Feminist Message Research Articles

Heroines of Dune (based on the novel by Frank Herbert and the film directed by Denis Villeneuve)

In Dune, Frank Herbert portrayed strong female characters who have a significant impact on the events presented in the novel. The power of femininity is manifested by, for example, members of the influential Bene Gesserit order who are implementing a long-term eugenics plan aimed at creating the Kwisatz Haderach - a man capable of controlling higher-order dimensions. The film, directed by Denis Villeneuve, reinforces the book's feminist message through visuals, dialogues and plot changes. For example, to eliminate the disproportion between the number of women and men in Dune, the director replaced doctor Liet-Kynes, who is a man in the book, with a female character.

Effects of brand awareness and feminist message level in femvertising: An experimental study

Femvertising is a general advertisement term that builds awareness of women's issues, rights, and gender equality. This particular type of advertisement is used by brands with the expectation that it will be effective on women, especially women with high levels of feminism. This study aims to determine the effects of brand awareness and the level of feminist messages on brand trust, word of mouth (WoM), attitude toward advertisements, and purchase intention. To achieve this aim, a 2 × 2 experimental design was used to manipulate the level of brand awareness and the level of feminist messages in the advertisement. A total of 405 women with high feminist attitudes participated in the experiment. Data analyses revealed that brand awareness exerts a positive effect on brand trust, but the level of feminist messages does not exert any significant effect on either brand trust or purchase intentions. Furthermore, data analyses showed that less familiar brands can achieve more positive results in attitude toward advertising and WoM if they use strong feminist messages in their advertisements, compared to well-known brands.

“The Story of You and Me”: Strategic Ambiguity in the Paratextual Reception of Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982

ABSTRACT This article explores the connection between the online commentary on the South Korean novel, and later film, Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982 (2016; film released in 2019), and the perception of feminism within South Korea. To capture how Kim Ji-Young’s “meaning” is entangled with popular beliefs about feminism, I analyze audience reception through Kim Ji-Young’s paratexts: (a) tweets and (b) comments responding to newspaper articles mentioning the novel and/or film Kim Ji-Young from the Korean platform Naver. I examine paratexts to reveal that the “meaning” Kim Ji-Young has in online spaces is not determined solely by the novel or film-as-referent. I show that Kim Ji-Young the source text has become inextricable from the mélange of preconceptions regarding what constitutes a “feminist” stance in Korea, ranging from the stereotype of the selfish “feminist” who shirks her maternal duty towards the nation to the discontent of stay-at-home moms. I show that online misogyny has forced those who support Kim Ji-Young’s feminist message to employ what rhetorician Leah Ceccarelli describes as “strategic ambiguity.” This involves simultaneously disavowing Kim Ji-Young‘s feminism while praising the text’s feminist politics, a tactic used to shield themselves from attacks by misogynistic trolls.

Model Revision of Female Identity and Mythical Images in Modern Woman Poets’ Fairy Tales: Anne Sexton and Carol Ann Duffy

This article explores the approaches that modern women poets use in their revised mythical notions to expose and implicate the inappropriate effects of patriarchal norms and conventions on women and gender inequality. This study addresses Anne Sexton and Carol Ann Duffy as modern woman poets who redefine archetypal myths and revise fairy tales to narrate the stories of those who have been left out of historical and cultural narratives within female characters. Sexton and Duffy shake up gender stereotypes with determined humorous plot complexities, allowing women to shed the secondary classic roles assigned to them. The female characters in the poems recapture their power through literary reconstruction, confronting male dominance and instilling guilt for feeling worthless. These modern women poets focus on what the female characters in their fairy tales think, feel, react, and decide what they look like in appearance, which is not employed in these writing norms in common fairy tales. Sexton and Duffy are the innovative versions of fairy tales, in which the poets not only satirize the patriarchal society in which they grew up but also reject the female stereotype that their upbringing assumed. This study examines the feminist messages that Sexton and Duffy's fairy tales intended to convey to reveal the poets' position on feminism and their relationship with the female role models and male characters they portray in their fairy tales. The findings confirm that these revising approaches and changing writing fairy tale norms can aid in creating a female identity and generate a critical return to the patriarchy’s despotic discourse.

