Feminist Framework Research Articles

Violence against Women and Girls: Female Filmmakers Critique the Menace

Violence against Women and Girls: Female Filmmakers Critique the Menace

Empowerment of the Fatherless Girl Child: A Way Forward for Human Capital Sustainable Development of Africa

All over the globe especially in Africa, there has been a clarion call for sustainable development for year 2030 through the achievement of ‘17’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs. Deprivation of the fatherless girl child’s right engineered by culture, tradition and the law are not emphatically addressed and will continue to undermine the realization of the above global goals especially in Africa where double standards for the male and female child have been a major act of violence and brutality against African girl children. This paper highlights through the content analysis method, the plights of the fatherless girl child and the dangerous experiences they encounter as compared to the experiences of 50 girl children interviewed for this research. Examples are taken from an Igbo Home Video in English called Hear My Cry (2005) and Crying Mother (2014, part 1) re- titled Tears of My Daughter (2015 part 2) and others. The theory of sociology of literature based on the African feminist framework and the content analysis method were adopted to link the literary examples to real societal experience. Data collection includes oral interviews of victims, video recording and note taking. This paper suggests that unless the African government develop empowerment policies for street children, and transform the situation of fatherless girl child, the achievement of sustainable development in Africa come 2030 may not be tenable.

Dress and Labor: An Intersectional Interpretation of Clothing and Adornment Artifacts Recovered from the Levi Jordan Plantation

Through an examination of clothing, adornment, and hygiene artifacts recovered from the Quarters area of the Levi Jordan Plantation, this article examines how racial, gendered, and classed operations of power and oppression shaped African American women’s sartorial practices, as an aspect of identity formation, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Texas. Through a Black feminist framework, this article focuses on the ways African American women dressed their bodies for the types of labor they performed to discuss how they negotiated ideologies of race, gender, and class, that shaped hegemonic notions of femininity during the post-emancipation era.

MARIANNE MOORE: NO WAY OUT, GENDERING BODY THROUGH POETICS AND POETRY AS ECRITURE FEMININE

This study analyzes Marianne Moore’s poems Marriage, To be Liked by You Would be a Calamity and Feed Me, Also, River God from a poststructural feminist framework as posited in the writings of Hélène Cixous, Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray. The study approaches the poems as examples of ecriture feminine, which is literally the feminine writing aimed at relocating the feminine and female body back into discourse. Women’s non-representation in the male-centered discourse, female essentialization based on her biology and perception of the female body as the locus of male desire are among the primary concerns of these feminist thinkers. In line with the ideas of these theorists, Marianne Moore subverts the traditional patriarchal understanding of what a woman is through her poems and gains poetic subjectivity through re-writing the body. She mimes the language of the father, and masquerades gender roles showing the performativity of these roles while at the same time distorting and revising them to open up space for female subjectivity. Therefore, ecriture feminine turns into a means to politicize writing and female body through its subversive, revisionary, multiple and fluid aspect.

Toward Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Sexual Minority Women: Voices From Stakeholders and Community Members

Sexual minority women (SMW) experience an elevated risk of mental health problems compared to heterosexual women. However, knowledge gaps remain regarding whether cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions meet SMW’s mental health needs. Further, virtually no studies have integrated stakeholder (i.e., researchers with content expertise in SMW’s health and clinical providers who work with SMW) and community member (i.e., SMW) perspectives to identify CBT approaches that address SMW-specific issues. This study used qualitative data gathered from 39 SMW who reported depression, anxiety, suicidality, and heavy drinking in the past 3 months and 16 content experts and clinical providers to obtain information relevant to enhancing CBT for SMW. In addition, we used thematic analysis to identify themes related to the adaptation and delivery of CBT for SMW. Building on prior literature, this study’s findings revealed seven considerations for delivering mental health services to SMW: (1) attending to SMW’s diverse gender identities and expressions; (2) focusing on SMW’s nonbinary stressors; (3) formulating SMW’s gender-based stressors within a feminist framework; (4) applying intersectionality frameworks; (5) incorporating issues of diversity, multiculturalism, and social justice; (6) addressing the role of trauma exposure; and (7) addressing the role of alcohol use in SMW’s lives. These considerations are reviewed in terms of their implications for clinical practice, with a focus on enhancing applications of existing CBT interventions to best respond to the unique needs of this population.

