Theories of Gender and Transgender

The female terrorist circulates within contemporary Western culture as an object of fascination and heightened concern. Gender and the Political analyses cultural constructions of the female terrorist, arguing that she operates as a limit case of both feminine and feminist agency. Drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, this book demonstrates that the development of the discourse on terrorism evolves in parallel with, and in response to, radical feminism in the US in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Situated at the borderlines between sexuality, threat and abjection, Amanda Third argues that the figure of the female terrorist compels a reexamination of the project of radical politics and the limits of modernity.

http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/gender-and-the-political-amanda-third/?K=9781137402752

"A fascinating exploration of the historical twinning of terrorism and feminism in the U.S. By redirecting our attention to these important discourses emerging in the 60's and 70s, this book provides a crucial corrective to counter post 9/11 anxieties that continually project the terrorist as somehow coming from elsewhere." - Jasbir K. Puar, Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers University, USA

"Amanda Third's Gender and the Political convincingly argues that the modern concepts of terrorism and feminism are historically and conceptually interwoven. The book does this by reading terrorism studies against the grain while simultaneously positioning the concept of terrorism as a central trope of postmodern thought. These two discourses - the former increasingly foundational to, the latter highly critical of, the modern state and social order - are placed in fruitful conversation with one another, resulting in a deeply illuminating study of the contemporary political terrain in the United States." - Mehmet Döşemeci, Assistant Professor of History, Bucknell University, USA

In light of recent "bathroom bills" in several states, this essay addresses gender identity in the Bible, which proponents of the bills claim supports their legislation. However, this essay argues that the Bible challenges many aspects of gender, especially in Roman perspective, and actually supports a more tolerant and communal respect for gender identity and the transgender community as a whole.

This article discusses the acquisition of a physical impairment/disability through voluntary body modification, or transability. From the perspectives of critical genealogy and feminist intersectional analysis, the article considers the ability and cis*/trans* axes in order to question the boundaries between trans and transabled experience and examines two assumptions impeding the conceptualization of their placement on the same continuum: 1) trans studies assume an able-bodied trans identity and able-bodied trans subject of analysis; and 2) disability studies assume a cis* disabled identity. The perception of transsexuality and transability as mutually exclusive phenomena results from a non-intersectional analysis of transsexuality as an issue of sex/gender, but not ability, and of transability as an issue of ability, but not sex/gender. Difficulty recognizing continuities between these phenomena thus stems from an ableist interpretation of sex/gender and a cis(gender)normative* interpretation of ability. This article aims to: 1) enrich intersectional analysis in trans and disability studies and transability scholarship; 2) complicate disability studies, in which disabilities are often presumed “involuntary”, and encourage the decentering of a cis* subject; 3) encourage trans studies to decenter an able-bodied subject; and 4) advocate for increased dialogue and the creation of alliances between trans and disability studies and movements.

Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hypa.12113/abstract

In 1972, Syed Mustafa Siraj (1930-2012) published Māyā Mridanga, a novel which has attained an iconic status in recent years[1], with the advent of queer studies and a proliferation of queer texts in South Asia. Since its first appearance, the novel, set within an almost extinct itinerant folk theatre group, Alkaap, drew the attention of scholars working on aboriginal and folk cultures of Bengal; but, they have largely ignored Siraj’s declaration in the 1972 preface that the novel primarily deals with the cross-dressing male actors (p.5), the chhokras–jara purush tobu purush noy, nari – tobu nari o noy (Men, who are not men, but women – yet, not quite women either, p. 12). Siraj’s novel is a rare modern Bengali text to address deep philosophical questions of sexual subject formation, of essence and existence, of being and becoming.

This was a research paper for a course entitled Feminist and Multicultural Theologies. I unpack what gender complementarianism is, examine its history, and compare it to how Scripture and earlier Christian Tradition understood gender. This allows me to establish that gender complementarianism is a recent innovation in secular and Christian thinking about gender, and that it can be described as a "trajectory" from Scripture and Tradition on gender, influenced by social, ideological, and intellectual developments in secular societies. I then pursue a critique of gender complementarianism, arguing that it is an "unsatisfactory trajectory" because it has troubling implications for orthodox theology, is not borne out by empirical experience and observation, and has harmful effects on human beings and societies and on ethical development.

