The bondage of an imposed visual discourse : understanding the built environment's influence on the 'oldest-old' aged care residents' sense of peace

This study investigates the influence of the built environment upon residents' sense of familiarity, concept of self and thus, their facilitation of place through the theory of "The Bondage of Imposed Visual Discourse". Simone de Beauvoir's theory "The Bondage of Feminine Elegance" provides the conceptual understanding of the visual discourse between the physicality of clothing and the wearer's personal identity. This fashion theory is transposed to explore the influence of the built environment's physicality upon aged care residents' personal identity. This paper presents findings from a study of professionals' opinions in reference to the built environment of permanent residential aged care for the 'oldest-old' of Australia. The researcher conducted qualitative interviews with four participants: an architect, occupational therapist, nursing home facility manager and an aged care lobbyist in the South-East Queensland. This study is structured towards proposing "place-focused" qualitative design principles to encourage residents' sense of place through the built environment. These proposed principles are addressed with reference to existing Standards and Principles outlined by the Australian Government.

Women, drinking and aggression on a night out: Do girls just wanna have fun?

Alcohol misuse and violence is a major public safety concern. Although the extent and nature of alcohol-related violence has been examined there is a paucity of research surrounding the ongoing construction and re-construction of gender identity and its relationship to aggression and alcohol consumption. A social constructionist perspective was used to explore women’s perceptions and experiences of drinking alcohol and incidents of public violence and aggression. Two methods were used. Firstly, an exploratory study consisting of three in-depth interviews and three focus groups to examine the ideas women constructed in relation to their experiences; and further, an online survey to explore self-reported drinking patterns among men and women. The main themes emerging from the qualitative material were ‘planned drinking to excess’ (incorporating the rituals of a ‘pre-drink’ routine), and perceptions of appropriate feminine behaviour (particularly in relation to excessive drinking and alcohol related aggression in and around licensed venues). The survey data indicated that men continue to consume more alcohol and at higher levels than women, while women’s involvement in aggressive incidents on a night out being similar to that of men. Both genders considered that women’s involvement in aggressive incidents in and around licensed venues as ‘unfeminine’. Understanding drinking as a socially constructed activity adds to our understanding of the meaning of drinking for women, and in particular, young women. This perspective may allow more focussed initiatives to address the social and health related harms associated with drinking in and around licensed venues.

Sublime acts : desire in the studio

Acknowledging the recent call to review design creativity and consideration of the body's affective states in education, this paper explores how desire, conceptualized as an immanent force (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) and an irresistible force (Burke, 1753) can be a means of deeper engagement within the design studio. Positing 'disruption or blockage' as a key agent which propels subjects from fields of normalcy to fields of otherness, and subsequently mobilises distinct modes of desire, this paper takes Edmund Burke's Romantic sublime and Patricia Yaeger's feminine sublime as critical lenses through which to review a first year interior program posited around the body. The paper highlights how the embodiment of 'desirous processes' within the design program and relational encounters within the studio represent an overarching pedagogical 'hinge' (Ellsworth, 2005). Rather than being a point of beginning, the start of first year is seen and experienced as a threshold opening to a new rhythm in a proces of becoming that is already underway.

Fourth wall removed : womens' liberation or entrapment?

