Feminist Studies Research Articles

Caste, Christianity, and the Invented Moral Panic of ‘Love Jihads’

In this article, I explore how dominant caste Christians in the state of Kerala, India have perpetuated a false narrative of “love jihads” while at the same time have pushed campaigns for dominant caste Christian women to have more children. I focus on the Syro-Malabar Catholics; an Eastern Rite of Catholicism and part of a larger group of Christians called the “Syrian Christians.” The Syrian Christians are, and have historically been, dominant caste and are recognized by the Kerala state and other religious groups as such. Since the literal reproduction of religious and caste hierarchies is only possible through endogamous (arranged) marriages, controlling women’s bodily autonomy and their sexual agency are a function of brahmanical patriarchy, or the intersections of casteism and patriarchy. I thus trace over a decade of incidents where unsubstantiated claims of “love jihads” have been raised by the Syro-Malabar hierarchy, and how these claims are often accompanied by initiatives aimed at encouraging Syro-Malabar Catholic women to have more children. While South Asia studies and feminist studies have examined the invented moral panic of “love jihads” in a Hindu/Muslim frame, it is important to contextualize how and why dominant caste Syro-Malabar priests, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals have also used the charge of “love jihads” to whip up communal panics that are both casteist and Islamophobic at their base.

What (Counter) Monuments for Feminism? The Debates over Monumental Commemoration and the Search for New Feminist Memory Frameworks

At the intersection of memory and feminist studies, this article examines the issue of suffrage and feminist monumental commemoration in the United States. Starting from the deficit of statues representing female historical figures in the public space, it analyzes the conception and reception of two important monuments honoring women’s suffrage (Portrait Monument 1921 and the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument 2020). While those monuments have somewhat broken the “bronze ceiling”, they testify to the mechanics of exclusion and inclusion at work both in the construction of history and memory. Then, the article takes on a broader perspective, questioning the extent to which traditional monuments, as products of a patriarchal culture and memory, can properly commemorate modern feminism. The essay identifies two trends, one consisting of transforming the bronze through various strategies, the other of “breaking the bronze” by replacing it with other materials and proposing new memory frameworks belonging to what James E. Young has labeled countermonuments. Still, the article ultimately questions the limits of the monument itself and points to the notion of interactive spaces as perhaps the most adequate sites of memory for the complex, multifaceted, contested, and contemporary movement that feminism(s) stand(s) for.

A contextual approach to decolonising IR: Interrogating knowledge production hierarchies

Abstract Although calls to decolonise International Relations (IR) have become more prominent, the endeavour becomes infinitely more complex when searching for concrete approaches to decolonise IR knowledge production. We posit that decolonising IR, a global counter-hegemonic political project to dismantle and transform dominant knowledge production practices, must be enacted according to context-specific particularities. Contexts shape practices of epistemological decolonisation, since knowledge hierarchies are enacted and experienced – and must be challenged and dismantled – differently in different sites. Yet although acknowledged as important, contexts are understudied and under-theorised. This raises several questions: how do contexts matter to IR knowledge production, in what ways, and with what effects? This article disaggregates six contexts in IR knowledge production – material, spatial, disciplinary, political, embodied, and temporal – and explores how they impact academic practices. We bring together hitherto-disparate insights into the role of contexts in knowledge production from Global IR, Political Sociology, Feminist Studies, Higher Education Studies, and Critical Geopolitics, illustrating them with empirical evidence from 30 interviews with IR scholars across a variety of countries and academic institutions. We argue that an interrogation of the inequalities produced through these contexts brings us closer towards developing concrete tools to dismantle entrenched hierarchies in IR knowledge production.

