Construction Of Femininity Research Articles

Women of Gülhane: multiple femininities and gendered spaces of ‘The Festival of Spring and Flowers’

This paper explores the discursive and spatial construction of feminine norms during the ‘Festival of Spring and Flowers,’ a momentous urban event held at Gülhane Park, İstanbul, from 1950 to 1960. Gülhane was a bustling and highly frequented location during the Festival, serving as a significant site of convergence, interaction, and contestation. Consequently, Gülhane provides a crystallized and concise cross-section of the ubiquitous femininities in 1950s Istanbul. Drawing upon textual and visual archival evidence, the author(s) argue that the Festival played a pivotal role in perpetuating gendered norms by consistently portraying ‘liberated, domesticated, and pariah’ femininities. Concomitant with the trifold construction of femininity, the space itself took on a ‘gendered persona’; Gülhane was depicted as a safe and sterile location when frequented by the ‘liberated and domesticated’ women, but was perceived as an ‘immoral’ space when ‘invaded’ by the ‘pariah’ women. The gendered history of 1950s İstanbul have been largely overlooked in the current scholarship, despite the emergence of new gendered norms alongside the transforming political landscape in Turkey during that time. This article will address this literature gap by conducting an in-depth historical analysis of the gender norms within the Festival. Additionally, this study will contribute to İstanbul’s urban literature by exploring the notable yet relatively uncharted Festival.

How to Enhance Female Self-Perception and Social Role Awareness in Adolescent Education Through The Second Sex

This paper explores how Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex can be utilized in adolescent education to enhance female self-perception and social role awareness. The Second Sex critically examines the socio-cultural construction of femininity, arguing that gender roles are not innate but socially imposed. By integrating Beauvoir’s insights into the educational curriculum, young women are encouraged to critically analyze the external narratives shaping their identities and societal roles. The paper discusses key themes from The Second Sex, such as the myth of the “Eternal Feminine,” the socialization of girls, and the critique of traditional gender expectations. It highlights classroom strategies, including reflective writing, media analysis, debates, and collaborative learning, which empower students to challenge conformity, build critical thinking skills, and redefine their roles in society. Through this approach, educators can foster a supportive environment that inspires young women to actively shape their identities and resist restrictive societal norms, ultimately contributing to a more equitable and self-aware generation.

Gendered socialization and sexual violence - A socio-anthropological study in Togo.

This article bases its argument on the social representations that justify sexual violence against adolescent girls and women and make it commonplace. It looks at the constructions of masculinity and femininity and their potential effects on the occurrence of sexual violence among adolescent girls. This is a socio-anthropological study carried out in the plateau regions of Togo. The empirical data came from individual semi-directive interviews (55), life stories (4) of adolescent rape victims and group interviews (40) with several stakeholders (adolescents, parents of adolescents, educators, community leaders and religious leaders). The results show that despite the efforts of the State and non-governmental organisations, local sexuality logics often have an impact on the persistence of sexual violence. (.

‘This space inside’: An art-based autoethnographic exploration of the hysterectomy experience

This article presents an art-based autoethnographic account of the hysterectomy experience, from the perspective of a perinatal therapist based in a large maternity hospital. The key questions explored include the ways in which a sense of bodily and psychic integrity can be reclaimed post-operatively, alongside the integration of losses associated with a hysterectomy. The article is structured as an autoethnographic exploration, derived from a visual diary incorporating image-making, hand-stitching and writing. Four key themes are discussed with reference to specific images: ‘Navigating disruption’, ‘Adjusting to a changed body’, ‘Accommodating losses: Emerging into Otherhood’ and ‘Renewal: Recovering an inner space’. This personal account is considered against wider cultural and sociopolitical discourses which inform our constructions of femininity. The article offers a counterpoint to medical narratives which may assume recovery from a hysterectomy to be synonymous only with physical recuperation.