Challenges in the spread of feminism on social media: A case study on Barbie’s dissemination and promotion on Rotten Tomatoes

This study investigates the challenges of disseminating feminist messages on social media, focusing on the film Barbie as an example. Feminism has gained significant academic attention, intersecting with various social, political, and economic domains. The study utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods to conduct a comprehensive analysis of social media reactions and feedback horn platforms such as Twitter. Facebook, and Instagram. The findings reveal a complex landscape where Barbie is both praised for its progressive portrayal of female empowerment and criticized for superficial engagement with deeper feminist issues. Utilizing word clouds to identify dominant themes, the research provides a detailed understanding of public perceptions. The study highlights the evolving nature of feminist discourse in the digital age and underscores the critical role of media in shaping public perceptions of gender equality.

REPRESENTASI FEMINISME DALAM IKLAN KECAP ABC “SUAMI SEJATI MAU MASAK”

The kecap ABC advertisement for the suami Sejati Mau Masak edition is a series in the gender equality campaign created by Heinz ABC Indonesia. Through this series of advertisements, it is made as a form of appreciation to women who have done domestic work, especially cooking. In this ad, many messages of feminism are shown visually in every scene. The purpose of this research is to analyze how the message of feminism is contained in the Ketchup ABC advertisement of “suami sejati mau masak” using Rolnad Barthes's semiotic theory approach. In this study, it was carried out using descriptive qualitative research methods by collecting data, conducting analysis, making discussions and conclusions. The results of this study are an analysis of various scenes from the ABC soy sauce of Suami Sejati Mau Masak which is considered to have a feminist message using Roland Barthes's theoretical approach discussing denotative, connotative and myth development.

Appropriating Feminist Voice While Translating: Unpublished but Visible Project

Translating a text and making it comprehensive for others is an essential job of the translator, but when a woman translator transfers a text and intentionally stresses the female voice, the act becomes a gender-significant distinction. This study aims to understand the 'feminist' translation strategies used by translators in producing her works. It also aims to study the feminist movement in the Arab world. This paper adopts Skopos's theory to justify using specific strategies in their translation and explain why translators' identities are becoming more visible. The databases from ProQuest, Taylor and Francis, EBSCO, and Google Scholar, were used to explore research articles and books published between 1980 and 2021 for western feminist studies and between 2000 and 2021 for Eastern (Arab) feminist studies. Systematic analysis methods were used, and findings were reported in this study. The results were discussed and presented thematically. Additionally, this paper opens more discussions on the politics of feminist texts in different ways and methods via translation. It shows how the translator's interventions and strategies reshape the Translations so that the force of the feminist message is amplified in some places and mitigated in others. However, further research is needed to investigate more questions, such as the effect of understanding feminism(s) and the translator's ideology on the translation of feminist texts produced. This paper is a crucial contribution to feminism in the Arab world because very few works have been published, and few scholars have discussed this topic.

Touria Nakkouch: A Moroccan Vociferous Poetess Spelling Out her Gendered Voice Anew

Few are those Arab poetesses whose voices have made an outreach beyond their locale. Touria Nakkouch, an outspoken Moroccan poetess from the city of Agadir, and a university professor of comparative literature, is one of them. In her maiden collection of poems entitled The Dance of the Moon, published in Casablanca in 2009, professor Nakkouch braves the traditional, worn-out Establishment of Morocco and the Arab World by initiating a disquieting feminist monologue in search of a constructive dialogue with the other gender in a world punctuated by masculine hegemony. She redefines her own gender and feminist identity in a reluctant discourse embedded in an internal monologue which seems to transmit various messages addressed to the powerful other. This paper looks at the discursive features of one of her poems entitled “Musings Before Birth”, in which she ascribes to herself the voice of a stubborn fetus resisting to be born into a world a female newborn is almost unwelcome as a guest. To this effect, the paper uses a discourse analysis approach, informed by positioning theory, to uncover the multi-layered feminist message implied in the text to create a gender-focused understanding of the audience. Keywords: Nakkouch, establishment, discourse, positioning, dialogue, monologue, feminist

An Answer to Spivak’s Can the Subaltern Speak? A Study of Marginalized Women’s Autobiographies

