Postmodern Feminist Research Articles

An Outline of Feminism Jurisprudence: Phases and Approaches from Nepalese Perspectives

Jurisprudence is a science of law. Whereas feminism jurisprudence is a philosophy of law based on political, economic and social equality of sexes. It began in 1960s and feminists believe that law is not neutral or impartial. They blame male written history which has created in a bias way it is an off-shoot of critical legal studies. There are some of the schools of feminist jurisprudence. They are as liberal feminism, radical feminism, postmodern feminism, black feminism, lesbian feminism, queer feminism, Marxist feminism. All of the feminists have the same agenda of establishing equal opportunitiesand equal rights for women in all sectors. After the promulgation of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990, judicial body played vital role to eliminate gender discrimination. The Interim Constitution of Nepal 2063 was more progressive than the constitution of Nepal 1990s in the issues of women’s empowerment, reproductive freedom, equality and property entitlement. The Constitution of Nepal 2015 enlarges women’s issues and has guaranteed several rights than the previous constitutions. The judicial bodies with constitutional mechanism are playing an effective role for the protection, promotion of women's rights in Nepal.

Be a Man, do not Cry like a Woman: Analyzing Gender Dynamics in Pakistan

Contrary to the view that gender is fluid, as concurred by several social scientists, in traditional Pakistani understanding, gender is seen in fixed binaries, i.e., either you are a man or a woman. The third category is known as the third gender in Pakistan. It is interesting to note that although gender is seen as fixed in Pakistani cultures, in informal discussions, varied shades of gender are highlighted by informants based on gender performativity. By drawing on the postmodern feminist theory of gender performativity, this paper does a discourse analysis of informant’s views about gender construction and dynamics in rural Sindh. Ethnographic fieldnotes have been used as primary data to analyze gender nuances implicit in Pakistani men's informal discourse. This paper argues that contrary to unchanging gender identities as endorsed by Pakistan society's patriarchal structure, men dismiss these fixed identities during an informal discussion. Instead, they shuffle gender identities by branding men and women as feminine men and masculine women, respectively, based on their gender performativity. We conclude that irrespective of physical outlook, the power lies in hegemonic forms of agency. Gender relationships and gender performance shape the sexual and gender identity of subjects.

한국 페미니즘 미술의 역사, 담론의 재구성 : 1980년대 ‘여성미술’과 1990년대 ‘포스트모던 페미니즘 미술’

This study focuses on the period when Korean feminist art and criticism, which had begun in close relationship with Minjung misul in the mid-1980s, encountered postmodernist discourses in the 1990s. The trend of New Art History and cultural studies persuaded art historians and critics to participate in the discourse of Korean feminist art. However, what emerged was a history based on binary opposition that constructed a generational framework for feminist art. An ideologically driven political movement of ‘Yeoseong misul (Women’s Art)’ in the 1980s was set against an ideologically free and formally experimental ‘postmodern feminist art’ in the 1990s. To challenge this historiography composed of conflict and linear development, the essay first analyzes two exhibitions of Yeoseong misul: “Let’s Open the Floodgate” (1988) and “Women and Reality” (1987-1994).<BR> Feminist art in the 1990s developed alongside exhibitions, in which Kim Honghee played a critical role as a curator. Also, Kim wrote the first history of Korean feminist art within the generational framework, from which most other writers take their cue. However, the teleological historiography dividing generations and emphasizing development needs to be reexamined. This paper investigates Kim’s “Woman, the Difference and the Power” (1994) and “Patjis on Parade” (1999) in this context.<BR> On the other hand, the practice of feminist artists who participated in the cultural research group Hyunsilmunhwayeongu in the 1990s, along with “Let’s Open the Floodgate” and “Women and Reality” in the 1980s, reveals the two generations were neither clearly divided nor in conflict. But rather, the feminist artists gathered and scattered to meet the demands of each time and society, resisting dominant ideology. This study, by dismantling the generational framework, attempts to propose the possibility of an art history that articulates difference without becoming the subject of rigid categorization or a totalizing thought system.

