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Female Experience (female + experience)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Embodied female experience through the lens of imagination

THE JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010
Sharon R. Green
Abstract:, In 1971, I made a film entitled,Self Portrait of a Nude Model Turned Cinematographer,in which I explore the objectifying ,male' gaze on my body in contrast to the subjective lived experience of my body. The film was a radical challenge to the gaze that objectifies woman , and thus imprisons her , which had hitherto dominated narrative cinema. Since the objectification of women has largely excluded us from the privileged phallogocentric discourses, in this paper I hope to bring into the psychoanalytic dialogue a woman's lived experience. I will approach this by exploring how remembering this film has become a personally transformative experience as I look back on it through the lens of postmodern and feminist discourses that have emerged since it was made. In addition, I will explore how this process of imaginatively looking back on an artistic creation to generate new discourses in the present is similar to the transformative process of analysis. Lastly, I will present a clinical example, where my embodied countertransference response to a patient's subjection to the objectifying male gaze opens space for a new discourse about her body to emerge. Translations of Abstract En 1971, j'ai réalisé un film intitulé,Autoportrait d'un modèle nu transformé en cinéaste.,J'y explorais le contraste entre un regard « mâle » objectalisant sur mon corps nu et l'expérience subjective de mon corps vécu. Ce film était un défi radical lancé au regard objectalisant sur la femme, regard qui l'emprisonne et qui avait largement prédominé jusque-là dans la fiction cinématographique. Dans la mesure où l'objectalisation des femmes nous a largement exclues des discours phallogocentriques, j'espère dans cet article contribuer au dialogue psychanalytique, en y apportant l'expérience personnelle vécue d'une femme. J'y analyserai la manière dont la réminiscence de ce film est devenue pour moi une expérience de transformation, à mesure que je le reconsidérais à travers le prisme des discours postmodernes et féministes qui ont émergé depuis. Puis, je m'attacherai à examiner comment ce retour imaginatif sur une création artistique pour générer de nouveaux discours, présente des similitudes avec le processus de transformation analytique. Enfin, je présenterai un exemple clinique au cours duquel, une réponse contre-transférentielle incarnée de ma part à la sujétion d'une patiente au regard masculin objectalisant, ouvrit chez elle l'espace permettant l'émergence d'un discours nouveau à propos de son corps. 1971 machte ich einen Film mit dem Titel,Selbstporträit eines Nacktmodells, zur Kamerafrau,geworden in dem ich den objektifizierenden ,männlichen' Blick auf meinen Körper untersuche im Kontrast zu der subjektiv gelebten Erfahrung meines Körpers. Der Film stellte eine radikale Herausforderung dar für den Blick, der Frauen objektiviert , und sie dadurch gefangennimmt , welcher bis dahin das Erzählkino dominierte. Da uns die Objektifizierung von Frauen weitgehend von den phallozentrischen Diskursen ausgeschlossen hat hoffe ich, mit diesem Text die gelebte persönliche Erfahrung einer Frau in den psychoanalytischen Diskurs einzubringen. Ich werde mich dem annähern über die Untersuchung der Frage, wie die Erinnerungen an diesen Film zu einer persönlichen transformativen Erfahrung wurden. Dazu bediene ich mich einer Rückschau durch die Linse des postmodernen und feministischen Diskurses, wie er sich seit der Entstehung des Filmes herausgebildet hat. Desweiteren werde ich untersuchen, wie ähnlich dieser Prozeß der imaginativen Rückschau auf einen künstlerischen Schaffensvorgang zur Erzeugung neuer Diskurse in der Gegenwart den transformativen Prozessen in der Analyse ist. Schließlich werde ich ein klinisches Beispiel vorstellen, in dem meine körperliche Gegenübertragungsreaktion auf die Unterwerfung einer Patientin unter den objektifizierenden männlichen Blick einen Raum für eine neue Art von Diskurs über ihren Körper eröffnet. Nel 1971 girai un film intitolato "Autoritratto di una modella nuda trasformatasi in operatore cinematografico" in cui esploravo il contrasto tra lo sguardo "maschile" reificante sul mio corpo e l'esperienza soggettiva del mio corpo vivente. Il film era una sfida radicale allo sguardo che reifica la donna,e quindi la imprigiona,che aveva finora dominato la narrativa cinematografica. Poiché la reificazione delle donne ci aveva largamente escluse dai discorsi fallocentrici privilegiati, spero di portare nel dialogo psicoanalitico la personale esperienza vivente di una donna. Lo farò esaminando in che modo il ricordo di questo film sia divenuto un'esperienza personalmente trasformativa mentre lo riguardavo con le lenti dei discorsi femministi e postmoderni che sono emersi dopo che questo venne fatto. Inoltre analizzerò in che modo questo processo immaginale di ricordare una creazione artistica per generare nuovi discorsi nel presente sia simile al processo trasformativo dell'analisi. Infine presenterò un caso clinico in cui la mia risposta controtransferale alla soggezione di una paziente allo sguardo maschile deificante apre uno spazio in cui può emergere un nuovo discorso sul suo corpo. En 1971, hice una película,Auto Retrato de un Modelo Desnudo que se convirtió Cinematógrafo, donde exploro la objetivización de mirada ,masculina' sobre mi cuerpo en contraste a la experiencia subjetiva vivida de mi cuerpo. La película fue un desafío radical a la mirada que objetiva a mujer ,y así la encarcela , que había dominado hasta ahora al cine narrativo. Desde que la objetivación de mujeres se nos ha excluido en gran parte del privilegio del discursosde falocéntrico, espero con este trabajo traer la experiencia vivida ypersonal de la mujer al diálogo psicoanalítico. Me acercaré a ellos explorando cómo el recordar esta película ha llegado a ser una experiencia personal de transformación tal como yo lo recuerdo a la vista de los discursos postmodernos y feministas surgidos desde entonces. Además, exploraré cómo este proceso de recordar con imaginación una creación artística al engendrar nuevos discursos en el presente, es semejantes al proceso del transformador del análisis. Por último, presentaré un caso clínico, donde mi corporeizada respuesta contratransferencial del sometimiento de una paciente a la objetivización de la mirada masculina abre el espacio para que pueda surgir un nuevo discurso acerca de su cuerpo. [source]

