Contemporary Women Research Articles

From 24/7 To 9-5: The Co-Optation And Indigenization1 Of Feminism By Women Rights NGOS In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

The study explores the nature and form of the contemporary women's rights movement utilizing a contextual understanding of feminist activities accentuated by selected women NGOs. The thematic working areas of these organizations were aimed to gauge the status of women in the region to see how coherent and impactful the women’s movement is to achieve its goals in the presence and pressure of government and donor policies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 participants working in Peshawar-based women/feminist NGOs using the purposive sampling technique. Herbert Blummer's theoretical model of stages of social movements was used to validate the findings. The study findings revealed that the contemporary women's rights movement in the region of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is diverse, fragmented and its existence is dependent on the efforts made by individuals and organizations. Furthermore, the women's rights struggle has been NGOized because NGOs are donors dependent for their activities, and volunteerism became a rare virtue as feminism is commercialized and carried out mostly for social media stories and for attacking more funding for the NGOs. Street activism which used to be the backbone of the Pakistani women’s movement has now changed into paid activism. In short, the definition of the contemporary women's rights movement is different from the water-tight definition discussed in the textbooks. It is rudimentary that may potentially be evolved into a vibrant and organized movement subject to favorable circumstances.

Art in the Time of Pandemic: Elisabetta Sirani, Artistic Agency, and Capitalist Social Reproduction

Art in the Time of Pandemic: Elisabetta Sirani, Artistic Agency, and Capitalist Social Reproduction

Arab American Feminism: The Political and the Literary Strategies of Re-writing between Borders in Contemporary Post-9/11 Fiction by Women Writers

Undeniably, Arab American women occupy a debatable position in mainstream culture and politics. Because of their former invisibility, they started to claim their presence and to fight for their rights in post-9/11 America. They ardently become aware of their submission to both Arab patriarchy and sexism and the necessity to fight against this denigrating position. Likewise, they realise that they were silenced in discourses against Arab and Muslim discrimination in the United States. This paper focuses on the ways they have been challenging these discriminatory and invisibilizing discourses against Arab women through shedding light on their Transnational Feminist concerns in their writings, in which they have created a site to communicate anti-discrimination discourses, and to oppose the stereotypical monolithic portrayals of Arab men that are mainly due to the hypervisibility and the demonization of Arabs in post- 9/11 America. Additionally, it highlights how the Shehrazadian narrative strategy in contemporary Arab American women’s writing engulfs several features and illustrations of confrontation and resistance to the stereotypical representations of Arab women, mainly in the American popular culture. Indeed, Shehrazade and her narrative strategies become in this context a collective means for re-writing, reviving and redefining grandmother figures from the past. Shehrazed’s storytelling, as a life-serving strategy, becomes a metaphor for the urgency of exploring why and how figures like Shehrazade are translated across cultures and how Orientalism shapes such translation.

Designing for Curves

Designing for Curves

Black Identities, Contemporary Literature, and Afro-diasporic Traditions

ABSTRACT The goal of this article is to provide a critical appraisal of the religious tropes embedded in contemporary Black women’s writing in Brazil. By examining Afro-diasporic religious symbols in literary texts, I highlight the survival of African deities as a significant move to transform the lasting effects of historical repression against African-derived religions. As cultural warriors, Black women writers use African heritage as a strategy to redress the history of derogation of Black humanity, affirm racial identities, and revise the epistemic violence sanctioned by institutionalized Christianity.

