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Articles 511 - 540 of 2327

Full-Text Articles in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Performing Dalit Feminist Youth Activism In South India: Rap, Gaana, And Street Theater, Pramila Venkateswaran Jul 2022

Performing Dalit Feminist Youth Activism In South India: Rap, Gaana, And Street Theater, Pramila Venkateswaran

Journal of International Women's Studies

Young Dalit men and women are changing the narrative of casteist oppression in India. Youth activists perform protest songs in the genre of rap and gaana, using elements of slam poetry and rap from African American artists and blending them with local musical innovations. The performances have deliberate messaging, signaling particular caste and gender injustices, both current and historical. This paper will analyze Dalit youth performances of rap, gaana, and street theater (koothu) in South India, particularly in Tamil Nadu, to understand the poetics of protest against caste and gender oppression. It will look at the notion of space in …


Subverting Patriarchal Interpretation Of The Ramayan Through A Feminist Lens: A Critical Study Of Sita’S Ramayana, Shruti Chakraborti Jul 2022

Subverting Patriarchal Interpretation Of The Ramayan Through A Feminist Lens: A Critical Study Of Sita’S Ramayana, Shruti Chakraborti

Journal of International Women's Studies

“Re-vision – the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction – is for us more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an act of survival”, writes Adrienne Rich in her seminal essay, “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision”. Rich firmly advocates that women authors should create spaces for subversion of patriarchal values and ideals through their literary works. Revisionist mythmaking, from a feminist literary perspective, evolves through challenging a preceding text which predominantly manifests androcentric ideas. The present paper aims to examine a female reinterpretation …


Women’S Agency And Pastoral Livelihoods In India: A Review, Aayushi Malhotra, Sailaja Nandigama, Kumar Sankar Bhattacharya Jul 2022

Women’S Agency And Pastoral Livelihoods In India: A Review, Aayushi Malhotra, Sailaja Nandigama, Kumar Sankar Bhattacharya

Journal of International Women's Studies

The role of women in promoting and sustaining pastoral livelihoods remains an under-researched area across the world. Often, studies discuss pastoralism as a male-oriented enterprise, thus overshadowing or ignoring the part played by women in such livelihood practices. In India, where pastoralism itself is essentially a neglected area of research, such discussions remain even sparse. Pastoral communities depending on migratory livestock rearing practices for their livelihoods exhibit gender-based differences in their everyday life in terms of division of labour, mobility patterns, and rights over resources. Women play different roles and responsibilities at the household and community levels that remain intertwined …


Dissenting Bodies, Disruptive Pandemic: Farmers’ Protest And Women’S Participation In Mass Mobilisation In India, Paromita Chakrabarti Jul 2022

Dissenting Bodies, Disruptive Pandemic: Farmers’ Protest And Women’S Participation In Mass Mobilisation In India, Paromita Chakrabarti

Journal of International Women's Studies

While authoritarian states promoting neoliberal forms of governance have taken advantage of COVID-19 to weaken the foundations of civil society, there has also been a significant rise in contemporary struggles for a more democratic society during and around the pandemic. From December 2019 to November 2021, India has seen a significant number of protests. The timeline of collective resistance against the state and its divisive, violent and neoliberal agenda represents a critical juncture in Indian politics. This paper focuses on the farmers’ protests that started from last November and recently ended in a stunning, hard-earned victory. In a sector that …


Visiting The House Of Bad’S Mother: Queering Saadat Hasan Manto’S “Thanda Gosht”, Namita Goswami Jul 2022

Visiting The House Of Bad’S Mother: Queering Saadat Hasan Manto’S “Thanda Gosht”, Namita Goswami

Journal of International Women's Studies

This essay reads Saadat Hasan Manto’s short story, “Thanda Gosht” (1950), depicting women’s experience of sectarian brutality during the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, to delineate the postcolonial significance Gayatri Spivak’s concept of originary queerness. Manto’s synecdoche (“cold meat”) for an unnamed and raped female corpse, her Sikh abductor and violator, as well as for the story’s readers, (re)figures reproductive heteronormativity as a process of unknowing that emplaces a gendered taxonomy, even when its victims are silent. Rather than reinforce sexual difference as a finished itinerary, however, Kulwant Kaur’s repeatedly piercing question—who she is—queers “Thanda Gosht” by taking us …


