Gender Studies - Page 5

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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2.1K views

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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1.7K views

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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1.2K views

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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3.3K views

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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The Phenomenon of Social Invisibility of Certain Ukrainian Citizens Categories during Crisis Periods

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Oksana Zhuravska1 & Olena Rosinska2
1Assoc. Prof., Faculty of Journalism, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Ukraine.
ORCID: 0000-0002-4623-8933. Email: o.zhuravska@kubg.edu.ua
2Assoc. Prof., Faculty of Journalism, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Ukraine.
ORCID: 0000-0003-4460-0668. Email: o.rosinska@kubg.edu.ua

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.09 
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Abstract

Social invisibility is a complicated psychological and social phenomenon reflected by particular strategies of the society’s attitude to individual groups, their marginalization or “invisibility”, which is especially noticeable in the periods of crises. Ukraine has experienced revolutions, a partial territorial occupation, a pandemic and a large-scale invasion since 2013. The crises of these years influenced society’s life, its readiness or unreadiness to tolerate particular social issues. The analysis of the tendency in covering the issues concerning the LGBT community in the Ukrainian online media of Ukrayinska Pravda (UP), Gazeta.ua (G), Obozrevatel.com (Ob) during 2010 – the first part of 2022 based on statistical and content-analysis of publications gives a chance to prove that.

The research findings demonstrated that, in general, publication activities of the media do not demonstrate tendencies to increased amount of media content devoted to the problems of the LGBT community. The thematic range of publications is also relatively limited, its core is the issues of the Equality March organization and holding, social reaction to this event, world’s news and activity of local politicians.

The serious analytical publications concerning the problems of the LGBT-community are at the periphery of the themes. Stories of the LGBT-community representatives, including media persons who demonstrate positive examples of social adaptation, an issue of gender-based tolerance in the society, etc., remain beyond the attention of the editorial staff, observation of human rights, issues of the queer culture. The reasons for such a situation can relate to the editorial staff’s policy and influence on formation of the narrative in the country concerning the rights of the LGBT-community representatives.

The research of other top-rated media publications is also prospective not only with regard to quantity and themes, but also quality; in particular, compliance with journalist standards and ethical norms by the authors. That will allow reception of a more complete picture concerning the representativeness of the LGBT community’s problems in the country’s media environment and the specification of the indicators influencing their formation, as well as understanding mechanisms of social invisibility in media.

Keywords: LGBT, gender, media studies, social invisibility.

Women in Disasters: Unfolding the Struggles of Displaced Mothers in Talisay, Batangas during the Taal Volcano Eruption and the Pandemic

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2K views

Jeffrey Rosario Ancheta1 & George Vincent Gamayo2
1Faculty Researcher and Assistant Professor, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines. ORCID: 0000-0001-5831-8204. Email: jrancheta@pup.edu.ph
2Communication Management Officer and Assistant Professor, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines. ORCID: 0000-0001-7223-6993. Email: gvgamayo@pup.edu.ph

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.01 
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Abstract

Disasters strike globally, but their impacts are often more severe on socially and economically marginalized sectors like women. This is one of the main justifications behind the 2010 Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, which promotes gender equality and inclusivity in all strategies to combat the adverse effects of natural hazards, especially on underrepresented populations. However, gender-based discrimination during disasters is still prevalent in local communities of the Philippines. Thus, this study attempts to unfold the struggles of displaced mothers in Talisay, Batangas, because of the Taal Volcano’s eruption in January 2020 and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020. Specifically, this study identifies the direct impacts that impede survivors’ capacity to recover from the disruptions brought about by the aforementioned catastrophes. Findings, through mothers’ narratives, reveal six (6) key themes that reveal insecurity in livelihood, shelter, education of their children, food, health and nutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). This only proves that displaced mothers face socio-economic issues aggravated by the changing climate that the local government of Talisay needs to address towards a gender-inclusive DRRM.

Keywords: Women, disaster, struggle, displaced mother, volcanic eruption, pandemic

Dual Identity and Self-assertion: A Study of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter

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3.8K views

Sultan Alghofaili

Department of English Language and Translation, College of Sciences and Arts in Ar Rass, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. Email: ssgfiely@qu.edu.sa

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 3, September-October 2022, Pages 1–13. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n3.20

First published: October 24, 2022 | Area: American Literature| License: CC BY-NC 4.0

(This article is published under Volume 14, Number 3, 2022)
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Dual Identity and Self-assertion: A Study of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter

Abstract

The Scarlet Letter serves as both a critique of society and a window into Hawthorne’s thoughts. In opposition to a patriarchal depiction, he wants to allow women’s individuality some room. He does not advocate setting rules and imposing them on the individual to be governed by them. Thus, he created the character of Hester Prynne who appears as commenting upon the situation of women in the 19thand century of New England society. She struggles to win a place in society and she succeeds in winning it in her revolt against the very order that at the first stage humiliates and condemns her, and accepts and honours her later on. The article traces Hester’s individual rebellion in an alien land against an artificially created corrupt religious and moral order which exploits her body and denies her humanity at first and ultimately bows down to her consistent individual morality and actions. In doing so, the article tries to show certain feminist approaches adopted by the author long before feminism would come to the mainstream of literary thoughts.

Keywords: 19th-century New England society, Feminism, puritan, badge of shame.

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