Construction Of Gender Identity Research Articles

“…because I’m just a stupid woman from an ngo”: Interviews and the interplay between constructions of gender and professional identity

Over the last decade, using interviews to analyse identity construction has been gaining in popularity (de Fina 2003; Johnson 2006; Baynham 2011) and, given this interest, analysing identities has become a much debated issue that is being approached from various angles. Regarding interviews as interaction between the interviewee and interviewer, and stories in the interviews as emerging from interactional dynamics (de Fina 2009), this paper draws attention to the emergence of identity at different levels. First, identities emerge at the level of the interview narrative, which is ongoing talk as it evolves in real time and consists of reporting facts, giving opinions on, and explaining aspects of, various topics to the interviewer. Second, identities emerge in stories which are included in the ongoing talk. Stories refer to actions in the past, usually told in chronological order. In contrast to interview narratives which are initiated by the interviewer, stories in interviews are primarily instigated by the interviewees to further support their identity co-construction in the interview setting. The interview setting is thus the third level of identity construction in interviews. By applying the framework of identities occurring at different levels in interviews and Positioning Theory (Harré and van Langenhove 1999), this paper analyses the construction of professional gender identities in the workplace, the interplay between these identities, and the dependence of these constructions on the ‘interview as context’. The stories themselves reveal how, in the workplace, there may be a conflict between professional and gender identities. More specifically such stories make visible the way in which interviewees construct their professional identities in order to resist gender identities that are projected onto them.

Race and the anxieties of cultural obscurity: Meditations on blackness in South African performance and video art

The focus on politically circumscribed identities in South African visual arts during the first decade of the post- Apartheid era (1994–2004) illuminated key tensions in the process of transformation. The arts practice, in general, seemed to respond directly to social imbalances that were established through Apartheid and roused significant discussions around issues of power with regard to racial and gender identity constructions. Arguably, the ‘second wave’ after the first decade propagates a Post-Race sentiment. This article seeks to discuss issues around terms such as Post-Race and Post-Black. I use performance and video art (or new media) as indicative of a change in general perceptions about race, art and transformation in South African cultural practices. Although the term ‘Post-Black’ has not been used to define a specific South African movement or aesthetic, here I juxtapose it with the term ‘Post-Race’ to map out similarities in thought about Blackness in general.

Under Construction Alison Bechdel's Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Among various attempts to define the characteristics of the comics medium, one fruitful and often-quoted analogy is Art Spiegelman's comparison of comics structure to a building. Several major comics artists have created works that feature buildings and houses not just as metaphors for the structure of comics but as narrative embodiments of personal, cultural and historical change. This paper will focus on Alison Bechdel's Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2006), a graphic memoir featuring the author's family home as it undergoes meticulous architectural restorations under the direction of her closeted gay father. Her father's obsessive renovations both reflect and disguise the on-going construction of bodies, sex and gender identities, and familial relationships taking place within its walls. Unlike her father, Bechdel ultimately escapes the constraints of her family's Gothic Revival house by engaging with the more liberal house of fiction and writing her own coming-out memoir.

Gendered discursive practices on-line

This study aims to gain in-depth understanding on whether and how asynchronous computer mediated communication (CMC), exemplified by advice giving in web-based discussion forums, is instrumental in the construction of gender identities and can thus be taken to reflect gendered discursive practices. While there is a growing body of literature on this topic, this paper extends the discussion into a less explored issue in the area of gender and advice, namely, the potential effect that the sex of the recipient may have on the linguistic structure of the message. Unlike advice-givers, advice-seekers unambiguously reveal their sex in their posts, while typically omitting other personal information or identifying features. Sex is thus the only identifiable variable. This study therefore examined how men and women are given advice – not just on how they produce advice – in terms of directness, politeness considerations and affect display. The picture that emerges is complex and points to potential changing discursive practices and gender role expectations.