Kendine Ait Bir Kimlik: Postmodern Feminist Bir Kurguda Akademik Kadının Feminist İdeolojisi ve Kimlik Krizi

Why academic women struggle to find an identity of their own in “the genderization of science” (Keller, 1984, 78)? Is it because they still “face stereotyping, gendered barriers, exclusion, mobbing, discounting and discrediting in the patriarchal domain of science”? (Buran, 2020). This paper close-reads the interface between feminist ideology and biology that Margaret Drabble develops in her The Millstone (1965), which tells the transition from traditional ideal women to women in crisis in Post-War Britain. This postmodern feminist fiction reconstructs an alternative woman protagonist, Rosamund Stacey, liberated in all facets of life for whom marriage is not the goal but her academic career, as she prefers to remain a single mother without depending on a husband. The aim of this article is to explore how Drabble portrays an academic woman’s self-journey towards a sense of fragmented identity crises of social, familial, professional, and maternal. This is achieved by exploring Rosamund’s quest to find her feminist ideology and true identity flying from body constraints and socially assigned female roles.

Postmodern Feminist Perspectives in Eat Pray Love

Postmodern Feminism is the epitome of two massive movements, Postmodernism and Feminism, in literature. It inculcates the features of Postmodernism into Feminism, hence urging feminism to confront and reconstruct its framework. Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir, Eat Pray Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia (2006), deserves scholarly attention as it allows us to apply the notions of the theory on the text and analyze it in the light of the theory. This paper evaluates the points of similarities and/or differences found during the discourse analysis of the chosen text with a focused emphasis on the aspects of ‘Non-Essentialism’, ‘De/Reconstructing the Female Self’, and ‘Breaking free from the boundaries of cliché Feminism’. The study reveals results which satiate the expectations of a Postmodern Feminist in the form of the protagonist, Elizabeth Gilbert. Gilbert breaks free from her ‘Essential’ mundane life and embarks on her inward and outward journey of self-discovery and in the process Deconstructs and Reconstructs one’s own self.

‘차이’를 보는 관점의 차이: 교차성 이론과 탈근대 페미니즘 비교 및 그를 통해 도출되는 이론적 문제

사회주의 페미니즘은 ‘이중의 억압’이라는 패러다임에서 ‘교차성’ 패러다임으로 이동하는 과정을 보여준다. 서구사회가 계급사회에서 복지국가로 안정화하면서 계급 간 젠더 차이가 동질화했기 때문이다. 반면 그런 과정의 이면에서 인종적, 민족적, 종족적 격차가 더욱 가시화하면서, ‘교차성’ 개념은 ‘이중, 삼중의 억압’과는 전혀 다른 성격을 갖는다고 설명되었다. 그러면서 구조주의나 입장이론에 대항하여 사회적 구성주의나 신유물론의 관점이 대두했고, 이론적 논쟁이 야기되었다. 이 논문의 문제의식은 ‘그러한 이론적 논쟁을 어떻게 이해할 것인가?’에 있다. 즉 이론적 문제의 핵심이 무엇인가부터 명확히 해야 한다는 목적에서 연구를 시작했다. 그리하여 우선 교차성 이론과 탈근대 페미니즘에서 ‘차이’를 다루는 관점을 비교하고, 그를 통해 이론적 문제들이 무엇인지를 가능한 한 명확하게 도출할 것이다. 그리하여 이론적 문제의 윤곽을 명확히 밝힌 상태에서, 문제해결의 가능성을 간단히 시사하는 것으로 논문을 마무리하고자 한다.

Postmodernism Aspects in Lens of Baudrillard Theory in the novels DeLillo’s white noise and Atwood `s Handmaid’s tale

This paper focuses on Postmodernism Aspects in Lens of Baudrillard Theory in the novels DeLillo’s white noise and Atwood `s Handmaid’s tale. To consider the United States as our case study, we know that the affluence and waste are quite related to each other. In a way that we might count it as a throwaway society or garbage can sociology like how Baudrillard has put in words. We are cognizant of the fact that all moralists have criticized the lavishing of wealth. An individual who does not comply with the moral law regarding the internal use-value of commodities. The mystification of the commonplace in White Noise can be interpreted as a revolt towards Modernism, which equated rationalization with an increased and general knowledge of the condition under which one lives, i.e., the belief that there are no mysterious incalculable forces that come into play. Modernism located the romantic idea of mystery, of the unknown, geographically, in faraway places like Africa or America. The Handmaid's Tale suggests a particularly postmodern feminist space for resistance a space located within the discourses of the symbolic order including technologically produced and disseminated discourses) rather than in opposition to them.

