Women in Action articles from December 2002

Women in Action archives from December 2002

In step with fashion.(editorial)
December 1, 2002... Women in Action strives to provide an in-depth analysis of a broad range of women's issues. In our 18 years of publication, the topics we have tackled were mostly 'key issues' in the women's movement: women's health, sexuality, women and...

510 years of discrimination against Indians.(clips)
December 1, 2002... Indigenous peoples in the Americas continue to suffer heavy discrimination and human rights abuses, a decade after the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the first European conquistadors to the continent, Amnesty...

The miserable lives of mail-order brides.(clips)
December 1, 2002... The 'mail-order bride' industry is a cold and callous trade. If you are in any doubt about that, you need only click on the Internet and wonder at the name of one particular service offering 'marriage-minded Filipinos' the "Mail Order Bride...

South "too far" for Northern NGOs.(clips)
December 1, 2002... The relationship of Northern aid agencies and non-government organisations (NGOs) with the South is far from the "partnership" they like to project, says a study released this week. The study "Voices from Southern Civil Societies" points...

UN troubled by rise in child rapes in South Africa.(clips)
December 1, 2002... South Africa is reporting an alarming increase in sexual violence against children, most of it involving family members or people known to the victims, a United Nations (UN) official said Friday. According to reports, attackers are...

Casting one's belly in plaster: new pregnancy rite.(clips)
December 1, 2002... It wasn't so long ago that women in the late stages of pregnancy stayed inside the house, meandering around in muumuus, waiting for the big moment to arrive when both baby and mother could appear in public view. Now what was once hidden is...

Street children murders peak on weekends.(clips)
December 1, 2002... Being young and bearing a tattoo appear to be sufficient to make one a target for killers in Honduras, where the massacre of street children and youths continues with at least 10 victims each weekend. "An average of 10 bodies are found in...

Of hipsters and hegemonies.(women & fashion)
December 1, 2002... "Whitening-cream my ass!" my friend Luisa exclaimed as EDSA's smoggy skyline outside her train window was briefly secluded by the larger-than-life image of the very blonde Hollywood actress Alicia Silverstone, smiling, oblivious to the squalor...

In a manner of dressing: at the intersection of clothing, colonisation, and Christianity.(women & fashion)
December 1, 2002... The bare-bellied and silicone-breasted young woman looms large in today's globalised world where Britney is both the penultimate object of desire and a powerful consumer force. The media-savvy Britney sells herself and her lifestyle through a...

Silent no more, we're hanging out our dirty laundry: the South Africa clothesline project.(women & fashion)
December 1, 2002... Mom's spirit was killed long before Dad executed her. Ndoda Ndini Ungeva Kanjani Inguwe lo Udlewenguliweyo (How would you men feel if you were raped?) MisDaad meet hok Geslaan Word. (Violence must be stopped.) He raped me. Nobody...

Undressing dresses.(women & fashion)
December 1, 2002... "Undressing Dresses" is about decoding the various encodings in fashion, the various ways in which we transgress and even subvert the very language of fashion imprisoning us as women in various cages of beauty myths and social constructions of...

Fashion non-victims.(women & fashion)
December 1, 2002... The realm of fashion is extremely visual. People are deeply drawn by what they see, and various emotions spring forth when we see something that we like ranging from a "that's ok" to a "I just gotta have that." Leafing through fashion magazines...

Dreadlocks or dreadfully locked?(women & fashion)
December 1, 2002... Everyone will tell you, hair is what makes a person, hair is sexy, hair tones attire, hair defines character, hair accessorises appearance, hair is imperative--it's all about hair, hair, hair. Women will sit in plaiting saloons until their...

The shoe conspiracy.(Women & fashion)
December 1, 2002... For the life of me, I cannot understand why some women's shoes are designed the way they are: strapped, high-heeled, platformed--all accidents waiting to happen! How can you trust something called platform to give you stability? Some styles...

A second look at make-up.(women & fashion)
December 1, 2002... I am one of those women who can't leave the house without applying some type of paint to my face. The amount of colour reflected on my knee is the amount of time I had to "do myself up." Many hours of my teenage years were spent in front of the...

You are beautiful!(women & fashion)
December 1, 2002... It happened that both my parents, being of Ilocano and Batangueno stock with nary a Spanish or American gene, gave birth to me, small from birth and if I may add, "petite" when I grew. So from southern Luzon--Taal, Batangas, to the central...

