scholarly journals By Me Shall He Be Nursed! Queer Identity and Representation in The Mahabharata

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seema Sinha ◽  
◽  
Kumar Sankar Bhattacharya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Queer Identity ◽  
Treasure Trove ◽  
Gendered Identities ◽  
Queer People ◽  
Queer Space ◽  
The Impact

The Mahabharata is a treasure-trove of the cultural memories of the Hindus. The grand Epic has entertained and edified our society through its numerous identity-relevant narratives since time immemorial. The longevity of The Mahabharata lies in its capacity to adapt, adopt and re-fashion the account, which grants endless opportunities of initiating open-ended debate. The grand Epic has shaped our values and shared a template by which a life guided by Dharma is to be lived. The dialogic text continues to contribute to the resolution of our emotional angst and existential dilemmas. Much ahead of its times, the Epic revels in the liminality that is apparent in the narratives of the gender-queer people who are an integral part of its culture-scape. This paper seeks to study two liminal figures in the Epic narrative – Shikhandi, the trans-gender Prince of Panchala, and Yuvanashwa, the pregnant King, who swayed between gendered identities and challenged the hegemonic heteronormative sexual framework, thereby opening avenues of conversation related to marginalization, resistance and empowerment. The paper also examines the queer cases of King Sudyumna and King Bhangashwan, who questioned the symbolic binaries of gender and delineated a horizon of possibilities. The aim here is to measure the resistance of the genderqueer against the prescriptive order of subjectivities and assess the impact and the outcome. Drawing from the deconstructivist and the queer theories, the study foregrounds the trauma and the resistance of the marginal. These narratives establish The Mahabharata as one of the earliest texts to have a meaningful discourse in the queer-space.

Diasporic and Gendered Identities in Moroccan Transnational Cinema: Mohammed Ismail’s Ici et là (Here and There)

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Mouhcine El-Hajjami ◽  
Souad Slaoui
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Female Subject ◽  
Transnational Cinema ◽  
Visual Discourse ◽  
Gendered Identities ◽  
Feminist Discourse ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

The present paper aims at examining the extent to which Moroccan cinema could establish a diasporic visual discourse that cements national identity and contests the impact of westernization on migrants. Moreover, through the analysis the way in which independent identities are constructed in the host land, the article tries to incorporate a feminist discourse to highlight the role of the female subject in retrieving its own agency by challenging patriarchal oppression. Therefore, we argue that Mohammed Ismail’s feature-length film Ici et là (Here and There) has partially succeeded in creating a space for its diasporic subjects to build up their own independent identities beyond the scope of westernization and patriarchy.

Laughter on the Fringes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Peterson
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Literary Canon ◽  
Autobiographical Writing ◽  
Treasure Trove ◽  
Old Comedy ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Aggressive Humor ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

This book examines the impact that Athenian Old Comedy had on Greek writers of the Imperial era. It is generally acknowledged that Imperial-era Greeks responded to Athenian Old Comedy in one of two ways: either as a treasure trove of Atticisms, or as a genre defined by and repudiated for its aggressive humor. Worthy of further consideration, however, is how both approaches, and particularly the latter one that relegated Old Comedy to the fringes of the literary canon, led authors to engage with the ironic and self-reflexive humor of Aristophanes, Eupolis, and Cratinus. Authors ranging from serious moralizers (Plutarch and Aelius Aristides) to comic writers in their own right (Lucian, Alciphron), to other figures not often associated with Old Comedy (Libanius) adopted aspects of the genre to negotiate power struggles, facilitate literary and sophistic rivalries, and provide a model for autobiographical writing. To varying degrees, these writers wove recognizable features of the genre (e.g., the parabasis, its agonistic language, the stage biographies of the individual poets) into their writings. The image of Old Comedy that emerges from this time is that of a genre in transition. It was, on the one hand, with the exception of Aristophanes’s extant plays, on the verge of being almost completely lost; on the other hand, its reputation and several of its most characteristic elements were being renegotiated and reinvented.

