Mai dire basta alla pasta. Il discorso delle diete dimagranti nel periodico italiano per uomini “For Men Magazine” (2013—2022)

Author(s): Joanna Ozimska / Language(s): Italian Issue: 34/2022

Using the tools of rhetoric and critical discourse analysis, the paper describes the discourse of slimming diets in the Italian men’s magazine “For Men”. The study covered 49 monthly issues published in 2013—2022. The research has shown the presence of numerous persuasive techniques based on building the credibility of theses presented to the readers (mostly using the argument of authority). There are numerous references to popular topoi that increase the competitiveness of the proposed nutritional regimes. Some techniques influencing the emotions of readers were used to a lesser extent. The discourse of diets is present in every issue of the magazine under study, and much space is devoted to it, creating the impression that it is an important and interesting topic for contemporary Italian readers (permanent columns present). In addition, phenomena such as scientization and medicalization of nutrition, fragmentation of the male body were observed. Many of the examples cited could be found in the Italian women’s press published about 15 years ago.

CLASS CAPITALISM IN A POST-LIBERATION STATE: DEMOCRATIC SOUTH AFRICA’S BLACK DIAMONDS

Author(s): Juliet Joseph / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

Through its legislation fixed in its Constitution, South Africa has made great strides towards inclusion and equality for the marginalised. However, the gap between the rich and the poor has continued to widen. Elitism and privilege are as old as human existence and will continue in the future. This study will examine the political climate of class capitalism as a threat to human security. This article examines the impact of neo-liberal policy reform aimed at ensuring transformation and development, through an exploration of South Africa’s Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) policies. Through its conceptual framework, intersectional theory explores hierarchy dominated by intersectional challenges that are connected to race, class, and gender and remain tied to power and privilege. Based on the findings of the study, South Africa’s post-liberation period instilled class divides that reinforced systems, processes and legacies of the past that still dominate the state and its people. Further, the study questions whether affluence and elitist politics create unequal distributions of resources, which contribute to human security threats within the region, including mass poverty, which impacts the lives of the vast majority of South Africans. There are clear winners and losers in South Africa as a result of capitalism and nationalistic discourses. It is confirmed in representations and categories across races, classes, and genders that exist in South Africa’s emerging class capitalism. In this paper, an intersectional study suggests that black African females remain highly stereotyped within hegemony, hierarchy, class, and social representations.

“Here, the Hungarian people will decide how to raise our children”: Populist rhetoric and social categorization in Viktor Orban´ ’s anti-LGBTQ campaign in Hungary

Author(s): Marton GERA / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2023

This paper analyzes how the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban uses social categorization and ´ populist rhetoric in an anti-LGBTQ campaign. Drawing on social identity theory and the scholarship on populist rhetoric and anti-LGBTQ politics, the article examines 46 interviews, press statements, public speeches, and op-eds by Orban. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) and Wodak ´ ’s discourse-historical approach, it shows how the prime minister frames LGBTQ communities as an out-group that poses a threat to Hungarian values and way of living. Similar to the issue of immigration and existing anti-LGBTQ frames in other countries, Orban presents LGBTQ groups ´ within his well-established anti-Western narrative. In addition, he connects LGBTQ communities to other out-groups that have been portrayed as a threat for a long time. The study sheds new light on the linguistic strategies of Orban and shows how populist rhetoric and social categorization ´ complement each other in a political campaign.

ALICE WALKER’S WOMANIST OUTLOOK

Author(s): Amada Mocioalcă / Language(s): English Issue: 23/2020

Walker’s womanist credo seems exemplified in the words and the passions of Shug. Walker’s literature and life work have been an expression of splendour and love of life. But they have also arisen from Walker’s immersion in the stuff of lamentation, outcry, blues.

GÜRCİSTAN SİNEMASINDA SOVYET VE SOVYET SONRASI DÖNEMDE KADININ TEMSİLİ

Author(s): Buket-Akdemir Dilek / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 17/2023

In the study examining the representation of women in the context of feminist ideology; In order to understand the conceptual framework and the ideological and sociological structure of the period, first of all, Georgian history is explained and then information on Georgian cinema is given. In order to make the study understandable, Georgian films from the Soviet Union period and the Post-Soviet period were chosen as samples.The films selected and included in the sample were examined within the framework of feminist theory, adhering to the descriptive analysis method, and ideological analysis in terms of social dynamics was also included in the films discussed from time to time. In the analyzed works, descriptive analysis was used to reveal how women are represented within the framework of feminist theory. In the five Georgian films included in the sample, the representation of female characters on the screen was examined with the descriptive analysis method within the framework of feminist theory. By ex amining the patriarchal view in the films that were shot in two different periods historically, the representation of women in the patriarchal Georgian society was tried to be determined by film analysis. It has been determined that the representation of women in Georgian cinema has undergone changes in parallel with political and social events.