Epistemes of human rights in Kashmir: Paradoxes of universality and particularity

Human rights violations through militarized control have been the cornerstone of Indian statecraft in Indian-administered Kashmir. This article offers a close reading of the April 2017 episode of using a civilian Kashmiri Muslim man as a human shield by the Indian Army in Indian-administered Kashmir. Whereas the existing scholarship on the relationship between militarization, human rights violations, and Hindutva politics have employed political or feminist analytical frameworks, this article focuses on rereading the episode of human shield usage to analyze how “universality” of human rights in India is being redefined. It reflects on how the ruling right-wing government in India appropriates the language of violations and afflictions to embolden its strategies to alter the grammar of human rights in India. Drawing on a discourse analysis of the human shield event, the article deliberates on how anthropology of Hindutva and right-wing extremism research could pay greater attention to the conversation between Hindutva theology of rights and neoliberal ethics when approaching questions of recurrent human rights violations in Kashmir.

Intersectional elaboration: Using a multiracial feminist co-design technique with Latina teens for emotional health

Underlying the growing epidemic of mental distress and suicidal ideation amongst certain marginalised groups (e.g. Latina teens) are complex intersections of ecologies and interrelated structures of inequality such as class, culture, race and gender. Through the use of a multiracial feminist framework, the proposed intersectional elaboration technique examines how technology might be designed in ways that explicitly consider intersecting structures of inequality and eco-developmental contexts. The core of this technique involves co-constructing narratives using prompts that directly address specific layers of one's ecology and the interactions across ecological layers – purposely addressing intersecting systems of inequality acting along these ecologies. This article describes the application of the intersectional elaboration technique in co-design research with adolescent Latinas, in a highly urbanised context, towards designing emotional health technology. Findings suggest that intersectional elaborations can serve as a useful generative co-design technique to inform designs that address complex arrangements of intra-ecological conflicts and cultural legitimacy.

Nurturing a Critical Race Feminista Praxis: engaging education research with a historical sensibility

ABSTRACT This research article is a theoretical guide for scholars interested in bridging Critical Race Theories, Chicana/Latina Feminist frameworks, and historical sensibilities to disrupt whiteness within research about Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x education. We articulate the contours of a Critical Race Feminista Praxis and provide examples of its application by sharing lessons learned from carrying research centred on the experiences of Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x communities. We posit, social justice transformation is manifested when Education researchers uplift Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x histories of resilience and resistance by nurturing a Critical Race Feminista Praxis.

Body Politics and Empowerment Level of Dalit Elected Women Panchayat Presidents in Village Panchayats of Tamil Nadu

Body politics is the latest feminist thought which includes women’s human rights, fundamentalism, sexualities and new technologies. It describes the struggles of women living in economic and socially vulnerable communities where their bodies are re-centered which are invisible in the process of advocacy and action. Women bodies experience major ways of exploitation where their body is considered to be the centre of all the activity in the development discourse. The visibility develops in the multiple forms of sexual and gender based violence including domestic violence, rape, and honor killing in public arena in recent decades. Dalit women are also fall under this category, therefore this study will be analyzed from the framework of feminism with Empowerment and Body politics. Feminist theories in general evaluate the power which dominates women and finds means, methods to dismantle them. Body politics on the other hand analyses the practices and policies through which power of society regulates the human and women bodies. Keywords: Body Politics: Women Empowerment: Dalit: Local Governance: Panchayat President.

