Patriarchal Control Research Articles

Confronting the Monster

This essay examines the mail art of artist duo Polvo de Gallina Negra (Maris Bustamante and Mónica Mayer, 1983–93) and artist Magali Lara in 1980s Mexico. It analyzes two specific cases: Polvo de Gallina Negra’s project Carta a mi madre (1987) and a postage stamp by Lara (c. 1980) to argue that both used the possibilities of mail art as a mode of feminist disruption through approaches of play, invention, and surprise, ultimately working to subvert the patriarchal structures that oppress women. However, despite their innovative practices, these female figures continue to receive less attention in art historical scholarship of Mexican mail art and Latin American mail art overall. Furthermore, most scholarship on mail art in Mexico characterizes the conceptual practice as investigations of state surveillance or exercises of freedom under the Partido Revolucionario Institucional. Rather than taking this approach, I suggest that the work in this study looks toward more specific systemic structures that oppressed women under the auspices of modernity. In this sense, while the more recognized Mexican mail artist Ulises Carrión described the target of his mail as “The Big Monster,” we can see how the subversion tactics of Polvo de Gallina Negra and Lara are directed at a similar yet distinct monster: patriarchal control and possession in its multiple, cross-historical, national, and transnational manifestations.

“What Else Explains This Trauma but Porn?” Women Partners of Porn Addicts as Claims-Makers

Heterosexual women partners of “porn addicts” are an understudied group of claims-makers in the construction of this social problem. To examine their diagnostic frames, this paper analyzes 33 surveys and 35 interviews with women recruited from a social support site. While respondents describe their negative relationship dynamics as a gendered collective trauma, the majority attribute blame exclusively to pornography as an addictive medium. Explanations of relationship dissatisfaction which invoke patriarchal control are read as feminist and inappropriate on the site, as trolls could have the site taken down for “man-hating.” In the absence of these alternate explanations, the saturation of stories of women’s reported suffering becomes linked to porn alone. This paper contributes to scholars’ understanding of how the censoring of feminist perspectives online shapes how diagnostic frames are circulated and repressed, with consequences for how groups can make meaning of gender and sexuality.

Couples, alcohol use and experience of intimate partner violence among young women in urban informal settlements in Durban, South Africa: A mixed methods study

Alcohol is recognized as a driver of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration and experience, but relatively little research has focused on the role of couples' drinking patterns, nor pathways between alcohol and violence. We draw on data collected among young (18–30 year old) people living in informal settlements who self-selected to enroll in an intervention trial to reduce IPV in Durban, South Africa to understand these dynamics. Between September 2015 and September 2016 quantitative data were collected from women, who reported on their own experiences of IPV and alcohol use, as well as their partner's own alcohol use. To contextualise and interpret the quantitative results, we use qualitative data from women and men (who were not in relationships with one another) to understand potential pathways through which alcohol use may shape conflict in relationships. All forms of IPV (physical and/or sexual, emotional and economic) were more common among women where either, they alone had problematic drinking levels, their partner was frequently drunk but they did not have problematic alcohol use, or they had problematic alcohol use and their partner was drunk frequently. Qualitative data suggested women and men in relationships rarely drank together. Three potential ways in which alcohol use increased conflict and IPV: disinhibition, with women and men more likely to get into arguments and speak ‘badly’ to one another; the impact of men's drinking on relationships, including economic provision and providing emotional support; and, the close association between alcohol consumption and infidelity, with women's public drinking being particularly stigmatized and male partner's seeing this as a challenge to their authority and control. Interventions addressing the alcohol-IPV nexus need to also address male patriarchal control and alcohol's close association with infidelity and the impact on finances, as well as reducing alcohol use.

