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Dalit Feminist Literature From South India: New Models And Perspectives, Sujatha Moni, Miruna George

Journal of International Women's Studies

Twenty-first century Indian literature has been enriched overall by Dalit feminist literature written originally in regional languages and available in English translation. What are the contributions of South Indian Dalit women’s writings to literature and to feminism? How is the representation of women in South Indian Dalit literature redefining the images of women in contemporary literature? These questions are answered through an analysis of Bama’s Karukku, select short stories by Gogu Shyamala and Joopaka Subhadra, and select poems by Swaroopa Rani, Sukirtharani, and Vijila Chirappad. Using Dalit feminist theory, we examine how the texts analyzed here represent the standpoints of …

Transformed Feminist Spaces And Identity Construction: Women Pandwani Performers In Indian Folk Theater, Shalini Attri

Journal of International Women's Studies

Theater proposes an alternative reality and different possible identities offering a framework of how representation works in performances, and it further provides an understanding of the transformative potential of enactment. The attempt to retrieve and re-write women’s histories through performances develops a culture of reconstructive capacities that resists absorption into the dominant culture. In theater, women have asserted their own vision and exercised their own viewpoints, expanding feminist space and communicating with spectators by employing publicly encoded signs. The folk theater of India, in particular, provides a public space to the (silenced) subaltern to assert agency and question the modalities …

Faux Feminism In A Capitalistic Fever Dream: A Review Of Greta Gerwig's Barbie (2023), Amy La Porte, Lena Cavusoglu

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Somewhere between meaningful discourse about female agency and the commercial interests of a problematic doll franchise lies Mattel's box office hit film Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig. In a script-flipping interpretation of the real-world patriarchy, it catapults itself into overdue discussions about gender norms, objectification, and the pursuit of Westernized beauty ideals. While it may have introduced liberationist theories to a new generation of women, ultimately it is a film bound by cognitive dissonance. This paper will delve into the profit-making protagonist at the center of its story and argue the film's underlying incompatibility with diversity, feminism, and social …

Leaning In And Bouncing Back: Neoliberal Feminism And The Work Of Self-Transformation In Ottessa Moshfegh’S My Year Of Rest And Relaxation (2018) And Halle Butler’S The New Me (2019), Isabel Sykes

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article is concerned with the capacity of contemporary fiction to reveal and oppose the ubiquity of work in Western culture. I conduct a comparative literary analysis of two contemporary novels that expose how neoliberal rationality has transformed work into an all-encompassing project, endorsed by a corresponding manifestation of feminism. Rather than challenging gendered labor relations through collective action, this “neoliberal feminism” incites women to turn their critical gaze within and transform themselves into resilient citizens and workers. Its sensibility is disseminated through popular literature, from “chick-lit” to self-help books, via narratives of physical and psychological self-transformation. This article builds …

Sober Women’S Feminist Resistance To Alcohol Marketing And Cultural Representations Of Women’S Drinking Practices, Claire Davey

Journal of International Women's Studies

Alcohol is marketed to women as a glamorous and empowering reward for juggling the demands of work and family life. This essay explores the ways in which women who do not drink reject the feminization of alcohol and drinking practices and frame this rejection within discourses of feminist resistance. This essay draws on data collected as part of a mixed-method ethnographic research project that investigates women’s use of, and participation in, online sobriety communities. Findings suggest that women who lead or utilize online sobriety communities have considerable awareness of the feminized marketing of alcohol, and some express strong ideological opposition …

Shall Her Eyes Rest: A Story Of A Syrian Refugee, Hamza Qasem, Manal Al-Natour

Journal of International Women's Studies

“Shall Her Eyes Rest” is a short story about a Syrian refugee woman, Maryama, who overcomes challenges in her journey as a refugee in the USA through hard work, dedication, and resilience. The story reveals how she displays agency by asserting herself in a foreign community, becoming independent, and sharing her Syrian cuisine and culture with the American society. Moreover, Maryama’s story reveals a nightmare that some refugees face—family separation. She and her children and husband were able to board their flight to the United States, but one of her sons was denied entry and was not allowed to join …

Mama’S Got A Brand New Degree: Education And Changing Perceptions Of Femininity During The Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), Eden E. Baize

The Cardinal Edge

Bloody struggles, tense political debates, and general unease characterized Mexico in the early twentieth century. Under former president Porfirio Díaz, tensions grew as the lower classes pleaded for labor and land reform, culminating in a violent period of revolution from 1910 to 1917. As with all conflicts of this scale, the Mexican Revolution prompted the challenging of many long standing social conventions, specifically as they pertained to the role of government and the organization of social classes. With the restructuring of society already underway, many activists capitalized on the uncertainty of the era to push against the subjugation of women. …