EPISTEMOLOGY AND INSTRUMENTALIZATION OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES: AN ITINERARY ON SCIENCE, METHODOLOGY AND FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE IN RESEARCH

The positivist and Cartesian influence on what we know today as science determines a compartmentalization of knowledge that can be an obstacle to studies of complex society. In this sense, interdisciplinary work is an option for the construction of knowledge that not only reflects reality, but also serves to build a better society. Interdisciplinarity, however, needs to be connected to a methodological rigor that guarantees the scientific nature of the knowledge constructed. In this sense, this article aims to outline a hypothetical-deductive theoretical itinerary regarding the multiple possibilities of interdisciplinary work, which involve overcoming the compartmentalization of knowledge constructed from an obsolete epistemology, towards a science with an objective perspective, which is illustrated by feminist studies.

No one deserves professional annihilation: Learning from women’s experiences of leadership work-caused trauma

The article advances critical perspectives of leadership and leadership learning through a feminist study exploring experiences of leadership work-caused trauma. The study explores why trauma appears for those in leadership and how this is experienced. It illustrates the harm done to those in leadership. Ten women’s experiences are explored through the following four themes: (a) Malicious, Avoidable, Morally Indefensible; (b) Suffering: Completely Shocked, Deeply Distressed, Frightened; (c) Loss; and (d) Feeling Obliterated and Fearing Eradication. The study demonstrates organizational leadership as a dangerous “enough” context for trauma research. Analysis highlights how actions associated with leadership cause psychological and emotional damage and how those in leadership suffer trauma, severely injured and diminished. The article conceptualizes leadership work-caused trauma and theorizes women leaders’ experiences as professional annihilation, where they are fundamentally destroyed. This new knowledge prompts relational dialogic reflexivity, provides opportunities for leadership learning and development, and contributes new avenues for future research.

Navigating household food insecurity and environmental sustainability on a low income: An exploration of Sheffield mothers.

In 2023, 25% of adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland experienced food insecurity. The concentration of food insecurity in both socioeconomically disadvantaged groups and households containing children raises concerns about its uneven nutritional and health impacts across different groups. In parallel with rising food insecurity over the past decade, concerns about the environmental consequences of human diets are intensifying, where urgent changes are needed to people's diets to avoid irreversible environmental damage. It is generally assumed that cost has a significant impact on people's ability to adopt more environmentally sustainable food practices. This UK Research Council-funded project seeks to gain insights into the ways in which low-income mothers (are able to) engage with environmentally sustainable food practices. RQ1 will examine the day-to-day food practices that mothers undertake for their families to offer insights into everyday food insecurity and the relevance of environmentally sustainable food practices. RQ2 will explore biographical experiences to highlight how mothers' life histories influence their familial food practices, including their current household food security and engagement with environmentally sustainable food practices. Finally, RQ3 will explore mothers' upcoming prospects of food insecurity and environmentally sustainable food practices. These research questions will be explored through a qualitative longitudinal, feminist study of 15 low-income mothers in Sheffield, UK, combining in-depth interviews with ethnographic elements. Gaining improved knowledge of mothers' food practices on a low income will be valuable to influence realistic, effective and meaningful philosophies, policies and practical action that prioritises equity, good nutrition and environmentally sustainable food practices.

Black Gravity, or a Hidden History of Empire

This essay takes this occasion—the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Evelynn Hammonds’s germinal essay “Black (W)holes and the Geometry of Black Female Sexuality”—as an opportunity to explore the turn to spacetime and astrophysics in Black feminist writing and scholarship. This understudied tradition has unfolded concurrently alongside the rise of maritime and aquatic metaphors in Black studies. Focusing on the image of the black hole, the essay argues that this metaphor operates as a stimulus for confronting disciplinary objects of anxiety in Black studies, Caribbean studies, physics, and Black feminist studies. By analyzing origin stories that surround the moniker black hole in physics, the essay shows how imperial violence and notions of Black gender and sexual alterity suffused the term from its inception in the world of physics—a history that Black feminist theorists call to memory and challenge in their redeployment of the image.

Transforming harmful representations, investigating violence and empowering care practises in masculinities.

