scholarly journals On gender, subjectivities and experiences: Facing the past and feminist politics of solidarity

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-243
Author(s):  
Deana Jovanovic

The main question the article discusses is how and why feminism can reflect upon multiple differences in Serbia through the idea of solidarity in the discourse of facing the past. The article pays attention to the connection between feminist practices and theories, solidarity, and the idea about moral responsibility. The article opens discussion about (feminist) solidarity seen as a strategic notion and points out to the politics of exclusion/inclusion of multiple Others. Attention is devoted to gender categories and construction of differences, as well as to the potential possibility and the importance of reflecting upon solidarity with gender diversities. The latter are briefly depicted through research results of analysis of women?s memory narratives - nurses and antiwar activists - whose subjectivities, experiences and gender positions, in their interaction, influenced construction of their narratives, differences, but also their relationship with the past.

Author(s):  
Janet C. Wesselius

The feminist philosopher Susan Bordo suggests that the dilemma of twentieth-century feminism is the tension between a gender identity that both mobilizes a liberatory politics on behalf of women and that results in gender prescriptions which excludes many women. This tension seems especially acute in feminist debates about essentialism/deconstructionism. Concentrating on the shared sex of women may run the risk of embracing an essentialism that ignores the differences among women, whereas emphasizing the constructed natures of sex and gender categories seems to threaten the very project of a feminist politics. I will analyze the possibility of dismantling gender prescriptions while retaining a gender identity that can be the beginning for an emancipatory politics. Perhaps feminists need not rely on a reified essentialism that elides the differences of race, class, etc., if we begin with our social practices of classification rather than with a priori generalizations about the nature of women.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-328
Author(s):  
Zeynep Gulru Goker

Based on content analysis and in-depth interviews with the editors of 5Harfliler, Catlak Zemin and Recel-blog, popular pro-feminist women’s websites in Turkey, this article shows that these websites constitute important projects in feminist memory work in two ways: (1) explicitly, by commemorating women in history, the gains of the women’s movement in Turkey, and by archiving misogynist policies and gender unequal legislation; (2) implicitly, in the essays written by anonymous women whose personal memories of feminist activism as well as oppression and patriarchy experienced in everyday life become sources for discussion of feminist identity and politics and contribute to women’s history writing from below. The websites also serve as a platform where feminist identity is negotiated and the past, present and future of feminist politics are discussed in a humorous, agonistic and affective style. The source of deliberation is often women’s everyday experiences and concerns rather than formal politics. Although keeping a distance from formal politics renders these websites open to criticisms of naiveté and apoliticism, they provide a creative platform for the constructive discussion of women’s shared everyday problems which are closely connected to a larger political context.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Karisma Putri Miranti ◽  
Agus Setiawan

Penelitian ini difokuskan untuk menguraikan pesan-pesan yang terkandung dalam relief-relief Candi Sukuh yang dianggap tabu. Studi ini dilakukan karena Candi Sukuh dapat menjadi bukti bahwa jauh sebelum adanya gerakan feminisme, masyarakat berlatar agama Hindu-Buddha pada masa lampau telah mengakui perbedaan antara laki-laki dan perempuan. Perbedaan tersebut merupakan suatu konstruksi sosial yang dimengerti dalam hubungan kompromi laki-laki dan perempuan. Metode yang digunakan pada penelitian ini adalah deskriptif-interpretatif, dan data dianalisis dengan pendekatan multidesain. Teori Ikonografi digunakan untuk menganalisis pesan dari relief-relief Candi Sukuh, sedangkan teori feminisme diterapkan dengan pendekatan tubuh, seks, dan gender. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan adanya pesan feminisme pada relief kidung Sudhāmālā, relief linggā dan yoni, dan relief kālāmĕrgā. Kesimpulannya pesan gender yang disajikan di relief-relief Candi Sukuh berupa penolakan perempuan terhadap pengobjekan tubuhnya oleh laki-laki, yang dianggap memiliki otoritas terhadap tubuh perempuan. This research is focused to describe the messages contained in the reliefs of Candi Sukuh, which are considered taboo. This study was conducted because Candi Sukuh may well be an evidence that long before the existence of the feminism movement, the Hindu-Buddhist communities in the past have recognized differences between men and women. Such difference is a social construct which was understood in terms of compromising relations between men and women. The method used in this research was descriptive-interpretive, and data were analyzed using a multi-design approach. Theories of iconography were used to analyze messages of the reliefs of Candi Sukuh, whereas the theory of feminism was applied using approaches of body, sex and gender. Research results showed messages of feminism are contained in the Sudhāmālā hymn, reliefs of linggā and yoni, and the kālāmĕrgā relief. Conclusively, gender messages presented by the reliefs of Candi Sukuh informs the rejection of objectification of women’s body by men, who are considered to have authority over women's bodies.


