scholarly journals An Ecofeminist Reading of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 389-399
Author(s):  
Shilpa Bright

Ecofeminism depicts the movements and philosophies that establish a close relationship between women and nature. It is also an academic movement that sees a critical connection between the domination of nature and the exploitation of women. The term ‘Ecofeminism’ was coined by the French writer Francoise d’Eaubonne. This term intersects the two critical perspectives- ecology and feminism.  Ecofeminist theory asserts that a feminist perspective of ecology does not place women in the dominant position. This theory can be used to explore the connection between women and nature in culture, religion, literature and thus address and bring out the parallels between the oppressions of nature and the oppressions of women. Using gender as an important factor, ecofeminism examines the conditions that cause and perpetuates the subordination of both women and nature. This analysis includes seeing men as the curators of culture and women as the curators of nature, and also how men dominate women and humans dominate nature. This paper titled, ‘An Ecofeminist Reading of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian’ discusses the term ecofeminism and how this theory can be analysed and applied in this book written by Han Kang, a South Korean writer who won the Man Booker International prize for fiction in 2016 for this particular book. The book is about a home-maker whose decision to stop eating meat after a deadly nightmare about human cruelty leads to various problems in her personal life. This paper mainly tries to bring out how women and nature are oppressed by the patriarchy and how both are showing resistance toward this dominance. It investigates how man colonizes nature and as well as women. There are various other books that can be analysed under this feminist theory but this book in a way different as the main protagonist of this book sees vegetarianism as a way of not causing any harm on anything, but asserting her identity and freedom in patriarchal society. Thus this paper brings of the various ecofeminist aspects that can be analysed in this book through the various contexts related to the protagonist.

2021 ◽  
pp. 101269022110141
Author(s):  
Eunhye Yoo

This study explores the influence and sociocultural meaning of self-management of South Korean sports stars in the context of their social media activity. The study utilizes netnography to analyze social media posts to determine the meaning of sports stars’ self-management. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with study participants. Ten South Korean sports stars, who are active users of Instagram, were selected as the study participants. Photographs, videos, and stories from their accounts—around 1800 posts in total—were analyzed. The results indicated that the sports stars attempted to share their daily lives on social media to build a close relationship with the public. Moreover, they used their accounts to publicize their commercialized selves and to promote their sponsors. They uploaded only strictly composed and curated posts on their accounts as a form of self-censorship. Finally, it was determined that digital labor was used for self-management on social media, where there is no distinction between public and private territory. A sports star has become a self-living commercial today, and self-management is now a prerequisite for survival. Thus, self-management on social media has become a requirement for sports stars.


Author(s):  
E. V. Khakhalkina

The “Diary” of the Soviet diplomat I. M. Maisky, who worked in London for more than ten years first as a messenger, then as the Soviet ambassador to the UK, is one of the valuable sources for the interwar period and the Second World War. The “Diary” contains records of Maisky’s conversations with the leading British politicians and public figures and his own thoughts on a wide range of issues, including the problems of the British Empire. The author of the paper analyzes the views of the Tories on the prospects for the British Empire and the Commonwealth of the postwar period and reveals the plans for the reconstruction of the Empire and its transformation while maintaining the dominant position of Britain in the format of a new relationship with the dominions and colonies. The paper shows that within the British political establishment there was no consensus on the future of the empire and, as the materials of the “Diary of diplomat” evidence, the problem of the evolution of the Empire had a close relationship with other areas of foreign and domestic policy.


