshwater to seawater, the response of the activity of five digestive enzymes (amylase, cellulase, pepsin, trypsin and lipase) in the hepatopancreas to salinities increasing gradually from 0 (freshwater) to 35 (seawater) was analysed in mature females and males. Digestive enzymes exhibited significantly higher activities in the hepatopancreas of males than those of females, except lipase. In females, amylase, pepsin and trypsin activities began to decrease significantly as the salinity reached 28, and cellulase activity decreased at 35; in males, a considerable decrease in the activity of digestive enzymes, except lipase, was observed at 21 and higher salinities, while an increase was observed at 14. Reduced enzyme activities at elevated salinities suggest that the digestive capacity of crabs for diets becomes weak, and all these digestive enzymes participated in digestive adjustments during osmoregulation. The initial salinity which induced the decrease of enzyme activity was lower in males than in females, indicating that females were more tolerant to elevated salinities than males from the point of digestive biochemical modulation.

Taking into account the difference between the ancient and modern (even postmodern) understandings of corruption, I am curious to explore why the bond linking corruption and sex seems so obvious. I have no intention of investigating both phenomena in the context of any moral category. What then did Flaubert have on his mind when he wrote that Rodolphe “treated Emma quite sans façon. He made of her something supple and corrupt.” What underpins the irresistible attraction between corruption and sex? Why is it impossible to eradicate corruption and repress sex and perceive them as solely functional strategies of generation and reproduction? This short outline follows certain philosophical remarks of Luce Irigaray and her thematization of the sexual difference in the demarcation of generation and corruption.

This essay looks at some potentially fruitful lines of correspondence between Laruelle’s non-philosophy and gender, feminist and queer theories. Drawing on the work of leading Laruelle scholars I seek to outline some highly tentative principles for a non-standard queer theory which would help us to think about democracy, the human, performativity, sexual difference and some other crucial questions for current queer theorizing. Author(s): Michael O’Rourke Title (English): Quantum Queer: Towards a Non-Standard Queer Theory Journal Reference: Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 10, No. 1-2 (Summer-Winter 2013) Publisher: Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities – Skopje Page Range: 123-134 Page Count: 12 Citation (English): Michael O’Rourke, “Quantum Queer: Towards a Non-Standard Queer Theory,” Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 10, No. 1-2 (Summer-Winter 2013): 123-134.

El artículo aborda cuestiones relativas a la homoparentalidad y sus implicaciones para la salud mental de los hijos. Desde el psicoanálisis se relaciona la psicosis con la reducción de la estructura familiar a la vinculación madre-hijo, con la exclusión del padre y con la negación de la diferencia sexual, pero es menester reflexionar qué se entiende por padre, madre o por funciones paterna y materna. Aunque la familia se soporta en elementos biológicos, sin embargo, la biología no explica la familia. Lo que nos constituye realmente como humanos no es la familia sino la “familiarización”, la forma en que se traban los primeros vínculos y la forma en que la cultura limita y ordena esas primeras interrelaciones. La salud mental depende de la forma en que se interiorice la ley que pone coto al goce entre el adulto y el niño y ubica a cada miembro en una posición determinada. No es la diferencia anatómica de los padres o la heterosexualidad la que da garantías de salud mental. No es, por tanto, el tipo de elección del objeto de amor de los padres lo que determina la salud mental de los hijos. The article deals with homo-parental related questions and its implications in children’s mental health. From psychoanalytic viewpoint, psychosis is connected to the reduction in family structure to a mother-child bond, the exclusion of the father and a denial of sexual difference. However, it is necessary to meditate over what is understood by the concepts “father” or “mother”, as well as by paternal or maternal functions. Despite the fact that family is sustained on biological elements, however, biology cannot fully explain it. Family doesn’t define us as human beings, but rather “familiarization”- the pattern of the first family bonds and the manner in which culture limits and orders them. Mental health is conditioned by the assimilation of the law that restricts the Jouissance between adult and child and places each member at a concrete position. It is not determined by either anatomical differences between parents or heterosexuality. Therefore, the parents’ choice of their object of love does not influence their children’s mental health.

Este artigo aborda a diferença sexual a partir da análise do filósofo Jacques Derrida e seu diálogo com a filosofia de Heidegger e de Emmanuel Levinas, articulando essa questão com a reivindicação de direitos para as mulheres, pensada como forma de superação da hierarquia de gênero implícita na dualidade masculino/feminino e questionada pelo pensamento da desconstrução. O trabalho procura demonstrar as possibilidades de aliança entre o pensamento da desconstrução e as teorias feministas.The analysis of philosopher Jacques Derrida and his dialog with the philosophy of both Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas is the starting point for this paper, which presents a discussion about sexual difference, establishing a link between the issues of sexual difference and claim for women's rights as a way to overcome the hierarchy of gender, which is implicit in the feminine/masculine dualism and questioned by deconstruction. This paper attempts to show the possibilities of alliance between deconstruction and feminists theories.

