Trinity College, Dublin Offers M. Phil. in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

 The Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Centre at Trinity College, Dublin offers a M. Phil. in Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies. More information is available through this page. 

Jacqueline O'Connor's New Book: Law and Sexuality in Tennessee Williams's America

ICYMI: Jacqueline O'Connor, Professor of English, Boise State University, has published Law and Sexuality in Tennessee Williams's America (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, dist. by Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) (Law, Culture, and the Humanities Series). Here is a description of the book's contents from the publisher's website.

Gender and cultural studies readings of Tennessee Williams’s work have provided diverse perspectives on his complex representations of sexuality, whether of himself as an openly gay man, or of his characters, many of whom narrate or dramatize sexual attitudes or behavior that cross heteronormative boundaries of the mid-century period. Several of these studies have positioned Williams and his work amid the public tensions in American life over roughly four decades, from 1940–1980, as notions of equality and freedom of choice challenged prejudice and repression in law and in society. To date, however, neither Williams’s homosexuality nor his persistent representations of sexual transgressions have been examined as legal matters that challenged the rule of law. Directed by legal history and informed by multiple strands of Williams’s studies criticism, textual, and cultural, this book explores the interplay of select topics defined and debated in law’s texts with those same topics in Williams’s personal and imaginative texts. By tracing the obscure and the transparent representations of homosexuality, specifically, and diverse sexualities more generally, through selected stories and plays, the book charts the intersections between Williams’s literature and the laws that governed the period. His imaginative works, backlit by his personal documents and historical and legal records from the period, underscore his preoccupation with depictions of diverse sexualities throughout his career. His use of legal language and its varied effects on his texts demonstrate his work’s multiple and complex intersection with major twentieth-century concerns, including significant legal and cultural dialogues about identity formation, intimacy, privacy, and difference.

 

Adler on the Pleasures of Punishment: Complicity, Spectatorship, and Abu Ghraib

Amy Adler, New York University School of Law, has published The Pleasures of Punishment: Complicity, Spectatorship, and Abu Ghraib, in Photography in Punishment in Popular Culture 236 (Austin Sarat and Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., eds., 2015). Here is the abstract.

At the same time that the Supreme Court has come to insist on a radical distinction between representations of sex and violence as a matter of constitutional law, never have the two genres been more deeply intertwined, in popular entertainment, of course, but also in certain practices of punishment. This paper considers the phenomenon of “torture porn” to explore not only representations of torture and humiliation in popular culture, but also the ways in which popular culture has shaped practices of punishment. Here I explore photographs of Abu Ghraib (as well as other legal and cultural disputes over the disclosure of photographs of torture) to explore the ways in which the popular vernaculars of pornography and smart phone photography informed the practice of torture. I compare the photos to a burgeoning genre of reality TV shows from the same era in which in which the spectacle of humiliation, punishment and even torture plays a pivotal and seemingly pleasurable role in the drama. In both scenarios, I focus not only on the mixture of sexuality and violence, pleasure and punishment, but also on the critical role of the camera. Ultimately by analyzing the similarities between “torture porn” in popular entertainment and the visual materials produced at Abu Ghraib, I suggest a mutually productive relationship between popular culture and punishment.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link. 

Sexual Violence and the TV Drama

In a column for the Globe and Mail, writer and producer Ellen Vanstone discusses how rape has become a mainstay of tv scripts, for shows ranging from fantasy series such as Game of Thrones to procedurals such as Law & Order to thrillers such as The Americans. 

A Selected Bibliography 

Lisa M. Cuklanz, Rape on Prime Time: Television, Masculinity, and Sexual Violence (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999).

Lisa M. Cuklanz, Rape on Trial: How the Mass Media Construct Legal Reform and Social Change (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995).

Molly Haskell, From Reverence To Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (2d ed., University of Chicago, 1987).

Lee Ann Kahlor and Matthew S. Eastin,  Television's Role in the Culture of Violence Toward Women: A Study of Television Viewing and the Cultivation of Rape Myth Acceptance in the United States, 55 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 215-231 (2011).

Sarah Projansky, Watching Rape: Film and Television in Post-Feminist Culture (NYU Press, 2001).

Pedrioli on Justice Scalia's Rhetoric of Sexual Orientation

Carlo A. Pedrioli, American Bar Foundation, has published Judicial Neutrality Awash with Ideology: Justice Scalia, Sexual Orientation, and Rhetorical Personae at 21 Tex. J. C. L. & C R. 183 (2016). Here is the abstract.

