Synopses & Reviews
Christy Adair's study is valuable, first because it introduces non-dancers to a history of dance--a history from the point of view of gender. Conversely, it introduces students of dance to critical theory, and suggests ways in which dance studies can benefit from this work. Most importantly, and crucially, she brings dance into the center of the study of gender and culture. Feminism, cultural studies, and dance analysis will all benefit from this reorientation.
from the Foreword by Janet Wolff
Dance is a marginalized art form which has frequently been ignored in the various debates about cultural practices. This book redresses the balance and opens up some important areas for discussion. Christy Adair argues that dance is an arena for feminist practice particularly as feminism has recognized the centrality of the arts in shaping our ideas about ourselves and our society.
Women's high profile in dance leads to the popular opinion that it is a female art form. But women tend to interpret rather than to create dance images. This book highlights the consequences for female dancers of the development of western dance technique in a patriarchal society. The constraints placed upon them are revealed in the texture of the dances discussed. Christy Adair shows how challenging traditional images of women in dance offers us visions for the future. But, she argues, in order for women's perspectives to be clearly established and influential, women must also have access to positions of power, such as directors and choreographers.
Synopsis
Women and men migrate across international boundaries at roughly the same rate. Yet most scholarship assumes that international migration results primarily from the labor migration of male workers. When international female migration is acknowledged, the focus is almost exclusively on women in the low-wage labor sector of the global economy.
Gender and Immigration challenges this outlook by examining the diverse and complex ways in which women in a variety of occupational and social categories experience international relocation.
Written by experts and policymakers in the field, the timely essays collected here explore whether international migration provides women with opportunities for liberation from the subordinate gender roles of their countries of origin. Or, do migrant women face both traditional and new forms of subordination and discrimination in their host societies?
Exploring the experiences of a broad range of women, from "unskilled" workers on the U.S.-Mexican border and Filipino mail-order brides to Indian-American motel owners, Asian businesswomen, and Russian immigrants to Israel, Gender and Immigration offers a much-needed corrective to the long-standing invisibility of women in international migration research.
About the Author
Christy Adair is a freelance writer, researcher, and lecturer in dance and women's studies. As a member of the New Dance Magazine Collective, she developed a voice for women's issues in dance and she contributed to the Arts Council discussion document of Women in the Arts. Currently, she writes for various dance journals, including Spare Rib, and Every Woman.