Negotiation Of Gender Identity Research Articles

Women's agency and resistance in Russia's war on Ukraine: From victim of the war to prominent force

This article examines the multitudinous forms of resistance exercised by Ukrainian women during the current phase of Russia's war against Ukraine. We explicate the gains women have made serving in Ukraine's military as well as women's important efforts in civilian spheres. We interrogate resistance as a complex gendered practice that involves the negotiation of gender identity, roles, and norms. This article is inspired by and contributes to scholarship interrogating the origins, effects, and dynamics of women's resistance during wartime in both the military and civilian spheres. The article contributes to debates about women's post-conflict empowerment, adding the Ukrainian case to work focused on other societies. We offer suggestions for future research and strategies for promoting equal rights agendas in post-war Ukraine.

Institutional discourses and gender identity construction: Negotiation of body image norms by adolescent girls in a Delhi school

This article deals with how the institutional discourse affects the construction and negotiation of gendered identities with reference to the discourse of body image and appearances endorsed by the institutional agents. It particularly explores the socially sanctioned ways of being and appearing ‘womanly’ at school. The paper explores the struggle between the institutional structure to reinforce and maintain bodies that adhere to the dominant gender order and the resistance put forward by students (girls) as a challenge to the mechanisms of social control and subordination. The adolescent body then becomes the site for the contestation and construction of normative gender identities.

Academic women's negotiation of gender identities in non-elite Chinese universities.

This study employs Butler's concept of identity to unpack how non-elite Chinese university academic women negotiate gender identities under the influence of the wider social discourses around gender in their institutional context. The study includes two empirical investigations of (i) semi-structured interviews and (ii) photovoice interviews with six women academics from six different non-elite Chinese universities. We found that most interviewees tended to value their teacher identity and meanwhile downplay their researcher identity in the professional field; while in the private field, they paid more attention to their mother identity at the cost of downplaying their career development. The study also reveals that, in the process of gender negotiation, the interviewees commonly adopted two strategies: (i) creating space and time for identity performance, and (ii) persuading with selves to accept multiple identities. This article contributes to the understanding of Chinese academic women in non-elite public universities from a Butlerian perspective.

Identity Negotiations of Trans Women at the Indonesia-Singapore Border, Kasu Island in Batam City

The existence of transgender people in Indonesia is still considered a mismatch with norms in society. Not infrequently, they are individually and community marginalized, criminalized, and even persecuted. This study aims to determine the negotiation of gender identity in trans women on Kasu Island, the Indonesia-Singapore border. The existence of trans women on Kasu Island is not a new thing, but the social environment does not mind their existence. This study uses a qualitative research method of case studies. Data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews and observations. Secondary data is obtained through online searches of relevant literature. The results of this study revealed that the existence of trans women on Kasu Island faces fluid identity management and negotiations over a close social environment (attachment identity). The existence of trans women in the border areas of this country is inseparable from the influence of the modern situation in the country of Singapore.

Visualizing Housewives: The Representation of Female Domesticity in Stock Imagery

The aim of this paper is to interpret the gender representations of housewives in nine selected examples of stock images. The essay focuses on how the concept of housewives is depicted in stock photography and how socially constructed gender roles and stereotypes are materialized through it. Paul Frosh’s methodology for surveying stock images, and Erving Goffman’s theory of gender representation are used for the analysis. The essay finds essential features that communicate and commodify the happy housewife ideal. It is suggested that through the conjoint use of elements of domestic work and leisure time, the gendered position of the women is portrayed in a positive light in a way to commodify female domesticity. The use of social science approach is limited in the academic discussions of stock photography. In this study, stock images are viewed as forms of visual representation that construct the perceptions of social phenomena through the articulation of meanings. In that regard, it is stressed that they may contribute to the social construction and negotiation of gender identities and roles.

Conversation Analysis and the Negotiation of Gender Identity in Pakistani Multilingual Context

The current study attempts to address the negotiation of gender identity in the Pakistani multilingualcontext to explore the gender identity of male and female speakers through conversation features ofopening, topic shifting, interruptions, and silence. The recorded and transcribed data of six peers in anacademic setting in the University of Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan, is analyzed in the light of the list ofcommonly occurring features of masculine and feminine talk suggested by Holmes (2006). The studyreveals that men and women exhibit varied verbal behavior and negotiate their identities throughdiscourse. The stance taken in this paper is that of respecting the differences among genders withoutlabeling their talk as inferior or superior. The paper lays an early brick to the present repository ofresearch in gender and language because the conversation analysis in the Pakistani multilingual contextis still an area that needs further exploration.