Judith S. Kestenberg i ucieczka w (nie)pamięć o Zagładzie

Author(s): Klara Naszkowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 18/2022

This article reconstructs the biography and the complex, intercultural, and international identity of Judith S. Kestenberg (1910–1999) – a Polish Jew born in an Orthodox family in Galicia, Austria-Hungary; a medical student in Vienna; an emigrant to the United States; a pioneer of psychoanalysis and therapeutic work with Holocaust survivors, dealing with the trauma of a daughter of Holocaust victims; and, last but not least, a mother and wife. The text presents the complex circumstances of Kestenberg’s departure from Austria in mid-1937 and her metaphorical escapes from the unbearable reality of the war and the Holocaust, as well as her complicated, ambiguous, and evolving attitude toward the losses and traumas suffered as a result of the war, the Holocaust, and the emigration, as well as toward Jewish and Polish identity. The article presents Kerstenberg’s personal attitude toward the Shoah which resulted from her losing her parents and her obsessive dedication to therapeutic work with the Holocaust survivors. During the first post-war decades in the milieus of Jewish survivors, immigrants, and even mental health professionals (including psychoanalysts) dominant was the conviction that it was better to forget the war, trauma, and loss. In 1968 Kestenberg began to create a new field of knowledge dedicated to survivors who had experienced wartime persecutions at a very young age. She believed that the only way to deal with the difficult past events was to talk about them, acknowledge them, and preserve them in the individual and collective memory. The author reconstructed the history of Kestenberg’s family history and her biography on the basis of archival sources. Official historical sources usually ignore the voices and experiences of minorities, including women, Jews, immigrants, and non-citizens. This is why this article utilizes personal history materials such as memoirs, letters, published and unpublished interviews, and oral history (speeches, and the conversations I have had) as well as Kestenberg’s texts about her research on survivors.

Are Rural People Liberal toward Their Family and Societal Responsibilities? Evidence from Bangladesh

Author(s): Delwar Hossain,Rabiul Islam / Language(s): English Issue: 81/2023

Gender ideology has long been a discussed issue in the field of social science, particularly gender studies. This study aims to explore the category of people's gender ideology toward their family and societal responsibilities in rural Bangladesh. Following a mixed-methods approach, this study interviewed 400 rural people (200 men and 200 women, between 18 and 50 years) and conducted two FGDs from eight cluster villages at Paba Upazila of Rajshahi District in Bangladesh. The result shows that people were liberal in the context of household chores and decisions (strongly agreed to share taking care of an infant, housekeeping/cooking, and freedom of choice in taking matrimonial decisions) but traditional and transitional in acceptance of male privilege and preferences for female privilege respectively. This study argues that patriarchal adherence is reflected in people’s gender ideology. Our study results suggest better awareness of rural people to transform their traditional gender ideology in the family and societal responsibilities in Bangladesh. These findings add new knowledge about the gender ideology of rural people and contribute as a prior field to promote liberal attitudes among both men and women in Bangladesh.

THE FIGHT AGAINST GENDER VIOLENCE IN LATIN AMERICA USING DIGITAL INSTRUMENTS

Author(s): Alexandru Mihai Ghigiu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The aim of this paper is to address the problem of violence against women, and femicide in Latin America through an analysis of the feminist social movement #NiUnaMenos. We are trying to bring a new perspective on the societal efforts to fight violence against women in Latin America, and emphasize the important role of social media in raising awareness about this terrible phenomenon. #NiUnaMenos is a somehow recent social movement that can offer powerful insights concerning this contemporary phenomenon but also the extent to which it fits into the traditional theories of social movements. The work is focused on how this movement has evolved from a local to a regional and international phenomenon, bringing as arguments empirical, quantitative and qualitative methods. Compared with previous social initiatives, the new social media instruments, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok or Twitter, changed the way in which these protests were organized and greatly spread their demands and objectives.

Нови книги

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1/2023

READING PATTERNS AND EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES IN JANE EYRE

Author(s): Mădălina Elena MANDICI (MOCANU) / Language(s): English Issue: 28/2022

This paper deals with the reading histories of a formally-educated fictional woman within the pages of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847). Jane Eyre’s reading habits raise questions concerning the dissemination of texts, the anxieties surrounding intellectual, lively women in the 19th century and the moral, spiritual and psychological repercussions of their reading interests in an era predominantly defined by anti-fiction prejudices. Although between the 1860s and the 1890s novels partially stopped raising eyebrows; sentimental fiction, Gothic romances and other popular genres were still associated with outrageous actions and promiscuous scenarios. Reading was affiliated with passivity, escapism, delusion and rebelliousness, no matter how hard novelists tried to bail their texts out and make a bona fide effort to encourage active, critical reading. Nowadays, the controversial status of female readers has not melted away completely, it has only avoided attracting attention to itself. The present paper shows how Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre serve as a gateway to the cultural and political atmosphere of the 19th century and, by extension, assesses the reading practices enacted by women in the informing context of the Victorian period.

