Decoloniality and women's agency in sex education in Zambia.

In 2018, 22 teachers and four government officers started a six-month development process, designed to integrate a gender-equity lens into sex education in Eastern Province, Zambia. The initiative was funded by the Dutch Government. In this article, I explore the emancipatory potential and limits of this gender transformative approach. Civil society privileges the empowerment of women's and girls' voices through participatory methods. This situated women-led 'encounter of change' between men and women addressed the 'harmful practices' of Chewa initiation, transcending patriarchal opposition in the process. Using an applied anthropological lens, I explore what enabled this contingent change in narrative among teachers, but I also question the coloniality inherent in efforts to transform the gender and sexuality of others through the ubiquity of voice.

Integrating critical thinking on gender and power within sexuality education has been praised for its ability to reduce unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. The Dutch government has been investing in this 'gender transformative approach' by strengthening the capacity of 64 schools in Zambia. I draw on findings of a multi-sited ethnography on the experiences of 22 male and female teachers and government officials in Zambia, who underwent training in this approach from 2018 to 2019. Female teachers and government workers utilized this training to critique and change harmful initiation rites of the Chewa peoples. However, this attempt at norm change was hindered by the 'fluidity of patriarchy,' which refers to the ability of powerful men to adapt to outside interventions. In this case, they undermined the project. Labeling this resistance simply as 'dealing with opposition', as Western NGOs have started doing recently, overlooks the ways in which traditions are reimagined and reinvented to sustain patriarchy and gender inequality. In this article, I critique the way Western programs listen to the voices of the young people they aim to support. Due to NGO jargon and a focus on evidence and effectiveness, these voices often go unheard. I urge policymakers and practitioners to ask self-critical questions about who gets to set the research agenda, whose voices are prioritized, and (ironically) how their own masculinist leadership norms and neoliberal practices may embody expressions of coloniality and patriarchy.

Being a woman and an orthopaedic surgeon-A primer on the challenges we face.

A higher number of women are graduating from medical schools than men, yet orthopedic surgery continues to register the lowest proportion of female surgeons and residents of the surgical specialties. This trend is observed not only in North America but also globally. The presence of a more diverse workforce has been shown to lead to improved patient outcomes, enhanced efficiencies, and overall wellness within healthcare systems and would be of benefit to the orthopedic surgery profession. This primer aims to provide surgeons and leaders with evidence-based insights into diversity, equity, and equality, as well as define barriers and potential solutions pertaining to women in orthopedic surgery.

Exploring the link between household structure and women's household decision-making autonomy in Mauritania.

Governments in sub-Saharan African countries aim to increase married women's household decision-making autonomy as it remains a critical determinant of desirable health behaviours such as healthcare utilisation, antenatal care visits, and safer sex negotiation. However, very few studies explore how household structure (i.e., monogamous or polygamous) is associated with married women's household decision-making autonomy. Our paper seeks to address this gap. Using the 2019-20 Mauritania Demographic and Health Survey, a nationally representative dataset, and applying logistic regression analysis, we explore how married women's household structure is associated with their household decision-making autonomy. We find that 9% of married women are in polygamous marriages, while 63% and 65% are involved in decision-making about their health and large household purchases, respectively. Additionally, 76% and 56% are involved in decision-making about visiting family or relatives and household expenditures. After accounting for socio-economic and demographic factors, we find that compared to women from monogamous households, those from polygamous households are less likely to participate in decision-making about their health (OR=0.65, p < 0.001), making large household purchases (OR=0.65, p < 0.001), visiting family or relatives (OR=0.72, p < 0.001), and household expenditure (OR=0.58, p < 0.001). Based on our findings, we recommend the urgent need to review and re-evaluate policies and approaches seeking to promote gender equality and women's autonomy in Mauritania. Specifically, it may be critical for intervention programmes to work around reducing power imbalances in polygamous household structures that continue to impact married women's household decision-making autonomy adversely. Such interventions should centre married women's socio-economic status as a central component of their empowerment strategies in Mauritania.

There's Something about Uvalde: American Patriarchy and the Slaughter of Innocents.