Objectives
This study sought to explore perspectives of trans and gender diverse (TGD) people of ways to alleviate gender dysphoria in service provision and to develop a framework for application in health and other areas that can be used by researchers and service providers to design study protocols, assess organisations and enhance everyday practice in ways that are sensitive to TGD people’s experiences.

Methods
Data from a national Australian survey on TGD people conducted in 2018–2019 (n = 340) were used to develop a framework for alleviating dysphoria. Participants were asked an open-ended question on ways that body discomfort could be minimised in clinical encounters. Inductive thematic analysis was used to develop themes true to participant sentiment, which formed the basis for the development of a framework.

Results
The sample was overall young, with 60.6% aged 18–24, and a strong representation of gender diverse people (42.6%). The most important theme for participants was the context of the experience, which included the subthemes of the interpersonal qualities of service providers, language and pronouns, and practical aspects. Aspects of systems were also important, with education and awareness being particularly emphasised, followed by inclusive environments. Access to gender affirming medical and surgical procedures was rarely mentioned (2.6%). A minority of participants indicated that there was nothing that could be done to alleviate their gender dysphoria (4.4%).

Conclusions
The study proposes a framework that can help facilitate assessment of a service’s current practices, inform a practitioner’s daily practice and be used by researchers to appropriately design studies. The most important areas to address centre on the context of the immediate experience, which may be influenced through systems-level characteristics.

ABSTRACT
This research, situated at the junction of feminist, trans and disability studies, examines the limits of intersectional feminist analyses and the difficulties faced in their consideration of gender identity and ability through an analysis of two types of body modification: transsexuality and transability (voluntary disability acquisition). In response to the question “what are the limits of intersectional analyses and how can they be addressed?”, three objectives are proposed: 1) participate in the critical examination of specific limits of intersectional feminist analyses in order to diversify their axes through the consideration of gender identity and ability; 2) question the conceptual assumptions and cisgenderist and (cis)ableist privileges informing negative discourses around these body modifications and highlight points of convergence among feminist, transactivist and anti-ableist movements in order to encourage dialogue and solidarities among them; 3) provide feminist, trans and disability studies with an enriched model of intersectionality capable of addressing new claims for justice from oppressed groups, such as those of transsexual and transabled individuals. The negative discourses of certain feminists and other scientists regarding these body modifications are mapped and critiqued through a methodology combining archeological, genealogical and critical discourse analysis. The reflections presented here, inspired by poststructuralist and queer approaches, explore neither the “origins” of transsexuality and transability nor their motivations; this is a study of the negative discourses about these phenomena and the normative systems from which they originate. The result is an important contribution to theoretical, normative and political fields of knowledge: the examination of two “extreme” cases of body modification reveals the bodily normativities of dominant regimes, specifically cisgenderism and (cis)ableism, that remain as unrecognized in our societies as in our social movements. 


KEYWORDS
Intersectionality; feminist theories; trans theories; queer theories; disability theories; social movements; body modifications; bodies; transsexuality; transability; voluntary amputation; BIID; disability; mutilation; pathologization; normality/abnormality; stigmatization; discourse; critical discourse analysis; norms; oppression; autonomy; bioethics.


