Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Abstract

In this paper I draw on Hagan et al. (1987) and Singer (2001) and consider how adolescent reactions to parental controls vary in traditional, patriarchal and modern, egalitarian households. To understand how adolescents think about their parents' control strategies, I conducted in-depth interviews with 25 adolescents from patriarchal and non-patriarchal households. One of the main contributions of this study was the discovery of the strategies adolescents use in response to parental controls: 1) conformity, 2) waiting it out, 3) hiding out, 4) covering tracks, and 5) open rebellion. Strategies among adolescents in patriarchal households were likely to be reactions to the fear of external or direct controls (e.g., colluding with peers to "cover tracks"), while strategies among adolescents in non-patriarchal households were more likely to be reactions to internalized parental values (e.g., unquestioning obedience to parental rules). Regardless of gender, adolescents from non-patriarchal households were more likely than those from patriarchal households to report using strategies of "open rebellion." Findings suggest that future research should move beyond simply examining parental control strategies; it should also examine adolescent reaction strategies for dealing with the controls they perceive.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Changes toward less patriarchal family systems in the United States have been theorized to have several implications for the socialization of adolescent children (See Hagan et al. 1987; Vander Ven, Cullen, Carrozza, & Wright, 2001; Singer, 2001). Drawing on the work of Giddens (1991), Singer (2001) argues that the shift away from traditional, patriarchal households toward modern, egalitarian households is correlated with a shift in parental child-rearing towards attitudes which emphasize autonomy, self-reliance and independence. Moreover, Hagan et al. (1987) theorize that modern, egalitarian households are more likely to redistribute their control efforts so that daughters and sons are subject to equal parental control, and consequently, little gender difference in delinquency.

In this qualitative study, I conducted in-depth interviews with 25 adolescents from patriarchal and non-patriarchal households. In contrast to the perceptions of adolescents in patriarchal households, I found that fathers in modern, egalitarian households were more likely to share in the day-to-day caretaking and supervision of their adolescent children. But despite this difference, the adolescents in non-patriarchal households still perceived their mother to be the primary caretaker. Thus, I argue that this finding suggests a cultural lag. Furthermore, confirming Singer's (2001) expectation, I also found that parents in non-patriarchal households were less likely to initiate efforts to actively track adolescents' whereabouts and activities. However, I also found that low levels of parental supervision, especially in the case of single-parent households, were related to structural factors, in addition to the relative position of parents' position in the workplace.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Disparaging woman by calling them “dwenzang girl” was the big issue that hit the on-line community in Korea for quite some time. It was the sarcasm towards those ‘New Yorker wannabe’ women that appealed to the public. However, this paper focuses not on the ‘dwenzang girls’ but to those who spread and cheered over the discourse of ’dwenzang girl.’ The argument is that behind the popularity of term “dwenzang girl” there is the collective trauma of the Korean society.
This paper defines the relationship between Korea and U.S. as neo-colonial, which relies on a subtle, indirect, and cultural rule instead of a direct and territorial. The subordinate situation that Korea is under brings anxiety among the people and this is expressed by creating “the Other” within oneself. It is often the men that react to the pressure of the foreign power more sensitively, as it is the patriarchic order under which they enjoyed privilege that is under threat.
By paralyzing the “New woman” of the Japanese colonial period with the “dwenzang girl” of the present, the way the discourse works on women can become manifest. Thus, this paper aims to reveal the insecure state of the men of Korea in the (neo) colonial setting through the discourse created along the women.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The notion of hegemonic masculinities has been particularly useful for critiquing essentialist notions of male power and for reminding us that some men are more powerful than others. The debates over contending masculinities, however, have largely taken place in Northern contexts. Southern men have been seen as the victims of Northern discourses that identify them as inferior/effeminate/subordinate males. Yet in the South, debates over hegemonic and subordinate forms of masculinity/ies have been deeply embedded in struggles over control and power, both among men and between men and women. The ?right? to wield power has often been cast in gendered terms. Yet these gendered discussions often fuse hegemonic practices from the West with ?traditional? male prerogatives. Clearly, context specific studies are needed to understand this process and its implications for national and global politics.Zimbabwe is a particularly appropriate case for exploring hegemonic masculinities in the South, for the increasingly patriarchal authoritarian rule in Zimbabwe is being legitimated through discourses that identify ?good? leaders in highly gendered ways. Those who oppose the current regime are vilified as passive, subordinate males, who are subservient stooges of British imperialism. ?Real? men, those who fought in the nationalist struggle, support the nationalist cause and defend patriarchal prerogatives are awarded the status of hegemonic males. Thus, the definitions of hegemonic and subordinate masculinity/ies play a critical role in current struggles over power and legitimacy in Zimbabwe. Rather than cast these practices and discourses simply as alternative masculinity/ies, best understood simply as local practices, this paper argues that the Zimbabwean case (and others like it) has profound implications for understanding the role of dominant (and subordinate) masculinity/ies in national and global politics.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Under natural condition, the ratio of boys to girls in newborn is 105/106:100. In Taiwan, however, the ratio of boys to girls in newborn was 107:100 for the first born, 108: 100 for the second child, 119:100 for the third, and 135: 100 for the fourth in 2000. Although sperm-sorting technology such as flow-cytometry and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has made it more effective to choose the sex of the baby, it is developments of prenatal diagnosis such as amniocentesis accompanied with a relatively liberal abortion regulation that makes sex selection affordable and common in Taiwan.
The legal institution creates incentive for sex selection in Taiwan. According to the Civil Code, couples are not free to have their children bear the mothers’ last name unless the mother has no bother in her family to bear the last name. The social institution further reinforces the pressure for sex selection. Just to name a few examples, in Chinese culture where traditionally the last name determines not only the right and obligation while one is alive but also that of the after life, giving birth to a son ensures that the parents’ living have someone to rely on when they are old, and their tombs will be looked after and they can receive offerings in lives after their death.
Under this backdrop, although Taiwanese policy-makers are drafting laws to prohibit physicians to choose sex in infertility clinics, such regulation seems particularly harsh compared to the wide-ranging social and medical practices that aim to achieve the same goal. Should sperm-sorting technologies as well as other technologies to select sex be banned? Can parents’ right to procreation prevail? More importantly, what implication does the embedded legal and social institution have on this issue? Is it fair to ban parents’ reproductive choices when the legal and social regime are so patriarchal? Examining the intricacy between the social practice, medical practices and legal institution of reproductive medicine and abortion, this paper explores how sex selection became so common in Taiwan, examines how legal institution and social practices reinforces each other, critiques the ethical implication of sex section in Taiwan, and will make suggestions to reform the legal institution.