How to organise your body 101: postfeminism and the (re)construction of the female body through How to Look Good Naked

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiana Tsaousi
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
Television Show ◽  
Cultural Discourses ◽  
Gendered Identities ◽  
Feminine Beauty ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Gender Constructions ◽  
The Impact

The aim of this article is to highlight the attention given by recent makeover shows, and specifically How to Look Good Naked, to the ‘underneath’ as a way of (re)organising the female body. I examine whether this ‘turn’ or change in media’s direction is an appreciation of the real female body (an unmodified body) or whether this is a mere (re-)organisation of the body into a controllable base of overall appearance and a further embedding of Western conceptions of beauty and of the notion that the manipulation of appearance is essential to the construction of the feminine identity and to the measure of women’s social worth. Informed by postfeminist discourse and critique, I analyse the British reality makeover television show How to Look Good Naked, discuss the extent to which it actually provides an alternative to prevailing cultural discourses around feminine beauty and scrutinise the impact that it seems to have on the identities of the women who participate. I analyse how the show, as the ultimate postfeminist show, inscribes gendered identities and practices, and I examine how postfeminism has created spaces for such shows to exist and affirm hegemonic gender constructions based on consumption practices.

scholarly journals Unravelling the Queer Space: Understanding Sexuality through the Works of Janice Pariat

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 179-203
Author(s):  
Neha Grace Sajan
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Growth ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Queer Space ◽  
Area Of Concern ◽  
The Impact

The project entitled “Unravelling the queer space: Understanding sexuality through the works of Janice Pariat” to examine the elements of sexual being from a queer perspective. There is always a politics that happens within the space of one’s sexual and spiritual prominence. Thereby, a binary construction always happens and a stereotypical connotation happens for the same. Homosexuality is always subjected to suppression and non-normative within the society that upholds homophobia, heteronormativity and hetero-centrism. These are the results of the culturally imposed norms on the society. Understanding the deviance that happens in one’s sexuality is an important area of concern. Talking about these aspects free from bias and prejudice is the freedom that can be gained. Society always has a violent approach towards people who deviate from the accepted norms leading to marginalization. One of the important factors that sideline with this idea is the impact of religion on an individual. Spiritual space and belief system are induced right from the childhood. Religious texts clearly define sexualities that deviate from the expected norms as abnormal or a taboo. The study is to break down the binary existence of one’s sexual and spiritual space and how the deviance in sexualities pave way to attain a new spiritual growth.

Torchwood’s Supermen

2020 ◽  
pp. 103-118
Author(s):  
Craig Haslop
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Audience Research ◽  
Queer Identity ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Gay Male ◽  
Queer People ◽  
Male Culture

Focusing on the spin-off series Torchwood, lauded by academics and popular media for its liberating and frank representations of fluid sexuality, this chapter discusses audience research using focus groups exploring Torchwood’s representations of queer masculinity, analyzing respondents’ responses to the masculinity of the leading character, Captain Jack Harkness, and the recurring character, Captain John Hart. While not ostensibly superheroes or supervillains in the comic book sense, research participants positioned them as super-human or god-like. Using the notion of homonormativity, the pressure on queer people to conform to heteronormativity, this chapter highlights how, despite foregrounding the leading man as fluidly sexual, Torchwood suggests a homonormative hypermasculinity dominating much of Western gay male culture, which deradicalizes queer identity and renders it safe for heteronormativity and, by association, hypermasculinity.

Metaphors of Loss: Murder, Bereavement, Gender, and Presentation of the ‘Victimized’ Self

2002 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Scott Kenney
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Ripple Effect ◽  
Loss Of Control ◽  
Presentation Of Self ◽  
Loved One ◽  
Gendered Identities ◽  
Loss Of Self ◽  
Constructing Social Problems ◽  
The Impact

When a loved one is murdered, there is a profound impact on the selves of those left behind. In this paper, three competing conceptions of self are considered in order to help us to understand the impact on the social selves of such survivors, and the pragmatic ways in which selves struggle with this event in their social interactions. Building upon the insights of earlier work on victimization, bereavement, gender and self, a qualitative study of survivors found that these individuals metaphorically expressed a profound ‘loss of self’, which they further generalized beyond themselves in terms of a ‘ripple effect’ spreading through their families and community. Survivors elaborated this loss of self through five further ‘metaphors of loss’, which indicated various dimensions within this root metaphor. These included: (1) permanent loss of future; (2) violating devastation; (3) being a ‘different person now’; (4) loss of control; and (5) loss of innocence. These metaphors were generally expressed either in an effort to express the inexpressible, or as a presentation of self in circumstances where survivors’ victim status was questioned. While all of these metaphors were expressed across gender lines, all except loss of control were predominantly expressed by the female gender, and each exhibited variations in emphasis which shed light on gendered identities as an aspect of self. Moreover, these were disproportionately expressed by bereaved parents and siblings. In the end, the metaphors emerging from such a profound emotional experience may teach us much about both the fundamental dimensions underlying self and identity, the micro-political strategies utilized in interaction, and the process of constructing social problems.

