Real Knockouts

Real Knockouts
Author: Martha McCaughey
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1997-07-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0814796443

An examination of women's self-defense culture and its relationship to feminism. I was once a frightened feminist. So begins Martha McCaughey's odyssey into the dynamic world of women's self- defense, a culture which transforms women involved with it and which has equally profound implications for feminist theory and activism. Unprecedented numbers of American women are learning how to knock out, maim, even kill men who assault them. Sales of mace and pepper spray have skyrocketed. Some 14 million women own handguns. From behind the scenes at gun ranges, martial arts dojos, fitness centers offering Cardio Combat, and in padded attacker courses like Model Mugging, Real Knockouts demonstrates how self-defense trains women out of the femininity that makes them easy targets for men's abuse. And yet much feminist thought, like the broader American culture, seems deeply ambivalent about women's embrace of violence, even in self-defense. Investigating the connection between feminist theory and women physically fighting back, McCaughey found self-defense culture to embody, literally, a new brand of feminism.

Reel Knockouts

Reel Knockouts
Author: Martha McCaughey
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2010-01-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0292778376

When Thelma and Louise outfought the men who had tormented them, women across America discovered what male fans of action movies have long known—the empowering rush of movie violence. Yet the duo's escapades also provoked censure across a wide range of viewers, from conservatives who felt threatened by the up-ending of women's traditional roles to feminists who saw the pair's use of male-style violence as yet another instance of women's co-option by the patriarchy. In the first book-length study of violent women in movies, Reel Knockouts makes feminist sense of violent women in films from Hollywood to Hong Kong, from top-grossing to direct-to-video, and from cop-action movies to X-rated skin flicks. Contributors from a variety of disciplines analyze violent women's respective places in the history of cinema, in the lives of viewers, and in the feminist response to male violence against women. The essays in part one, "Genre Films," turn to film cycles in which violent women have routinely appeared. The essays in part two, "New Bonds and New Communities," analyze movies singly or in pairs to determine how women's movie brutality fosters solidarity amongst the characters or their audiences. All of the contributions look at films not simply in terms of whether they properly represent women or feminist principles, but also as texts with social contexts and possible uses in the re-construction of masculinity and femininity.

Shooters

Shooters
Author: Abigail A. Kohn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2004-06-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0190207701

Frequenting gun shops and shooting ranges, and devoting particular attention to those whose interest in weaponry extends beyond the casual, Abigail A. Kohn captures in finegrained and often entertaining, yet always humane, detail how gun owners actually think and feel about their guns. Through her conversations--with cowboy action shooters at a regional match, sport shooters, hunters, with shooters of all ages and races--we hear of the "savage beauty" of a beautifully crafted long gun, of the powerful historical import owners attach to their guns, of the sense of empowerment that comes with shooting skill, and the visceral thrill of discharging a dangerous weapon. Cutting through the cliches that link gun ownership with violent, criminal subcultures and portray shooters as "gun nuts" or potential terrorists, Kohn provides us with a lively and untainted portrait of American gun enthusiasts.

She's a Knockout!

She's a Knockout!
Author: L.A. Jennings
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2014-10-23
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1442236442

Women’s fighting sports have a rich and storied history. As far back as the eighteenth century, female fighters battled at varying levels, from county fairs to elite events. With new opportunities to compete in legitimate arenas—from the Olympics and the Golden Gloves to wrestling tournaments and Ultimate Fighting Championships—women are now able to fight in ways their predecessors never could. And though women today still often face the same derision their predecessors faced, their fortitude and determination has earned them respect from much of the fighting community. In She’s a Knockout!: A History of Women in Fighting Sports, L.A. Jenningschronicles the stories of these strong and resilient women—including wrestlers, mixed martial arts competitors, and boxers—and the different issues they have encountered. Throughout the narrative, Jennings situates the stories of the female fighters in the culture of their time, revealing how women were often seen as objects of spectacle and ridicule before finally garnering admiration in the fighting world. The women featured in this book include England’s “Championess” Elizabeth Stokes of the 1720s, American wrestler Cora Livingstone in the 1930s, and early MMA great Debi Purcell in the 2000s. Featuring historical and contemporary photographs and exclusive interviews with professional fighters, this book delivers an in-depth look into the struggles and triumphs of female fighters. Fans of fighting sports, sports historians, and those interested in the history of women in sports will find this a fascinating and illuminating read.