“Willpower knows no obstacles”: Examining Neoliberal Postfeminist Messaging in Nike’s Transnational Advertisements for Women

Nike, a US-headquartered transnational corporation lauded for its putatively empowering women-centered advertisements, frequently releases nationally/regionally focused advertisements depicting women determinedly engaging in physical activity and, in doing so, overcoming gendered barriers and stigmas. Indeed, the global ubiquity of the empowered (Nike-clad) woman illustrates Nike’s role in advancing women’s empowerment, both in the US and globally. Universalizing “just do it” beyond geographical borders, Nike’s form of transnational feminism centers on a carefully manufactured, Western-centered image of empowered female athleticism. However, this notably contradicts transnational feminist efforts to reject the universalization of Western-centered representations of women. Using a critical cultural studies approach in concert with a transnational feminist framework, we analyze six recent Nike advertisements (the United States, Mexico, the Middle East, Turkey, India, and Russia) and critique the corporation’s universalization of neoliberal postfeminist messaging within its global marketing strategies. We find that Nike utilizes three thematics to extend their caricature of the (Nike-powered) female athlete beyond the spatial and symbolic borders of the US market: responsibilitization, competitive individualism, and empowerment. We conclude that Nike normalizes a white, Western-centered neoliberal postfeminism, undermining the structural and sporting realities of the non-white/non-Western women their promotional campaigning seeks to embolden.

Egyptian female podcasters: shaping feminist identities

ABSTRACT The objective of the research study was to explore how young female podcasters in Egypt acquire feminist knowledge, how their feminist identity has been shaped and, specifically, how podcasts were used for digital feminism. With audio production genres and feminist epistemology frameworks, our analysis shows how podcasts were knowingly utilized as a tool for cyberactivism. The study found that the podcaster’s feminist identities embodied Westernized and/or Black feminist epistemologies, while also indicating a deeper recognition of Egyptian feminism attained during their college careers. The researchers conclude that production of podcasts, informed by feminist pedagogy and epistemologies, was an empowering mechanism for the audio content creators.

Treating the Effects of Military Sexual Trauma through a Theater-Based Program for U.S. Veterans

The goal of this article is to examine the experience and aftermath of military sexual trauma (MST) among U.S. women Veterans with a particular emphasis on the therapeutic benefits of giving voice to their experience in an all-Veteran trauma treatment called the DE-CRUIT program. The DE-CRUIT program uses a feminist framework of human connection in combination with narrative elements from drama and theater. The therapeutic process of this treatment program is described by outlining the specific benefits of its feminist underpinnings and through the use of a case example of an MST survivor who participated in this treatment. We describe the ways that a treatment program can play a role in supporting women Veterans not only in dealing with the effects of MST, but also in connecting to the #MeToo movement.

Beyond the Coloniality of Gender

This article explores Sylvia Wynter’s analysis of gender as a category differentially applied across the global color line and María Lugones’ account of the coloniality of gender. While Wynter’s and Lugones’s work offer consequential insights for queer, trans, and intersex studies and activism, they have deliberately engaged these particular discourses and histories of struggle in limited ways. Wynter analyzes the contradictions of Western feminists’ organizing against female genital cutting in Africa, but she does not link her conclusions to their ramifications for activism against genital cutting on children deemed intersex. Lugones uses the existence of intersex people as a turning point in her critique of Aníbal Quijano when developing her concept of the coloniality of gender, but she does not go further to connect global intersex activism and decolonial feminist struggles. This article explores the work of Wynter and Lugones for their compatibility with trans and intersex studies and activism, and the places where their work can be furthered through insights from trans and intersex studies. It concludes that to move beyond the coloniality of gender requires trans and intersex liberation and that trans and intersex liberation must be understood in a broader decolonial feminist framework.