scholarly journals Let’s (not) Go Outside: Grindr, Hybrid Space, and Digital Queer Neighborhoods

2021 ◽  
pp. 203-220
Author(s):  
Sam Miles
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Minorities ◽  
Online Dating ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Queer Space ◽  
Queer Spaces ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Valuable Role

AbstractDevelopments in mobile digital technologies are disrupting conventional understandings of space and place for smartphone users. One way in which location-based media are refiguring previously taken-for-granted spatial traditions is via GPS-enabled online dating and hook-up apps. For sexual minorities, these apps can reconfigure any street, park, bar, or home into a queer space through a potential meeting between mutually attracted individuals, but what does this signify for already-existing queer spaces? This chapter examines how smartphone apps including Grindr, Tinder, and Blued synthesize online queer encounter with offline physical space to create a new hybrid terrain predicated on availability, connection, and encounter. It is also a terrain that can sidestep established gay neighborhoods entirely. I explore how this hybridization impacts on older, physically rooted gay neighborhoods and the role that these neighborhoods have traditionally played in brokering social and sexual connection for sexual minorities. Few would deny that location-based apps have come to play a valuable role in multiplying opportunities for sexual minorities. However, the stratospheric rise of these technologies also provokes questions about their impact on embodied encounter, queer community, and a sense of place. A decade on from Grindr’s release, this chapter evaluates the impact of location-based media on gay spaces and reflects on what the increasing hybridization of online and offline spaces for same-sex encounter might mean for queer lives of the future.

scholarly journals The Wounded Male Body: Masculinity and Disability in Wartime and Post-WWI Italy

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 644-666
Author(s):  
Martina Salvante
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Male Body ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Exchanges ◽  
Gendered Identities ◽  
Emotional Bonds ◽  
Normative Expectations ◽  
Dead Man ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First World

Abstract This article examines the variety of ways in which Italian soldiers responded to the experience of incurring a permanent physical disability during the First World War. It also describes the potentially unsettling presence of soldiers’ disabled bodies in Italian society, where they were perceived as being disruptive to cultural understandings of male embodiment and hegemonic masculinities. By analyzing different intimate and social exchanges, as well as emotional bonds, this article attempts to disentangle historically the intersection between masculinity and disability. In so doing, it will expose the implications of normative expectations of masculinity, the anxiety that arose from attempts to challenge these norms, and the relevance of context and life phase in understanding the impact of disability on male identity. Drawing on both theories of masculinity and literature on disability, this article will ultimately illustrate how and to what extent disabled veterans in post–First World War Italy negotiated and shaped their gendered identities. It will conclude by considering the role of Fascism in promoting a model of hegemonic masculinity, to which the war disabled could also conform. “Will you still want me if I come back like Vincenzo Bellu?” “With only one arm? Of course, because they’ll give you the Order of Vittorio Veneto and I’ll be your lady! [. . .]” “I’m not joking. Would you still want me if I was a cripple? Deafened by a grenade or with no legs like Luigi Barranca?” “I’d want you back in any condition, as long as you’re still alive. [. . .]” “Maybe you can imagine having me back as a worm, but I’d rather die full of life ten times over than have to live ten years like a dead man. If that happens to me I shall do what Barranca did and shoot myself.”1

scholarly journals Law of the Strongest? A Global Approach of Access to Law Studies and Its Social and Professional Impact in British India (1850s–1940s)

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Sara Legrandjacques
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Access To Higher Education ◽  
Global Approach ◽  
British India ◽  
Indian Women ◽  
Educational Trajectories ◽  
Gendered Identities ◽  
Professional Careers ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Professional Impact

This paper examines how access to law studies in British India challenged social stratifications within the colony, from the 1850s up to the 1940s. It highlights the impact of educational trajectories—colonial, imperial and global—on social positions and professional careers. Universities in British India have included faculties of law since the foundation of the first three universities in 1857. Although numerous native students enrolled at these Indian institutions, some of them chose to pursue their legal training in the imperial metropole. Being admitted into an Inn of Court, they could consequently become barristers, a title that was not available for holders of an Indian degree. This dual system differentiated degree-holders, complexifying the colonial hierarchy in a way that was sometimes denounced by both the colonized and the imperial authorities. Last but not least, access to higher education also impacted gendered identities: academic migration at times allowed some Indian women to graduate in Law but these experiences remained quite exceptional until the end of the Second Word War.

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