Gender Studies - Page 4

Born twice: A redemptive revisioning uncovering the metaphors of representation

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 Anu Mathai 1 & Rolla Das 2
1,2Department of English, Christ Junior College IBDP, Christ (Deemed to be University) Bangalore, India
Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.19
[Article History: Received: 10 July 2023. Revised: 25 August 2023. Accepted: 27 August 2023. Published: 28 August 2023]
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Abstract

The graphic narrative space is a complex labyrinth of nested stories subtly holding a tension between the visual and the verbal metaphors of representation. Every narrative canvas opens up possibilities of new ways of metaphorical seeing, unravelling the encoded signs of the dominant and the popular. Challenging and dissenting the normative ideas of gender representations, the graphic medium becomes a space to interrogate how the revisioned perspectives from the margins, embody a subversive voice to reclaim and reaffirm identity. This research paper aims to unfold the poetics of metaphorical representation in retellings and how the unconventional visual and verbal underscores an agency and voice to the female characters in the studied graphic narratives. The analysis will uncover how a revisioning of the aesthetics of the visual, the landscape of the mythological and the politics of the contemporary can subvert the traditional discourses that promote a conventional or hegemonic worldview. The paper situates Saraswati Nagpal’s Sita; Daughter of the Earth, Sibaji Bandyopadhyay and Sankha Banerjee’s Panchali: The Game of Dice and Priya’s Mirror by Paromita Vohra and Ram Devineni in the cultural milieu of graphic content that encourages new ways of metaphorical seeing amid the precariousness of identity, ideology and agency of the mythical women characters.

Keywords: Graphic narratives, mythology, postmodern feminist narratives.
Sustainable Development Goals: Reduced Inequalities, Gender Equality, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Mathai, Anu, Rolla Das. 2023. Born twice: A redemptive revisioning uncovering the metaphors of representation. Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.19

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Representing Gender Equality through Advertisements from the Electronic Media: A Study in Discourse Analysis

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Shubham Pathak 1, Swasti Mishra2 & Ipsita Mondal3
1,2Indian Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi (U.P.), India
3Burdwan, Kolkata, mondal.ipsitamimi@gmail.com
Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.18
[Article History: Received: 09 February 2023. Revised: 23 August 2023. Accepted: 27 August 2023. Published: 28 August 2023]
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Abstract

Television advertisements play a significant role in shaping societal norms and values, particularly regarding gender roles and expectations. In India, where television is a major source of entertainment and information for many people, the portrayal of gender in television advertisements can significantly impact how gender is perceived and performed in society. This study attempts to understand and define the equality of gender roles in advertising, using select discourse analysis tools, including speech acts, deixis, politeness theory, modality, presuppositions, and vocabulary, to study the interplay of the verbal and visual effects. The study explores select advertisements from Indian media and finds that the theme of gender equality is gradually gaining prominence. The paper attempts to highlight that advertisements play a major role in creating and transforming gender stereotypes in society and in constructing a world of acceptability for those women who want to create their own identities. The study reveals that women now stand up for their rights against the societal norms and play a substantial role in influencing society, whereas men also participate in the tasks that are stereotypically assigned to women. The study also highlights that the verbal language in advertisements supports visuals in the text.

Keywords: Advertisements, patriarchy, masculinity, representation, manipulate, discourse analysis.
Sustainable Development Goals: Reduced Inequalities, Gender Equality, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Pathak, Shubham, Swasti Mishra & Ipsita Mondal. 2023. Representing Gender Equality through Advertisements from the Electronic Media: A Study in Discourse Analysis. Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.18

 

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

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Alicia Jacob
Department of English and Cultural Studies at Christ University, Bangalore.
Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.12
[Article History: Received: 11 July 2023. Revised: 24 August 2023. Accepted: 25 August 2023. Published: 26 August 2023]
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Abstract

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.

