Concepts Of Femininity Research Articles

The Self-Transformation Process in Kundalini Yoga as Taught by Yogi Bhajan through a Gendered Lens

Abstract This article examines the self-transformation process in Kundalini yoga discourse and practice from a gendered perspective. Data were collected over three years in Western Switzerland using multi-sited ethnography, combining participant observation with twenty-eight interviews. Using Kundalini yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan and its representations of the ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ as a case study, I explore how practitioners adopt gendered rituals. In this tradition, self-transformation is based on concepts of inner strength, sensitivity, and divine femininity, which creates dissonance for some practitioners. Additionally, specific arrangements arise to negotiate (internal) experiential authority, gendered agency, and biography in yoga teaching and teacher–student relationships. Finally, I investigate the interactions between practitioners’ yoga trajectories and their personal and professional lives, observing differences in women’s and men’s experiences.

The Armoured Self, Un-becoming the Subject: Reading Julia Ducournau’s Titane (2021) Via Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism

In this paper, I explore what Lisa Tickner calls a ‘dissentient position’ in Modernism that assumes dehumanisation as a value of a new and brutal subjectivity and places the machine as a totemic deity. My understanding of this draws from the aesthetic language of Vorticism, particularly representations of women in the work of Wyndham Lewis. Moreover, I argue that this ‘machinic-modernism’ as Hal Foster describes it, which emerged in the early 20th century as a reaction to industrialised modernity, corporatisation, Taylorism, and Fordism, has a powerful and unacknowledged inheritor in the contemporary Palme d'Or winning film Titane (2021) written and directed by the auteur Julia Ducournau. I argue that the figure of Alexia in Titane, portrayed by actress and model Agathe Rousselle, is a celebration of dehumanisation that follows an anti-humanist path – sexually-combative femininity purged to become a hyper-masculine recruit, emerging as a biomechanical self – I claim that, while the modernism of Lewis and the creative intentions of Ducournau may have stemmed from different motivations, their utmost horizon for the subject and society is the same one, the swapping out of the tension of masculine and feminine for a machinic-self defined by ferocity, abjection, and trauma. I will also refer to the text Filibusters in Barbary from 1932 which is a reflective account of travels in North Africa including revealing attitudes of Lewis’s regarding machines which are, in common with the themes of Titane, anthropomorphised and presented as magical, violent, more frightening than monsters, and as having replaced gods. Ducournau and Lewis are reactive to the same social forces and rebarbative to so-called bourgeois conceptions of femininity in favour of a subjectivity that exists in a highly stratified social organisation.

“Those girls are vicious little monsters”: reading subversive femininities in Yellowjackets

ABSTRACT Provoking questions about morality and civility, survival narratives which feature young adults often offer new visions of social organisation by positing extreme scenarios of isolation and breakdown. In Showtime’s Yellowjackets, the survivor-protagonists are framed as monstrous, but also as disruptive “others” with the potential to unravel regulatory systems. By resisting gendered mythologies, the survivor-protagonists are associated with varying expressions of autonomy and agency, and an amplified sense of difference and abjection. In considering the subversive potential of an all-female Lord of the Flies, this paper explores how the central characters of Yellowjackets gain power by accessing and enacting forms of “otherness” in violent and radical ways. It argues that by rejecting the norms used to relegate women to the margins, the Yellowjackets profoundly unsettle, even corrupt, traditional conceptions of femininity and idealised visions of girlhood.

Alienation of Female Characters in the Movie Fair Play (2023) as Main Breadwinners in the View of Jaggar

The capitalist patriarchal system materializes in every aspect of life, even in the workplace, resulting in men and women's alienation. Unlike previous studies on women's alienation, this article examines the alienation of women as main breadwinners in a financial sector. Through film analysis, this article discusses the movie Fair Play released by Netflix in 2023. The movie focuses on a woman named Emily who gets a higher position than her fiancé in a securities company, causing jealousy. The movie Fair Play tries to distort the reality of how women are able to get higher positions in a male-dominated system. Drawing on Alison Jaggar's alienation theory, this article attempts to show how the form of alienation experienced by Emily as a woman is different from the alienation experienced by men in a capitalist patriarchal system. Using qualitative method in analyzing Fair Play movie scenes, the study reveals that alienation experienced by workers, whether female or male, is the result of an exploitative capitalist system. The article also argues that Emily experiences alienation of sexuality and intellectuality because of her femininity. This implies that women experience double standards because of the double burden caused by gender roles. It concludes that women experience alienation differently from men because of their gender. By eliminating of the concepts of masculinity and femininity, this alienation experienced differently by women can be overcome.