“It’s Not Particularly P.C., You Know . . .”: Women Coaches’ Performing Gender in Strength and Conditioning

Strength and conditioning (S&C) has become a chief part of athletes’ physiological preparation. Despite S&C’s growing presence across sports, women coaches have been generally marginalized and underrepresented. This study explores female S&C coaches’ experiences and coping mechanisms in a male-dominated industry. Semi-structured interviews with 15 female S&C coaches were conducted. The main themes identified from interview data are organizational politics, impression management, and humor. The findings suggest that women S&C coaches are often in subservient positions and have to adopt some traditional, male-generated subcultural practices to fit in. They carefully manage their coaching front stage to generate an impression that is expected and accepted in the given milieu. In their efforts to fit in, women often find themselves in a multiplicity of power matrices that involve a continuous negotiation of gender identity, internal politics, and sexist banter.

Towards a gendered model of second language investment: insights from language learning narratives

ABSTRACT This paper explores the relationship between gender and second language (L2) learning through a narrative case study. Drawing on the construct of investment in understanding language learning, the present study investigates the role of gender ideologies and gendered identities in a female L2 learner’s English learning experiences in an English-medium university in Hong Kong. Findings reveal that multiple gender ideologies mediated the learner’s access to L2 use opportunities and her participation in in-class and out-of-class contexts in complex yet contradictory ways. In particular, gendered expectations influenced the learner’s agency in investing in L2 practices in specific contexts and accumulating particular forms of (gendered) capital. Her L2 investments were also shaped by her negotiation of gendered identities and her pursuit of imagined identities related to her professional aspirations. Based on the findings, a gendered model of L2 investment is proposed. It illustrates the complex interplay between gendered capital, gender ideologies and gendered identities in shaping L2 investments and foregrounds the role of gendered agency in mediating the impact of gender ideologies and gendered identities on L2 investments. The study also suggests the need for contextualized and personalized approaches in understanding the gendered nature of L2 learning in future research.

Reshaping co-existence of tradition and modernity: polymedia in gender identity negotiation of Dagongmei

ABSTRACT Against the rise of polymedia as a global phenomenon, this study bridges the theory of polymedia with one strand of migration research that focuses on gender identity negotiation of marginalised migrant women. Especially, this study aims to capture how traditionally defined gender constraints and nascent desires for modernity may possibly encounter and act upon each other when migrant women navigate the complicated environment of polymedia. This examination is situated in the transitioning post-Mao China, with an emphasis on digital media and technology usage of Dagongmei – the group of young, single female rural-urban migrant workers. Confined physical and social mobility between rural and urban China tends to contribute to their specifically exacerbated gender struggles with the collisions between tradition and modernity, which are reflected in their media practices. Ethnographic fieldwork in a medium-size factory in Northeast China enables this study to unfold the dynamic experiences of these migrant women with the alternate separation, convergence, and clashes between tradition and modernity in polymedia.

Gendered contours of contemporary South Asian religious practices in the context of migration: second-generation Jain women and men in Britain and the US

ABSTRACTViewing religion through the social constructionist lens and adopting the methodological approach of ‘lived religion’, this article draws attention to the gendered contours of contemporary Jain practice. Although Jain dharma is a non-theistic, non-institutionalised religion, gender differences are embedded within lay practice in India. In contrast, analysis of qualitative data (interviews conducted with 50 second-generation, middle- and upper middle-class Jain women and men in Britain and the US) reveals a gender convergence in patterns of everyday religious practice and performance. I argue that the social turn in late modern societies, together with the dominance of a neo-orthodox approach among diasporic Jains, facilitates this convergence. Further, shifting patterns of religious practices suggest that religion is an important site for the negotiation of gender identities in the context of migration. The construction of Jain religious selves enables young Jains—both women and men—to navigate multiple and contradictory femininities and masculinities and to display more affective, relational, and compassionate selves in late modern societies.

An Absence of Modesty: The Male/Female Dichotomy in Modesty Blaise

This article examines the figure of Modesty Blaise as an action heroine in the canon of British espionage texts. It argues that the character and her stories offer multiple, liminal spaces for investigating and challenging ideas about gender, nation and class. It also addresses the current landscape of action-adventure films at a time when there are increased calls for more female-centric vehicles and gender-blind casting. While the gender politics of the Modesty Blaise franchise make for fascinating analysis, they are also played out against a backdrop of global politics. This can be seen in the first of the novels – simply entitled Modesty Blaise (1965) – and to some extent in Joseph Losey's loose adaptation of the book in 1966. Modesty's employment by the British secret service coincides with the dismantling of the British Empire, and the negotiation of gender identity that is a recurring theme in the stories intersects with the post-imperial, post-colonial concerns that dominated geopolitics at the time the original texts were released.