RÉSUMÉ
Cette recherche se situe à la jonction des études féministes, trans et sur la production du handicap. Elle s’intéresse aux limites des analyses féministes intersectionnelles et leurs difficultés à considérer certains axes identitaires, telles l’identité de genre et les capacités, à travers l’analyse de deux cas de figure de modifications corporelles, soit la transsexualité et la transcapacité (transformation visant à acquérir un handicap). Cette thèse s’articule autour de la question suivante : quels sont les angles morts des analyses intersectionnelles et comment pouvons-nous y remédier? Pour répondre à cette question, cette thèse propose trois objectifs : 1) Participer aux questionnements critiques entourant certaines limites des analyses féministes intersectionnelles pour en diversifier les axes à partir de l’identité de genre et des capacités; 2) Remettre en question les présupposés conceptuels et les privilèges cisgenristes et (cis)capacitistes qui sous-tendent les discours négatifs entourant ces modifications corporelles et mettre en valeur les points de convergence entre les mouvements féministes, transactivistes et anticapacitistes pour instaurer des dialogues et des solidarités entre eux; 3) Fournir un modèle enrichi de l’intersectionnalité pouvant être déployé en études féministes, trans et sur la production du (trans)handicap, apte à répondre aux nouvelles revendications de justice de groupes opprimés, comme celles des personnes transsexuelles et transcapacitaires. À l’aide d’une méthodologie alliant l’analyse critique de discours, l’analyse archéologique et généalogique, les discours négatifs de certaines féministes et d’autres scientifiques sur ces transformations corporelles sont cartographiés et critiqués. Les réflexions présentées ici, s’inscrivant dans une approche poststructuraliste et queer, ne proposent pas une recherche des « origines » et des motivations de la transsexualité et de la transcapacité, mais plutôt une étude des discours négatifs vis-à-vis ces phénomènes et des systèmes normatifs qui sous-tendent ces discours. C’est sous cet angle que cette recherche constitue un apport important aux champs des savoirs, tant sur le plan théorique, normatif que politique : en se penchant sur deux cas de figure « extrêmes », elle met en lumière les normativités corporelles des régimes dominants, notamment cisgenriste et (cis)capacitiste, occultées tant dans nos sociétés que dans nos mouvements sociaux.


MOTS CLÉS
Intersectionnalité; théories féministes; théories trans; théories queers; théories sur le handicap; mouvements sociaux; modifications corporelles; corps; transsexualité; transcapacité; amputations volontaires; BIID; handicap; mutilations; pathologisation; normalité/anormalité; stigmatisation; discours; analyses critiques de discours; normes; oppressions; autonomie; bioéthique.

Who was Catalina de Erauso, the Lieutenant Nun? Swashbuckler, brawler, hard-headed businessperson, soldier, gallant, celebrity, transvestite, nun? How can one fail to be fascinated by her? A woman, yet a man; a soldier, yet a nun; Spanish, yet Basque. Catalina de Erauso embodied the contradictions and conflicts of the Early Modern Period, but she also transcended them in her own way. She became a stage on which we see how tensions between different identities played out in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Spain, particularly the tensions between two sexual identities, male and female, and between the competing and multiple national "identities" already defined and being defined within that new thing that was "Spain." This book explores the different facets of Erauso's persona: her sexual identity and the factors that determined her choice of gender roles; and her Basque origin and its impact on her life and her self-image.

Today, individual identities often undergo radical conversions that were thought to be fantastical only decades ago: transformations of race, sex, gender, and more. These transformations are of great interest to the public, as evidenced by the frequent coverage of trans issues and personal transitions of all kinds on television and in popular magazines. Caitlyn Jenner changes from a man into a woman. Rachel Dolezal changes from a white woman to a black one. It is not new that people attempt these renovations of identity – but what is new is the mainstream insistence upon the totality and truth of these transformations. And while race and gender are certainly different matters, the techniques used to signify them in rhetorical contexts are remarkable similar. The growing discourse on these topics indicates that we have perhaps arrived at a " trans-moment " – a cultural impasse with possibilities for new kinds of transformations to occur. This moment calls for a theoretical reconsideration of ethos, how it functions differently now than it has in the past, and how it is successfully communicated in new mediated contexts. Although people who testify to these transformations often posit their new ethos as self-evident, major renovations of personal identity require sophisticated rhetorical performances in order to win the recognition of others.

