From Collectivism to Individualism: Tracing "Normative" Sexuality in Israel's Formative Era
Roi Irani, Department of History at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
This presentation reveals a radical shift in sexuality during Israel's first years, which was formerly considered as a sexually stagnant era. This conclusion is derived by implementing techniques developed for research of marginalized groups' sexuality to the research of "normativity".
ABSTRACT: In his book 'Men Like That' (2001), John Howard challenges the image of repressed queer sexuality in the rural South during the era preceding the so-called "sexual revolution". Using oral history, and focusing on lived practices, he manages to show that queers practiced a rather active and dynamic sexuality. This paper employs Howard's oral history methodology, along with tools from post-colonial sexual studies, to create a new image of sexuality in Israel in its formative era. By focusing on urban heterosexuals, the paper demonstrates the importance of expanding the tools of oral history research beyond marginalized groups. Herein lies immense potential to reevaluate older perceptions about individuals that historical contemporaries have considered the "normative". Based on twenty oral interviews conducted with petite-bourgeoise men born between 1934 and 1948, the paper argues that the 1950s and 1960s constituted a turning point in the transition from a collective-oriented sexual culture to a new, more individualistic kind in Israel. Sexuality was one main tool in men's attempts to create a masculine self, one they felt the need to master but for which they lacked mediators to consult with. Moreover, their immediate culture encouraged them to gain sexual experience before marriage, but simultaneously warned against focusing on sexuality as a sign of unwanted individualism. This led to confusion, frustration and eventually secretive and unsupervised sexual experiences and practices, some pleasurable for both partners, yet others abusive. It also created new power dynamics between youths of different backgrounds around access to private spaces and encouraged youths to enter relationships with experienced women. These changes show that the 1950s and 1960s in Israel were not a time of stagnation, as most scholars argue based on written sources, but a time of radical change in sexual behavior and eventually of norms, a change traceable through oral history.A Tale of Roma-ism (?): Views of Greek Roma Women on History and Reproductive Justice
Elektra Kostopoulou, Rutgers Newark
Cynthia Malakasis, Panteion University (GR)
This paper focuses on the reproductive experiences of Greek Roma women, in terms of child bearing and identity continuity within the racialized, gendered, and classed structures of Greek nationalism
ABSTRACT: Based on the narratives of Roma women in the Athens metropolitan area, this paper focuses on reproduction, in terms of lived experience and identity continuity within the racialized, gendered, and classed structures of Greek nationalism. Our research involves a historical and a contemporary component. First, it touches on the contested advent of Roma people into the multifaceted terrain(s) that have shaped Greece since the previous century. Second, it engages with contemporary reproductive care, agency, and practice. Epistemologically, we are guided by the concept of reproductive justice (Ross and Solinger 2017), which demands emphasis on the structural and systemic inequalities that shape people’s reproductive experiences. Methodologically, we subscribe to feminist oral history, which we understand as the documentation of oppressed, marginalized voices and, most importantly, as the means to “revise[s] received knowledge” (Gluck and Pataki 1991: 1-2). Hence, our interlocutors are Roma women, whose behaviors are rooted in complex socio-structural causes obscured when stereotyped within national paradigms and culturalist explanations. (How) do Roma women perceive themselves as members of a political community that often denies them access to material and symbolic resources? How do Greece’s socio-structural hierarchies and historical paradigms—which shape female experiences, subjectivities, and life chances—mediate these perceptions? What are the limitations of Western feminist theory in said context? To address this latter question, we try to identify a sense of Roma feminism constructed historically and in the present time as a narrative of care that touches upon Motherism (Moreton-Robinson 2002), Womanism (Alkali M et all 2013: 237-253), and Indigenous Feminism (Green 2020). Our commitment to honest and radical scholarship involves reflective emphasis on the intersubjective dynamics that produced our material, with a critical look at the hierarchical elements of our own encounters with our informants.Red Days on the Calendar? Remembering Soviet Menstrual Trauma in Contemporary Russia
Pavel Vasilyev, HSE University in St. Petersburg
This paper builds on the collection of 70+ semi-structured oral history interviews about the experiences of the menstrual cycle in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia that I have gathered over the last several years. This analysis is supplemented by the readings of medical publications, popular press, fiction, and early Internet archives from the Soviet and the post-Soviet period.
ABSTRACT: Within global menstrual history, the Soviet Union stands out as a peculiar case. While at least since the 1930s it claimed to belong to the group of ‘developed’ industrialized countries, the chronic neglect of light industry and personal care products meant that unlike other economies of similar size and structure, the Soviets never launched the manufacturing of reusable menstrual products until the socio-economic transition of the late 1980s. Consequently, throughout the 20th century Soviet menstruators had to rely on DIY techniques and improvisational bodily practices to manage their cycles.This paper builds on the collection of 70+ semi-structured oral history interviews about the experiences of the menstrual cycle in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia that I have gathered over the last several years. This analysis is supplemented by the readings of medical publications, popular press, fiction, and early Internet archives from the Soviet and the post-Soviet period. The paper also includes methodological reflections on conducting oral history interviews on menstrual trauma and analyzing this data.I argue that the Soviet menstrual experience is overwhelmingly remembered in contemporary Russia as a kind of trauma that is either silenced through the preservation of the menstrual taboo or actively suppressed with the help of modern reusable products (usually imported from the West). This trauma is discursively linked to the shame culture around human body, sexuality and reproduction that is attributed to the Soviet past. While there is a growing awareness about financial and environmental benefits of reusable menstrual products (especially around younger and more educated Russians), they are explicitly rejected as a kind of return to the dreaded ‘Soviet rags’. Overall, the paper suggests that the personal memory of past menstrual experiences informs not only the seemingly mundane choices of intimate care products, but also a range of socio-economic, environmental, and even political sensibilities.Femicide in the Conflict Zone: Unveiling Untold Stories of Women's Resilience and Struggle in Abkhazia
Ia Shalamberidze, Taso Foundation
Tina Tsomaia, Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA)
This groundbreaking project delves into the silenced narratives of women who endured the war in Abkhazia, now a breakaway region of Georgia, under Russian occupation for over three decades.
ABSTRACT: Focused on femicide during the early 1990s conflict, our initiative seeks to bring to light the untold stories of violence against women and the profound impact it has had on the c
