Today, the world faces one crisis after another affecting individuals on a global scale. To respond to these crises, Anglo-American ethical and political philosophy requires alternative conceptions...Show moreToday, the world faces one crisis after another affecting individuals on a global scale. To respond to these crises, Anglo-American ethical and political philosophy requires alternative conceptions of care. Moving beyond (neo)liberal care ethics, this thesis argues for a non-gendered Confucian care ethics, illustrating what it means to care democratically. The aim is to alter democratic deficits by embracing interrelated Confucian selfhood. This enables intergenerational care to adapt to contemporary social challenges to humanity, democracy, equality, and freedom. I expand the notion of Confucian interrelated selfhood – transforming dichotomous moral boundaries of identity, community, and society – to include non-gendered, non-dyadic relationships. To be relevant for future generations, Confucian care ethical democracy must offer a theory of justice that understands how to care for each other in society. Whilst facing numerous care crises, it is imperative to encourage people to explore what it means to care intergenerationally for the present and future world. A communal effort to flourish on this planet starts by understanding the complexity of raising oneself, each other, and a whole society.Show less
James Marion Sims (1813-1883) is known as the ‘godfather of gynaecology.’ This American doctor had a career spanning Alabama, New York City and even undertook a European tour. He founded the United...Show moreJames Marion Sims (1813-1883) is known as the ‘godfather of gynaecology.’ This American doctor had a career spanning Alabama, New York City and even undertook a European tour. He founded the United States’ first Woman’s Hospital, but one of his first major contributions to medicine was finding a cure for vesico-vaginal fistula: the tearing of the vaginal wall due to trauma. This launched his career in medicine. However, he found this cure by performing medical experiments on enslaved Black women in his private clinic. In the Woman’s Hospital his patients were predominantly Irish immigrant women from the working classes of the city. This research explores what made it possible for a White man such as Sims to perform these unethical experiments on these women, who were racialised as Black. Through Foucault’s concept of the medical gaze and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectional feminist critique, this thesis explores the professionalisation of medicine in the nineteenth century, scientific racism, the genesis of gynaecology, racial formation, medical experimentation and how Sims fits into these structures. The focus is the identity formation of Sims himself and his patients, who were intersectionally marginalised. Considering their race, class, ability and gender, one can reconstruct how they fit into the fabric of American society, and why exactly Sims and his colleagues were allowed to experiment on enslaved, working class, ill women when they never considered treating more privileged women (or men) in such a manner.Show less
Representative of the new and daring generation, Matsui Fuyuko experiments with traditional Japanese art and infuses it with grotesque motifs that respond to contemporary interests and anxieties....Show moreRepresentative of the new and daring generation, Matsui Fuyuko experiments with traditional Japanese art and infuses it with grotesque motifs that respond to contemporary interests and anxieties. She discusses the delicate topics of female suffering and self-expression, which broaches unavoidably the salience of religious influence on the historical formation of gender roles in the Japanese society. In this thesis, I will analyze this subject through the dichotomy of purity versus impurity, as it is instrumental in organizing space in the lives of ordinary Japanese. In varied contexts, purity is used to contrast the sacred and the abominable, the clean and the polluted, or the male and the female body. By placing the paintings of Matsui Fuyuko in the syncretic religious context unique to Japan, it is possible to establish a connection between Buddhist meditation practices and Shinto rituals. In this sense, the aesthetic collation of the pure feminine and the shock-inducing realism of the rotting female corpse in Matsui's paintings can be seen as a form of social protest against pernicious gender biases. She challenges the traditional expectations towards women to display humility, self-restraint and to embrace their role as mothers and caretakers by instead painting them in defiant and provocative poses. The main question to be tackled in this research is how the painter modifies the concept of purity to communicate her feelings and ideas to the viewer through artistic means. I will disclose why the art of Matsui Fuyuko can be seen as an emotional purification of the artist, a meditative tool for the audience, as well as how it defies traditional views on the female body.Show less
Master thesis | European Politics and Society: Vaclav Havel Joint Master Programme
open access
