Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond Victimhood: Female Agency In Nigerian Civil War Novels, Enajite E. Ojaruega

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Enajite E. Ojaruega discusses in her “Beyond Victimhood: Female Agency in Nigerian Civil War Novels” the agential roles women played during the Nigeria-Biafra war as reflected in selected fictional narratives. Female characters are generally impacted negatively by their individual and collective war-time experiences. However, there is another important aspect of women's war-time experiences that has largely been underplayed in most historical or literary accounts on war. Female agency recognizes this gender’s participatory roles during the conflict as they reconstruct their subjectivity in more beneficial ways in the unfolding circumstances of war. Women are depicted as being able to explore their …

Women’S Empowerment And Antenatal Care Utilization In Pakistan, Kashif Siddique, Raana Malik, Irum Batool, Ahmed Usman, Salman Bin Naeem

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study aimed at examining the role of women’s empowerment in antenatal care utilization among married women in Pakistan. The population of the study was based on secondary data from the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey 2017-18. A sample of 6,996 married women was selected, and the women reported their antenatal visits in the last five years. The descriptive, Chi-square, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression methods were used for data analysis through SPSS. The results of the study showed that only 15% of women had adequate antenatal visits. Bivariate analysis showed that women who had higher income status, higher education, and …

The Mundane Female Space: Re-Evaluating The Dynamics Of Women In The Transnational Kitchen, Kashyapi Ghosh, V. Vamshi Krishna Reddy

Journal of International Women's Studies

The kitchen space has often been read as the ultimate arena for women’s manifold repression, discomfiture, and gendered labour. This article aims to evaluate the nature of the kitchen space through the analysis of movies, which give a significant amount of visibility to the kitchen space. The arguments investigated in this article are laid out in two ways: one, to re-assess the stereotypical notions about the mundane space as prevalent in the literature, and two, to problematise the space and understand it from multiple perspectives and dimensions. We consider these two arguments while conducting a textual analysis and thematic network …

“She Too ‘Omanish’”: Young Black Women’S Sexuality And Reproductive Justice In Bluefields, Nicaragua, Ishan Elizabeth Gordon-Ugarte

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Most never-married young “Creole” (Afro-Caribbean) women in Bluefields, Nicaragua are raised in fundamentalist Protestant families and institutions that emphasize sexual abstinence before marriage. In this context, abstinence is required to maintain social standing and “respectability.” Nevertheless, women in Bluefields, the administrative center of Caribbean Nicaragua, exhibit what Creoles themselves understand to be high rates of sexuality and pregnancy among post-menarche unmarried teenaged women (USAID, 2012; Mitchell et al. 2015). Such young women’s pregnancies occur at an important developmental stage of their lives and have long been associated by social scientists with adverse social, emotional, and health situations. These scholars have …

Writing Desire On The Lesbian Body: Baudelaire’S Fantasies And Vivien’S Realities, Emily Wieder

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

In The Flowers of Evil [Les Fleurs du Mal (1857)], French poet Charles Baudelaire paints three female bodies: the mistress, the prostitute, and the lesbian. The latter appears in three of one-hundred poems but so captivated Baudelaire that he almost titled the collection The Lesbians. Censors nevertheless condemned the anthology and suppressed two of the lesbian poems. The remaining lesbian poem compares the “damned women” to “thoughtful cattle.” A rare representation of lesbian bodies, this metaphor problematically depicts them as savage.

