Female Identity Research Articles

Redefining Female Identity Through the Female Gaze: A Comparative Analysis of Gender Narratives in Feminist Cinema

Abstract: This paper examines how female directors convey feminist consciousness and challenge traditional gender roles through the female gaze in film. Through film analysis, theoretical research, and case studies, this paper examines how female directors have redefined female roles and narratives in contrast to traditional male perspectives. The conventional male perspective has traditionally objectified and marginalized women with the male gaze in visual expression. However, the female perspective portrays women as complex and multidimensional subjects, breaking the male-dominated narrative paradigm and offering new possibilities for reimagining the image of women on screen. Through a feminist lens, this paper further analyzes how the female perspective resists widespread misogyny and provides a counter-narrative to traditional patriarchal representations. In addition, this study examines how female perspectives from different cultural contexts have advanced feminist film theory globally. By highlighting their unique visual expressions, the study demonstrates how these directors advance feminist discourse through their filmmaking, challenging gender, and cultural norms.

THE OTHER: IDENTITY DIMENSIONS OF FEMININE ‘SELF’ IN DORIS LESSING’S SHORT STORIES COLLECTION “A MAN AND TWO WOMEN”

Short fiction by British women writers from the postwar era of the 20th century demonstrates an enduring focus on the essence of female identity. This paper examines short stories by Doris Lessing, a prominent figure in British literature, who has yet to receive proper attention in Ukrainian literary criticism. To address the issue of British female identity in the postwar period, the researcher employed new criticism methods, specifically close reading and feminist criticism, namely gynocritics (E. Showalter), as well as comparative analysis. The examination of selected short stories by D. Lessing revealed certain patterns in the author’s style. Her formal skill is marked by the principle of duplication, which includes: a) repetition of problems, such as marital crises and polygamy (e.g., “A Man and Two Women”, “Each Other”, “To Room Nineteen”); b) duplication of character names (“Each Other”); c) recurrence of plot situations, such as adultery (“A Man and Two Women”, “To Room Nineteen”), and characters’ unhealthy states, including personality disorders (“Dialogue”) and madness (“To Room Nineteen”); d) use of dual narrative perspectives (“To Room Nineteen”, “Dialogue”). The issues related to female identity in D. Lessing’s collection of short stories are presented within two broader contexts: marriage and extramarital relations. Accordingly, two main forms of female individuality emerge: a) the betrayed wife (“A Man and Two Women”, “To Room Nineteen”) and b) the mistress (“Between Men”, “Our Friend Judith”) and her modification, the free woman (“Dialogue”). Despite being mature, intelligent, and experienced, all these characters remain lonely and unhappy.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire: Deconstruction of Female Identity

Abstract: Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a drama film directed by Cline Sciamma and starring Adle Haenel and Nomie Merlant. The film centers on the passionate love story between Heloise, a bride on the brink of marriage, and Marianne, the painter commissioned to create her portrait. This paper analyses the construction and deconstruction of female identity in Portrait of a Lady on Fire through the lenses of gaze theory and feminist identity theory. It begins by exploring Heloise's resistance to the objectifying male gaze, illustrated through her defiance against the passive model identity and her challenge to the myth of Orpheus, which traditionally casts women in powerlessness and rescue role. The paper then delves into the film's critique of the roles of wife and mother within the patriarchal, heteronormative family structure, drawing on Simone de Beauvoir's ideas in The Second Sex to further contextualize the film's feminist discourse. Through these analyses, the paper reveals how the film reimagines and challenges traditional female identities, offering a detailed and subtle portrayal of women's autonomy and identity.

Drifting Away from the Roots: Genderfluidity as Diola’s Mangrove Fishing Strategies in Three Island-Villages of Northern Guinea-Bissau

AbstractBiodiversity loss, habitat degradation, globalization, and societal transformations are challenging rural, and especially coastal communities in Guinea-Bissau where mangrove-dependent livelihoods are exposed to increased vulnerability. The Diola, traditional farmer-fishermen of the northern island-villages, have witnessed swift societal changes following the country’s economic liberalization, climate change, and youth migration from rural areas. Despite historically being a secondary subsistence activity with more predefined gender roles rooted in tradition, mangrove fishing has become a major source of cash income. Yet, women’s mangrove fishing contributions are still overlooked, resulting in general assumptions of static female fishing identities with limited control over their income. We present three case studies of Diola women’s involvement in mangrove fishing through a mixed method approach that combines qualitative techniques and household surveys conducted between 2017 and 2023. Specifically, we explore: (1) diverging societal coping strategies and livelihood developments in three Diola villages; (2) the primary drivers behind village-specific societal transformations; (3) social dynamics and female roles in mangrove fishing-related activities and village decision-making; and (4) the political ecology of interventions. Our findings underscore the complexity of gender-fluid small-scale fishing strategies as female roles beyond fish trade defy cultural generalizations. Contemporary Diola women make autonomous personal and work choices that meet their current needs and add to their household budget to face new welfare demands. Inclusive resource governance needs more gender-specific data for meaningfully implemented interventions adapted to local circumstances, enabling an active participation of all genders in conservation practices and development.