„Червените Eви“. Съветската eманципация нa страниците на полската междувоенна преса (Встъпително проучване)

Author(s): Anna Sobieska / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 30/2023

The paper focuses on observation of the Polish interwarpress (Catholicnationalist, left-wing, feminist journals) in terms of itsinterest in the topic of female emancipation through workin Soviet Russia. The analysis of the images of Soviet women appearing in these journals, the way of seeing an devaluating the transformations in the Soviet Union after 1917 show the patriarchy and Catholic traditionalism of Polish culture.

CROSSING THE LIMITS IN THE GREEK TRAGEDY: CLYTEMNESTRA, ANTIGONE, MEDEA

Author(s): Cristina Iridon / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 29/2022

This paper intends to present how Greek tragedy manages to create a modern perspective of the women, compared with their traditional status in the historical reality of the archaic community. The analysis will focus on three Greek noble characters: Clytemnestra, Antigone and Medea who offer to any reader from any time instead of / beside the image of the devoting wife and of the obedient housekeeper, the image of the adulterous, of the murderer, of the revenger or of the fighter for the members of her family.

Analysis of the behaviour of social media users in the context of security risk reduction in the digital environment

Author(s): Ana M. Slavković,Nikola M. Slavković,Dane R. Subošić / Language(s): English,Serbian Issue: 2/2023

This paper deals with the issues of the analysis of the behaviour of social media users in the context of security risk reduction in the digital environment. In this respect, the subject of this paper is the behaviour of social media users (mainly millennials, from the population of university students, attending studies in the field of security) depending on the gender. The aim of the research is to identify recommendations for a safer use of social media. To this end, the research was conducted on the basis of an anonymous survey comprising 15 questions (3 of demographic and 12 questions of essential significance). The survey covered 333 university students (undergraduate and graduate students of both genders) attending study programmes in the field of security. With the use of the Mann-Whitney test, contingency tables, the Kruskal-Wallis test, as well as the Spearman’s rank correlation test, it has been established that the behaviour patterns of men and women who use social media are very similar, but that there is a substantial statistical difference in certain scenarios. In addition to this, this survey has shown that, irrespective of the gender, risks of being attacked are consciously taken when sharing personal information, along with a reckless use of devices, passwords, and passcodes. By comparing the above-mentioned conclusions with the position of the general hypothesis: “There are similarities and differences between men and women in terms of the behaviour patterns on social media and in the cyberspace in general”, so the conclusion is that it is verified. One of the solutions to the identified problems in the behaviour of social media users is to raise their awareness regarding the risks of doing business and/or accessing entertainment content on social media, as well as their continuous training for the purpose of protecting their own data.

DOBROCHNA HILDEBRANDT-WYPYCH, ALEXANDER W. WISEMAN (RED.) (2021). COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS. ANALYZING SHIFTING DISCOURSES ON NATIONHOOD, CITIZENSHIP, GENDER, AND RELIGION

Author(s): Marta Stawska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 67/2022

Review of: Dobrochna Hildebrandt-Wypych, Alexander W. Wiseman (red.) (2021). Comparative Perspectives on School Textbooks. Analyzing Shifting Discourses on Nationhood, Citizenship, Gender, and Religion. London: Palgrave MacMillan, ss. 393.

GENDER IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY FASHION

Author(s): Sandra Chira / Language(s): English Issue: 31/2022

Femininity and masculinity, understood as the gender identity of individuals, are concepts that are not confused with the sexual identity. While genders are definitions assigned to people in relation to the social framework of belonging, depending on the gender standards and stereotypes established in society, the male or female sex belongs to the biological identity of the individuals, being hereditary. The clear distinction between sex and gender refers to their origin. Sex is a biological given, not an individual's choice to be male or female, while gender refers to how a person defines themselves as male or female. From a sociological perspective, gender is the social interpretation of sex because the formation and definition of gender identity depends both on the intimate space of individuals but also on the social environment alongside external influencing factors. Due to cultural uncertainties about the role of man or woman in contemporary society, the process of defining genders becomes ambiguous. If in the past, the woman was clearly subordinate to the man and fulfilled the role of protecting the privacy of the home at most and the man was involved in various professional and social activities, today, in an evolved and democratic society, such a distinction regarding the status of individuals in the framework of society according to gender no longer occurs. At the same time, as contemporary theories about the identity of individuals in general speak of "identity crisis", in which, in the absence of an identity foundation based on traditional values and aspects, individuals are always in search of their own identity, people and consumer objects with which to identify, also in the case of gender identities, in the presence of constantly changing images of masculinity and femininity, the definition of genders becomes uncertain.

