Assuming a ‘manly position’:1 The crisis of masculinity in Ian McEwan’s early fiction

Author(s):  
Justine Gieni

Ian McEwan’s early fiction delves into the dark drives and desires of ordinary men and women, revealing disturbing realities about the human psyche. McEwan’s psychological probing of deeply disturbed characters reveals how it is often the mundane feelings of inadequacy or failure that compel seemingly ‘normal’ people to commit horrific acts of sexual violence. Within selected short stories in First Love, Last Rites (1975) and In Between the Sheets (1978), and his first novel The Cement Garden (1978), McEwan horrifies his audience by representing insidious evils that occur through the actions and in the minds of seemingly ordinary men. Reading McEwan’s portrayals of ‘manliness’ is shocking and disturbing not only in his portrayals of rape and incest, but also in the seemingly normal occurrence of sadomasochism, produced and supported by traditional gender relationships.

Author(s):  
Denis Gonçalves Ferreira ◽  
Gustavo Santa Roza Saggese ◽  
Maria Amélia Veras

Author(s):  
Agnieszka Legutko

Celia Dropkin, one of the greatest yet lesser-known Yiddish poets, revolutionized modern Yiddish poetry with her pioneering exploration of gender dynamics. Bold erotic motifs in Dropkin’s poetry shocked her contemporaries, while her poems, written mostly in the 1920s and 1930s, sound au courant in the twenty-first century. In her poetry, Dropkin addressed themes such as sexuality, love, artistic creativity, motherhood, and nature — as well as domination and sexual politics in man-woman relationships. Born in Bobruisk, Belarus as Tsilye Levin, she wrote her first poems in Russian at the age of 10. After her immigration to the USA in 1912, she began writing in Yiddish, making her literary debut in 1918. She was affiliated with modernist groups formed by Yiddish poets in America, such as Di Inzikhistin [Introspectivists] and Di Yunge [The Young]. During her lifetime, she published only one volume of poetry, In heysn vint. Her children reissued the volume after her death, updating it to include her short stories and reproductions of paintings that she created later in life. Dropkin’s modernist poetry shattered cultural stereotypes about the social and gender roles imposed on men and women, making her a path-breaking poet who ‘filled the stillness of Yiddish poetry with a passionate breath’ (Yakov Glatshtayn).


1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee FitzRoy

This article seeks to initiate discussion on the issue of women, specifically mothers, who perpetrate sexual violence against children and explore some tentative theorisations as to how we can understand this complex form of sexual violence. The analysis and discussion will be located within a feminist contextual framework that draws upon contemporary feminist and postmodern theory. Within this discussion, the article will be drawing on the understanding of such violence from the experiences of victim/survivors, other practitioners and a broad range of theorists. In exploring the issue, the article will endeavor to provide a more complex understanding of the issue of women's agency and capacity for violence, the possible wide ranging impacts of phallocentricism and the consequences of such violence in the lives of children, men and women.


2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052090507
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Rogers ◽  
Baker A. Rogers

Despite efforts on some college campuses to address the issue of sexual victimization, the numbers have not changed much over the last four decades. The purpose of this study is to examine how demographic, contextual, and behavioral factors influence sexual victimization on college campuses. Using data from the Fall 2011 National College Health Assessment/American College Health Association survey, we examine three hypotheses: (1) contextual factors will have a greater effect on the likelihood of victimization than behavioral factors; (2) demographic factors will have a greater effect on the likelihood of victimization than behavioral factors; and (3) contextual factors for men will have a greater effect than contextual factors for women. While previous studies have tackled portions of these larger objectives, few studies have focused on all three sets of factors of analysis simultaneously. Overall, we find that behavioral factors predict sexual victimization better than either demographic or contextual factors for both men and women. However, we also find that some contextual factors are significant, including variables not generally discussed in the literature, such as perception of typical student behaviors and dissemination of violence prevention programming and information. In addition, we add to the literature by showing how demographic, behavioral, and contextual factors of sexual victimization vary in significance for men and women. These findings support the calls for more sexual violence prevention programming on college campuses that is more intersectional and addresses the issue of sexual violence based on the knowledge we have gained about individual, interactional, and institutional factors that contribute to this problem.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 658
Author(s):  
Laura Andri Retno Martini

Prostitution or prostitution is a phenomenon in people's lives and is considered a "social problem". The general view states that the emergence of prostitution is based on a sense of women's helplessness in aspects of life when compared to men. This perception is not only found in social reality. The condition of women as objects also appears in literary works, as a reflection of people's perceptions. Therefore, it takes a study in the perspective of feminism, especially radical feminists to explore the issue of prostitution that occurs in women. The feminist literary criticism approach was carried out in this study with the type of qualitative research. Data was taken from the collection of Genduk Dukuh Seti short stories written by Rohana Handaningrum. The study was conducted aimed at describing the elements of radical feminism found in texts. The results of this study indicate that there are elements of radical feminism in the cepen group. The power relations of men and women are shown in the doctrine of marriage and the traditional ties that bound women. Whereas the removal of virginity and prostitution is a form of women's power over their bodies.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 592-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stans de Haas ◽  
Willy van Berlo ◽  
Floor Bakker ◽  
Ine Vanwesenbeeck

