1,017 research outputs found
Fantasies of Femininity: Reframing the Boundaries of Sex
No full textIn Fantasies of Femininity, Jane Ussher focuses on unraveling the contradictory visions of feminine sexuality: the fact that representations of the definition of woman seethe with sexuality yet for centuries women have been condemned for exploring their own sexual desires. In her quest for the sources of feminine representation, Ussher interviewed dozens of women - as well as some men - and combed popular media - from Seventeen to Cosmopolitan and Dallas to Donahue - to identify what shapes women's symbolic images of sex and femininity. Ussher argues that women have effectively resisted and subverted these archetypal fantasies of femininity, and in the process of so doing, reframed the very boundaries of sex. In this way, she exposes as myth much of what we think we know about "woman" and about "sex.
"We need to be heard, respected, and supported" : the impact of sexual healthcare interactions and discrimination on the mental health of trans and gender diverse people
No full textThe history of trans and gender diverse (TGD)1 healthcare has been characterised
by a lack of understanding and erasure around how individuals experience their
gender and sexuality. TGD people often bear the brunt of stigma and discrimination based on their gender and expression, which has significant impacts on their lives and healthcare (Balik et al., 2020). In most societies around the world, TGD people face marginalisation from multiple, often intersecting, aspects of their daily life, including legal, economic, educational, employment, housing, medical, social, and cultural forms of discrimination (James et al., 2016). At the same time, the invisibility of TGD people within population-based data collection and research continues to preclude trans health and social issues from being considered and represented within policy and resource and service allocation (Callander et al., 2019). Specifically, TGD people often face significant barriers to adequate healthcare
compared to cisgender (cis) counterparts (Shires & Jaffee, 2015). This is, in
part, attributable to fear, stigma, transphobia, lack of trans inclusive and specific services, and healthcare workers being under-informed of the specific needs for trans and gender diverse patients, which subsequently leads to unmet health needs and discrimination within mainstream health services (Balik, et al., 2020; Poteat, German, & Kerrigan, 2013; Ussher, Allison, Perz, Power, & The Out with Cancer Study Team, 2022a)
A critical feminist analysis of madness : pathologising femininity through psychiatric discourse
No full textFor centuries, women have occupied a unique place in the annals of insanity. Women outnumber men in diagnoses of madness, from the ‘hysteria’ of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to ‘neurotic’ and mood disorders in the twenty and twenty-first centuries. Women are also more likely to receive psychiatric ‘treatment’, ranging from hospitalisation in an asylum, accompanied by restraint, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and psychosurgery, to psychological therapy and psychotropic drug treatments today (Ussher 2011). Why is this so? Some would say that women are more mad than men, with psychiatric treatment a beneficent force that sets out to cure the disordered female mind. In this chapter I will proffer an alternative explanation – that women are subjected to misdiagnosis and mistreatment by experts whose own pecuniary interests can be questioned, as can their use (or abuse) of power. This is not to deny the reality of women’s experience of prolonged misery or distress, which undoubtedly exists. However, if we examine the roots of this distress, in the context of women’s lives, it can be conceptualised as a reasonable response, not a reflection of pathology within (Ussher 2011)
The Madness of Women: Myth and Experience
No full textDrawing on academic and clinical experience, including case studies and in-depth interviews, as well as on the now extensive critical literature in the field of mental health, Jane Ussher presents a critical multifactorial analysis of women’s madness that both addresses the notion that madness is a myth, and yet acknowledges the reality and multiple causes of women’s distress
Effect of model ligands on iron redox speciation in natural waters using flow injection with luminol chemiluminescence detection
No full textThe effects of dissolved organic compounds on the determination of nanomolar concentrations of Fe(II) have been compared using two luminol-based flow injection chemiluminescence (FI-CL) methods. One used the direct injection of sample into the luminol reagent stream, and the other incorporated on-line solid-phase extraction of the analyte on an 8-hydroxyquinoline microcolumn. The CL signals from analyses of dissolved iron species (Fe(II) and Fe(III)) with model ligands and organic compounds were examined in high-purity water and seawater. The organic compounds included natural reducing agents (e.g., ascorbic acid), nitrogen -donor/-acceptor compounds (e.g., 1,4-dipyridine, protoporphyrin IX), aromatic compounds (e.g., 1,4-dihydroxybenzene), synthetic iron chelators (e.g., EDTA), and natural iron binding compounds (e.g., desferrioxamine B, ferrichrome A). Fe(II) determinations for both luminol FI-CL methods were affected by submicromolar concentrations of redox-active compounds, strong iron binding ligands (i.e., log KFeL > 6), and compounds with electron-donating functional groups in both high-purity water and seawater. This was due to reactions between organic molecules and iron species before and during analysis, rather than chemiluminescence caused by the individual organic compounds. In addition, the effects of strong ligands and size speciation on Fe(II) recoveries from seawater following acidification (pH 2) and reduction (100 M sodium sulfite) were investigated
Development of an intervention for reducing infant bathing frequency