A Feminist Icon Or A Homicidal Coward: Medea’S Revenge On Patriarchy, Beyza Ertugrul

Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism

Medea, the alleged epitome of sophistication, does not deserve her title of the flawless feminist icon as she is praised to be. For context, Euripides’ Medea, first performed in 431 BC, portrays a young sorceress whose abusive husband abandons her for another woman and who takes revenge by murdering her own children to spite him. Throughout the tragedy, Medea speaks out on gender inequality, and by definition, such uncommon and advanced statements can be described by the modern term of feminism as the “belief in and advocacy of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” (Merriam-Webster). Especially …

Traversing The Inner Courtyard To The Public Sphere: Exploring Lalithambika Antharjanam’S Short Stories As Narratives Of Protest In Early Twentieth Century Kerala, Revathy Hemachandran, Maya Vinai

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay analyzes women writing about their experience in the changing socio-cultural and political context of the early twentieth century and especially in the face of the global, national, and regional transformations that Kerala underwent. The essay argues that the short stories of Lalithambika Antharjanam subverted the popular representation of antharjanams in the early 20th century as impassive, oppressed, and vulnerable subjects and provided alternative ways to conceptualize an antharjanam as a feminist trailblazer with a strong voice of protest. Her writing exposes her first-hand experiences of gender discrimination practiced in families as related to her caste and family lineage. …

Dinesen’S Diana: The Transformative Power Of Symbols In Ehrengard, Aishwarya A. Marathe

Anthós

This analysis of Dinesen's Ehrengard aims to illuminate the subversive transformation of the titular character of the novel, using the literal and symbolic application of artistic power.

Do Women’S Education And Economic Empowerment Reduce Gender-Based Violence In Nigeria?, Adaobiagu Nnemdi Obiagu

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women’s education and economic empowerment are key measures to promoting gender equality and reducing gender-based violence (GBV) against women, which is one of the indicators of gender equality. Whereas women’s education has been shown to positively impact child’s health, women’s fertility, and women’s participation in civic life and paid jobs, evidence on the relationship between women’s education, economic empowerment, and women’s exposure to GBV is not sufficiently established. Mapping this relationship is important for informing effective gender policies and practices. Hence, this study used the Nigeria demographic and health survey data of 2008, 2013, and 2018 to investigate the direction …

Asking For It: Gendered Dimensions Of Surveillance Capitalism, Jessica Rizzo

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Advertising and privacy were once seen as mutually antagonistic. In the 1950s and 1960s, Americans went to court to fight for their right to be free from the invasion of privacy presented by unwanted advertising, but a strange realignment took place in the 1970s. Radical feminists were among those who were extremely concerned about the collection and computerization of personal data—they worried about private enterprise getting a hold of that data and using it to target women—but liberal feminists went in a different direction, making friends with advertising because they saw it as strategically valuable.

Liberal feminists argued that in …

Power Dressing And Its Importance In Modern Democracy, Mansiben R. Patel, Dr. Catherine Amoroso Leslie

Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences

This research aimed to study the significance of Power Dressing in a modern democracy, by exploring the dynamics of clothing concerning the power it portrays for women holding influential positions in public office in a variety of countries throughout the world. This research accomplished its motive by collecting, reviewing, and analyzing scholarly articles, academic journals, newspapers, and current events which formed the foundation for data collection using a survey developed by the researchers. The analysis provided a platform for procuring knowledge of the association between Fashion and Politics, the concept of Women’s Power Dressing, and its significance in a modern …

Power Dressing And Its Importance In Modern Democracy, Mansiben R. Patel, Dr. Catherine Amoroso Leslie

Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences

This research aimed to study the significance of Power Dressing in a modern democracy, by exploring the dynamics of clothing concerning the power it portrays for women holding influential positions in public office in a variety of countries throughout the world. This research accomplished its motive by collecting, reviewing, and analyzing scholarly articles, academic journals, newspapers, and current events which formed the foundation for data collection using a survey developed by the researchers. The analysis provided a platform for procuring knowledge of the association between Fashion and Politics, the concept of Women’s Power Dressing, and its significance in a modern …

To Be Necessary: The Remarkable Life Of Mary Wollstonecraft, Elisabeth Phillips

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Although overshadowed by her daughter, Mary Shelley, in the public imagination, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) stands as a significant figure in her time who left a significant legacy. Her writings advocating for women’s education, equal rights, and career opportunities established her as the progenitor of the modern women’s rights movement. Wollstonecraft’s ideas resonated in the era of the Atlantic world revolutions and laid the foundation for later advances of women in the Western world; therefore, it is important to study her contributions in the present.