Stemming from a critical perspective of feminist studies on masculinities, this article proposes to explore how dominant and hegemonic masculinities are being reimagined, renegotiated and reconstructed, by understanding new patterns of violence amongst boys, on the one hand; and how care, as the opposite of violence, and a concept in construction from a feminist perspective, can be adopted, put in practise and understood. From a feminist standpoint masculinities studies need to go through a renewed problematisation of the social constructions of masculinities in a space-time context that intersects the economic crisis, health crisis and, on the other hand, implementation of legislation and initiatives for gender equality and citizenship, and is marked by social challenges that are related to the increase of gender inequality, violence indicators and extremism but also the emergence of caring masculinities that need closer attention. This feminist approach to masculinities allows us to critically challenge hegemonic models of boyhood/manhood, specifically by developing a FEMINIST THEORY OF CARING MASCULINITIES. Through a critical understanding of the new patterns and ways in which patriarchal masculinities are perpetuated in society, and placing CARE as the centrepiece and pro-active practise that opposes violence sustained models of masculinities, feminist masculinities studies can challenge dominant forms of masculinity by taking action in diverse social contexts and emphasising empathy, emotional expression, and cooperative relationships.

#Freebritney: strategies of counternarratives and self-regulation in digital feminist counterpublics

ABSTRACT The conservatorship of Britney Spears represented a legal arrangement that placed multiple restrictions on the celebrity’s autonomy. The conservatorship also became the center of an activist movement that demanded a restoration of her rights, commonly known as #FreeBritney. Since 2009, this primarily online group has worked to raise awareness of and bring an end to Spears’ conservatorship, an objective that was ultimately achieved in 2021. Through a thematic analysis of interviews with self-identified #FreeBritney activists, we analyze this movement as a digital feminist counterpublic through two key themes: 1) #FreeBritney’s central mechanism of generating counternarratives about Britney Spears’ conservatorship and 2) its self-regulating structure. Taken together, these themes surface #FreeBritney’s feminist values, specifically regarding its attention to representation, narrative, and non-hierarchical organization practices. We argue that #FreeBritney poses compelling questions about key tensions at the intersection of fandom, digital activism, and feminist media theory. By positioning #FreeBritney as a digital feminist counterpublic that achieved its main goals, we interrogate the multifaceted nature of digital engagements with feminism, building on important work in internet, media, and feminist studies.

The Transformative Potential of Gender Equality Plans to Expand Women’s, Gender, and Feminist Studies in Higher Education: Grounds for Vigilant Optimism

The Transformative Potential of Gender Equality Plans to Expand Women’s, Gender, and Feminist Studies in Higher Education: Grounds for Vigilant Optimism

The Interconnections of Food and Femininity in BP Koirala’s Sumnima and Govinda Bahadur Malla’s The Window of the House Opposite

The aim of this paper is to map out the interconnections of food and femininity in Nepali fictional texts of the early twenty-first century. The gastrocritical approach helps understand the food-related behaviors in the literary texts. B.P. Koirala’s Sumnima and Govinda Bahadur Malla Gothale’s The Window of the House Opposite are considered the sources of evidences for making an associative study between gastrocriticism and feminist studies. Informed by the analytic framework such as cross-case and within-case analysis, this study uses the critical insights of Claude Levi Strauss’s “Gusteme” Mary Douglas’s “Deciphering a Meal” and Roland Barthes’s “Food as System.” The cross-case analysis and within-case analysis assert that food is a remarkable determinant of Nepali femininity, which has not been the wholesale victim of patriarchy as the daughter’s role is in an advantaged position as compared to the role of daughter-in-law and wife. This discourse between gastrocriticism and feminist studies, thus, establishes a generalization that women in the twenties of the turn of twentieth century had not received an undifferentiated treatment.