The article engages with trans male video blogs on YouTube, framing them as living archives that offer unique opportunities to access and share embodied trans knowledges—which have previously been limited or inaccessible—such as information about and visual accounts of medical transitioning processes. It is argued that archiving one's transition works through a kind of performative documentation, partly documenting and partly instantiating the transformation by tracking and tracing the bodily changes. Testosterone figures as the transformative technology, while the upper body becomes the privileged site of self-fashioning. YouTube hereby offers an alternative and empowering archive of how trans male bodies could look, while its cumulative effects also play a significant role in determining how they should look.

Kant on sex gives most philosophers the following associations: a lifelong celibate philosopher; a natural teleological view of sexuality; a strange incorporation of this natural teleological account within his freedom-based moral theory; and a stark ethical condemnation of most sexual activity. Although this paper provides an interpretation of Kant’s view on sexuality, it neither defends nor offers an apology for everything Kant says about sexuality. Rather, it aims to show that a reconsidered Kant-based account can utilize his many worthwhile insights and that by making Kant’s account of sexuality more consistent with his own basic philosophical commitments, the result is a compelling approach to the complex and complicated phenomena of sexual love, sexual identity, and sexual orientation.

Open access link here:
https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/fpq/article/view/3116

Longtemps cantonnée au changement de sexe, la question trans est aujourd’hui abordée comme changement de genre au sein des disciplines ouvertes aux études de genre dans un renouvellement et un enrichissement du champ épistémique. Cette recherche inscrite dans l’interdiscipline que forment les Sciences de l’information et de la communication se veut aussi un travail précurseur des Transgender studies francophones suivant la pensée de Sandy Stone et dans la lignée des studies anglo-saxonnes. Cette recherche porte ainsi son attention sur la construction sociale et médiatique des transidentités (personnes transgenres, transsexuelles, identités alternatives). La problématique semble innovante car elle conjugue exigence et créativité  de la recherche avec le statut de la chercheuse insider et outsider à son terrain. Ce premier volume s’attache à croiser l’état des lieux du terrain associatif et militant transidentitaire français avec l’histoire des définitions de la médecine légale depuis les années 1970 aux révisions les plus récentes. Cette nouvelle histoire des trans en France est éclairée par la description des processus de politisation des groupes, de la diversité des identifications de genre, de leurs subcultures, des apports de l’internet et des épistémologies féministes, de leurs rapports aux médias et en retour aux effets de la médiatisation.

Ce travail de recherche a été récompensé par  le 2e Prix jeune chercheur francophone en SIC – 2014,  décerné par la Société française des sciences  de l’information et de la communication (SFSIC).

This expert guide to working with transgender and gender variant youth offers ways to make positive change to service provision for practitioners working with this group. Based on the latest research, the recommendations made by the author are backed up by statistics and data, and refer to first-hand stories and experiences.

Exploring four key areas - mental health, physical health, sexual health and social health - the book sets out exactly what professionals need to know in relation to these areas and how to support trans youth in these circumstances. Providing clarity on a range of topics, this is the perfect overview for practitioners, as well as a useful text for students and researchers.

Toxic Silence: Race, Black Gender Identity, and Addressing the Violence against Black Transgender Women in Houston contributes to a growing body of transgender scholarship. This book examines the patriarchal and heteronormative frames within the black community and larger American society that advances the toxic masculinity which violently castigates and threatens the collective embodiment of black transgender women in the USA. Such scholarship is needed to shed more light on the transphobic violence and murders against this understudied group.

Little is known about the societal and cultural issues and concerns affecting black transgender women and how their gender identity is met with systemic, institutional, and interpersonal roadblocks. During a time period in American history defined by Time Magazine as "The Transgender Tipping Point," black transgender women have emerged as social, cultural, and political subjects to advance our understanding of the lives of people who identity as a part of both the black and LGBTQIA communities. In the end, this book calls on the black community and culture to end the toxic silence and act instead as allies who are more accepting and inclusive of differing sexualities and gender identities in an effort to improve the generative power of black solidarity.

