The main purpose of this paper are gender stereotypes, which determine an image of femininity and masculinity in contemporary culture. The paper considers the consequences of compartmentalization. The author presents her own research about the stereotypes which create an image of femininity and masculinity in contemporary culture. The text concerns the problem of specific developmental limitations, which are hidden behind the aforementioned compartmentalization. The author based her research and theoretical inspiration on social psychology and social pedagogy (interconnected via socialization).
Conduct literature written for women has had a long tradition in British culture. According to scholars, such as Ingrid H. Tague (2002), it circulated most widely during the eighteenth century because new ideals of proper feminine behaviour and conduct developed. The Scottish Presbyterian minister and poet, James Fordyce (1720-1796), very observant of the transformations in his society as well as advocating the need to reform moral manners, likewise created a set of sermons dedicated to young women of the second half of the eighteenth century. He is worthy of close study not only because his Sermons to Young Women constitute an important yet understudied contribution to the tradition of conduct writing, but also because he records and disseminates opinions on female perfection both as a man of the church as well as the representative of his sex, thus presenting a broad scope of the official gender ideology of the eighteenth century. The proposed article engages in a close reading of Fordyce's rules and regulations pertaining to proper femininity, pointing also to the tone of his published sermon-manual and the socio-techniques used for the sake of perpetuating his ideological precepts for women. As such, the article is to prove that this popular eighteenth-century preacher, whose work was even mentioned on the pages of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, not only offers a significant contribution to ongoing research on conduct manual tradition as well as on feminist re-readings of women’s history, but also adds more evidence to feminist claims of a purposeful campaign aimed at creating a selfaware and self-vigilant woman who almost consciously strives to become the object of masculine desire, and allegedly all for her own good.
The year 1989 marks the beginning of sweeping political, economic and social changes in Poland. Since that time an expansion of women into top professional positions can be observed. Data from the last national census (2002) clearly indicate that women in Poland are better educated than their male counterparts, increasingly careeroriented as well as aggressively pursuing managerial occupations. A modern woman is, by popular belief, no longer obliged to conform to the so-called dominant (Coates 1997) or emphasized (Connell 1987) [i.e. hegemonic] form of femininity. There appears to be greater social latitude for her professional development. The paper explores whether print advertisements (playing a crucial role in the construction of social identities) of certain products incorporate new powerful discourse of femininity. The three advertised products and services (cars, telephones, and banking) selected for the analysis have been commonly associated in Poland with the dominant form of masculinity. Consequently, it is interesting to examine whether women function there, and if so, how. The analyzed advertisements have been collected over the period of one year from three magazines addressed to the emerging Polish middle class. Drawing on Goffman's concepts of function ranking and ritualization of subordination as well as Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I will attempt to determine whether the selected print advertisements reflect the new femininity in Poland.
This paper investigates conceptual representations of women in 17th century conduct manuals for gentlemen published in England before and after the Civil War. The aim is to see whether the socio-cultural transformations produced by the Revolution are reflected in the metaphorical expressions referring to the female sex in a highly conservative textual genre
Reclaiming Adolescent Sexuality: Images of Girlhood in Petra Collins’s BabeThis paper examines photographs, drawings, collages and other art forms collected in the book Babe, edited by photographer Petra Collins and published by Prestel in 2015. I read the collected artwork as an attempt to present the image of the girl (including her sexuality) from a young woman’s perspective. Babe, which includes works such as photographs of teenagers with visible period blood on the underwear or a to-do list with the goal of never faking another orgasm, asks who a contemporary girl is and how young artists can challenge traditional images of femininity. In my analysis I focus on the excessive use of the color pink in Babe, characterizing the way artists blend innocence with eroticism. I argue that by playing with artifacts of “girlishness,” artists can both expose the absurdity of the image of the girl in popular culture and reclaim symbols of girlhood. I suggest that Collins – despite her ambitions to create an inclusive platform for female artists – does not present a diverse image of girls, who in Babe is still predominantly white and able-bodied. I introduce the potential reading of Babe as a feminist visual manifesto, in reference to the Riot Grrrl movement and the cultural phenomenon of “girl power.” I suggest that the book offers a possibility of exploring the figure of the girl from the perspective of young female artists. Odzyskując młodzieńczą seksualność: wizerunki dziewczyńskości w „Babe” Petry CollinsArtykuł jest analizą fotografii, rysunków, kolaży i innych prac zebranych przez fotografkę Petrę Collins w albumie „Babe", wydanym w 2015 roku przez Prestel. W artykule odczytuję zebrane prace jako szansę zaprezentowania wizerunku dziewczyny (w tym jej seksualności) z perspektywy młodej kobiety. Babe – w której znajdują się zarówno fotografie nastolatek z widoczną krwią menstruacyjną na bieliźnie, jak i zdjęcie listy zadań, na której artystka umieszcza postanowienie, by nigdy więcej nie udawać orgazmu – zadaje pytanie kim dzisiaj jest dziewczyna i w jaki sposób młode artystki mogą kwestionować utarte obrazy kobiecości. Podczas analizy skupiam się na przewadze różu w warstwie wizualnej albumu, ukazując sposób, w jaki artystki łączą pozorną niewinność z erotyzmem. Twierdzę, że poprzez grę z konwencjami „dziewczyńskości” autorki prac mogą zarówno eksponować sztuczność wizerunku młodej kobiety w kulturze popularnej, jak i odzyskiwać symbole dziewczęcości. Sugeruję, że Collins – mimo próby stworzenia inkluzywnej platformy dla artystek – nie oferuje zróżnicowanego obrazu dziewczyny, która w Babe wciąż jest przeważnie biała i pełnosprawna. W odczytaniu Babe jako feministycznego wizualnego manifestu odwołuję się do ruchu Riot Grrrl i fenomenu kulturowego reprezentowanego przez hasło „girl power”. Sugeruję, że album oferuje zgłębienie postaci dziewczyny z punktu widzenia młodych artystek.