Diversity, equity and inclusion in sport and leisure

Diversity, equity and inclusion in sport and leisure
Author: Katherine Dashper
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2016-01-08
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 131775140X

Despite the mythology of sport bringing people together and encouraging everyone to work collectively to success, modern sport remains a site of exclusionary practices that operate on a number of levels. Although sports participation is, in some cases at least, becoming more open and meritocratic, at the management level it remains very homogenous; dominated by western, white, middle-aged, able-bodied men. This has implications both for how sport develops and how it is experienced by different participant groups, across all levels. Critical studies of sport have revealed that, rather than being a passive mechanism and merely reflecting inequality, sport, via social agents’ interactions with sporting spaces, is actively involved in producing, reproducing, sustaining and indeed, resisting, various manifestations of inequality. The experiences of marginalised groups can act as a resource for explaining contemporary political struggles over what sport means, how it should be played (and by whom), and its place within wider society. Central to this collection is the argument that the dynamics of cultural identities are contextually contingent; influenced heavily by time and place and the extent to which they are embedded in the culture of their geographic location. They also come to function differently within certain sites and institutions; be it in one’s everyday routine or leisure pursuits, such as sport. Among the themes and issues explored by the contributors to this volume are: social inclusion and exclusion in relation to class, ‘race’ and ethnicity, gender and sexuality; social identities and authenticity; social policy, deviance and fandom. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Real Women Run

Real Women Run
Author: Sandra Faulkner
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2018-01-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 131543783X

Real Women Run is an innovative feminist ethnography that consists of a series of linked essays and presentations about women who run at the intersections of queer, feminist, and running identities. Faulkner uses feminist grounded theory, poetic inquiry, and qualitative content analysis to examine women’s embodied stories of running: how they run, how running fits into the context of their lives and relationships, how they enact or challenge cultural scripts of women’s activities and normative running bodies, and what running means for their lives and identities. During a two-and-a-half-year ethnography with women who run, Faulkner engaged in an intersectional qualitative content analysis of websites and blogs targeted to women runners, a grounded theory poetic analysis of 41 interviews with women who run, and participant observation at road races. Real Women Run speaks to the call for a more physical feminism. This ethnography sees women’s physical and mental strength developed through running as a way to embrace the contradictions between a deconstructed focus on the mind/body split and the focus on individuals’ actual material bodies and their everyday interactions with their bodies and through their bodies with the world around them.

Private Security and the Modern State

Private Security and the Modern State
Author: David Churchill
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2020-03-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0429590458

Based on extensive research in several international contexts, this volume provides a nuanced assessment of the historical evolution of private security and its fluid, contested and mutually constitutive relationship with state agencies, public policing and the criminal justice system. This book provides an overview of the history of private security provision in its multiple forms including detective agencies, insurance companies, moral campaigners, employers’ associations, paramilitary organizations, self-protection and vigilantism. It also explores the historical evolution of private policing and security provision in a diverse set of temporal, national and international contexts and compares the interactions between public and private security bodies, structures, strategies and practices in different countries, cultures and settings. In doing so, the volume fills the existing gaps in historical knowledge about the emergence of private and public security organizations and provides a more robust understanding of changes in the division of responsibility for security provision, law enforcement and punishment between public and private institutions. This wide-ranging volume will be of great interest to scholars and students of history, criminology, sociology, political science, international relations, security studies, surveillance studies, policing, criminal justice and law.

