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 iam@hmcintosh.org.

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.

Taylor focuses more on the history of the social construct of gender and Ryan and Jetha on the mechanics of human sexuality.  As an example, Taylor recounts the story of an item found in an archeological dig.  It was classified initially as a short sword, but when it was decided the body in the grave was a woman the object was reclassified as a weaving baton.  In this way modern views of gender affect our view of history.  Another example is the way phallic objects carved out of bone or wood are classified as batons or symbols of leadership or office, and not as sexual aids, even though some of them strongly resemble the artificial phalluses for sale in modern times.  A few other fascinating observations in his book are that the first tool was not likely to have been a spear or hunting item but a baby sling or carrying bag, and that fired pottery was initially used primarily to make weaning vessels.  He cites a study of Roman brothel coins that theorizes the numbers on one side of the coins indicate the cost of the acts represented on the other side of the coin.  The researcher cited asked prostitutes in a modern city to rank those same acts by degree of difficulty or how expensive they might be.  The modern women ranked them in the same order as the Romans did.

Ryan and Jetha write in a far less formal manner, often addressing the reader in colloquial terms.  They are more focused on the physical aspects of reproduction, such as the evolutionary reasons why women vocalize during sexual intercourse.  One of their theories is that this vocalization and other physiological systems imply that in prehistoric times women had sexual intercourse with several men sequentially.  Another theory is that men require young female lovers to stay sexually active.  There is no discussion of women, especially older women, needing young lovers.  An overarching theme is that monogamy is an awkward fit for the natural sexuality of humans.  The two writers, like Taylor, point out examples of how cultural beliefs can blind us.  One is that early European travelers to Australia thought the aborigines were starving, not because of their appearance, but because they were eating insects.  In fact the aboriginal diet was nutritious, but the Europeans could not comprehend anyone eating such things for food unless there were no other alternatives.  Ryan and Jetha also discuss sexual preference and posit that female sexual orientation is far more changeable than that of males.

Both of these books are interesting, though, personally, I found Taylor to be the more intriguing, perhaps due to a greater personal interest in anthropology than psychology.  Taylor’s reference to archeological artifacts such as Venus figurines and burial placements (for example, the Red Threesome, a burial of three people together in an unusual formation), as well as the general avoidance of discussing or acknowledging sexuality, such as evidence of rape, in archeological finds clearly demonstrates the way modern cultural mores color our view of the past.  Ryan and Jetha at times seem to reinforce cultural norms, as in the aforementioned discussion of young lovers for men but no reference to them for women.  The authors also discuss male interest in certain types of pornography without creating a visual image of the male viewers, but when they suggest the reverse they refer to “overweight middle-aged ladies with cheap tattoos, bad haircuts, and black socks …” (231).  It bothered me that the authors felt it necessary to visualize the female viewers but not the males, especially given the relatively negative imagery used.

Ryan and Jetha refer to Taylor’s work, and in a positive fashion.  Since Taylor wrote his book some years before theirs he could not return the academic salute.  Both books are interesting.  Readers may prefer one over the other depending on their academic background and personal interests.

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.

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.

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

1) Does it have at least two women in it?

2) Do they talk to each other?

3) About something other than a man?

Some variations say the two women characters have to have names.  Movie viewers can rate films at The Bechdel Test Movie List (http://bechdeltest.com/).  The site currently rates over 2000 films.

I know older men in comedy who can barely feed and clean themselves, and they still work.  The women,though, they’re all “crazy.”  I have a suspicion — and hear me out, because this is a rough one — that the definition of “crazy” in show business is a woman who keeps talking even after no one wants to [expletive] her anymore.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/14/110214fa_fact_fey

Can there be a multi-gendered feminism? MP journal seeks submissions that explore the many facets of transgendered feminism. How do transgendered people experience, embrace, reject, or practice feminism? What is the role of feminism within queer studies? What is the role of feminism for those who occupy the interstice between male and female? Is gender performance feminist? MP Journal welcomes academic papers, book reviews, and other well-written inquiries on the subject of transgendered feminisms. Internationals submissions are encouraged. Submissions may be in any accepted academic format such as MLA, APA, Legal Bluebook, Chicago Style but must be consistent throughout and thoroughly and carefully edited. Please send the submission, a 50 word bio, and a CV before midnight August 31, 2011. Update: This deadline has been extended to before midnight September 30, 2011.

Complete submission guidelines.

What are you eating, and what’s eating you? As women we are the target audience for many industries, food, fashion, cosmetics and skin care, plastic surgery, among many more. The MP Journal is seeking academic papers, book reviews and other well-written inquiries on the subject of women and consumption, with particular focus on women and food.This would cover all aspects of the topic, from women in the food industry (Martha Stewart), women as family food planner and preparer, dieting, eating disorders, food as reward or punishment, social status and food, social role of food, the role of mothers and mother figures in the development of eating habits (good and bad), women as keeper of family food traditions, food and sex, etc. Submissions may be in any accepted academic format such as MLA, APA, Legal Bluebook, Chicago Style but must be consistent throughout and thoroughly and carefully edited. They will be considered only with the attachment of a 50 word bio and CV if submitted before midnight on January 31, 2011.

We’ve come a long way, baby! Or have we? MP journal seeks submissions that explore the ways Women/Femininity/Female agency are depicted in visual media’s such as video games, television, film, animation (anime), comic books, graphic novels, and other visual media. MP Journal welcomes academic papers, book reviews, and other well-written inquiries from a feminist perspective on visual representations of women in the coming decade. Internationals submissions are encouraged. Submissions may be in any accepted academic format such as MLA, APA, Legal Bluebook, Chicago Style but must be consistent throughout and thoroughly and carefully edited. Please send the submission, a 50 word bio, and a CV before midnight October 15, 2010.