‘There’s nothing you can do’: multi-level factors affecting the careers of female football coaches in Poland

The main objective of this article is to examine the professional experiences of female football coaches in Poland. Existing research within the field of coaching science has highlighted a noticeable underrepresentation of women in this profession. However, the available data on this topic is limited to specific areas. By utilizing Brofenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, this study aimed to identify the primary obstacles female coaches encounter and the few factors that support women in this coaching realm. The findings of this study could potentially contribute to a more inclusive and diverse coaching landscape in Poland and beyond. Drawing from qualitative interviews (n = 7), the results illuminate a multifaceted array of challenges the participants face at different stages of their careers, varying in intensity. The findings underscore the remarkable resilience of Polish female coaches, who confront barriers predominantly emanating from socio-cultural presumptions prevailing within the football community. These challenges are compounded by perceptions of the game as inherently ‘masculine’ and Polish society’s conventional constructs of masculinity and femininity.

Gender in Cross-Cultural Encounters: Orientalism and Self-Orientalisation in Chinese-Language Young Adult Fiction

AbstractIn this article, we read and analyse selected young adult novels by Chinese-German author Wei Cheng that address the dilemmas faced by young female Chinese immigrants in Western countries. The aim is to explore the ways in which the construction of femininity and gender are inextricably bound up with categories of race and ethnicity in China-West encounters, and to probe the dynamics of such encounters embedded in the larger socio-political power structures. Through a critical analysis of the representation of Chinese femininity vis-à-vis Western masculinity, the essay interrogates the workings of the “Orientalist gaze” in relation to patriarchy and gender politics. The portrayals of the cross-racial encounter in Shaonv de Hong Chenyi (The Girl’s Red T-Shirt), which reiterate received ideas about the Orient, may be read as a product of self-Orientalisation, where the intriguing position of the adolescent Chinese girl prompts a rethinking of postcolonial gendered subjectivities. While self-Orientalisation may work to legitimate the discourse of Orientalism, the reading of Shaonv de Hong Faqia (The Girl’s Red Hairpin) reveals the ways in which self-Orientalisation could function as strategic essentialism that allows the female “Oriental” Other to gaze back and stand Orientalism on its head. The marriage between gendered and postcolonial approaches to children’s and young adult texts promises to act as a crucial intervention in the global struggle against hegemony.

‘We haven’t even been able to talk!’: gender norms and masculinity exams in representations of sexuality in Spanish primary schools

ABSTRACT Through language, children participate actively in the construction of meanings around sexuality, which is governed unequally according to gender. This article examines the articulation of the social constructions of sexuality and gender with the pictorial and narrative representations of boys and girls from 9 to 11 years of age from four public schools in Barcelona province in the 2020–2021 school year. We used participatory methods, including drawing activities and focus groups. The findings suggest that hegemonic social constructions of masculinity and femininity guide children’s practices and narratives about sexuality, (re)producing differences between ‘boys’ and ‘girls’. The desire to fit into these hegemonic models puts pressure on boys to make their genitalia and bodies visible, and talk about sexuality through joking, while female genitalia are rendered invisible, and girls have calm discussions about sexuality. The article shows how children navigate, negotiate, or resist such governmentality and the inequalities that result.

The Evolving Constructions of Femininity in Animated Films: Their Effects on Female Gender Beliefs- with a focus on the characters of Mulan and Cinderella

The research investigates how femininity is represented in animated films by comparing the characters of Mulan and Cinderella. While Mulan portrays a strong and independent female lead, Cinderella adheres to traditional gender norms. The study aims to analyze how animated films can reinforce or challenge gender stereotypes and emphasizes the importance of diverse and inclusive media portrayals.

Constructing Adolescent Sexuality Through Schooling: Analysis on Gender Socialisation in All-girls Schools at the Secondary Level in Kerala

This article seeks to understand the processes of gender socialisation in schools. The article endeavours to analyse the construction of normative femininity in the strict contours of schooling and to capture the response of students to it. The context of this article is the critique of the celebrated Kerala development model, suggesting that a better status for women continues to be a challenging process. The research was carried out on adolescents in two all-girls schools in Kerala, a convent private school and a government school. Qualitative research methods were used for the study. The research foregrounds how schooling continues to perpetuate the social control of girls that undercuts the efforts and aims of the curriculum. The article presents key aspects of the socialisation of female sexuality that spawns a stereotypical and rigid femininity.