Monument o monstre. La memorialització de Rodoreda com a cos absent/present

This article draws on Jacques Derrida’s notion of the spectre from Specters of Marx (1993) to examine the process of patrimonialization and simultaneous invisibiliza­tion of certain aspects of Mercè Rodoreda’s work and personal life, focusing on a selec­tion of the commemorative acts organized for the centenary of her birth in 2008. It sit­uates the spectre in relation to Memory and Feminist Studies, paying particular atten­tion to Jo Labanyi’s (2000; 2002) recasting of this concept for the analysis of Spanish cultural production and Angela McRobbie’s (2011) critique to postfeminism’s ghosting of the feminist agenda at the turn of the 21st century. My analysis explores the socio­political and cultural dimension of domestic, natural and visual environments. Firstly, it looks at the ways in which the history of the Senyal Vell, the first house in Romanyà de la Selva where the author lived on her return from exile, has been narrated, arguing that they exemplify the dynamics of selection and appropriation in processes of cultural transmission and commemoration. Secondly, my analysis follows the literary routes drawn around the village and the choice of texts related to the suggested locations, not­ing the repeated omission of her unfinished novel La mort i la primavera. Finally, I draw the study to a conclusion through discussion of the portrayal of Rodoreda in the poster for the play Un dia. Mirall trencat, adapted and directed by Ricard Salvat in 2008, where the author is represented as a witch-like master puppeteer.

The Institutionalization of Feminism in the Romanian Academic and Intellectual Sphere

The present research aims to explore the institutional history of feminist disciplines and the trajectory of their inclusion in the Romanian academic curriculum, as well as in the intellectual space from the late 90’s to the present day. The adoption of feminist theories has been limited by two impediments that have made their curricular inclusion difficult and their circulation in Romania quite sporadic: firstly, the subject has been rejected and boycotted by a moralising conservative public discourse and secondly, their critical disciplinary implication has posed problems of institutional acceptance due to suspicion of leftist bias. The paper aims to analyse the public debates concerning feminism, compared to a form of totalitarianism, in Romania, on the one hand. The second part has in view to define the import channel of feminist studies in Romania, along with the difficulties that hindered the first feminist scholars and activists’ efforts to disseminate the discipline in post-communist countries. The liberal ethos with conservative nuances of the Romanian academic space and the public intellectuals’ anti-communist positions remain responsible for the poor representation of feminism in Romania, as its impiety towards feminist theories has to do with the protectionism of dominant, conservative discourses.

Gender Parity in Indian Mythology: A Feminist Reading of the Texts on Shiva

Several measures are often taken to minimise the molestations and crimes faced by women. Female feminists are actively seen taking cudgels opposing the unjust behaviour being conducted against women. However, the accounts of males promoting the notion of feminism are still lacking or hardly find any pertinent in contemporary society. Some characters from Indian mythology too are portrayed as strong believers of gender uniformity. Feminist studies have already been conducted on female characters, for example, Ahalya, Sita, Draupadi, etc. This paper focuses on the character of Shiva, who being in the somatic body of patriarchy stood up for the rights of women and affirmed the idea of gender parity. He sets an example for contemporary men, encouraging gender equality. By the dint of his various life incidents, the way he treats his consort and values the individuality of women around him, this paper analyses Shiva through the lens of feminism.

A critical feminist study of mothers raising a child on the autism spectrum in Iran

This research explores the experiences of mothers raising autistic children in Iran through a critical feminist lens. We aimed to probe deeply not only into gender dynamics but also to explore how intersecting factors, including systemic issues, class, and social structure, interact to shape the challenges and experiences of these women. A reflective thematic analysis was conducted, involving a final participant group of 10 mothers. Upon analyzing the results, two prominent themes were constructed: the first theme, titled ‘In Interaction with the World Outside,’ focuses on the experiences of mothers as they interact with others and society. The second theme, named ‘In Interaction with the Self,’ explores the personal journeys and introspective experiences of mothers about themselves. Our findings illuminate the experiences of mothers who, despite being affected by systemic issues, social institutions, patriarchy, and gender inequality, actively challenge these forces and demonstrate their determination to secure the best possible future for their children. This highlights the urgent need for a more inclusive and supportive society that recognizes their agency, prioritizes gender equality, and empowers them to navigate the complexities of raising a child on the autism spectrum.