Australian dramatic literature of the 1950s and 1960s heralded a new wave in theatre and canonised a unique Australian identity on local and international stages. In previous decades, Australian theatre had been abound with the mythology of the wide brown land and the outback hero. This rural setting proved remote to audiences and sat uneasily within the conventions of the naturalist theatre. It was the suburban home that provided the back drop for this postwar evolution in Australian drama. While there were a number of factors that contributed to this watershed in Australian theatre, little has been written about how the spatial context may have influenced this movement. With the combined effects of postwar urbanization and shifting ideologies around domesticity, a new literary landscape had been created for playwrights to explore. Australian playwrights such as Dorothy Hewett, Ray Lawler and David Williamson transcended the outback hero by relocating him inside the postwar home. The Australian home of the 1960s slowly started subscribing to a new aesthetic of continuous living spaces and patios that extended from the exterior to the interior. These mass produced homes employed diluted spatial principles of houses designed by architects, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe and Adolf Loos in the 1920s and 1930s. In writing about Adolf Loos’ architecture, Beatriz Colomina described the “house as a stage for the family theatre”. She also wrote that the inhabitants of Loos’ houses were “both actors and spectators of the family scene involved”. It has not been investigated as to whether this new capacity to spectate within the home was a catalyst for playwrights to reflect upon, and translate the domestic environment to the stage. Audiences were also accustomed to being spectators of domesticity and could relate to the representations of home in the theatre. Additionally, the domestic setting provided a space for gender discourse; a space in which contestations of masculine and feminine identities could be played out. This research investigates whether spectating within the domestic setting contributed to the revolution in Australian dramatic literature of the 1950s and 1960s. The concept of the spectator in domesticity is underpinned by the work of Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley. An understanding of how playwrights may have been influenced by spectatorship within the home is ascertained through interviews and biographical research. The paper explores playwrights’ own domestic experiences and those that have influenced the plays they wrote and endeavours to determine whether seeing into the home played a vital role in canonising the Australian identity on the stage.

Femininity, mental weakness and difference : male students account for anorexia nervosa in men

The purpose of this study was to examine how men account for the diagnosis in men of anorexia nervosa (AN), a condition commonly associated with women. Male students participated in focus group discussions of topics related to AN. Discussions were tape-recorded with participants' consent, transcribed, and then analyzed using discourse analysis. The participants spontaneously constructed AN as a female-specific condition. When asked to account for AN in men, they distanced AN from hegemonic masculinities in ways that sustained both dominant masculine identities and gender-specific constructions of AN. These findings show how issues of health and gender are interlinked in everyday understandings of AN. Future researchers might usefully consider how the construction of gender-specific illness implicates wider notions of both feminine and masculine gender identities.

Book review: Leaky Bodies and Boundaries. Feminism, Post-modernism and (Bio)ethics. Shildrick, M. (1997)

This thoughtful book is a much needed contribution to feminist ethics that is brimming with detailed and insightful analyses of the positioning of women in contemporary health care and particularly in relation to new reproductive technologies (NRTs). The clearly written and structured chapters provide accessible points to modern ethics, post-modernism, and feminist ethics. Margrit Shildrick takes on these areas with authority and vigour, building an argument for women to enter the relations of reproduction on terms more expressive of feminine desire...

International acclaim : the role(s) of the international film festival in supporting emerging women’s cinema

International Film Festivals act as important sites for the exhibition of contemporary world cinema. Film festivals represent an increasingly transnational film culture, where audiences, filmmakers, distributors, press, critics and academics come together from all over the world to discover new films, network with one another and debate about the past, present and future of cinema. This research project investigates the role that international film festivals play within the wider international film industry, with a specific focus on emerging women filmmakers. It therefore explores the arena of contemporary women.s cinema at its intersection with the international film festival industry. The significance and original contribution of the research is its intervention in the growing field of film festival studies through a specific investigation of how international film festivals support emerging women filmmakers. The positioning of the research at the intersection of feminist film theory and festival research within the broader context of transnational cinema allows the examination of each festival, the attending filmmakers and their films to be addressed within a more refined and nuanced lens. A core method for the thesis is the close textual analysis of particular emerging women filmmakers. films which are screened at the respective festivals. The research also utilises the qualitative research strategies of the case study and the interview to ¡°seek to understand the context or setting of the participants through visiting this context and gathering information personally¡± (Creswell 2003, 9). The textual analysis is used in dialogue with the interviews and the participant observational data gathering to provide a related context for understanding these films and their cultural meanings, both personally for the filmmaker and transnationally across the festival circuit. The focus of the case studies is the Brisbane International Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Toronto International Film Festival. These three festivals were chosen for their distinct geographical locations in the Asia Pacific, Europe and North America, as well as for their varying size and influence on the international film festival circuit. Specifically, I investigate the reasons behind why the organisers of a particular festival have chosen a certain woman.s film, how it is then packaged or displayed within the programme, and how all of this impacts on the filmmaker herself. The focus of my research is to investigate film festivals and their .real-life. applications and benefits for the filmmakers being supported, both through the exhibition of their films and through their attendance as festival guests. The research finds that the current generation of emerging women filmmakers has varying levels of experience and success at negotiating the international film festival circuit. Each of the three festivals examined include and promote the films of emerging women filmmakers through a range of strategies, such as specific programming strands dedicated to showcasing emerging talent, financial support through festival funds, providing visibility within the programme, exposure to international audiences and networking opportunities with industry professionals and other filmmakers. Furthermore, the films produced by the emerging women filmmakers revealed a strong focus on women.s perspectives and experiences, which were explored through the interweaving of particular aesthetic and cinematographic conventions.