ENGLISH HYPERBOLE IN CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S FICTION PROSE (A STUDY OF SOPHIE KINSELLA’S NOVELS)

The article presents findings of the ongoing project on the use of hyperbole in contemporary women’s fiction prose, as one of the peculiarities of this genre. The novelty of our study consists in the fact that the genre characteristics and plot devices of romance novels have been abundantly dwelt upon in scholarly researches while the stylistic aspects of the genre have not been explicated enough. The texts constituting the empirical material for the research are the novels “Twenties Girl” and “Can You Keep a Secret?” by Sophie Kinsella, one of the bestselling contemporary English writers. The theoretical background of the research is based on the studies that were carried out by scholars whose field of expertise combines the issues related to literary criticism, context and rhetorical devices. Hyperbole being a typical feature of female writing, and there existing multiple taxonomies of hyperboles, the present study aims at defining peculiarities of the target trope, which is typical of female romance novel. Therefore, the focus in the given study is on the types of hyperbolic expressions, which prevail in the analysed text, i.e. quantitative hyperboles and adjectives-in-thesuperlative-degree hyperboles. The research confirms that hyperbole is a context-dependent linguistic phenomenon. The results of the study are reflected in the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the hyperbolic occurrences. The former shows that among hyperboles-numerals, million is most frequently used in the female writing by contrast with the numerals fifty, ten thousand, bazillion, which are least frequently used. Qualitative analysis presents the taxonomy of semantic fields formed by adjectives-in-the-superlative-degree hyperboles (e.g. inanimate objects, behavior, relationships) and displays a high prevalence of occurrences of those from anthropological domain. Moreover, the study demonstrates that the numerical hyperbole’s literal, objective-logical meaning denoting quantity becomes an intensifier and merges with the acquired in the context subjectiveevaluative, more expressive meaning, with a positive or negative connotation.

Black Brazilians on the Move

AbstractThis Keynote offers a brief overview of an artistic and activist editorial project based in São Paulo City, the magazine O Menelick 2° Ato, as well as presents a portrait of some Black contemporary women artists, some of them interdisciplinary, and articulates modes of interrogating political and symbolic violence and subjugation from Brazilian colonially, creating an artistic presence rooted in the search for self-determination, autonomy, and modes of existence ignited by Black diasporas’ ways of self-writing. Their creative work also disrupts hegemonic epistemologies and calls us to look at what is going on in the Black South America.

Fra voksenfobi til moderskab i dansk samtidslitteratur


 
 
 The articles provides an overview of an important thematic change in contemporary Danish women’s writing, a change from ‘adulthood phobia’ to motherhood. This shift relates to complex changes in feminist discourses, from equality feminism to difference feminism. The article also investigates how the literary works interpret the affective stakes of these changes.
 
 , Adulthood phobia, Feminism, Affect, Gender
 
 

Call and Response: The Narrative Politics of Precedent and Structure in Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates

Author(s): Magee, Liam | Abstract: As the oldest surviving film by an African American director, Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates (1920) has been the object of considerable curiosity as both a historical artifact and a formative work of Black art. Of particular interest is the densely intertextual nature of the film’s narrative, which takes substantial cues from many tropes common to race fiction of the early twentieth century. This is perhaps most clearly evidenced by the film’s opening hour, which plays out as a nearly exact specimen of the racial uplift stories that dominated the era’s Black literary scene, and by its final five minutes, which clearly replicate the marriage plots that defined contemporary women’s literature. Crucially, these allusions—and, more importantly, the optimistic racial and socioeconomic philosophies they entail—are complicated by the presence of a late flashback sequence whose traumatic contents, rife with brutal racial and sexual violence, seem diametrically at odds with the idealism that defines the rest of the film. This paper investigates this seemingly problematic tonal disjunction by seeking to examine the flashback in its proper narratological context, exploring its aesthetic roots in mediums as diverse as newsprint, novels, and lynch photography, in order to better understand the ways in which the flashback’s inclusion modifies—or even challenges—the film’s dramatic thesis. The argument is finally made that the flashback’s disruptive nature is in fact its greatest strength, generating a complex interrogation of the platitudinous narrative archetypes that define both the remainder of the film and the race literature of Micheaux’s time.

