scholarly journals Socio-Cultural Trauma and Gender Objectification in Haider's How It Happened: A Cultural Feminist Study

2021 ◽  
Vol VI (II) ◽  
pp. 30-37
Author(s):  
Nida Tabassum ◽  
Muhammad Owais Ifzal ◽  
Ghulam Murtaza

The research aims to pinpoint the socio-cultural suppressive crisis faced by the Pakistani women and tends to evaluate the standards through which Pakistani women are (mis)recognized through Shazaf Fatima Haider's How It Happened (2012). It focuses upon the internalized social norms regarding women's conduct to achieve perfection and a state of acceptability which have terrifyingly placed a question mark upon women's existence. Zeba, being the protagonist of How It Happened, undergoes anunnerving situation, being continuously displayed as an object for her marriage. Simone de Beauvoir's cultural feminist ideologies in her work, The Second Sex(1997), tend to deconstruct falsely existing cultural archetypes. She illustrates in her work the transformative stages of women's life beginning from the oppressive state towards the protesting state. Consequently, celebrating women's strength by acknowledging biological differences. Through the methodological application of a Textual analytical apparatus, this research tends to reverse the suppressive patriarchal patterns, bringing women from the periphery to the center, also providing a voice to silenced women entangled in the fabricated culture.

This chapter discusses typologies of modern feminist theories. Lorber's categorisation of feminist theories distinguishes between three broad kinds of feminist discourses: gender reform feminisms, gender resistant feminisms, and gender revolution feminisms. Lengermann and Niebrugge-Brantley categorise the various types of feminist theories as theories of gender difference, theories of gender inequality, theories of gender oppression, and theories of structural oppression. All theories of gender difference are based on the thesis that the differences between men and women are immutable. These theories include cultural feminist theories, institutional role feminist theories, and existential feminist theories. Cultural feminism is a variety of feminism emphasising essential differences between men and women, based on biological differences in reproductive capacity. Institutional role feminist theories argue that gender differences result from the different roles that women and men come to play within various institutional settings. Existential feminist theories focus on the marginalisation of women as other in a male-created culture.


Author(s):  
Stella Sandford

Beauvoir was an existentialist philosopher, novelist and writer. Her early philosophical work (including The Ethics of Ambiguity, 1947) attempted to develop an existentialist ethics, rethinking the ideas of freedom, responsibility and action through the prism of the self–other relation. Her work helped to shift existential thought towards a greater emphasis on embodiment and the analysis of oppression. This approach culminated in The Second Sex (1949), an interdisciplinary study of the oppression and situation of women. This is both a historical investigation into the social conditions that cast women as 'Other' and second to men and a philosophical (existential and phenomenological) account of the lived experience of 'feminine' existence. The Second Sex is of outstanding importance for feminist philosophy and the philosophy of sex and gender, as well as being a major influence on the women's movement since the 1960s. Beauvoir is also well known for her philosophical novels and plays, political essays, travel writing and published letters. Her last book, Old Age (1970), is one of very few philosophical works on ageing and old age. She was co-founder (1945) and lifetime editor of the important political and philosophical journal Les temps modernes. As a prominent public intellectual she was an influential supporter of many leftist and, in later life, feminist causes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 174550651881799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa K Andrew ◽  
Mary C Tierney

Objective: There are impressive differences in the incidence, prevalence and experience of women and men with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Notably, two-thirds of those with AD, the most common form of dementia, are women. Our objective was to provide a literature-based framework to understand these sex and gender differences in AD. Methods: We conducted a narrative review to examine sex and gender influences on AD. Results: We present a framework to understanding why these sex and gender differences exist in AD. This includes the influence of longevity (women live longer than men), biological differences (hormonal differences, epigenetics and frailty), differences in cognitive performance (women and men tend to perform differently on some cognitive tests), and gendered social roles and opportunities (educational and occupational opportunities, functional roles post-retirement). Our review clearly indicates the complex interaction of these sex and gender differences and variability within each. Conclusions: Given these important sex and gender differences in AD, we provide recommendations and steps forward describing how both sex and gender should be considered in dementia diagnosis and management and in the design and implementation of dementia research, including studies of caregiving interventions and models of dementia care.