This article discusses marginalized women’s resistance to patriarchal norms in a male-dominated Afghan society. This study analyses the literary modes of selected autobiographies—Fawzia Koofi’s The Favored Daughter, Sarina Sarwari’s Sokhan-i Del-i Yek Zan (Words from the Heart of a Woman) and Hadisa Osmani’s Pursuing My Dreams as an Afghan Woman—with Spivak’s essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ In this article, Spivak’s idea of subaltern has been deconstructed and needs to be re-read and understood in the context of Afghan women’s autobiographies. In answer to Spivak, yes, the subaltern can speak to resist patriarchal voices, speak against women’s subjugated situation and talk about women’s emancipation. This can be demonstrated by examining Afghan women’s autobiographies. Afghan women’s autobiographies focus on women’s courage and emancipation to resist social victimization and verbal and physical violence. It further states that numerous contemporary Afghan women have highlighted women’s issues due to the absence of a strong feminist voice. Therefore, it demonstrates Afghan women’s gradual awakening, as well as their resolution to resist victimization, subjugation, oppression and violence in a patriarchal and culturally complex male-dominant society. Hence, the present study appraises Afghan women’s struggle to give them recognition and a contribution to the literature, giving a positive light to other women. These women are promoting awareness and giving a feminist message as a women’s strong voice is necessary for a progressive and gender-equality-based society. Afghan women’s writing testifies to finding an answer to Spivak’s question, ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’

“Supporting our Lost Boys”: A Research on Gender-based Science Education’s Hidden Curriculum in Malaysia

Malaysia has had tremendous success in increasing women participation in science-related fields by diffusing empowering values into the formal school curricula. A subliminal effect of these female empowerment campaigns, however, is that male students are beginning to lag behind in science education, giving rise to the phenomenon known as "The Lost Boys." In light of the potential for a hidden curriculum to support gender-sensitive or gender-responsive science education, this research was aimed at exploring the hidden curriculum in science education and its impact on boys in science education. This research used the classical Delphi method involving 84 experts, whereby two rounds of questionnaires and one round of qualitative commentaries were used to gather information from a group of experts. Gender-biased notions were found in science education’s hidden curriculum, including the proliferation of feminist messages through outside classroom activities, the lack of gender awareness in teaching and training, and the centering of female mentoring in the field. This research further recommends strategies to explicitly address gender-biased issues in science education’s hidden curriculum to benefit both female and male students’ participation in science. It is hoped that this research serves as a guide for policy makers, school leaders and teachers to achieve gender equity in science education.

“Lo vamos a conseguir”: Instapoetry as a vehicle for feminist movements in the contemporary Spanish context

ABSTRACT In this addition to the European Journal of English Studies special issue, the author reflects on the employment of social media application Instagram by contemporary poets in peninsular Spain as a tool for projecting societal concerns specifically related to feminism and social equality movements, proliferated by technological affordances such as the graphological hashtag (#). By analysing the connections between poetry, digital culture and feminist activism, this article examines the poetry of popular Instapoetas Elvira Sastre and Leticia Sala and its underlying feminist message, as well as the implications of writing in and of the so-called “fourth wave of feminism.” Where the poetic content, visual imagery and captioned employment of hashtags are seen to perpetuate the work of offline, feminist activism, Instapoetry can be seen as an assistant or a “valid contribution” to collective action.

Beyond the Ideal: Anne Brontë's Realistic Feminism

This article offers a fresh perspective on Anne Brontë's feminist stance in her novels The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Agnes Grey. While previous scholars have criticized Brontë's portrayal of her female protagonists in a manner that contradicts her feminist message, this article argues that Brontë's nuanced portrayal of the complexities of female subjectivity within the social, cultural, and historical constraints of her time is essential to her feminist stance. Anne Brontë empowers her female characters with realistic feminine tools to cope with the patriarchal suppression they face and calls for a rethinking of the miserable situation of women in the Victorian patriarchal society. The article argues that Brontë's aim is not to call for an impossible revolution through an ideal feminine figure but rather to promote action based on the reality of the situation. This article's originality lies in its fresh and sophisticated interpretation of Brontë's feminist stance that avoids reducing her characters to mere symbols of resistance and acknowledges the complexities of female subjectivity in a patriarchal society.