“An Indigenous Sovereignty of the Imagination”: Reenvisioning the Great Australian Novel in Alexis Wright's Carpentaria

Alexis Wright's second novel, Carpentaria, received critical acclaim upon its publication by Giramondo in 2006. As the recipient of the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2007, Carpentaria cemented Wright's position as the country's foremost Indigenous novelist. This article places Carpentaria within contemporary discussions of “big, ambitious novels” by contemporary women novelists by examining the ways the novel simultaneously invites and resists its inclusion into an established canon of “great Australian novels” (GANs). While critics have been quick to celebrate the formal innovations of Carpentaria as what makes it worthy of GAN status, the novel nevertheless opposes the integrationist and homogenizing myths that accompany canonization. Therefore, the article finds that Wright's vision of a future Australia involves moments of antagonism and mutual understanding between white settler and Indigenous communities. This article uses the work of Homi Bhabha to argue that Carpentaria demonstrates the emergence of a third space wherein negotiation between these two cultures produces knowledge that is “new, neither the one nor the other.” In so doing, Wright shows the resilience of Indigenous knowledge even as it is subject to transformation upon contact with contradictory ideological and epistemological frameworks.

Parametric Design as an Approach for Enhancing Creativity in Women Fashion Design

Architecture is a form of self-expression and one of the most influential arts, as it expresses the human interaction with society and the surrounding environment. The development in architecture since the beginning of the twentieth century appeared in both form and content, which made it the subject of interest of a number of fashion designers, as it is possible to take advantage of technical progress in architecture to design clothes that achieve aesthetic aspects through the use of continuous, curved and intersecting lines (Muhammad et al., 2017). RESEARCH PROBLEM: The problem of this research can be formulated through some questions: What is the concept of parametric design? What is the possibility of the effect of parametric design on fashion design? How can the parametric manipulation affect level of design creativity? OBJECTIVES: The research aims to: Identify the importance, features, and applications of parametric design and creating fashion designs for women that reflect the lines and shapes of parametric design. RESULTS & DISCUSSION: The correlation relationship between the variables under study was a very strong and significant, which means that the axes of the questionnaire under study are in harmony with each other in achieving the possibility of the possibility of increasing the level of creativity and innovation fluency in the field of contemporary women's fashion design by using parametric manipulations. Regression model: It is a significant model. Results explain the effect of the four independent variables on the dependent variable. Therefore, it can be predicted through these independent variables by interpreting 99% of the variance in the use of parametric design as a rich input for innovation and creativity in fashion design. Through the graphic representation, it was also possible to arrange the designs in terms of the overall evaluation of the five axes of the questionnaire. Design No. 6 received the highest rating of approval and evaluation from the judges (96.35%), while Design No. 7 scored the lowest rating among the ten designs (82.25%). It also swallowed the success rate of the five axes combined in achieving the idea of ​​research by (89.22%).

Reversing the Gaze: Subversion and Re-interpretation of Mythical Stereotypes in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions

Epics are indeed an indelible part of our existence carrying us into the timeless history where reality and fantasy blends into a harmonious whole. A diasporic women writer re-creating myth and folklore in a contemporary context and re-telling a popular epic Mahabharata from Draupadi’s perspective is monumental and extraordinary. There have been sudden inclinations on part of the contemporary writers to re-interpret the epics in a new light highlighting the women characters who have been otherwise neglected in the original story as tangible subjects. Usually, epic narratives portray women on an ideological viewpoint; women being embodiments of perseverance and forbearance, mute spectators of misery and injustice perpetrated on them. But Divakaruni re-created the women characters by assigning them a voice of their own so that they become strong enough to express their choices and by living their own bodies vis-à-vis lives. The mystifying feminine psyche of the mythical women characters is unfolded before the readers and many unknown crevices of the inner mind are laid bare. These impressions and explorations of the epic characters were actually a hidden trope for self-discovery and articulation. The Palace of Illusions is a re-creation of the illusionary, magical world of Draupadi and her dream destination and how this world gets shattered in front of her eyes is not only literal but metaphorical in course of the novel. In an attempt to re-work the epic, the contemporary women writers deviate from the usual phallocentric thrust of the epic and make Draupadi the hero of the novel; subverting the stereo-typed gendered version of an epic. Divakaruni’s fiction strives to subvert the gendered binaries looking at the epic and its magnificent characters and events through Panchaali’s gaze. Thus, the Western model of the male gaze is repudiated and the female gaze is celebrated in an altogether new form. Is the story of Mahabharata a familial clash between fraternity or a woman’s personal desire and Panchaali’s revenge which drenched the country and its inhabitants in the blood is the question that is left open-ended for the readers who revisits Mahabharata through the eyes of Draupadi vis-a-vis Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni.