MARIA MARIA! Exploring Filipina Identity Through Mixed-Media Graphic Design

This practice-led project explores Filipina Identity through mixed media graphic design, asking how two halves of a Pre and Post-Colonial female identity may exist in visual and narrative harmony. Through a series of seven assemblages, the practitioner takes the bold landscapes and bright, colourful creatures of Pre-Colonial Philippine mythology into the intensely sacred space of devotional shrines. In doing so, the project reviews key areas of Western Storytelling; Filipino Cubism; and 20th Century Assemblage. By using Western devices to frame indigenous content, the practitioner hopes to create a timeless, familiar narrative with a native twist.

“(Un)Being a Mother” Media Representation of Motherhood and Female Identity

This research examines the portrayal of (non)motherhood in television series from 2016 to 2022. The title, “(Un)being a Mother”, was deliberately chosen for its polysemic nature, facilitating an exploration of the complexities of motherhood, its absence, and the implications for womanhood. The study thematically analyzes 15 television series from Hispanic, Italian, and Anglo-American cultures to reveal the diverse perspectives on motherhood. Utilizing the frameworks of Intensive Mothering, Good Mothering, Good Enough Mothering, and Non-Mothering (including both childless and childfree women), the research aims to illuminate representations of motherhood, variations in mothering paradigms, and the influence of cultural and geographical contexts. This study introduces an innovative methodological approach by investigating recurring themes of (non)motherhood across different cultural productions, incorporating insights from media sociology, gender media studies, anthropology, and ethnographic media research for a comprehensive understanding of the subject.

A Voice of Liberty and Protest: Exploring Binodini’s Identity Crisis, Power and Self-discovery in Tagore’s Chokher Bali (A Grain of Sand)

The cultural icon and trail blazer of Bengali Renaissance Rabindranath Tagore has experimented successfully upon some great female protagonists in his fiction who have managed to curve a niche for themselves in world literature. A master artist, he has also depicted with his dexterously professional brushstrokes a host of highly progressive and brave female identities with a strong voice of protest against all prejudices of the contemporary backward and prejudiced Hindu communities as well as against all conservative forces of fate and society. Tagore has portrayed extremely meticulously some female voices, attributing them to the strength of motherhood, the beauty of the beloved, and the strong power of womanhood, allowing them to develop their own individual status and identity in a stereotypical, male dominated, and patriarchal Bengali society. This paper undertakes to explore Binodini, a finely crafted character in the Novel ‘Chokher Bali’ by Tagore, who battles over her identity breaks a fresh ground for her own, and emerges as an uncompromisingly assertive woman with a voice and brand of her own. It explores that she is not terrified by the severity of the male gaze or trodden down by the repression of the male centric society in her journey through liberty and blossoms an individual very sure of herself by breaking the image of the traditional Indian womanhood.

Ann Brooks’ Postfeminist Studies on Omani Women’s Identity

This study aims to describe the aspects of influence and identity shaping of female characters in the novel "Sayyidaat Alqomar" by Jokha Alharthi based on Ann Brooks' perspective. This research is oriented towards discussing three aspects, namely postfeminist deconstruction, differences, and women's identity. This type of research is descriptive qualitative research with feminist analysis. Data analysis techniques in this study use the Miles and Huberman method with three stages: data reduction, data presentation, and conclusions. The results of this study are as follows: (1) The influence of postfeminist deconstruction is identified in two aspects. First, gender equality in the relationship between husband and wife and inequality among women. Second, traditional stereotypes that female characters respond as representations of deconstruction with responses to ignore and voice criticism; (2) the differences that affect the identity of female characters are identified, that a woman can own both masculine and feminine sides; and (3) the form of female identity influenced by two factors. First, external factors: destiny and modernization. Second, experience factors: hobbies, work, and trauma. These findings confirm the diversity of Women’s identity in Modernization and pave the way for postfeminist studies towards Omani women.