The Frailty Myth

The Frailty Myth
Author: Colette Dowling
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2001-11-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1588361268

Can women be equal to men as long as men are physically stronger? And are men, in fact, stronger? These are key questions that Colette Dowling, author of the bestselling The Cinderella Complex, raises in her provocative new book. The myth of female frailty, with its roots in nineteenth-century medicine and misogyny, has had a damaging effect on women's health, social status, and physical safety. It is Dowling's controversial thesis that women succumb to societal pressures to appear weak in order to seem more "feminine." The Frailty Myth presents new evidence that girls are weaned from the use of their bodies even before they begin school. By adolescence, their strength and aerobic powers have started to decline unless the girls are exercising vigorously--and most aren't. By sixteen, they have already lost bone density and turned themselves into prime candidates for osteoporosis. They have also been deprived of motor stimulation that is essential for brain growth. Yet as breakthroughs among elite women athletes grow more and more astounding, it begins to appear that strength and physical skill--for all women--is only a matter of learning and training. Men don't have a monopoly on physical prowess; when women and men are matched in size and level of training, the strength gap closes. In some areas, women are actually equipped to outperform men, due partly to differences in body structure, and partly to the newly discovered strengthening benefits of estrogen. Drawing on extensive research in motor development, performance assessment, sports physi-ology, and endocrinology, Dowling presents an astonishing picture of the new physical woman. And she creates a powerful argument that true equality isn't possible until women learn how to stand up for themselves--physically.

The Edge of Sex

The Edge of Sex
Author: Lisa Speidel
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2019-11-27
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1000736997

The Edge of Sex is an anthology of voices from the margins, bringing together 37 writers to discuss their experiences of sex and sex education in America. The anthology explores often overlooked and excluded identities, with pieces on sexuality and disabilities, survivors of assault, sex work as women of color, kink and BDSM, being Muslim and queer, reproductive rights, and the challenges of culture and identity when grappling with gender fluidity and gendered expectations. As they trace the negative effects of a restrictive, fear-based sex education – particularly on marginalized individuals – these stories unearth larger themes: tensions with race and religion, expectations from heteronormative society, and pressures of femininity and masculinity. Importantly, they also highlight the resilience and empowerment of marginalized individuals within a culture designed to ostracize them. The rich, diverse, and intersectional stories of The Edge of Sex paint a contextualized picture of sex education and make an urgent case for better representation and more inclusive, consistent, and comprehensive content. By reading this anthology, casual readers may learn more about their sexual selves, clinicians can apply the material to their practices with clients, and educators and students can expand their knowledge of feminist theory, intersectional theory, queer theory, and sex education.

Real World Drug Discovery

Real World Drug Discovery
Author: Robert M. Rydzewski
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 535
Release: 2010-07-07
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0080914888

Drug discovery increasingly requires a common understanding by researchers of the many and diverse factors that go into the making of new medicines. The scientist entering the field will immediately face important issues for which his education may not have prepared him: project teams, patent law, consultants, target product profiles, industry trends, Gantt charts, target validation, pharmacokinetics, proteomics, phenotype assays, biomarkers, and many other unfamiliar topics for which a basic understanding must somehow be obtained. Even the more experienced scientist can find it frustratingly difficult to get an overview of the many factors involved in modern drug discovery and often only after years of exploring does a whole and integrated picture emerge in the mind of the researcher.Real World Drug Discovery: A Chemist's Guide to Biotech and Pharmaceutical Research presents this kind of map of the landscape of drug discovery. In a single, readable volume it outlines processes and explains essential concepts and terms for the recent science graduate wondering what to expect in pharma or biotech, the medicinal chemist seeking a broader and more timely understanding of the industry, or the contractor or collaborator whose understanding of the commercial drug discovery process could increase the value of his contribution to it. - Interviews with well-known experts in many of the fields involved, giving insightful comments from authorities on many of the sub-disciplines important to cutting edge drug discovery. - Helpful suggestions gleaned from years of experience in biotech and pharma, which represents a repository drug discovery "lore" not previously available in any book. - "Periodic Table of Drugs" listing current top-selling drugs arranged by target and laid out so that structural similarities and differences are plain and clear. - Extensive use of diagrams to illustrate concepts like biotech startup models, preteomic profiling for target identification, Gantt charts for project planning, etc.