MP Journal :: International Online Feminist Journal

MP: An Online Feminist Journal is growing, and we are looking to expand our editorial board!

We seek energetic people with a passion for feminist scholarship to help with handling our growing submission volume and with expanding the journal as it moves toward a regular publication cycle.

We seek to add two new members at this time. Here are some basic qualifications we are looking for:

• A background and strong interest in feminist studies and issues. As we are an interdisciplinary journal, some interdisciplinary study is preferred.
• The ability to converse about these issues in a civil and critical manner with people of different training levels and backgrounds.
• The ability to work with authors in copy editing their manuscripts before publication and some background in working with editing and copy editing for academic audiences.
• The ability to keep up with a schedule and regular (though not heavy) deadlines.

Board member duties include the following:

• Reviewing submissions in a timely manner and offering brief feedback on each one
• Copy editing 1-2 submissions per issue, which includes working with authors on their revisions
• Offering input on various issues that arise as the journal continues to grow

For more information about the journal, please see http://academinist.org/.

If you are interested in applying, please send along a cover letter and CV in application to  submissions@academinist.org. In your cover letter, please address what qualifications and experience you would bring to the board, as well as what attracts you to the position.

If you have any questions, please address them to Heather McIntosh, MP co-editor in chief, at submissions at academinist.org.

Taylor, Timothy.  The Prehistory of Sex.  NY:  Bantam Books, 1996.

Ryan, Christopher and Jetha, Cacilda.  Sex at Dawn:  The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality.  NY:  HarperCollins 2010

Both of these books concern, in large part, the place of women in prehistoric societies, but are viewed from different academic perspectives.  Taylor is an archaeologist; Ryan is a psychologist and married to Jetha, a psychiatrist.  The disciplinary difference is quite evident, as I will discuss later.

What both books agree on, and do so in no uncertain terms, is that hunter gatherer societies were more egalitarian in terms of sexual equality than the agricultural societies that replaced them in many parts of the world.   Both reject the theory that women exchanged sexual favors or chose sexual partners because of their ability to provide, thus making all women, to some degree, prostitutes.   Both disagree with the notion that hidden ovulation in human women developed so that human men would not know when they were fertile and thus would stay around longer.  Taylor points out the evidence that prehistoric and early agricultural and urban societies had knowledge of contraceptive plants.  Ryan and Jetha point out that prolonged breast feeding would inhibit ovulation and thus prevent frequent pregnancies.  In either view early human societies were more knowledgeable about reproduction than modern people traditionally acknowledge.  Both also mention the similarities and differences between human sexuality and that of other primates, though Ryan and Jetha do so in greater detail and more frequently.
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MP: An Online Feminist Journal is seeking submissions for its spring issue. We seek ­scholarly articles, book reviews, and short essays that engage any aspect of feminism or feminist scholarship. ­Interdisciplinary and international submissions are highly encouraged. We recently have ­published ­essays about the body, the academy, religion, girls’ studies, work, activism, and agency.

Maximum length for manuscripts is 30 double-spaced pages. Submissions may be in any accepted ­academic format such as MLA, APA, Legal Bluebook, or Chicago Style but must be consistent ­throughout and carefully edited. Submissions must not be published elsewhere already. Also include a ­current copy of your CV and a 50-word bio. For best consideration for our spring issue, please submit your materials by midnight, January 31, 2012, to submissions@academinist.org

Download an 8.5″x 11″ poster of this call and put it up at your campus!

Please see our Submission Guidelines for further instructions.

An upcoming issue of MP focuses in part on transgender.  Mainstream society has definite gender expectations .  As an example there was a recent firestorm over a J Crew ad that showed a mother painting her young son’s toenails pink.   Another is the reception one mother received when she allowed her five year old son to attend a pre-school Halloween party dressed as Daphne from “Scooby Doo.”

Regimented systems such as prisons, college dormitories, even transit systems,  can insist that people publicly identify themselves (or be indentified against their will) as either male or female.  It is, in fact, almost impossible to go through life without being identified as one or the other.

Even in popular culture characters are identified as male or female.  An exception is Pat from “Saturday Night Live,” whose gender ambiguity was a source of humor.  More seriously, science fiction writer Jon Scalzi created a character in his novel Android Sheep, Sam Berlant, who gender is never provided.  Sam is clearly in a relationship with another character, Archie, who is indentified as male.    Scalzi deliberately didn’t assign Sam a gender.  In a blog post, “What Sex is Sam Berlant?” he writes that some people contacted him, irked because they didn’t know Sam’s gender and therefore didn’t know if Archie is heterosexual or homosexual.   Scalzi says he doesn’t know what gender Sam is.  Presumably Sam knows, as does Archie, but if anyone else in the book has noticed, they don’t mention it.

The neurological research done for marketing purposes turns up some fascinating information.  One recent research finding, showed differences in men and woman that were identical in the U.S. and China.  In a research study for Intel, 12 men and 12 women each in Berkeley and a city in Schian Province, wore devices that detect electrical activity across the brain.  They were shown Intel ads and then a series of words to see what qualities people associated with Intel.  Researchers looked at brain activity to see which words got the strongest reaction.  Two words scored the highest, one each to a segment of the total group.  The difference wasn’t between cultures but between genders.  Women in both groups reacted more to the word “achieve” and men in both groups to the word “opportunity.” 

For the full article see  Adam L. Penenberg, “Neurofocus uses neuromarketing to hack your brain,” Fast Company, September 2011.