Gendered Authorship of the Female Identity: A Gynocritical Comparative Study between Norwegian Wood and the God of Small Things

The paper seeks to elucidate the differences in the representation of women in male- and female-authored texts, specifically analyzing Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. Numerous critics over the years have noted that male and female authors often portray femininity in markedly different ways. While male authors tend to perpetuate prejudiced or stereotypical views of women, female authors, drawing from their direct experiences of womanhood, provide more authentic depictions that foster female empowerment. Theoretically identifying this marked difference is thus the primary aim of this paper and hence this study employs a qualitative textual analysis, utilizing theoretical frameworks such as Michel Foucault’s discourses of sexuality, Elaine Showalter’s gynocriticism, Hélène Cixous’s écriture féminine, Judith Butler’s gender performativity, and Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of gender stereotypes. The findings reveal a significant divergence in the way that male- and female-authored texts characterize female figures. Murakami, in his portrayal of Naoko and Midori, has often associated reductive and stereotypical attributes that in essence undermine their agencies and voices; their attributes and mannerisms were shown to be limited to emotional and/or sexual contexts that conflate the female experience and undermine gender fluidity. In contrast, Roy depicted Ammu and Rahel in accordance to feminist sensibilities as they can be seen to portray androgyny as well as employ their sexualities to challenge and subvert social norms and stereotypes. The study therefore concludes that women-authored narratives provide more nuanced and authentic representations of female experiences, whereas male-authored texts frequently reinforce patriarchal frameworks and stereotypical assumptions of one-dimensional gender linearity.

Intersectionality of HIV Stigma with Female Identity: An Investigation among Women Living with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam.

Women living with HIV/AIDS (WLHA) in Vietnam encounter challenges stemming from HIV-related stigma and gender disparities. This study delves into the intersectionality of HIV-related stigma and gender disparities as perceived by WLHA. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 91 WLHA in Hanoi, Vietnam. Two sets of identically worded scales were used to measure awareness, agreement, and application of stigma towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) and WLHA. A larger difference between stigma scores towards WLHA and that of PLHA represents a higher level of female-specific stigma. Univariate analyses and multiple regressions were conducted to identify demographic and psycho-social factors associated with the gendered differences in stigma measures. Multiple linear regression showed that WLHA who were currently married were more likely to apply stigma concepts to themselves due to gender identity (adjusted beta coefficient (aBeta Coef) = 0.223). Psychological capital was negatively associated with awareness of stigma towards female identity (aBeta Coef = -0.261). A higher perceived norm in women's equity and power was associated with less self-application of female-specific stigma (aBeta Coef = -0.294). Our findings underscore the importance of addressing psychological well-being and promoting gender equity norms as essential components in the efforts to reduce female-specific HIV-related stigma in WLHA.

A retrospective study of sexual minority women’s gendered sexuality: Butch and femme sex at the turn of the 21st century

This study is a retrospective examination of how sexual minority women have experienced their sexuality. The analysis examined a national archival dataset that was collected online in the US and Canada to examine the relationship between gender and sexuality in 1084 sexual minority women in 2003, with a focus on butch and femme identities. It provided an understanding of how gender and sexuality interacted at the turn of the last century when the gender identity landscape differed from that of today. While this study collected data from butch and femme women approximately 20-years ago, the results have implications for how we develop situated understandings of the relationship between gender and sexuality. Findings indicated gendered patterns in sexual preferences and attraction that can shed light on how gender and sexuality have evolved in connection. At the same time, there were no differences in sexual satisfaction, which suggests that the enactment of gendered sexuality (in which attraction is structured by a gender dynamic) was experienced as empowering rather than oppressive. We examine our findings in relation to current scholarship on gendered sexuality to consider how sexuality is constructed and reconstructed across time. The findings support a view of gendered sexuality as a source of pleasure, affirmation, and positive embodiment. We theorize gendered sexuality as functioning to enhance experiences of authenticity and resist heteronormativity. The study holds implications for research on the interaction of gender and sexuality.