Female political representation differs significantly between countries. Patriarchal structures and gender biases that hinder women's representation are pervasive and can be identified in seemingly...Show moreFemale political representation differs significantly between countries. Patriarchal structures and gender biases that hinder women's representation are pervasive and can be identified in seemingly progressive governments, challenging claims of increased gender equality in the global North. This thesis explores the differences in female political representation in parliament between two popularly deemed progressive European countries: the Netherlands and Finland. It does so by adopting a novel approach and engaging with the top-down personal perspective of politicians within parliament. Using semi-structured elite interviews, this thesis focuses on the causes for the gap in female political representation between these countries while also discussing what the interviewees envision as possible improvements. The parliamentarians provided unique insights into how gender stereotypes, gatekeeping, and unpaid care work determine the level of women's political representation. The results indicate that female parliamentarians, next to having more role models, centred childcare and parental leave at the core of the policies to address the disparity in female representation between the Netherlands and Finland and increase female political representation overall. This thesis thus contributes to gender and political studies.Show less
This thesis analyzes the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and the first three seasons of the HULU series in their historical contexts, and relates them to feminist activism in both eras...Show moreThis thesis analyzes the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and the first three seasons of the HULU series in their historical contexts, and relates them to feminist activism in both eras. The thesis investigates how relevant literary representations of injustice and oppression are within the broader discourse of human rights, equality and freedom. By juxtaposing the Feminist views of the writer, producers and its political climate in the 1980s during Ronald Reagan's administration and during the 2010s Trump administration the radicalisation of its activism and the change in current political protests are shown.Show less
This thesis aims to address the question: “How does the representation of Kurdish cultural resistance in visual art made by the Kurdish-Dutch diaspora fit within the Kurdish political discourse?”...Show moreThis thesis aims to address the question: “How does the representation of Kurdish cultural resistance in visual art made by the Kurdish-Dutch diaspora fit within the Kurdish political discourse?” To answer this question, films by Beri Shalmashi and Reber Dosky were analyzed by means of Visual Discourse Analysis on the basis of themes and symbols that fit within Kurdish political discourse. Unlike traditional International Relations (IR), this thesis takes an aesthetic turn and presents a more expressive and critical view from a diasporic narrative of the Kurdish question, which will deepen the knowledge concerning this conflict through visual discourse analysis. The themes and symbols discussed are cultural memory and collective trauma, the geo-linguistic homeland, autonomy, feminism, and the Kurdish mountains. These themes and symbols are all linked to Kurdish nationalism and cultural resistance and play an important role in the creation of a Kurdish identity among the Kurds living in diaspora. Moreover, this thesis demonstrates how the Kurdish diasporic community represents itself and how politicized Kurdish culture is.Show less
Christine de Pizan was one of the very first female authors in medieval Europe. She produced texts in which women are defended against misogyny. In her treatises Christine makes use of existing...Show moreChristine de Pizan was one of the very first female authors in medieval Europe. She produced texts in which women are defended against misogyny. In her treatises Christine makes use of existing misogynistic texts and uses them in her advantage in order to paint a positive picture of women. In addition she reprimands authors who besmirch the reputation of females. This thesis focuses on the manner in which she defends women against misogyny (which was common in medieval Europe) while she uses contemporary sources containing the very misogynistic ideas she argues against.Show less
This MA thesis explores the independence of the working heroines in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847), Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), and Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding...Show moreThis MA thesis explores the independence of the working heroines in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847), Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), and Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd (1874). The heroines establish and maintain their independence by performing the profession of governess, artist, or farmer, while the love interests threaten the women's independence by encroaching upon their professions. This thesis shows that all three novels are simultaneously ahead of their time in relation to the working women and very much of their time in relation to Victorian conventions.Show less
In literature, madness has frequently been used by female writers as a guise, or as Elaine Showalter refers to it, a mask, to express the inexpressible. Using Showalter's term of the 'mask of...Show moreIn literature, madness has frequently been used by female writers as a guise, or as Elaine Showalter refers to it, a mask, to express the inexpressible. Using Showalter's term of the 'mask of madness', this thesis explores the image of madness and its link to self expression in three contemporary novels by female authors. Through a close reading of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925), Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing (1972), and Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects (2006) – novels all featuring protagonists exhibiting signs of mental illness – this thesis examines how the image of madness can feature as a response to oppression, and how it can be used as a tool for societal criticism.Show less