Keywords: Prasava Raksha, Childbirth, Pollution Postnatal care, Food practices.
[Sustainable Development Goals: Gender Equality]
Citation: Jacob, Alicia. 2023. Childbirth and Pollution: Exploring the politics of Prasava Raksha through food practices in Kerala. Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.12 

Urban Space for Indonesian Women: Ambiguity in Nanti Kita Cerita Tentang Hari Ini (2019) Web Series

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Aidatul Chusna 1, Budi Irawanto 2 & Dian Arymami 3
1,2,3Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia.
Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.10
[Article History: Received: 31 January 2023. Revised: 16 August 2023. Accepted: 17 August 2023. Published: 26 August 2023.]
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Abstract

The depiction of Indonesian women’s experiences in urban spaces has been little discussed. Do urban spaces provide equal opportunities and access for Indonesian women and men? This paper tries to answer this question. It investigates how Indonesian women experience urban spaces as represented in an Indonesian web series entitled Nanti Kita Cerita Tentang Hari Ini (2019). The paper uses the multimodal analysis method. The result of the analysis shows that there is a discrepancy in the portrayal of the female protagonist and of the urban spaces that she experiences. The ambiguity is seen in the depiction of an urban woman who is empowered, but on the other hand, has limited rights in urban spaces. In particular, the female protagonist is portrayed as an independent urban woman who can make her own choices for her future. The depiction is in line with the idealization of a modern woman, which Indonesian women have long dreamt of. However, the female protagonist does not fully enjoy this freedom and independence as there is still gender stratification that regards women as being inferior to men. It is seen in the spaces that she experiences. The patriarchal system that has long dominated Indonesian society confines women’s mobility and existence in the public space.

Keywords: modern woman, ambiguity, urban space, web series.
[Sustainable Development Goals: Gender Equality]
Citation: Chusna, Aidatul, Budi Irawanto & Dian Arymami. 2023. Urban Space for Indonesian Women: Ambiguity in Nanti Kita Cerita Tentang Hari Ini (2019) Web Series. Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.10 

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‘I’ll tell that human tale’: Documenting the Wartime Sexual Violence in Jing-Jing Lee’s How We Disappeared (2019)

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Ashmita Biswas
Research Scholar, Department of English, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), Kolkata.
Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.01
[Article History: Received: 13 June 2023. Revised: 04 August 2023. Accepted: 05 August 2023. Published: 11 August 2023]
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Abstract

Sexual slavery as a phenomenon of war was rampant during the Japanese Imperial Army’s occupation of territories before and during the Second World War (1939-1945). These innumerable sex slaves, or “comfort women”, as the Japanese Army had named them, were women (a striking number of them being minors) who were forcefully captured and separated from their families and placed at comfort stations built to fulfill the sexual needs of the Japanese soldiers. While this entire system was created on the pretext of reducing wartime rapes and curbing the spread of venereal diseases, these comfort stations did just the opposite. Studies conducted into these comfort stations reveal how they had become sites of inhuman sexual violence, torture, disease, and death. This paper will look at how Jing-Jing Lee’s historical fiction How We Disappeared (2019) rewrites these innumerable, nameless, brutalized women into the world’s history as victims of a bloody war that had tainted unassuming lives and had snuffed out their existence ruthlessly. Lee’s narrative is scarred by violence committed along gendered lines – illustrating the reduction of the female body to a disposable sexual tool, existing merely to bear the brunt of a war that was not theirs. This paper decodes the politics of gender violence behind Japan’s enforced and licensed prostitution, the nature of sexual violence, the commodification of women’s bodies, the place of women in the socio-cultural context of the era, and the gendered role of women, in what was quintessentially men’s war.

Keywords: Sexual violence, prostitution, sexual slavery, torture, gender violence
[Sustainable Development Goals: Reduced Inequalities, Gender Equality, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions]
Citation: Biswas, Ashmita. 2023. ‘I’ll tell that human tale’: Documenting Wartime Sexual Violence in Jing-Jing Lee’s How We Disappeared (2019). Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.01.

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Intertextuality in Young Adult Literature: A Study of Girl Online by Zoe Sugg

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Oleksandra Nikolova1, Yana Kravchenko2 & Roman Vasylyna3
1Dr of Science in Philology, Professor at the Department of German Philology, Translation and World Literature, Zaporizhzhia National University, Ukraine. ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2327-1941. Email: anikolova@ukr.net
2PhD in Philology, Associate Professor at the Department of German Philology, Translation and World Literature, a vice dean of the Faculty of Foreign Philology, Zaporizhzhia National University, Ukraine. ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1219-4688. Email: yana_kr@yahoo.com
3Ph.D. Student, Department of English Philology and Linguodidactics, Zaporizhzhia National University, Ukraine. ORCID iD: 0009-0006-1541-5462. Email: romanvasylyna888@gmail.com

[Sustainable Development Goals: Reduced Inequalities, Gender Equality]