“Exploring Gender and Identity in 20th-Century Literature: Feminist Perspectives in Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber”

This research investigates the themes of identity and gender in twentieth-century literature, with an emphasis on the role of feminism in Doris Lessing's The Brilliant Notebook )1962) and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber (1979). The research aims to examine how the two writers question and dismantle conventional gender roles, featuring the impact of women's activist ideas in molding female identity inside the setting of the sociopolitical changes of the 20th 100 years. The objectives are to examine the women's perspectives introduced in every text, research the depiction of female independence, and investigate the crossing point of gender, power, and personality in the account structures. The methodology is a relative scholarly examination, using women's activist and gender theory structures to examine the texts. Essential sources, including the two books, are broken down closely by optional academic deals with women's activist scholarly analysis. Key subjects like female freedom, the disruption of man-centric designs, and the rehash of personality are investigated through character development, narrative techniques, and imagery. The outcomes show that both Lessing and Carter utilize their attempts to challenge regulating gender builds, with Lessing's The Brilliant Notebook focusing on the fracture and remaking of female identity, and Carter's The Bloody Chamber utilizing Gothic and fantasy themes to scrutinize conventional gender roles. The conversation underlines how each creator adds to women's activist artistic talk by offering complex, nuanced depictions of ladies who explore, oppose, and eventually reshape the jobs forced upon them by man-centric culture. This study concluded that Lessing and Carter, through their specific strategies, offer tough women's dissident assessments that continue to reverberate in contemporary discussions on gender and identity. Their novels feature the phenomenal ability of writing to test gender principles and advance feminist ideologies. Keywords: Gender, Identity, Feminism, The Golden Notebook, The Bloody Chamber

Identity Crisis in Strindberg’s Miss Julie and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard: A Psychoanalytical Study

August Strindberg’s Miss Julie and Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard have always been recurrently analyzed within disputable studies concerning the characters’ psychoanalytic makeup, the characters’ breakdown at the break of a new social class, and a naturalistic, existential approach. Such a foundational approach for analysis is overpoweringly highlighted in the two plays within an unshakable regularity to the assumption that female identities in the two plays have undergone intense turmoil, toppled heavily in the middle of socioeconomic changes with the decline of aristocracy. However, this paper aims to juxtapose and compare the concept of identity crisis in association with the traumatic experiences of the two characters Miss Julie and Mrs. Ranyevskaia through a comparative psychoanalytic approach. It is inexplicable how the two addressed characters grapple with their different circumstances with fractured identities, where they fail to stand up for their social and gender roles and elevate their sense of individuation and selfhood in the middle of the surrounding deteriorations. Through a comparative analysis, this study lays the groundwork needed for exploring, interpreting, and investigating more nuanced reciprocal relationships associated with identity crisis.

Reclaiming My Womb

In Children of Blood and Bone and The Hunted, Tomi Adeyemi and L.A. Banks reclaim the isolated Black womb and reattach it to the human to which it belongs, thus humanizing Black women. This humanization of Black women combats the dominant narrative that seeks to reduce Black female identities to what their bodies can produce for the Western patriarchy world founded on capitalist exploitation. Their wombs are a counternarrative to the tired trope of the almighty phallus that disfigures phallic power into a deadly weapon, only suitable for destruction. Banks’ and Adeyemi’s placement of symbolic wombs highlights the power of wombs as a space where spirit and body meet to upend oppressive world orders rooted in spiritual darkness. Here, even the phallus achieves greater power. The womb exposes the phallus’s ability to invest life and further incubates that life to create revolution. Together the phallus and womb work to display the necessary fetation of rebellion, resistance, and liberation. Banks and Adeyemi join the scores of Black feminist writers who insist on the unity of Black masculinities and Black feminism to ensure the futurity of Black liberation.

A Retrospective Study of Sexual Minority Women’s Gendered Sexuality: Butch and Femme Sex at the Turn of the 21st Century

This study is a retrospective examination of how sexual minority women have experienced their sexuality. The analysis examined a national archival dataset that was collected online in the US and Canada to examine the relationship between gender and sexuality in 1084 sexual minority women in 2003, with a focus on butch and femme identities. It provided an understanding of how gender and sexuality interacted at the turn of the last century when the gender identity landscape differed from that of today. While this study collected data from butch and femme women approximately 20-years ago, the results have implications for how we develop situated understandings of the relationship between gender and sexuality. Findings indicated gendered patterns in sexual preferences and attraction that can shed light on how gender and sexuality have evolved in connection. At the same time, there were no differences in sexual satisfaction, which suggests that the enactment of gendered sexuality (in which attraction is structured by a gender dynamic) was experienced as empowering rather than oppressive. We examine our findings in relation to current scholarship on gendered sexuality to consider how sexuality is constructed and reconstructed across time. The findings support a view of gendered sexuality as a source of pleasure, affirmation, and positive embodiment. We theorize gendered sexuality as functioning to enhance experiences of authenticity and resist heteronormativity. The study holds implications for research on the interaction of gender and sexuality.