LATIN POETS AND THEIR FEMININE IMAGES

Author(s): Mariana Lăpădat Ene / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 31/2022

The status of Roman women as characters in the works of Latin poets is different from the political and legal one existing in the Roman society male dominated, because they inspire unique lasting loves, sufferings that strongly mark the life of the authors, becoming equal or even dominant in their relationships. The poems abound in metaphors that express the dominance of the beloved woman, the slavery of love, the miraculous power of love that causes the authors to have an unusual behavior for their social position, similar to slavery, behaviour that they sometimes complain about, thus becoming protagonists of their own work. The same as virtus expresses the Roman male identity through courage and values proven in battle, militia amoris expresses love in the works of Latin elegiac poets as a battlefield where the lover fights, triumphs or is defeated.

MARIJA JURIĆ ZAGORKA. THE FIRST FEMALE CROATIAN JOURNALIST

Author(s): Maria Lațchici / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 32/2023

Marija Jurić known by her pen name Zagorka, was a Croatian journalist, writer and women's rights activist. She was the first female journalist in Croatia and is among the most read Croatian writers. A vocal opponent of magyarization and germanization of Croatia, she was imprisoned in solitary confinement for ten days for organizing demonstrations against Khuen-Héderváry.

DIASPORA MISSIOLOGY THEORY, METHODOLOGY, AND PRACTICEIN AMY TAN’S ‘THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT’

Author(s): Maria Cristina Chintescu / Language(s): English Issue: 33/2023

This piece of writing focuses on the theme of ‘Otherness’ in Amy Tan’s novel ‘The Valley of Amazement’ but from an opposing view now, that of a genuine woman and mother who skillfully struggles to mingle and adapt to the Chinese way of life proposing a cultural theme now, that of the Courtesan Houses in China. The balance switches for the time being. We are dealing in the reversed In-group (the genuine Chinese) and Out-group (Lucia Minturn, born American and who came to China in the hope to marry the father of her daughter, Violet). The article brings the following themes to the center of attention: assimilation, ethnicity, family, prostitution, Chinese and American worlds. The article underlines the alterity between the In-group and the Out-group. The connection is made by Violet, who, as a regular half- Chinese, is hesitant to learn about her Chinese origins. We focus on the constant gap between Lucia's life and Violet's. What is spectacular about this novel is Lucia's return to America and Violet's staying in China.

DECREE NO. 770 OF 1966 FROM THE FEMININE PERSPECTIVE. THE IMPACT ON THE FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

Author(s): Nina-Florentina Cristea / Language(s): English Issue: 33/2023

The meeting of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, on August 2d, 1966, debated a demographic study drawn up by a commission led by the Minister of Health, Voinea Marinescu. Alexandru Drăghici supported the idea that the Decree no. 463 of September 30, 1957, in force and legalizing abortion on demand, encouraged debauchery and opposed traditional family values. In order to stimulate the birth rate, it was proposed to increase the number of places in nurseries. Nicolae Ceaușescu, more radical, stated that the said law promoted prostitution and a high rate of divorces. This article displays a presentation of the women’s situation in communist Romania, within the context of the Ceausescu regime’s pro-natality policy and also before this period of time. We do compare the women’s real situation with the presentation of the official discourse in antithesis with the everyday reality. The research includes the period 1966-1989 when the Decree 770/1966 was applied and there are also references to the period before 1966, for a more accurate picture regarding the pro-natality issue, the evolution of the birth rate, the family planning.

FEMALE DONATION AND REPRESENTATION IN SERBIAN MEDIEVAL VISUAL CULTURE: QUEEN AND EMPRESS JELENA (C. 1330 – 1376)

Author(s): Svetlana Smolčić Makuljević / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2023

Female donation and representation are an important part of Serbian medieval visual culture. This paper explores the donation and representation of queen and empress Jelena in Serbian visual culture. It points to the mechanisms of presence and visibility of Jelena in the life of medieval Serbia by way of her participation in political matters of the state, her participation in the creation of visual culture, donations she made as a female ruler along with her husband, her visual portraits in monumental fresco painting, as well as her erection of endowments during Emperor Dušan’s lifetime.