Open Journal Systems Trinity College Dublin
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A comparison of the construction of masculinity in heavy metal and bluegrass music
Get PDFPopular music, along with every other form of culture we consume, serves to help us define our own identities. Because of the multitude of different markers we use to understand ourselves in relation to others—including gender, race, class, and sexual orientation—popular music genres are similarly varied in their construction of these markers. These constructions are determined, consciously or unconsciously, by the creators of this music based on their own experiences, and in order for their art to appeal to a specific demographic. The audience and the media also play a role in defining the stereotypical characteristics of popular music genres. In this essay I will look specifically at the genres of heavy metal and bluegrass music and the ways in which these genres construct gender, with emphasis upon the concept of instrumental virtuosity.  
Sex Work* in Shanghai in the period 1911-1940
No full textWhen studying sex work*, the chief problem the historian is faced with is the difficulty of accessing the voice of the sex workers* themselves. Gail Hershatter draws on Gayatri Spivak’s idea of the subaltern, when she notes that the subaltern cannot represent itself in discourse, and so must be inferred by the records around them. Sex Work in Shanghai was understood through a variety of different, unfixed categories; as a marker of national decay, the profession of schemers, a source of urbanised pleasure, a disease both moral and physical, as an economic choice women had to make. This essay will examine different categories in sex work, how these were viewed, and if the hierarchy of sex work was a fluid one. It will then examine attitudes towards ancillary forms of sex work, such as the professions of masseuses and taxi dancers and then discuss the position of the authorities in relation to this work. Finally, it will examine how the sale of sexual services was perceived politically.
*The author originally uses the term prostitution however the current Editorial Board of Volume V would substitute the term for sex work
You Grow Girl: Women as Protectors of Global Plant Biodiversity
Get PDFAs conservation biologists declare that we are in the midst of a mass extinction, national and international efforts to preserve genetic diversity have accelerated. Biodiversity is crucial for ongoing food security, sustainable agricultural development, and the prevention of food poverty. Research has been conducted to discover the key players in conservation, with the results consistently showing that women bear the load of biodiversity management worldwide. This is not the result of a deeper intrinsic connection to nature, but rather the result of culturally and socially determined roles of care. Gendered knowledge of the environment has been recorded all over the world, and should be recognized if we are to realistically face the catastrophe of mass extinction
“Did those girls know what they were doing?” Agency, Anxiety and the Adult Gaze in Het Hamiltoncomplex
Get PDFThis essay discusses the discomfort of adult audience members in viewing depictions of female sexuality by young performers in HETPALEIS’s Het Hamiltoncomplex. I deconstruct the ‘Adult Gaze’” that which dictates the programming of children’s theatre based on what adults deem ‘appropriate’, allowing us to punish female children for our own anxieties, under a facade of adult protection. Referencing Foucault’s theory of sexuality ‘confessional’ societies, vulnerability studies, and Freudian definitions of taboo, I posit that our unconcious guilt surrounding the infantilisation of women and the sexualisation of girls leads to a desire too ‘protect’ that is often more harmful than helpful
Factors Affecting the Attrition Rate of Women in Computing-Related Occupations.
Get PDFThis essay examines the factors which contribute to the rate of decline of women in technology roles; the women who have entered this field and subsequently leave. Many initiatives focus their energies on attracting women into the IT sector and rightly so. However, if talent is getting lost along the way amongst women who do enter the Tech field, it needs to be acknowledged and addressed. This essay seeks to highlight factors that have been identified in the research as possible causes and their potential solutions. It examines workplace culture and gendered spaces in computing-related disciplines
The Gothic Art of Edna O\u27Brien\u27s Mother Ireland
No full textThis essay examines the accordance to and subversion of the Gothic novel genre by Edna O’Brien’s Mother Ireland as a means of understanding the author’s motivations for leaving Ireland, while having the country remain as subject matter to much of her literature. I argue that while the text exposes Ireland’s 1950s social forces of church and patriarchy as pernicious and necessitating of exile, her memories of these forces – most accessible and potent while abroad – ultimately become valuable to her on account of their continuous role in artistic inspiration and ferment
Listening to the Silences of Kay Sage
Get PDFThrough close analysis of two of her Surrealist one-act plays, this essay aims to introduce readers to the under-researched written work of Kay Sage and highlight the originality of her approach to gender, theatre and silence. In two of her plays, Chateau de Chemillieu and Failure to Discover, silence is depicted as a visceral and alien presence that intrudes on the ordinary experiences of Sage’s characters. These presences are recognisable, conforming to the mythology around ghosts and spiritualism, but also unnerving in their refusal to melt away into the background. These depictions of silence as a powerful and emotive presence illustrate her belief in communicative possibilities beyond the conventional constraints of the verbal world. Furthermore, her work explores the ways in which her female characters are silenced, engaging with the complex gendered politics of the Surrealist movement
Self-Silencing: Hermeneutical Injustice & Kristen Roupenian’s ‘Cat Person’
Get PDFMiranda Fricker’s 2007 theory of epistemic injustice describes an exclusion or silencing of particular identities that prevents them from full participation in the world as ‘knowers’. These identities are denied full human status. Hermeneutical injustice, one of its strains, pinpoints a difficulty in comprehending one’s own experiences when robbed of an adequate conceptual basis. An insidious form of silencing, it goes easily unnoticed. Kristen Roupenian’s 2017 short story ‘Cat Person’ deals with widely acknowledged millennial concerns, including an encounter of “bad” sex, where Margot, I argue, is hermeneutically silenced. Its 2017 publication situates the narrative within the resurgence of the Me Too movement, while its widespread public reaction frames the story as a point of interest in ‘real life’ instances of hermeneutical injustice. Both ‘Cat Person’ the text, and its reactions, therefore outline the negative conceptual space which suffocates the potentiality for an identity to be an identity due to the unavailability of adequate terminology to navigate lived experiences
Income Inequalities in Ireland and Poland: The Role of Taxes and Social Transfers
Get PDFEven though Ireland and Poland differ in their GNI levels per capita, economic history and economic systems, their levels of income inequality calculated on disposable income were very similar in 2016. However, there is a lack of current research comparing these countries from the perspective of tax-benefit systems that alleviate inequality. Therefore, this paper seeks to answer the research question of whether the differences in welfare state regimes that shape tax-benefit systems in Poland and Ireland are reflected by the role the taxes and social transfers play in tackling inequality. Our study is based on microdata from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey. We apply a factor decomposition to determine what roles various factor components play in determining overall inequality. The results reveal that the redistributive effect was stronger in Ireland, resulting in greater income inequality reduction than in Poland through policies affecting the unemployed, families and taxes