GENDER AND ETHICS COMMITTEES: WHERE'S THE ,DIFFERENT VOICE'?

BIOETHICS, Issue 3 2006
DONNA DICKENSON
ABSTRACT Prominent international and national ethics commissions such as the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee rarely achieve anything remotely resembling gender equality, although local research and clinical ethics committees are somewhat more egalitarian. Under-representation of women is particularly troubling when the subject matter of modern bioethics so disproportionately concerns women's bodies, and when such committees claim to derive ,universal' standards. Are women missing from many ethics committees because of relatively straightforward, if discriminatory, demographic factors? Or are the methods of analysis and styles of ethics to which these bodies are committed somehow ,anti-female'? It has been argued, for example, that there is a ,different voice' in ethical reasoning, not confined to women but more representative of female experience. Similarly, some feminist writers, such as Evelyn Fox Keller and Donna Haraway, have asked difficult epistemological questions about the dominant ,masculine paradigm' in science. Perhaps the dominant paradigm in ethics committee deliberation is similarly gendered? This article provides a preliminary survey of women's representation on ethics committees in eastern and western Europe, a critical analysis of the supposed ,masculinism' of the principlist approach, and a case example in which a ,different voice' did indeed make a difference. [source]

Interactive effects of environmental stress and inbreeding on reproductive traits in a wild bird population

JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2006
A. B. MARR
Summary 1Conservation biologists are concerned about the interactive effects of environmental stress and inbreeding because such interactions could affect the dynamics and extinction risk of small and isolated populations, but few studies have tested for these interactions in nature. 2We used data from the long-term population study of song sparrows Melospiza melodia on Mandarte Island to examine the joint effects of inbreeding and environmental stress on four fitness traits that are known to be affected by the inbreeding level of adult birds: hatching success, laying date, male mating success and fledgling survival. 3We found that inbreeding depression interacted with environmental stress to reduce hatching success in the nests of inbred females during periods of rain. 4For laying date, we found equivocal support for an interaction between parental inbreeding and environmental stress. In this case, however, inbred females experienced less inbreeding depression in more stressful, cooler years. 5For two other traits, we found no evidence that the strength of inbreeding depression varied with environmental stress. First, mated males fathered fewer nests per season if inbred or if the ratio of males to females in the population was high, but inbreeding depression did not depend on sex ratio. Second, fledglings survived poorly during rainy periods and if their father was inbred, but the effects of paternal inbreeding and rain did not interact. 6Thus, even for a single species, interactions between the inbreeding level and environmental stress may not occur in all traits affected by inbreeding depression, and interactions that do occur will not always act synergistically to further decrease fitness. [source]

Factors affecting fecal glucocorticoid levels in semi-free-ranging female mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx)

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, Issue 11 2008
Joanna M Setchell
Abstract Subordinate female cercopithecine primates often experience decreased reproductive success in comparison with high-ranking females, with a later age at sexual maturity and first reproduction and/or longer interbirth intervals. One explanation that has traditionally been advanced to explain this is high levels of chronic social stress in subordinates, resulting from agonistic and aggressive interactions and leading to higher basal levels of glucocorticoids. We assessed the relationships among fecal cortisol levels and reproductive condition, dominance rank, degree of social support, and fertility in female mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) living in a semi-free-ranging colony in Franceville, Gabon. Lower-ranking females in this colony have a reproductive disadvantage relative to higher-ranking females, and we were interested in determining whether this relationship between dominance rank and reproductive success is mediated through stress hormones. We analyzed 340 fecal samples from 19 females, collected over a 14-month period. We found that pregnant females experienced higher fecal cortisol levels than cycling or lactating females. This is similar to results for other primate species and is likely owing to increased metabolic demands and interactions between the hypothalamus,pituitary,adrenal axis, estrogen, and placental production of corticotrophin releasing hormones during pregnancy. There was no influence of dominance rank on fecal cortisol levels, suggesting that subordinate females do not suffer chronic stress. This may be because female mandrills have a stable social hierarchy, with low levels of aggression and high social support. However, we found no relationship between matriline size, as a measure of social support, and fecal cortisol levels. Subordinates may be able to avoid aggression from dominants in the large enclosure or may react only transiently to specific aggressive events, rather than continuously expecting them. Finally, we found no relationship between fecal cortisol levels and fertility. There was no difference in fecal cortisol levels between conceptive and nonconceptive cycles, and no significant relationship between fecal cortisol level and either the length of postpartum amenorrhea or the number of cycles before conception. This suggests that the influence of dominance rank on female reproductive success in this population is not mediated through chronic stress in subordinate females, and that alternative explanations of the relationship between social rank and reproduction should be sought. Am. J. Primatol. 70:1023,1032, 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]