Gender Relation, Patriarchal Control, and Domestic Violence: A Qualitative Study in Mauritius

Domestic violence has become a significant issue affecting women. Women’s oppression has increased through living in a modern society. Mauritius is an example where domestic violence has been critically expanded, resulting in manslaughter. Therefore, the aim of the study is to investigate the link between gender relations, patriarchal control, and domestic violence. The focal point is to understand women’s position in a patriarchal society like Mauritius, whether patriarchy is a dominant factor, and how gender relations play their role in contributing to domestic abuse. Furthermore, identifying the aspect of staying in an abusive relationship is an important aspect of determining the control of men over women and how they cope in this type of relationship. A qualitative approach has been used to identify these factors by using a sample of thirteen victims who were subjected to different forms of patriarchal control by their spouses and partners. Results show that domestic violence keeps increasing as a significant societal problem. There is a strong correlation between patriarchal control and domestic violence in Mauritius.

Feminist identity crisis in Africa

Feminist movement in Africa lacks capable guardians to steer the development of feminine identity or theory, and to operationalize the feminist agenda. The apparent lack of a national or continental feminist theory has not helped to elevate the status of the majority of women beyond the patriarchal controls, particularly in the rural and peri-urban communities, despite improved social modernization. Africa’s feminist crisis involves the lack of leadership, ideological vacuity, absence of structure or movement, and the non-application of cultural; political; class; religious and tribal identities in developing feminist theory. In search of capable feminist guardians, the tendency of feminist groups is to co-opt self-actualized African women into feminism with or without their consent, and without regard to the accidental coincidence of those personalities’ narratives with feminist epistemology. Feminism in Africa is in search of relevance within the public space. This paper interrogates these issues and uses the narrative of several self-actualized women in Africa, who have, apparently, been co-opted into feminism as a result, to discuss aspects of the crisis and the delimiting public policy and legislation against, perhaps, the development of feminine identity.

‘It biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder’: female rivalry in Caroline Lee Hentz’s novellas

ABSTRACT Nineteenth-century literature often depicts women as rivals, a phenomenon Virginia Woolf attributes in ‘A Room of One's Own' to the male-dominated nature of literature up until the twentieth century. This led to women being defined in relation to men. Feminist critics often reject female competitiveness as it challenges the collective effort to contest patriarchal control, focusing instead on female friendship. However, there is a lack of critical exploration into rivalry among female characters in nineteenth-century literature by nineteenth-century female novelists, particularly regarding overt spite or ill will. This article addresses this gap by examining poisonous relationships among female friends and siblings in novellas by Caroline Lee Hentz. Drawing from Freud's theories on female sexuality, critiques by feminist scholars like Janice Raymond, and Sianne Ngai’s studies on negative affects, the study uncovers the origins and often-tragic outcomes of toxic relationships among women. It contextualizes these themes using biblical imagery from Psalm 140:1-3, which depicts metaphorical venom resonating with jealousy and treachery in nineteenth-century literature. Additionally, this analysis highlights societal barriers in the judgmental Victorian society that hindered the establishment of genuine relationships among women.

Scrunity and Enslavement of Woman in Shashe Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terror

Patriarchal amazingness and the subordination of women are typical in almost all social orders and societies. Shashi Deshpande, an Indian writer, depicts the physical, mental, and ideological persecution that patriarchy has caused with indescribable detail. Women's freedom and ladylike character are celebrated by Deshpande through the creation of two strong female characters, Sarita and Indu, who give importance to their internal heart. The role of patriarchy is assumed by female characters in English literature who are quiet, detached, and unapproachable. Desdemona by William Shakespeare, Ophelia, Tess by Thomas Solid, Catherine by Emily Bronte, Isabella, Bertha Bricklayer by Charlotte Bronte, and D.H. Lawrence's Miriam are depicted as powerless, delicate and powerless within the hands of patriarchy. On the flip side, Deshpande succeeds in displaying how her female heroes transform and comprehend their place in society. She has opted for two books that illustrate the patriarchal control and frustrations faced by females in marital unions. Hence, the by and large reason of this article is to portray the long-lasting battle of ladies to discover their genuine personality and position in families, social orders and societies. This inquires about looks for to discover out the genuine nature of patriarchy that endures in society in different shapes and shapes to limit ladies by reducing their internal quality and individuality.