After every school shooting in the United States both a wish and a fear arise: Will this be the one? Will this be the tipping point for change in a nation so deeply divided over the meaning of "the right to bear arms?" Sandy Hook, Connecticut? No. Parkland, Florida? No. So, why might the killing of 19 children and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas, prove different? The American epidemic of mass school shootings betrays a country's willingness to let its children disappear, to sacrifice them on the altar of an archetypally violent ethos. While the internal experiences of alienation, resentment and contempt are often at play in the individuals who carry out such violence, the author suggests that the uniquely American glorification of "the lone wolf", the "rugged individual" and the "misunderstood hero" fuels a supportive background for mass shooters in a nation that appears to be enamoured of ancient patriarchal attitudes as it doubles down on its valuing of weaponry. Such patriarchal attitudes, underscored by capitalism and the profits of the gun industry, are implicated in the territorial adhesion to American gun rights and in the high cost paid by the blood of innocents. Drawing on Vestergaard & Odde's (2021) concepts of socio-analysis and sociality, this paper explores the dynamic process of "mass-character" marked by "contagion, imitation, attraction and repulsion" that convolute cultural values of heritage and freedom into the perverse expression of mass violence.

Aux États­Unis, après chaque fusillade dans une école, un souhait et une crainte surgissent à la fois : est­ce que celle­ci fera une différence? Marquera­t­elle le point de basculement d'un changement dans une nation si profondément divisée sur la signification du « droit de porter des armes ¼? Sandy Hook, dans le Connecticut? Non. Santa Fe, au Texas? Non. Alors, pourquoi l'assassinat de 19 enfants et de 2 enseignants à Uvalde, au Texas, pourrait­il s'avérer différent? L'épidémie américaine de fusillades de masse dans les écoles trahit la volonté d'un pays de laisser ses enfants disparaître, de les sacrifier sur l'autel d'une philosophe archétypale de la violence. Alors que les expériences internes d'aliénation, de ressentiment et de mépris sont souvent en jeu chez les individus qui commettent de telles violences, l'auteur suggère que la glorification typiquement américaine du « loup solitaire ¼, de « l'individu robuste ¼ et du « héros incompris ¼ alimente un arrière­plan favorable aux tireurs de masse. Ceci dans une nation qui semble éprise d'anciennes attitudes patriarcales et qui persiste et signe concernant son attachement pour les armes. De telles attitudes patriarcales, soulignées par le capitalisme et les profits de l'industrie des armes à feu, sont impliquées dans l'adhésion territoriale aux droits américains sur les armes à feu et dans le coût élevé payé par le sang d'innocents. S'appuyant sur les concepts de socioanalyse et de socialité de Vestergaard et Odde (2021), cet article explore le processus dynamique du « caractère de masse ¼ marqué par « la contagion, l'imitation, l'attrait et la répulsion ¼ qui tournent les valeurs culturelles liées au patrimoine et à la liberté en une expression perverse de violence de masse.

Después de cada tiroteo en un colegio de Estados Unidos surge un deseo y un temor: ¿será éste? ¿Será éste el punto de inflexión para el cambio en una nación tan profundamente dividida sobre el significado del "derecho a portar armas"? ¿Sandy Hook, Connecticut? No. ¿Santa Fe, Texas? No. Entonces, ¿por qué la matanza de 19 niños y 2 profesores en Uvalde, Texas, podría ser diferente? La epidemia estadounidense de tiroteos masivos en escuelas revela la voluntad de un país de dejar desaparecer a sus niños, de sacrificarlos en el altar de un ethos arquetípicamente violento. Aunque las experiencias internas de alienación, resentimiento y desprecio suelen ponerse en juego en los individuos que llevan a cabo este tipo de violencia, la autora sugiere que la glorificación exclusivamente estadounidense del "lobo solitario", el "individuo rudo" y el "héroe incomprendido" alimenta un trasfondo de sostén para los autores de tiroteos masivos, en una nación que parece estar enamorada de antiguas actitudes patriarcales mientras redobla su valoración del armamento. Dichas actitudes patriarcales, acentuadas por el capitalismo y los beneficios de la industria armamentística, están implicadas en la adhesión territorial al derecho estadounidense a las armas y en el alto costo pagado por la sangre de inocentes. Basándose en los conceptos de socioanálisis y socialidad de Vestergaard y Odde (2021), este artículo explora el proceso dinámico del "carácter de masas", marcado por el "contagio, la imitación, la atracción y la repulsión", que convierte los valores culturales del patrimonio y la libertad en la expresión perversa de la violencia de masas.