The present paper seeks to critically assess the contemporary approach to legal gender recognition. The trans community is insufficiently protected by the law: too often policymakers are unaware or willingly ignoring the cost that categorizations reflecting static – as opposed to fluid –, singular – as opposed to multiple – identities impose on group “outsiders”. A similar approach has resulted in the establishment of a plethora of conditions to obtain legal gender recognition. On careful examination, these conditions hardly withstand scrutiny. A major example concerns practices involving sterilization o sex reassignment procedures: such practices yield a profound impact on human bodies. Such an impact should more correctly be framed in terms of ‘punishment’ for having trespassed the boundaries between genders, as well as a wall to prevent that person from making her choice reversible.

Based on this premise, the paper first explores the topic of legal categorizations through the lens of queer theory; it then moves to analyze the cost insufficiently inclusive categories impose on group outsiders unable to align with the dominant understanding of identity underlying a certain category; it then takes the European Convention of Human Rights as a case study to demonstrate how this approach is detrimental to the trans community, and particularly to individuals unwilling to undergo gender reassignment procedures; section 4 explicates the many advantages of an approach to legal gender recognition based on self-determination. Ultimately, section 5 takes stock of the discussion and moves to rewrite a passage in the Hämäläinen decision, to illustrate how queer tenets can be effectively embedded into the law, without ‘queer’ implying a mere deconstruction of jurisgenerative processes.

This paper offers a discussion of the rationale for the creation of sports categorization criteria based on sporting genealogy and the gendered body, as proposed by Torres et al. in their article 'Beyond Physiology: Embodied Experience, Embodied Advantage, and the Inclusion of Transgender Athletes in Competitive Sport'. The strength of their 'phenomenological' account lies in its complex account of human experience; but this is also what makes it impractical and difficult to operationalize. Categorization rather requires simplicity and practicability, if it is to be applied to all athletes (and not exceptionally to transgender athletes). This discussion helps us to formulate three general principles for the process of categorization of athletes, relating to fairness, verifiability and practicability.

Using a review of internationally informed literature, United States policy, and teaching stories, this article frames the nuances of teacher education for positive advocacy for young children and their families who are in sexual or gender minority groups. The article discusses the use of biological knowledge(s) and fuller understandings of sexuality versus gender, as fluid, but not equal, constructs. We include the current challenges for full inclusion as well as anti-bias responses, rather than bully prevention, to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT+) young children and/or their families. When the classroom includes those students who are questioning their gender, or who are performing gender-ambiguous or gender-nonconforming behaviors (+), parents often turn to teachers for support. Our paper explores current advocacy skills that teachers need in order to support children and their families reach their fullest potential(s).

This chapter addresses the question of what an art educator should do in the face of visual culture's influence on political decision making regarding reproductive rights. I recount dialogues about two overtly political artworks that I created shortly before the 2012 presidential election. The chapter engages with Julia Serano's (2007) concepts of oppositional sexism, cissexism, and transmisogyny to focus analysis of the dialogues. I ask in my analysis: Who is included and excluded in discussions about reproductive rights legislation? How does institutional policy and practice affect the context in which such discussions take place? How do assumptions based on oppositional sexism shape these discussions? How does meaning in art about reproductive rights shift based on the changed gender of the artist? How has the focus on gender shifted for the current political cycle?

We will explore the gendered viewpoints and voices of a variety of essayists, writers, filmmakers, storytellers, historians, and activists. In particular, we will investigate how personal & political identities (like gender, race, class, and sexuality) position individuals differently in society, which contributes to how individuals experience and make sense of their world. We will study how our own relationships within American cultural systems of privilege and oppression contribute to the theories, ideas, narratives, norms, and stories we see as the " norm. " We will examine how individuals resist inequalities, create new systems of change, and engage in transformational politics. Although some of the focus of the course is women's experiences, we will question what the term " woman " actually means by expanding the category to include a range of diverse perspectives. We will consider women, men, and non-binary individuals equally as agents of change, whose lives and projects impact the direction of feminism, culture, and " voice " on a wider scale.