Racial capitalism and women’s horticultural labour in Senegal: neo-housewifisation and the micro-politics of paternalism

ABSTRACT The article addresses the social relations of labour in Senegal a decade after the land rush. Based on an intersectional feminist analysis of three firms, the study found that workers’ subjugation to patriarchal control in their households and workplace capitalists indicate the emergence of labour control associated with settler colonies of Africa. I argue that strategic alliances between patriarchy and racial capitalism influence the mobilisation and control of labour classes: i) through the subordination of women and younger male workers to farm management through the micropolitics of paternalism; and ii) through new spatial fixation forms of previously mobile footloose labour of women and junior workers staying close to their families for work such that they become a compliant and tied labour force. This occurs simultaneously with an urban exodus to the rural and peri-urban areas where the commercial horticultural farms are located. Class consciousness is stymied so resistance is circumscribed, taking limited, individualised forms.

Czech Hercules: Gustav Frištenský, ‘Musculinity’, the Others and Visual Pleasure around 1900

Before 1900, in the Czech lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, the lean body of an athlete became a representation of strength, health, and beauty. Through Sokol gymnastics, the body of every Czech man was to be shaped into the form of the somatic mythotype Apollo. After 1900, in circuses, variety shows, and strength sports clubs, a new ideal man embodying somatic mythotype Hercules appeared: the strongman, who transformed a lightly muscled Apollonian shape into a modern Herculean form bulking massive shredded musculature. Strongman Gustav Frištenský in particular, whose body was eroticized, photogenized, nationalized, and racialized, embodied a mobilizing sports star who strengthened the Czech national community. Frištenský’s body was shaped by Hellenistic idealism, which gave rise to his adherence to the somatic mythotype of Hercules. This subsequently gave birth to ‘musculinity’, a new kind of hegemonic masculinity. The perception of Frištenský’s body was influenced by a physical resemblance to the Estonian wrestler Georg Lurich, by practices of othering, and the myth of white male supremacy. The steel and statuesque aesthetic of Frištenský’s body and the voyeurism of the masses then undermined traditional middle-class prudery and patriarchal control over the distribution of visual pleasure.

Gender balance: A new lens for reading and studying the Bible, Part 2

Gender balance: A new lens for reading and studying the Bible, Part 2

“Why shouldn’t I Be Wanted, Even loved?”: Eugenics, Reproduction, and the Postcolonial in Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People and Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death

ABSTRACT This article focuses on two postcolonial novels, Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People and Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death, and argues that through the novels’ explorations of sex, both narratives reconstruct eugenic views that haunt postcolonial societies today. Through sex scenes (and their interruption or absence), the novels illustrate how the characters from India and Sudan respectively experience oppression and discrimination. These experiences are direct outcomes of eugenic views on and practices aimed at selected groups. Through its focus on masturbation and female genital mutilation, as described in the two novels, this article frames the analysis of Animal’s People and Who Fears Death in relation to eugenics, sexual deviance, and sterilization, and foregrounds the ongoing oppression of postcolonial nations. This article carefully examines how eugenics has shaped or further intensified inequality. In particular, it draws parallels between eugenic practices and two kinds of oppression described in Animal’s People and Who Fears Death: the control exercised by the West over postcolonial countries, highlighted through western industrial capitalism’s lack of concern about the genetic health of postcolonial nations and the dysgenic impact of their industries, and patriarchal control of women.

Female sorcerers resisting patriarchy in the Netflix series The Witcher

Lauren Schmidt’s Netflix series, The Witcher (2019), centers around the witcher, Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster hunter and his adventures in a fantasy world known as the Continent. While Geralt is the central character, the series also delves into the lives of female sorcerers who are trained by Brotherhood; an organization of skilled magic practioners who are determined to restore stability and order by governing and regulating the use of magic between kingdoms. This paper will analyze four sorcerers, Yennefer, Fringilla, Cirilla, and Tissaia, by focusing on the power of womanhood, especially the female power coming from what Silvia Federici in her book Caliban and the Witch (2004) underlines as women’s “sexuality,” “control over reproduction” and “ability to heal.” This paper argues that these three innate female traits push these four sorcerers to exert their own agency and code of ethics and, thus, dismantle the patriarchal control of Brotherhood. Drawing upon feminist literary theory, especially Silvia Federici’s book Caliban and the Witch, this article aims to analyze the power dynamics and resistance between the sorcerers and Brotherhood, the motives driving the sorcerers’ rebellion, and how these sorcerers emerge as symbols of resistance throughout the series.

