Kobiety wobec dominacji i opresji
Women against Domination and Oppression
Contributor(s): Izabela Desperak (Editor), Ewa Hyży (Editor), Inga B. Kuźma (Editor), Edyta B. Pietrzak (Editor)
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Gender Studies, Sociology, Sociology of Culture
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: women; feminism; gender; resistance; women’s movements
Summary/Abstract: This book is the next post-conference volume prepared by the Interdisciplinary Gender Seminar—this time devoted to global perspectives and feminisms world-wide. Its main focus is not only on—as the title suggests—the processes of domination and oppression experienced by women all over the word, but also on the strategies of resistance practiced now and in the past. The case studies come from many contexts, for example, Poland, Ukraine or Ethiopia, and represent different approaches from various fields: policies sciences, media studies, as well as literary and art studies. The volume presents interdisciplinary research on gender and women’s issues and is therefore addressed to scholars and students as well as to non-academic readers interested in gender and minority studies.
Series: Uniwersytet Łódzki
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-8142-432-5
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-8142-431-8
- Page Count: 176
- Publication Year: 2019
- Language: Polish
Kobieca podmiotowość w ujęciu postkartezjańskim. O strukturalnych korzeniach przemocy wobec kobiet w kulturze europejskiej
Kobieca podmiotowość w ujęciu postkartezjańskim. O strukturalnych korzeniach przemocy wobec kobiet w kulturze europejskiej
(Feminine subjectivity in post-Cartesian terms. On structural roots of violence against woman in European culture)
- Author(s):Kamila Żukowska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Gender Studies, Sociology of Culture
- Page Range:13-24
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:woman; Descartes; philosophy; res extensa; res cogitans
- Summary/Abstract:The problem addressed in the article concerns the Cartesian division between res cogitans and res extensa, which in feminist philosophy is considered to be the one of the most important causes of the cultural oppression against women. By referring to the ancient philosophy and medieval aesthetics, the article reconstructs the medieval world of meaning, which is the key issue to understand the ideas underlying the essentially binary way of thinking, as seen in the Cartesian system. First, the article describes the theory by Pierre Chaunu, for whom it is a demographic situation in which anti-feminine philosophical system arises, that is responsible for gynophobic and anti-corporeal thought (so-called a feeling of full world). Next, the philosophy of Descartes is analysed in psychological terms – in accordance with the method suggested by Susan Bordo, who tried to interpret his idea to separate the mind from the world as resulting from his attempt to deal with a cultural separation anxiety. At the same time, this anxiety as such is shown to be an effect of an ideological watershed for which scientific revolution and collapse of past social and religious order is responsible. Thus, finally, the philosophical reasons for the modern objectification of women, considered to be a procreation machine and not a donor of life, are provided and analysed.
Strategie nacisku. Prasa kobieca w latach 1956–1959 a dostęp do w pełni legalnej aborcji w PRL-u
Strategie nacisku. Prasa kobieca w latach 1956–1959 a dostęp do w pełni legalnej aborcji w PRL-u
(Strategies of pressure. Women’s magazines between 1956-1959 on Access to legal abortion in Polish Peoples Republic)
- Author(s):Adam Konopka
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Gender Studies, Sociology of Culture
- Page Range:25-41
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:abortion; Polish People’s Republic; women’s press; press campaign
- Summary/Abstract:In 1956, Polish authorities introduced an act on conditions of abortion permissibity, which was supposed to increase the availability of legal and safe abortions for women. However, due to numerous problems, the act could have not been implemented, pushing women to the abortion underground, until the end of 1959, when the minister of health published a disposition, which stated, that the only condition required for an abortion was an oral statement of a woman that she is not able to give birth to a child. The author conducted an analysis of texts, published in women’s magazines between the introduction of the act and the introduction of 1959’s disposition – “Kobieta i Życie” and “Przyjaciółka” – and a daily newspaper commited to the idea of planned parenthood – “Życie Warszawy”, that have covered the matter of necessity of changing the law into such, that would actually let women have abortions when they would need it. The analysis outlines the problems, which the authors have listed as the reasons of the law’s ineffectiveness, postulates of changes in the legislation and the rhetorical means used to convince the authorities to reform the act.
