Theoretical interpellations: confusions around "gender"

Reading Freitas & Pinheiro (2013) I am questioned by the notions of gender across feminist authorship.
The ways gender seems to stuck people on individual (interaction) relations bypassing the social structures of the gender and patriarchal order seems to concord with the argument of Virginia Ferreira about the useless of the concept of gender.
This slippery concept together with a strict foucaultian perspective on power renders gender as incapable of accounting for the power relations in private sphere between men and women and some analysis slide to wrangles between individuals.
Although affirming a feminist perspective, there is a difficulty to perceive women as a group with less power than men.
On the contrary, Sue Clegg (2006) is particularly clear about the structural relations founded in gender inequalities and the patriarchal order.
I re-read Clegg to gain insights for a comparative paper I am wrestling with and I found it very useful to dialogue with Freitas & Pinheiro. These latter authors present a set of "narratives of violence" extracted from the processual pieces of the charges on gender and domestic violence in Jaraguá, Goiás, within the frame of "Lei Maria da Penha", and analyses them through the concepts of gender and performance (Butler 1990), using critical discourse analysis on juridical texts.

References:
Freitas, Lúcia & Pinheiro, Veralúcia (2013) Violência de Gênero, Linguagem e Direito. Análise de Discurso Crítica em Processos na Lei Maria da Penha, Jundiaí-SP: Paco Editorial.

Clegg, Sue (2006) “The problem of agency in feminism: a critical realist approach”, Gender and Education, 18:3, 309-324, DOI: 10.1080/09540250600667892. 

Learning and Teaching the "Text of Life"

Maria da Conceição Silva Freitas talked with us about "texto da vida".

Working with women "campesinas", Conceição has an educational experience in alphabetization with peasants following Paulo Freire philosophy.

Using texts about the living situations of the community, the student teachers go to the countryside, make contact with the peasant communities and work with them to improve their literacy levels.

These communities are called "assentamentos", that is a community of "assentados" which meaning is an "occupant" of the land.

Interview with Lourdes Bandeira

In her office, I interviewed Lourdes Bandeira about Lei Maria da Penha in Brasil. 

Lourdes Bandeira was the Secretary for Public Policies for Women in the Federal Government of the President Dilma. Author of a large ammount of sociological works, Lourdes Bandeira has been researching about feminism, violence against women in Brasil, and other topics. 

Asked about the evaluation of the impact of Lei Maria da Penha (Lei # 11.340/06), the researcher answered that the Secretary has no money to implement a national evaluation. She added that this law was subjected to a Constitutional Court decision, because some magistrates claimed that it was not constitutional. But in 2012, the Supreme Court decided that Lei Maria da Penha is constitutional and Brazil, and all the 27 states have the obligation to protect women from violence to fulfill the Law. 

Lourdes Bandeira emphasized the dichotomy in the judicial professionals: some are very committed to apply the law, but others are still defending the 'family', using the argument that this kind of violence as a minor offensive potential.

During the interview, the well known feminist researcher and activist shared with us her perspective on femicide and feminicide (feminicídio). For her, feminicide is a type of femicide with cruelty, including desfiguration of the victim and extreme antecipation from the side of the murder. In distinct way, femicide would be a murder in result of an emotional moment.


Reference:
Bandeira, Lourdes (2009) "Três décadas de resistência feminista contra o sexismo e a violência feminina no Brasil, 1976 a 2006", Sociedade e Estado, v. 24, nº2, 401-438, Brasília.

Writing

The process as well the outcome! Am I wondering whether the space is not yet blank (Stronach 2002)? Between writing and riting? The colourful screen where a file waits for the Word that doesn't come. 

Weaving the ideas with words in the fabric of the screen.

Writing in English which is not my mother tongue, makes me feeling as if I went back to the infancy, writing the first compositions in primary school.
Then, when I achieve to get ideas in the paper, to almost catch the "spook" of an idea, my mind waves and maybe I will be able to fly.






Reference:
Stronach, Ian (2002) "This space is not yet blank: anthropologies for a future action research", Educational Action Research, 10:2, 291-308.

Preventing dating violence in schools

Clara Ventura (2015), in a study that included an inquiry about the beliefs to legitimate dating violence and a school-based programe, shows that Portuguese youth still thinks that there are some causes external to the offenders that might justify dating violence. Also the belief of the school as a closed unit, without external "interferences" seems to contribute to justify some violent behaviours of the offenders.

Ventura, Clara (2015) Violência no Namoro: Crenças e Auto conceito nas Relações Sociais de Género. Modelo de Intervenção em enfermagem, Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências de Enfermagem, Porto: ICBAS.

Art and Gender Violence

The connections between arts and gender violence is the subject of the PhD thesis by Ana Paula Canotilho.
Based in discourse analysis of in-depth interviews with feminist artists and educationalists, as well as in critical visual analysis of performative actions aiming the prevention of gender violence, the research highlighted the relevance of the artistic processes to prevent gender violence.








Seixas, Ana Paula Canotilho (2015) Arte e Violência de Género: Educação e performatividades para a mudança social, Tese de Doutoramento, Porto: FPCEUP.

BADAJOZ, January 30, 2015

The PhD thesis by María José Cabanillas Sánchez about a comparative study of the equality governmental mechanisms of Portugal and Spain passed with distinction. 
The supervisor was Prof. Rosa Luengo. 

One of the conclusions is that Gender Equality in Portugal (CIG) excludes social exclusion, which is taken into account in Spain and more specifically in Extremadura (IMEX). 

It was very curious how two neighbour countries and similar languages, as well as a similar history concerning the recent fascist regimes, have so different situations concerning the respect for feminism and gender equality. 

I loved the city, the Spanish colleagues and María José Cabanillas Sáchez, who performed very well, presenting her research and answering to the questions, and speaking in Portuguese so well. 

See:
Cabanillas Sánchez, María José (2015) “Estudio comparativo entre Portugal y España  de Políticas, acciones y discursos en torno a la igualdade de oportunidades para hombres e mujeres”, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain.