Signs - Journal of Women in Culture and Society

09/28/2022

In the latest Short Takes, Elizabeth Armstrong, Tracy Clark-Flory, Rachel Hills, and Shira Tarrant discuss Nona Willis Aronowitz’s new book Bad S*x, and Willis Aronowitz responds to the commentaries on her book.

How have feminist norms around s*x-positivity changed from generation to generation? Can one ever fully live out feminist s*x positivity in one’s personal life? Can these norms be encouraged without the accompanying pressure to live up to them, and the feeling of failure if/when you don’t? Explore these questions and more through this Short Takes.

Elizabeth Armstrong, Tracy Clark-Flory, Rachel Hills, and Shira Tarrant discuss Nona Willis Aronowitz's new book, and Willis Aronowitz offers a response to the commentaries on her book.

08/17/2022

This Short Takes forum on Hugh Ryan's The Women's House of Detention: A Q***r History of a Forgotten Prison features Gabrielle Bruney, Stephen Dillon, Aviva Stahl, and Jess Whatcott, plus a response from Hugh Ryan!

How can the stories of q***r, imprisoned people be ethically told? How do prisoners resist the prison's attempts to quash intimacy and connection? And what does the history of a prison and its inmates have to teach us in the present moment--about q***r history, q***r and feminist organizing, and prison abolition?

Gabrielle Bruney, Stephen Dillon, Aviva Stahl, and Jess Whatcott discuss Hugh Ryan's book The Women's House of Detention: A Q***r History of a Forgotten Prison. Plus, Ryan responds to the pieces on his book.

05/23/2022

How do historical witch hunts resonate today? Can the maligned figure of the witch be reclaimed? How should feminists approach the question of magic? Read our new Short Takes forum on
Mona Chollet's In Defense of Witches. Free to read!

Maryse Condé, Deirdre English, Sarah Lyons, and Bridget Marshall discuss Mona Chollet's In Defense of Witches.

05/11/2022

In our new Feminist Frictions, Sally Kitch asks: “What has the concept of social engagement meant over the years and how has it shaped scholars’ work?” In order to explore changes in how women's studies scholars approach knowledge construction, she draws on a unique archive that consists of NWSA programs and several academic journals, including Signs. Her essay is accompanied by a digital archive of resources that explore the institutionalization of the the field of Women's, Gender, and S*xuality Studies. All freely available!

Sally Kitch reflects on developments in scholarly approaches to knowledge construction in the field of Women's, Gender, and S*xuality Studies. Plus, a free digital archive on the topic.

04/19/2022

Many people (including feminists) had high hopes for epigenetic approaches in the biomedical sciences. Why have these approaches failed to produce the transformations they had seemed to promise? What are the latest feminist approaches to the study of epigenetics? Listen to the latest episode of Ask a Feminist to find out! Rene Almeling, Sarah Richardson, and Natali Valdez discuss these questions and much more. Available free!

Rene Almeling, Sarah S. Richardson, and Natali Valdez discuss the hype around epigenetics and its failure to produce the hoped-for results.

03/31/2022

""The threat of male violence anywhere chills women’s speech everywhere." In the latest Feminist Frictions (available free!), Mary Anne Franks provides a critique of US First Amendment doctrine. How does the seemingly neutral text of the First Amendment conceal androcentric bias? Franks challenges "free speech absolutism" and argues that the law has never taken seriously the many ways that women's speech has been--and continues to be--constrained.

Franks's essay is accompanied by an extensive digital archive that collects feminist resources about free speech, including issues surrounding social media and academic freedom. Great for teaching!

“There is no free speech when women are not heard.” Mary Anne Franks provides a feminist analysis of First Amendment doctrine. A digital archive on the topic supplements Franks’s …

02/11/2022

Reminder: The deadline for the Catharine Stimpson Prize for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship is April 1! The prize is designed to recognize excellence and innovation in the work of emerging feminist scholars. See our website for eligibility and other details. http://signsjournal.org/for-authors/calls-for-papers/

Call for Papers: Le***an Studies, Now In the contemporary cultural imagination, le***an feminism holds all of mid-twentieth-century feminism’s highest aspirations and its worst mistakes. The figure…

02/08/2022

A new episode of Ask a Feminist is now available! Sandra McEvoy speaks to Jennifer Fluri about what the United States’s withdrawal from Afghanistan means for Afghan women and for the feminist movement in Afghanistan. Jennifer’s expertise as a geographer and her transnational feminist perspective are sorely needed in this perilous moment. As the withdrawal was under way, we heard familiar concerns--voiced by pundits and politicians--about the plight of Afghan women under the Taliban. But the broader context of the long US occupation, its effects on gender relations, and the history of women’s organizing in Afghanistan makes for a much more complicated picture. Jennifer--a professor of geography at University of Colorado Boulder who has worked in and on Afghanistan for almost twenty years--illuminates this complex history in this conversation with Sandra, who is clinical associate professor of political science at Boston University and a member of the Signs editorial board.

Read a transcript on our website, or subscribe in your favorite podcasting app!

What has the US occupation meant for Afghan women? What does the US's withdrawal mean for the future of Afghan feminists?