Feminist Theorizing In The International Relations Discipline, Inass Abdulsada Ali

Journal of International Women's Studies

The discipline of International Relations has been a science for almost a century and has undergone considerable development and dynamism as a field of knowledge. In the aftermath of the First World War, traditional idealistic trends prevailed. Still, after the end of the Second World War, the theory of realism dominated the analysis of international relations, international politics, and its laws and mechanisms. With the inter-paradigm debate of the 1980s, a broad spectrum of theories of international relations emerged, the most significant of which are critical theories including feminism. Feminist theory has since become central to the debates about global …

Bell Hooks And Online Feminism, Hazel T. Biana

Journal of International Women's Studies

Feminist theorist and cultural critic bell hooks was known for calling out modern-day feminists for failing to take into consideration the plight of other non-privileged women. She intricately analyzed how various factors of oppression form a web, which contributes to the complexities of women’s marginalization. The vision of hooks, thus, is a revolutionary type of feminism which is inclusive and for everybody. This means that everyone, all persons of various races or classes, should become enlightened witnesses and be a part of the struggle towards eradicating what she refers to as White Capitalist Supremacist Patriarchy. Such vision, however, seems to …

Feminism In Modern Japan: A Historical Review Of Japanese Women’S Issues On Gender, Polina Lukyantseva

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study primarily illustrates the evolution of the feminist movement in Japan by comparing two waves of the feminist movement. Furthermore, this paper examines the development of gender roles and gender bias in modern Japanese patriarchal society. It also illustrates and explains traditional roles, Japanese ideologies, the system of Fu-you (Jap. 扶養, Eng. dependent), and modern trends in contemporary Japan. In this study, the following qualitative research methods were applied. A thorough historical context analysis was done to comprehend the social dynamics, issues, and specifics of feminism in Japan, and the principle of historicism was used to illuminate and compare …

Loving Blackness: A Sense Experience, Ricardo J. Millhouse

Feminist Pedagogy

The late bell hooks framed feminist pedagogies as a set of practices and systems that provide a description of feminism, a feminist learning environment, and ways to cultivate a community that is ready for feminist instruction. Using intersectionality, hooks (1992) discussed “loving blackness” as a representational and destabilizing practice to de-center whiteness. hooks (1992, 20) writes, “loving blackness as a political resistance transforms our ways of looking and being, and thus creates conditions necessary for us to move against the forces of domination and death and reclaim black life.” I propose a black feminist praxis teaching tool, “a sense experience,” …

Resisting Burnout: Bell Hooks’ Pedagogy Of Hope And Teaching Antiracist Feminism Online At The University Of Wyoming During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Samantha L. Vandermeade

Feminist Pedagogy

After earning a PhD in Women’s Studies from an urban, multicultural, R1 university in 2020, I accepted a teaching position at the University of Wyoming, where I was hired primarily to teach feminist and critical race-focused courses. When an in-person position suddenly moved entirely online, I found myself facing not only the culture shock of teaching at a rural, primarily White institution whose state legislature and general populace are largely hostile to antiracist feminism, but also the myriad daily challenges of teaching online during a global pandemic. I had felt personally prepared--as a White lesbian raised in a rural environment, …

Autonomy, Post-Puberty Bacha Posh And Third World Feminism In Selected Afghan Fiction, Asma

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines the fictional representation of the ways in which Afghan girls attain autonomy in their post-puberty stage through the tradition of bacha posh despite the traditional constraints to switch back to their gender at birth. This analysis of bacha posh characters in Ukmina Manoori’s I Am a Bacha Posh and Zarghuna Kargar’s Bakhtawara’s Story attempts to demonstrate how the bacha posh tradition develops the potential for transgression in Afghan girls, fostering a resistance to traditional gender roles. In doing so, this paper challenges and rebuts Western feminist views regarding Afghan women, who are stereotyped as incapable, voiceless, and …

Veiled Figures: Attached Settler Women In Andaman’S Post-Colonial Archive, Raka Banerjee

Journal of International Women's Studies

Dominant discourse on India’s eastern Partition (1947) has constructed settlement as a masculine prerogative and man as the settler prototype. Women were eligible for rehabilitation on account of being “attached” to a male guardian, who would be assigned the head of the household in granting state benefits. In the case of these attached settler women transported by the state to Andaman Islands, a range of marginalities–region, gender, caste, and class–intersect with each other to create a veiled figure. The essay locates the settler women in the island’s post-colonial government archive to bring out the state’s construction of gendered settler subjecthood. …