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.30
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Abstract
This article explores how intertextuality works in Young Adult literature, a key cultural trend of the 21st century. It focuses on Zoe Sugg’s novel Girl Online, a popular and representative example of this genre among young readers. The authors of the research aim to examine the features of intertextuality in this novel: they identify and describe the references to other texts and interpret the novel in relation to the cultural heritage of the past and the present. Using intertextual and contextual methods of analysis, they conclude that the novel’s potential reader is expected to “recognize” certain texts that are symbolic, “cult” or appealing to young people, and that are used as effective tools for creating a story that follows the parameters of mass culture. This also leads to a hypothesis that some types of texts, related to specific traditions and sources, are more dominant than others in the novel’s intertextuality. The study reveals that the novel Girl Online draws on, firstly, the literature of the past (well-known works of English classics that have a “cult” status); secondly, fairy tales; thirdly, products of contemporary, mostly youth, culture (other Young Adult texts, movies, cartoons, etc.); and finally, established narrative techniques that belong to various genres and are not bound by a specific time or place and that are updated by the author. These intertextual links make the novel successful.

Keywords: Young Adult literature, intertextuality, reminiscence, cultural context, literary tradition.

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Reminiscences of Kothas: Exploring Spatial Intimacies in Ruth Vanita’s Memory of Light

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Ankita Chatterjee1 & Sutanuka Banerjee2
1Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur. ORCID: 0000-0003-2714-7080. Email: ankita.chatterjee70@gmail.com
2Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur. ORCID: 0000-0002-7219-4778. Email: sutanuka.banerjee@hu.nitdgp.ac.in

[Received May 19 2023, modified 25 July 2023, accepted 28 July 2023, first published 29 July 2023]

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.26
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Abstract
This paper aims to study the representation of same-sex desire in Ruth Vanita’s Memory of Light (2020) and analyze how the socio-spatial dynamics of the kotha helps to reconstruct female-to-female intimacy and convey a different idea of community and a sense of belonging in history. The novel, which traces the relationship between two courtesans, is also a recreation of the pre-modern Lucknow and its vibrant kothas with distinct architectural features. Beyond its overt function of entertaining the male patrons, the kothas as all-female establishments also served as a space of security and intimacy for women. The paper outlines the politics of situating same-sex desire in the historical backdrop of pre-colonial era. It uses concepts from Feminist Theory, Cultural Geography and Memory Studies, to examine the importance of kothas as a material and an ideological space, in facilitating discourses on gender variance, intimacy, and friendship that entered the cultural production of the time. In particular, the analysis intends to emphasize the frequent entanglement between the spatial features and women’s intimate practices as a distinct way of articulating same-sex desire that dissolves the binary understanding of hetero/homosexuality. Therefore, by insisting on the remembrance of kothas, the paper delineates how the ‘memory of places’ carves out two functions in the context of lesbian politics. On the one hand, it generates a ‘symbolic continuum’ to the history of women loving women to reframe postcolonial categorical understanding of ‘lesbian’ in contemporary times, and on the other, by infusing strategic use of metafictional elements, it emerges as a subversive mode of narrating stories of same-sex love while negotiating with the historical erasure of spaces of female-to female desire.

Keywords. kothas, space, intimacy, community, same-sex desire, memory.
[Sustainable Development Goals: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Gender Equality]

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Reflection of Saudi Women’s Participation and Leadership: A Study on the Gender Differences in Leadership and Structural Barriers

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Musrrat Parveen
Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Department of Human Resource Management, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Email mpmohammed@kau.edu.sa

[Received 18 March 2023, modified 25 June 2023, accepted 27 June 2023, first published 18 July 2023′]

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.16
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Abstract

This article examines gender disparities and structural barriers in the Saudi Arabian workforce from 2000 to 2022. It proposes measures to promote women’s participation and leadership. Multiple databases, including Emerald, IEEE Explore, Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science, were searched using generic terms. Additionally, official Saudi government reports, magazines, newspapers, books, and journals were used as secondary data sources. Torraco’s method analyzed 10 studies on gender gap and gender differences (2011-2023), 16 studies on structural barriers (2000-2012), and 30 studies (2013-2022). The study highlights critical areas of disparities and barriers, including the need for legal and policy reforms, increasing women’s visibility in the economic sector, transforming attitudes towards women’s leadership and participation, addressing time and mobility constraints, reducing wealth and power inequalities, inspiring and supporting women in leadership roles, and providing assistance for the transmission of leadership roles that recognize and promote women’s rights. The findings divulged various implementations and Strategies to overcome the gender gap, gender differences in leadership, and structural barrier to women’s participation by Saudi government. The research emphasizes the importance of policy reform to foster gender equality in the Saudi Arabian workplace. Reforms outlined in the “Saudi Vision 2030” have made significant progress. Policymakers can utilize this study’s findings to promote women’s participation and leadership in the Saudi workforce.