A Critical Engagement with the Conceptualization of Sexual Harassment in International Human Rights Law

ABSTRACT This article discussess the concept of sexual harassment in international human rights law (IHRL). After analysing how sexual harassment emerges in two different legal traditions, I investigate the transformations the concept has undergone. I create an outline of sexual harassment as a concept and of certain contexts in which it is conceptualized in international human rights law. The research is grounded in critical feminist studies and intersectionality theory. I investigated an extensive number of legal texts, including various IHRL treaties, soft law, and interpretations by treaty bodies, with a focus on the concept of a hypothetical ‘victim’ within the sexual harassment narrative. This was done by delving into the linguistic choices present in legal documents that deal with sexual harassment. I conclude that sexual harassment in IHRL is largely constructed around the ‘universal subject’ of the white cisgender middle-class women, with other identities perceived as exceptions. This leads to the exclusion of subjects who are different from the imaginary victim, thus creating people, spaces, and settings in which sexual harassment is neglected by the law.

Envisioning the Future of Intersectional Anti-Racist Feminism in Psychology

Although there has been a focus on intersectionality theory in feminist studies broadly and within the field of psychology specifically, there have been increased calls for an explicitly anti-racist focus within intersectional feminist psychology. The purpose of this article is to articulate what an intersectional anti-racist feminism in psychology looks like in terms of research, clinical practice, and advocacy. First, we provide some context for our focus on articulating an intersectional anti-racist feminism and our hope for this special issue, particularly in the current sociopolitical moment. Next, we share our positionalities as feminist leaders during the impetus of this special issue and share a brief herstory of intersectionality and the Society for the Psychology of Women (SPW). Then, we envision the future of intersectional anti-racist feminism with a focus on coalition-building and use the Combahee River Collective as a foundational example for the way forward in both theory and praxis. We end by briefly highlighting the series of articles that encompass this special issue which showcase scholarship, clinical practice, and advocacy.

“A normal nation in our land”: Reproductive righteousness, redemptive politics and LGBTQIA+ opposition in contemporary Israel

This article examines the political rhetoric and policy pursuits of a right-wing nationalist party in Israel (‘Noam’), showcasing how opposition to gender and sexual diversity is centered within an exclusionary vision of Jewish purity. Discursive analysis of political materials show how Noam frame gender and sexual diversity as potent proof of moral decline and as contaminating forces, which can only be saved by righteous (heterosexual) saviors. From billboards and election manifestos to policy, Noam's vision of a ‘Jewish state’ is underpinned by an idea of ‘normality’ that is ethno-nationalist, heteronormative and patriarchal. Their attempts to construct threats to the ‘normal’ Jewish nuclear family help to gain broader public support and forge alliances with hegemonic political parties. Situating this particular Jewish-Israeli exclusionary logic of reproductive righteousness is part of a broader feminist study of emerging alliances within right-wing movements in an increasingly globalized identity politics of opposition to gender and sexual diversity.

Resistance, Revolt, and Agency: A Radical Feminist Study of All the Lives We Never Lived

Resistance, Revolt, and Agency: A Radical Feminist Study of All the Lives We Never Lived

Imaginaries of Care and Science in Anthropocene Utopian Futurology: The Sociology of Science in Kim S. Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future

The article analyzes climate fiction utopia ‘Ministry for the Future’ by Kim S. Robinson. The analytical method relies on the framework of sociotechnical imaginaries proposed by Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim and combines it with the critical history of science and feminist studies of care. Since in the process of writing the novel its author went through numerous consultations with scientists, in the article this oeuvre is analyzed both as a piece of science fiction and as a futurology essay. It is examined how the institutions of science are portrayed, how society of citizens is imagined and how this vision of the future remains trapped in the misconceptions regarding science that result from the Cold War modernistic propaganda of science. On the basis of this analysis, the article offers a discussion of how the imaginaries of Anthropocene are likely to repeat such tropes, unless history of science and sociology of science during the Cold War becomes a necessary part of the Anthropocene studies.