The link between international development and gender equality has been highly acknowledged in today’s world. Women and girls are often depicted to be the public faces of global development, and...Show moreThe link between international development and gender equality has been highly acknowledged in today’s world. Women and girls are often depicted to be the public faces of global development, and have been increasingly present in a wide range of business and institutional policies. Businesses and institutions have embraced the notion that women are beneficial for markets and profits. This idea of the economic benefits of capitalizing on female ‘untapped’ labor power is also known as ‘smart economics’. Such neoliberal implementations and legislations illustrate that, instead of mere victims of poverty and violence, women are also capable to be agents. Nonetheless, these supposed advantages are in need of a feminist analysis. Recently, the Japanese government led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set out to implement a gender equality initiative labeled as ‘Womenomics’. This policy is primarily implemented to increase female participation in the workforce. Womenomics is narrowly linked to the expansion of a neoliberal economic policy agenda, which represents market fundamentalism, privatization, and corporate-led development. This thesis will analyze to what extend Japan’s neoliberalism, and its promise for female empowerment affects gender equality in the country. Fundamental to this analysis is the connection between feminism and a neoliberal economic policy like womenomics. The idea of feminism can reveal to what extend it can be utilized to achieve the neoliberal goal of a free and flexible labor market (Schieder 53 – 54). The central question this thesis seeks to answer is: ‘how has feminism influenced Japan’s decision to implement its neoliberal womenomics policy?’. The thesis hypotheses is that while womenomics promotes female (economic) empowerment, the policy disregards historical and structural causes of gender-based inequality and poverty. Moreover, it is reinforcing the (current) neoliberal paradigm, which established and maintained (gender-based) oppression.Show less
This thesis explores the legal implications of global feminist debates centring radical and liberal feminist stances on Human Trafficking (HT) and prostitution as interrelated phenomena. It...Show moreThis thesis explores the legal implications of global feminist debates centring radical and liberal feminist stances on Human Trafficking (HT) and prostitution as interrelated phenomena. It explores the 2000 Dutch repeal of the brothels ban and the 1999 Swedish prohibition on the purchase of sex services. It posed the question - What are the discourses underlying the two dominant feminist stances on Human Trafficking and its link to prostitution? Do they reveal a similar or a radically opposed logic in their articulation of female subject positions? If so, how? By employing post-structuralist theory of discourse, notions of bio-power, docile bodies, governmentality and others, this paper argues that despite the fierce opposition between radical and liberal feminist standpoints on the two issues at hand, both positions frame female subjects as bodies to be governed or as the loci for state incursions and governmental control. In the case of abolitionist feminists, women are held to be passive victims who are in need of governmental protection and saving. Conversely, the liberal stance perceives them as a separate economic class that must be placed under state supervision with its activities regulated and controlled. Importantly, this thesis contributes to the research on international political theory by offering a new interpretation of the debate on HT and prostitution. By employing a comparative case study as means to demonstrate its theoretical argument, it aims to create an alternative understanding of the polarised debate which essentially expresses one overarching framework. As such, it is highly relevant to post-modern feminist theory and gender studies since it presents a new perspective on one of the central and most pressing crises in global gender equality. This assertion is of vital importance for international relations and regionalist debates on state power insofar as it addresses important questions concerning the role of the nation-state in managing domestic affairs, such as prostitution, and tackling international issues, such as HT. In that regard, this paper argues against one of the widely-held beliefs, prevalent in liberal political circles, envisioning a decreased role for post-modern states in international relations and national policies. Instead, it posits that the construction of the two feminist discourses, creating easily governable subjects and enhancing state interventions, and their policy impact on HT and prostitution have successfully worked to solidify the role of the nation-state in addressing both HT and prostitution. Lastly, radical and liberal feminist movements in Sweden and The Netherlands have rendered one of the most successful lobbying efforts in the world which manifests the implications of international and regional political debates on national level. Admittedly, this serves a wider agenda in which national Dutch and Swedish feminist movements embody a culminating success of a global endeavour and as such are of broad importance with indisputably reverberating effects.Show less
