Construction Of Subversive Gender Identities: A Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis Of A Television Play, Chal Jhooti

Abstract

This article examines the women’s construction of gender identities as a form of resistance in the presence of dominant discourses. Firstly, it aims to analyze the construction of gender identities which are not approved by the societal norms and yet helps women gain a position of power needed to survive in a male dominated society. Secondly, it seeks to describe and interpret the socio-cultural discursive practices responsible for inequities and the strategies adopted by the women for resistance and change. The data for the present study consists of a single episode television play “Chal Jhooti”. Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis (FPDA) and theory of performativity are employed to deconstruct the cross identities and to reveal the discourses underlying the mechanism of power in sustaining repressive social structures and hegemonic social relations. The findings reveal that women are multiply located in discourse as they adopt particular ways to resist certain dominant social practices. It also reveals that women’s construction and performance of masculine gender identity is not merely construed as their power but at the same time it is a reinforcement of men’s power as generally these gender crossings aggravate the essential dualism of the gender structure. The current study suggests that the presence of existing discourse of gender differentiation results in deviations from gender appropriate norms which are policed and intended as a mean to defy it.