Research on creative workers speaks to the relative lack of job opportunities available, the role that changing production logics play in shaping such opportunities, and gender disparities in success. Tracking the 22,561 hits found on Billboard's mainstream charts, we examine various factors that may spur or hamper the success of female recording acts. We find that the expanding logic of decentralized production eliminates the negative effect of concentration on the success of female acts and that the presence of successful female acts in one period bodes well for subsequent female acts, until a glass ceiling of sorts is reached.
Although the US government says we're not entitled to a state-issued certificate, we consider ourselves married. The photographs on our mantlepiece and the rainbow flag covered with guest signatures hanging in our study are tangible reminders of our ceremony. They remind us that we are anchored -not only to each other, but within a geographically dispersed community that pledged to support our relationship. Like many people in same-sex relationships, we decided to hold a commitment ceremony despite the lack of legal recognition. This decision was both political and personal.On a political level, we see such rituals as part of the ongoing activist project that seeks equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Ceremonies cannot replace the fight for same-sex marriage or its accompanying legal rights. Issues of taxation, immigration, and healthcare remain critical for same-sex couples. However, efforts toward societal change benefit from a broad repertoire of tactics.Sandoval's (2000) notion of differential consciousness suggests the metaphor of an automobile clutch, in which various ideologies can be invoked for action. Rather than attempting to agree on a single movement-wide strategy -an unlikely prospect -differential consciousness instead acknowledges that different challenges call for different strategies. The choice of which strategy to use becomes a tactical decision, requiring 'grace, flexibility, and strength ' (p. 59). Similarly, Wolf (1991) argues that both separatist and revolutionary activities are necessary, on both individual and collective levels. Eisland (1994) argues that legislative successes must be accompanied by the reconstruction of practices and images. In embracing the value of multiple approaches to changing the world, we simul-
In 1998, I taught my first undergraduate course as a master's student in sociology at a large, public American university in Alabama. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) faculty, staff and students were largely closeted, in some cases to the extent that others would not socialize with my partner and me for fear of being labelled by association. At the time of writing, Alabama still offers no legal protections to LGBT people. The university did not add LGB people to its antidiscrimination statement until 2007. And, less than a year before I taught the course, a gay man was bludgeoned to death and set on fire in a town about an hour's drive away. There were endless reasons not to come out in the classroom. But, I did.The introductory social science course that I taught -combining sociology, anthropology and geography -offered me some choice of topics to cover. Because of the prevalence of fundamentalist Christianity among our students, many faculty members avoided teaching any topic that could generate faith-based resistance, such as evolution or sexual orientation -both topics that I included on my syllabus.
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