Reflections On Queer Literary Representations In Contemporary Indian Writing In English, Aakanksha Singh Jul 2022

Reflections On Queer Literary Representations In Contemporary Indian Writing In English, Aakanksha Singh

Journal of International Women's Studies

This reflective piece explores the importance of thinking beyond labels and categories for queer desires and queer expressions of love. Knowability and visibility of these desires through labels and categories has the potential to create much-needed awareness. This visibility, however, can inadvertently also create borders and perpetuate rigidity about queer desires, confining them to certain norms and limitations. The piece then reflects on mass media’s role in creating these borders, particularly through the coverage of Pride Parades in India. Then by examining contemporary texts such as Amruta Patil’s Kari (2008), Himanjali Sankar’s Talking of Muskaan (2015), and Parvati Sharma’s short …


Networking Voices Against Violence: Online Activism And Transnational Feminism In Local-Global Contexts, Sutanuka Banerjee, Lipika Kankaria Jul 2022

Networking Voices Against Violence: Online Activism And Transnational Feminism In Local-Global Contexts, Sutanuka Banerjee, Lipika Kankaria

Journal of International Women's Studies

Contemporary feminism manifests itself in the form of blogs, hashtags, e-magazines, and digitally planned protests through online communities that address the prevailing concerns of feminists in the digital age. This feminist approach to digital activism aims to reclaim the power of technology which is inherently hegemonic and masculinist by creating alternate spaces and modes of protest. Transnational feminism is increasingly being shaped by online discourses and the new digital space enables social movements in shaping feminist solidarity and complex netizen identities. This paper adopts discourse analysis of online contents that question the prevalent patriarchal system in South Asia and thus …


Productivity To Precarity On Instagram: Digital Feminism In India During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Anhiti Patnaik Jul 2022

Productivity To Precarity On Instagram: Digital Feminism In India During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Anhiti Patnaik

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines how digital feminism deconstructed neo-liberal ideals of technological productivity in India during the Covid-19 pandemic. By creating a productivity scale, I delineate new social disparities and risk factors brought on by the unprecedented shift to a work-from-home digital economy. Through theories of biopower, I argue that technology is not neutral, apolitical, or unequivocally in favour of equal access and human rights. The creation of a new social group termed the ‘technoprecariat’ during lockdown is discussed using a ‘cripqueer’ approach to digital feminism. I extend Judith Butler’s early work on gender performativity to the neo-liberal ideal of gender …


A History Of Ecofeminist-Socialist Resistance To Eco-Crisis In India, Gowri Parameswaran Jul 2022

A History Of Ecofeminist-Socialist Resistance To Eco-Crisis In India, Gowri Parameswaran

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article traces the history of women’s environmental activism in India after independence. The earliest organizing efforts came from women from indigenous communities who wanted to collectively push back against government and private encroachments into communal lands. From the 1970s to the late 1980s, ecofeminism became a dominant paradigm to analyze and respond to environmental issues globally. Indian feminists adapted the model to analyzing ecological issues locally while also pushing back against its essentialism and its blindness to social and economic inequities. Indian eco(feminist) socialists demanded a centering of the voices of the most vulnerable communities in environmental movements. In …


“Fiery Sparks Of Change”: A Comparison Between First Wave Feminists Of India And The U.S., Shoba Sharad Rajgopal Jul 2022

“Fiery Sparks Of Change”: A Comparison Between First Wave Feminists Of India And The U.S., Shoba Sharad Rajgopal

Journal of International Women's Studies

The celebration of the centenary of the 19th Amendment in 2020 has seen the resurgence of interest in the struggles of the Suffragette/Suffragist movement. This article examines the representation of first wave feminism in the developing world, with a focus on the Indian Subcontinent, from a postcolonial feminist perspective. As such, it critiques the colonialist perspective regarding women’s movements of resistance in the developing world and links it to the critique of racism within the women’s movements in the West. It discusses early feminists from India such as Tarabai Shinde whose spirited exposé of the double standards women were subjected …


