ACCS2023 Pre-Recorded Virtual Presentations

Women’s Studies

68504 | “For the Love of God, For the Love of Country”:

Janet Atutubo, University of Santo Tomas, Philippines

Memorializing the Crusades of the Beatas

This study features the crusades of the three beatas, namely Ignacia del Espritu Santo, Dionesia Talangpaz and Cecilia Rosa Talangpaz. Ignacia and the sisters Dionesia and Cecilia Rosa unintentionally became foundresses of beaterios, a religious community of women. During the Spanish colonization of the Philippines, the native women, the indias, were not accepted to the convents. They were seen as unfit for monastic vows in spite of them living an ideal, Christian life epitomizing virtues of piety, obedience, sacrifice and perseverance. As leaders of the beaterios, Ignacia, Dionesia and Cecilia also faced persecutions by the Catholic Church, the Spanish government and the community. Each life story tells of a female who existed in a male dominated society that followed a rigid framework that oppressed women. As a qualitative research, this study looks into the social processes of the three beatas as they struggled for two hundred years to establish a beaterio that eventually became congregations that exists until today in the Philippines, actively fulfilling social and apostolic missions.

70719 | Minimalism, Motherhood, and Marie Kondo: The Appeal of a Japanese Aesthetic for American Moms

Katie L Peebles, Marymount University, United States

Since the 2014 English translation of Marie Kondo’s book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing", many Americans have been fascinated by the promise of being able to sort through all their things en masse in a way that “sparks joy” and returns control of their living space to them. This dream is especially appealing to mothers, who frequently carry the heaviest burden of managing household stuff - not only their own things, but also the accumulation of family needs and interests and the avalanche of children’s toys, clothes, and everything else. Simultaneously, there is a strong cultural narrative insisting that mothers are responsible for giving children an idyllic childhood and curating photos and mementos for the future. Inspired by Kondo, a household industry of “mompreneurs” focused on decluttering has emerged - mothers who start self-help businesses, advertising through social media. This trend connects in powerful ways to pre-existing American ideas about Japanese aesthetics and Zen Buddhism, and to newer anxieties about consumerism and climate change. Ironically, this movement is consumerist in its own way, by selling self-help products and inviting people to value the things they keep even more. A dynamic tension also exists between the dream of a largely empty white room and the reality of life with active children. Both contradictions will continue to fuel this movement. This paper analyzes these forces and the strength of these appeals.