Building Back Better: Going Big with Emancipatory Sciences.

This commentary argues that precarity and inequity across the life course and aging has accelerated via the COVID-19 pandemic. President Biden's vaccination efforts, $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, and Build Back Better framework reflect a paradigm shift to restore faith and trust in government that boldly confronts entrenched austerity ideologues. We offer emancipatory sciences as a conceptual framework to analyze and promote social structural change and epic theory development. Emancipatory sciences aim to advance knowledge and the realization of dignity, access, equity, respect, healing, social justice, and social change through individual and collective agency and social institutions. Epic theory development moves beyond isolated incidents as single events and, instead, grasps and advances theory through attempts to change the world itself by demanding attention to inequality, power, and action. Gerontology with an emancipatory science lens offers a framework and vocabulary to understand the individual and collective consequences of the institutional and policy forces that shape aging and generations within and across the life course. It locates an ethical and moral philosophy engaged in the Biden Administration's approach, which proposes redistributing - from bottom-up - material and symbolic resources via family, public, community, and environmental benefits.

Violência obstétrica e LGBTQIA+fobia: o entrelaçamento de opressões e violações / Obstetric violence and LGBTQIA+phobia: interlaced oppressions and violations

Resumo O sistema capitalista e cisheteropatriarcal se desenvolveu através da opressão e exploração de classe, raça e sexo no estabelecimento de relações desiguais e hierarquizadas de poder, e uma dessas opressões é o uso da violência contra os corpos considerados errantes e transgressores dentro dessa estrutura. Dentre os diversos tipos de violência, o foco deste estudo está na violência obstétrica, compreendida como uma violência patriarcal de gênero que visa a retirada de direitos, autonomia e protagonismo de mulheres e homens trans durante o período gestacional, do parto e puerpério ou em processos de abortamento. Esse artigo tem como objetivo refletir sobre a violência obstétrica e seu impacto nas homoparentalidades de mulheres lésbicas e de homens trans, pois compreende-se que a população LGBTQIA+ é uma das mais vulnerabilizadas e que está mais distante dos serviços de saúde, justamente pela violência institucional que acomete esses corpos. Dessa forma, pretende-se compreender, através de uma análise social e histórica, como os atravessamentos dessas violações sexistas e heteropatriarcais se entrelaçam e refletem na assistência à saúde dessas pessoas, gerando ainda mais formas de opressão contra essa população.

Abstract The cisheteropatriarchal capitalist system has developed by class, racial and sexual oppression and exploitation in establishing unequal, hierarchical power relations. One of these kinds of oppression involves the use of violence against bodies considered wayward and transgressive within this structure. Of the different types of violence, this study focused on obstetric violence, understood as patriarchal gender violence designed to remove the rights, autonomy and agency of trans women and men during the processes of pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum and abortion. This article reflects on obstetric violence and its impacts on homo-parenthood for lesbian women and trans men, on the understanding that the LGBTQIA+ population is one of the most vulnerable and removed from health services, mainly because of the institutional violence suffered by these bodies. Accordingly, the intention is to understand, through social and historical analysis, how these sexist, heteropatriarchal violations, interlacing and reflecting in health care for these people, generate even more forms of oppression against this population.

Qualitative study on violence against women analyzed under the thought of Edmund Husserl in the context of the Society of Apurimac.

The purpose of the investigation was to analyze the experiences and perspectives on violence against women in the Apurímac region, Peru. The analysis was carried out through interviews with women in each of the provinces of Apurimac. The aim was to learn about the status of women's rights and the effectiveness of provisions and regulations for their protection. The article will also explore the vast cultural and social diversity present in the interviews themselves, in contrast to the current normative system. As a general conclusion, it became evident that women in Apurimac-Peru suffered different types of abuse and mistreatment just because they were women and that they did not feel any kind of support from the authorities, showing a lack of interest from the state in improving the current situation of women in Peruvian society.

