Browsing by Subject "Foucauldian Discourse Analysis"

This study aims to identify diverse masculinities of fatherhood and the subject positions in Japanese news media. In post-war Japan, Japanese men upheld breadwinning masculinity, also called Salaryman masculinity, which positioned the domestic sphere as the domain of women. In contemporary Japan, men are socially expected to play the care roles instead of solo financial provider roles within the household. However, conventional patriarchal ideology has persisted, assigning men as breadwinners and women as primal caregivers as complemental partners. Hybrid masculinity that adopts caring role but upholds the dominating power over women has been also observed. Since masculinity reconstructs patriarchal power relations, this study attempts to investigate the complex discourses of constructed masculinities of fatherhood and the subject positions that men can adopt in contemporary Japan. As this study focuses on the power dynamics of masculinity, this study is situated within the field of critical social psychology and is grounded in social constructionism. This study applies the concept of Hegemonic masculinity developed by Connell (1987). Foucauldian discourse analysis is adopted to approach the discourses and subject positions. The research questions are: RQ1) What kind of masculinities of fatherhood are constructed in Japanese news media? and RQ2) What kind of subject positions are provided for Japanese fathers in the news media? In total, 31 articles, provided by 14 news medias, are collected from Yahoo! News online news platform, of which the range of published date is May 2019 to October 2019. As a result, this study identifies five discourses: Men work discourse, Men are not good at childrearing discourse, Time with family is precious discourse, Men participate in childrearing discourse, and Equal parenthood discourse. The subject positions attached to the discourses are suggested as: Breadwinner, Secondary caregiver, Involved father, In a higher status than women, and Equal partner of women. Whereas breadwinning masculinity still has upheld the domination over women, the masculinity that explicitly rejects the traditional gender role is also identified. In addition to the traditional hegemonic salaryman masculinity, hybrid masculinity that exploits the femininity to maintain the hegemonical power is identified. Within several discourses, emphasized femininity is constructed by women by positioning themselves as primary caregivers. With the help of the analysis framework of Foucauldian discourse analysis developed by Willig (2008), this study illustrates the practices and possible psychological experiences by men. This study proposes to the government and public institutions to constitute gender-neutral discourses within the policies and services. This study contributes to critical social psychology by adding to articulated knowledge of possibilities for making sense of the relation between masculinity and domestic sphere. Furthermore, this study proposes the possible shifts of gender relations towards equality by identifying gender-equal discourse that has not been observed in other current masculinity studies in Japan.

This thesis aims to identify and compare the portrayals of femicide victims between mainstream and feminist sources in Mexican Context. Femicide is viewed in this thesis as linked with structural inequalities between women and men, as well as the patriarchal ideas, which come along with gendered violence, a mechanism that is reproduced in order to oppress women. This is significant to highlight the power struggles that arise from these dynamics. Furthermore, the purpose of this thesis is to point out the social problematic that arises from the first set of discourses (mainstream media) which draws upon hegemonic views of women’s morality. simultaneously I am looking for a comparison with counter portrayals that arise from progressive and challenging discourses within feminist media. Foucauldian discourse analysis is utilized with the attempt of unravelling this power struggle, to approach discourses and identify subject positions of femicide victims and perpetrators, and lastly, in order to determine cultural and historical shifts in the discourses. The research questions are: RQ1) How have the Mexican media constructed the image of femicide victims and femicide perpetrators during 2017-2020? RQ2) How have feminist actors portrayed the image of femicide victims and femicide perpetrators in Mexico during 2017-2020? and RQ3) What are the similarities or differences between the portrayals made by the media and feminist actors during this period (2017-2020)? In total 48 articles, collected from the online portal of the newspaper “Reforma”, and the feminist sources of Latfem.org and vocesfeministas.mx were analyzed. The range of publishing date comprises January 2017 - December 2020. As a result, this thesis identifies four different discourses within the mainstream newspapers coverage: Empty vessels, Noteworthy and salient members of society, Innocent victims of the circumstances, and Self-inflicted violence as a result of her own wrong choices. The identified subject positions for the victims are: one more number, unanimated object or body, the beautiful woman, empowered woman, respected woman, good woman, good mother, pure child, neglected kid, innocent child, the sex-worker, irresponsible woman, blameworthy and immoral. Also, three discourses are identified within the media with feminist scope: Femicides are a preventable and a broader social issue, The failures committed by the State, and Non- binary community, invisible femicides discourse. The identified subject positions available for the victims are: neglected woman, multiply marginalized, neglected by the State and revictimized victim, invisible woman and non-binary. The analysis showed that mainstream media did not take into account structural influences, which in turn were highlighted by feminist portrayals. Derived from the presented results, this study provides future directions to reporters in general, for them to understand their role in this issue. I enlist a series of recommendations, partly my conclusions and finalizing with Marzabal’s ideas (2015). I conclude that it is imperative to break with the hegemonic narratives and also with the competition between the different mainstream sources, who seek exclusivity and news value by exposing and utilizing the femicide victims in different manners, instead of informing objectively the population about femicide and its causes. This thesis contributes to critical social psychology and gender studies. It shows how the feminist discourses disrupt the historically continuous hegemony of mainstream discourses. It also makes a contribution to feminist studies of gendered violence, and portrayals of femicide victims in the feminist media.