In light of Justice Antonin Scalia’s having dissented from the U.S. Supreme Court’s support for sexual minority rights in a series of cases decided under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, this paper, drawing upon rhetorical theory, considers Scalia’s rhetoric of sexual orientation. In his dissents in Romer v. Evans, Lawrence v. Texas, United States v. Windsor, and Obergefell v. Hodges, Scalia performed and constructed various rhetorical personae, or roles, including the first, second, and third personae, that produced rhetorical hypocrisy grounded in a heteronormative ideology. The first persona, or speaker of the dissents, that Scalia performed was that of a neutral justice. The second persona, or the audience implied in the dissents, that Scalia constructed would receive appeals to tradition and majoritarian rule favorably and, ignoring the possibility of change in tradition and likewise ignoring minority rights, be susceptible to the alleged political threat of sexual minorities. The third persona, or the marginalized party in the dissents, that Scalia constructed consisted of the sexual minority as a criminal or other individual not thought highly of, such as a person with a drug addiction, a polygamist, or a prostitute. Although Scalia’s performance of a neutral justice was skillful, his construction of the second and third personae undermined his performance of the first persona. Essentially, a justice who claimed neutrality was appealing to an implied audience that ignored minority rights and irrationally feared a small minority group. Meanwhile, the justice constructed sexual minorities as criminals or other poorly regarded individuals.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

A New Book on Law, Sex, Gender, and the Workplace

Joanna L. Grossman, Professor of Law, Hofstra University School of Law, has published Nine to Five: How Gender, Sex, and Sexuality Continue to Define the American Workplace (Cambridge University Press, 2016). Here is the table of contents from the publisher's website.


Foreword Barbara Babcock
Preface
Part I. What Is Sex Discrimination?:
1. Sexual jealousy
2. Too hot to be a dental hygienist?
3. A twist on the problem of sex inequality in coaching
4. Mixed motives
5. Sex stereotyping and dress codes
6. A victory for transgender employees
7. How fast must female transit officers run?
8. Who is protected by anti-discrimination laws?
9. Punishing the coach who stood up for his female athletes
10. Broader protection against workplace retaliation
11. The Supreme Court protects retaliation victims, but still leaves gaps in the law
Part II. Sexual Harassment:
12. Workplace affairs and sexual favoritism
13. Lolita at the office
14. Sex talk in the writers' room
15. Sex behind bars
16. When the supervisor bullies only women
17. The equal opportunity harasser
18. Periodontal perils
19. Punishing effeminacy
20. Late night affairs with David Letterman
21. Why Herman Cain has not been able to talk his way out of his exploding sexual harassment scandal
22. Why hostile environment harassment is a 'continuing violation'
23. When sexual extortion is successful
24. The consequences of failing to complain about harassment
25. Who is responsible for sudden, severe harassment?
26. Chinks in the harassment law armor
27. Do employer efforts prevent harassment or just prevent liability?
28. Who's the boss?
29. Costly mistakes
30. Hands off the merchandise
Part III. Pregnant Women and Mothers at Work:
31. Pregnant truckers and the problem of light-duty assignments
32. A big win for pregnant police officers
33. Undue burden
34. Hard labor: new pregnancy discrimination guidance from the EEOC
35. Forceps delivery: the Supreme Court narrowly saves the pregnancy discrimination act in Young vs UPS
36. The Pregnant Workers' Fairness Act: a time for change?
37. The Supreme Court deals a blow to once-pregnant retirees
38. If she don't win it's a shame
39. Must employers who cover prescriptions cover contraception?
40. Fertile ground for discrimination
41. Can a woman be fired for absenteeism related to fertility treatments?
42. Is lactation related to pregnancy?
43. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act reaches advanced maternal age
44. A victory for families, but hardly a panacea
45. A small step in the right direction: the Family and Medical Leave Act at twenty
46. 'Best practices' to promote work/family balance
Part IV. Female Breadwinners and the Glass Ceiling:
47. The Supreme Court slams the door on pay discrimination claims
48. A call for congressional action to remedy pay inequality
49. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
50. Taking stock: is the Ledbetter Act working?
51. The lady in red
52. Unfinished business
53. Will ABA's proposed solutions for gender inequity work?
54. Equality still elusive for women in the federal workforce
55. 'Girlie men'
56. Playing 'too womany' and the problem of masculinity in sport
57. Binders for women, blinders for Romney
Conclusion.

Save twenty percent off the list price by entering the discount code NINETOFIVE at checkout.

