Niza Yanay

Hatred as ambivalence

The article aims at reworking the relations between colonial discourse, hate speech and ambivalence. It explores the nature of hatred in the context of inter-group power relations, and advances the argument that hatred is an ambivalent mode of knowledge and attachment. Once that ambivalence is explicit and acknowledged in language, it can invent and invite solidarity with the needs and pains of hated others. In contrast, unacknowledged ambivalence denies the recognition of similarity which evokes feelings of solidarity within the context of historical particularity. The discussion is based on the analysis of selective scripts of hate speech by Jewish Israeli girls directed toward Palestinians. It is concluded that hatred can be changed into a positive mode of attachment, and even solidarity, if truth is bracketed within colonial discourse, ambivalence is recognized and the need to feel safe in relations is acknowledged

Ritual impurity and religious discourse on women and nationality

Abstract In Judaism, the ancient laws of impurity in regard to menstruation are known as the laws of niddah , and their realized form as the ritual of impurity, niddah . These laws continue to retain their symbolic power, with a shift in meaning from a state of impurity related to sacrificial rites to a state of impurity related to sexual prohibitions in the private family sphere. This means that, during a period of 14 days, the Jewish woman must avoid any sexual contact with her husband. Based on textual and contextual analysis of manuals which teach and explain to women the practice of niddah , we claim that, with the establishment of the modern state of Israel the meaning of niddah has been expanded to the public national domain. Religious Zionism in Israel has enlisted the experiences of menstrual defilement and purification to the Jewish struggle over national boundaries and collective identity. Women are told that by practicing niddah , they take on responsibility not only for purity of the family, but also for the people of Israel, the Land of Israel, and the preservation of the holy scriptures, the Torah. This rhetorical linkage politicizes both the body of women and the practice of niddah . In fact, the practice has become a discourse of national revival.

Intersexuality: On Secret Bodies and Secrecy

ABSTRACT The article problematizes the treatment of intersex as a secret within the medical and family systems. Under the biosocial assumption that the “intersexual” body is pathological and requiring immediate surgical and hormonal regulation, intersex individuals are made to undergo a process of transforsexation, that is, the violent production of a normative masculinity or femininity by means of invasive clinical practices. In this process absolute secrecy serves as a central factor for the success of normalization. We argue that not only does “the secret” of intersex bodies become an active factor in the normalization of sex but also paradoxically it is counteracted by the body, which does not “speak” the language of “the secret” and continues to reproduce new forms of intersex combinations in response to ongoing medical intervention. Our analysis is based on case histories told by 6 mothers of intersex children and by 11 intersex adults, stories in which secrecy has been an essential theme in the process of transforsexation imposed by doctors and followed by the parents. Secrecy, even more than the surgery itself, was, in the experience of intersex adults, a great cause of confusion, anger, mistrust, and criticism. Because of secrecy, intersex children are thus deprived of a language to name their experience or interpret the sense of their body.

From consensual reconciliation to a discourse of friendship

When in multicultural states the concept of reconciliation is tied to national unity in order to institute consensus and stability, the outcome often is exclusion and oppression of those others who do not ‘fit’ or who ‘disturb’ the very consensus and unity reconciliation purports to form. The hidden side of violence embedded in consensual reconciliation is the main theme of this paper. Our aim is to problematize the relations between reconciliation and nationalism on the one hand, and to offer an alternative working concept of friendship on the other. Based on an ethnographic case study of conflict between religious and secular groups in Israel, we examine the language of reconciliation and its semiotic gestures, in order to demonstrate that sentiments of ‘neither/nor’ or ‘either this or that’, when rooted in nationalist ideology of unity, obfuscate identities for purposes of homogeneity, closing the social and cultural space for different others who are present but not included in the discourse of reconciliation. By contrast, a discourse of friendship signifies a movement (rather than diffusion) between social and cultural identities. Our concept of friendship is based on a civic idea of causing no harm to others as a way of life.

Autonomy as emotion: The phenomenology of independence in academic women

Abstract What does it mean to be an autonomous woman? How should a woman define her autonomy within androcentric language and around the social limitations of a discriminatory society without violating her own needs for intimacy and emotional involvement? This paper reexamines the conceptual meaning of autonomy and independence in academic women. It reviews recent feminist criticism of autonomy and dependency, discusses some of its problems and limitations, and finally, based on the ways in which academic women think and talk about the independent individual, offers a new conception of dependency and autonomy as emotional experiences.

