Feminist Discourse Research Articles

A Women’s Nation: Feminism, Class, and National Identity in Margarita Ledo Andión’s Nación (2020)

Through her films, the Galician filmmaker Margarita Ledo Andión builds a singular benchmark on the margins of a peripheral cinema per se: the Novo Cinema Galego. Her performative and experimental narratives, in line with avant-garde films of other small European cinemas, her nationalist and feminist (political) discourse, and her condition as a woman filmmaker situate her filmography on the intersection of multiple peripheries. This paper analyzes her most recent film, Nación (2020), from the perspective of cinema made by women as minor cinema and an example of “fourth cinema” as an instrument to make visible the role of women in the class struggle and the construction of Galician national identity.

“To attack the rights of one man is to attack the rights of everyone”: Conservative Rights Talk and Canada’s First Hate Speech Laws

ABSTRACT In 1970, the Canadian government amended the Criminal Code to include the nation’s first provisions banning hate propaganda. This article examines the parliamentary debates over these provisions, from their introduction to their adoption, to assess how members of the two mainstream political right and right-of-center parties responded to the proposed amendments to the Criminal Code. It considers what this response—and the way in which it was articulated—reveals about how self-identified conservatives understood rights and freedoms, and how they conceived of the role of the state in securing these rights and freedoms in the context of Canada’s expanding legislative human rights framework. I argue that these debates over hate speech are illustrative of a coherent form of conservative rights-talk in 1960s Canada, one that varied from, and in some respects was in opposition to, a more dominant liberal discourse of rights.

Negotiating Identity and Resistance: Cultural Identity and Feminist Discourse in Afghan Women's Literature

Negotiating Identity and Resistance: Cultural Identity and Feminist Discourse in Afghan Women's Literature

Analyzing the diffusion of feminist discourses on Chinese social media: A case study of the 2022 Tangshan restaurant attack.

Network platforms have ushered in a novel propagation model for feminist discourses. The emergence of oriental feminism in society has led to gender-based public opinions surrounding public events becoming a trending topic on Chinese social media. This study uses the 2022 Tangshan restaurant attack as a case study, an incident that sparked widespread discussions across China in 2022. The research gathered 366,602 network communication nodes within a week and examined the communication networks of three types of content nodes (information, opinion, and appeasement) using the complex network modeling method. The findings revealed that all three types of information communication networks exhibit an apparent scale-free characteristic, and the "key minority" of nodes significantly affects information communication. Information-type and appeasement-type Weibo display notable similarities in the quantity and degree distribution of nodes within the communication networks and in the information decay rate. Moreover, authoritative information issuers have become the primary catalyst for information propagation. Conversely, opinion-type Weibo has the widest communication network diameter and features a high degree of participation, multilevel propagation, and a slow decay rate. This indicates that the interaction between opinion leaders and netizens has enhanced the depth and breadth of information diffusion for opinion-type Weibo.

'n Feministiese ondersoek na Bettina Wyngaard se misdaadfiksie

The recent discourse on black feminism in Afrikaans literature is strongly influenced by powerful and activist-oriented writers like Ronelda Kamfer, Lynthia Julius, and Veronique Jephtas. With their poetry and public statements, they have shaped the feminist discourse significantly. However, the recent discourse on feminism in Afrikaans largely overlooks the contributions of certain black Afrikaans women writers. Bettina Wyngaard, a black Afrikaans woman novelist, attempts to disrupt this silence and through her literature and opinion pieces, she advances an alternative feminist stance. This article focuses on Wyngaard's contribution to the recent feminist discourse and the ways in which she asserts her voice within the debate. In this article I refer to three of her crime fiction novels, namely Vuilspel (Foul play) (2013), Slaafs (Slavishly) (2016) and Jagter (Hunter) (2019). I analyse these texts in attempt to examine the feminist ideology underlying her literature. I argue that Wyngaard chooses crime fiction, a genre traditionally dominated by white males, in attempt to sanction her voice within the feminism debate in Afrikaans. In this article, I examine Wyngaard's crime fiction within the context of third wave of feminism, which engages with popular culture as a tool for critique and to promote feminist ideology. I explore the feminist consciousness and ideology in Wyngaard's novels and the ways in which she challenges established patriarchal conventions in crime fiction as a genre. I employ Anne Cranny-Francis' framework in the feminist value of crime fiction to examine the feminist themes in Wyngaard's work.

