Representations Of Lethal Gender Based Violence In Italy Between Journalism And Literature

This book discusses femicide in Italy, and the cultural conversations that have resulted from feminist discourse on lethal violence against women entering the mainstream, by analyzing journalistic inquiries and literary works produced after 2012. In a global and national context where activism’s goals are mainly discursive this study deepens our understanding of the role played by written narratives in the critique of a public interest matter such as gender-based violence. The first part of the book is dedicated to the analysis of three journalistic inquiries published in book format that focus on one or more cases of femicide that happened on the Italian peninsula. The second section draws on the concept of feminist rewriting to propose the analysis of a heterogeneous body of literary texts that explore some of the most controversial and notorious femicide cases covered by previous journalistic, historical, or mythical narratives, before demonstrating the close connection between theoretical and narrative discourse within the analyzed texts. This is a fascinating case study contributing to global understandings of gender-based violence, which will be important for researchers in gender studies, sociology, and media studies.

This book focuses on the politics, ethics and stereotypical pitfalls of representational practices surrounding Gender-Based Violence (GBV) from a global perspective. The originality of the volume is linked to its cross-disciplinary perspective as the topic of representing GBV is analyzed across the domains of philosophy/epistemology, fiction and the arts (including literature, film, television series and music) and non-fictional representations in the media (including broadcast media, online/print journalism, transmedia activism). The volume identifies contemporary representational practices and the theoretical and critical responses, examining various aspects of popular culture from around the world. In doing so, the editors put feminism in conversation with global trends to identify its cultural frontline. The volume will appeal to scholars working on gender and violence from diverse fields.

This volume explores comics as examples of moral outrage in the face of a reality in which precariousness has become an inherent part of young lives. Taking a thematic approach, the chapters devote attention to the expression and representation of precarious subjectivities, as well as to the economic and professional precarity that characterizes comics creation and production. An international team of authors, young and senior systematically examines the representation of precarious youth in graphic fiction and autobiographic comics, superheroes and precarity, market issues and spaces of activism and vulnerability. With this structure, the book offers a global perspective and comprehensive coverage of different aspects of a complex and multifaceted field of knowledge, with a special attention to minorities and liminal subjects. The comics analyzed function as examples of "ethical solicitation" that bear witness of the precarious existence younger generations endure, while at the same time creating images that voice their outrage and might move readers to act. This timely and truly interdisciplinary volume will appeal to comics scholars and researchers in the areas of media and cultural studies, modern languages, education, art and design, communication studies, sociology, medical humanities and more.

This book explores the development and implementation of the Clay Embodiment Research Method (CERM) with one of the most stigmatized, oppressed, and marginalized groups of women in Nepal: sex-trafficked women. It argues for the use of a feminist approach to such research given the prevailing patriarchal norms, cultural sensitivity of reproductive health, stigmatization of sex trafficking, and low literacy of the women involved. Beginning with an exploration of the author’s relationship with Nepal and the women who guide the study, and the realization that a more accessible research approach was needed than the techniques otherwise commonly used, it discusses the use of clay and photography as ideal entry points to engaging with the women in the research and creating this ethical methodology for self-empowerment. Not only does the volume highlight extraordinary insights offered by the women involved in this study through the application of CERM, but also the recognition that its use requires expertise that can deal with the potential elicitation of trauma. The book makes the case for further study on improving the method’s use in research, education, and therapy involving low-literate, stigmatized, oppressed, and marginalized populations, particularly where cultural sensitivity is an important consideration. A Feminist Approach to Sensitive Research is suitable for students, scholars, and researchers in Gender Studies, Sociology, Health Studies, Anthropology, and Asian Studies.

LGBTQI Digital Media Activism and Counter-Hate Speech in Italy analyzes the organizational communication practices of Italian LGBTQI activists. The book investigates digital media activism practices, and how, through artifacts of political engagement, activists are championing social change through non-violent communications. The author also interrogates whether legal means are enough to combat hate and promote a culture of human rights. This book is an essential read for students and scholars interested in LGBTQ rights and activism.

This book examines how Asian American women bloggers challenge dominant race and gender discourses through the practice of food blogging. Asian American food blogs, which situate recipes and food photography within the personal narratives and domestic spaces of Asian American women, offer unique insights into the ways that hegemonic race and gender discourses are negotiated in quotidian life. The genre’s focus on food provides a particularly rich backdrop for this study as it necessarily implicates family histories, gendered labour, domestic spaces, and the power dynamics of consumption. These intimate digital texts therefore provide unique insights into the ways that postfeminist and postrace discourses are encountered in the individual’s mundane experiences. The author engages a critical cultural analysis of food blogs narratives, images, communities, and platforms expressions of post-race and feminism discourses are constrained by the commercial logics of this digital culture. The author argues that while Asian American food blogs rarely present a sustained challenge to hegemonic identity representation, the processes of reproduction and rupture that define this blogosphere consistently reveal the collective desire to push back against the limits of ‘post’-identities. This is a unique and fascinating study which is ideal reading for students and scholars of gender studies, media studies, cultural studies and sociology.

Israeli Masculinity, Sex Work, and Consumerism: Heteronormativity and Sexual Repertoires explores the inner world of Israeli sex work consumers and their use of digital technologies on which intense feelings of social togetherness and belonging create a localized form of homosociality and brotherhood. The first of its kind to offer an in-depth analysis of masculine sexual repertoires in the field of sex consumption, this book uses extensive data and observations of online ethnography among a community of Israeli sex consumers operating online. It elucidates the economics of demand in the field of sexual consumption, and highlights how the rise of the thriving online communities of sex consumers can function as a platform on which power relations between men themselves are publicly displayed and are constantly challenged. Israeli Masculinity, Sex Work, and Consumerism: Heteronormativity and Sexual Repertoires will be suitable for researchers in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology.

This book presents an innovative cross-disciplinary report on research across the humanities and social sciences about the relationship between pornography and its consumers. For policy makers and the wider public it can be difficult to obtain a clear understanding of the current state of knowledge on pornography and its relationships with audiences, due to the often-contradictory nature of research spanning the various and politically diverse academic disciplines. The cross-disciplinary expertise of the author team has engaged in an extensive examination of the findings of academic research in the area in order to explain, in a clear and accessible style, the most important conclusions about the relationship of pornography to Healthy Sexual Development. This short and accessible overview is suitable for students and scholars in Psychology, Sexual Health, Film Studies, Sex Education, Queer Theory, Gender Studies, Sexuality Studies, Sociology, Media Studies and Cultural Studies.