A Pedagogical Mystique?: Lessons of Incorporating Feminism Into Skills-Based Communication Courses

It is imperative that today’s advertising, journalism, mass communication, and public relations students are prepared to engage in corporate activism and corporate social responsibility communications once in the workforce. This article explores the need for incorporating equity-based pedagogy, using feminism as one of many approaches, into skills-based communication courses. The researchers conducted 20 qualitative interviews with academics to discuss various approaches, examples, and learnings. The findings suggest that using a feminist framework to teach skills: (1) enhances the skill being taught, (2) allows students to communicate more effectively, (3) builds life skills, and (4) comes in many forms. The article concludes with consideration to areas for future research and contributes to the understanding of academics engaged in a feminist approach to teaching skills-based communication courses.

COVID-19 feminist framework and biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective for social workers and mental health practitioners to manage violence, abuse, and trauma against children, women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ during and post-COVID-19.

This article explains the integrated implementation of a COVID-19 Feminist Framework (CFF) and biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective (BPSS-P) on the inclusive equitability of social service providers, practitioners, and policy-developers on global platforms. Mechanisms of CFF and BPSS-P entail the process to address/mitigate institutional inequities, mental health issues, violation of human rights, race/sex/gender-based violence, abuse, and trauma amid COVID-19. This discourse is about raising consciousness, collective liberation, wellbeing, and equality for women, children, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and gender-diverse people. This article further discusses social workers and mental health practitioners' uniqueness for short-term and long-term support for emotional, cognitive-behavioral, and psychosocial repercussions on the individual and community levels.

Negotiating Modernity with Caution: Women of Jama’at-e- Islami Pakistan

Role of Muslim women in public sphere has been a highly contested topic among international academia since many decades. Dominant Orientalist approach assumes universal and monolithic Islam that is uncompromisingly oppressive to women and confines them in homes. Many of recent studies contest this view and term it as reductionists. This article focusses on the transformation of policies of Jama’at-e-Islami Pakistan (JI), as a representative of contemporary Islamic movements, on the issue of Muslim women’s participation in public sphere and adoption of modernity at their own terms. It investigates the underpinning of these trajectories traversed by the party, synthesising the modernity with Islamic Principles. Research is qualitative in nature and based on textural analysis of the documents i.e. published material (books, articles, proceedings, resolutions, interviews etc.). Input managed through few face-to-face semi structured interviews is also included. Study shows gradual change in party policy; from hesitation in granting even rights of vote to the women, to putting women candidates for assemblies, involving them in street protests and using all modern techniques to further party’s agenda but at their own terms. Study finds that JI has taken every step for opening of public sphere for women, using all the available opportunities, resources and platforms. However there is conspicuous consistency in their narrative that, the first and most important responsibility of women is her home and family. When policies of JI on the issue are viewed in western feminism framework, these seem quite restrictive, oppressive and detrimental to women rights, however, there are others who admit that slowly and steadily, JI women, by using selective tools of modernity, have taken over the major portion of public space, once solely dominated by the secular women organizations in Pakistan.

La traduction au prisme du genre et de la pensée islamique

The main objective of this article is to make the female voice heard in an area of the world where women are discriminated against and prejudiced, despite the progress made regarding their status in status in society. The aim is to demonstrate that the translation of the male discourse produced undergoes fundamental transformations that are the result of choices studied by the translator. She intervenes She intervenes and rewrites the text in her own way, even in the way that allows her to represent herself as a full human being in her own right, not relegated to the background. Through the analysis of samples taken from the work of the Algerian thinker Malek Bennabi “Les conditions de la renaissance” as well as the questioning of the first translation by the Egyptian thinker Abdel Sabbour Chahine, considered reductive and ‘religiously oriented’, we are in line with the feminist approach to translation feminist approach to translation, which advocates taking a stand on the dominant discourse. By invoking some of the methodological tools of Giles' IDRC Model and by referring to the notion of subjectivity developed in the framework of feminism of colour, we proceeded to the analysis of the source and target texts. We found that the doubly masculine discourse (the author and her (the author and his translator) was reproduced differently in the target language by taking into consideration elements that are absent from the source text. The invisibility of the woman in the process since she is considered an object, she passes to the status of visibility through the translational choices, the positions taken, and thus the decisions made.