Journalism, gender, feminist theory and news reporting on the Australian Football League

This article reports on a review of selected theory and practice in sports journalism to determine if the prominence of female journalists reporting the news of a major sporting movement, and industry, the Australian Football League (AFL) could be attributed to a feminist response to the traditional domination of male values in the sports media complex. The article reviews selected literature to establish that, on the evidence presented, male values have traditionally dominated the news. It then considers feminist theory and alternative feminist responses to the domination of male values in the newsroom. Consideration is also given to Australian research on the ‘seriousness’ of sports news and its coverage (or lack thereof) of more ‘feminine’ news values including human interest stories, stories about culture and those on serious social issues. Interviews with a select group of female journalists who write about the AFL for The Age newspaper in Melbourne are recounted, with a focus on the journalists’ work experiences. The article concludes by drawing together the research findings to demonstrate that, although feminine news values are represented in only a small proportion of AFL news stories, there is evidence to suggest they are afforded a high degree of presentational prominence which reflects the needs and expectations of a female audience. It shows that female journalists do play a meaningful role in the AFL media and that, given the evidence presented, a feminist response to the traditional domination of male values in the sports media complex could indeed be applicable, and taking place.

Women on the Heritage Register : the case of Nellie McCredie and Uanda House

Uanda house is of historical importance to Queensland both in terms of its architectural design and its social history. Uanda is a low set, single story house built in 1928, located in the inner city Brisbane suburb of Wilston. Architecturally, the house has a number of features that distinguish it from the surrounding bungalow influenced inter-war houses. The house has been described as a Queensland style house with neo-Georgian influences. Historically, it is associated with the entry of women into the profession of architecture in Queensland. Uanda is the only remaining intact work of architect/draftswoman Nellie McCredie and one of a very few examples of works by pioneering women architects in Queensland. The house was entered into the Queensland Heritage Register, in 2000, after an appeal against Brisbane City Council’s refusal of an application to demolish the house was disputed in the Queensland Planning and Environment court in 1998/1999. In the court’s report, Judge Robin QC, DCJ, stated that, “The importance of preserving women's history and heritage, often previously marginalised or lost, is now accepted at government level, recognising that role models are vital for bringing new generations of women into the professions and public life.” While acknowledging women’s contribution to the profession of architecture is an important endeavour, it also has the potential to isolate women architects as separate to a mainstream history of architecture. As Julie Willis writes, it can imply an atypical, feminine style of architecture. What is the impact or potential implications of recognising heritage buildings designed by women architects? The Judge also highlights the absence of a recorded history of unique Brisbane houses and questions the authority of the heritage register. This research looks at these points of difference through a case study of the Uanda house. The paper will investigate the processes of adding the house to the heritage register, the court case and existing research on Nellie McCredie and Uanda House.