Hypatia ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 83-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Gothlin

This essay focuses on some important concepts in Beauvoir's philosophy: ambiguity, desire, and appeal (appel). Ambiguity and appeal, concepts originating in Beauvoir's moral philosophy, are in The Second Sex connected to the female body and feminine desire. This indicates the complexity of Beauvoir's image of femininity. This essay also proposes a comparative reading of Beauvoir's and Sartre's concepts of appeal, a reading that indicates differences in their views of the relationship among ethics, desire, and gender.


2008 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-474
Author(s):  
VINCENT VIAENE

In 1855 the sisters of St André in Tournai (Belgium) openly revolted against their bishop by sending a delegation to the pope. It was the high point of a conflict that had been simmering since 1850, and would continue to reverberate until 1886. This case study illustrates the religious, social and gender fault-lines opened by modernity between authoritarian bishops and a new generation of self-conscious religious women active in society. The field of tension provided Vatican diplomacy with the opportunity for an unprecedented affirmation of its mediating role. The affair of St André was one of the first occasions on which the Curia was directly confronted with ultramontane feminism, and it neatly defines the margins within which the Holy See was hammering out a matrix for the Romanisation and ‘standardisation’ of religious women. At the price of ‘following the beaten track’ to Rome, the second sex could sufficiently escape the grip of the first estate to operate a silent revolution in education, charity and devotion during the nineteenth century.


2019 ◽  
Vol 83 (203-04-05) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelly P. Stromquist

La expansión de las fuerzas económicas y tecnológicas del fenómeno que conocemos como globalización ha venido acompañada de políticas neoliberales, las cuales impactan significativamente tanto en la educación como en la consideración del género en el cambio social. Este artículo presenta un esquema teórico para captar la elusiva relación globalizacion/impacto social y así luego identificar las características específicas de la educación globalizada, poniendo en relieve su nivel más alto y conflictivo – la educación universitaria. Se examina también el tenor de las políticas educativas hegemónicas y la conceptualización del género que ellas presentan. En balance, se detectan consecuencias educativas positivas y negativas ligadas a los procesos de globalización, pero quedan interrogantes serios en cuanto a la justicia social y la equidad de género. Palavras-chave: globalización; educación superior; género; políticas educativas. Abstract The expansion of the economical and technological forces of the phenomenon known as globalization came accompanied by neoliberal politics that influence significantly as much the education as the subject of gender in the social change. This article presents a theoretical outline to capture the apparent relationship between globalization/social impact and, consequently, to identify the specific characteristics of the globalized education, pointing out the most conflicting level – the academic education. It also examines the contents of the predominant educational politics and the gender concept presented by them. In conclusion, it detects the positive educational consequences and negatives related with the globalization processes; however, a question mark hangs over the relationship of social justice and gender equality. Keywords: globalization; higher education; gender; educational politics.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 66
Author(s):  
Bahman Zarrinjooee ◽  
Shirin Kalantarian

The present study attempts to analyze Margaret Atwood’s (1939- ) The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) based on theories of feminist thinker, Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) and applies her theories presented in The Second Sex (1949) that leads to better apprehension of sex and gender. Beauvoir’s ideology focuses mainly on the cultural mechanisms of oppression which cause to confine women under the title of Other to man’s self. In her view woman cannot be a simple biological category, and she asserts that womanhood is imposed on woman by civilization. In her idea, the fundamental social meaning of woman is Other. She believes that biology is the main source for woman’s oppression within patriarchal society, and challenges the discourse through which women are defined based on her biology. She also believes that sexuality is another aspect of women’s oppression and exploitation and all functions of women. In Beauvoir’s view, prostitution and heterosexuality are exploitation of woman. She rejects the heterosexuality as the norm for sexual relations. This paper tries to show how Atwood in The Handmaid’s Tale speculates feminist issues such as loss of identity, subordination of woman in a male dominated society and women’s exploitation in consumer society where woman’s body is treated as an object, a tool and consumable item. Atwood focuses on the problems such as gender inequality, and pitfalls of patriarchal system for women’s oppression.