Diante da nova cartografia das relações entre gêneros e das sexualidades na cultura contemporânea, pretendemos discutir em que medida a psicanálise se apresenta como mais um dispositivo da sexualidade tal como concebido por Foucault, o qual procura reinstaurar o modelo tradicional da diferença sexual, através da reiteração da norma heterossexual da dominação masculina. Além disso, indagamos ainda em que medida a psicanálise pode permanecer como uma teoria crítica e uma prática clínica que permita uma relação produtiva com as novas configurações de gênero no contemporâneo, abrindo brechas para a concepção de novas formas de subjetivação. Com esse objetivo analisaremos o debate psicanalítico sobre 1) os deslocamentos do feminino e a positivação da feminilidade; 2) o casamento homossexual e a homoparentalidade e 3) a clínica da transexualidadeBefore the new cartography of gender relationships and sexualities in contemporary culture, we intend to discuss in which way psychoanalysis presents itself as one of the devices of sexuality as conceived by Foucault, which tries to reinstate the traditional model of sexual difference trough the reiteration of the heterosexual norm of male domination. Furthermore, we inquire how psychoanalysis can remain a critical theory and a clinical practice that allow a productive relationship with the new configurations of gender, which disclose the conception of new forms of subjectivity. With this aim, we will analyze the psychoanalytical debate on (1) the displacements of feminine and the positiveness of femininity; (2) the homosexual marriage and the homoparentality; and (3) the clinics of transsexuality

La educación de las mujeres ha experimentado una transformación en sus objetivos y en la amplitud de sus destinatarias; ha sucedido en poco más de un siglo. Les ha proporcionado nuevas oportunidades de vida y de actividad; pero, al mismo tiempo, les ha exigido renunciar a saberes y prácticas importantes de las que ellas eran protagonistas; contribuciones que aportan elementos fundamentales a la vida familiar y social. Un nuevo modo de entender la aplicación del principio de igualdad y del concepto género como categoría de análisis, lleva hoy a repensar el proyecto escolar para que la diferencia sexual femenina no desaparezca dentro de ese referente universal que es masculino.A educação das mulheres tem sofrido uma transformação em seus objetivos e no alcance de suas destinatárias; isso aconteceu em pouco mais de um século. São proporcionadas a elas novas oportunidades de vida e de atuação; mas, ao mesmo tempo, é exigido que renunciem a saberes e práticas importantes das quais as mulheres eram protagonistas; contribuições que apresentam elementos fundamentais à vida familiar e social. Um novo modo de compreender a aplicação do princípio da igualdade e do conceito de gênero como categoria de análise nos leva, hoje, a repensar o projeto escolar para que a diferença sexual feminina não desapareça dentro desse referente universal que é o masculino.The education of the women has experienced a transformation in its objectives and the extent of its addresses; it has happened in little more than one century. It has provided to them new opportunities of life and activity; but, at the same time, it has demanded to them to resign to important knowledge and practices of which they were protagonists. These contributions guarantee fundamental elements to the family and social life. A new way to understand the application of the equality principle and of the concept genre as category of analysis leads today to rethink the scholastic project so that the feminine sexual difference does not disappear inside this universal modal that is masculine.

Author(s): Žarana Papić | Жарана Папиќ Title (Macedonian): Опозицијата природа/култура како „природна“ дефиниција и интерпретација на половата разлика - Леви-Стросовата проекција на исконот на културата како општествен договор меѓу мажите Translated by (Serbian to Macedonian): Dušica Dimitrovska-Gajdoska | Душица Димитровска-Гајдоска Journal Reference: Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Winter 2008) Publisher: Research Center in Gender Studies - Skopje and Euro-Balkan Institute Page Range: 1-36 (34-70) Page Count: 36 Citation (Macedonian): Жарана Папиќ, „Опозицијата природа/култура како ,природна‘ дефиниција и интерпретација на половата разлика - Леви-Стросовата проекција на исконот на културата како општествен договор меѓу мажите“, превод од српски Душица Димитровска-Гајдоска, Идентитети: списание за политика, род и култура, т. 7, бр. 3 (зима 2008): 1-36 (34-70).