Crip Fatale: Deviance and Dis/Ability in Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)

The treatment and reception of female characters in mid-century American cinema has undergone significant scholarly review in previous decades; yet the existence of disabled female characters within film noir remains unacknowledged. Taking as its case study, this essay unravels the construction, fault lines, function, and symbolism of impairment in the history of early cinema and postwar America. It focuses in on the peculiar positioning of Zofia Machine as a disabled femme fatale—an inherent contradiction within the universe of noir cinema. By reconstructing the historic meanings, ideas, and assumptions, embodied in the imagery of disabled womanhood, the present work introduces the novel archetype and narrative of the crip fatale, occupying a space between existing conceptions of hegemonic femininity and corporeal normalcy.

Architectures and Spaces for Care: Recent Contributions to Spanish Postmodern Architectural Culture Led by Women Architects

Nowadays we observe how many of our cities and other inhabited spaces have been conceived by and for a subject that represents an androcentric model that focusses on the productive, with the result that aspects of architecture such as assistance and care have been underestimated. Faced with this neglect of issues that are considered by society as feminine, a series of feminist struggles have, over the course of decades, been demanding more equitable, inclusive spaces and cities that take into consideration tasks relating to care and reproduction in architectural practice. With regard to the Spanish architectural scene, since the end of the 20th century it has been possible to observe the emergence of a series of professional practices led by women architects that have used the concept of femininity as a creative argument in an effort to approach the profession from different perspectives and open up new areas of activity and debate within which they are free to develop their professional careers. These are based around a critique of modern architectural positions associated with an idealistic vision of society that takes as a reference a neutral gender far from all complexity and excludes the differences between people to establish a paradigm shift from and with feminisms. In this regard, this article aims to present a series of recent professional practices led by Spanish women architects during the period 1978-2008 who, from architecture and urban planning, as well as other peripheral positions such as the arts and social action, have worked around women’s experiences and lent prominence to day-to-day life and care. Its purpose is to determine some of the singular aspects of the contributions made by women to Spanish postmodern architectural culture. This study will allow us to observe how many of these contributions take shape in a series of actions, attitudes and ways of working that envisage the beginning of a shift in how the profession is practised; a shift that departs from the predominant canon to define new strategies and ways of approaching architectural practice that are more in line with the needs of women and non-normative subjects.

EMBELLISHED, MARGINALIZED, AND MISUNDERSTOOD: WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES IN UKRAINIAN WOMEN’S PROSE ABOUT THE STRUGGLE OF UIA

The paper examines the role of literature in creating a social framework for the memory of women combatants. The aim is to outline the problematic issues of forming a collective memory of women in the UIA ranks, based on the analysis of the literary representation of their experiences in prose. The objects of the study are the novels “Lemkivshchyna in Fire” by Mariia Ostromyra, “The Museum of Abandoned Secrets” by Oksana Zabuzhko, and “Because It Hurts” by Yevheniia Senik. To achieve this goal, the paper considers aspects of women’s experiences in the UIA as presented by historians and then compares the real experiences with those depicted in the analyzed texts, identifying and interpreting problematic issues. Historians describe women’s experiences by combining: 1) the functions that women performed in the army (scouts, typists, couriers, nurses, suppliers, and, rarely, riflemen); 2) changes in the concept of femininity, including the rejection of motherhood, loss of children, separation from family or beloved men, and forced relationships; 3) the instrumentalization of fear initiated by the Soviet secret services. The analyzed women’s novels have different strategies for representing women’s experiences. “Lemkivshchyna in Fire” emphasizes the contribution of women to the struggle but avoids depicting a specifically female experience. “The Museum of Abandoned Secrets” highlights the distinctive experience of war caused by biological (but not social) factors and doesn’t account for women’s participation in the struggle. “Because It Hurts” captures a wide range of women’s experiences but avoids interpreting and evaluating them. Thus, these novels make women’s experiences during armed conflicts visible but do not convey their fullness and complexity. At the same time, all three works aim to deny the Soviet narrative of the ‘betrayal’ of women from the underground movement: the portrayed characters are steadfastly committed to the goals of the struggle and refuse to cooperate with the enemy. Therefore, these novels are significant in the context of the decolonization process.