Yet this “Other” exemplifies the baudelairean poetic ideal. By crafting Beauty, the Poet immortalizes his corpus. As the …

The Representation Of Japanese Working Women And The Labor Standard Law Of Japan – A Feminist Postcolonial Approach, Angela Louise C. Rosario

Japanese Studies Program Faculty Publications

Since the 1947 Constitution was drafted at the behest of the Allied General Headquarters led by the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), it is only fitting to scrutinize the media directly under it. One of the policies that should have affected Japanese women’s status is the Labor Standard Law. With this Law as a reference point, this paper anchors the SCAP’s ideals for Japanese women in terms of labor whilst I look at the portrayal of Japanese women in the 1948 issues of Pacific Stars and Stripes, an unofficial military daily newspaper under the supervision of SCAP. Through …

An Exploratory Analysis Of How Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, And Patrisse Cullors Radicalized The Meaning And Practice Of Self-Care, Melanie Marie Lindsay

CGU Theses & Dissertations

My dissertation, “An Exploratory Analysis of How Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, and Patrisse Cullors Radicalized the Meaning and Practice of Self-Care”, hypothesizes that we can conceive a practice of self-care using an abolitionist lens to examine the writings and performances of three Black feminists Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, and Patrisse Cullors. Abolitionist self-care is a response to the political structures that directly affect marginalized communities, and it evaluates the numerous ways that Black women have used their voice to challenge systems of oppression. If we examine their thinking as expressed through their poetry, their performances (including activism), and their self-life-writing, …

Nsfw: Not So Feminist Women - A Media And Cultural Studies Analysis Of Working Women In Popular Media, Josephine Schofield

Honors Projects in English and Cultural Studies

Even though gender diversity of characters has increased in television shows and films, this study hypothesized that female characters who are presented as feminist icons function as feminist backlash and perpetuate negative and harmful stereotypes. This was found to be especially true for career-focused women. Applying a cultural studies approach to reading television and film studies through a feminist lens identified the antifeminist factors that continue to cause the perpetual loop of independent women reverting to dated social roles. This research connects what audiences consume through popular media to how they perceive their female co-workers. The findings of this study …

Badnaam Women Of Bollywood: The Combative Sexual Politics Of Item Songs In India, Ketaki Deshpande

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the controversial Bollywood convention “item number,” a vampy song with suggestive lyrics and hypersexualized imagery of dancing women, as a crucial cultural artefact reflecting the gender and sexual uneasiness in India. Sex avoidance is a common theme in Bollywood films and in the country, where media and people are heavily censored and policed by anti-Romeo squads under the Modi administration. The item girl breaks the sexual tension with a mega hit song and hook step that fuels the economy of dance and desire in India. While the song is completely unrelated to the narrative of the film, …

Feminist Knowledge, Self-Empowerment And Sisterhood, And Safe Space: How The “Perempuan Berkisah” Community Group Empowers Indonesian Women In The Pandemic Era, Rouli Esther Pasaribu

Journal of International Women's Studies

This research aims to understand how the Perempuan Berkisah community group empowers women during the pandemic in Indonesia and how to critically interpret the phenomenon of women’s empowerment. The research employed a content analysis method investigating Perempuan Berkisah’s Instagram account and interviewing and distributing a questionnaire to the community’s founder, committees, and general members. This study analyzed the kinds of empowerment narratives offered, identified the dynamic narratives on the Instagram account since its first establishment in 2019, and critically read the results of Instagram feed content analysis and interviews about women’s empowerment. This research revealed three elements to build a …

The Mammy, The Strong, Or The Broken: Politics Of Hair Afrocentricities In Scripted Television, Hayley Blackburn

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

The general literature on the experiences of Black women in America consistently discusses the way that more Afrocentric appearances— whether through skin tone, hairstyles and textures, clothing, language, or a combination of all the above— have been negatively framed throughout cultural and media histories ...

Presumed Nonhuman: Black Women Intellectuals And The Struggle For Humanity In The Academy, Andrea N. Baldwin

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

In this article I engage with the work of Sylvia Wynter, Christina Sharpe, and Kevin Quashie, weaving in my own personal narrative of being presumed nonhuman to detail the everyday struggles Black women academics face. Herein I also illustrate how these struggles become sites of resistance, building, and hope.

Black Queer Times At Riis: Making Place In A Queer Afrofuturist Tense, Jah Elyse Sayers

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

This paper posits a queer Afrofuturist mode of spatiotemporal production in queer and trans Black, indigenous and people of color’s navigation to and making of a queer beach to honor Black queer and trans histories and build Black queer and trans futures in opposition to multiple forms of displacement.