Victims or perpetrators, agency, and politics of intimate partner violence in the social construction of health and wellbeing: a qualitative study from Kenya.

Deeply rooted cultural beliefs and norms relating to the position and the responsibilities assigned to men and women play a significant role in propagating intimate partner violence (IPV). It is yet to be understood in what ways experiences of IPV contribute to how people socially construct their health and wellbeing as they navigate the tensions created by the prevailing sociocultural systems. To address this knowledge gap, we employed a social constructionist perspective and the eco-social model to explore how Kenyans aged 25-49 years socially construct their health and wellbeing in relation to their experiences of IPV. We conducted nine in-depth interviews and ten focus group discussions in four counties in Kenya between January and April of 2017. Textual analysis of the narratives reveals that although men are usually framed as perpetrators of violence, they may also be victims of reciprocal aggression by women, as recently witnessed in cases where women retaliate through gang attacks, chopping of male genitalia, and scalding with water. However, women are still disproportionately affected by gender-based violence because of the deeply rooted gender imbalances in patriarchal societies. Women experience social stigma associated with such violence and when separated or divorced in situations of unsafe relationships, they are viewed as social misfits. As such, most women opt to stay in unhealthy relationships to avoid social isolation. These experiences are not only unhealthy for their psychological wellbeing but also for their physical health and socioeconomic status and that of their offspring.

Deconstructing the masculinized assumption of the medical profession: narratives of Japanese physician fathers.

BACKGROUND: Gender studies in the medical profession have revealed gender biases associated with being a doctor, a profession often regarded as more suitable for men. The path to gender equality inevitably involves deconstructing this masculinized assumption. Despite the decades-long expectation that ikumen-men who actively participate in childcare in Japan-would contribute to a change toward gender equality, Japanese society is still male dominated, and women suffer from a large gender gap. With the aim of exploring implicit gendered assumptions concerning being a caregiver and a doctor, the authors focused on the experience of individuals juggling the binary roles of a professional and a caregiver. METHODS: The authors conducted subjectivist inductive research, recruited ten Japanese physician fathers through purposive sampling, and collected data through one-to-one semi-structured interviews between October 2017 and December 2018. The authors recorded and transcribed the narrative data, and extracted themes and representative narratives. RESULTS: The study identified three themes about the reproduction and potential change of the gender gap: maintaining gendered assumptions of the medical profession without experiencing conflict, maintaining gendered assumptions of the medical profession while experiencing conflict, and deconstructing gendered assumptions of the medical profession through conflict. The authors found that these negotiations interplayed with the gendered division of labor between male doctors and their wives as well as the patriarchal family structure. CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed how gendered assumptions of the medical profession, as well as gender stereotypes and gendered division of household labor, were reproduced in the course of male doctors' negotiations when they became fathers. For male doctors to question their unconscious gender bias, the authors emphasize the importance of men gaining knowledge about gender stereotypes, and propose that educators create such opportunities. Moreover, the authors assert that increasing doctors' awareness of how masculinized assumptions implicitly interact with ideas of being a doctor-an aspect rarely discussed among medical professionals-is crucial for deconstructing the gendered normativity in the medical field.

The Missing Ingredient: How Misogyny and the Patriarchy Sabotage our Clinical Practice and Research.

