Kathy Morgan writes: >Folks, there actually IS a literature on this subject; see attached
Thanks for that, Kathy. One of the references: Fook, J., Hawthorne, S., & Klein, R. (Eds.). (2004). HorseDreams: the meaning of horses in women's lives. Melbourne: Spinifex Press. Aren't we going a wee bit over the top on this thread? I'm not saying it's not of some interest if appreciably more young girls take an interest in horses than young boys, but is there really a *widespread* interest in horses among young girls. Maybe it's because I live in London, and there ain't too many horses around, other than the occasional couple of police horses trotting down the main road close to my place (the local police station has a stable), the police horses in evidence for football matches in case rival fans get out of hand, and those at big demos in town; anyway, whatever the reason, I haven't seen much sign of interest in horses among the girls of my friends and acquaintances. So, referring back to "the meaning of horses in women's lives", I reckon for most women they're neither here nor there, as they just aren't interested in horses, scarcely more than the great majority of women are in Formula 1 car racing. But maybe it's different in the wide open spaces of the States (just as I'm sure there's more interest in horses among young girls brought up the countryside in England). This one must be fun: Brandt, K. J. (2005). Intelligent bodies: Women's embodiment and subjectivity in the human-horse communication process: "…I explore the human-horse communication process and argue that the two species co-create what I call an embodied language system to construct a world of shared meaning. I problematize the centrality of verbal spoken language and the mind in theories of subjectivity, and maintain that the privileged status of verbal language has left untheorized all non-verbal language using beings, human and non-human alike. I bring questions of embodiment--in particular women's embodiment--to the center and examine how lived and felt corporeality shapes human subjectivity. I call for an understanding of embodiment not as deterministic but as a lived process that has a meaningful impact on how individuals understand themselves and others. Further, the women's experiences of embodiment when working with horses propose a way to subvert oppressive dominant constructions about female bodies as inherently flawed and allow for a re-imagining of women's bodily comportment…" http://research4horsewomen.pbworks.com/Recent-Thesis-Research I admit that this kind of stuff brings out the philistine in me (or maybe just plain old commonsense): "I problematize the centrality of verbal spoken language and the mind in theories of subjectivity, and maintain that the privileged status of verbal language has left untheorized all non-verbal language using beings, human and non-human alike." I just can't be bothered to try to translate such sentences into comprehensible English. Anyway, whenever I see the word "problematize" I'm inclined to move on quickly. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org --------------------------------------------- Re: [tips] Girls and Horses - Archetype? Kathy Morgan Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:05:57 -0700 Folks, there actually IS a literature on this subject; see attached. --Kathy Morgan Wheaton College Norton, MA 02766 kmor...@wheatonma.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=5977 or send a blank email to leave-5977-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