Reading Hypertext as Cyborg: The Case of Patchwork Girl

This essay examines Patchwork Girl by Shelley Jackson to reveal how hypertext functions like the posthuman concept of the cyborg defined by Haraway as “a condensed image of bothimagination and material reality.” For the theoretical framework, I draw on Katherine Hayles and Rosi Braidotti’s theories of Posthumanism and cyborg subjectivity, among other Postmodernist Feminist ideas of the body and visual culture. Using these theories, my essay will answer the central question that underlies how this new revisionist and interactive medium of storytelling parodies the traditional roles of the author and the reader. Interpreting a ‘cyborg’ hypertext requires a “cyborg reader,” not only because the reader shares a posthuman connection with the narrative in terms of involving their gestures through touch and click, but also because the hypertext forces the reader to adopt a gaze that is equally modular and fragmentary. My paper argues that just like the medium of hypertext itself, the author and the reader become a part of the cyborg subjectivity.

He looks so cute: The discourse of heterosexual relationship initiation by female youth in Nigeria

In many cultural traditions in Africa and beyond, it is taboo for women to initiate sexual offers to men. However, with the new wave of gender fluidity, exposure to media, and affiliation with modernity, some young women in Nigeria initiate heterosexual relationships with their choice of partners. This article explores the nuanced narratives, motivations and experiences of young women in such relationships from a qualitative ethnographic approach using participant observations, focus group and semi-structured interviews. The study is rooted in gender performativity, a postmodern feminist approach to gender and sexuality which allows an individual to express his or her sexual identity and roles based on preference, freedom and responsibility. The results, based on linguistic evidence, show that through initiating sexual relationships, young women find a source of empowerment and agency that challenges their stereotyped passive roles, breaks down gender barriers in normative heterosexual relationships, and thus expand the boundary of their femininity.

FOOD AND MOOD IN THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) written by Aimee Bender presents the relation between foods and female moods. Aimee Bender implemented a mixture of real and imagery in her magic realist novel in which the female protagonist, Rose Edelstein, experiences some important changes in her life starting from her ninth birthday. These changes are closely related to food and affect Rose physiologically, psychologically, and emotionally. Rose loves lemon cake and her mother who starts spending most of her time in the kitchen cooks this cake for her ninth birthday. However, Rose feels hollowness aftertaste and feels that her mother is unhappy because she realizes that she can sense the feelings of people from the foods she consumes. Thus, this study aims to reveal the relationship between foods and feelings by analysing Aimee Bender's novel from a postmodern feminist perspective focusing on foods, feelings, gender roles, and female identity.

Selling Women’s History: Packaging Feminism in Twentieth-Century American Popular CultureTwenty-First-Century Feminisms in Children’s and Adolescent Literature

Selling Women’s History: Packaging Feminism in Twentieth-Century American Popular CultureTwenty-First-Century Feminisms in Children’s and Adolescent Literature

Nature, Caged Birds, and Constrained Women: An Ecocritical Feminist Reading of Angela Carter’s Story The Erl-King

In their feminist and postmodern readings of Angela Carter’s fiction, critics have often eclipsed the presence of nature in her writings and the significance of non-human forms of life. This article addresses this critical gap, focusing on Carter’s employment of birds and the greenwood in her story The Erl-King as a metaphor for gender roles and power relations. Hence, the alliance between her ecopoetics and feminist vision forms a case of “ecofeminism.” In her defense of “minor” and oppressed forms of life, Carter makes her caged birds emblems of women imprisoned by patriarchy. Their liberation by the female narrator at the end of the story is not only a sign of resistance but also an indication of the essential harmony and mutual strength of women and nature. Surprisingly though, and before this unexpected end in which the narrator strangles the Erl-King with his own hair, nature is made complicit in the oppression of women rather than simply liberating. This can be explained through Carter’s ambivalent brand of postmodern feminist poetics that rejects fixities and conventional binaries, unsettling the patriarchal myth that women are merely close to nature. Thus, Carter subverts feminist logic by exposing how women and nature are not only closely allied or opposed to patriarchy but also complicit in their own oppression. Moreover, she subverts the woman/nature dichotomy by making the Erl-King the epitome of a harmonious life in nature rather than plainly defending women as expected in feminist texts. Carter deconstructs established myths and conventional gender roles, accounting for subtle female desire in the process of articulating feminist poetics via nature.

Trading Nudes Like Hockey Cards: Exploring the Diversity of ‘Revenge Porn’ Cases Responded to in Law

Popular and scholarly responses to nonconsensual pornography (colloquially known as ‘revenge porn’) have largely, though not exclusively, focused on cases that fit within the paradigmatic mold of men nonconsensually distributing intimate images with the intention to harass or abuse their female partners/ex-partners. However, several recent studies offer evidence that the dynamics of this act are more diverse than previously assumed. In this article I analyze 49 Canadian legal cases to determine the extent to which those cases that make it to the court level fit within the typical framing and to explore the dynamics of cases laying outside this paradigm. I find that, while a large portion of cases fit the commonly imagined pattern, the case law also includes several cases that complicate dominant framings of nonconsensual pornography. Using intersectional and postmodern feminist theory, I argue that this variety of case contexts necessitates more diverse socio-legal understandings of and responses to nonconsensual pornography.