A Review of Ummni Khan's Vicarious Kinks: S/M in the Socio-Legal Imaginary

Kyle Kirkup, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, is publishing Review of Vicarious Kinks: S/M in the Socio-Legal Imaginary, by Ummni Khan in volume 53 of Osgoode Hall Law Journal (2015). Here is the abstract.

Canvassing an array of texts — from recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions to Fifty Shades of Grey — Ummni Khan’s Vicarious Kinks: S/M in the Socio-Legal Imaginary aims to get to the bottom of representations of sadomasochism (s/m) in law and culture. While resisting singular definitions, practitioners of s/m tend to describe it as “appropriating social hierarchies, restaging power imbalances, and/or re-signifying pain within a consensual context.” Rather than analyzing the practice of s/m itself, however, Khan is interested in the discursive production of s/m in three key cultural sites: the psychiatric profession, the feminist sex wars of the 1980s and 1990s, and mainstream cinematic representations. After pulling apart the multiple and competing understandings of s/m in these sites, Khan directs her gaze at judicial decisions, carefully reading the Supreme Court of Canada’s pornography jurisprudence, a trilogy of cases from the United Kingdom involving consensual s/m activities, and a series of Canadian cases in areas including criminal law, family law, and human rights law.

Download the review from SSRN at the link.

More from the publisher's website here.

Todres on Cinematic Portrayals of Human Trafficking

Jonathan Todres, Georgia State University College of Law, has published Human Trafficking and Film: How Popular Portrayals Influence Law and Public Perception at 101 Cornell Law Review Online 38 (2015). Here is the abstract.

Popular portrayals of human trafficking matter. They shape the prevailing understanding of the issue, which in turn influences the law and policy developed to address human trafficking. This essay examines the interplay between law and culture, specifically cinematic expressions. It reviews three well-known films on human trafficking and explores some of the key misconceptions in each movie. The essay then shows how these misconceptions are prevalent in many law and policy responses to human trafficking. Finally, the author suggests how scholars and advocates might respond more effectively to cinematic (and other media) portrayals of human trafficking.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.

Sexuality, Criminal Law, the Internet, and the First Amendment

Thea Johnson and Andrew Gilden, both of Stanford Law School, have published Common Sense and the Cannibal Cop at 11 Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties 313 (2015). Here is the abstract.

The Internet has created unprecedented opportunities for individuals to explore a wide range of unfamiliar and often-marginalized desires, and in doing so has also created unprecedented opportunities for the criminal justice system to monitor and punish these sexual desires. An important example of this dynamic is the recent trial of Gilberto Valle, New York City’s so-called “Cannibal Cop.” Valle, an NYPD officer, was convicted for conspiracy to kidnap several women based on a series of highly fictionalized conversations on a “dark fetish” fantasy website. Although these conversations revealed Valle’s fantasies involving kidnapping, torturing, and cannibalizing women, he had made no effort to kidnap, kill, or eat anyone, and there was no evidence that his online discussions went beyond graphic exchanges and digital role-playing. The “Cannibal Cop” case provides a useful template for examining the ethical boundaries of applying criminal laws to the precarious realm of Internet-mediated sexuality. This Essay highlights some of the important questions raised by the prosecution of the Cannibal Cop, and it emphasizes the need to carefully approach the important, yet inherently blurry line between “fantasy” and “reality.” We caution against overreliance on "common sense" in cases like this, given the incomplete lay understandings of how people use the Internet to explore sexual desires and the risk that legal decisions will be driven by disapproval of these desires.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.

Law and the Body

Theodore Bennett, University of Western Australia, has published Cuts and Criminality: Body Alteration in Legal Discourse (Ashgate, 2015). Here is a description of the contents from the publisher's website.

This book investigates how and why the criminal law differentiates between different types of body alterations, with particular reference to how they are conceptualised within legal discourse. By drawing connections between types of body alteration that have traditionally been considered separately and discretely, the book allows analytical conclusions to be made about the law's treatment of the general category of 'body alteration' rather than merely about specific types of body alteration. Taking legal discourse as its analytical focus, the author critically examines a number of case studies to determine the techniques and processes by which some body alterations are discursively constructed as legitimate and legally approved, and by which other body alterations are discursively constructed as illegitimate and legally sanctioned. Specifically, the body alterations that are addressed include sadomasochistic injuries; female genital modification and male circumcision; cosmetic surgery, body modification and healthy limb amputation; and sex reassignment surgery and genital 'normalisation' surgery. International in scope, the discursive analysis in the book will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the areas of socio-legal and cultural studies.