Keywords: Strategies & policies, Structural barriers, Gender differences, Gender gap, Saudi Women Studies

Sustainable Development Goals: Gender Equality

Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Empowering Women in the Korean Labor Market after COVID-19

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Jihyun Shim1 and Ju Kong2
1Professor, Department of HRD, SookMyung Women’s University, South Korea. Email: shimx013@sm.ac.kr
2Data Scientist, Korea University, Korea. Corresponding Author

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 2, June 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n2.06
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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant damage to women’s labor. This study analyzes the situation of the Korean labor market from various angles using available national statistical data. While the employment rate fell and the unemployment rate rose due to COVID-19, the unemployment rate among young people in their 20s and the elderly in their 50s and older rose. Gender segregation in occupations and industries, a chronic problem in the Korean labor market, has intensified and also increased the gender wage gap. It was found that the gender wage gap was large in jobs where many women were engaged. Overall, the number of non-regular workers increased in jobs where women were concentrated, and the number of employed people among vulnerable groups decreased. Online classes and telecommuting due to social distancing have increased women’s housework and childcare burden. As a result, the employment rate of working women with young children fell. In this situation, the mismatch between job seekers and job openings also intensified, showing that the social employment system was not working properly. COVID-19 has adversely affected women in the labor market in Korea, especially elderly women with low education levels and non-regular female workers. The damage caused by the 1997 and 2008 economic crises was also concentrated on women’s labor, yet Korean society did not learn from those experiences. Although many efforts have been made over the past 10 years to resolve discrimination in the labor market and prevailing gender norms in Korean society, their effect has been insignificant. This study emphasizes the need for a more detailed and active women’s labor policy. It also presents the need for a social system that properly responds to pandemic situations like COVID-19.
Keywords: women’s labor, the vulnerability of women’s work, economic crisis, the effect of COVID-19.

Article History: Submitted 15 Dec 2022, modified 01 June 2023, accepted 03 June 2023, first
published 06 June 2023

Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Empowering Women in the Korean Labor Market after COVID-19

Gender Equality in the Posters Designed for Covid 19 Prevention

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Ani Atsharyan1, Tatevik Paytyan2, Artashes Melikyan3 & Ashot Baghdasaryan4
1Associate Professor, National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia, Yerevan, ORCID: 0000-0002-1450-6331. Email: ani-acharyan@mail.ru.
2Associate Professor, National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia, Yerevan, ORCID: 0000-0001-7805-3880. Email: paytyantatevik@gmail.com.
3Professor, National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia, Yerevan, ORCID: 0000-0001-8961-5447. Email: artashesmelikyan@rambler.ru.
4Professor, National University of Architecture and Construction of Armenia, Yerevan, ORCID: 0000-0002-5475-9659. Email: armdesignunion@yahoo.com.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.27
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Abstract

Since the Covid-19 eruption in 2020 designers from all over the world started to concentrate their efforts to increase the awareness of the population through visual methods and prevent the spread of the disease. As the germ itself is invisible to the naked eye, graphic designers created an iconic visual identity 3D image of a particle, which became the widespread inspiration for future propaganda and informational posters. Furthermore, the visualization of the virus particle was not enough to influence the wide scope of people; thus, the new problem for designers became to make such posters that could reveal virus vs human “relations”, taking into account gender characteristics as well. The article consists of analytical research on gender-based graphic design’s role in the prevention of viruses throughout history. The main problem is how graphic design projects influence the decrease of the virus spread and how gender equality-cantered design contributes to it. First time in the article are presented the basic principles of poster design considered for all genders to present the serious message of the urgent prevention of the virus. In the article, the works of designers are analysed and reviewed as well. The significance of the article is emphasizing the importance of gender equality in design visualization to increase the influence of them on people’s behaviour.

Keywords: Covid-19, gender equality, pandemic, design, visual communication, poster design, signs.

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