Author(s):  
Wan Hasmah Wan Teh

Ideologi feminis menyumbang kepada fahaman bahawa lelaki dan perempuan dipengaruhi oleh pengalaman kehidupan yang berbeza ketika menghasilkan sesebuah karya kreatif. Feminis percaya bahawa pengarang lelaki tidak dapat menampilkan dimensi kejiwaan perempuan kerana mereka tidak pernah merasai pengalaman sebagai seorang perempuan. Ideologi seperti ini muncul sebagai tindak balas terhadap kebanyakan karya yang dihasilkan oleh pengarang lelaki yang sering mempersembahkan watak perempuan sebagai the second sex, terpinggir, bisu dan lemah dalam sistem sosial yang didominasi oleh lelaki. Walau bagaimanapun, tindakan pengarang lelaki ini tidak boleh dihukum kerana kegagalan mereka memahami dimensi perempuan yang berbeza dari diri mereka. Pencitraan perempuan daripada perspektif pengarang lelaki harus dilihat daripada konteks masyarakat dan budaya yang meletakkan stereotaip tertentu mengikut jenis kelamin. Bertitik tolak daripada fahaman tersebut, makalah ini mengupas konsep gender yang dibentuk oleh masyarakat sosial serta meneliti imej stereotaip lelaki yang dikenali sebagai gender maskulin dan imej stereotaip perempuan yang dikenali sebagai gender feminin. Hasil dapatan makalah ini mendapati pengarang novel Seri Dewi Malam telah mengubah fahaman pembaca tentang pengarang lelaki dalam mencitrakan imej perempuan dan menolak stereotaip sedia ada dengan menonjolkan imej positif yang dimiliki oleh watak Rohana sebagai gender feminin yang meruntuhkan stereotaip gender maskulin watak-watak lelaki di dalam novel.   The feminist ideology argues that the production of a creative work amongst male and female authors is defined by their specific life and gender experience. Feminists believe that male authors are unable to tap into the thoughts and emotional dimension of female authors because they have never experienced the life of a female. This argument emerged as a form of reaction towards the production of novels by male authors who often portray the female characters as ‘the second sex’, forsaken, tacit and weak in the male-dominated social system. Understandably, these prejudiced portrayals reflect their failure in understanding the female gender as a whole. Narrating the female from the male perspective thus has to be approached from the social and cultural context that gives rise to these stereotypes. This paper addresses the notion of gender from the perspective of society and explores the conceptual division between the male representation as ‘masculine' and female representation as ‘feminine’ in the novel Seri Dewi Malam. It argues that the author of the novel has managed to transform the female stereotypes by instilling more positive representations to the protagonist Rohana and her femininity in challenging the masculinity of male characters.


Anthropology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Upton

Gender is a key concept in the discipline of anthropology. Sex and gender are defined differently in anthropology, the former as grounded in perceived biological differences and the latter as the cultural constructions observed, performed, and understood in any given society, often based on those perceived biological differences. Throughout the 20th century and the rise of sociocultural anthropology, the meaning and significance of gender to the discipline has shifted. In early ethnographic studies, gender was often synonymous with kinship or family, and a monograph might include just a single chapter on women or family issues. Despite early female pioneers in the field, it was not until the 1970s and 1980s and the real rise of feminist anthropology that gender as a distinct area of theoretical and methodological interest took hold within the discipline. Women were no longer seen as a category of culture and society outside of the realm of the everyday. While some focused on divisions between the domestic and the public, feminist anthropologists and those interested in the study of gender began to challenge the simple “add women and stir” model of ethnography and sought to bring attention to structural inequalities, the role of economic disparities, global dimensions to gender politics, the role of language, sexuality and masculinity studies, and health and human rights. Gradually the most recent works in gender and anthropology came to encompass a wide range of perspectives that challenge Western or monolithic assumptions about women and the experience of gender. For example, non-Western writing on gender illustrates how varied the experience of feminism can be in contemporary contexts where religious beliefs, development experiences, and the very role of language can influence understandings of gender. The study of women, men, and the intersections of gender across cultures has become a key aspect of any holistic study or methodological approach in anthropology today.


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