The article is a critical analysis of a monograph by Joanna Szewczyk on the problem of femininity in Teodor Parnicki’s historical novels. The author suggests that Joanna Szewczyk precisely and multilaterally analysed the problem of feminine historiography and mythology in five novels. Using analytical tools created by feminist criticism the author combines the problem-focused approach with a very precise close reading of selected novels. As the author suggests such an approach is adequate and allows Szewczyk to present a convincing analysis of the problem of femininity in Parnicki’s prose.
This article discusses the common belief that men create the standards for female physicalattractiveness. I argue that whilst women’s bodies have certainly been controlled for a longtime, disciplining for deviation from the defined standard has not only been exercised bymen but also by other women. I show that this kind of control in particular is frequent andintense and attacks women by different communication channels.
Artykuł ten stara się polemizować z powszechnie obowiązującym przekonaniem, że tomężczyzna kreuje wzory atrakcyjnego kobiecego ciała. Tekst pokazuje, że kobiece ciałojest kontrolowane od bardzo dawna, jednak obecnie nie tylko przez mężczyzn, alerównież przez kobiety. Ta kontrola jest na bardzo wysokim poziomie i dociera różnymikanałami komunikacji.
The purpose of the article is to analyze selected female characters in Stanisław Vincenz’s novel Letters from Heaven. The image of women is dominated by the masculine way of judging their appearance and traits and by a patriarchal moral code. Faithful and hard-working wives and mothers are idealized in the novel. This model of femininity is stabilized not only by men, but also by older women characters. The experiences of village women were comprised in two scenes, and were expressed by the dream and silence language. Maria, the wife of a Uniate priest, was presented in the context of her fragmented memories. The room of the birth of the child is the space of women. In the space of men (the main room, where the feast is taking place) Maria was the only woman who took part in discussions, but her voice was marginalized.
The author, one of the major originators and creators of the title exhibition, deals with the problem of development of women’s self-reflection in the context of constructing their own identity and awareness necessary to determine what is hidden under the notion of femininity. The evolution of the position of a woman from Bochnia (i.e. a small-town woman) basically changes her from an object to a subject; passivity is replaced by activity. Using a neologism, “post-emancipation femininity” is what distinguishes a small-town woman, aware of her right to personal happiness (according to her own criteria), individual development, freedom of experience etc. The woman who regains her humanity has a right of choice (individualization and self-realization). Empathy, religiousness, a bond with her background (acceptance of its norms as her own, response to social expectations), apparent weakness and in fact remaining of invaluable assistance to her husband, father and sons influence, however, her sense of duty towards local community.
The aim of the following paper is to examine the portrayal of female characters and femininity in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Since Tolkien’s heroines have been both praised and severely criticized, this paper will, first of all, investigate and recapitulate the arguments in favor and against Tolkien’s depiction of women. Secondly, it will be argued that the ambiguity surrounding these fictional characters stems from the writer’s private relationship with women. Finally, the paper will analyze how Tolkien’s ambiguous female characters have fared in various adaptations of his works, particularly in the cinematic versions produced by Peter Jackson and in fan-made art.
The authors of perfume adverts put lot of emphasis on creating a consistent image of their addressees so that the addressees can identify with or aspire to them. The article is a presentation of the myth of femininity and masculinity extracted from 545 print adverts of fragrances offered by the online stores of the two biggest perfume retailers in Poland — Sephora and Douglas. The starting point of the analysis is a definition, proposed by Roland Barthes, of a new myth-like form — everyday mythology deriving from popular culture and influencing everyday choices and decisions. On this basis, drawing on a content analysis combined with a semiotic analysis, the author distinguishes patterns in the perception and creation of femininity and masculinity. The present study is an attempt to answer the question about the link between the mythologies in question as well as the questions of whether a woman can exist without a man in the reconstructed discursive space and whether she is essential to his existence.