Discussing massive, unrelenting trauma, especially during a global pandemic, when the threat is not only personally affecting you, but also everyone else, is not an easy thing to do. We can see the consequences of two years of being locked inside. People's trauma responses literally came flooding out. It seems that the pandemic tipped us over an abyss that is hard to comprehend. In so many countries there are protests, laws rolling back basic human rights, the threat of fascism, and actual war. There seems to be widespread governmental corruption that cannot stop the favouritism of those who have wealth, and perpetually admonish those who do not. Our world seems very unstable. Change is deeply desired. Yet, this instability is predictable. It is predictable because the systems that created the structures that "run and rule" us are fundamentally destructive and violent. In never-ending ways, the only way that change happens is by utilizing violence as the only way to achieve change. This is the legacy of patriarchy. A system that not only is ruled by one group of people but also tends to be controlled by a very specific type of person. It is a system that cultivates human cruelty, selfishness, and violence. It is a system that is managed by those who do the "best" in violence. Most of us do not work this way but are forced to live this way because of the belief that humans are innately violent, selfish, and self-serving; a myth based on the traumatic reaction of fight. It is a dissociated, relational injury that is a direct result of not having our mothers and fathers able to be mothers and fathers. It is formed in misogyny. There are ways to heal, if one can comprehend what misogyny does to human beings, and what we would be like in its absence.

Breaking Down Machismo: Shifting Definitions and Embodiments of Latino Manhood in Middle-Aged Latino Men.

There is a notable gap in empirical research regarding how Latino men define and demonstrate machismo, masculinity, and manhood as well as the behavioral consequences associated with these concepts. In our study, we employed a phenomenological thematic approach to analyze 20 semi-structured individual interviews conducted with Latino men residing in South Florida. Our primary objectives were twofold: to examine (1) how do Latino men ages 35 to 60 years describe what it means to be a man and (2) what are the attributes that these men seek to show others that demonstrate their character, cultural values, and gender identity. Findings suggest that Latino men understood expectations associated with machismo and explained that fulfillment of their role as provider, protector, and head of the family was important to their perception of self. While some participants reported a desire to embody characteristics associated with traditional machismo, others strived to demonstrate character, familism, and respect and to provide financial and other instrumental support to their families. Participants reported that their transition into middle age was accompanied by a shift in their perspectives on gender roles, moving away from rigid patriarchal views. Exposure to a more fluid and flexible approach to manhood offered relief from the pressures associated with inflexible manifestations of machismo, which can have negative social, behavioral, and physical health implications. The implications of our research extend to the conceptualization of gender ideals, highlighting the need to incorporate intersectionality, role strain, precarious manhood, and culturally specific notions of manhood as foundational elements in this discourse.

Patriarchal norms, partner pronatalism, and women's fertility intentions in Ghana.

Social norms influence many dimensions of women's lives and women's assumptions about male partners' pronatalism can have important associations with fertility behaviours. Using data on married/cohabiting women from the 2018/19 Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey and a series of robust descriptive analyses and logistic regression models, the links between women's internalization of patriarchal norms, presumed male partner pronatalism and fertility intentions are explored. The characteristics of conservative and liberal women are also examined. Logistic regressions show that greater internalization of patriarchal norms is associated with higher odds of women wanting more children- male children, particularly. Additionally, women's perceptions of their partners' fertility preferences were important- women who assumed that their male partners wanted more children tended to have stronger immediate pronatalist intentions themselves. Descriptive analyses show that conservative women, with greater internalized patriarchal norms, are more pronatalist, less educated, resident in rural parts of the country and more likely to be from poorer households, compared to their more liberal counterparts. Findings encourage the tailoring and targeting of family planning messages along cultural lines, to influence women's fertility intentions. Additionally, the importance of effective spousal communication is highlighted. Findings also emphasise the importance of involving men in the implementation of family planning programs.

Critical Overview of Patriarchy, Its Interferences With Psychological Development, and Risks for Mental Health.

The systemic oppression of women and gender-based discrimination has deep roots in human civilization. As evident in both written texts and widespread practices, conscious and unconscious biases associated with patriarchy have been and continue to be interlaced with power struggles, control, and conformity enforced by the male-dominant cultures of the time. Brought into bold relief in this pandemic, recent dramatic events (the tragic murder of George Floyd and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, for example) have heightened social outrage against bias, racism, and bigotry and have also brought us to an inflection point demanding our better understanding of the pernicious and long-term mental health effects of patriarchy. There are compelling grounds to further expand their construct, but efforts to do so in psychiatric phenomenology have, until now, failed to gain momentum and substantive attention. The resistance may in part lie in misconceptions that patriarchy is supported by archetypal endowments of the collective unconscious constitutive of shared societal beliefs. While many continue to live with the adverse experiences associated with patriarchy within the current times, critics have argued that our concepts about patriarchy are not empirical enough. Empirically supported deconstruction is necessary to debunk misinformed notions that undermine women's equality.