Cultural Context and Feminist Discourse: Comparing Ibsen’s Norway and Tagore’s India

Cultural Context and Feminist Discourse: Comparing Ibsen’s Norway and Tagore’s India

Why Would Some Feminist Activists Want to Ban Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Why Shouldn’t They?

This article critically engages with the feminist discourse surrounding George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, with a specific focus on the calls for its prohibition arising from perceived gender biases. The central inquiry at the heart of this exploration revolves around whether the perceived gender discrimination in Nineteen Eighty-Four warrants its prohibition. Detractors posit that Orwell's delineation of women, especially through characters like Julia, reinforces entrenched gender norms. Conversely, proponents assert that the novel's core message transcends gender-specific concerns, functioning as an enduring cautionary tale against the deleterious effects of totalitarian regimes. The article succinctly encapsulates the prevailing feminist critique of Nineteen Eighty-Four, undertaking an examination of the representation of women and gender relationships within the dystopian framework. Scholars argue that Julia's character epitomizes a passive and objectified perspective of women, conforming to male desires and perpetuating patriarchal viewpoints. This scrutiny extends to the thematic suppression of sexuality and gender within dystopian literature, underscoring the novel's limitations in addressing gender-related intricacies. Drawing upon feminist literary criticism and amalgamating various theoretical approaches such as historical context analysis, textual scrutiny, and thematic exploration, the article advocates for the legitimacy and significance of the critique. Despite the manifestation of patriarchal ideologies in the portrayal of women in Nineteen Eighty-Four, the article delves deeper into the pervasive theme of patriarchal control in the narrative. It examines how the Party regulates reproduction and sustains gender norms, contending that the novel persists in its relevance by fostering discussions on oppressive governance and authoritarian control. The paper accentuates the novel's nuanced exploration of gender dynamics, implicitly challenging traditional constructions. Emphasizing the value of dystopian fiction in feminist discourse, the article highlights the role of Nineteen Eighty-Four in catalyzing conversations about gender equality and institutional reform. In conclusion, the article addresses the perils associated with the misuse of censorship mechanisms for literary works and advocates for the preservation of a diverse literary discourse. The proposition to ban Nineteen Eighty-Four based on its gender portrayal is posited as counterproductive, with the potential to stifle critical engagement and impede meaningful dialogue. The ongoing controversy surrounding the novel underscores the imperative of sustained discussions, encouraging readers to scrutinize and challenge prevailing gender and political norms. Ultimately, Nineteen Eighty-Four is positioned as a valuable work contributing to broader narratives of social justice and equality.

Analysis of Adelfa Calvo’s feminist discourse as persuasive communication to denounce gender inequality in Spanish actresses at the Goya Awards

Esta investigación trata de comprobar la hipótesis que se deriva del discurso de la actriz Adelfa Calvo por la igualdad al recoger el Premio Goya a Mejor Actriz de Reparto en 2018. También pretende reconocer otras de sus acciones feministas en el cine. El objetivo principal ha sido contextualizar su discurso probando que ha existido una a premiar actrices según la edad y la talla en la última década. Para comprobarla se ha analizado la muestra de actrices que recogen el galardón entre 2010 y 2020 analizando las variables mencionadas. La metodología utilizada ha combinado el análisis de contenido cualitativo y cuantitativo con entrevistas personales y el estudio de caso. Los resultados han demostrado que la hipótesis se cumple. La conclusión más reseñable ha sido la detección de la necesidad de una normativa que regule esta tendencia discriminatoria basada en la educación en la igualdad. Probar científicamente que el trabajo de las actrices en Premios Goya ha sido valorado influido por una tendencia al margen de criterios profesionales es la aportación de esta investigación. Al mismo tiempo que reconocer a Adelfa Calvo como referente de la industria cinematográfica en la lucha feminista por su mediática reivindicación.