Dance, “Stereotypes,” and Gender Relations: The Case of Lowland and Mountain Communities of Karditsa (Thessaly)

Gender identity is the main topic within the field of anthropology of gender: it is an identity with a polysemic character. The present paper focuses on the identity of social gender, since gender is a field of negotiation and a criterion for the analysis of culture. Social gender is a result of social-cultural constructions, established through the repetition of stereotypical dance acts. In this context, dance functions as a symbol, and its study allows the understanding of social structures, and therefore, the understanding of gender identity. Every dance event can be approached as a conceptual field, in which participants act according to gender standards and experience themselves as gender subjects.The aim of this paper is to show the gender social structures and relations within dance and dance practices, as they are imprinted on the mountain and lowland areas of Karditsa (Thessaly), in combination with the predominant social structures. For this purpose, we made use of the theoretical model of Hanna, where dance and dance executions are fields of negotiation of gender identity, as well as Cowan’ s model, according to which social gender can be studied within the context of “dance events.”Through the analysis of these “events,” several discrepancies in social structures and relations were detected between the lowland and mountain communities. These differences are based on dance occasions, and participation or lack of participation of both genders in these occasions, according to dance norms, dance order, and dance types. The above discrepancies constitute gender diversity among lowland and mountain communities, as a result of local social structures and the performative acts.

Gender Negotiation of the composer Kaija Saariaho in Finland: The Woman Composer as Nomadic Subject.

This essay is my interpretation of the gender negotiation of the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho in Finland. I demonstrate, by examining the public's reception of Kaija Saariaho and her own experiences, how the gender negotiation of gender identity and the presentation of a woman composer take place, as ongoing processes, between the realms of conventional otherness (the socially constructed category of women composers) and real-life experiences of the individual. The analysis is done through the theoretical lenses offered by DE LAURETIS (1988) CITRON (1993), FOUCAULT (1984) and the epistemology of nomadic transitions by BRAIDOTTI (1991, 1994). I claimed that Saariaho has negotiated her gender not “within” the male-dominated system but “with” it, defining a new gender subject position: the position of the nomadic subject.

Materials, skills and gender identities: men, women and home improvement practices in New Zealand

The article explores the interactions of materials, skills and gender identity through examining DIY practices in New Zealand. It traces the relationship between materials used for home repairs, the competences needed to use them and the (re)production of specific gendered identities. It argues that housing and building materials were an important part of the European settler history of the country and this history forms the context within which New Zealanders work on their houses today. Drawing on interviews with 30 Pākehā homeowners, it explores how both men and women respond to the materials of their homes, how skills are acquired in relation to the demands of the materials used and how these skills become part of the (re)production of specific white, heterosexual gender identities. The figure of the ‘Kiwi bloke’ is discussed as an important imaginary in the negotiation of gender identities for both men and women. Interviewees saw their DIY activities in the light of the creation and re-creation of this specific national and gendered identity. The article reveals the intertwining of history and materiality in the continual negotiation and contestation of gendered identities.

A “Very Innocent Time”: Oral History Narratives, Nostalgia and Girls’ Safety in the 1950s and 1960s

This article analyzes the oral histories of a multiracial group of women who grew up during the 1950s and 1960s when social concern about suburban and urban crime was rising. The women nostalgically remember growing up during an “innocent time,” but their memories of violence and vulnerability interrupt their idealized narratives. The article argues that nostalgia serves several purposes. It enables women to critique the present, especially the loss of protective institutions such as girls’ organizations and tight-knit communities. Nostalgia also illuminates women’s negotiation of gender identity with respect to safety and respectability and may anchor their identities in gendered and class-based descriptions of protected, sheltered girlhoods.

‘Who's the guy in the room?’ Involving fathers in antenatal care screening for sickle cell disorders

Fathers are increasingly invited to take part in antenatal care of which screening for sickle cell trait is a part. Expectations about involvement reflect changing perceptions of fatherhood and negotiation of gendered identities. Current policy supports male involvement, but is less clear on what basis and with what consequences. In exploring this, our qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews, presents the experiences of fathers who have recently undergone antenatal screening for sickle cell. The sample was generated in discussion with eight non-governmental organisations. We recruited 24 fathers from nine UK cities. Our analysis outlines the importance of ‘presence’, in which fathers rely on nurturing definitions of fatherhood to display their sense of responsibility. Fathers, however, struggled to find a meaningful role as traditional masculinities became juxtaposed with new and complex forms of gender organisation, creating the potential for estrangement. To conclude, screening policy makes an appeal to emergent masculinities. It also generates risks and compromises choice, due to the normative values implicit in the screening process, reinforced by the more controlling aspects of health surveillance. This creates confusion among fathers, who are not sure why they have been invited into the antenatal space.