Author(s):  
Özgenur Çaputlu

Throughout history, war violence has disproportionately affected women, especially in patriarchal societies. Wartime rape, which is the most common and destructive type of conflict-related sexual violence, is the clearest example of these effects. This study clarifies the sexual violence experiences of Yugoslavian women during the Bosnian War, which had lasted between the years 1992-1995, with an anti-militarist feminist perspective. The first part of the article includes hypotheses of feminist theory about conflict-related sexual violence. The second part handles types of sexual violence such as wartime rape, forced prostitution, and forced pregnancy that had affected women in Yugoslavian conflict areas between 1992-1995. The last part of the study describes the numerical dimensions of the sexual violence used in the Bosnian War and its ef-fects on Yugoslavian women. Throughout history, war violence has disproportionately affected women, especially in patriarchal societies. Wartime rape, which is the most common and destructive type of conflict-related sexual violence, is the clearest example of these effects. This study clarifies the sexual violence experiences of Yugoslavian women during the Bosnian War, which had lasted between the years 1992-1995, with an anti-militarist feminist perspective. The first part of the article includes hypotheses of feminist theory about conflict-related sexual violence. The second part handles types of sexual violence such as wartime rape, forced prostitution, and forced pregnancy that had affected women in Yugoslavian conflict areas between 1992-1995. The last part of the study describes the numerical dimensions of the sexual violence used in the Bosnian War and its effects on Yugoslavian women.


2022 ◽  
pp. 026540752110657
Author(s):  
Katherine R. Allen

Feminism provides a worldview with innovative possibilities for scholarship and activism on behalf of families and intimate relationships. As a flexible framework capable of engaging with contentious theoretical ideas and the urgency of social change, feminism offers a simultaneous way to express an epistemology (knowledge), a methodology (the production of knowledge), an ontology (one’s subjective way of being in the world), and a praxis (the translation of knowledge into actions that produce beneficial social change). Feminist family science, in particular, advances critical, intersectional, and queer approaches to examine the uses and abuses of power and the multiple axes upon which individuals and families are privileged, marginalized, and oppressed in diverse social contexts. In this paper, I embrace feminism as a personal, professional (academic), and political project and use stories from my own life to illuminate broader social-historical structures, processes, and contexts associated with gender, race, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, nationality, and other systems of social stratification. I provide a brief history and reflections on contemporary feminist theory and activism, particularly from the perspective of my disciplinary affiliation of feminist family science. I address feminism as an intersectional perspective through three themes: (a) theory: defining a critical feminist approach, (b) method: critical feminist autoethnographic research, and (c) praxis: transforming feminist theory into action. I conclude with takeaway messages for incorporating reflexivity and critical consciousness raising to provoke thought and action in the areas of personal, professional, and political change.


2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 438-444
Author(s):  
Tamar Z. Semerjian ◽  
Jennifer J. Waldron

This paper explores how feminism can be used in sport psychology research and the particular dilemmas that can present themselves when a feminist perspective is used within the framework of sport psychology. Both authors describe their personal entrées into various schools of feminism, the ways they incorporate feminist theory into their work, and the struggles they have encountered in using feminist approaches in a field that is not always open to feminist epistemology. This paper includes a description of several types of feminist thought. Both authors use feminist theory in research that concerns women at either end of the life span, specifically girls and older women, and the ways that members of these groups think about and relate to their bodies. While feminism has been an important, useful, and enlightening perspective and tool for both authors, it has also proven problematic within the context of sport psychology research. The dilemmas encountered are described as epistemological and methodological and discussed in the context of personal experiences from both authors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 575-602
Author(s):  
Katri Kauhanen

The Korean National Council of Women, a women’s organization established in 1959, has received criticism in Korean literature for its collaboration with the authoritarian regimes that ruled South Korea for decades. This article, however, argues for a different kind of interpretation. The Korean National Council of Women came together to join the International Council of Women, a major international women’s organization that was looking for new affiliations in the recently decolonized parts of Asia and Africa in the midst of Cold War competition. Thus, we should view the existence of the Korean National Council of Women in the framework of transnational women’s activism and how the Cold War shaped it. After outlining the connections made between South Korean women and the International Council of Women, the article analyzes the projects proposed by the Korean National Council of Women under the anti-communist authoritarian regime. Based on archival research in South Korea and Belgium, this article argues that instead of following rules from above, the Korean National Council of Women negotiated a way to combine the advancement of women’s issues with the development of the nation. The International Council of Women, while criticizing communist women for their close relationship with the state, celebrated the achievements its South Korean affiliate made as a state-registered organization.