Resisting conformity: Anglican mission women and the schooling of girls in early nineteenth-century West Africa

The origins of modern schooling in early nineteenth-century Africa have been poorly researched. Moreover, histories of education in Africa have focused largely on the education of boys. Little attention has been paid to girls’ schooling or to the missionary women who sought to construct a new feminine Christian identity for African girls. In the absence of personal accounts of African girls’ schooling from that period, this paper draws on a slim body of 71 letters written by women and girls associated with one British mission society in Sierra Leone between 1804 and 1826 to suggest a fluid and at times contradictory construction of gender and racial identity, which sits at odds with the ideology of domestic femininity that the missionaries sought to impart through girls’ schooling. The handful of letters written by African women and girls also casts doubt on the assumed subservience of black subjects to white officialdom.

“Say it, Don't Do It”: Male Speech and Male Action in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Alan Sillitoe's 1958 novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning explores shifting masculine roles for working and middle-class men in England following the Second World War and the Korean War. I propose a reading of Sillitoe's novel that focuses on the abilities and the limits of male speech in the construction of a working-class masculine gender identity, including how those utterances work to establish differences and similarities. Furthermore, I argue that male speech creates and complicates hierarchical relationships between men and women in the novel. Taking into account the relative economic affluence in England following World War II, I also look at how these economic and social issues influenced changing working-class masculine ideals and responsibilities in England at that time.

Kissing the Cactus: Dancing Gender and Politics in Spain

In Bésame el Cactus (2004), Sol Picó, modern dancer and choreographer, simultaneously performs flamenco music and dance. Using her body, her shoes, castanets, and hands, she is integrating flamenco—as a cultural symbol of Spain—into a contemporary performance. In a Spain impacted by Franco's dictatorship (1939–1975), the peculiar ambiguous choice of using flamenco in a modern performance raises questions about the construction of national and gender identity, both during the dictatorship and now. Franco's regime promoted a centralized nationalism, and imposed it on the other cultures that were part of the Spanish state. These were cultural regionalisms linked to the historic communities of Catalonia, Galicia, and the Basque Country. During Francoism, popular and folk music and dances were employed as an effort to construct a unified Spanish culture. This paper will address the problems of gender and national construction in contemporary Spain through a close reading of this choreographic piece. A methodological analysis of Bésame el Cactus will be presented using applied performing arts theories. I will also draw upon interview material with the choreographer/performer, Sol Picó. In conclusion, this paper will illustrate the ways in which the heritage of Francoism still informs choreographers' choices, and thereby creates an artificial national music and dance in Spain.

Representing “traditional” and “progressive” women in Greek television: The role of “feminine”/“masculine” speech styles in the mediation of gender identity construction

Synopsis Despite the wealth of sociolinguistic studies on gender identity construction in interpersonal settings, limited research has been directed to mediated contexts. Drawing upon a popular Greek television series dealing with the contrast of “traditional” vs. “progressive women”, we explore the mediation of women's speech styles and the role of such depictions in the reproduction of hegemonic gender identities. The analysis shows that traditional identity is constructed on the basis of categories associated with the private sphere, whereas progressive identity is construed by means of categories linked to the public sphere. Yet, the depiction of linguistic practices that index gender in mediated settings is dynamic, contrary to the mediation of speech style, which tends to be generally monolithic. Thus, masculine and feminine styles of talk are represented as forming a stylistic continuum along which television characters are positioned during the display of their gender identities in specific fictional contexts.

Reflexões sobre homofobia e educação em escolas do interior paulista

Trata-se de um estudo do tipo survey realizado em 2009 junto a 2.282 estudantes de ambos os sexos cursando as três séries do ensino médio em três cidades do interior do Oeste Paulista (Assis, Presidente Prudente e Ourinhos). O instrumento de coleta de dados foi um questionário autoaplicável e anônimo com 131 questões. Neste artigo, reflete-se sobre o quanto @s participantes da pesquisa reproduzem e reforçam, no espaço escolar, os discursos hegemônicos de controle das sexualidades pautados na tentativa de fazer prevalecer a heterossexualidade como a única forma de inteligibilidade sexual, em detrimento de outras formas de manifestação da sexualidade. Discute-se como a homofobia e os dispositivos de controle social das sexualidades (re)produzem preconceitos e estereotipias, resultantes em vulnerabilidades que os adolescentes não-heterossexuais apresentam, tais como: vitimização homofóbica, isolamentos sociais e afetivos, e ideações e tentativas de suicídio. O estudo mostra que o invariante foram as discriminações, as violências homofóbicas e as injúrias que são perpetradas nos valores e discursos dos adolescentes em situação escolar e familiar, demonstrando a institucionalização da homofobia como prática regulatória da construção social e psicológica de gêneros e identidades sexuais. Destaca-se quão importante é, para a escola, apropriar-se de meios de desconstrução das normativas heterocentradas, visando preservar os direitos e a cidadania de pessoas que não se identificam aos modelos vigentes da heterossexualidade.

