A Literary Model of the Broken Gender Lens

Main Article Content

Zeinab Kikvidze

Abstract

The broken gender lens, based on androcentrism, gendered polarization and biological essentialism, are considered one of the most significant challenges for today’s world. Views about powerfulness of men and insignificance of women as a second sex have been entrenched in social institutions of various countries, ethno-cultural ways of life, and human minds since ancient times when monotheism took prevalence over polytheism.


 The equality of male and female deities in pagan beliefs stayed in the past. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam made radical changes in views about men’s and women’s roles. A man is regarded as God’s favorite human who is above everyone, while a women is viewed as his subordinate whose function are confined to in-door activities and reproduction. Based on the aforementioned, humankind’s history is men’s history.


 There are compositions whose authors try to break gender lens of their societies. The bestsellers such as The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hossein.


 The main characters of these novels are women who live their lives in rather complicated times of their respective countries. Totalitarian regimes, wars, depreciation of moral and values exacerbates women’s predicament and sexual oppression. However, it is such political, social, economic, and ethic pressures that make them belligerent individuals who are able to oppose cruelty and even to arm themselves, to commit murder, to use their charm for the sake of a very difficult mission. In the world of masculine opinions they maintain their femininity and do not turn into so called manly women.


Positions of the authors of the three novels are focused into a single idea: history is written by both men and women. The gender lens are broken and there comes a new reality of equal rights.

Published: Nov 14, 2022

Article Details

Section
Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Literature and Culture