Browsing by Subject "gender"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Open Access
Everyday Living Body of Ma
(University of North Bengal, 2024-03-31) Bagchi, Keya
The female body is always the point of curiosity, the centre of attraction and a matter of contemplation and contestation from time immemorial. The public “gaze” of both males and females is always fixed on her body. There has always been an endless social discussion on how she will dress, decorate, manipulate maintain or shape her body. It is a very prevalent picture in every era as is also in a modern or post-modern world. Alongside this public opinion about the female body, a woman’s body is always considered to be seductive, enigmatic and alluring. This female body seems very often to be a “desirable other” (Thapan 1995) as depicted in magazines, cinemas, advertisements, on the catwalk and so on. When a woman’s physical beauty is appreciated, she is perceived only based on her body about her sexuality. This “objectification” of the female body is much more emphasized than anything else. The whole process of the objectification of the body is closely related to sexuality which, according to Mackinnon, is ‘a dimension along which gender occurs and through which gender is socially constituted’ (1994:260). Thus, a female body is always a subject of rigid social judgement, evaluation and scrutiny. While talking about the body in everyday life vis-à-vis gender, it can, therefore, be argued that the gendered subject is neither a biological being nor even a psychological being, rather a social being (Thapan 1995) and a woman realizes social identity through experiencing her femininity in inter-subjective relationships with other people. This experience of femininity is closely intertwined with the complex matrix of class, caste, regional and socio-economic components. How a gendered subject is constructed by herself is once again the product of the process of social construction. In this paper, I will represent the visions of some women who have become mothers in their early thirties and living in the Malda Municipal area to explore how the physical embodiment of women is influenced by gender in everyday life with an emphasis on their realizations, wishes and imaginations.
Open Access
Exploring Gender Discrimination and Oppression in Mahesh Dattani’s Tara: A Tale of Ableism and Social Disability
(University of North Bengal, 2023-12) Dutta, Sayantina
Mahesh Dattani's plays primarily revolve around the marginalised individuals and their quest to gain recognition within society. They challenge the established conventions, politically constructed mindsets, gender categorizations, and societal generalisations. He adeptly illustrates the intricate nature of socially approved gender norms. Dattani does not provide a definitive resolution for the social problems he addresses; instead, he encourages the audience to confront these concerns and develop an awareness of them. This research investigates gender inequality and the exclusion of women and disabled individuals in relation to Mahesh Dattani's play “Tara”. In this play, the playwright explores the topic of disability by analyzing the character dynamics, familial relationships, and societal expectations. The main character of the play, a disabled young girl named Tara, serves as the focal point of the arguments in this research paper. The story alludes to women’s subservient status in Indian society, which is a result of ingrained prejudice and gender bias. It challenges the roles and behaviours that society assigns to each gender as well as the specific ways that people—male and female—are supposed to behave. Dattani challenges viewers to consider their own views and fight towards a more equal society by exploring the linkages between gender and disability. This article emphasises how critical it is to address these problems in order to build a more equitable and inclusive society.
Open Access
Role of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Combating Women Trafficking in Darjeeling Hills
(University of North Bengal, 2017-03) Bhui, Ujjwal; Mukhia, Persis
Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) perform a variety of humanitarian services. Different NGOs cater solutions to different kinds of social issues and their focuses are on a wide range scale ranging from human rights to improving health, providing education to the underprivileged, spreading awareness on environment, upliftment of women and children, combating human trafficking and so on. Several NGOs in Darjeeling Hills are working to combat women and girl trafficking. The existing article aims to analyze empirically the roles play by these NGOs to prevent and control the trafficking of women.
Open Access
Unveiling the Surreal and Subversive: Interrogating Gender, Patriarchy, and Everyday in Poor Things
(University of Northe Benagl, 2023-12) Halder, Abhijeet
Yorgos Lanthimos in Poor Things has created a world where the audience’s sensory perception is immediately shocked by the eerie and surreal ambience of it. Godwin Baxter, a Frankenstein-like doctor, in the narrative has created a mansion removed from the everyday reality of the world outside. The surreality of Godwin’s world is in stark contrast with the world that Bella Baxter (a ‘woman’ Godwin created) encounters outside. Godwin has created Bella, or given life to Bella, by inserting the brain of an embryo into the body of a grown woman; thus Bella is born into an everyday life which is created by Godwin (or God as Bella called him). Bella goes on a journey of self-exploration, a journey of self-awareness, where she interrogates her gender, sexuality, sexual pleasure, morality, and constructs her everyday identity. Bella consolidates her gender through various performative acts all through the movie. Everyday life has been an important element of cultural studies in the twentieth century; a critique of everyday life is a result of interrogating the prevailing structures in all segments of life: how a ‘person’ is constructed, becomes a part of the everyday through various performances is one of the aspects of investigating everyday life in cultural studies. This paper aims to read Bella’s everyday life before she leaves Godwin’s mansion and Bella’s encounter with the everyday realities of different cities, in other words, the diversified everyday life of the world. This paper will further explore how Bella constructs her gender identity, femininity, sexuality, and class consciousness gradually as the narrative progresses. Bella's investigation of the prevailing structures of everyday life and subsequent subversion of it is what this paper aims to explore. This paper uses some feminist and cultural theorists to study Bella’s interrogation of different structures and cultures. This paper is an attempt to capture Bella’s transformation from infancy to adulthood, from innocence to experience, from a docile individual to a rebel.