Historical Contribution of Muslim Women in the Construction of Islamic Society at Medina During the Early Period of Islam

The paper is an analytical study of the above topic and this research paper mainly describes the social role of early Muslim women, including the Umahat-ul- Momineen, the believers, the Companions, and the early Muslim women of Islam. These Muslim women played a very active role in the collective betterment of the society and played a central role in its construction. Their role is a unique example for contemporary women of how they have played a full role not only in religious but also in scientific and defense matters by performing the duty of formation and evolution of society in a graceful manner alongside men. They proved his mettle by working side by side. This article is a summary of their effective role and its highlights their contribution for the society.

“He Meddled with or Molested Me”: #MeToo Protests in Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill’s Poetry

The year 2017 was pivotal for women because of the #MeToo movement’s global momentum. People were alerted to the abuses of power and sexual harassment by male authorities in different fields such as government, entertainment and industry. These scandals also helped bring attention to the objectification of women’s normalised bodies and their subjugation in patriarchal cultures. Yet neither this disempowerment of women nor women’s coming forward new, because they have been widely explored in contemporary women’s writing. Examining Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill ’s poetry from the prism of #MeToo, this paper discusses women’s imprisonment and silence, their harassment and victimisation and the docility of their bodies in traditional patriarchal discourse. This paper aims to investigate how women are monitored physically and mentally in male-centred contexts, how they are molested in traditional societies and how they can be empowered by coming forward and telling their own stories. Keywords: the #MeToo movement; Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill; women; harassment; silence

Chinese Women’s Reproductive Justice and Social Media

ABSTRACT By utilizing rhetorical analysis with a focus on agency and feminist rhetoric, this article focuses on China’s most popular pregnancy and mothering app – Babytree – to examine how users assume the mantle of technical writers, writing their pregnant and mothering experiences into online narratives and selling them to generate income. This article shows how Chinese women take advantage of the technical affordances of Babytree to share their embodied experiences and, in so doing, respond to and push back against the traditional norms of motherhood and healthcare provision. The women whose experiences are examined here participate in social media as a way to reenter job markets by using their embodied experiences, thus asserting their rhetorical agency politically and economically while implicitly critiquing the traditional situation of contemporary pregnant women and the state of motherhood in China.

Heroínas de una Sociedad Misógina. Hildergard von Bingen y la Revelación de lo Oculto. Visionarias en el Arte Contemporáneo.

This is the second article of a whole series of reflections in which our main objective is to recover the space that the women should never have lost. In them we review those heroines, combatants in a misogynistic society, who have been influential thinkers in the creative work developed by contemporary women artists. This article is centered on the figure of Hildegard von Bingen, a versatile and visionary nun, who left her legacy in different disciplines such as writing, painting, music, science, among others. A heroine, in which many artists have set their sights as a benchmark for empowerment and have directed their artistic work towards mysticism, generating a connection between art and spirituality. We collect a selection of artists who have used mysticism, silence and visions in their creative process to give voice to a gender problem in this society and to work in the fight for the recovery of a space that should always have belonged to the woman. Artists who, through their work, claim a place in a phallocentric society. Hildegard is a clear example of what we call female heroines in a misogynistic society.

Millennial Dark Ladies

The Dark Lady evoked in Shakespeare’s Sonnets has been the subject of numerous speculations since the Victorian period. Several male writers and critics – George Bernard Shaw, Frank Harris, A. L. Rowse and Anthony Burgess, for example – have undertaken extended imaginative explorations of this alternative woman. More recently, the Dark Lady has become a central figure in millennial novels by women writers, designed primarily for a female reading audience. This article considers what’s at stake by placing this imaginary woman at the heart of Shakespeare’s artistic inspiration, and what this tells us about the meaning(s) of ‘Shakespeare’ for contemporary women writers and readers.

