Initiatives in the field of sexology and sex education in prerevolutionary Cuba are barely known, as continuity between those experiences and the work carried out during the years following the 1959 revolution have not been researched. The founding of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), however, must be considered the product of a long process of political maturity on the part of Cuban women during the first half of the twentieth century, and in the broader context of the FMC, the developments in the fields of sexology and sex education over the past fifty years also must be considered. Drawing on FMC archival holdings, this article sets out a periodization of the four main stages of the revolutionary period of institutionalizing sex education in Cuba, as well as its main challenges.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
346 p., Ranging from the time of slavery and indentureship, to national independence in 1962 and the present day, this book shows how gender inequalities have been perpetuated for the benefit of exploitative systems from slavery to the present day. The book explores women's roles and activities both in colonial ideology and in reality.
An essay on the gendered aspects of war and revolution in Cuba and Nicaragua. According to the author, militarized violence in these states was hierarchical and ultimately created alternative privileged masculinities despite revolutionary movements' ideological commitments to equality. Details related to racial and gender binaries are also presented.
Beauty is constantly lived and incorporated as a meaningful social category in Brazil and intersects with racialised and gendered ways of belonging to the Brazilian nation. Article shows how middle-class women self-identifying as black embody and experience beauty and how, through practices and discourses centered on physical appearance, they both reinforce and challenge broader social and racial inequalities in Brazil.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
207 p., Fosters a dialogue across islands and languages between established and lesser-known authors, bringing together archipelagic and diasporic voices from the Francophone and Hispanic Antilles. In this pan-diasporic study, Ferly shows that a comparative analysis of female narratives is often most pertinent across linguistic zones.