Bonas Femnas and the Consolamen

My recently completed doctoral dissertation examines gender relations in the communities of the Lauragais in the thirteenth century that adhered to heresy. I focus here on the ways that the socially constructed gender identities of women and men influenced their involvement with the amicx de Dieu, or friends of God, also known as the Good Christians. I hope to show the extent to which women who embraced heretical thoughts and practices were still considered by society as less worthy than men to receive the gesture of respect known as the melhoramen. Despite often being drawn from the nobility, most women who underwent the consolamen and became bonas femnas still failed to transcend the gender boundaries of their day. Despite long held beliefs that women were empowered beyond the traditional gender boundaries when they adhered to heretical beliefs and practices, and further to studies that have proven that women did not embrace the heretical lifestyle as extensively as was previously thought, I will examine here the reasons for this subjugation of the religious rights of women who embraced heresy.

Gender identities and practices: Interpreting women entrepreneurs’ narratives

Previous research has shown that the discourse on womanhood is in conflict with that of entrepreneurship. This qualitative study examines how women construct their identities differently, finding that some of them perceive dissonance between womanhood and entrepreneurship discourses whereas others do not. The results indicate specific ways of constructing gender identity which result in gendered practices: how women act as entrepreneurs by ‘doing’ and ‘redoing’ gender. Since identity construction is contextually produced, other variables intersect with gender in establishing women’s status position. Women with higher status, engage in ‘redoing’ gender, trying to add value to it. The results offer new insights for those interested in promoting women entrepreneurs, by illustrating how gendered practices are used as strategic devices in doing business. In this regard, we argue that stories concerning women’s repertoire of business practices allow us to challenge the taken-for-granted assumptions of gender neutrality regarding typical business behaviour and entrepreneurship.

The construction of male gender identity through choir singing at a Spanish secondary school

Several authors have recently investigated the psychological aspects that play a determinant role in choral singing during adolescence. One of these aspects is vocal identity, which influences the construction of gender identity according to adolescents’ needs and societal gender roles. This article focuses on gender aspects of vocal identity during adolescence and describes a case study carried out with male adolescent singers at a secondary school choir in Spain. Qualitative data were collected and analyzed in order to get a deeper knowledge about the relationship between boys’ vocal identity and their gender identity. There was enough evidence to show that male adolescents felt more engaged with choral singing when they realized that their vocal identity was a powerful tool for constructing their male gender identity.

Islamist Feminism: Constructing Gender Identities in Postcolonial Muslim Societies

AbstractThis article analyzes the emergence of female Islamist leaders in the Middle East and North Africa, and the glaring contradictions between their feminist views and their roles as political activists for the Islamic State. The two Islamist leaders who form the primary focus of this analysis are Zaynab al-Ghazali (d. 2005) of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Nadia Yassine of Morocco's Justice and Charity Society. Our analysis reveals the existence of “Islamistfeminism,” distinguished from broader secular-oriented Islamic feminism, as a logical, albeit unique, extension, and expression of Muslim anti-colonial discourse rooted in the intellectual currents of twentieth century independence movements that still resonate today.