The Indian Mission Of The Institute Of Blessed Virgin Mary (Ibvm) Nuns: Convents, Curriculum, And Indian Women, Nilanjana Paul Jul 2022

The Indian Mission Of The Institute Of Blessed Virgin Mary (Ibvm) Nuns: Convents, Curriculum, And Indian Women, Nilanjana Paul

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study focuses on the Indian mission of IBVM nuns, and the role played by them in the spread of female education in India. While acknowledging that missionaries were part of the imperial process, this study analyzes the work of Catholic nuns in India, their convents, and curriculum to show how their work advanced women’s educational opportunities in India. In the process the study examines how Catholic nuns resisted the dominating attitude of the Catholic Church in India. The last section of the article examines how Christian influence under missionaries not only prepared good mothers and wives but also trained …


Introduction: South Asian Feminisms And Youth Activism: Focus On India And Pakistan, Nilanjana Paul, Namita Goswami, Sailaja Nandigama, Gowri Parameswaran, Fawzia Afzal-Khan Jul 2022

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

Journal of International Women's Studies

These are turbulent times for the many countries that form the Global South. South Asian nation-states are no exception; the last half century has ushered in liberalization of economies, forced structural adjustments, climate chaos, criminalization of indigenous and lower caste populations, and rapid technological changes. All these forces have resulted in massive upheavals often manifested in political, economic, and social crises. Experts observe that in times of instability, the most marginalized groups, already the target of social violence, are disproportionately subjected to enormous stress, anxiety, and insecurity. In South Asia, women, as one such group that faces multiple intersectional oppressions …


Breast Ironing In The Uk And Domestic Law, Mukaddes Gorar Jun 2022

Breast Ironing In The Uk And Domestic Law, Mukaddes Gorar

Journal of International Women's Studies

As a result of gender-based violence (GBV), women and girls throughout the world have become the subject of violence and harmful practices which drastically interfere with their physical and sexual autonomy. Examples of these practices are female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage and breast ironing. Some of this violence is categorised as ‘so called’ honour-based violence (HBV) and also domestic violence (DV). Whether it is classified as HBV or DV, the result remains the same: a gendered violence with victims mostly, and in some cases exclusively, women and girls. In honour based patriarchal communities, HBV is inflicted upon women and …


The Economic Empowerment Of Women In The Hadith And Its Application In The Indonesian Context, Umma Farida, Abdurrohman Kasdi, Yuyun Affandi May 2022

The Economic Empowerment Of Women In The Hadith And Its Application In The Indonesian Context, Umma Farida, Abdurrohman Kasdi, Yuyun Affandi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Discrimination against women's rights in the economic sector based on Islamic teachings is still common in Indonesia. This article aims to reveal the economic empowerment of women by the Prophet Muhammad. During his life, he took sides with women by giving them their rights, including those in the economy. Also, it aims to portray the implementation of the Prophetic teachings related to women's economic rights in the Indonesian context by using descriptive-analytical research methods. The collected data is then analyzed using gender and Islamic approaches. The results showed that the Prophet had upheld and implemented women's economic rights through his …


Our Fluttering Stranger, Luma Balaa May 2022

Our Fluttering Stranger, Luma Balaa

Journal of International Women's Studies

Currently, Lebanon is undergoing dire economic and political crises, in addition to, the August 4, 2020, Port explosion, and the worldwide Corona Virus pandemic. The country is badly in debt and a third of its population is suffering from extreme poverty. More specifically, in the past year, the country has been suffering from a shortage of fuel. To express her anger at the high rate of pollution, the narrator wrote a poem describing how the Lebanese have been living in the dark because the government can no longer supply electricity. All citizens are obliged to pay another bill for private …


The Persistence Of Gender-Blind Phenomena In Indian Science Academia, Tanu Shukla, Madhurima Das, Virendra Singh Nirban May 2022