12/21/2021

This Short Takes forum on Amia Srinivasan's The Right to S*x: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century features Lorna Bracewell, Gowri Vijayakumar, Suzannah Weiss, and Rafia Zakaria, plus a response from Srinivasan herself. The forum is a lively discussion of the politics of s*x and s*xuality. The essays highlight the legacy of the so-called S*x Wars, the sticky questions raised by seemingly simple slogans like "believe women," and the need for feminism to embrace the kind of complex thinking that can't be distilled into a tweet. https://signsjournal.org/srinivasan/

12/16/2021

Our new Short Takes features Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence, the latest book from the one and only Anita Hill. Read response essays from Linda Hirshman, Linda McClain, Diana Moskovitz, and Barbara Ransby, plus a response from Hill herself!

Linda Hirshman, Linda C. McClain, Diana Moskovitz, and Barbara Ransby discuss Anita Hill's book Believing, with a response from Hill

12/02/2021

New Short Takes on Rafia Zakaria's Against White Feminism, featuring response essays by Kylie Cheung, Shoniqua Roach, Benita Roth, and Jamia Wilson. And Zakaria herself responds to the takes on her book!

Kylie Cheung, Shoniqua Roach, Benita Roth, and Jamia Wilson discuss Rafia Zakaria's Against White Feminism, with a response from Zakaria

11/22/2021

Teaching "Feminist Theory" next semester? "Race, Class, and Gender"? "Transnational Feminisms"? Signs is offering syllabus suggestions for some of the most commonly taught courses in women's, gender, and s*xuality studies in the US:

* Gender, Representation, and Popular Culture
* S*xuality Studies and Q***r Theory
* Transnational Feminisms
* Feminist Theory
* Race, Class, and Gender

Whether you are just starting your syllabi for the spring or putting the final touches on, these wide-ranging suggestions can help!

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11/04/2021

In this Short Takes forum on Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar's Still Mad: American Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination, Jennifer Baumgardner, Jennifer DeVere Brody, and Laura Green discuss a host of issues raised by Gilbert and Gubar's new work. How should race and racism be discussed in the context of second-wave feminism? Can diverse women writers' experiences illuminate how "the feminist imagination" takes shape, and what are the limitations of this approach? Gilbert and Gubar also offer a response to the comments on their book, reflecting on the impetus behind writing it and offering rejoinders to the critiques of their work.

Jennifer Baumgardner, Jennifer DeVere Brody, and Laura Green discuss Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar's Still Mad.

10/01/2021

With Roe v. Wade in danger of being overturned or eroded into meaninglessness strategies for securing abortion rights and reproductive justice have taken on new urgency.

In this Short Takes forum on Kathryn Kolbert and Julie F. Kay's new book Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom, Martha F. Davis, Lisa Maldonado, Robin Marty, and Rosalind P. Petchesky discuss how the fight for reproductive justice can proceed most effectively under rapidly changing legal and social conditions. Reflecting the diversity of feminist thinking, the forum delves into the difference between "reproductive justice" and "reproductive freedom," the tactical considerations of social-movement building, and the shape that future activism might need to take. Kay and Kolbert themselves respond to the commentaries, reflecting on their aims in writing the book.

Martha Davis, Lisa Maldonado, Robin Marty, and Rosalind Petchesky discuss Kathryn Kolbert and Julie F. Kay's Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom, with a response from Kay and Kolbert.

09/18/2021

In the year since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing, legal attacks on abortion and reproductive rights have only intensified. In commemoration of Justice Ginsburg’s singular and historic impact on feminist jurisprudence, Signs is pleased to present an essay by renowned feminist legal scholar Michele Goodwin. “The Body Politic: Representation and Reproductive Feminist Jurisprudence” considers the past and present of feminist jurisprudence, especially with respect to reproductive rights. In this timely reflection, Goodwin provides an in-depth examination of the law’s denial of women’s full personhood and the Right’s ongoing efforts to roll back the protections of Roe v. Wade. Ultimately, Goodwin hopes that “a more ambitious and redefined feminist jurisprudence …, grounded in class and race analysis, might redirect itself and create a new narrative path for reproductive health and rights.”
http://signsjournal.org/goodwin/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=goodwinlaunch

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07/13/2021

Reminder: Submissions for our special issue "Complexities of Care and Caring" (guest edited by Linda Blum, Martha Fineman, and Amber Jamilla Musser) are due December 15. Please share widely!

Signs Special Issue: “Complexities of Care and Caring” Over the past four decades of feminist scholarship and practice, notions of care and caring, as noun and verb, have had great traction across disciplinary divides, spurring debate while challenging binaries of equality and difference, public...

06/28/2021

What does menstrual activism look like in 2021, and where should we go from here? In our newest Short Takes, Chris Bobel, Shenila Khoja-Moolji, Pema Lhaki, and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf respond to Anita Diamant's new book, Period. End of Sentence. Plus, Diamant herself responds to the commentaries! Read for free! https://bit.ly/3dnB3uX

Chris Bobel, Shenila Khoja-Moolji, Pema Lhaki, and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf discuss Anita Diamant's book Period. End of Sentence., and Diamant offers her response to the commentaries.

06/16/2021

A new Feminist Frictions is now available (free)! In this edition, Signs founding editor Catharine R. Stimpson traces the vastly consequential policy shifts that have emerged from changing understandings of Title IX over time (from its enactment, through the Obama years, and into the Trump administration). Her essay, "Dereliction, Due Process, and Decorum: The Crises of Title IX," is also accompanied by a digital archive: trove of resources on Title IX that are great for teaching or more deeply contextualizing the essay.

Feminist Frictions is part of the Feminist Public Intellectuals Project. This installment of Feminist Frictions examines Title IX, featuring an essay by Catharine R. Stimpson and a digital archive on the topic. Digital Archive: This digital archive extends the themes of Stimpson's essay to examine d...