Gate-Cane: (Un)tying the knots between climate, cane, and early marriage in rural India

ABSTRACT In this article, I examine the multiple tensions and interactions between social reproduction and the trajectories of accumulation amidst climate change in India’s historically drought-prone Marathwada region. By linking everyday experiences to broader socioecological transformations, I draw on the local practice of Gate-Cane weddings in Marathwada, and situate it within the context of climate change, capitalist agriculture, and gendered labour relations. Specifically, I document the ways in which cyclical drought and peculiar labour arrangements in the sugarcane industry have multiplied the drivers and compounded the problem of early marriage in the region. I combine a feminist political ecology framework with social reproduction and girlhood theories to make a twofold argument: first, recurring dry spells, loss of local livelihoods and the urgency to migrate and survive, are aggravating the drivers of early marriage in Marathwada. Second, by absorbing the marital unit into the labour unit – marked by territorial dislocation, patriarchal control, and devaluation of young women’s and girls’ work – the sugar industry sustains and reproduces early marriage. The article is based on a multi-sited feminist ethnography, including intergenerational family conversations, group discussions, stakeholder interviews, and thick field notes documented in village households and cane fields between October 2020 and August 2021.

The Dilemma of Unlawful Digital Interventions and Their Impacts on the Rohingya Community During the Covid-19 Pandemic

This study explores the impact of unlawful digital interventions on the Rohingya community in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rohingya refugees, who have faced severe persecution in Myanmar, found themselves in refugee camps in Bangladesh, where they initially had limited access to technology and the internet due to legal restrictions. However, by using the Ethnoscape and Mediascape of globalization theory devised by Arjun Appadurai, the study aims to understand the unlawful digital interventions in the camps during the Covid-19 pandemic. This unauthorized access to digital platforms played a crucial role in raising awareness among the Rohingya population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study conducted in three Rohingya camps employed qualitative methods, including focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and observations, to understand the significance of unauthorized digital platform usage, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adolescent males and females with smartphones acquired knowledge about COVID-19 through social media platforms like Facebook, Imo, WhatsApp, and YouTube, leading to intergenerational debates within the community, as the elderly relied more on television broadcasts. The study highlighted the critical role of social media in shaping the community's knowledge and perceptions of the pandemic and to take precautionary measures, though they encountered misleading content. While digital platforms facilitated information sharing and financial transactions, gendered restrictions on smartphone usage were evident, reflecting patriarchal control over young girls' mobile phone access.

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.

Acca soror: Queer kinship, female homosociality, and the Amazon-huntress band in Latin literature

Despite the modern association of ancient Amazons and Diana’s huntresses with lesbianism, scholarly accounts of these groups as they appear in ancient Greek and Roman literature have rarely adverted to any hints of homoeroticism. This article re-examines several narratives concerning Amazons and huntresses in Latin literature (including Camilla in Vergil’s Aeneid and Phaedra in Seneca’s eponymous tragedy) from the perspective of queer kinship and female homosociality, demonstrating the ways in which these characters subvert traditional norms of kinship and femininity, replacing patriarchal control with female sodality, often imaged as a “sister” relationship. It suggests that, even if we do not interpret these intense homosocial bonds as erotic, we can nonetheless perceive a more radical rejection of social norms that transcends genital sexuality and merits the label of “queerness”, insofar as queerness can be defined as a resistance to normativity.