Rozwój ruchu kobiecego w Ukrainie
Rozwój ruchu kobiecego w Ukrainie
(Development of women’s movement in Ukraine)
- Author(s):Switłana Krawczenko
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Gender Studies
- Page Range:43-55
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:Ukrainian women’s movement; magazines; ideological principles of feminism; civilization goals
- Summary/Abstract:An article devoted to the development of the Ukrainian women’s movement, which was shaped in two directions on two separate areas. The lands of eastern and central Ukraine were under the Russian partition, the lands of western Ukraine – under the Austrian partition. The socio-political situation in these countries conditioned the development of women’s movement in these areas. In both partitions, it was possible to find common slogans referring to independence and women’s rights. Ideas of the Ukrainian feminist movement found themselves in the pages of women’s magazines. These magazines were published by the founder of Ukrainian feminism, the writer Natalia Kobryńska. After 1918, the development of the Ukrainian women’s movement developed in the territories of the Second Polish Republic, in Galicia and in Volhynia. At the same time, the women’s movement developed in the environment of Ukrainian emigration in the areas of Western and Central Europe and North America. The development of the women’s movement was related to the activities of women’s organizations and the functioning of magazines. Whereas in the eastern territories of Ukraine, which were in the Soviet Union, the Soviet authorities used the rights and movement of women for their political purposes. The Soviets were propaganda about the authorities taking care of women. The Soviets have succeeded in establishing the belief that the authorities care for women’s rights and the women’s movement has the right to achieve their goals. In the Soviet Union, the truth about women’s rights was different. Women were exploiting, their role in a marginal society. The Ukrainian women’s movement has gained a new spirit during the independent Ukraine at the end of the 20th century. At that time, the circles and the women’s organization were banned during the Soviet regime. Before the women’s movement there were new goals: in this the most important participation in the fight for building a civil society, for the modernity of the state. The events of 2013–2014, the Kiev Maidan and the war in the south of Ukraine set new challenges ahead of the feminist movement. At present, the Ukrainian feminist movement actively participates in social life, creating new solutions, pursuing the civilizational goals Ukraine is facing.
Problem dyskryminacji kobiet wśród współczesnych chasydów dynastii satmar
Problem dyskryminacji kobiet wśród współczesnych chasydów dynastii satmar
(On discrimination of women among contemporary samar Chassids)
- Author(s):Katarzyna Kornacka-Sareło
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Gender Studies
- Page Range:57-68
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Hasidism; Satmar Hasidim; Jewish feminism; Dybbuk of S. An-sky: feminist perspective; Deborah Feldman
- Summary/Abstract:The aim of the paper’s author was to present the ways of women’s discrimination in the contemporary hasidic “sect” called satmar hasidim (the ultra-orthodox community within Judaism). Although satmar hasidim live in the USA, Israel and Western Europe nowadays, they vehemently protest against any forms of assimilation, acculturation or integration into the non-Hasidic environment, and they behave as if time had stopped in the 18th and 19th centuries. As a result, the women belonging to such communities are deprived of almost any personal rights. For example, they are forbidden to learn (even the English and Hebrew languages), constantly being an object of men’s oppression in numerous spheres of life. The inhuman ways, in which satmar women are treated by male hasidim, have been described lately by Deborah Feldman – a young woman who left “the satmar” and decided to tell her story to the world. However, as it seems to the article’s author, leaving the group cannot be regarded as an easy task: Feldman will remain a regular Jewish woman – even against her will – in spite of the fact that now she is an emancipated female writer living in Berlin. In other words, she will return to her own culture code in the future, although she gained much popularity and became a highly-educated, well-known and popular person. Nevertheless, Feldman’s voice should be considered as very important as far as the next generations of hasidic girls are concerned. For, Deborah’s case can really give much hope and strength not only to the satmar women. Thanks to her memoirs some discriminated women will be able to have a faith in their both human and intellectual values, and they will also find it possible to gain personal autonomy and make their own choices as well as personal independent decisions concerning – especially – the most intimate spheres of life.