A Critical Study of Mukhannath's Law as a Homosexual Argumentation

The term mukhannath in the study of Islamic law by Muslim feminists is considered to be the basis for the legitimacy of homosexual behavior. Muslim feminists present the meaning of mukhannath as behavior as well as sexual orientation that is permitted in Islam and in accordance with divine nature, so that homosexuality is a natural act in Islam and must be accepted as it is. On that basis, feminists distinguish homosexuality with liwath behavior that can be applied to homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual perpetrators. This is contrary to Islamic teachings/shari'a regarding the heresy of the Prophet Luth a.s who by the muslim scholars are called luthi, namely the perpetrators of liwath. Likewise, in interpreting mukhannath, the feminist framework is built from the concept of gender which is not derived from the treasures of Islamic scholarship or Islamic perspective. For this reason, the author tries to research and analyze the meaning and concept of mukhannath, and straighten it out according to the Islamic worldview. By using the descriptive-analytical method and using the literature as a database, the researchers came to the following conclusions; The meaning of mukhannath is the behavior of men who resemble women in terms of speech, gestures and clothing. This meaning does not recognize the difference between sexual orientation or behavior, but must be returned to the nature of its creation, namely its absolute gender. The muslim scholars have agreed that homosexual translation in Islam is liwath, which in the Qur'an is punished as destroying human nature (fitrah). The nature of creation (fitrah) must be in harmony with divine destiny which is eternal, as well as homosexual law in Islam is qath'i, not mutaghayyirah. For this reason, it is not appropriate if the gender analysis system is built on the basis of relatively social constructs used in the discussion of qath'i Islamic law.

Female Authority Figures in Dorothea Tanning’s Chasm: A Weekend

Abstract Little girls and young women are Dorothea Tanning’s recurrent archetypes, defining and structuring her conceptual archive concerning gender and the feminine. A celebrated painter and sculptor who shaped her artistic vision in the proximity of the historical avant-gardes, Tanning was also a writer who revealed the mystery and estrangement of family ties in Chasm: A weekend, a novel she started writing in 1943 and published six decades later, in 2004. This singular book offers a privileged dialogue between literature and art, as several episodes revisit and translate the high tension of some of her most representative paintings. From within a feminist framework, the article will discuss aspects of female authority and control in Tanning’s novel as dominant forms of female empowerment, present throughout her visual Surrealist oeuvre. I argue that examining these allegories reveals their role as connectors between the literary and the visual arts, between Dorothea Tanning’s fiction and her painting.

The importance of context-relevant feminist perspectives in disaster studies. The case of a research on forest fires with the Atikamekw First Nation

PurposeMy research is a study of forest fires that occurred near the Atikamekw community of Wemotaci (Quebec, Canada). This article focuses on the gendered aspects of two forest fire situations experienced by the people of Wemotaci, as I realized during fieldwork that men and women had different experiences and roles during the fires that did not seem to be valued the same. As a result, I decided to mobilize Indigenous feminist theories to understand the entanglement of multiple oppressions especially colonialism and the patriarchy in disaster situations.Design/methodology/approachI used interviews, participant observation and focus-groups during several stays in Wemotaci. I drew on methodologies developed by Indigenous researchers who aim to decolonize research. In this approach, I built respectful relationships with participants, conscious that I was part of the network I was studying.FindingsThis research reveals the importance in disaster research to adapt our methodology to the participants realities while factoring our positionality in. More specifically, I show how the use of an Indigenous feminist perspective allows me to understand how patriarchal-colonialism manifests during forest fire situations intertwined with traditional Atikamekw gender roles. This understanding makes it possible to see ways of managing and studying disasters that challenge systemic oppressions by rethinking the notion of vulnerability and making space for Indigenous people agency, knowledge and experiences.Originality/valueThe use of a feminist framework in this male-dominated field is still innovative, especially mobilizing a feminist approach that is consistent with the participants' realities while acknowledging the researcher's positionality which translate here in the use of Indigenous feminist theories.