The Construction of Feminism in “Ten Years of Marriage”

The following essay explores the theme of feminism within Su Qing’s Ten Years of Marriage. It emphasizes the focal character Huaiqing who can be taken as representation of cultural norms in the patriarchal society during the “May 4th period” in China. Su Qing uses feminine discourse and unique narrative strategies to show women’s status as “others” and their survival dilemmas in the patriarchal culture, reveal their physical and mental constraints and refute the misogynistic idea of female being parasites of their husbands. Apart from displaying the physical and mental constraints inflicted on women, the novel makes a portrait of a bunch of pitiful and detestable females, exposing their flaws in an attempt to arouse their self-consciousness. Su Qing in this novel also deconstructed “male mythology” and subverted the supreme image of males in traditional culture by presenting a series of male images in a critical way.

Cosmo Girls: The Construction of Feminine Discourse in Cosmopolitan Magazine

This Major Research Paper will examine the ways in which Cosmopolitan magazine’s cover page headlines have constructed, aligned with, or challenged discourse around femininity in the past decade (2010-2019). The purpose of this study is to make the linguistic devices used to manipulate readers transparent and reveal the media’s role in creating and maintaining societal norms – which can be liberating or restricting. A critical discourse analysis will be applied to examine Cosmopolitan’s communications to their target audience and how such communication earns social meaning. This paper finds that while Cosmopolitan magazine becomes slightly more progressive towards the end of the decade, its content remains heavily focused on sex and beauty which presents women and their interests in a trivial manner. Cosmopolitan’s headlines instruct readers on how to become a ‘Cosmo Girl’, suggesting that any other type of woman is subpar. Cosmopolitan’s headlines reveal societal assumptions about women and promote outdated expectations by encouraging readers to prioritize men and romantic relationships. With very little content about education, technology, or other modern topics, Cosmopolitan headlines are determined to be limiting. Keywords: Headlines, Discourse, Gender, Presupposition(s), Interdiscursivity, Intertextuality, Diachrony, Idiom(s), Modal Verb(s), Sex, Relationships, Beauty, Fashion, Lifestyle, Health, Fitness, Career

Cosmo Girls: The Construction of Feminine Discourse in Cosmopolitan Magazine

This Major Research Paper will examine the ways in which Cosmopolitan magazine’s cover page headlines have constructed, aligned with, or challenged discourse around femininity in the past decade (2010-2019). The purpose of this study is to make the linguistic devices used to manipulate readers transparent and reveal the media’s role in creating and maintaining societal norms – which can be liberating or restricting. A critical discourse analysis will be applied to examine Cosmopolitan’s communications to their target audience and how such communication earns social meaning. This paper finds that while Cosmopolitan magazine becomes slightly more progressive towards the end of the decade, its content remains heavily focused on sex and beauty which presents women and their interests in a trivial manner. Cosmopolitan’s headlines instruct readers on how to become a ‘Cosmo Girl’, suggesting that any other type of woman is subpar. Cosmopolitan’s headlines reveal societal assumptions about women and promote outdated expectations by encouraging readers to prioritize men and romantic relationships. With very little content about education, technology, or other modern topics, Cosmopolitan headlines are determined to be limiting. Keywords: Headlines, Discourse, Gender, Presupposition(s), Interdiscursivity, Intertextuality, Diachrony, Idiom(s), Modal Verb(s), Sex, Relationships, Beauty, Fashion, Lifestyle, Health, Fitness, Career