Designing for Khadi kurtis inspired from Mughal silhouettes for contemporary women wear

India is being known for its rich heritage and culture. It is also known as the home of many freedom fighters that played a very important role to free our country. Mahtma Gandhi is one of them leader, who gave us freedom. He is also the creator of Khadi, a fabric which transformed our nation. Khadi is known as a simple or non-lustrous fabric among customers so the demand of khadi is not too high although it is a fabric that is environment friendly and sustains our environment. To increase and promote the demand of khadi, it is most important thing to create some innovative and modern designs. Designing creates interesting visual aspects on its surface and beautifies its appearance; it is the virtuous feature of any fabric or garment. The main objective of this study was to promote the acceptance and popularity of Khadi amongst youth. Designs were developed using fashion software using appropriate elements as per the selected theme. The evaluation of these kurtis was done on the basis of 5 point rating scale on the basis of design, colour, pattern, and aesthetic appeal etc. A positive feedback was obtained from the respondents regarding acceptability to new designs, colour combination and uniqueness of Khadi kurtis. It was concluded from the data the present study had an innovative approach and filled a new zeal in the Khadi kurtis.

Agnès Varda, Jane Birkin, and Kung-fu Master!

Abstract Kung-fu Master! (Le petit amour, France, 1988) arises from a story by Jane Birkin, where an adult woman and a teenage boy fall in love. Birkin's story was meant to be realized as one of the dramatized sequences of Jane B. by Agnès V. (Jane B. par Agnès V., France, 1988), but it became its own parallel film. In prioritizing this story and pushing it to feature length, Varda opened it up for imagining with and beyond Birkin. She made it a fairy-tale, a feminist story about what women may imagine and eroticize, about the grief, pathos, damage, and beauty in this. It became a vital part of Varda's film corpus and of her feminist investigations of different subjectivities and desires, of the affective worlds of contemporary women and children. It takes shape in her tenderness for Jane Birkin, but also in light of her own clearer thinking about childhood, nostalgia, and fantasy. In this film, Varda explores female-authored fantasies in delicate, unabashed, and queer ways. This is part of her feminist legacy for the future. Kung-fu Master! is key.

Empoderamento e equidade de género: os desafios atuais da mulher moçambicana

O presente artigo objetiva debruçar sobre “empoderamento e equidade de género: os desafios actuais da mulher em Moçambique”. A representação política delas pode ser vista com um processo contínuo de disputas, controvérsias e, nas últimas décadas, de alguns progressos em termos de igualdade formal. Significa que, atualmente, a mulher possui o direito legal de participar e representar as instâncias políticas. A mulher contemporânea, a partir de suas conquistas nos vários aspetos sociais, culturais, econômicos e políticos, depara-se com a necessidade de reformular seus papéis no desempenho de tarefas relacionadas ao casamento, à maternidade, à família, à sexualidade e à sua carreira profissional. O objetivo central é analisar as contribuições feitas pelas mulheres para o seu empoderamento e equidade de género, olhando para os principais desafios que elas enfrentam hoje. A contribuição dos seus ideias para as mulheres moçambicanas deve-se, por um lado, a fatores institucionais como a democratização, as quotas de género e os sistemas eleitorais; por outro, os novos movimentos de mulheres, regionais e internacionais, que ressurgiram no início da década de 90, marcaram o debate da Conferência sobre as Mulheres em Beijing. A pesquisa é basicamente teórica, partindo da análise bibliográfica das obras que versam sobre o assunto, acompanhada da desconstrução que permitiu a leitura, interpretação e compreensão dos textos. Como resultados, esperamos que o texto possa contribuir positivamente para repensar Mondlane, hoje, atendendo a ideia de emancipação, empoderamento económico e equidade de género da mulher moçambicana que teve este ativista como seu promotor principal e os primeiros passos da construção de uma educação para todos.