The masculinized feminine body: The body politics and the construction of female identity in Mohiniyattam

The article explores the sociocultural construction of aesthetic identities and the ways in which the dominant ideologies have perpetuated specific narratives of the development of Mohiniyattam. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of ‘episteme’ and Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, the study examines the femininity embodied in Mohiniyattam and argues that the dance form has been a tool for patriarchal ideologies, transmitted through generations of dancers manifested in their performance practice. The analysis extends to the contemporary scope of Mohiniyattam, questioning the rigid notion of femininity that has defined the dance form through erotic expressions of the dancer and exploring how innovative choreographies and performative interpretations can challenge such norms. The study uses oral histories and case studies to present a multifaceted view of Mohiniyattam’s historical evolution as a dance form. The revival of Mohiniyattam at different times reflects the dominant epistemes, marked by an embedded male gaze on the female dancing body. The performers’ own initiatives reframed the concept of femininity and its portrayal by exploring the potential of the trained dancing body.

Active forest ownership – Perception of Finnish women forest owners

“Active forest ownership” is often understood as a masculine and timber production-centric concept. The objective of this article is to study how women forest owners perceive the concept of “active forest ownership”. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted to study these questions. The interviews were analysed through the framework of feminist political ecology focusing specifically to different scales. The findings suggest that “active forest owner” is a more diverse concept for women forest owners than that described in Finnish forest policies or research. The definition includes feminine concepts like “taking care” of forests and understands that “being aware of forests” is a key part of being “active forest owner”. Furthermore, the intimate, family and local environment scales were crucial in impacting women's active forest ownership. These results indicate that forest policies would need to include a wider perspective of “active forest ownership” to address a larger proportion of forest owners and create more inclusive policies that could empower women.

To Die For: Modern Femininity and the Quest for Anti-Hegemonic Anthropomorphization

This paper provides an analysis of how the concept of femininity is used in literary anthropormorphizations of animals and plants. I argue that this usage of femininity for anthropormorphization provides a framework from which animal and plant life are reevaluated as meaningful. However, the notion of femininity portrayed in my exemplary case study can be shown to depict a specifically white and patriarchal narration of femininity. Therefore, this paper explores possibilities for literary anthropormorphization that is feminist, decolonial and narrates animal and plant life as meaningful. My general advocacy is one for intersectional perspectives and new ways of generating meaning and worth that consider different, interwoven struggles at once and make sense of them precisely in their interwovenness. To do so I connect feminist literary criticism, decolonial theory, Afropessimism, and environmentalist perspectives. My case studies are the Song of the Dodo by David Quammen and Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath.

EXPOSURE TO ANOTHER CULTURE: SHAPING THE SELF OF THE SUBALTERN IN BUCHI EMECHETA’S KEHINDE

The aim of this study is to defamiliarize Gayatri Spivak’s pessimistic approach regarding the condition of the subaltern as a female subject. Spivak’s subaltern, misrepresented by the male-dominated West and the male-dominated East and therefore not belonging to any particular social group, has no history and cannot speak for herself. The position of the subaltern woman is examined based on Buchi Emecheta’s Kehinde (1994), which deals with the circular migration of the eponymous character – Kehinde – from Nigeria to England, back to Nigeria and then back to England. The novel explores the binary between the self and the other of the subaltern woman in relation to the native and host cultures. To this end, the study uses several postcolonial concepts by Homi K. Bhabha, discussed at length in his book The Location of Culture (1994), such as mimicry, liminality, appropriation, and ambivalence, which, in its turn, conceptualises the position of the Nigerian subaltern woman in relation to cultural difference. The study foregrounds the validity of the popular woman theory known as African feminism, which specifically addresses the situation of African women. This approach also makes it possible to redefine the traditional concept of femininity in Nigerian culture. The study shows how cultural difference affects the growing consciousness of the subaltern woman, which ultimately helps her to become an independent person. The study concludes that, unlike Spivak’s subaltern, the Nigerian subaltern creates her own space from which she can speak for herself in the male-dominated society.

Dimensiunile și valențele simbolice ale spațiului în proza interbelică feminină. Cella Serghi și Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu

On the background of the synthesis of the concept of femininity in the Romanian literature and in the light of gender studies and geocriticism, this paper aims to question an intimate relationship between female subjects and fictional space in four interwar and postwar novels written by women: Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu’s 1925 Fecioarele despletite [The Disheveled Maidens], 1927 Concert din muzică de Bach [A Concert of Bach’s Music], Cella Serghi’s 1950 Cartea Mironei [Mirona`s book] and 1970 Gențiane [Gentians]. Through close reading and other methods, this paper aims to demonstrate the existence of a transfer between novelists and their characters. Obsessed with self-definition, they project the same infatuation upon their female subjects. In this matter, space becomes a subject of interest and the construction of fictional spaces, the authors are influenced by their new conquest, oscillating between known spaces, with which they are familiar, and daring to claim other spaces.