El género, la fábrica y la vida urbana en la frontera / Gender, Workplace and Urban Living in the Border

Este artículo tiene como objetivo contribuir a la reflexión acerca de los cambios socioculturales en la vida de las mujeres trabajadoras de la maquiladora en la época contemporánea. Para ello se elaboró un ejercicio interpretativo de un conjunto de narraciones, entre las que se incluyeron a modo de contraste los casos de algunos hombres. En particular se analizan el contexto y la experiencia de vida de las personas que acceden a estos empleos, su orientación laboral, la negociación identitaria que se presenta en las fábricas y la construcción del sentido de pertenencia al trabajo. Asimismo se examina el impacto de este modelo de industrialización en la configuración de los modos de vida tradicionales y modernos en la ciudad de Tijuana. AbstractThe aim of this article is to analyze the actual social and cultural change in women’s lives as workers of the border assembly factories. An interpretative exercise has been done for these purpose using a set of women and men narratives. In particular, we analyze the context and life experience of working women and men, its labor orientation, the gender identity negotiation in the factories and the construction of the sense of belonging to work. Also, the impact of this model of industrialization on the configuration of traditional and modern ways of life in the city of Tijuana is discussed.

Masculinities in dialogue

This response to the articles by Diana Wallace and Samantha Pinto seeks to locate the negotiation of gendered identities in the classroom within the larger study of the dialogic relations between texts, teachers, and students. Teaching, it proposes, is not a second-order derivative of scholarship, but a cultural form in its own right. The article suggests the continuing cultural and ethical importance of the study of masculinities within textual subjects, and argues the need to complement research on the experience of teachers with paying detailed attention to student writing and the student experience.

World of Maskcraft vs. World of Queercraft? Communication, sex and gender in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft

This article examines the construction, representation and commingling of gender identity in the online role-playing game (RPG) World of Warcraft. I show how players on German-speaking non-RPG servers blend gender by using linguistic markers of gender (like specific articles and suffixes) in an interchangeable way. Subsequent to this analysis, possible consequences for the online world as an opposition to offline reality and as a space for negotiation of gender identity are discussed. Focusing on different modes of communication while playing, I develop a more differentiated view on communication, sex and gender in online communities a view that goes beyond an assumption of simplistic, one-dimensional gender bending.

Family Talk: Discourse and Identity in Four American Families ‐ Edited by Deborah Tannen, Shari Kendall, and Cynthia Gordon

Family Talk: Discourse and Identity in Four American Families. Deborah Tannen, Shari Kendall, and Cynthia Gordon (Eds.). New York: Oxford University Press. 2007. 329 pp. ISBN 0195313887. $99.99 (cloth). ISBN 0195313895. $19.95 (paper). Family Talk offers an intimate glimpse into the private lives of four American families. Based on more than 450 hours of recorded conversations, this unique book provides a groundbreaking view of how four dual-income, American families conduct their everyday lives behind closed doors. Deborah Tannen, Shari Kendall, and Cynthia Gordon draw on personal conversations pertaining to the daily management of household and work, the negotiation of values and beliefs, and relationship maintenance to examine how these families use language to constitute their identities as parents at home and professionals at work. Family Talk adds to existing research on communication and provides a comprehensive assessment of discourse. The book identifies new ways in which members, through their moment by moment discourse, construct, negotiate, and enact the individual and collective identities that constitute a family (p. 4). Data are taken from a 3-year sociolinguistic project carried out at Georgetown University in which four White, highly educated, middle-class families living in or around Washington, D.C., tape their naturally occurring, face-to-face interactions for 1 to 2 weeks. Unlike previous discourse research based on interactions recorded in the presence of researchers, this discourse analysis is unique in that it is based on relatively uncensored exchanges occurring in a wide range of settings, over an extended period of time, and without the presence of a researcher. The book offers a variety of linguistic studies based on a single set of data in which the same four families are analyzed from multiple perspectives by different authors in the volume. The authors begin with an overview of themes and chapters, project origin, methodology, and profiles. Family Talk is divided into three parts based on the broad themes that emerged from the study. Part 1 (Chapters 2 through 5) focuses on interactional dynamics of power and solidarity in the context and the interactional framing of individual and shared identities, Part Ð (Chapters 6 through 8) considers the negotiation of gendered identities in relation to the links between and dual-income work, and Part II (Chapters 9 through 11) highlights the linguistic negotiation of values, beliefs, and identities. Although weaknesses in this book were difficult to find, the authors could have expanded the size of their sample and added families with more racial and cultural diversity. All study participants were White, educated, middle-class, and from the same city and, therefore, lacked a diverse mixture of backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs. In addition, a few of the book's chapters were not especially pertinent to discourse and the current issues facing today's families. For example, in Chapter 3, Tannen explains the discursive strategy of ventriloquizing to demonstrate how members use their pets as resources by which to manage and enact interaction among human members. Here, the author uses several cases from the transcribed exchanges to illustrate the ways in which dogs become resources in interactions among members. Although the chapter is an interesting study on how pets are framed through talk as members of the family, this space could have been used to examine a more central dimension of discourse. …