Book Review: The Metrosexual by David Coad

My book review on David Coad's The Metrosexual: Gender, Sexuality, and Sport appeared this month in print in Sport History Review. The book looked at changing gender roles in sports such that the rugged, masculine athlete of the past has now become a perfume and underwear model/passive object of sexual desire. Undergarments have become accessories themselves; nakedness has become mainstream (something Coad calls "spornography"). The "nakedness" of athletes today is not replicating the gendered, ritual sport roles of ancient Greece; it is subverting them. However, Coad focuses much more heavily on changes in gender roles that allowed this phenomenon to take place. He focuses less on economic changes in the world of sport. Athletes may be advertising their new wealth as much as they are advertising their bodies and accessories. Coad's theory may even be becoming outdated: I argue that sport is becoming post-metrosexual very rapidly; openly gay star Matthew Mitcham now has an underwear modeling deal with aussieBum, a gay "sex object" marketed toward straight men.

The article is available by subscription only, but I have posted a copy in my Slidespace. My review starts on page 6.

Book Review: Microbusiness and the informal sector in Zimbabwe

My book review on Mary Johnson Osirim's new book Enterprising Women in Urban Zimbabwe: Gender, Microbusiness, and Globalization is posted on the Africa Peace and Conflict Network website.  The book is an excellent study of four informal microindustries in which women play prominent business roles.  I think the book is especially helpful to those who are designing a microfinance operation in Zimbabwe since the author makes very keen observations about the unique aspects of these microindustries, their stability, and the long-term commitment and innovation of the women who run them.

"Mary Johnson Osirim challenges much of the conventional wisdom on women’s microbusiness in Zimbabwe in her recently-published study of solo and small-scale crocheters, petty traders, hairdressers, and seamstresses. Organizations and agencies providing microfinance assistance have not historically considered these enterprises to be good credit risks compared to higher-value and more tourist-oriented microindustries. However, Osirim convincingly shows that women’s small scale businesses are not simply subsistence operations, but rather sophisticated, dynamic enterprises. While much of her data derives from before the current economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe, women in the microenterprise sector currently face challenges similar to the era during the 1990s of structural adjustment and economic transition: balancing domestic life with work; relying on networks of female relatives, colleagues, and employees to secure starting capital and invest in expansion of operations; and coping with the limitations of the administrative state during an economic contraction." (Read More...)

The book was published by Indiana University Press, Bloomington IN in 2009.

Article: Globalization of the Law Student Practitioner

My recently published article in one of the Howard law journals describes an innovative idea, namely using law students to help provide legal services to indigent criminal defendants in Sub-Saharan Africa, which would help integrate more practical aspects of legal education in traditionally over-doctrinal African law schools and help close the legal aid gap for criminal defendants.  The article will appear next summer.  I think--especially in South Africa--the idea has much promise, but the article is intended to be of wide applicability throughout common law Africa.

"Globalization of the Law Student Practitioner: Toward a Student Practice Rule for Indigent Criminal Defense in Sub-Saharan Africa," 3 Howard University Human Rights and Globalization Law Review __ (forthcoming summer 2010).

Abstract: Due to resource constraints and a developing legal profession, Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from a legal aid shortage, particularly for indigent criminal representation.  A number of African countries, led by the example of South Africa, have experimented with training non-lawyers to provide some degree of legal services as a means of filling the legal aid gap.  Law school legal clinics are a major provider of legal services throughout common law Africa, but law students are prevented from practicing law without a law license.  In many common law countries, most notably the United States, Canada, and Australia, law students are allowed to provide limited legal services when under the supervision of a lawyer.  Law students are an untapped resource for providing legal aid to indigent criminal defendants and to others who cannot afford a lawyer.  This article will look at the promise and constraints of a student practice rule in common law Sub-Saharan Africa.