The Overshadowing Presence of Toxic Masculinity and a Call for Reducing Sexism in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns

The nexus among toxic masculinity, sexism, and patriarchy; and women’s oppression as an upshot of these have been potential issues stirring the interest of the researchers for centuries. The researches done on Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns are not exceptional than those works. As the novel blatantly exposes the plight of womenfolk amid an excessive masculine setting, Hosseini’s covert signal towards the male characters’ poignant situation due to their toxic masculinity has been an unaddressed issue. This article aims at studying the detrimental consequences of toxic masculinity in the characters’ personal, familial, and social life showing the utter helplessness of male characters who have to comply with the stereotyped notion of gender roles of real men. Because of the male characters’ vague notion of masculinity, the relationship with their partners becomes toxic; Jalil does not get forgiveness from his daughter Mariam when he asks for and Rasheed’s life ends horribly. Demonstrating the poignant aftermaths of toxicity, the researcher calls for reducing sexism for establishing a healthy relationship where partners will have love, respect, and trust between or among themselves.

In Bed with an Egyptian Princess: Herodotus on Theft, Pyramids and Conquest

Following in the footsteps of Homer, both in the Iliad and in the Odyssey, Herodotus of Halicarnassus gives women a very conspicuous presence in the only work attributed to him, known as the Histories. Usually, the women who appear in his work are directly related to prominent male characters. In this respect, daughterhood is one of the most distinct roles played by women in Herodotus’ Histories. Twelve of the women actively involved in the narrative written by the author of Halicarnassus are identified as daughters of kings, tyrants or other noblemen, both of Greek and barbarian origin. Among the available examples, in this paper we focus on three Egyptian princesses, daughters of the pharaohs Rhampsinitus, Cheops and Amasis —in reality, Apries—, because they constitute precious instances for exploring the tensions arising in parent-child relationships in the Herodotean work. We aim at determining whether these princesses are individually fulfilled as characters, despite being sexually dominated daughters by their fathers, either biological other putative. To this end, we conduct an in-depth analysis of the three passages in which they appear (Hdt. 2.121ε; 2.126; 3.1), taking into account why and under what circumstances they are sexually controlled, how they interact with their fathers and other male characters and what consequences the sexual control they are subjected to has on them. Results show that the three Egyptian princesses achieve their own fulfilment as a wife, builder and avenger, respectively. We conclude that Herodotus confers on them visibility, dignity and their own non-transferable personality.

Overview of the Gay Characters in the New Cinema of Turkey

Similar to the worldwide perceptions, gay characters in Turkish cinema are mostly perceived and used as elements of humor and comedy. They are also used as standards for measuring the masculinity of other male characters in some Turkish movies. And what about Today? What are the differences between the past and now? It is possible to say that Turkish cinema in 2000s involve more visible sexual identities apart from heteronormative understanding. This study will focus on the reflections and portrayals of only gay characters in New Turkish cinema.

Gender in Literature: Crossing the Lines of Individuals in a Philippine Fiction

Under Gender Criticism, the researchers analysed Carlos Bulosan’s My Father Goes to Court to unveil the biases, stereotypes, issues, and tendencies as regard gender through the roles played by the characters in the story. Results show that on the surface, the male characters portrayed their roles based on what the society and culture accorded or dictated to them as authoritative, powerful, and dominant. Similarly, female characters were projected as powerless, weak, affective, and secondary to men. However, consciously or unconsciously, both characters crossed the borders and the lines of each other by performing roles not expected of them. On the one hand, male characters growled down to others, laughed their hearts out, and were protected. Then, on the other hand, female characters exercised power, showed leadership, manifested decision-making skills, and served as protectors. The researchers further revealed that gender is not a role to be played but an activity to be complete to avoid setting limits to any person’s tendencies. A study using the same literary text is recommended to continue its afterlife.

Gender Representation in Education: Critical Discourse Analysis of Urdu Textbooks used in Primary Government Schools in Punjab

This research aims to explore the gender equality or lack thereof in the Urdu textbooks taught in Punjab, Pakistan. Gender bias in textbooks is an important but almost invisible and overlooked problem. Five Urdu textbooks taught in primary government schools in Punjab were selected for critical discourse analysis. Both qualitative as well quantitative research methods were adopted. The number of female and male characters, portrayal of domestic and professional roles by both genders, and cosmetic bias was taken into account. In all five books analyzed, 28% characters were women whereas remaining were male characters. Female characters were mostly found in domestic situations with insignificant roles in the stories who did not have a name or an identity except being mothers. The text was highly biased towards the male characters associating valor and strength with men only. Since textbooks play a crucial role in the development of the children, it is important to remove the concealed gender bias in textbooks and acknowledge the changing roles of women in the Pakistani society in order to create a society that treats men and women equally.