Gender projections in the novel Soul in A Mask by N. V. Nedobrovo

The prose novel by N. V. Nedobrovo Soul in A Mask, written in 1914, incorporates basic ideas of the writer’s work and continues development of gender (feminine) discourse of the modern era. To a large extent, the search for a “soul in a mask”, the ability to express a lyrical “I”, coupled with the theatricality of being, the need for a social masquerade, are characteristic of the majority of modernist works. The theme of masks is equally present in the lyrics of symbolism and close to Nedobrovo acmeism (for example, in the work of A. A. Akhmatova, Nedobrovo’s closest friend). The masquerade performs two functions in the novel — plot-forming and philosophical. Having made the center of the story of the reflecting heroine Olga, Nedobrovo displays a number of male characters, a collision which meant to reveal the title female character. Male / female opposition (masculinity / femininity) informs the main conflict of the novel, related to the inability of an intelligent woman of expressing herself in a male society without wearing a mask. The paper shows that the mask serves as a kind of gender projection and represents an attempt to overcome the social masquerade, which is always associated with an identity crisis. Mask, as applied to the heroine and her ready-made social mask gives an opposite effect, only emphasizing the gender difference and, accordingly, leading to the disclosure of the heroine’s femininity. Based on this, “female issue” raised in the story is resolved in compliance with patriarchal ideas of the conservative gender discourse of the turn of the century.

VERBALIZATION OF FEMALE ARTISTIC IMAGES IN “A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS” BY KHALED HOSSEINI: GENDER ASPECT

The purpose of this study is an attempt to examine women’s artistic images and their verbalization in Khaled Hosseini’s novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns”. In this study, the authors try to analyze the manifestations of the feminine discourse of the two main female characters in the novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” in sociocultural and linguostylistic aspects. In the recent years women’s studies are becoming more and more significant; female discourses are being analyzed form different scientific points of view. Considering the relevant scientific works of eminent scientists, the authors of this article conclude that artistic images play an extremely important role in the implementation of current topics and ideas of any literary work: artistic images have the ability to produce new ideas and communicate these ideas to readers who in their turn could interpret them according to the cultural background, which ensures the formation of the linguistic and cultural concepts. Khaled Hosseini’s female characters’ discourse in his novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is multilayered: on the one hand, it is actualization of the personal fight for basic human rights within family hierarchy (cultural aspect) and on the other hand, it is the fight for civil rights from the point of view of social context.

Women's Access to Criminal Justice in Iran with Postmodern Feminist Perspective.docx

<p>There are inequalities discriminating against iranian women in the criminal justice system's processes of enactment and legislation, adjudication, and punishment and enforcement. Postmodern feminist criminologists argue that the main reason is the masculine discourse that prevents women from equal access to justice and this is the main reason for iranian women's. The way to deal with this situation is to introduce a feminine discourse against the dominant male discourse, instead of eliminating women's worldview.</p>

Women's Access to Criminal Justice in Iran with Postmodern Feminist Perspective.docx

<p>There are inequalities discriminating against iranian women in the criminal justice system's processes of enactment and legislation, adjudication, and punishment and enforcement. Postmodern feminist criminologists argue that the main reason is the masculine discourse that prevents women from equal access to justice and this is the main reason for iranian women's. The way to deal with this situation is to introduce a feminine discourse against the dominant male discourse, instead of eliminating women's worldview.</p>

Delegitimizing wilderness as the man cave: The role of social media in female wilderness empowerment

Historically, American wilderness has been conceived as a profoundly masculine landscape and a threat to femininity. Early wilderness discourse stressed landscapes of risk and danger, certainly no place for a woman. Prior to the Romantic era and Transcendentalism, but even in recent history, it was not uncommon for women to avoid venturing into wilderness alone for reasons including personal safety and possible corruption of body and spirit. The introduction of tourism in wilderness allowed people to experience the thrill of the wild while enjoying an element of safety through mitigated risk, an experience that appealed to the masculine and created socially significant places. While wilderness has historically been tied to these masculine narratives, these and the wilderness identity are increasingly challenged by contemporary feminine discourse working within various social media platforms. As tourism continues to domesticate wilderness, women are simultaneously pushing against social boundaries that dictate their place within, thus, changing both the identity of place and of women’s roles therein. This process, shifting both definitions of wilderness and woman, occurs through deconstruction of powerful feminine stereotypes through active engagement with these increasingly accessible landscapes. Social media acts as platform through which this changing discourse is garnering support and social power. Thus, this article argues that women’s assertions and performances of power in wilderness directly combat stereotypes of their place in these landscapes. Furthermore, without tourism’s promotion of these spaces as extraordinary and powerful in themselves, women’s performances therein would lack the social significance and challenge to wilderness as gendered.