FEMINIST MESSAGES IN GURU DUTT’S PYAASA (1957): A DISTINCTIVE CASE STUDY

Guru Dutt’s masterpiece Pyaasa (1957) is not just a movie. It is in fact much more than that. It is an experiment with humanity. It is also a journey along the brighter and darker alleys of the normal human mind. While dissecting everything that cripples the Indian society then and even now, it’s partly haunting and partly reassuring narrative makes us ask some fundamental questions vis-à-vis our social existence. One of the resultant questions that crops up in the process tries to uncover the true essence of womanhood. From the narcissistic and decidedly selfish character of Meena, played by the inimitable Mala Sinha, to the selfless and deeply loving character of Gulabo, enacted flawlessly by the mesmerizing Waheeda Rehman, the movie refuses to take sides and declare loyalties. While one might argue that the protagonist Vijay, played by Guru Dutt himself, sides towards Gulabo at the end of the movie, the inclination is far from being decisive. If one takes a clear look at the diegesis of the movie, she/ he would be able to appreciate that the decision is influenced more by convenience than by ideology. While ideology does play a part in what the movie theorizes, it is more of a reflection on the true nature of the society that we live in. This research paper makes an honest attempt at deciphering the obvious and subtle feminist messages that are ingrained in the movie. While doing so, the researcher looks not just at the narrative of the movie but at the filmmaking style as well for style often determines the ideological stance of any audiovisual material. While studying the given subject, the researcher uses the Auteur Theory, the Apparatus Theory, and the Feminist Film Theory.

“Yea I’m a f* Tomboy”: “girl crush,” postfeminism, and the reimagining of K-pop femininity

ABSTRACT “Girl crush” is a relatively new genre in South Korean pop music (hereafter “K-pop”). Unlike the stereotypes of female idols being cute and submissive, idols of the “girl crush” genre usually show provocative “girl power,” challenging the patriarchy by incorporating feminist messages in their works. In March 2022, a girl group (G)I-DLE released a song entitled Tomboy, which went viral for its outrageous music video delivering a bold statement about women being independent, fearless, and abandoning toxic heterosexual relationships. This study conducts a social semiotic analysis of Tomboy with a postfeminist lens and comes up with three findings: first, the music video of Tomboy has shown a postfeminist sensibility by exhibiting an entanglement of feminism and antifeminism; second, Tomboy has tackled a queered theme by focusing on women’s collective empowerment and sisterhood against patriarchy; third, “girl crush” has revealed the limitations of celebrity feminism, making the relationship between “girl crush’s” success and feminism questionable.

Future Flora as a Case Study for FemTech’s Role in Science: Tackling the Taboo Head-On

FemTech, a term coined in the past decade, encompasses technological products and diagnostic tools that cater to women’s health. While its creation was inspired by the neglect of women’s health needs, the FemTech philosophy represents a break from previous feminine products by empowering women to take ownership of their health. We illustrate the neglect of women’s health through the necessitated creation of a FemTech industry, in contrast with the absence of a superfluous ManTech industry. This paper analyzes the FemTech movement through a case study of Future Flora, a microbial sanitary pad, in comparison to other microbial projects both taboo and not. We demonstrate that FemTech’s success is determined by society’s reception of its feminist message. Nevertheless, the movement’s feminist message is necessary for the desensitatization and ultimate destigmatization of feminine health, the importance of which has been historically minimized. Sociologically, the movement hopes to achieve equitable representation of males and females in science and the market, and ultimately disestablishment of FemTech.

Dissent by Design: A Multimodal Study of 2019 Women’s March MY Protest Signs

The power of texts and visuals in the repertoire of protests – in both its production and consumption – allows protest movements to not only spread their message faster and mobilise support, but also promote active engagement in the public sphere. The present study examined multimodal discourse of protest by analysing textual and visual resources in protest signs used to express and negotiate feminist ideology at the 2019 Women’s March MY in Kuala Lumpur. Following Kress & van Leeuwen’s Visual Grammar (2006) and van Leeuwen’s Social Actor Network (2008), three themes of the march were selected for multimodal analysis. Findings of the study show that multimodal representations through verbal and visual resources vary in its salience across different themes – where some protest signs lean more towards texts in conveying its messages with minimal visuals, others show a higher reliance on textual and visual convergence to convey meaning as well as to bait the attention of readers. Weighing in on the Malaysian feminist discourse, this study puts forth the potential of multimodal strategies through verbal and visual resources in conveying feminist messages and negotiating social change through the act of protest.