and Introduction Abstract Background: Previous studies have found that teaspoons are commonly used to administer liquid medications to children. The capacity of household teaspoons ranges from 1.5 mL to 9 mL, potentially leading to errors in dosing. There are few studies evaluating alternative measuring devices. Objective: To assess adult consumers' previous experience with measuring devices for oral liquids, compare the accuracy of an oral syringe with that of a dosing cup, and determine consumer perceptions of accuracy and ease of use of an oral syringe and a dosing cup. Methods: Individuals at least 18 years of age were shown a picture of 5 commonly used measurement devices and asked their perceptions of and experience with the devices. They were then asked to measure a 5 mL (1 teaspoon) dose of Tylenol (acetaminophen) suspension, using the EZY Dose oral syringe and the dosing cup provided by the manufacturer. An acceptable dose was defined as 5.0 ± 0.5 mL. Following the measurement, participants completed a 5 item survey that assessed their perceptions of the accuracy and ease of use of the syringe and dosing cup. Results: A total of 96 subjects completed the study. Participants more commonly reported use of droppers (68%), dosing cups (67%), and teaspoons (62%) versus cylindrical spoons (49%) or oral syringes (49%) for measuring oral liquids. Sixty-four (66.7%) subjects measured an acceptable dose using the syringe versus 14 subjects (14.6%) using the cup (p < 0.001). The mean volumes ± SD measured with the syringe and cup were 4.5 ± 0.7 mL and 6.3 ± 0.7 mL, respectively (p < 0.001). After using both devices, the majority of subjects believed that the syringe (80%) and cup (71%) would measure an accurate dose. Most (87%) participants perceived that the cup was easy to use; 63% believed that the syringe was easy to use. Conclusions: Droppers and dosing cups were the most commonly used devices in the home for measuring liquid medications. Subjects were more likely to measure an acceptable dose with an oral syringe when compared with a dosing cup. However, a large proportion of study participants were unable to measure an accurate dose with either device. Community pharmacists should educate caregivers on the selection and proper use of measuring devices to improve the accuracy of medication administration in the home.

Quote from the review:
"As well as giving complex accounts of embodied subjectivity through emphasis on intersectional analysis, the second Reader makes evident how transgender studies has moved beyond poststructuralist perspectives on gendered embodiment, which is a shift that is in line with emerging themes and conceptual developments in feminist, queer and gender studies more generally. However, as the articles do not follow a specific theoretical shift, this move is not made normative. Instead the anthology as a whole oscillates between different perspectives and concepts. It should, moreover, be mentioned that the articles overall are written by authors who do remarkable, thorough and sound theoretical and empirical work. While most of the texts are new, there are also some classical texts that have been published previously. On the  whole, Transgender Studies Reader 2 demonstrates the maturation and expansion of the field, at the same time as it shows the importance of previous work."

For de fleste mennesker samsvarer kjønnsidentitet og uttrykk med kjønnet som ble registrert ved fødselen. For transpersoner er det annerledes. I denne artikkelen utforskes kjønnsteori, polaritetsteori og relaterte prosesser i en samtalegruppe med transpersoner. Artikkelen viser hvordan polaritetsteori og arbeid gir mening og skaper endring for deltagerne i gruppen. Denne tilnærmingen er i overensstemmelse med det nyere paradigmet innen transforskning og utfordrer rådende medisinsk praksis i Norge som baserer seg på en binær og snever forståelse av kjønn.

Twelfth Night (or What You Will) is one of other famous comedies written by William Shakespeare about 1599-1601. Its main characters can be said as Orsino, Viola (Cesario), Olivia, Sebastian, and Clown (Feste). This essay is divided into two parts. The first part is about love relationship, marriage and transgender issues throughout discussing characters, especially Viola (Cesario), Orsino and Olivia, in the play Twelfth Night. The second part is about resemblance between character Cesario and playwright William Shakespeare and his personal life, sexuality, relationship with “Fair Young Man” and love triangle in his sonnets.