Prevalence figures on sexual violence among a representative sample of both men and women were not yet available for the Netherlands. The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate the prevalence of sexual violence in the Netherlands and to add these figures to the international body of knowledge. Experiences of sexual violence during lifetime, before the age of 16 and in the year before the start of the study were measured. In addition, types of sexual violence were examined, as were the characteristics of the perpetrators. Lastly, revictimization and pregnancy as a result of rape experiences among the victims were investigated. Data were generated from a population survey on sexual health. The sample consisted of more than 6,000 men and women between the age of 15 and 70 years old. Prevalence rates as high as 21% for men and 56% for women were found. Fifty percent of the female victims and 30% of the male victims of child sexual abuse had experienced adult victimization. Of the female rape victims, 7% became pregnant as a consequence of rape. In the Netherlands, as elsewhere, the prevention of sexual violence should be prioritized.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solange Mouthaan

This article will discuss the manner in which international law deals with crimes of sexual violence committed against men during armed conflict. To date sexual violence against men has received little attention from the international community; instead its focus is almost exclusively on women, yet in armed conflicts across the world, sexual violence is also perpetrated against men. The example of torture demonstrates the current weaknesses in the relevant provisions for acts of sexual violence generally, and acts of sexual violence committed against men specifically. I argue that international criminal tribunals should address sexual violence more broadly, including against men. However, rather than to adopt a piecemeal approach differentiating between acts of sexual violence suffered by men and women, the experiences of men of sexual violence in armed conflict should be used to contribute to understanding the broader issue of gender-based crimes, of which sexual violence forms part.


2017 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 289-300
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Tyszkowska-Kasprzak

Old people in novels of Yuri Mamleyev The End of the CenturyThe purpose of the article is an examination of the images of old men and women in The End of the Century — aseries of short stories by Yuri Mamleyev. Elderly characters in the series are almost always presented in the context of the end of their lives and are apretext to present the author’s philosophical views on the nature of existence, death and immortality. Images of reality in The End of the Century are combined with the mystique, the belief in the immortal soul and its journey. Mamleyev’s philosophical views are based on Vedanta and Advaita Vedanta. Hence, his considerations do not fit into the mainstream of the Russian religious-philosophical tradition. Old people in The End of the Century combine the world of the living with the world of the dead, they are capable of crossing the border — death — in both directions. The characters are often accompanied by acat — which in different beliefs is associated with the ability to communicate with other worlds — and achild, abeing close to the border separating the mortal world from the amorphous underworld, arecurring symbol of rebirth. Старики в рассказах Юрия Мамлеевацикл Конец векаВ статье анализируются образы пожилых людей в цикле рассказов Юрия Мамлеева Конец века. Старые люди почти всегда представлены здесь в контексте конца жизни, ивта­кой контекст вводятся философские рассуждения писателя о природе бытия, смерти ибес­смертия. При этом изображение реальности сочетается с мистикой, верой в бессмертие души и ее переселение. Поскольку свои философские взгляды писатель основал на учениях веданты и адвайта-веданты, то они не вписываются в русло русской религиозно-философ­ской традиции.Старики/старухи в произведениях Мамлеева объединяют мир живых и мир мертвых, они способны пересекать границу, которой является смерть, в обоих направлениях. Ча­сто этих персонажей сопровождают кошки, которым в разных верованиях приписывают способность общаться с другими мирами, а также дети, находящиеся близко к границе, разделяющей мир смертных и аморфную преисподнюю, и являющиеся символом повторя­ющегося возрождения.


Sirok Bastra ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rizki Amalia Sholihah

Instance of this use of gender violence found in “Lintah” and “Menyusu Ayah” short stories is caused existenceassumption that women are the objects of the society from the violence. Female considered as being number twocan only serve as a means of satisfying men and can not issue an opinion. Besides women's capacity to survive indeterioration and not fighting is the most powerful weapon to make the men feel to win without having to give ameaningful match. Presentation of sexual violence found in short stories "Lintah" and “Menyusu ayah" occurs intwo forms. Namely sexual and non sexual. In non-sexual forms are also divided further in terms of physical andspiritual. Sexual violence as a form of sexual harassment and rape experienced by Maha and Nayla, whereasnonsexual violence in terms of physical form of beatings received by the two leaders. As for the inner side, theinner repression of the characters that makes them depressed.


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