This paper brings into focus the feminine qualities that heroines in Western fairy tales possess, as well as the roles they traditionally perform. The heroines are either rewarded or punished in accordance to how well they fit the feminine pattern, while the association of femininity with the female clearly indicates the social impact of gender ideology. Two variations on the Cinderella story will illustrate how feminist revisions of fairytales upset this rigid division.
Japan opened up to the West with the Meiji Restoration, and the government undertook reforms in many areas to build a modern nation-state. With modernization, the concepts of masculinity and femininity were recreated. In this paper, the historical course of the formation of modern masculinity and femininity during Japan’s period of modernization is examined by analyzing editions of Shōnen Sekai’ between 1895 and 1900. We review how classifying and gendering the children as ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ through the stories and articles served to teach children to internalize the images and embrace the concepts of masculinity and femininity promulgated by the magazine.
From the perspective of feminist analysis, the painting is considered to be androcentric. It is believed that artworks were created by men, for men and from their point of view. One can even say that, men spoker through the bodies and identities of heroine images in the painting. From this point of view, painting has been accused not only of the lack of women as authors of works of art, but also of the lack of representations of the female experience. Logically, from this perspective, images of women on the canvas are often not simple reflection of reality, but they crystallize dreams, anxieties and feelings of their male artists. There is no doubt that theye are also imbued with ideologies concerning gender. Three images that will be examined in this paper were created in the Victorian era (the dates of their creation are: 1887, 1890, 1896). They all reflect anxieties about womanhood in the late nineteenth century, primarily manifested in the creation of a new image of a woman - the femme fatale. On the other hand the women as objects of the painting are treated as a sexual object for male creator and viewer. Every woman in the paintings could be described as "being out of control". There is a paradox here: the woman is simultanesly out of control and controlled by men. There is a worth to add that every painting has extremely sugestive impact on the viewer and amazing articstic value.
Traditional masculinity has been thoroughly explored in psychological research, but its counterpart, progressive masculinity, has undergone relatively little scientific investigation. To determine whether this lack of attention to or understanding of progressive masculinity is mirrored more largely in mainstream culture, we examined how men and women conceptualize and experience gender roles in their everyday lives. Participants were randomly assigned to describe a time in which they had behaved either traditionally or progressively with regard to their gender. Over 80% of men and women in the traditional condition and women in the progressive condition provided condition-appropriate examples. However, men in the progressive condition only provided progressive examples 17% of the time, suggesting that many men may not have an understanding of progressive masculinity. Additional themes, implications, and directions for research on progressive masculinity are discussed.
The article analyses the relationship between Shevchenko’s creation with socio-cultural factors and socio-political trends of the era of the Romantic national revival. It describes the feminine and masculine tendencies of Ukrainian culture of the first half of the 19th century, and analyses the influence these tendencies had on the formation of a gender picture of the poet’s artistic world. It has been established that the Ukrainian Romanticism created the preconditions for the harmonisation of masculine and feminine in the Ukrainian context. In Shevchenko’s creation the concepts of masculine and feminine harmonise as the basis of national identity. The article ends with the conclusion that Shevchenko created a highly humane idea of gender balance by taking the experience of Ukrainian ethnic and cultural context of the European romantic tradition.
This article addresses the topic of negative prescriptive stereotypes of femininity and masculinity, and cognitive gender schemas of young women. The aim of the research performed was to identify definitions of non-femininity and non-masculinity and to explore the gender iden¬tity of young female students. The study sought to answer the following questions: What are their individual gender identities, and how are these identities related to definitions of non-femininity and non-masculinity? The study surveyed a representative sample of 1152 randomly selected student women using the standardized ‘Inventory for the Assessment of Psychological Gender’, an instrument based on the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Analysis revealed that the most common individual gender identities identified were androgynous and definite schemas. These schemas diversify definitions of non-femininity and non-masculinity. When defining non-femininity, women using masculine and indefinite schemas were more likely than androgynous and feminine women to reject the distinction between feminine and masculine characteristics.
The purpose of the article Feminine Voice of Men. Wincenty Kosiakiewicz’s “Z dzienniczkakobiety” [From the Diary of a Woman] is to examine how the male author imitates the woman’spersonal diary. The analysis and interpretation of Z dzienniczka kobiety illustrate the problemof creating female figures and imitating the femininity of their writing by the authors at the turnof the centuries. Gabriela Zapolska’s Z pamiętników młodej mężatki [From the Diaries of a YoungMarried Woman], used as a counterpoint, allows for gaining a broader, two-sex perspective on the issueof femininity of writing and for presenting the differences between the manners in which women’spersonal diaries are stylized by male and female authors. This paper seeks to answer the questionabout the reasons and consequences of adopting a female perspective in the text.
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