In particular, this book uses alternative theoretical perspectives to focus on how young children are 'doing' gender in kindergarten classroom. Rather than relying exclusively on biological and socialization theories of gender construction, Blaise breaks down theoretical barriers with new understandings of how gender is socially and politically constructed by young children.
Playing It Straight: Gay Men and Heterosexual Marriage Milton E. Ford The words “gay men and straight marriage” raise many questions. Why would a man who knows he’s gay marry a woman? Can a man discover he’s gay after he marries? What is life like for a gay man in a marriage to a woman? Why, having married, would he get divorced? Why might he remain married? And what is the role of society, particularly religion, in this experience? Playing It Straight answers these and many other questions by examining common themes that emerge from interviews with men from many areas of the United States who are gay, or predominantly gay, and who married women. In face-to-face taped interviews, the men talk about the way they see themselves now, what their childhood and teen years were like, their experiences leading up to marriage, what the marriages were like, and how those marriages are continuing or how they ended. The book looks at where the men are now and the meaning they now make of their marriages to women. The topical arrangement of the book makes it a valuable resource for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the realities that often emerge for a gay man when he marries a woman.
Outgrowth of the author's thesis (Yale University, 2007) under the title: The plague of jocularity: contesting humor in American art and culture, 1863-1893.
Amidst the shrill and discordant notes struck in debates over the make-up—or breakdown—of the American family, the family keeps evolving. This book offers a close and clear-eyed look into a form this change has taken most recently, the lesbian coparent family. Based on intensive interviews and extensive firsthand observation, The Family of Woman chronicles the experience of thirty-four families headed by lesbian mothers whose children were conceived by means of donor insemination.With its intimate perspective on the interior dynamics of these families and its penetrating view of their public lives, the book provides rare insight into the workings of emerging family forms and their significance for our understanding of "family"—and our culture itself.
"Songwriting as sensemaking" is the approach taken by TG McEwan. This book contains the lyrics of all of the songs he sang during a fulltime career in the 1980s, and more recent work, along with the chords to most of them
When large numbers of students from Spain arrived in New York in 1880, they introduced the American public to a new instrument – the mandolin. Spanning more than a century, this book chronicles the national mandolin craze that swept across the nation and the evolution of the instrument in America to the present day. Eclipsing the banjo and guitar as the most popular fretted instrument in the late 19th century, the mandolin inspired the formation of the Gibson company. After World War I, the mandolin went into a long period of decline, during which it found sanctuary in rural string bands and bluegrass music. By the 1980s, a revival was underway, with adventurous players using mandolins in all types of musical settings, including symphonic, semi-classical ensembles, jazz, klezmer, Irish, choro, and all the branches emanating from bluegrass. The Mandolin in America profiles all the significant makers, including Bigsby, Epiphone, Fender, Flatiron, Giacomel, Gibson, Gilchrist, Lyon & Healy, Martin, Monteleone, National, Nugget, Vega, Vinaccia, and Washburn. Lavishly illustrated with color photos throughout, this is a must-have volume for collectors and music enthusiasts alike.
Across the United States, in small towns and major cities, in suburbs and slums, in public and private schools, thousands of kids are experimenting with drugs. Many of them will become addicts; some will die. The first and only book to focus entirely on adolescent alcohol and other drug use, Teens Under the Influence addresses the immediate dangers that threaten these kids—exploring the short- and long-term effects of their addiction and giving parents solid, sensitive, practical advice to combat this growing epidemic. Knowledge is the key to defeating drug addictions, and that is what this comprehensive, timely new book provides. Full of candid true stories from adolescent drug users, with facts based on the most recent scientific research, Teens Under the Influence tells you exactly what you need to know to deal with your child’s problem, covering such important topics as • The common myths and misconceptions about drug addiction • The crucial differences between adult and adolescent dependency • The reasons kids get hooked • The stages of adolescent addiction • The different kinds of drugs kids use and combine • Various treatment options and how to choose the best treatment for your child • Strategies for handling relapses Teens Under the Influence offers practical help that may save your child’s life. It may save the life of a friend. And it may save your own.
This book charts an evolution in gay identity within American reality television and documentary film. Through focusing on the performative potential of gay men, it examines the emergence of the independent gay citizen as a bold new voice rejecting subjugation within the media. Through examining productions as diverse as An American Family, Tongues United, Silverlake Life, The Real World, Paternal Instinct, Trembling Before G-D, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and many others, this book explores how gay people as teens, devoted couples, parents, inspiring individuals and influential producers have contributed to the progression of gay identity in domestic arenas. These portrayals are played out while discussing AIDS, race, religion, the development of same-sex family forms, the issues of procreation and gay marriage and the changing views of gay men as both creative producers and responsible social agents. In these forms of entertainment, gay social actors as political agents challenge dominant ideas, and invent new social worlds.
Nearly every night on every major network, “unscripted” (but carefully crafted) “reality” TV shows routinely glorify retrograde stereotypes that most people would assume got left behind 35 years ago. In Reality Bites Back, media critic Jennifer L. Pozner aims a critical, analytical lens at a trend most people dismiss as harmless fluff. She deconstructs reality TV’s twisted fairytales to demonstrate that far from being simple “guilty pleasures,” these programs are actually guilty of fomenting gender-war ideology and significantly affecting the intellectual and political development of this generation’s young viewers. She lays out the cultural biases promoted by reality TV about gender, race, class, sexuality, and consumerism, and explores how those biases shape and reflect our cultural perceptions of who we are, what we’re valued for, and what we should view as “our place” in society. Smart and informative, Reality Bites Back arms readers with the tools they need to understand and challenge the stereotypes reality TV reinforces and, ultimately, to demand accountability from the corporations responsible for this contemporary cultural attack on three decades of feminist progress.
Nearly every night on every major network,"unscripted" (but carefully crafted) "reality" TV shows routinely glorify retrograde stereotypes that most people would assume got left behind 35 years ago. In Reality Bites Back, media critic Jennifer L. Pozner aims a critical, analytical lens at a trend most people dismiss as harmless fluff. She deconstructs reality TV's twisted fairytales to demonstrate that far from being simple "guilty pleasures," these programs are actually guilty of fomenting gender-war ideology and significantly affecting the intellectual and political development of this generation's young viewers. She lays out the cultural biases promoted by reality TV about gender, race, class, sexuality, and consumerism, and explores how those biases shape and reflect our cultural perceptions of who we are, what we're valued for, and what we should view as "our place" in society. Smart and informative, Reality Bites Back arms readers with the tools they need to understand and challenge the stereotypes reality TV reinforces and, ultimately, to demand accountability from the corporations responsible for this contemporary cultural attack on three decades of feminist progress.