The politics of (in)visibility: On the blind spots of women's discrimination in the academy

The aim of this study is to show how invisible institutional culture participates in the production and propagation of gender difference and hierarchy. To that end, we examine the official publications of one Israeli university in order to explore cultural mechanisms that signify hidden conceptions, ideologies and iconic images of women in the academe. Conceptualizing these publications as cultural products that operate as the public image of the university and hence participate in its overall construction of ideologies of gendered reality, we analyze, both qualitatively and quantitatively, images, visual representations and scripts of university women as they appear in the university bulletins, presidents reports, and various newsletters from 1974 to 2004 (in Hebrew and in English). Having looked at over 5000 articles and photographs, we found that although the presence of women in the publications has increased over the years, their images and roles continue to be feminized and sexist. Thus, more space is devoted and more visibility given to stereotyped femininity and womanhood. Moreover, we explore the ways in which mechanisms that create a complex politics of visibility and invisibility produce contested and contradictory messages and participate in the creation of what we call the blind spots of discrimination.

Gender Imago: Searching for New Feminist Methodologies

Invoking Butlers notion of gender performativity, Kristevas concept of foreignness, and Laplanches reconceptualization of otherness, the authors examine the power of fantasy to change the women and men that we always already are. Using “writing-in-response,” they discuss the meaning of gender performance in relation to their theoretical commitments. The article is structured around three different forms of dialogue: (a) two lectures that the authors presented, each one contesting accepted ideas of gender, self, and society; (b) seven e-mail correspondences that develop the ideas presented in the lectures and that dramatize the transition from speaking to writing-in-response; and (c) a discussion, developed both together and separately, that raises the possibility of exploring a new language of gendered subjectivity. The article challenges the concept of “direct experience,” the separation between psychology and sociology, and destabilizes the space between gender fantasy and performance.

Authenticity of self‐expression: Reinterpretation of female independence through the writings of simone de beauvoir

Based on the autobiographical writings of Simone de Beauvoir, this paper reinterprets the concepts of “dependency” and “independence” with respect to womens experiences. De Beauvoir, considered a strong and independent woman, continuously struggled for emotional independence, a struggle which she conceived as being against the need that drove her “impetuously toward another person”. However, a careful examination of de Beauvoirs inner voice as it is reflected in the subtext of her autobiographical writings, suggests that her true struggle revolves around a desire for authentic expression of her feelings and needs — rather than for separation from others. As an adolescent de Beauvoir was caught between the expectations of her parents and her own needs, remaining the “dutiful daughter” at the expense of being false to her own self. This pattern of dependency reappears in her adult life, when she seems to be incapable of validating her feelings of jealousy and anger in her relationship with Sartre. Her mea...

Reference to emotion states during narrative co-construction with three- year-old kibbutz children : Comparison of mother-child and metapelet-child dyads

In this study of young kibbutz children, we considered similarities and differences between mother-child dyads and metapelet (nonmaternal female caregiver)-child dyads on their rates of mentioning positive and negative emotion states and emotion calls during narrative co-construction from a text-free picture book illustrating emotionally charged situations. Thirty-two kibbutz children approximately 3 years of age, their mothers, and their metaplot (i.e., plural of metapelet) were observed during co-construction from the picture book. All participants (mothers, metaplot, children with mothers, and children with metaplot) mentioned more negative emotion states and emitted more negative emotion calls than positive ones. Children mentioned less emotion states than adults. No differences were found between mothers and metaplot in the number of emotion states mentioned, but mothers used significantly more emotion calls than did the metaplot, and their children tended to reciprocate. The influence of the context and type of relationship on emotion regulation is discussed.

Does the child's actual participation make a difference? Positive and negative emotion states mentioned by mothers of young children during narrative construction

The study examined the rate that mothers mentioned positive and negative emotion states and emotion calls during narrative construction from a text-free children’s picture book illustrating happy and emotionally charged situations. Ninety-three mothers of 3- to 4-year-old kibbutz children were divided into three groups: (1) the child was not present and not mentioned; (2) the child was not present, but was mentioned by the experimenter; and (3) the child co-constructed the narrative with his/her mother. Mothers mentioned significantly more negative emotion states in the co-construction group than in the two other groups; no difference was found for positive emotion states. Findings for emotion calls differed: mothers used more positive emotion calls in the second group than in the other groups, and they used more negative emotion calls in the second and third group than in the first group.