‘Food is culture, but it's also power’: the role of food in ethnic and gender identity construction among Goan Canadian women

Foodwork and women's primary responsibility for foodwork have long been interpreted by feminist scholars as a site of gender oppression for women; yet the gendered meanings of foodwork are complicated when race, diaspora and ethnic identity are also taken into account. This article examines the meaning of food and foodwork for Goan women in Toronto, Canada, and the role of food in creating and maintaining distinctly gendered ethnic identities. Catholic Goan identity, born from Portuguese colonization of an area in what is now Western India, has few unique markers of ethnic distinction from other Indians. In this context Goan cuisine takes on a particular symbolic significance. In this qualitative study with first-generation Canadian Goan women (N = 13) the gendered role of women in foodwork was seen as having particular power or ‘currency’ within the family and community, valued for fostering and supporting Goan identity. We argue that the same foodwork practices that constitute gendered oppression for women may simultaneously confer a form of ‘culinary capital’ within the social arena of their own diasporic community.

A Demonic Parody: Toni Morrison’s A Mercy

One of Toni Morrison's feminist critics describes her novel Paradise as a sermon, writing that Nobel laureate on dangers of a violent manhood that depends on demonization of women and exclusion of difference for validation (Keller 47). But an appropriate rejoinder is that all of Morrison's novels are literary sermons. Recall, for example, her interview with Charles Ruas, which she confesses that the Bible wasn't part of my reading; it was part of my life (81), providing a prism through which readers can observe her descriptions of (im)moral consequences of unchecked power and human behavior. As novelist, Morrison treats historical black experience novels from The Bluest Eye to Beloved, Paradise, and Love as an often emotionally challenging and socially disfiguring bodily enterprise, largely based on slavery of race and color, but also on class and gender politics. She mirrors and highlights, her appropriation of parody, history's attempt to shape lives of black Americans, a shaping and devaluation that her powerful characters, particularly her maternal heroines, resist while nurturing others. The first black American to win Nobel Prize Literature, Morrison is one of most celebrated American and African American women writers world. In presenting Nobel Prize Literature to Morrison 1993, Swedish Academy acknowledged visionary force of her oeuvre and her remarkable fictional, but fact-based representation of historical black experience (Inscription). Adopting essential narrative device of parody, Morrison A Mercy, a prequel to Beloved, sermonizes early colonial experience Virginia and Maryland. In her visionary force of excavating past like an archaeologist, recreating and teaching oft-neglected reality of minority American experience, Morrison relies on ancient genre of parody, a derivative of Greek term parodia, which found its earliest expression Aristotle's Poetics. In reconstructing and deconstructing American history as it pertains to lives of subjugated Other, Morrison lifts parody from dust-bins of literary history, and genre re-emerges, according to Robert Phiddian, as secret sharer of (679). In aftermath of postmodernism, parody and deconstruction become weapons with which writers like Morrison can excavate and recreate history, and then question legitimacy of established of master discourse on race and class, as we shall see A Mercy. Therefore, Morrison appropriates parody her deconstruction and reconstruction of American history to query and restore truth to narrative by reducing lie [of master discourse] to an absurdity, as Bakhtin remarks on function of parody (309). In parody's active engagement in intertextuality--that is, its play with and on an accepted master tale--it assumes a parasitic relationship with its host genre (Dentith 189). Critic Gerard Gennette refers to two elements this relationship as hypotext or original model and parodic hypertext, which imitates primary source (qtd Dentith 16). Thus, parody feeds on its own invited host, deconstructing and illuminating host's hypocrisies. For Morrison, these unfortunate inconsistencies, as revealed U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, provide founding ideals, ironically, of American democracy, liberty, and equality. Parody is often politically motivated, questioning accepted and conservative borders of authority, debunking artificial boundaries, and unmasking false constructions of race, class, and gender identity, as that which occurs A Mercy. By presenting and then refuting established truths of master discourse, parody keeps memory of experience alive, for it is constantly before us to recall, to remember, so that we will not repeat history and its trauma. …

I drink, therefore I’m man: gender discourses, alcohol and the construction of British undergraduate masculinities