Pertinence of Literature in Destroying Menstrual Taboos

The impurity of menstrual blood is a universal myth that spans across all societies and cultures. This notion has also established a barrier to gender equality, as females are instructed, throughout cultures, that menstruation is disgraceful. This belief restricts their capacity to conduct regular duties when they are bleeding, hence making them organize their lives around their menstrual period. The need to fill the inadequate understanding of the menstrual cycle in society is a necessity. The third wave of feminism encouraged society to discuss certain challenging topics, which led to considerable breakthroughs in beliefs around menstruation. The day when feminist discussions were limited to people who could pay to express their opinions has long since passed. The concept of feminism in the twenty-first century encompasses a larger spectrum of opinions. Strong arguments on women’s cleanliness and the need for understanding menstruation only serve to emphasize how crucial and significant the issue is. The present paper attempts to explore the myths and taboos, cultural and political perspectives on menstruation, and the role literature is playing in altering society’s attitudes about menstruation. The paper will attempt to comprehend how important literature is in eradicating the stigma associated with menstruation and how it contributes to raising awareness of menstrual hygiene among people.

Immigration, poetry, and translation between Syria and Germany: Adel Karasholi

AbstractThe work of Syrian‐German poet Adel Karasholi exemplifies key vectors of literature in the context of migration, in particular the tension between nostalgia and assimilation. Karasholi's case is distinctive insofar as he lived between two dictatorships, Syria and the German Democratic Republic, and his poetry testifies to processes of ideological accommodation, integration into GDR literary networks, and identity‐political hybridization. A Brechtian aesthetic of engagement and a Marxist discourse of progress coexist with the problematics of immigration and cultural difference. In the early 1990s, Karasholi began to invoke previously rejected orientalist and mystic‐religious tropes as he entered the multicultural public sphere of unified Germany, but in his translations of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (2004) he reverted to the secular modernization sensibility of his GDR years. One of these translations (“In Jerusalem”) is examined closely to reveal Karasholi's strategic choices and subtle differences from the Darwish original.

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.

Jane Austen's Feminist Journey: From Enlightenment Sparks to Contemporary Discourse

This paper explores the multifaceted feminist themes woven throughout Jane Austen's novels. It delves into how Austen, a product of the Enlightenment era, critiques the societal constraints placed upon women in Regency England. Through witty dialogue and social commentary, Austen exposes the limitations on female agency, particularly regarding marriage, property ownership, and self-determination. The paper utilizes in-depth analysis to trace the evolution of Austen's feminist voice across her works. It unveils her subtle yet powerful critiques of patriarchal structures, highlighting the intersection of power and privilege within Austen's narratives. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of intersectionality in understanding the diverse experiences of women within her novels, acknowledging the impact of class and social status on their struggles. Finally, the paper underscores Austen's enduring legacy as a pioneering feminist voice. Her timeless novels continue to resonate with contemporary readers, sparking discussions about gender equality, female agency, and the fight for social change. Austen's work serves as a bridge between Enlightenment ideals and modern feminist discourse, solidifying her position as a literary icon whose influence transcends generations.

Toward a Feminist Montage: Reading for the Cut in Ana Mendieta's Sweating Blood

abstract: This article develops an alternate concept of the filmic cut with influences from both montage theory and feminist film history. Deriving this alternate concept of the cut from Ana Mendieta's moving image work, I examine Sweating Blood (1973) as it couples the cut with an aesthetic violence, producing a version of the cut that contributes to a feminist discourse on filmic manipulation, intermedia, and montage. This theory of the cut is informed not only by Mendieta but also by those who have inspired alternate ways of thinking about "the cut," including Yoko Ono, Maggie Nelson, Sergei Eisenstein, and Luis Buñuel.