Cisheteronormativity and its influence on the psychosocial experience of LGBTQ+ people with cancer: A qualitative systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: Cisheteronormativity refers to the relationship of heterosexual and cisgender privilege stemming from patriarchy. Although studies have shown that cisheteronormativity can impact health outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other sexual, gender diverse, and gender nonconforming (LGBTQ+) people, the specific impact on cancer care has not been described. We synthesized the qualitative evidence on how cisheteronormativity impacts the psychosocial experience of LGBTQ+ people with cancer. METHODS: We conducted a historic search in the CINAHL, LGBT+ Health, PsycInfo, and PubMed databases. Qualitative studies that described the psychosocial experience of LGBTQ+ people with cancer were included. After appraising the quality of the publications, 11 articles were included. Then, we conducted inductive nominal coding, taxonomic analysis, and thematic synthesis. RESULTS: Two main themes emerged, (1) Cisheteronormativity as a social determinant of health, and (2) Cancer, sexual orientation, and gender: Associations and introjections. The themes comprise four categories and 13 subcategories that describe the impact of cisheteronormativity on the cancer experience of LGBTQ+ people. CONCLUSION: Cisheteronormativity within the healthcare system impacts the psychosocial experience of LGBTQ+ people with cancer. Understanding how these gender biases, norms, and social expectations impact the cancer experience is necessary to transform social norms and promote health equity.

Jealousy: self-inflicted agony and ruin.

This chapter analyses the concept of jealousy (as different from envy) in romantic and sexual relationships. It demonstrates that jealousy is both logically and empirically untenable, as it is: (1) a self-contradictory emotion; (2) a self-destructive activity. As to (1) feelings of jealousy are incompatible with true care for the well-being and satisfaction of the loved partner. Logically, the notion of jealousy is self-defeating: it professes to be an expression of love while at the same time forbidding the loved one the freedom to act autonomously, thus killing the very notion of love. As to (2) nearly all empirical data point to the destructive effects to relationships of the feeling of jealousy, Shakespeare's Othello being its archetypal expression and its scathing analysis. The astounding fact, however, is that in many (most?) cultures jealousy is seen as an expression of love, while in reality it is an emanation of possessive feeling void of affection for the person 'loved'. A thorough cultural analysis, coupled to recently available DNA analyses, however, reveal a wholly different picture of extra-pair offspring, fully undermining the foundations upon which the notion of jealousy if based. Recent developments like 'open relationships' and 'polyamory' may be signs of overthrowing the contradictory and destructive aspects of jealousy. They presuppose, however, to undo deeply ingrained social attitudes accompanying love relationships.

Determinants of electoral participation of women in addis ababa, Ethiopia.

Women's political representation and participation are the matter of human rights that women can entitled by the virtue of being human. However, the right to be voter and candidates are still problematic for women in developing countries. We cannot get much number of women in these regard as we compare them with their counter parts. In view of that, this study aims to address the determinant factors of women's participation in electoral politics as a voter and political candidate. To undertake this study, mixed method of research was employed. Published journal articles, books and reports of government were used as a secondary source, whereas questionnaires including open and close ended, interview (as supplementary technique) used as primary sources. In line with this, Chi square(x2) and binary logistic regression were used to determine the factors deterring women's participation in electoral politics as a voter and political candidate (campaigner). Accordingly, the study found out that gender role, political interest, patriarchy and politicization of ethnicity are significantly determines (affects) women's participation in voting at p < 0.05 significant level. On the other hand, family size, political instability, political interest, politicization of ethnicity, political conspiracy and media exposure are significantly determines (affects) women's electoral participation as apolitical candidate and campaigner at p < 0.05 significant level. Henceforth, the government should establish enabling political environment which entertains genuine democratic political governance that empowers women to be active participant and beneficiary in the electoral politics of the country.