This article provides insights into the discourses that legitimate and perpetuate male undergraduate drinking cultures and considers the role of alcohol in communicating hegemonic masculinity within one British university. Taking laddishness as a template of hegemonic masculinity, the article contends that male students’ heavy alcohol use is partially motivated by discourses that position drinking as a ‘normal’ part of studenthood, but also by discourses that reinforce drinking as a ‘laddish’ behaviour or a male preserve. While interviewees recognised the importance of drinking in constructing masculinity, running parallel to this were attempts to disassociate themselves from the extremities of alcohol-induced laddishness and considerations that male peers who drank too much were lesser men. However, in their resistance to these extremities, interviewees demonstrated complicity towards more general attributes of hegemonic masculinity, such as independence and the strength to say no. This highlights the complex and somewhat contradictory processes individuals go through in the construction of gender identities, yet also offers a means through which male undergraduates’ risky alcohol use might be challenged.

Regulating girlhood: Evaluative language, discourses of gender socialization and relational aggression

Placing the discursive psychological analysis of sexuality at its centre, this article considers a number of overlapping fields of linguistics: women’s language, construction of gender identities and language and sexuality. By encompassing these fields, in spite of potential differences in terms of theoretical stance and foci of analysis, the present study suggests a wider stance in the analysis of language, gender and sexuality. The study considers two important post-structuralist concepts: performativity and heteronormativity. More precisely, the analysis shows how the sexual identities of British heterosexual female teenagers are discursively constructed and regulated via language use when aggressively relating to other girls in Facebook. The analysis is based on the assumption that sexuality is but one aspect of identity. Although on the surface these British teenagers’ constructions present masculine ‘negative’ mean girls, a closer analysis reveals that more subversive and challenging interpretations can be applied.

Doing gender in cyberspace: The performance of gender by female World of Warcraft players

This explorative study focuses on the performance of gender and sexuality in World of Warcraft (WoW), an online game, following Butler’s performance theory. Through interviews with female WoW players, gender and sexuality is analysed. The article argues that we cannot study gender online without also looking at sexuality. Gender performances are discussed within the framework of four themes: the avatar; strategies; sexuality, and the contextual importance of WoW. Results show that gender identity construction in WoW is an ongoing process highly dependent on the social context of play. The women interviewed created gendered and sexualized identities constrained and empowered by the rules of the game and the opportunities it offers as well as of their social relations. Although a heterosexual norm rules, there are possibilities hitherto unrecognized for queer performance within the gendered role play in WoW and the game offers the possibility of multiple and alternative performances of the self.

Influence of teacher–student interactions on kindergarten children's developing gender identity within the Pakistani urban classroom culture

In the current global push to explore the diverse and complex ways in which the school culture contributes to the shaping of young children's gender identity, early childhood teachers’ role in this process is an area of concern which has received limited attention. Furthermore, the schooling experiences of early years children in developing world contexts such as Pakistan remain largely absent. As such, this article discusses findings from a study investigating the role of women teachers’ practice in the construction of children's gender identities in the kindergarten classroom culture of one urban co‐education school in the highly gender‐segregated Pakistani context. Seven teachers and approximately 120 children were involved. Data collection included teacher interviews and observations of teaching practice. Data were qualitatively and quantitatively analysed. The complex and dynamic nature of the gendered classroom culture reflected the teachers’ active perpetuation of the dominant patriarchal ideologies in their practice. However, their practice also presented possibilities for change in unconscious and, occasionally, conscious attempts to push gender boundaries towards more equitable gender relationships. The teachers’ gendered practice has significant implications for children's evolving gender identity construction.

Come on my son! Examining fathers, masculinity and ‘fathering through football’

This paper critically considers the concept of fathering through sport by examining the fathering practices of men whose sons played elite junior football at a UK professional club. The paper presents data from participant observation of 33 fathers and in-depth interviews with 18 fathers. The paper outlines how hegemonic masculine discourses inherent in football encouraged various disempowering fathering practices. Fathers were able to legitimize these as being necessary for ensuring sons were tough enough to cope with the demands of adult professional football. The integration of ‘football father’ into men's gender identity construction is also considered and highlights further complexities in the fathering through sport process with some men being dependent on sons continuing to participate for their sense of selves. This is shown to bring particular pressures to the father/son relationship and can have damaging consequences for them as both men and fathers if sons' involvement in elite junior football is terminated.