2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dustin Ells Howes

Although pacifism and nonviolence bear a close relationship to one another historically, pacifism is the ideological assertion that war and violence should be rejected in political and personal life, whereas nonviolence refers to a distinct set of political practices. Unlike other modern ideologies such as liberalism and socialism, pacifism has never gained widespread acceptance among a significant portion of humanity and seems to remain a minority position among most of the peoples of the world. Even among those who use nonviolent techniques, the conventional wisdom that physical violence is necessary under certain circumstances often prevails. However, a growing body of empirical evidence shows that the methods of nonviolence are more likely to succeed than methods of violence across a wide variety of circumstances and that more people are using nonviolence around the world. At the same time, both the effectiveness of military and material superiority in achieving political ends and the incidence of warfare and violence appear to be waning. In a remarkable example of convergence between empirical social science and political theory, explanations for the effectiveness of nonviolence relative to violence point to a people-centered understanding of power. This research can provide a basis for a reinvigorated and pragmatic brand of pacifism that refocuses the attention of political scientists on the organization, actions, and loyalties of people as opposed to technologies of domination and destruction.


2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Kryshtanovskaya ◽  
Stephen White

The early 1990s saw the formation of a new group of Russian property owners, often derivative of the late Soviet nomenklatura. The richest and most influential were known as oligarchs, and they established a dominant position in the later years of the Yeltsin presidency. Only 15% of the 1993 business elite still retained their position by 2001, after the 1998 devaluation of the currency. Those who took their place were younger, less metropolitan, better educated and more likely to have a background in government, including many who had enjoyed ministerial status. The new business elite is less personally ambitious, but its political influence is no less considerable and its representation in decision-making bodies has more than doubled over the post-communist period. The logic of development is towards a concentration of economic power in the hands of 20e25 large conglomerates in a politically subordinate association with government, along South Korean lines.


Hypatia ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana T Meyers

Recent liberal moral and political philosophy has placed great emphasis on the good of self‐respect. But it is not always evident what is involved in self‐respect, nor is it evident how societies can promote it. Assuming that self‐respect is highly desirable, I begin by considering how people can live in a self‐respecting fashion, and I argue that autonomous envisaging and fulfillment of one's own life plans is necessary for self‐respect. I next turn to the question of how societal implementation of rights may affect self‐respect, and I urge that discretionary rights, which allow people to decline the benefits they confer, support self‐respect more effectively than mandatory rights, which forbid people to refuse the benefits they confer. I conclude by examining the import of these contentions for feminist theory. I believe that my arguments are of particular concern to women because women have traditionally been victimized by a mandatory right to play a distinctively “feminine” role which has undermined their self‐respect.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 67
Author(s):  
Maria Medina-Vicent

Resumen: En este escrito se presenta un resumen de la obra Mujeres y discursos gerenciales. Hacia la autogestión feminista (2020), donde se abordan desde una perspectiva feminista los discursos gerenciales dirigidos a las mujeres, desvelando la falsa neutralidad de sus premisas y la perpetuación de modelos de género dicotómicos en el seno de la gestión. Al mismo tiempo, se apunta a la actual mercantilización de las identidades y del movimiento por la igualdad, señalando los peligrosos virajes discursivos a los que se está sometiendo a dicho movimiento en la actualidad. Abstract: In this article we present a summary of the work Mujeres y discursos gerenciales. Hacia la autogestión feminista (2020), where management discourses aimed at women are approached from a feminist perspective, revealing the false neutrality of their premises and the perpetuation of dichotomous gender models within management. At the same time, it points to the current commercialization of identities and the movement for equality, pointing out the dangerous discursive shifts that this movement is currently undergoing. Palabras clave: discursos gerenciales, teoría feminista, liderazgo, despolitización. Keywords: managerial discourses, feminist theory, leadership, depoliticization.


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