On Female-Shamed Subjectivity in Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”

ABSTRACT Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” has received considerable attention largely due to the interpreting of its biblical allusion and female issues, including female subjectivity and sisterhood. However, these studies tend to focus on female issues in terms of theology, feminism, and psychoanalysis. Few studies have investigated the relationship between emotions and female identity. Shame is a paramount emotion in Rossetti’s work. This article examines how shame exerts a great influence on female subjectivity in Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” by applying Gershen Kaufman’s theory on the psychology of shame. It first investigates how Laura’s “disgrace shame” and Lizzie’s “discretion shame” dynamically determine the development of their self-identity. Focusing on the psychotherapeutic process of their shame, it then explores how Laura and Lizzie restore their sisterhood and find ways to reconstruct their shamed subjectivity. Finally, this article concludes that the shame tied to the consciousness of subjectivity in Rossetti’s heroines further reflects how shame underlies women’s writing in the Victorian era. By placing “Goblin Market” in dialogue with Kaufman’s account of shame’s capacity to forge self-identity, this article hopes to inspire more discussion about female issues in poetry in terms of affect studies.

Colonized Body Of Women In Ahmad Tohari’s Novel The Dancer

This study aims to analyze how the female body is colonized in Ahmad Tohari's novel "The Dancer." The novel portrays the lives of women in Javanese culture, shaped by colonialism and patriarchy, and illustrates how the female body becomes a site of domination, control, and exploitation. Utilizing a postcolonial feminist perspective, this research examines the experiences of physical, psychological, and social oppression faced by the female characters in the novel and their responses to various forms of colonization of their bodies. The findings reveal that through narrative and characterization, Ahmad Tohari explores the complexities of female identity influenced by colonial history and patriarchal structures. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the female body as a battleground between dominant forces and women's resistance against various forms of oppression. Thus, this study contributes to the broader discourse on gender and colonialism studies in Indonesian literature.

Gender identity: the subjective fit account

AbstractThis paper proposes a new account of gender identity on which for A to have gender G as part of their gender identity is for A to not take G not to fit them (or to positively take G to fit them). It argues that this subjective fit account of gender identity fits well with trans people’s testimony and both trans and cis people’s experiences of their genders. The subjective fit account also avoids the problems that existing accounts of gender identity face. Existing accounts face broadly two types of problems. First, they seem to imply that trans people have gender identities different from those that they in fact have. For instance, they seem to imply that some trans women do not have a female gender identity or have not always had that gender identity, contrary to their testimony and experiences. I argue that the subjective fit account avoids this problem. Second, many existing accounts of gender identity seem to conflict with the idea that our gender identities merit respect. I argue that the subjective fit account avoids this problem because it understands gender identities to consist in normative experiences and judgments and normative experiences and judgments merit respect.

Gender discontents? The emergence of trans and gender nonconforming experiences in Ireland’s Gay Community News (1988–1998)

ABSTRACT Research pertaining to the emergence and presence of trans and gender nonconforming identities in press materials has been lacking, particularly within the queer Irish context. This article fills this gap by presenting the findings of a study exploring the emergence of gender nonconformity through the alternative queer media outlet, Gay Community News (GCN). Using the first decade of the GCN’s reportage (1988 to 1998), this article explores 113 issues of GCN, including supplements, deploying textual analysis to uncover how GCN negotiated and represented trans and gender diverse identities. Through this analysis, three key themes relating to trans visibility emerge across this decade: 1. Negotiating the inclusion and exclusion of trans femme identities; 2. Transvestite identity and its normal attachments and 3. Information provision and consciousness-raising. In exploring these themes, this article argues that alternative media have been crucial for the emergence of trans and gender diverse visibility in the Irish queer press. Additionally, it contends that this community is very much minoritised regarding the kinds of inclusions offered to them. While highlighting the activist potential of alternative media like GCN, the article demonstrates that trans visibility was often complex, marred by exclusions and expectations around conformity.

Looking back: the lasting impact of outdoor education for adolescent girls

ABSTRACT The long-term impacts of adolescent girls’ outdoor learning are rarely represented in the outdoor literature. This research explored the stories of 11 young women reflecting on an immersive month of school outdoor learning, in a remote part of New Zealand. These young women were recruited following a larger survey of school alumni. During interviews the young women described how their identities and wellbeing were shaped by their adolescent outdoor learning, which continued to impact their lives. We identified four key narratives that contributed to their empowerment. Firstly, immersion in nature was nourishing. Secondly, critical environmental approaches and living simply had a cumulative effect on wellbeing. The third narrative centred on the value of structured support alongside learning independence. These fed into an all-encompassing fourth narrative of a strong female identity. The findings demonstrate how long-duration immersive outdoor experiences as adolescents, have lasting influence on the wellbeing of young women.