This essay will focus on the ways in which the house, and indeed the right to own property, shaped female experience in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1843), The Spoils of Poynton (1897) and Howard’s...Show moreThis essay will focus on the ways in which the house, and indeed the right to own property, shaped female experience in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1843), The Spoils of Poynton (1897) and Howard’s End (1910). The relationship between houses and female power will be explored through three chapters. The first will focus on The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and will examine the relevance of the house as a physical space within women’s lives. The second will look at The Spoils of Poynton in the context of female homelessness, shedding light on the importance of the female home in wielding power, as women without property are left disenfranchised throughout, as well as the precarious nature of female inhabitance of the home. The third and final chapter will examine Howard’s End in light of this. Women, able to take full ownership of the home, are able to exert control over their environment and exercise a relatively high degree of independence. Howard’s End, then, I will examine in terms of legal female ownership of the house and female inheritance. This essay will examine the role of the house in female agency within the novel, and how these novels emerge from, and form part of, the shifting political, social and legal context of the 19th Century.Show less
Focusing on second-wave feminism, this thesis explores the representation of gender and the expression of the predominant feminist ideas in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969),...Show moreFocusing on second-wave feminism, this thesis explores the representation of gender and the expression of the predominant feminist ideas in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Joanna Russ’s The Female Man (1975) and Pamela Sargent’s The Shore of Women (1986).Show less
In this thesis, I am going to interrogate what might be meant by ‘feminism’ in the 1810s, what Austen might have understood by it, what we now understand by it and how we might apply those ideas to...Show moreIn this thesis, I am going to interrogate what might be meant by ‘feminism’ in the 1810s, what Austen might have understood by it, what we now understand by it and how we might apply those ideas to Austen’s fictions. I shall argue that, although Austen uses the rather conservative genre of the courtship novel, or according to Marilyn Butler, the conservative partisan novel, she employs this genre to subversively express her radical ideas (Butler 3). I shall explore the idea that Austen rarely made her views explicit in her work, due to the prejudice that was attached to feminist opinions at the time due to the life story of Mary Wollstonecraft; I shall trace the effect of Wollstonecraft’s biography on Austen in the next chapter. By investigating different aspects of the family in Austen’s novels, I shall demonstrate how Austen did express her ‘feminist’ opinions through her works, albeit subversively. In particular, I shall examine the weakness of authority figures in her novels. The weakness of these authority figures allows Austen’s heroines to exert more power and therefore have a greater sense of their own agency. I shall further argue that Austen employs the weakness of authority figures in her novels to inspire more feminist behaviour in her heroines, who are not the ‘perfect’ image of Georgian femininity but are nevertheless, as is clear to the reader, favoured over the other characters by Austen. I attempt to show that Austen’s ‘feminist’ tendencies can be seen in her praising her heroines beyond all other characters while these are the characters that display the most agency and therefore are seen to possess ‘masculine’ properties.Show less
Since the beginning of the 1980s, much debate in the jurisprudential literature on freedom of speech has been about the (alleged) right to produce and publish pornography. Law professor and...Show moreSince the beginning of the 1980s, much debate in the jurisprudential literature on freedom of speech has been about the (alleged) right to produce and publish pornography. Law professor and feminist Catherine A. MacKinnon produced an interesting argument to justify censorship: pornography itself silences women (and we are allowed to silence silencing speech). This thesis seeks to investigate this normative defence of the 'silencing of the silencing', particular in the form promulgated by Rae Langton from the 1990s on. It argues that Langton and other feminists are right to conclude that free speech implies more than a mere 'right to locution' -- there must also be a right to be heard. Yet, it puts into question the premise that that fact alone could justify a censorship. That usually constitutes an offence against the spirit of autonomy, one of the main reasons to accept free speech in the first place.Show less
This paper engages in the debate on the banning of the burkini in coastal resorts in France in 2016. It uses this case study to assess whether there has been a change in attitudes towards Muslim...Show moreThis paper engages in the debate on the banning of the burkini in coastal resorts in France in 2016. It uses this case study to assess whether there has been a change in attitudes towards Muslim women in the country. The findings suggest that whilst perceptions remain similar there is now more open opposition towards women wearing Islamic veils. The history of France’s relationship with Islam, especially in regards to women, is used to put into perspective the 2016 bans. The differences between these prohibitions in comparison to previous laws regarding Islamic veils in France, but also the underlying similarities are analysed. Furthermore, the case study of France will be expanded EU-wide and will deliberate on the future of such restrictions to female Muslim dress.Show less