The Fantasy Of “Home”: Locating Dislocation, Loss, And Silence, Roksana Badruddoja

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

The meaning(s) of “home” are once again a robust conversation in the American national landscape as we continue to struggle over postcolonial empire-inspired borders. As a queer Person of Color, Woman of Color, and Mother of Color in the U.S.; an American offspring of Bangladeshi Muslim immigrant parents; and a professor of social inequalities, I am particularly concerned about thinking through neoliberal anti-liberatory U.S. racialization projects and the notion of “home” or what I call the “neoliberal home.” I concern myself with diverse languages, images, myths, and rituals through which “home” is represented and constituted, and from the dispatches of …

Looking Back, Or Re-Visioning: Contemporary American Jewish Poets On “Lot’S Wife”, Anat Koplowitz-Breier

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Although mentioned only twice in Genesis (19:17, 26), Lot’s wife has been a topic of much discussion amongst both traditional and modern commentators and exegetes. The traditional midrashim seek to explain why she chose to disregard the instructions she was given and the nature of her punishment. In doing so, they follow two principal directions, representing her a) negatively as a wicked sinner, a Sodomite who acted as such even before disobeying the divine decree not to look backwards—thus linking her disobedience with her intrinsic character (e.g., curious, greedy, inhospitable, faithless); or b) positively as a loving mother and daughter. …

Insidious Interlocking Of Gender And Caste: Consequences Of Challenging Endogamy, Mayurakshi Mitra

Journal of International Women's Studies

The Caste system in the Indian subcontinent is characterized by hierarchy or gradations according to occupational status. The evaluative standard that places a caste higher than others or lower compared to the rest is rooted in the Hindu Dharmashashtras. The high and the low are opposed to each other because of their associations with notions of purity and impurity in terms of the nature of their occupations. Since each caste is regarded as a closed group, special emphasis is placed on eating, physical contact, and marriage. Out of these three, the institution of marriage plays a significant role in the …

Casteing Gender: Intersectional Oppression Of Dalit Women, Bhushan Sharma, K. A. Geetha

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

2021 Seccll Conference Program, Seccll Conference

South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL)

Conference program for the 2021 SECCLL.

Book Review Essay: White Feminism: From The Suffragettes To Influencers And Who They Leave Behind, Elizabeth Venell

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review Essay: Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’S Digital Resistance, Francesca Sobande

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

‘A Night Of Shame’: A Quantitative Content Analysis Of Newspaper Narratives Of The Mass Molestation Event In Bangalore, India, Vaibhav Shwetangbhai Diwanji, Awais Saleem, Jaejin Lee

Journal of International Women's Studies

On December 31, 2016 amidst New Year’s Eve revelry in Bangalore, India, about 700 young women faced a mass molestation. This research analyzed and compared 299 news articles (N=299) between January 1, 2017 and February 1, 2017 from three leading English language newspapers in India through a quantitative content analysis. Results indicated that there were differences in how the regional and national newspapers framed their stories. While national newspapers deployed the episodic frame in their news stories, the local newspaper used both thematic and episodic frames. The episodic frame focuses on individual events, whereas the thematic frame focuses …

Understanding The Hidden Aspects Of Sex Trafficking Of Girl Children In Central India, Usha Rana

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examines the deep-rooted socio-cultural practices of institutional prostitution, which is one of the factors contributing to sex trafficking in Central India. There are some states where women and girls are vulnerable to trafficking. The Honorable Supreme Court of India became aware of the issue and directed the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to make a special report on the missing women and children. According to the NCRB report, Madhya Pradesh (M.P.) state ranks first in child trafficking and third in women's trafficking. The study discusses traditional prostitution practices among some communities in the state, such as Banchhada, Bedia, …

Role Portrayal Of Women In Advertising: An Empirical Study, Sangeeta Sharma, Arpan Bumb