The Persistence Of Gender-Blind Phenomena In Indian Science Academia, Tanu Shukla, Madhurima Das, Virendra Singh Nirban

Journal of International Women's Studies

Using the theoretical tool of gender-blind sexism, an extension of Bonilla Silva’s (2003) color-blind racism, the current study explores the key determinants which are responsible for discrimination of women in science disciplines in Indian higher education. We argue that gender-blind sexism demonstrates how gender discrimination operates as institutional tools to discriminate between men and women in science fields. Although the science stream proclaims gender neutrality/blindness, it ultimately disfavors women over men. This study with the aid of extensive in-depth face-to-face interviews, aims to recognize the pattern accountable for women’s reduced progress in the sciences. Against the backdrop of the recently …


Women’S Empowerment In Pakistan: Dissection Of Paradoxical Depth, Sarwat Rauf May 2022

Women’S Empowerment In Pakistan: Dissection Of Paradoxical Depth, Sarwat Rauf

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article analyzes the status of women in Pakistan as well as the effectiveness of new legislation on women’s empowerment in Pakistan. I examine the impact of governmental efforts to empower women on social practices in Pakistan. The concept of women's empowerment is becoming popular horizontally, but vertically, actual empowerment is hindered because of the glass-ceiling and social taboos; hence, a lot of sincere and strenuous efforts are required to change the prevailing mindset. To support gender equality, Pakistan, like other states, encourages women's participation in social, political and economic spheres. However, the success of a few female role models …


Women And Brains Go Together: Mapping Sophia Kovalevsky’S Animus In Alice Munro’S ‘Too Much Happiness’., Suparna Karkun, Anoop Kumar Tiwari May 2022

Women And Brains Go Together: Mapping Sophia Kovalevsky’S Animus In Alice Munro’S ‘Too Much Happiness’., Suparna Karkun, Anoop Kumar Tiwari

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women and brains have always been an epicentre of intrigue and controversy delineating that women must use brains in dimensions that have been predestined for them by misogynists. An intelligent woman is often marginalized as unfeminine and hoydenish capable of threatening the heteropatriarchy thereby rendering it impotent. Several pioneering works on gender identity and equality began to be written in the eighteen and nineteenth century drawing attention of the intelligentsia as well as the common folk equally, towards this burning issue. Feminist reforms were initiated as a result of the untiring endeavour of writers and critics throughout the world. The …


Understanding Women’S English Writings As A Paradigm Of Resistance, Mudassir Ali Shah, Humaira Riaz May 2022

Understanding Women’S English Writings As A Paradigm Of Resistance, Mudassir Ali Shah, Humaira Riaz

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women face numerous political, economic, cultural, and religious barriers in the world. To remove the barriers, fight for survival, and pave their way for development, women show resistance in politics, legislation, literature, theatre, songs, marches, art, sports, movies, and seminars. The previous studies have explored patriarchy as the best reason for women's resistance to fight against male-domination, ideological divisions, policies, traditions and cultures, and religion to claim their individual identity and equality. The present study demonstrates the role of literature in awakening society and explores how writing helps in resistance and maintains the struggle of liberation for the vulnerable section …


Transitioning To The Top: Learnings From Success Stories Of Indian Women Leaders In Academia, Hemlata Vivek Gaikwad, Suruchi Pandey May 2022

Transitioning To The Top: Learnings From Success Stories Of Indian Women Leaders In Academia, Hemlata Vivek Gaikwad, Suruchi Pandey

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women leaders in Indian organizations experience several challenges and obstacles that affect their career progression as well as performance. The study was premised on the under-representation of women in leadership positions across organizations. The challenges and barriers faced by Indian women leaders have been well documented, but very little research has been conducted on the experiences of women who aspired and achieved the top positions. The study intended to explore and develop a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of women leaders so as to define pathways for future leaders to come. The study through the prism of intersectionality theory …


The Road To Femvertising: Stereotypes And Empowerment Analysis In Turkish Television Advertisements, Emel Yarimoglu May 2022