The Special is Women: Suatu Ritual Adat Masuk Minta di Tanimbar Provinsi Maluku

This paper aims to describe a traditional ritual in Tanimbar-Maluku, which is the ritual of asking for requests or applications with its own uniqueness in which the position and value of women are very high because they have a special room that no one can find, with this ritual, women's existence is in the spotlight both in the scope of the family and society in dealing with polemic about the position of women today. The problem in this paper is focused on the value of women in adat which can be implemented or equated with the reality of social life so that the position of men and women can be equal. To approach this problem the theoretical references from the theory of cultural structuralism and the theory of postmodern feminism are used to collaborate between interconnected cultural and feminist roles. The data is collected through observation and interview results from the informant descriptively ... and the data analysis conducted is qualitative analysis. The results obtained are ritual entrance asking to pay attention to the position and values of women; it is not arbitrary to get women (Tanimbar) so this paper provides a concrete contribution that reconstructs the understanding of women's position and values in cultural and social contexts so that there is a balance between men and women.

When Enough is Enough: Breaking Free from Intimate Partner Violence in YejideKilanko’s Chasing Butterflies

Gender-based violence has become a common feature in gender relations globally, with women as the main victims. However, despite the fact that violence against women has been recognized as a violation of their human rights, the African society, in particular, is still plagued by gendered violence particularly in families. Adopting postmodern feminism as a theoretical framework, this article examines Kilanko’s portrayal of the devastating impact of gender-based violence, particularly intimate partner violence, on the female protagonist in Chasing Butterflies. In so doing, it establishes that dominant gendered norms and unequal power relations between men and women in the African society are the root causes of violence against women in intimate partner relationships such as marriage. The article, therefore, explores avenues of awareness-raising in the novel, as well as options and resources through which women can be effectively empowered to confront and surmount their status as victims leading to the realization of their rights and freedom.

The #MeToo narrative: Reconstructing the cultural intelligibility of female subjects

The globally sensational #MeToo movement has offered feminists a feasible model of woman's personal narrative, namely the #MeToo narrative. The #MeToo narrative, founded on women's awakening self-awareness and demand to reconstruct subjectivity, is a narrative that accumulates power by connecting female individuals for a concerted force to improve their living conditions. Supported by social media, female victims report their experience of sexual abuse and consequent trauma to the public. A woman re-renders the scene of sexual violence, details the process of how her docile body is constructed discursively in a patriarchal context, and thus reconstructs herself as a resisting subject. This paper, with the support of postmodern feminism and Stephen Greenblatt's theory of discursive circulation, establishes a theoretical framework for women's interference in the subjection process facilitated by the #MeToo narrative, and explores its impact on the cultural intelligibility generated in the circulation of phallocentric discourses. The power relations involving women of color, women of various classes, and LGBTQ women will be investigated to study how women of various backgrounds can utilize the #MeToo narrative to become speaking subjects and seek to change their subordinate position. What underlies female subjects' inferiority is the preconceived notion that recognizable femininity is associated with lack, incompleteness, and fragmentation. This femininity intersects with ethnic, class, and gender discourses, adding to the complexity of female subjects' cultural intelligibility. The inclusivity of the #MeToo narrative lies in female subjects' awareness that cultural intelligibility is generated by normative forces and their common appeal for changing the way femininity is recognized. Female subjects' self-esteem will be reestablished if they gain the knowledge of the phantasmatic nature of cultural intelligibility. Moreover, the parodic nature of #MeToo's repetition of phallocentric norms denotes the limited capacity as well as the delaying effect of the narrative, which is inspiring in that female subjects should pursue an even more subversive future of gender politics.

The Mingitaurus: Gender Identity And Its Representation In «Cuerpo náufrago» (2005) By Ana Clavel

This essay offers a study of the Cuerpo naufrago (2005), a novel by the Mexican writer and plastic artist, Ana Clavel, from the point of view of the construction of gender identity within the horizon of postmodern feminism and the aesthetics of the unusual. The unusual (body metamorphosis suffered by the main character, a kind of splitting), as well as the story framed around urinals, serve the author to reflect and challenge the old binary paradigms – obsolete but still valid, as she observes herself – body-woman, body-man and «derivatives» such as body-gay, etc. We also propose a new concept of sexual identity, alien – and even contrary – to the idea of «third sex».