Journal of International Women's Studies

One of the sensitive areas in the world of advertising and marketing is the portrayal of women. Women are an indispensable part of Indian society as they constitute half of the population and play critical roles. However, the depiction of women as sex symbols, objects of desire, and as having subservient behaviours has presented a great concern to feminist scholars, activists, and researchers. The objective of this research paper is to study how women’s role portrayal impacts consumers’ willingness to buy and to identify the difference in views of Indian men and women when it comes to the stereotypical role …

Poverty And Difficulties In Participation Of Urban Social Life: Young Women In Istanbul, Ilkim Markoc

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women’s poverty has long been a topic discussed in worldwide literature. However, no recent study has been conducted which examines the causes and outcomes of women’s poverty in Turkey. The objective of this study is to reveal the obstacles young women in Istanbul’s Bagcilar District face in seeking to develop urban lives due to poverty. Accordingly, there is a need to contextualize geographically and provide rationale for the case study area: Bagcilar was selected for the field study because it has one of the largest population of immigrants as well as one of the cheapest levels of rent in the …

Recording Studio Living Archive-Melbourne: Diy Histories, A Social Justice Approach, Lilith Lane

Postgraduate

This dissertation serves as the theoretical underpinnings for development of the digital archival project [recordingstudios.net.au]. It examines the background methodologies of excavating existing ethnographic data of Melbourne recording studio histories from previous research by the author. As a female studio recording engineer in a sector where very few women are present, the researcher is positioned as an inside-outsider. Long-term involvement in the Melbourne music industry as a songwriter, musician, audio engineer and educator, offers an immersive approach to the project and research. Original research excavated for this current project focused on examining the contribution of recording studio spaces to Melbourne …

2001 Article In Feminist Teacher “Interdisciplinarily Speaking” By Angela Bowen, Angela Bowen

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Witnesses To Inspiration, Eve Oishi, Holly A. Smith, Jennifer Abod, Lore/Tta Lemaster, M. Jacqui Alexander

Journal of International Women's Studies

Introductory essays by Jennifer Abod, Eve Oishi, and Holly Smith, the editors of a Special Issue of the Journal of International Women’s Studies dedicated to pioneering Black Lesbian Feminist scholar, activist, artist, teacher Angela Bowen, Ph.D. (1936-2018.) Also included is a piece by Lore/tta LeMaster, a former student of Bowen’s and M. Jacqui Alexander, a close friend and co-conspirator. These essays describe the authors’ personal and professional connections with Bowen and situate the special issue in relation to their fields of expertise, including International Women’s and Gender Studies and Black Archival Feminist Practice.

Editors’ Introduction—Doing Her Work, Eve Oishi, Jennifer Abod

Journal of International Women's Studies

The editors’ introduction to a Special Issue of the Journal of International Women’s Studies dedicated to pioneering Black Lesbian Feminist scholar, activist, artist, teacher Angela Bowen, Ph.D. (1936-2018.) Bowen was a friend and early scholar of Audre Lorde, and examples of her writing about Lorde are included. The special issue contains sample materials from Bowen’s archive, which will be housed at Spelman College, including writings, audio and video of speeches, and photos documenting her career as a dancer, her activism on Black lesbian and gay issues, and her career in Women’s Studies, among other topics.

Note On The Authors, Eve Oishi, Jennifer Abod, Holly A. Smith

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Bad Bunny’S Purplewashing As Gender Violence In Reggaeton: A Feminist Analysis Of Solo De Mi And Yo Perreo Sola, Dairíne Hoban

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bad Bunny has skyrocketed to fame in the past few years, gaining worldwide recognition as one of the best reggaetoneros of his time. His self-promoted image as an ally to women’s movements and the Queer community has garnered him the recognition of being a role model for youth and as an anomaly in the misogynistic genre of reggaeton. However, few have looked beyond the assertion of allyship to see if his work truly does support women and anti-gender violence ideology. While scholarship on reggaeton has well documented the prevalence of gender violence in the lyrics, videos and overall culture of …