Journal of Women's Studies: University of North Bengal, Vol. 09

EDITORIAL

We are happy to announce that the 2020 issue of Journal of Women’s Studies is now published.

Feminism might apparently seem to be a much explored area but it is ever growing in relevance now as a tool for the comprehension of the sites of sex, gender and subjectivity. The study of gender inequalities is a widely used trope in feminist philosophy. Discrimination, objectification (sexual), inequality, sexism, stereotyping, literature and aesthetics that are fundamental to feminist criticism are the central themes of the research papers here.

While trans people disrupt the assumptions of sex, the designations into the rigid categories of male or female at birth, sex category and gender, the cis people or non-trans identified individuals who correspond with the sex category assigned at birth and remain accountable to the corresponding gender models, open up interrogations into the hegemonic gender norms structured and normalized in a society that has unfailingly maintained the male dominance.

The essays in this volume present a slew of issues that call into question some of our conventional thinking and interpretations. The essays critique the social constructivist assessments using the feminist theoretical framework and the politics of gender hegemony that our gendered existences impart and provoke. They bring to the fore arguments on whether there is a feminist research methodology, questions and discussions on women’s representation in literature, the contesting sites of cosmopolitanism, analysis of women who have taken up their pens to articulate and question the concepts of moral authority, social privilege, their protesting voices that unfold the language of enquiry into social paradigm.

The editorial board of Centre for Women’s Studies, University of North Bengal, extends its thanks to the authorities of the University for their constant support even in these trying pandemic times, to the members of Advisory Committee, Standing Committee and the Academic Board of Centre for Women’s Studies for their valuable inputs and support. We thank the contributors for their well-articulated research papers.

Dr. Zinia Mitra
Director