Saudi Viewers’ Perceptions of Attack on Titan Japanese Animation Online Series

This quantitative study examines Saudi viewers’ perceptions of the Japanese anime Attack on Titan. Data collection was undertaken by means of an online survey of 346 viewers of the animation, aged between fourteen and thirty-eight. The results indicated that the most popular characters were Levi, Eren, and Mikasa, with the least liked being the Armorer Titan, the Female Titan, Sasha, and Christa. The research found that the participants were attracted to scenes including fights between human and Titans, flying blood, and dialogue. The viewers expressed an interest in the unique scenario of the series, as well as each character’s tone of voice and facial expression. Finally, the hypothesis testing (Ho) of viewers’ tendency to like characters based on gender was accepted as confirmed by the 2-tail test (.042), i.e. the participants tended to prefer male characters. This study recommends that future research applies content analysis to provide further insights into the reasons behind the identified preference for male characters.

„Duma i uprzedzenie i zombi” Setha Grahame-Smitha i Jane Austen jako popkulturowy recykling kanonu

The article discusses the film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is a reference to Jane Austen’s novel, and the problem of zombie characters as a factor modifying the reality of its original version. The analysis was carried out with reference to the plot design of the film, the way of creating heroes and the costumes within the framework of a costume movie in which the story was embedded. The aim of the article is to identify the causes and consequences of introducing undead characters to the world created by Jane Austen. The reasons for this treatment were the popularity of the zombie motif in popular culture, the tendencies to experiment with the reinterpretation of works considered classic and repeatedly processed earlier into the language of cinema, as well as an attempt to adapt them to the requirements of a contemporary recipient seeking strong impressions. In addition, the world of zombies is a manifestation of the popular aspirations to achieve an economic profit. Consequences of completing the world with the undead epidemic theme include changes in the current social order, brutalization and sexualization of relations between characters, as well as a return to the traditional film narration about women, presented primarily as aesthetic objects and a source of interest for male characters.

SHE, ROBOT: MALE CHARACTERS’ MECHANISATION OF OPHELIA IN SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET

This paper entitled “She, Robot: Male Characters’ Mechanisation of Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet” is an attempt to explain how Ophelia is deprived of her subjectivity and objectified into a machine-like being that cannot think, speak, and act independently. The agents of this mechanisation are three male characters, namely, Laertes, Polonius and Hamlet respectively. The paper traces the mechanisation process by expounding how each one of the male characters, thinking himself superior, commanding and abusing Ophelia until she turns into a broken machine. This may be considered as one of the major reasons behind her mental breakdown and, ultimately, her supposed suicide. The organisation of the text is based on the successive roles of each of the above-mentioned male characters in the process of turning Ophelia into a machine, i.e., a robotic character. The paper delineates the situation of renaissance women under a male-dominated society and highlights the danger of exerting too much pressure on people to a degree that may lead to untoward consequences.

Portrayals of gender and identity in the soundtrack of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red, 2019) is an award-winning role-playing video game (RPG); the third instalment of The Witcher game series inspired by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy novels. Centring upon the protagonist Geralt of Rivia, The Witcher 3 has been praised for developing a complex, authentic, and immersive game environment that combines magic and fantasy elements within a broadly medieval setting. A central aspect of the game’s success is its soundtrack – the fusion of music, sound, and voice – which further contributes to building the game’s overall narrative and the complex construction of its central characters. This paper explores how The Witcher 3’s soundtrack constructs identity, focusing in particular on its use of neo-medievalist signifiers and its contrasting representations of masculinity and femininity. Neo-medievalist sounds are a central concept in building the game’s identity; these sounds draw on folkloristic elements surrounding the choice of instrumentation and the recurrence of folk music throughout the game’s narrative, thus increasing the player’s immersion within The Witcher 3’s world. Regarding gender, female vocalisations are used within the soundtrack to add depth and emotion to male characters – particularly Geralt of Rivia, who due to his mutations lacks in conventional emotional capabilities. Despite the inclusion and emphasis of female voices on the soundtrack, the placement of women in influential roles is limited through other musical scoring techniques, which effectively reduces the agency of these characters, thus suggesting an imbalanced treatment towards gender. Through exploring these aspects, I argue that the soundtrack is a crucial part of how gender and identity are constructed throughout The Witcher 3, further exploring how these elements affect the player’s overall in-game immersion.

A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Tropes of (Sexually) Objectified or/and Oppressed Men in Selected Contemporary African Prose Works

This paper examines the tropes of (sexually) objectified or/and oppressed men in selected contemporary African prose works. Drawing on Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth, FCDA) for theoretical underpinnings, Systemic Functional Linguistics (henceforth, SFL) for grammatical tools and the qualitative research method, this study seeks to analyze how contemporary feminist writers like Amma Darko, Daniel Mengara, and Lola Shoneyin employ language in their fictional texts The Housemaid (1998), Mema (2003) and The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives (2015) respectively to represent the phenomenon of (sexually) objectified or/and oppressed male characters. This article cogently argues that the tropes of (sexually) objectified or/and oppressed men, as enacted in the aforementioned prose works, encode a form of gendered experience which irrefutably has a given recondite function or meaning which only a critical linguistic analysis of the writers’ language can uncover. The findings reveal that the three authors intentionally use language to depict their male personae as (sexually) objectified or/and oppressed individuals with a view to challenging the established social order in social life and establishing a certain balance in the representation of gender or/and power relations in African literature.