“Am I More Than A Housewife”? An Exploration Of Education, Empowerment, And Gender Preference In Relation To Female Genital Cutting/Mutilation In The Far North Region Of Cameroon, Maurine Ekun Nyok

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

The Heart Is Not Hopeless: Pakistani Television Drama, Patriarchy, And Activism, Neelam Jabeen

Journal of International Women's Studies

A Muslim society that interprets feminism as anti-Islamic may not accept overtly feminist maneuvers to challenge patriarchy. However, there are subtle ways of steering out of the Islam vs. feminism dichotomy. What triggers anti-feminists are phrases like women’s rights, female emancipation, and women’s freedom since all these are interpreted as the agenda of the West and hence are considered anti-Islamic. In this paper, I argue that since feminists are fighting against all forms of oppression and have joined forces with other forms of activism such as child protection, human rights, animal rights, rights of the underclass and minority groups, and …

Development Of Southern Interracial Marriage And Divorce: Why Our Children Are Code-Switching, Zoe R. Grant

Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal

The fundamental basis of my final paper will be of my own lived experience. In my paper, I will argue that as a result of an interracial divorce, mixed-race children are learning to code-switch leading to a greater sense of empathy and community. I will pull from the theoretical framework of Gloria Anzaldua’s “Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza” as well as other sources to support my claims.

By focusing heavily on a southern perspective, I will question whether or not a history of southern interracial marriage causes a strain on nuclear families. Are interracial children having new experiences, and …

’90s “It Girls”: Britpop At The Postfeminist Intermezzo, Benjamin Halligan

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

In considering the Britpop genre of music and its moment of popularity in the mid/late-1990s, the few female-fronted Britpop groups created space for more compelling articulations of existential matters than were to be found in standard Britpop fare. This article argues these articulations are most appropriately read as arising from a moment of feminist thought in transition: a premature “victory,” under the sign of postfeminism, in which the struggles of Second Wave feminists could be seen to have delivered equality. This moment results in an encroaching and contested sense of entry into maturity, and a loss of youth. The groups …

Swerf Necropolitics: Three Sites Of Feminist Mistranslation And The Politics Of Feminist Exclusion, Aaron Hammes

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

The acronym SWERF, or Sex Work(er) Exclusive Radical Feminism, and its attendant ideologies brings up a number of questions and potential schisms for the enterprise of feminist thought more broadly. This inquiry examines what it means for feminism to exclude, what the excluders believe is gained by protecting certain boundaries around which identities and practices are included, and the ideological foundations and consequences of this thinking. SWERF logics are understood as mistranslations of the radical potentialities of feminism, clustered around three sites: exclusion (against bodily autonomy) , equivocation (between sex work and labor trafficking), and misrepresentation (of the sex worker …

South Asian Feminisms And Youth Activism: Focus On India And Pakistan, Nilanjana Paul, Namita Goswami, Sailaja Nandigama, Gowri Parameswaran, Fawzia Afzal-Khan

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

No abstract provided.

The (Counter) Politics Of Digital Comics In India: Reading Literature Of The Digital Space, Debadrita Chakraborty

Journal of International Women's Studies

In her 1984 essay, “A Cyborg Manifesto,” Donna Haraway envisioned that digital technology would introduce a utopian space which would liberate women from gendered power dynamics. Despite such optimism shown by third and fourth wave feminists in India, political inertia and juridical failure to implement laws and justice for victims of gender violence, be they domestic violence or sexual assault, have manifested how the digital sphere has failed to become a post-gender space. On the other hand, the pervasiveness of online gender-based violence in social media and other interactive web platforms exacerbates women’s exclusion from the public political sphere. Against …

(Re)Asserting The Feminist Sensibilities: Confessionalism, Christian Feminism, And The Poems Of Eunice De Souza, Payel Pal

Journal of International Women's Studies

In her poems, Eunice de Souza, one of the most prominent Indian women poets writing in English, depicts women’s cultural sensitivities, their developing personalities in a male-dominated societal structure, their desire for independence, and frustrations stemming from their constrained surroundings. Her poetry demonstrates a range of feminist aesthetics and efforts to chart new territory for women. Her treatment of love and sexuality confirms her discontentment with a society that necessitates a woman’s silence and subservience. In her compositions, she implements an assertive and subversive tonality, and this article illustrates how the poet’s confessional mood enables readers a glimpse into her …