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Within both feminist theory and popular culture, establishing similarities between embodied practices rooted in different cultural and geo-political contexts (e.g. ‘African’ female genital cutting and ‘Western’ cosmetic surgery) has become increasingly common as a means of countering cultural essentialism, ethnocentrism and racism. Feminism, Culture and Embodied Practice examines how cross cultural comparisons of embodied practices function as a rhetorical device – with particular theoretical, social and political effects - in a range of contemporary feminist texts. It asks: Why and how are cross-cultural links among these practices drawn by feminist theorists and commentators, and what do these analogies do? What knowledges, hierarchies and figurations do these comparisons produce, disrupt and/or reify in feminist theory, and how do such effects resonate within popular culture? Taking a relational web approach that focuses on unravelling the binary threads that link specific embodied practices within a wider representational community, this book highlights how we depend on and affect one another across cultural and geo-political contexts. This book is valuable reading for undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers in Gender Studies, Postcolonial or Race Studies, Cultural and Media Studies, and other related disciplines. Introduction: Feministm, Culture and Embodied Practice: The Rhetorics of Comparison 1. Comparing Cultures: Feminist Theory, Anti-Essentialism and New Humanisms 2. Critical Frameworks: Intersectionality, Relationality and Embodiment 3. Continuums and Analogues: Linking 'African' Female Genital Cutting and 'Western' Body Modifications 4. Constitutive Comparisons: Producing Muslim Veiling, Anorexia and 'Western' Fashion and Beauty Practices 5. Weaving Relational Webs: Theorising Cultural Difference and Embodied Practice '...[Demonstrates] both robust theoretical knowledge and clarity of perspective...' '...[A] highly complex endeavour and a thoroughly enjoyable read for the complexity of its debates, the clarity of its structure and argument, the scope of its critique and the development of the relational web, which is not just a theoretical model but a credible (collective) project for the future. Pedwell has argued her case convincingly but above all with modesty, in full awareness that her critique is not about discrediting previous efforts to address comparisons but about taking the debates to the next stage. The book is consistently mindful of the ethics relating to how this should be done.' -Angie Voela, University of East London in European Journal of Women's Studies vol 18 no 3 Carolyn Pedwell is Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Her research interests include feminist and postcolonial theory; gender, cultural difference and ‘the body’; and the transnational politics of emotion and affect. Her work has been published in Feminist Theory , Feminist Review , and Body and Society .

In Practising Feminism, contributors drawn from a range of backgrounds in anthropology, sociology and social psychology, explore different ways of practising feminism and their effect on gendered identities. The contributors examine feminism and gender identities in different cultures, feminism as a politics of transformation, the call for recognition of heterosexuality as a politicised identity, the practical role of feminism in nationalist struggles, power relations and gender differences, and the methodological implications of feminist practices. They all discuss identity, difference and power and their importance to feminist political practice. Practising Feminism is an important contribution to the neglected middle ground between post-modern deconstructions of difference and identity, and continued feminist concern with grounded power relations and the validity of experience.

This handbook presents the histories, status, and contours of feminist research and practice in regional and/or national contexts. Global experts present their perspectives on women, culture, and rights to illuminate the diverse forms of feminist psychological work.

With original and engaging contributions, this Handbook confirms feminist scholarship in development studies as a vibrant research field. It reveals the diverse ways that feminist theory and practice inform and shape gender analysis and development policies, bridging generations of feminists from different institutions, disciplines and regions.

Written by an international group of feminist scholars and activists, the book explores how the rise in right-wing politics, fundamentalist religion, and radical nationalism is constructed and results in gendered and racial violence. The chapters cover a broad range of international contexts and offer new ways of combating assaults and oppression to understand the dangers inherent within the current global political and social climate. The book includes a foreword by the distinguished critical activist, Antonia Darder, as well as a chapter by renowned feminist-scholar, Chandra Talpade Mohanty.

Cultural critic Lauren Berlant wrote that \"politics is always emotional,\" and her words hold especially true for politics in the twenty-first century.From Obama to Trump, from Black Lives Matter to the anti-abortion movement, politicians and activists appeal to hope, fear, anger, and pity, all amplified by social media.    The essays in  Feeling.

Several explanations have been forwarded to account for sexual coercion in romantic relationships. Feminist theory states that sexual coercion is the result of male dominance over women and the need to maintain that dominance; however, studies showing that women sexually coerce men point towards weaknesses in that theory. Some researchers have, therefore, suggested that it is the extent to which people view the other gender as hostile that influences these rates. Furthermore, much research suggests that a history of childhood sexual abuse is a strong risk factor for later sexual victimization in relationships. Few researchers have empirically evaluated the first two explanations and little is known about whether sexual revictimization operates for men or across cultures. In this study, hierarchical linear modeling was used to investigate whether the status of women and adversarial sexual beliefs predicted differences in sexual coercion across 38 sites from around the world, and whether sexual revictimization operated across genders and cultures. Participants included 7,667 university students from 38 sites. Results showed that the relative status of women at each site predicted significant differences in levels of sexual victimization for men, in that the greater the status of women, the higher the level of forced sex against men. In addition, differences in adversarial sexual beliefs across sites significantly predicted both forced and verbal sexual coercion for both genders, such that greater levels of hostility towards women at a site predicted higher levels of forced and verbal coercion against women and greater levels of hostility towards men at a site predicted higher levels of forced and verbal coercion against men. Finally, sexual revictimization occurred for both genders and across all sites, suggesting that sexual revictimization is a cross-gender, cross-cultural phenomenon. Results are discussed in terms of their contributions to the literature, limitations of the current study, and suggestions for future research.

This study undertakes a cross-cultural and comparative analysis of female resistance as represented in three symbolic figures: Velu Nachiyar from South Indian royal chronicles, Lady Macbeth from Shakespearean tragedy, and Kannagi from the Tamil epic Cilappatikaram. This study examines how each figure articulates female agency within distinct socio-political and literary frameworks by drawing on feminist historiography, postcolonial theory, and memory studies.While Velu Nachiyar embodies anti-colonial sovereignty and martial leadership, Lady Macbeth dramatises the psychological and moral costs of female ambition within patriarchal power structures, and Kannagi transforms widowhood and grief into cosmic justice.The study highlights how genres such as epic, tragedy, and chronicle shape not only narrative form but also cultural memory.The very factor also determines whether female resistance is celebrated, pathologised, or mythologised.By juxtaposing these figures across historical and literary terrains, this study reveals convergences in courage and agency while tracing divergences in representation and afterlife, ultimately contributing to feminist and postcolonial debates on gender, power, and narrative authority.  

This study provides a comparative feminist analysis of two folktales from two cultures: Princess Mandalika from Lombok, Indonesia, and The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. Both stories depict a female protagonist who sacrifices for their communities based on different motivations and cultural contexts. This study aims to explore how gender, agency, and transformation are seen from the perspective of feminism by analyzing how the two narratives negotiate about the role of women in patriarchal structures. The importance of this study lies in its contribution to the cross-cultural feminist literature by highlighting women's agency in both Eastern and Western traditions. The study found that Princess Mandalika embodies selfless collective sacrifice for the harmony of society. At the same time, The Little Mermaid emphasizes individual desire, suffering, and the search for autonomy within a limited framework. The feminist analysis gap of these two folktales lies in the lack of comparative studies, which this study seeks to meet. This study uses feminist theory to offer a new view of how cultural narratives affect the perception of women's empowerment and its associated costs. The comparative approach offers novelty by embracing Eastern and Western femininity in studying folklore.