Clipped

Clipped was a solo developed from a showing of Stage One Creative Development: Experience Has No Shadow at the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts in 2010. The solo was choreographed for EDC dancer Elise May as part of EDC Solo Festival 2011. The solo showcased the twisting movement of the dancer, feminine and awkward, sensual and fragile, carving abstract images through the space. In the Courier Mail dance critic Olivia Stewart commented, “Artistic director Natalie Weir and Vanessa Mafe retrospectively gave EDC’s Riannon McLean and Elise May movement that harnessed their power and prowess” (2011, 54) In the The Australian dance critic Shaaron Boughen comments, “May's own performance in Vanessa Mafe's Clipped was mature and sophisticated, showing the breadth of skills that this young artist has developed” (2011, 19)

The waves, parts 1 and 2

This two-part video installation, exploring the feminine gaze and the traditions of cinema, was exhibited at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane as part of the 2013 'Fresh Cut' program.

"Nursing is no place for men" ― A thematic analysis of male nursing students experiences of undergraduate nursing education

Background: Surprisingly, opinion about whether men are suitable within the profession continues to be a divided issue. Men enter the profession for a multitude of reasons, yet barriers whether emotional, verbal or sexual are still present. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the experience of men “training” to be registered nurses within a regional New Zealand context. Design: A Narrative Analysis approach was used. Participants: Five New Zealand men currently undertaking their bachelor of nursing degree at a regional tertiary institute were interviewed as to their experiences of what it meant to be a man in “training”. Method: A thematic analysis was undertaken and guided by an understanding of the way personal narratives informs the human sciences especially within the context of nursing praxis. Four key themes were identified. Results: Four key themes were identified: A career with flexibility and promise; perceived gender inequality in providing care; developing professional boundaries with female colleagues and being unique has its advantages. Conclusion: The men in this study were attracted to the profession by career stability and advancement; the opportunities for travel also figured highly. At times they felt excluded and marginalised because of their minority status within their group and the feminine nature of the curriculum. The men attempted to dispel the myth around male nurse sexual stereotypes. Some of the students behaved in a manner to exert their heterosexualness. The students in this study sensed their vulnerability in choosing nursing as a career. However, all the participants saw nursing as viable and portable career in terms of advancement and travel.

Gendering occupations: Persistence and resistance of gender presumptions about members of particular healthcare professions

In spite of increasing gender diversity in employment roles, presumptions persist about the gender of people employed in particular occupations. Focusing on healthcare data collected in Australia and the United Kingdom within the past decade, we use Conversation Analysis (CA) to identify how presumptions about gender are displayed within social interaction through the use of gender-specific pronouns. We show how gender-specific pronouns are asymmetrically selected on the basis of a referent’s occupations, with gender-unspecified members of traditionally male occupations (e.g. doctors) referred to with masculine pronouns and gender-unspecified members of traditionally female occupations (e.g. nurses) referred to with feminine pronouns. We also explore ways people avoid making such presumptions. Our analysis therefore reveals a state of flux in contemporary social life, with instances in which gender presumptions persist as well as attempts to employ person references that reflect contemporary social dynamics.

"Unruly women and semiotic spaces": Jay Verney's a mortality tale

Written at a time of significant changes for women and for women writers in Queensland, Australia, Jay Verney's A Mortality Tale (1994), privileges women's experiences of place and seeks to redeem the feminine from its entrapment in masculine stories/discourses of self and place. This chapter draws on Julia Kristeva's conceptualisation of the semiotic as a way of reading Verney's witty and reflective re-articulation of phallocentric orderings of spatiality and gender.

Women in politics in democratic transition: The case of Bhutan

This thesis is a study about women's participation in Bhutan's new democracy and exposes the patriarchy embedded in Bhutanese society which is reinforced through cultural practices and the legal framework. It reveals the public/private dichotomy, the low educational attainment of girls and the gendered division of labour which derails women's public life. It discloses a masculine driven party politics and the challenges of being a woman in the world of men. Nonetheless, the first trailblazing women parliamentarians demonstrated a principled, feminine, political leadership in a masculine environment. Semi-structured interviews, document review and participant observation methods were used to collect data.