Delegalizacja etiopskiego małżeństwa t’elefa
Delegalizacja etiopskiego małżeństwa t’elefa
(The outlaw of t’elefa marriage)
- Author(s):Zuzanna Augustyniak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Gender Studies, Sociology of Culture
- Page Range:69-80
- No. of Pages:12
Czy Arabki mogą przemówić? Twórczość Assii Djebar w walce z opresją i dominacją
Czy Arabki mogą przemówić? Twórczość Assii Djebar w walce z opresją i dominacją
(Can Arab women speak? Oeuvre of Assia Djebar against oppression and domination)
- Author(s):Maria Wagrowska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Gerontology, Sociology of Culture
- Page Range:81-88
- No. of Pages:8
- Keywords:feminism; francophone literature; postcolonial studies; subaltern
- Summary/Abstract:One of the most commonly mentioned western imperialism’s arguments attempting to justify the cultural superiority of Europe is the situation of indigenous women in the Middle East. European colonialism often justified its “civilizing mission” by the necessity of setting them free from the oppression of patriarchal domination. In reality, the colonialism has intensified women’s subordinations in dependent territories. By an example of Assia Djebars’s fiction, I intend to examine how this phenomenon is represented in literature and whether the literature can become a tool in the struggle with the patriarchate and the imperial stereotypes of the double-colonized “native woman”. I will also analyze author’s literary strategies that are supposed to make women’s voice heard again.
Dzień nasz powszedni… literackie dyskursy najnowszej prozy polskiej, głos mają kobiety
Dzień nasz powszedni… literackie dyskursy najnowszej prozy polskiej, głos mają kobiety
(The subject of the article is the image of everyday life, both home and social, in a selected Polish prose written by women)
- Author(s):Beata Rynkiewicz
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Gender Studies, Sociology of Culture
- Page Range:91-103
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:Everyday life; feminima perspective; discrimination; oppression; female authors
- Summary/Abstract:The subject of the article is the image of everyday life, both home and social, in a selected Polish prose written by women. The tekst emphasizes the special role of narrative created from a strictly feminine perspective. The discussed literature describes important problems such as wiolence, discrimination or oppression in a various shades, presenting the “usual” confrontation of the heroine with the existing reality as in the case of Jolanta’s creation, the heroine of Sylwia Chutnik, a sad and helpless resident of Żerania (Warsaw). On the other hand, Kaja Malanowska tells us about little craze of everyday life. Unfortunately, this madness leads the heroine to a total crisis, althought there are no such reasons. Like the protagonist of the novel Fifty (Pięćdziesiątka) of Inga Iwasiów, the problem of alcoholism is raised here. The absurdities of everyday life are described by Zofia Papużanka in Szopka. This story depicts a portrait of a contemporary Polish family as it turns out, deeply dysfunctional.The focus is on women’s fate, oppression, the nature of which is exhibited in various ways by contemporary authors, also in the area of non-fiction in the texts analyzed here: Marta Abramowicz The nuns leave quietly (Zakonnice odchodzą po cichu) and Marta Dzido Solidarity of women (Solidarność kobiet). It is an atempt to indicate the unusual role of the creativity of female authors, in which feminist literary discourses contribute to the creation of broadly understood subjectivity of women.
Writing as Re-vision: literatura, feminizm, macierzyństwo
Writing as Re-vision: literatura, feminizm, macierzyństwo
(Writing as Re-vision: literature, feminism, motherhood)
- Author(s):Agnieszka Gawron
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Gender Studies, Sociology of Culture
- Page Range:105-120
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:matrifocal narratives; matricentric feminism; writing as re-vision
- Summary/Abstract:The aim of this article is to analyze complex and often difficult links between feminism and motherhood. The leading theme is feminist writing, seen as a catalyst of a matricentric turn at the beginning of the 21th century culture, as well as a theoretical frame for developing motherhood studies. I am particulary interested in the influence of feminist research (A. Rich, E. Badinter, A. O’Reilly, M. Hirsch, representatives of écriture féminine and the ethics of care) on re-vision of cultural script of motherhood and maternal values represented by current maternal narratives in Poland and in the world. However, the problem of maternal experience representation and symbolic (often real) violence toward mothers still exists, despite many positive changes within maternal discourse (see works by O. Donath, J. Stephens).