No full textBackground Bathing babies less frequently and intensively in the first six months of life may prevent eczema, but this has not yet been definitively tested in a randomised controlled trial. Such a trial would require evidence-based support to help parents engage with a minimal bathing routine. The present study reports the development of this support. Methods We adopted a four-stage design process: (i) Pregnant women and their families (n = 31) were interviewed to ascertain key barriers and facilitators towards following the minimal bathing intervention. (ii) These barriers and facilitators were mapped to behaviour change techniques, focussing on the intervention types of education, persuasion and environmental restructuring, alongside appropriate modes of delivery, and prototype intervention materials were developed. (iii) We iteratively refined these materials in a workshop with multidisciplinary experts and Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) representatives (n = 13) and an (iv) intervention walkthrough with families (n = 5). The design process was informed by the Behaviour Change Wheel, Theoretical framework of acceptability and the Template for intervention description and replication. Results Social influences and motivational factors are likely to influence both uptake and adherence to the intervention. Anticipated emotional reward from participating in research for the benefit of others was indicated to be a strong facilitator for intervention uptake. Alternatives to bathing, having fun with the baby and the night-time routine, alongside family support, were notable facilitators suggested to aid adherence to the intervention. Barriers included hygiene concerns and anticipated negative social appraisal. Barriers and facilitators were mapped to thirty-six behaviour change techniques, focussing on the intervention types of education, persuasion and environmental restructuring, all of which were embedded into the package of support. The prototype intervention materials received positive feedback from the expert workshop and study walkthrough with families. The final package of support comprises printed and digital prompts and cues, a study booklet, video, and digital tool for self-monitoring. Conclusions The intervention design process incorporated the ‘real world’ views and experiences of families, experts and PPIE representatives, alongside criteria for designing behavioural interventions. The effectiveness of the package of support will be tested in a feasibility trial and embedded process evaluation
Diagnosing difficult women and pathologising femininity : gender bias in psychiatric nosology
No full textAs the outspoken, difficult woman of the 16th century was castigated as a witch, and the same woman in the 19th century a hysteric, in the late 20th and 21st century, she is described as ‘borderline’ or as having PMDD. All are potentially stigmatising labels. All are irrevocably tied to what it means to be ‘woman’ at a particular point in history. And whilst the 19th-century hysteric was deemed labile and irresponsible, as a justification for subjecting her to the bed rest cure or incarceration in an asylum (Ussher, 2011), women diagnosed as borderline today are often considered to be mentally disabled, subjected to involuntary institutionalisation or medication, as well as being stripped of child custody or parental rights (Becker, 2000: 429), and women diagnosed with PMDD are medicated with SSRIs (Steiner and Born, 2000). At the same time, a diagnosis of borderline can be used as a justification for denying women access to mental health care, because of supposed ‘resistance’ to treatment (Morrow, 2008). However, if we examine the negative consequences of contemporary bio-psychiatric ‘treatment’ for many women (Currie, 2005; Ussher, 2011), this may not be such a bad thing
Sexual science and the law : regulating sex - reifying the power of the heterosexual man
No full textThis chapter explores such questions as: why is so much of what we know about sexuality limited to the physical body? Why does Ussher argue that both science and the law protect and serve men? How does the law construct what it means to be a “man” or a “woman” in society? How does socio-biology continue this tradition today? Why has the law viewed homosexuality between men differently than lesbianism? How have science and medicine served as a form of social control over women historically and still today
Managing the Monstrous Feminine: Regulating the Reproductive Body
No full textManaging the Monstrous Feminine takes a unique approach to the study of the material and discursive practices associated with the construction and regulation of the female body. Jane Ussher examines the ways in which medicine, science, the law and popular culture combine to produce fictions about femininity, positioning the reproductive body as the source of women's power, danger and weakness. Including sections on 'regulation', 'the subjectification of women' and 'women's negotiation and resistance', this book describes the construction of the 'monstrous feminine' in mythology, art, literature and film, revealing its implications for the regulation and experience of the fecund female body. Critical reviews are combined with case studies and extensive interview material
Is it normal or PMS? : women’s strategies in negotiating and resisting negative premenstrual change
No full textSince the time of Aristotle and Plato Western medical explanations for women’s reproductive distress have centred on the body, with medicine laying the blame for many forms of distress on wandering wombs and, more recently, on raging hormones and neurotransmitter imbalances (Ussher, 1989). Contemporary Western medicine categorizes negative premenstrual change as premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a fixed and unitary pathology within the woman deemed to be caused by biomedical or psychological factors (Ussher, 2011) and estimated to be of the same magnitude as major depressive disorder in reducing women’s quality of life and economic functioning (Halbreich, Borenstein, Pearlstein, & Kahn, 2003). However, disparities between and within cultures in the reporting of premenstrual distress – and in the positioning of premenstrual change as pathology – raise questions about the validity of individualizing biomedical and psychological theories of premenstrual change (Cosgrove & Caplan, 2004)
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