Author(s):  
Lisa Irmen ◽  
Julia Kurovskaja

Grammatical gender has been shown to provide natural gender information about human referents. However, due to formal and conceptual differences between masculine and feminine forms, it remains an open question whether these gender categories influence the processing of person information to the same degree. Experiment 1 compared the semantic content of masculine and feminine grammatical gender by combining masculine and feminine role names with either gender congruent or incongruent referents (e.g., Dieser Lehrer [masc.]/Diese Lehrerin [fem.] ist mein Mann/meine Frau; This teacher is my husband/my wife). Participants rated sentences in terms of correctness and customariness. In Experiment 2, in addition to ratings reading times were recorded to assess processing more directly. Both experiments were run in German. Sentences with grammatically feminine role names and gender incongruent referents were rated as less correct and less customary than those with masculine forms and incongruent referents. Combining a masculine role name with an incongruent referent slowed down reading to a greater extent than combining a feminine role name with an incongruent referent. Results thus specify the differential effects of masculine and feminine grammatical gender in denoting human referents.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Olga Kučerová ◽  
Anna Kucharská

Abstract The project presented here deals with a typical human means of communication – writing. The aim of the project is to map the developmental dynamics of handwriting from the first to the fifth grade of primary school. The question remains topical because of the fact that several systems of writing have been used in the past few years. Our project focuses on comparing the systems of joined-up handwriting (the standard Latin alphabet) and the most widespread form of printed handwriting: Comenia Script. The research can be marked as sectional; pupils took a writing exam at the beginning and at the end of the 2015/2016 school year. The total number of respondents was 624 pupils, evenly distributed according to the school year, system of writing and gender. To evaluate handwriting, the evaluation scale of Veverková and Kucharská (2012) was adjusted to include a description of phenomena related to graphomotor and grammatical aspects of writing, including the overall error rate and work with errors. Each area that was observed included a series of indicators through which it was possible to create a comprehensive image of the form handwriting took in the given period. Each indicator was independently classified on a three-point scale. Thanks to that, a comprehensive image of the form of writing of a contemporary pupil emerged.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Andi Nur Faizah

<p>The phenomenon of HIV-AIDS transmission places women in a difficult situation. The loss of family members such as husbands due to AIDS leaves women living with HIV positive in a struggle to access sources of livelihood. The condition of themselves as PLWHA, concerns about being stigmatized, caring for family members, and earning a living are the burdens of life they have to face. In this regard, this paper explores the complexity of the work of HIV-positive women. This study uses a qualitative method with a feminist perspective to get a complete picture of the livelihood of HIV-positive women. Based on interviews with five HIV-positive women, the findings found a link between social, identity, and gender categories that affect their livelihoods. HIV-positive women also transform themselves into their “normal” self by pretending to be healthy, able to work, have quality, and be independent. This is done as a form of resistance to the stigma attached to PLWHA.</p><p> </p><p> </p>


Author(s):  
Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt ◽  
Fred Mawunyo Dzanku ◽  
Aida Cuthbert Isinika

Smallholder-friendly messages, albeit not always translated into action, returned strongly to the development agenda over a decade ago. Smallholders’ livelihoods encompass social and economic realities outside agriculture, however, providing opportunities as well as challenges for the smallholder model. While smallholders continue to straddle the farm and non-farm sectors, the notion of leaving agriculture altogether appears hyperbolic, given the persistently high share of income generated from agriculture noted in the Afrint dataset. Trends over the past fifteen years can be broadly described as increasing dynamism accompanied by rising polarization. Positive trends include increased farm sizes, rising grain production, crop diversification, and increased commercialization, while negative trends include stagnation of yields, persistent yield gaps, gendered landholding inequalities, gendered agricultural asset inequalities, growing gendered commercialization inequalities, and an emerging gender gap in cash income. Regional nuances in trends reinforce the need for spatial contextualization of linkages between the farm and non-farm sectors.


Author(s):  
Émilie Perez

The role of children in Merovingian society has long been downplayed, and the study of their graves and bones has long been neglected. However, during the past fifteen years, archaeologists have shown growing interest in the place of children in Merovingian society. Nonetheless, this research has not been without challenges linked to the nature of the biological and material remains. Recent analysis of 315 children’s graves from four Merovingian cemeteries in northern Gaul (sixth to seventh centuries) allows us to understand the modalities of burial ritual for children. A new method for classifying children into social age groups shows that the type, quality, quantity, and diversity of grave goods were directly correlated with the age of the deceased. They increased from the age of eight and particularly around the time of puberty. This study discusses the role of age and gender in the construction and expression of social identity during childhood in the Merovingian period.


The Oxford Handbook of American Women’s and Gender History boldly interprets the history of diverse women and how ideas about gender shaped their access to political and cultural power in North America over six centuries. In twenty-nine chapters, the Handbook showcases women’s and gender history as an integrated field with its own interpretation of the past, focused on how gender influenced people’s lives as they participated in migration, colonialism, trade, warfare, artistic production, and community building. Organized chronologically and thematically, the Handbook’s six sections allow readers to consider historical continuities of gendered power as well as individual innovations and ruptures in gender systems. Theoretically cutting edge, each chapter bursts with fascinating historical characters, from young Chicanas transforming urban culture, to free women of color forging abolitionist doctrines, to Asian migrant women defending the legitimacy of their marriages, to working-class activists mobilizing international movements, to transwomen fleeing incarceration. Together, their lives constitute the history of a continent. Leading scholars from multiple generations demonstrate the power of innovative research to excavate a history hidden in plain sight. Scrutinizing silences in the historical record, from the inattention to enslaved women’s opinions to the suppression of Indian women’s involvement in border diplomacy, the authors challenge the nature of historical evidence and remap what counts in our interpretation of the past. They demonstrate a way to extend this more capacious vision of history forward, setting an intellectual agenda informed by intersectionality and transnationalism, and new understandings of sexuality.


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