The "New-Old" Dimensions of Caring in Humanitarian Response: The Opportunity for Public Health Palliative Care to Advance the Humanitarian-Development Nexus, Decoloniality, and Localization Thought.

How can palliative care framings advance humanitarian discourse? The imperative for palliative care in humanitarian settings is increasingly urgent. Recent efforts by health and humanitarian organizations demonstrate increasing attention to the issue. Yet palliative care is still not adequately formally considered or enacted by humanitarian agencies in rhetoric, policy, research, or practice. Even where it is considered in humanitarian action, palliative care is often assumed to be a novel intervention, rather than a caring practice that has existed from time immemorial, including in humanitarian situations. The generation of ideas in this paper has followed a dynamic, iterative, and reflexive process through engagement with key literature, critical thinking, conversations with colleagues across both sectors, primary data, and debate amongst the authors. The paper argues that the current dominant frame of a new, specialized, professionalized, and medicalized palliative care in the humanitarian sector would perpetuate existing challenges. It contends that viewing both fields through a "new-old" lens, where historical and traditional caring practices intertwine with progressive discourse for a more just and appropriate public health response, can further humanitarianism. It posits that the humanitarian-development nexus, decoloniality, and localization thought can benefit from palliative care practice through critical interaction with a broad range of literature.

MARGINALIZATION OF WOMEN IN ONLINE NEWS IN INDONESIA (CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS SARA MILLS)

Discourse analysis is a method used to uncover the meaning and communication messages present in a text, both in its textual and contextual aspects. This means that the meaning of a text or communication message cannot solely be derived from the explicit written text. Sara Mills' discourse model focuses on discourses about feminism, emphasizing the positions of subjects and objects within the text. Feminist discourse highlights how a text represents women. In reality, women are often portrayed as inferior and in the wrong compared to men in texts. The approach used in this analysis is Sara Mills' discourse approach. The author examines a discourse for analysis titled "Sad Case: 9 Children Raped, Main Perpetrator Still Underage" from Detik.com. The results of the discussion indicate that the author portrays women as objects depicted in news stories. However, on detik.com news, women are also positioned as subjects with the opportunity to narrate events they have experienced from the beginning to the aftermath of rape. In feminist discourse, women are often depicted not as subjects but as objects in many news texts. In this case, women are objectified, and their positions are often defined as mere storytelling materials, victims of abuse, or rape victims, unable to represent themselves. Through the analysis conducted on detik.com media, women are portrayed as victims of rape. The news presented on detik.com depicts women more as a vulnerable group, while men are shown to hold power, rendering the victims powerless. Consequently, when represented in news texts, women are placed in a marginalized position. Keywords: Discourse analysis, Sara Mills approach, feminist discourse.

#AVERAGEYETCONFIDENTMEN: CHINESE STAND-UP COMEDY AND FEMINIST DISCOURSE ON DOUYIN

With the rise of feminist sentiment and the growing awareness of gender equity in China, social media has become an increasingly central space for Chinese feminist expression. However, the complex dynamics of feminist expression in these online spaces—and the role of popular culture in facilitating such discourse—are still to be fully elucidated. Here, focusing on the understudied social media platform Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), we analyze the online discussion sparked by the stand-up comedy acts of Chinese female comedians. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of Douyin videos and related comments, we demonstrate how users employed the platform’s creative features to challenge everyday sexism by echoing or building upon the stand-up comedians’ gags. At the same time, the analysis also uncovers how Douyin is used to insult and push back against these feminist voices. Our findings shed light on the sophisticated role of Douyin as a platform for digital feminist expression, and the ways in which it can amplify both feminist discourse or, conversely, give voice to misogynistic attacks.