The Road To Femvertising: Stereotypes And Empowerment Analysis In Turkish Television Advertisements, Emel Yarimoglu

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women have been represented by stereotypes and gender roles in the advertising industry for years. A new era of strong women representations has begun with female empowerment activities in advertising. Female empowerment in advertising is called femvertising. Femvertising activities aim to destroy stereotypes in advertisements, ignore sexuality, give pro-female messages, and represent women in an authentic way. The purpose of the study is to investigate women’s representations in television advertising by analyzing stereotypes and female empowerment in Turkey. For this purpose, television advertisements, broadcasting on Turkish television channels between September 2020 and November 2020, were examined by content analysis. In …


Gender Policy In Kazakhstan, Venera Khairullayeva, Meiram Sarybayev, Assiya Kuzembayeva, Adilbek Yermekbayev, Gulnara Baikushikova May 2022

Gender Policy In Kazakhstan, Venera Khairullayeva, Meiram Sarybayev, Assiya Kuzembayeva, Adilbek Yermekbayev, Gulnara Baikushikova

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article discusses the issues of gender policy in Kazakhstan. Since gaining independence, in order to strengthen the international image of the state, Kazakhstan has attempted to provide equal opportunities for women to participate in politics. The purpose of this article is to detail the history of formation and the main problems and prospects for the development of gender policy in Kazakhstan. The main principles of political research were used as a framework for analysis. This article attempts to dissect the perceptions of women's participation in politics as a result of Kazakhstan's mostly conservative views of the expansion of women's …


Golgotha, Beirut: A Feminist Memoir Of The Port Blast, Sleiman El Hajj, Sleiman El Hajj May 2022

Golgotha, Beirut: A Feminist Memoir Of The Port Blast, Sleiman El Hajj, Sleiman El Hajj

Journal of International Women's Studies

This partly biographical narrative recounts its narrator’s first-hand, ground-zero experience of the Beirut Port explosion, one of the largest and most destructive in living memory. As the narrator recollects her mother’s distress over the possibility of losing her children post-divorce and her joy at finally obtaining—after a seven-year legal battle—the annulment of an abusive marriage, Beirut Port explodes. The focus shifts to a memorable encounter with another anguished mother who, on the heels of the blast, is hysterical but then completely transformed once reunited with her children. The writer of the memoir culled its material through a number of interviews …


Colonial Hotspots: Reflecting On My Conditional Citizenship As A ‘Coloured’ [Woman] In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Danille Arendse May 2022

Colonial Hotspots: Reflecting On My Conditional Citizenship As A ‘Coloured’ [Woman] In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Danille Arendse

Journal of International Women's Studies

The prevailing geopolitical situation has perpetuated epistemic and ontological violence against the citizens of Africa. This indicates that geopolitics have an impact on socio-spatial relations and human interactions that may affect the citizenship of oppressed persons. This paper contains reflections on the conditional citizenship of the author, who is legally identified as a Coloured [woman] in post-Apartheid South Africa. The racial classification Coloured [women], which was created during Apartheid, remains a divisive racial category in post-Apartheid South Africa, one that preserves stereotypes and negative connotations. The author draws the reader’s attention to her geographical location as a specific site of …


Decoding The Internet Trolls And Their Implications On Female Youtubers, Tanaya Salian, Munmun Ghosh May 2022

Decoding The Internet Trolls And Their Implications On Female Youtubers, Tanaya Salian, Munmun Ghosh

Journal of International Women's Studies

YouTube was one of the first platforms fuelling every layperson's dream to get a taste of stardom. Standing true to its promise, it exposed everyone to content creation and every aspect of fame that comes with content creation. The good, the bad, and the ugly side of the online platform involve the trolls and hate comments on the online platforms. It was eventually noticed that the trolling phenomena are shaping up biasedly and follow gender inequality recently. The online trolls are severe and ugly, especially for female content creators. The comments were harsh, demeaning and sometimes vindictive. Looking at this …


Corporeal Crisis And The Contested Female Terrain: An Ecofeminist Reading Of Nathaniel Hawthorne’S “The Birth-Mark”, Ahmad Qabaha May 2022