Reprint: In a Different Voice: Women's Conceptions of Self and of Morality

As theories of developmental psychology continue to define educational goals and practice, it has become imperative for educators and researchers to scrutinize not only the underlying assumptions of such theories but also the model of adulthood toward which they point. Carol Gilligan examines the limitations of several theories, most notably Kohlberg's stage theory of moral development, and concludes that developmental theory has not given adequate expression to the concerns and experience of women. Through a review of psychological and literary sources, she illustrates the feminine construction of reality. From her own research data, interviews with women contemplating abortion, she then derives an alternative sequence for the development of women's moral judgments. Finally, she argues for an expanded conception of adulthood that would result from the integration of the “feminine voice” into developmental theory.

Deconstructing Ex Machina (2014): a feminist-psychoanalytic exploration of female artificial intelligences

This article examines the portrayal of female artificial intelligences (AIs) in Hollywood's science fiction (SF) films, with a primary focus on Ex Machina. Employing feminist and psychoanalytic perspectives, the study critically reassesses how socio-cultural expectations and patriarchal desires shape the cinematic representation of female AIs. It seeks to address a nuanced gap by revealing the unconscious psychological forces that mold gendered imprints within technology and analyzing how (female) AIs, positioned as posthuman beings, not only mirror but engage in the construction of femininity for the fulfillment of male fantasies and the subversion of male dominance, accomplished through the strategic manipulation of “artificial skin” and gynoid bonding. Finally, this paper aims to contribute to the broader discourse on gender dynamics surrounding female AIs and their power relations with humanity in the cinematic SF. It explores the narrative functions of intelligent fembots, which may disrupt patriarchal narratives both in reel life and, perhaps, real life.

Girls gone wild: animality, female teenagers, and disidentification in contemporary European cinema

ABSTRACT Contemporary European cinema insistently depicts female teenagers in association with non-human animals. This article focuses on a group of films in which the teenage protagonists approach animality while closely surrounded by systems of exploitation of animals. The films Axolotl Overkill (Helene Hegemann, 2017), Raw (Julia Ducournau, 2016), and Eastern (Piotr Adamski, 2019) feature female teenagers that experience oppression over their bodies. Animality appears both as part of their oppression and as a subversive alternative to negotiate their appointed social role as girls. The analyzed films explore narrative and aesthetic modes of disruption of the division between human/animal, as they articulate constructive encounters and even identification with the human and the non-human. Additionally, these films confront normative constructions of femininity through abject animality. Instead of ‘becoming women’, the protagonists embrace a more fluid transformation. These films propose ways of representing animals without participating in the traditional, spectacularizing gaze that reinforces the hierarchy of dominance of the human over the non-human. In this sense, this article contributes to the aim of animal (film) studies to rethink how visual culture represents the non-human. Lastly, these films appear more broadly as part of a larger tendency in contemporary European cinema inscribing animals in a critique of conventional femininity.

"Arrest me, DeleGata!" - gender performativities in the construction of beauty as an aesthetic and discursive weapon of power among female Civil Police chiefs.

This article discusses the performative gender constructions of female police chiefs working in Rio de Janeiro state. Using cartography as a research method, we follow the paths, connections, and construction of femininities, activated and performed by our respondents to establish a place of respect and prominence within and outside the Institution, using beauty as an aesthetic and discursive power tool based on the DeleGata performative class. Cartographic interviews were conducted with nine female police chiefs in Rio de Janeiro state aged 30 to 59. Although the police have historically valued recognized masculine ideals, such as strength and virility, the gender performativities operated by female police chiefs allow for police feminization. The figure/enunciation of DeleGata, who builds an image of the female police chief, implying a unity, signifies producing political subjects, ideas, and values that reach a communicative and performative standard, making visible some woman who adorns - with her beauty - and simultaneously surprises - with her intelligence. The DeleGata thus brings into play apparently antagonistic extremes: beauty-intelligence, sensuality-power, femininity-strength, producing a social and symbolic regimen for the production of bodies and femininities.