Wielowymiarowy obraz opresji kobiet w angielskim dramacie i teatrze feministycznym drugiej fali na wybranych przykładach
Wielowymiarowy obraz opresji kobiet w angielskim dramacie i teatrze feministycznym drugiej fali na wybranych przykładach
(Multidimensional picture of women’s oppression in English drama and theatre of second wave of feminism – chosen examples)
- Author(s):Dariusz Leśnikowski
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Gender Studies, Sociology of Culture
- Page Range:121-135
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:British feminist drama; British feminist theatre; radical feminism; Sarah Daniels; Caryl Churchill
- Summary/Abstract:From the very beginning the English second wave feminist theatre strongly emphasized the need to manifest the scale of oppression women were subject to in a patriarchal society. In a group of texts and theatre performances ‒ especially those influenced by the idea of radical feminism ‒ there was a vast array of issues which included phenomena such as: physical violence, sexual harassment, rape, prostitution, pornography, mental oppression or enforced heterosexuality. The point of reference for many literary and stage works was an assumption that the household space became an area of specific “colonizing” of women on many levels. Creations of some theatrical groups showed a picture of everyday life limited to the constantly repeated home rituals; other groups created a vision of the hell of domestic existence marked by physical and psychological violence. In the artistic expression the extreme form of alienation was fetishisation of women – sexual objectification. The characters from texts and theatre performances fight this form of oppression, starting from the territory of domestic and family life, from the area of marital life, and in marriage ‒ from the bed. The issues such as birth control, abortion and contraception also become important for them. Rape is often a model form of violence against women in the creations of British feminist theatre. Dramatic texts (for example written by Sarah Daniels) correspond with the works by radical feminist writers who perceive male sexual violence as spiritus movens of male history, and they regard pornography as the most visible manifestation of male domination. The radical stance of playwrights and actresses is expressed in criticizing a very wide range of practices: from telling misogynist jokes to shooting and distributing pornographic films from a group of the so-called snuff movies. It is worth noting that for English fringe theatre women’s specific experiences, including actresses’ personal experience, soon began to be a significant inspiration. However, the problem-orientated performances of the feminist groups of the British second wave avoided shallow agitation and featured the ideological content expressed in a variety of interesting theatrical means.
Afroamerykanki wobec dyskryminacji ze względu na płeć i rasę na przykładzie bohaterek współczesnych seriali telewizyjnych
Afroamerykanki wobec dyskryminacji ze względu na płeć i rasę na przykładzie bohaterek współczesnych seriali telewizyjnych
(African-American women against gender and racial discrimination: Black heroines in contemporary TV series)
- Author(s):Aleksandra M. Różalska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Gender Studies, Sociology of Culture
- Page Range:137-151
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:African-American women; Viola Davis; How To Get Away With Murder; black feminism; intersectionality
- Summary/Abstract:Drawing from intersectionality theories and black feminist critiques of white, masculinist, and racist discourses still prevailing in American popular culture of the 21st century, this chapter looks critically at contemporary images of African-American women in the selected television series. For at least four decades critics of American popular culture have been pointing to, on the one hand, dominant stereotypes of African-American women (the co-called controlling images, to use the expression coined by Patricia Hill Collins) resulting from slavery, racial segregation, white racism and sexism as well as, on the other hand, to significant marginalization or invisibility of black women in mainstream film and television productions. In this context, this chapter will analyze several contemporary television shows that cast African-American women as leading characters (e.g., Scandal, 2012–date and How To Get Away With Murder, 2014–2018) to see if these narratives are novel in portraying black women’s experiences or, rather, they inscribe themselves in assimilationist and postracial ways of representation.
„Znacznie lepiej [...] w wersji bez futra” – dyskusje wokół zdjęć Morgan Mikenas
„Znacznie lepiej [...] w wersji bez futra” – dyskusje wokół zdjęć Morgan Mikenas
(„Much better […] without a fur” – discussions on photographs of Morgan Mikenas)
- Author(s):Agnieszka Powierska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Gender Studies, Visual Arts
- Page Range:153-169
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:female body hair; social media; nude; photograph
- Summary/Abstract:When an instagramer, Morgan Mikenas, published photographs showing her with lush body hair, and Polish entertainment websites shared them, the Internet users from Poland reacted vividly. The responses are a subject of the article. They are collated with Lynda Nead’s, Christine Hope’s and Virginia Wolf’s arguments as well as with the idea of selfie-feminism to show what kind of struggle must be undertook by women to defend their right to decide on her own appearance.