Corporeal Crisis And The Contested Female Terrain: An Ecofeminist Reading Of Nathaniel Hawthorne’S “The Birth-Mark”, Ahmad Qabaha

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper originally and substantially studies Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” from an ecofemninsit perspective, while exploring the interconnections and interdependency between the systematic and institutional ways in which the woman and nature were dominated by male-centred society in 19th century society. It explores the ways in which this interconnection mirrors the hegemonic and repressive structure of 19th century patriarchal Victorian culture, paying particular attention to the oppressive mechanisms operating on feminine human and non-human beings. More importantly, this article accounts for the story’s critique of the multifaceted domination of nature and female terrain. This article builds on significant contributions to …


Addressing Gender Disparities Through Folklore: A Cultural Study Of Female Child Appellation Among The Bāsukuma Of Tanzania, John P. Madoshi May 2022

Addressing Gender Disparities Through Folklore: A Cultural Study Of Female Child Appellation Among The Bāsukuma Of Tanzania, John P. Madoshi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Among the Bāsukuma, folklore plays a significant role in describing different issues pertaining to their society and culture. Gender is one of the important issues emulated through female appellation. Some of the female names describe a gender tug of war which involves not only married couples but also families of the couples. In this conflict, names particularly of female children are used by each side as a means of channeling a particular message which signifies grievances of the sufferers. Nevertheless, the appellation is done in such a metaphoric way as to call for a meticulous literary examination analysis.


Women’S Empowerment And The Well-Being Of The Unemployed Women In Yakurr, Nigeria, Achoda Thomas Omang, John Thompson Okpa, Ofem Nnana Okoi May 2022

Women’S Empowerment And The Well-Being Of The Unemployed Women In Yakurr, Nigeria, Achoda Thomas Omang, John Thompson Okpa, Ofem Nnana Okoi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Issues on women’s deprivation, marginalization and empowerment are well documented in literature. The impact of women’s empowerment on the well-being of unemployed women in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria, is yet to receive sufficient investigation from scholars. Thus, this study explores the relationship between women’s empowerment and the well-being of the unemployed women, aged 18-45 years in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. It specifically examines the types and access to available women’s empowerment programmes, the nature of empowerment programmes that women have benefitted from, as well as areas of positive impact in …


Lack Of Data And Dialogue On Female Genital Mutilation In Pakistan, Huda Syyed May 2022

Lack Of Data And Dialogue On Female Genital Mutilation In Pakistan, Huda Syyed

Journal of International Women's Studies

Female genital mutilation (FGM) affects women in many countries and carries significant socio-sexual and cultural implications such as affected female sexual pleasure and a strong association with traditions which are believed to form a cultural identity. This essay explored the lack of data and discourse regarding this practice among the Dawoodi Bohra community in Pakistan. Due to the Pakistani government’s lack of recognition and public dialogue on this issue, there remains no official laws, statistics, or empirical research about the ritual. Despite the rise of feminism and women’s empowerment in many contemporary societies, Pakistan has not initiated any FGM debate …


Cultural Autonomy As Impregnable Armour: Locating Black Feminist Autoethnography In Gloria Naylor's Mama Day, Adishree Vats, Anurag Kumar May 2022

Cultural Autonomy As Impregnable Armour: Locating Black Feminist Autoethnography In Gloria Naylor's Mama Day, Adishree Vats, Anurag Kumar

Journal of International Women's Studies

The present paper argues that Gloria Naylor's Mama Day (1988) embodies Black Feminist Autoethnography that critiques and commemorates her spectacular art of constructing cultural-autonomy within the marginal sphere of Willow Springs, permitting the inhabitants, especially the women of the island, to shield their individual identities, as well as combat the hegemonic pseudo power-structure. By eliminating the conventions of white contemporary bureaus, and alternatively putting up rational sets of credence, ethics, and practices, the novel embellishes the rhetorical manufacturing of cultural-autonomy, ultimately encapsulating the ethical-cum-mythical undertakings of the Black America. This effectuation of their own ethical reservoirs by these resistive cultures …