The Image of Law in Stephen R. Donaldson’s “Reave the Just”: Agency, Blame, and Sexual Assault

Stephen R. Donaldson is a major modern writer of speculative fiction for whom the issue of sexed violence, including rape, plays an important role. This article examines “Reave the Just,” the keynote story in his award-winning collection Reave the Just and Other Tales, as a gateway into how Donaldson examines sexed violence in his long-form fiction. While the story reflects a strong feminist commitment to gender equality and individual agency, I argue that Donaldson’s liberal individualist conception of the law, which retains wide contemporary cultural and juridical support, has also become problematized through recent radical and postmodern feminist discussions on victim blaming. After assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the liberal position articulated by “Reave,” I suggest that Donaldson’s story helps revive a link between agency and victimization—first advanced by second wave feminists—that, by the time of the story’s composition in the 1990s, had generally lost feminist support.

‘Wow these girls can play’: sex integration in professional golf

ABSTRACT Men and women typically operate in separate spaces in the sporting world, with sport being one of the few social institutions that continues to segregate the two sexes. The culture of golf, like sport more broadly, is widely regarded as male-dominated, despite women’s involvement in playing the sport throughout history. Typically, women’s participation has not been welcomed nor taken seriously, and golf cultures have normalised exclusionary and discriminatory practices towards women. However, golf is a sport where sex integrated practices can and do take place, with distinctions between tee boxes catering for men and women competing together. There have been instances in the professional game of women competing in men’s tournaments; in 2018, the Men’s European Tour invited 5 professional female players to compete at the GolfSixes. This paper draws upon interview data with those 5 players on their experiences of competing against men. Adopting a postmodern feminist stance, and particularly drawing on Lorber’s ‘Biology as Ideology’ argument, this paper sheds light on the complexities of sex integration in a sporting domain, highlighting a balancing act between the subversion of gendered norms and a reinforcement of them. This is exacerbated using forward tees in golf settings, and there was evidence of the sportswomen themselves negating the potential for the subversion of gendered hierarchies by perpetuating understandings on the ‘naturalness’ of sex differences. As such, challenging dominant gender norms in sex–integrated competition requires a ‘buy in’ from both sexes as to the capabilities of women’s bodies in a sporting sense.

Into the Darkest Corner: The Importance of Addressing Factor-Based Particularity in Relation to Domestic Violence Experiences in Post-Modern Literary Theory

This paper investigates how a survivor of a violent marital relationship could awaken and take positive counteraction against her oppressive husband, rather than remaining entrapped in a state of ‘learned helplessness’. The central contribution of this paper lies in highlighting particularity rather than sameness when investigating how oppression and male domination could function as factors that trigger positive counteraction and lead to the liberation of the silenced protagonist in Elizabeth Haynes’ novel Into the Darkest Corner. The model highlighted for the purpose of examination is Catherine, the protagonist of Elizabeth Haynes’ novel Into the Darkest Corner. The paper mainly focuses on addressing two questions ‘What are the protagonist’s violence experiences?’ and ‘What are the factors that served to reinforce and prolong the protagonist’s oppressive marriage?’. The struggle of the protagonist to put an end to her abusive marriage, and how she managed to overpower her post-traumatic stress disorder experience constitute the focal point of this paper, and are explored from a feminist psychoanalytical perspective, a task that has not been addressed in the available literature on domestic violence in relation to feminist and psychoanalytic criticism up to date. In order to investigate these aspects in the novel, this paper draws on the views of post-modern feminist literary theory. This literary approach is crucial to highlighting the gender-based inequality imposed on the protagonist by her abusive husband throughout the novel. The analytical approach followed in this paper is that of thematic analysis. The paper mainly highlights the recurrent themes of physical violence and post-traumatic stress disorder. Then, the paper examines the content of the novel to support the argument about the association between post-traumatic stress disorder and liberation. Thus, three main issues are addressed: Domestic violence types and definitions, feminist theoretical views in relation to male domination, and notions of post-traumatic stress disorder in relation to liberation in feminist post-modern literary criticism. The main argument in this paper is that post-traumatic stress disorder is not an introductory psychological phase that paves the way for learned helplessness. Rather, it is a state imposed by male domination and control that could be challenged, controlled and directed to lead to liberation from male authority and oppression with the availability of proper assistance.