Politics of reproduction: a view from Israel on the Dobbs decision.

BACKGROUND: This opinion piece looks at the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and then compares the law on abortion in the USA to the law in Israel on reproductive medicine in general. The Dobbs decision validated a Mississippi state law that restricted access to abortion, while overruling the landmark precedent of Roe v. Wade on women's constitutional right to safe abortion. It declared that the US constitution does not confer upon women any right to abortion, whether pre- or post-viability, sending shockwaves throughout the world. It also had an immediate effect on women's reproductive health in the US. MAIN BODY: Women's right to reproductive freedom and to make decisions about their lives and their bodies is key to their hard-won equality. Still, abortion remains in ongoing controversy worldwide with legal barriers that impact upon the most vulnerable. In Israel, abortion is relatively available, accessible, affordable, and acceptable, in both law and practice. This is because of the lenient and nuanced stance of rabbinical authorities in the Jewish law tradition. This stance, together with Israel's post-Holocaust biblical culture of "be fruitful and multiply", also underlies its high rates of medically assisted reproduction for the treatment of infertility, including preimplantation genetic diagnosis of fertilized eggs. Women's bodies mediate all these repro-genetic technologies, in most cases for the benefit of others, not because of their own health needs. There is also concern about global practices and market forces that objectify women's bodies, exploit women and are harmful to their health, wellbeing, and dignity, carrying on outdated patriarchal patterns. CONCLUSION: Reproductive health policy ought to be based on an ethic of care and responsibility first and foremost for the women, as well as the children they choose to bring to life, in the spirit of the Jewish tradition that her life is of greater value than the fetus'. Women deserve control of their bodies and their lives and respect for the choices they make to the best of their judgment, which when it comes to abortion are mostly hard ones. They have a right to reproductive choice, freedom, autonomy, and dignity. The views expressed in this perspective are those of the author.

Sex life and sexuality among tongqi: doing gender and heterosexuality.

The term tongqi refers to cisgender, heterosexual women who unwittingly marry non-straight men. In mainland China, their adverse social position and health have been the subject of concern. This study aims to broaden and diversify perceptions of the lived experiences of tongqi by focusing on sex and sexualities in mixed-orientation marriages. Four themes (lack of sexuality-related exploration before marriage, the unsatisfactory nature of marital sex life, the exercise of sexual agency, and increased self-awakening) were developed from observations of a tongqi online support group and 12 semi-structured interviews with members. Using inductive thematic analysis, findings reveal how heteronormativity oppresses and punishes both tongqi and their non-straight husbands. In most cases, husbands not 'doing heterosexuality' as expected were still found to be 'doing gender' in patriarchal ways, with wives' subordinate status thereby being reinforced, making them more vulnerable. However, despite women's sexual autonomy and agency being constrained by normative forces, some were able to navigate their conjugal relationships by practising sexual autonomy and agency within and outside their marriage.

Men Have Gender and Women Are People: A Structural Approach to Gender and Violence.

The relationship between violence and patriarchal gender systems is structural and coconstitutive; yet structural analyses that account for gender in explanations and conceptualizations of violence are often absent from violence scholarship. Additionally, there are numerous underassessed areas in more gender-nuanced, "gender-based" violence paradigms. We address the shortcomings of both types of research and propose a cohesive theoretical framework that captures the ways in which violence is patriarchy-enhancing and patriarchy-facilitated. Violence shapes and influences gender performances and structures and, concomitantly, the gender order shapes and influences violence in given contexts.

The Elephant in the Room: Toward an Integrated, Feminist Analysis of Mass Murder.

This article argues for a new approach to making sense of mass murder, emphasizing the urgency of recognizing the proliferation and significance of misogyny and domestic violence among perpetrators of this type of homicide. It is vital that scholarship recognizes the political economy of neoliberal patriarchy and seeks to better understand how harmful subjectivity develops in this context. We propose a new multilevel framework for the analysis of mass murder and issue a call to action for a global program of independent qualitative research and activism to tackle its drivers, prevent further harm, and save lives.