Motherhood as the Subject-Forming Element of the Woman Represented by Feminism


 This paper is dedicated to defining and solving the problem of the subject in feminist discourse through analyzing the concept of motherhood and investigating how women are introduced to it. The problem derives from lack of a single utopian future without oppression in feminism, and, inherently, the absence of a fully actualized subject. Therefore, the need arises for a type of individual that is suitable for representational politics, one able to absorb potentially infinite numbers of actors while maintaining a feminist focus. The first part of the paper shows that previous feminist attempts to identify women have failed to meet the challenges of feminism, excluding certain circles of women, etc. The analysis is conducted on the basis of a generalized representation of the feminist subjects of essentialist and anti-essentialist tendencies. The second part of the work is devoted to the construction of a new subject based on motherhood, which is considered one of the subject-forming elements. This proposed foundation is then correlated with the critique of how women are introduced to motherhood and why it, as the basis of the feminist subject, might allow to form a new type of subject. Thus, previous understandings of femininity are critically viewed as implicit in motherhood, and are replaced by the concept of a subject in which motherhood is not a condition of its existence, but one of its fundamental elements.

Feminist Discourse and Its Translation: Macro- Strategies in Fihrist’s Feminist Utopias Series

Starting from the late 18th century, the feminist movement has evolved throughout the world, and literature has a crucial role in its development. Not only the feminist literary works or their translations but also research based on these works help women raise their voices in order to stand against inequalities arising from their gender. With a broad perspective, in this study, feminist translation is not just regarded as a struggle against domination, but it is rethought through feminist strategies and practices applied by the translators and the other agents involved in the translation process. In 2021, the publisher, Fihrist published a series under the title of “Feminist Utopias”. In this series, there are five late 19th-century utopias, which highlight the temporal gap between the source texts and their translation. Within this regard, this study aims to analyze feminist translation macro- strategies in these utopias within Luise von Flotow’s framework. The results of the analysis have shown that Fihrist’s launch of this series aims to introduce Western feminist utopias which present new dimensions by envisioning alternative societies that challenge traditional gender roles and power dynamics to the Turkish reader. The publisher's intention has been strengthened through the strategies employed by the translators, particularly the utilization of footnotes, addressing sexist concepts, and highlighting original feminist discourse.

Joy as Contextualized Feeling: Two Contrasting Pictures of Joy in East Asian Yogācāra

Abstract In this article, I elaborate on the approach to joy preserved in East Asian Yogācāra texts authored by Xuanzang and his disciple, Kuiji. I argue that these Yogācāra Buddhists propose a contextualist approach that does not presume joy to be an emotion with an essential property but rather perceives joy as always contextualized in lifeworlds at the personal and interpersonal levels. As such, Xuanzang and Kuiji outline two contrasting pictures of joy to capture how it is experienced in the lifeworld of ignorance and the lifeworld of wisdom, respectively. Upon delineating what joy is and how it is experienced, I continue to explore what joy can promise. Since joy does not have an inherent property, people can always make a collaborative effort to recontextualize joy for inclusion and emancipation. As such, I hope to draw on the Yogācāra analysis of joy to enrich the feminist discussion on happiness.

Liminalitas Perempuan Arab, Migrasi, dan Kota dalam Novel Innahâ London, Yâ Azîzî Karya Hannan Asy-Syaikh

This paper aims to explore the relationship between Arab women, migration, and the city in Hannan asy-Syaikh’s Innaha London, ya Azizi. The meeting of two cultures can be seen as a liminality and involves a postcolonial feminist discourse, considering that the women come from a former colonized country and the host country is a former colonizer country. Liminality describes the ‘between space’ as a place where cultural change occurs. The method used is the dialectical method. Research shows that liminality is related to language, food, and the relationship between women and men. Liminality becomes a bridge in bringing together self-culture with urban culture. It shows that at first, they didn’t understand and admire each other, but finally realized that they didn’t have to change to become the other. Each can remain self without losing identity and dominating the other. Liminality restores and strengthens the Arab identity of Arab migrant women in European metropolitan cities.