The Language of Dance, the Dancer’s Eye, and Aesthetic Experience in Mary Wigman’s Hexentanz II

Early Ausdruckstanz theory often compared Ausdruckstanz to a language to explain how Ausdruckstanz conveys the deeply personal, self-expressive message to its audience. Using Susanne Langer’s study on expression in art and George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s work on conceptual metaphors in tandem with early dance theory and Mary Wigman’s Hexentanz II, I argue for a conceptual metaphorical understanding of dance as language. Because dance possesses a physical, indexical connection to its meaning, the language of dance consitututes a series of conceptual, rather than linguistic, metaphors that explain how dance conveys meaning through symbolic form, which for Wigman’s Hexentanz II, I demonstrate, is a radically feminist message. Then, turning from the production of meaning in dance towards the perception of said meaning, using Wigman’s theory of the dancer’s eye, I show how the objective of Ausdruckstanz forms a bond between a dancer and audience, incorporating the audience into the dance and creating a new kinesthetic and aesthetic experience. With this goal in mind, Wigman’s Hexentanz II situates itself in the context of other early avant-garde and modernist movements that sought a complete re-evaluation of perception and aesthetic ideals as a response to modernity.

Teaching intersectional rhetorical criticism with second-wave feminist music

Intersectionality is core to contemporary feminist rhetorical criticism. It is also a complex concept with great potential for promoting social change by shifting discourses about identity in the public sphere. Therefore, communication scholars have a vested interest in teaching the basics of intersectional criticism to undergraduate and graduate students across the humanities, especially in upper-division undergraduate communication courses that deal with rhetorical criticism, feminist rhetorical theory, women and or gender studies, social movements, critical cultural studies, media studies, or other related topics. I recommend teaching intersectionality as an analytic framework for rhetorical criticism with second-wave feminist music. The unit begins by briefly overviewing the key goals and rhetorical tactics of second-wave feminists. Students then read intersectional criticism of second-wave rhetoric and criticism of rhetorical theory that fails to consider the intersectional experience of identity. The unit culminates with students working in groups to conduct an abbreviated rhetorical criticism of popular music associated with the United States’s second wave of feminist movements. The abbreviated rhetorical criticism asks students to analyze the embodied and situated components of musical argumentation. They present their findings to the class in a multimedia presentation that engages many sensorial and rhetorical possibilities, much like music does. Courses Rhetorical Criticism, Feminist Rhetorical Theory, Women/Gender Studies, The Rhetoric of Social Movements, Critical Cultural Studies, Media Studies. Objectives In this unit, students will learn how to analyze second-wave feminist rhetoric through an intersectional lens using musical case studies. First, students will study the history of second-wave feminist movements. They will then read about the core tenants of intersectional thinking before exploring how rhetorical critics use intersectionality as an analytic framework. Next, students will engage popular music with feminist messages that emerged during the second wave in an abbreviated rhetorical criticism textured with historical context and focused on embodied experiences of musical appeals. They will present their findings in a multimedia format for their classmates. By the completion of this unit, students should learn to apply intersectional theory to an analysis of a musical rhetorical tactic and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of that tactic.

Janet L. Langlois (1946–2021)

Janet L. Langlois (1946–2021)

페미니즘 각색: 두 개의 작은 아씨들 영화 비교

This study examines the relation between two film adaptations of Little Women and the 2^nd and 4^th waves of feminism. Among many versions of Little Women, two movies in 1994 and 2019 are considered feminist ones because they search for Alcott’s hidden feminist messages between the lines of the original text, and try to reflect them. Remarkably, each movie includes the agendas of the 2^nd and 4^th waves of feminism. The former emphasizes the sisterhood and the sense of solidarity among women, which are the agendas of the feminist 2^nd wave. The latter focuses on the intersectionality and contemporarity, which are the ones of the 4^th wave. This study begins with the brief explanation of the flow of feminist movement of the 20th and 21st centuries. It further analyzes how each movie appropriates the agendas of each time, and how they are useful in understanding the concerns of each feminist movement. As long as the feminist movement is concerned with the required voices of time, a new type of Little Women will appear to represent the issues of the feminist movement of the era.