Clothing semiotics and the social construction of power relations

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuet See Monica Owyong
Author(s):  
Josh Nelson ◽  
Adie Nelson

Abstract This reflection on the social construction of authenticity analogizes the quest for artistic authenticity to snark hunting. To illustrate the instability of this term, it employs various Canadian examples, including the “Michelangelo” terracotta sculptures donated to the Museum of Vancouver, the “Igloo tag,” the importation of a sculpture by Edward Chukwuweike Madukaego, and the work of Bill Reid. It posits that proclamations of authenticity and fraudulence are ultimately utterances denoting and invoking power relations. It also reveals, through the use of specific examples, how negotiations around artistic authenticity in settler societies can replicate and re-entrench colonialist power.


Author(s):  
Jermaine Singleton

This chapter addresses the question of how unresolved racial grief works through the demands of capital, racialization, and sacred ritual practice to enact a gender hierarchy. It thinks through James Baldwin's first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), to explore how testifying serves as a technology of black patriarchy—a ritual that arises out of the need for racial and economic redemption yet unfolds within and propagates gendered power relations. It examines how the content and structure of Baldwin's Bildungsroman, set in Harlem's Pentecostal community during the Great Depression, allegorizes the conversion of John Grimes, who embodies the “weak, feminine flesh” of his matrilineal line that is sacrificed to secure his “manchild” status of salvation. The chapter is punctuated by a section that situates Baldwin's novel as a form of sexual testifying on the part of Baldwin himself. In doing so, it places Baldwin's novel in conversation with its dramatic sequel, The Amen Corner (1954), to explore how both texts anticipate and extend queer theoretical conversations about the social construction of black, gay subject-formations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 859-864
Author(s):  
Dr. Angela Ngozi Dick

Although the social construction of the human hair varies from culture to culture, the symbolic function of hair varies from person to person. In Adichie’s  Americanah, the characters are primarily defined by their hair before the construction of their race, career and  personality. The human hair becomes the premise for brotherhood and sisterhood in. Many episodes take place in the salon, thereafter a person’s hair is qualified as either good or bad. The theoretical framework for this paper is New Historicism which interrogates social life and power relations among people in the society. In this work we conclude that Adichie tells the story of human hair not for its sake but to portray the problem of immigrants, religious fanaticism, disruption of academic calendar and the frustration therein, loveless marriage, the environment and other human conditions. Finally, the hair shows that every person is a complete human being first and foremost


2021 ◽  
Vol 917 (1) ◽  
pp. 012016
Author(s):  
B D Prasetyo ◽  
D Ekawati ◽  
Handoyo ◽  
D Djaenudin ◽  
Indartik ◽  
...  

Abstract Gender discourse in Indonesia is currently developing very rapidly. On one hand, gender activists have focused on gender mainstreaming. On the other hand, the socio-cultural reality in Indonesia persists with the old traditional construction of power relations between men and women. Feminists fight for justice and inclusiveness for women. However, their struggle must be confronted with the fact that the prevailing socio-cultural norms still tend to be male-dominant. This paper will reveal how the social reality of power relations in the realm of gender is constructed in rural areas in Indonesia. The subjects studied are families at the clan level who are managing sustainable bamboo forestry in Ngadha Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. The research was conducted in 2019-2021. The methods used are participatory rural appraisal (PRA), in-depth interviews, and observation as participants. Time allocation is used as the object of this study to create gender mapping. The analysis is carried out using a social construction theory. This study concluded that the clan of Neguwulacan adopt the HBL system. This is reflected in the emergence of local initiatives to manage finances, the workforce, groups, as well as build and implement them at the clan level. The gender relations that exist in SBF practice at the clan of Neguwula are relative. First, in terms of family lines, women obtain benefits because could hold matrilineal law. Political decisions remain in the hands of women. Second, practically speaking, women work twice as much in domestic and commercial work. Third, in some cases, deliberation is put forward for a fair division of labor. At this point, inclusiveness emerges as a reality that colors gender relations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 175069802098875
Author(s):  
Öndercan Muti ◽  
Öykü Gürpınar

In this paper, we discuss what role gender plays in remembering, transmitting, and reframing memories of the Armenian Genocide in order to address the question of how young Armenian women negotiate their roles in this process. Centering the societal roles of memory transmission, we employ the specific sociological lens of gender to analyze 26 interviews conducted in Beirut during the week of the official commemorations of the Armenian Genocide in 2016. We define gender as the social construction of a stylized repetition of acts that reflect power relations. Accordingly, the examination of these power relations is necessary not only to understand the experiences and testimonies of men and women, but also the transmission of memory. While understanding Armenian youth as agents of the collective memory, gender allows us to discuss different patterns of remembrance and transmission. We therefore argue that gender influences how individuals remember the Armenian Genocide, as it underpins the (historically) assigned roles of memory and transmission.


Sociologija ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (suppl. 1) ◽  
pp. 259-286
Author(s):  
Nada Sekulic

The paper deals with the issue of the fragile connection between social sciences, humanistic sciences and feminism, arguing in favor of their closer mutual influence. In the framework of this approach, paper presents the results of the part of the research ?Politics of Parenthood?, based on the feminist approach. The paper analyzes the delivery (giving birth) as an important ritual in the life cycle of the largest number of women, through which power relations in society manifest, and women are subdued. Research on the issue of violence against women during delivery is part of the broader research dealing with the social construction of women?s bodily experience and female body as a social resource, in the processes that reflect and at the same create gender inequality.


1996 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl May ◽  
Christopher Dowrick ◽  
Michael Richardson

The interpersonal relationship between doctor and patient is fundamental to general medical practice. In this paper we explore the ways in which general practitioners make sense of the changing political economy of this relationship, as it is restructured by ideas about the patient as consumer, and as it increasingly constitutes the consultation as a point of interaction that may be intrinsically therapeutic. In particular, we explore the ways in which the consultation is the site of negotiated power relations between doctor and patient, and is the site of the doctor's negotiation of powerful discourses of professional and institutional identity.


1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (11) ◽  
pp. 1186-1186
Author(s):  
Garth J. O. Fletcher

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