L. Ayu Saraswati

Putih

A Feminist Journey Through Pain

Scarred

This book explores representations and aesthetic judgments of feminine beauty and their links to issues of skin color and race. It traces the circulation of beauty images from different countries (India, Japan, the Netherlands, and the US) to Indonesia f

Seeing Beauty, Sensing Race in Transnational Indonesia

Barbara L. Shaw

"This is a feminist theory reader for college and graduate school level students"--

An Intersectional and Transnational Reader

Feminist and Queer Theory

Offers thought-provoking theories and life-transforming ways to deal with pain What can we ask of pain? How can we be more creative and courageous in carrying pain in our lives? In this genre-bending work that is equal parts memoir and scholarly criticism, L. Ayu Saraswati provides thought-provoking theories and life-transforming ways to understand pain, specifically in relation to feminism. Arguing that pain is not merely a state we are in, Scarred reframes pain as a “transnational feminist object,” something that we can carry across international borders. Drawing on her own experience traveling across twenty countries within just over a year, Saraswati aims to bring readers along on her journey so that they might ask themselves, “How can I live with pain differently?” By using pain as a lens of feminist analysis, Scarred allows us to chart how power produces and operates through pain, and how pain is embodied and embedded in relationships. Saraswati provides a heartfelt and engaging recount of her experiences while also pushing the boundaries of the respective fields her story engages with. She allows for renewed academic and personal insights to blossom by using a blend of transnational feminist theory, travel studies, and pain studies. Ultimately, Scarred invites us to reframe pain and ask how might we carry it in a more humane, life-sustaining, enchanting, and feminist way.

"This book troubles the phenomenon of feminists turning to social media to respond to and enact the political potential of pain inflicted in the acts of sexual harassment, sexual violence, and sexual abuse. Anchoring its analysis in theories and criticisms of neoliberal feminism, this book illustrates the complexity of how in using digital platforms that are governed by neoliberal logic, feminists take on a "neoliberal self(ie) gaze" in their social media activism, potentially undercutting their work toward social justice"--

Social Media, Feminist Activism, and the Neoliberal Selfie

Pain Generation

Heather Rellihan

Introduction to Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Approaches, Second Edition, reflects the exciting changes taking place in this field. Emphasizing both interdisciplinarity and intersectionality, this innovative mix of anthology and textbook includes key primary historical sources, debates on contemporary issues, and recent work in science, technology, and digital cultures. Readings from a range of genres--including poetry, short stories, op-eds, and feminist magazine articles--complement the scholarly selections and acknowledge the roots of creative and personal expression in the field. While the majority of selections are foundational texts, the book also integrates new work from established scholars and emerging voices to expand current debates in the field. The text is enhanced by thorough overviews that begin each section, robust and engaging pedagogy that encourages students to think critically and self-reflexively-and also to take action-as well as supplemental online resources for instructors--Publisher.

Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Approaches

Introduction to Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

In Indonesia, light skin color has been desirable throughout recorded history. Seeing Beauty, Sensing Race explores Indonesia’s changing beauty ideals and traces them to a number of influences: first to ninth-century India and some of the oldest surviving Indonesian literary works; then, a thousand years later, to the impact of Dutch colonialism and the wartime occupation of Japan; and finally, in the post-colonial period, to the popularity of American culture. The book shows how the transnational circulation of people, images, and ideas have shaped and shifted discourses and hierarchies of race, gender, skin color, and beauty in Indonesia. The author employs “affect” theories and feminist cultural studies as a lens through which to analyze a vast range of materials, including the Old Javanese epic poem Ramayana, archival materials, magazine advertisements, commercial products, and numerous interviews with Indonesian women. The book offers a rich repertoire of analytical and theoretical tools that allow readers to rethink issues of race and gender in a global context and understand how feelings and emotions—Western constructs as well as Indian, Javanese, and Indonesian notions such as rasa and malu—contribute to and are constitutive of transnational and gendered processes of racialization. Saraswati argues that it is how emotions come to be attached to certain objects and how they circulate that shape the “emotionscape” of white beauty in Indonesia. Her ground-breaking work is a nuanced theoretical exploration of the ways in which representations of beauty and the emotions they embody travel geographically and help shape attitudes and beliefs toward race and gender in a transnational world.

Barbara Shaw

Women's and Gender Studies departments and programs are undergoing rapid transformation, creating the need for a comprehensive and accessible introductory textbook that addresses the current state of the field. Introduction to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: Interdisciplinary and Intersectional Approaches is the first text to reflect the exciting changes taking place in this field. Emphasizing both interdisciplinarity and intersectionality, this innovative mix of anthology and textbook includes key primary historical sources, debates on contemporary issues, and recent work in science, technology, and digital cultures. Readings from a range of genres-including poetry, short stories, op-eds, and feminist magazine articles-complement the scholarly selections and acknowledge the roots of creative and personal expression in the field. While the majority of selections are foundational texts, the book also integrates new work from established scholars and emerging voices to expand current debates in the field. The text is enhanced by thorough overviews that begin each section, robust and engaging pedagogy that encourages students to think critically and self-reflexively-and also to take action-as well as supplemental online resources for instructors.

Introduction to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Explores the perils and promise of feminist social media activism Social media has become the front-and-center arena for feminist activism. Responding to and enacting the political potential of pain inflicted in acts of sexual harassment, violence, and abuse, Asian American and Asian Canadian feminist icons such as rupi kaur, Margaret Cho, and Mia Matsumiya have turned to social media to share their stories with the world. But how does such activism reconcile with the platforms on which it is being cultivated, when its radical messaging is at total odds with the neoliberal logic governing social media? Pain Generation troubles this phenomenon by articulating a “neoliberal self(ie) gaze” through which these feminist activistssee and storify the self on social media as “good” neoliberal subjects who are appealing, inspiring, and entertaining. This book offers a fresh perspective on feminist activism by demonstrating how the problematic neoliberal logic governing digital spaces like Instagram and Twitter limits the possibilities of how one might use social media for feminist activism.

L. Ayu Saraswati

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