“Me prende, DeleGata!” - performatividades de gênero na construção da beleza como uma arma estética e discursiva de poder entre delegadas da Polícia Civil

Abstract This article discusses the performative gender constructions of female police chiefs working in Rio de Janeiro state. Using cartography as a research method, we follow the paths, connections, and construction of femininities, activated and performed by our respondents to establish a place of respect and prominence within and outside the Institution, using beauty as an aesthetic and discursive power tool based on the DeleGata performative class. Cartographic interviews were conducted with nine female police chiefs in Rio de Janeiro state aged 30 to 59. Although the police have historically valued recognized masculine ideals, such as strength and virility, the gender performativities operated by female police chiefs allow for police feminization. The figure/enunciation of DeleGata, who builds an image of the female police chief, implying a unity, signifies producing political subjects, ideas, and values that reach a communicative and performative standard, making visible some woman who adorns - with her beauty - and simultaneously surprises - with her intelligence. The DeleGata thus brings into play apparently antagonistic extremes: beauty-intelligence, sensuality-power, femininity-strength, producing a social and symbolic regimen for the production of bodies and femininities.

Femininity, Humor, and TV Comedies: The Wit of Fran Fine, Lorelai Gilmore, and Mrs. Maisel

Women and wit seem to belong together in contemporary TV comedies. But looking more closely at wit reveals that it has undergone a series of transformations in its cultural value as a type of humor, its moral implications, and its meaning. In this article, I bring these shifting, often contradictory, gendered meanings of humorous wit into conversation with the often conflicting representational strategies that have informed the construction of femininity in contemporary mainstream TV comedies, such as Fran Drescher’s The Nanny, and Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In my readings of the shows’ central characters, I analyze how certain tropes, such as romance, motherhood, self-defense, or deflection reconcile the sharpness of female wit with traditional femininity.

Gender and Genre in Translation: The Linguistic Construction of Femininity in the American and French Editions of Early 1920s VOGUE

This paper aims to bridge the gap between gender, genre and translation studies by taking an interdisciplinary approach across these research areas and employing some of the tools of corpus linguistics to provide a contrastive analysis of the linguistic construction of femininity in the American and French editions of early-1920s Vogue. In particular, it takes as a sample twenty-four Vogue issues published in 1921 and focuses on its extensive fashion features, originally written in English and then translated or adapted so as to appear in the French edition. A contrastive analysis of two parallel corpora (one consisting of the fashion articles published in 1921 Vogue US and another comprising their translations/adaptations for Vogue France) as regards frequency, collocational patterning and co-textual environment of lexical items pertaining to the domains of fashion and femininity reveals both similarities and differences in the linguistic representation of gender identity across two different cultures, alongside the adoption of particular translation strategies.

“Junge Mädchen” and “Daughters of the Sky”: Transatlantic Changes in the Construction of Femininity after 1930

AbstractThe difference between the representation of German femininity in the 1920s and the 1930s is striking: while glamorous flappers with bob haircuts ruled the beginning of the interwar period, its end is characterized by serious and earnest—and often longhaired—young women. Rather than taking the obvious route of relating this change to the political changes in Germany, most importantly the rise of the Nazis, this article argues that the changing representation of interwar femininity in Germany was always embedded in a transnational, transatlantic process. The transformation of flappers into humble girls started well before the Nazis came to power and was fueled by a wide variety of voices, from communist to bourgeois actors.

“Talk you of killing?”: Rhetorical Construction of Tragic Femininity in William Shakespeare’s Othello, Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam and John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi

“Talk you of killing?”: Rhetorical Construction of Tragic Femininity in William Shakespeare’s Othello, Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam and John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi

Emma Coronel y la feminidad buchona en redes sociodigitales. Formas de resignificar a la mujer en el narcotráfico

Este texto analiza discursos sobre Emma Coronel, esposa de Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, y la feminidad buchona en Instagram y TikTok. Empleando la netnografía, se aproxima a las redes sociodigitales para abordar la relación entre la narcocultura y el género, implicando componentes socioculturales, económicos, políticos, históricos y tecnológicos. Se identifican prácticas y discursos que participan en la construcción de la feminidad buchona. Sin embargo, se cuestiona el capital erótico como una forma de resistencia en el narcomundo.

An ethnographic fieldwork: The role of school shows in the reproduction of gender inequalities in Turkey

AbstractThis article explores the processes of creating school shows in primary schools in Turkey and examines how teachers reinforce particular gendered constructions of femininity and masculinity through children's bodies in the making of these performances. Drawing on the insights from the sociology of the body within childhood research, the article is based on an ethnography conducted in a costume shop in Istanbul where teachers rent costumes for the shows, as well as interviews with teachers preparing the shows and observations made during the performances. The research reveals that the shows perpetuate gender norms and stereotypes while reproducing inequalities.