33 Things Every Girl Should Know about Women's History: from Suffragettes to Skirt Legends to the E.R.A.(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Edited by Tonya Bolden The impressive, chronologically organised 33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women's History: From Suffragettes to Shirt Lengths to the E.R.A. begins with Abigail Adam's 1776 letter to her husband, "Remember the...

Fashion Theory: the Journal of Dress, Body and Culture, vol. 3, No. 2.(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Edited by Valerie Steele The journal seeks to further inform readers on fashion as the cultural construction of the embodied identity, and aims to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the rigorous analyses of cultural phenomena ranging...

Re-Orienting Fashion: the Globalization of Asian Dress.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... From 'Indo chic' collections on the catwalk to mass-market clothes in Asian fashion is everywhere. Re-Orienting Fashion explores this phenomenon in a global context and, unlike other books, does not ignore the western/nonwestern divide. How do...

Fashioning the Body Politic: Dress, Gender, Citizenship.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Edited by Wendy Parkin Fashion is often thought of as a matter of personal taste. This book reveals that from the French Revolution to Post-Revolutionary China, fashion played a significant role in political participation and protest. How...

Decades of Beauty: the Changing Image of Women 1890s to 1990s.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... A unique look at the history of female beauty in the West and how it has been perceived since the end of the Victorian era, Decades of Beauty highlights the major changes in the female image over the years, with a decade-by-decade account of...

Beads and Bead Makers: Gender, Material Culture and Meaning.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Edited by Jeanne B. Eicher and Lilia D. Sciama Beads have been used since antiquity not only to dress the body but also as measures of value in economic and ritual exchanges. Their popularity never waned, and in recent years, their trade...

Fashion and Its Social Agendas: Class, Gender, and Identity in Clothing.(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... It has been said that clothes make the man (or woman), but is that still true today? If so, how has the information clothes convey changed over the years? Using a wide range of historical and contemporary materials, Diana Crane demonstrates how...

Consuming Fashion: Adorning the Transnational Body.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... Edited by Anne Brydon and Sandra Niessen Clothing the body is one of the most complicated acts of daily existence. When a nun ponders red shoes, an architect knots his bow tie, a lesbian laces her Doc Marten's, or a nude model disrobes,...

Women's bodies--the disjunct between social standards and personal stakes.(Body Politics: Essays on Cultural Representation of Women's Bodies)(Book Review)
December 1, 2002... de Guzman, Odine. Body Politics: Essays on Cultural Representation of Women's Bodies. UP Center for Women's Studies and The Cord Foundation, 2002 The body is a contentious issue for most women. The idea of having one's body discussed and...

Women and new information and communications technologies: the promise of empowerment.(ICT section)
December 1, 2002... One of the most important contributions of the women's movement, I believe, has been the incisive analytical feminist lens that it has used to examine almost every aspect of human society, its structures and processes. Feminist activists have...

Few women at the top of media companies.(media section)
December 1, 2002... Despite their household names, many of the nation's largest publishers, television stations and epanies still have a dearth of women in top leadership positions. In fact, fewer than one in five beard members of the nation's largest...

Older women and the media.(media section)
December 1, 2002... The 50 plus age group is the fastest growing segment the U.S. population. The net worth of seniors is five times more than that of other Americans. And, seniors control 48 percent of all discretionary spending. Yet, if one were to speak only...

Deconstructing Hollywood: negative stereotyping in film.(media section)
December 1, 2002... The Western (mainly American) film industry leads to a commonplace and distorted view about people of Arabic descent. Arab characters in such American movies exemplify everything that is anti-Western. Cinema pigeonholes Arabs in three main...

Mad about breast implants.(health section)
December 1, 2002... In a world where size does matter and bigger is better, breast size has evolved to symbolise a woman s sexual prowess, status, self-esteem and beauty. Breasts have been equated with a woman's self-worth. In interviews with Baguio*-based men, 50...

Questions over long-term effects of Botox.(health section)
December 1, 2002... The long-term effects of glamour drug Botox on the brain and nervous system are not known, the British Medical Journal has warned. "Just because it's fashionable, people shouldn't lose sight of the fact that it's a medical treatment, not a...

Asian Americans targeted for tobacco promotion.(health section)
December 1, 2002... For the last 15 years, the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the United States have been the target of the tobacco industry to boost flagging sales and win allies to help defeat anti-smoking initiatives, tobacco control...