Gendered Reflections on the Hindu Code Bill

Women were always portrayed as self-sacrificing and demure, prisoner of various orthodox traditions and devoted to their family. 1 Her behaviour should be modelled on various religious texts, and she would be severely punished if any moral code were violated. However, at the socio-economic and political levels, she was rendered invisible. It was during the colonial phase of India’s historical trajectory that the gender question attained centre stage and serious efforts were undertaken to alleviate the situation of Indian women. This greater generalization of patriarchal controls and the pativrata ideals (Doniger & Smith, 1991, The laws of Manu, p. 198) throughout the caste hierarchy was a major factor in the increasing number of widows seen in the colonial period, and a gradually declining sex ratio, leaving India as one of the most patriarchal societies in the world when counting the number of ‘missing women’—an estimated 35-40 million women would have been alive were it not for the systematic discrimination (Dreze & Sen, 1995, India: Economic development and social opportunity, OUP Delhi). Nonetheless, the various debates on gender reforms either painted women as victims or heroines thereby denying them any agency.

“My heart’s fine as long as my stomach’s not empty”: patriarchal horror, women’s excess, and fat liberation in Criminally Insane

ABSTRACT Slasher film Criminally Insane might be understood as one that capitalizes upon and perhaps even further entrenches existing societal anti-fatness in mid-century America. Its fat protagonist, Ethel, wields a butcher knife against those who constrain her access to food or endanger her freedom, killing and even eating her victims. Audiences and film reviewers have thus far described Ethel’s behavior as violent resistance to “treatment” for her fatness at her own and others’ peril. However, this paper reveals that the film is far from straightforward in its approach to fatness. Using the work of Laura Mulvey and Susan Greenhalgh, I consider how Criminally Insane deploys and critiques the male and medical gazes, revealing their intertwined and co-constitutive work against Ethel’s body and autonomy. I contend that while it certainly deploys anti-fat tropes, Miller’s gory film also offers a robust analysis of patriarchal control and even briefly attempts to envision a world in which fat people, like Ethel, can truly be free.

Changing Forms of Marriage in Colonial UP

Abstract
 Arranged marriage has been an integral part of Indian society for ages. However, its form to a certain extent has changed in the colonial period with the associated changes and reforms in marriage-related practices. This paper seeks to highlight the changes in the institution of marriage among the middle-class Hindu population of United Provinces (henceforth UP). While doing so, it argues that during the period of the early twentieth-century marriage as a social and cultural institution no longer remained simply a private or familial affair in UP, but discussed on public platforms immensely. It got inextricably linked to Hindu community identity assertions. Every aspect of marriage was scrutinized and institutionalized into a new practice. Changing caste and community consciousness among the middle-class Hindu population led to marked modifications in marriage negotiations and cultural festivities. This paper also investigates the inequities that the transformations in the institution of marriage gave rise to and argues that these changes further pushed Hindu women under new patriarchal control.

Childbirth and Pollution: Exploring the politics of Prasava Raksha through food practices in Kerala

Women’s body has been the site of patriarchal control and the formation of gendered ideologies, often subjecting it to multiple cultural interventions, especially while experiencing pregnancy and childbirth. Childbirth is considered a state of ritual pollution for a woman that starts from the day of birth and lasts up to several weeks or months, depending on regional and religious contexts. Prasava Raksha is a traditional practice in Kerala where massages, herbal baths, and a specific diet are prescribed for the health and well-being of the mother and child. Prasava Raksha can be considered the culturally appropriated version of the practice of pollution, practised by women belonging to Hindu, Christian and Muslim religious sects in Kerala. The purpose of this qualitative ethnographic study is to investigate the cultural context of how women’s body has been subjected to patriarchal control, particularly during pregnancy and childbirth, with food at the centre of analysis. This article aims to explore the practice of Prasava Raksha, its process and dietary prescriptions, to identify and analyse the cultural politics behind this practice that normalises the patriarchal exploitation of reproductive women. The study uses in-depth semi-structured interviews of 12 women from Kerala who have experienced childbirth and practised Prasava Raksha during the postnatal period, in addition to the interviews of a Prasava Raksha helper and an OB-GYN.