Manifestations of femininity in Mahmoud Fahmy's drawings

This tagged research deals with the manifestations of femininity in Mahmoud Fahmy's drawings by studying and monitoring the presence and how women were represented in the drawings of the artist Mahmoud Fahmy. Through the drawings of the expatriate Iraqi artist, Mahmoud Fahmy, in highlighting the manifestations of beauty for women, which constitute a formal characteristic that appears through the body, and Fahmy depicts it in an atmosphere of realism at times and magical realism at other times, as the research consists of four chapters. Through the following question: Did femininity appear in the drawings of the artist Mahmoud Fahmy? The importance of the research is that it sheds light on the manifestations of femininity in the drawings of this artist.The theoretical framework dealt with two sections, the first talks about the concept of femininity and the female in the ancient and contemporary arts, and the second section dealt with the artist Mahmoud Fahmy and his artistic style while coming up with indicators for this theoretical framework. From the artist's drawings, and the research concluded with the results and conclusions, including:1. The woman's body and her femininity is the primary inspiration and basis for the focus of the work. It is the hero of the story and its inspiration for the artistic themes of the artist Mahmoud Fahmy.2. Heritage, belonging, originality, place and neighborhoods are important characteristics of the artist Mahmoud Fahmy.3. In addition to the conclusions, recommendations and proposals to reach the goal of the research, which is to identify the manifestations of femininity in Mahmoud Fahmy's drawings.

TRACES OF POST-STRUCTURALIST FEMINISM IN LOCHHEAD’S BLOOD AND ICE

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, which is considered as the foremost British gothic novel, has influenced numerous writers as a source of inspiration. Liz Lochhead, a renowned Scottish poet and playwright, offers her unique perspective on the classic novel of Frankenstein, which has been retold and reinvented numerous times in contemporary literature. Lochhead skilfully weaves together the ideas of dream and reality, as well as past and present, in a seamless and significant manner throughout the play. In the play, she raises doubts about Mary's ability to create as a writer and care for her child, while also questioning Claire's feminine identity. Lochhead is able to demonstrate her remarkable power that defies the limitations imposed by the phallocentric society and traditional gender roles. Through her characters Mary Shelley and Claire, Lochhead serves as a force that contradicts and challenges the prevailing patriarchal mind set. Using the theoretical principles of poststructuralist feminism, this study initially intends to demonstrate how Lochhead challenges the binary oppositions that have historically limited women's roles and identities in the play. In the light of Cixous's écriture feminine concept, the second objective is to examine how Lochhead approaches the issue of women's alienation in a phallocentric culture, how she disrupts patriarchal linguistic structures, and opens up new avenues for women’s self-expression.

Fragmented Bodies, Fractured Identities: Womanhood and Body Politics in Breasts and Eggs

This article employs feminist theory to explore the theme of fractured femininity in Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs. Through the three female characters in the novel, Kawakami highlights the scarring of womanhood in a contemporary, postmodern context. However, the concept of scarring follows Cixous’s metaphor in which literature becomes a liberating and transformative act that vindicates the wounding of womanhood through the imposition of repressive ideals. This is shown as each of these women comes to represent the resilience of women in the face of conventional definitions of femininity. Natsuko’s reluctant following of convention, Makiko’s pursuit of feminine body ideals, and Midoriko’s struggle with her biological self represent women's struggle to realize femininity in the 21st century. Ultimately, these women manage to sustain a level of empowerment by rejecting the socially constructed concept of femininity. Kawakami puts the concept of femininity to the test to prove that it is the result of nurture rather than nature, thus suggesting that constructing a feminine identity in a postmodern setting is much more complex than in theory.

Popular boys, the ideal schoolboy, and blended patterns of masculinity for 10‐ to 11‐year‐olds in two London schools

AbstractGenerating data from small group interviews with 41 boys aged 10–11 years from two London schools in 2022, this paper contributes to the field of gender by introducing a new form of non‐hegemonic and positive masculinity, which I am calling ‘blended’ masculinity, and which was the most common formation in each school. Although its features differed a little in each setting, this blended formulation broadly consisted of orthodox qualities of masculinity (e.g. athleticism, assertiveness, confidence, independence), combined with feminine‐associated traits (e.g. kindness, caring, sociability, emotional literacy). I argue that this blended form is different from previous conceptualisations of hybrid masculinity in the gender literature and is more akin to recent conceptions of hybrid femininity. There were no dominant forms of masculinity with hierarchical connotations of superiority, and no hegemony that legitimated unequal relations, with obvious subordination of other masculinities or femininities. Boys and girls generally got on well with each other and there was also no evidence of homophobia or misogyny. The paper also explores notions of peer‐group popularity, which was based on a series of resources, and delineates the characteristics of a fictional, ‘ideal’, schoolboy, whose features and attributes were connected to the different versions of masculinity on show.