In this chapter, I turn to Mina Caputo, the vocalist of the long-running alternative metal band Life of Agony, as a case study to discuss how transgenderness is negotiated in contemporary heavy metal music. Taking my point of departure from queer musicology and transgender studies, I aim to first develop transgender music research as a field that examines music in a transgender-conscious and transgender-empathetic way (Välimäki 2013a, b); second, to contribute to the queering of heavy metal music (Smith 1997; Sarelin 2009; Gregory 2013; Clifford-Napoleone 2015) and, third, to contribute to heavy metal studies with a transgendered perspective.

By practicing reparative reading (Sedgwick 2003), my focus is on how Caputo communicates transgenderness, and gender in general, to a larger audience, and how transgender subjectivity, meanings and pleasure finds its space, even under the pressures, strictures and effects of the heteronormative culture. My research materials are mixed, ranging from audio and audiovisual recordings to ethnographic observation materials and public media texts, including websites and online discussion boards related to Caputo, Life of Agony and heavy metal culture. I am particularly interested in heavy metal culture, where (supposedly) straight and queer scenes intermingle. Because of this overlapping of straight and queer scenes in the same space (Clifford-Napoleone 2015), normative conceptions of gender are effectively undermined.

Srdjan Karanović's Virgina (Virdžina, 1992) and Želimir Žilnik's Marble Ass (Dupe od mramora, 1994) are both Yugoslav films whose main characters are transvestites. Set in the mythic past, Virgina is about a sworn virgin (virdžina, tobelije, muškobanja) -- a village girl raised as a male because the family had no male children. Virgina shows a culturally conservative society in which the expectation that the virgina will live as a man comes into conflict with her desire to live as she wants. In the west we usually think of transvestites and transgender people as going against societal norms to perform their desired identities. In the case of sworn virgins, it is the patriarchal society that forces the women to live as men.
Marble Ass, on the other hand, features a male-to-female transvestite prostitute who works the streets of Beograd during the war in Bosnia. The film exploits the nationalist expectations of conformity to traditional norms of gender and sexuality. Žilnik in effect reappropriates the nationalists' charges of homosexuality and effeminacy by making the transvestite prostitute the hero of his film.
Virgina and Marble Ass provide an index of cultural expectations about the performance of gender and sexuality in Yugoslavia. The paper uses Judith Butler and Marjorie Garber's work on the construction of gender to analyze these films and place them in their cultural context. Both films call into question essential gender--and, by extension, nationality-- as a stable identity.

The paper highlighted the discrimination against and exploitation of women at global level. Efforts made at global level in promoting gender equality in education and employment opportunities through gender mainstreaming were discussed. Women and girls under representation in science and technology education in Nigeria were discussed and instructional strategies for mainstreaming gender in science and technology classrooms in Nigeria were highlighted. Some recommendations were made among which were that science and technology educators should incorporate strategies for mainstreaming gender into the teacher education programmes. Furthermore, that government should set up gender units and focal point in each state of the country to address such gender issues as gender inequality in science and technology education, discrimination in employment opportunities and job security.

This chapter discusses recent scholarship on Catalina de Erauso-'the Lieutenant Nun'-one of the more controversial figures of the early seventeenth century. Erauso fled from a convent at age fifteen; from then on, she dressed as a man and lived a life of travel, violence, and adventure. Her autobiography replicates the fluidity of her gender assignment, showing elements from different religious and secular writings. Both the person and the text are characterized by their defying of categorization. In Erauso, binary oppositions such as male/female, saint/sinner, Basque/ Spaniard seem to be subsumed. Erauso's Basque origin emerges as a key element for the understanding of her life, and her story becomes a privileged documentation of the Basque experience in America in the early modern era. In the early modern period, political borders were often in flux, and people were 'strongly aware of the potentially shifting, unstable nature of borders, which are arbitrary and political'. 1 This fluctuation, however, was not confined merely to political boundaries. Humans have long understood that edges-whether they be of countries, between the spiritual and the secular, and indeed between categories of classification and study-are, in 1 Hopkins, Renaissance Drama on the Edge, 106.