TRACES OF POST-STRUCTURALIST FEMINISM IN LOCHHEAD’S BLOOD AND ICE

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, which is considered as the foremost British gothic novel, has influenced numerous writers as a source of inspiration. Liz Lochhead, a renowned Scottish poet and playwright, offers her unique perspective on the classic novel of Frankenstein, which has been retold and reinvented numerous times in contemporary literature. Lochhead skilfully weaves together the ideas of dream and reality, as well as past and present, in a seamless and significant manner throughout the play. In the play, she raises doubts about Mary's ability to create as a writer and care for her child, while also questioning Claire's feminine identity. Lochhead is able to demonstrate her remarkable power that defies the limitations imposed by the phallocentric society and traditional gender roles. Through her characters Mary Shelley and Claire, Lochhead serves as a force that contradicts and challenges the prevailing patriarchal mind set. Using the theoretical principles of poststructuralist feminism, this study initially intends to demonstrate how Lochhead challenges the binary oppositions that have historically limited women's roles and identities in the play. In the light of Cixous's écriture feminine concept, the second objective is to examine how Lochhead approaches the issue of women's alienation in a phallocentric culture, how she disrupts patriarchal linguistic structures, and opens up new avenues for women’s self-expression.

Jordanian Woman as a Leader between Individual Resources and Social Conditions: A Comparative Case Study of Jerash and Al-Karak in Jordan

Objectives: The study purpose was to identify the personal resources and social conditions that enhance the leadership skills amongst women in Jordan. It aimed to shed light on the stereotypes, , and beliefs that underlie all aspects of gender-based discrimination in the field of study.
 Methods: The study relied on the analytical induction methodology. which is implemented by “designation” that is based on asking people “the designator” whether some women “the designatee” were more influential than others in their surroundings. The methodology was applied through conducting several FGDs among various age groups, as well as individual interviews with women who were designated as transformational leaders.
 Results: The study showed that ethnic affiliation in Jerash and Al-Karak played an important role in the way in which the concepts of masculinity and femininity were socially constructed, and thereby the way in which the concept of women leadership was constructed in those two cultures. The culture of (i.e. Al-Karak) seemed to be more tolerant and had wider space for the creation of female leaders in comparison with cultural environments of (i.e. Jerash). The study also showed that designated female leaders were usually inheritors of a high-level symbolic capital (i.e. middle/upper social class, sophisticated education, etc…). Furthermore, the role model of most female leaders was more likely their father or other charismatic male leaders.
 Conclusions: The study recommends to build solid foundations that can be followed by educational curricula, and girls' leadership training programmes.

‘For Pretty Frocks’: Upper Class Female Consumerism and the Criminality of Abortions in Newspaper Reports of the Uzielli Case 1898

AbstractIn the spring of 1898, Emily Edith Uzielli, a married member of the London elite, underwent an abortion, which was illegal at the time. Mrs Uzielli died as a result of the procedure, and the abortionist, Dr Collins, was accused of murder. This article examines the interconnectivity between conceptions of femininity and ideas on consumerism and the criminality of abortions in late Victorian England. It demonstrates that contemporary discourses of gender and high‐powered consumption infiltrated and shaped the popular discourse of the criminality of abortions, which was depicted as closely linked to transgressions of domesticity. Through the exploration of press representations of the Uzielli case, I show that women's newly acquired liberty of promenading West End streets and shopping centres were paralleled with their alleged freedom to control family size, independently of their husbands, through the means of abortion. Abortion procuring was portrayed as yet another manifestation of such ‘feminine’ consumer practices.

A Feminist Study of Carol Ann Duffy's Poetry and the Concept of Feminine

Women's critique has focused on exposing the marginalization of women authors, suppression of the feminine voice, purposeful exclusion of females mostly from literary works, including stereotyping of females within male fiction as angels in heaven or mythical creatures or living creatures born only for kitchen area business in the first place from its inception. Scholars in feminist studies have also been looking into the documents of female authors since the early 1960s. Women's critique has shown that literary sexism can no longer be tolerated or justified. There are presently several great female poets whose poetry deserves to be recognized and appreciated by the general public. However, the female liberation movement sparked the publication of multiple separatist anthologies. It is indeed also behind the painfully shallow and odd attempt to establish those female poems are inherently different. Several commentators regard female poets as much more than poets; they are not just women, and yet simply women poets, saying by doing the same things that men poets have been saying and doing for far longer, as well as having the added opportunity to understand about women. The texts of the poems will be analyzed using feminist methodologies for this research study. As a result, the results linked with these methodologies will serve as the conceptual framework for the present study.