Page 12 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 5-6: Teaching Feminism, ed. Valerija Vendramin
P. 12
šolsko polje, letnik xxxi, številka 5–6
Mirjana Adamović in her contribution What Can We Learn About
Feminism from Web Portals? – Analysing Media Bulletins examines the
“feminist” contents of the most visited Croatian web portals and analyses
feminist activities, their connotations and hierarchal power relationships.
Through analysis, she identifies five thematic frameworks: feminist pio-
neers, female politicians and feminism, celebrity feminism, feminist ac-
tivism, and feminism and film. It is shown that young people cannot real-
ly obtain a realistic picture of feminism through web portals, and rarely,
in a few occasional news items, can they obtain a quick education on fem-
inist values, and that there is much decoupling of feminist values from
feminism.
Mojca Šorli in her article Feminism and Gender-Neutral Language:
Between Systems and Effects presents and reflects on gender-sensitive use
of language through debates conducted in the last few years in Slovenia
on the Slovenian language.12 As shown, this use exceeds inclusivity in lan-
guage; it must be supplemented with the awareness that choosing the mas-
culine gender is not only a matter of grammatical rules, but androcentric-
ity as a norm in society as a whole. Since language, as she puts it, is a key
factor in the actualisation or deceleration of social equalities, what kind of
messages are being sent to children, young adults?
Majda Hrženjak bases her contribution Sporty Boys and Fashion
Girls: Manoeuvring Between Dominant Norms of Gender Identity on
Lévi-Straussian formula “girls : boys = fashion : football”. The article anal-
yses how teenagers deploy clothing practices and other techniques of body
self-regulation to help them deal with social control and peer pressure.
The main reflection relates to the processes of self-construction of mas-
culine and feminine identity. In the end, she turns to the role of school
in avoiding reinforcement of traditional gender dichotomy and support-
ing expressions of alternative ways of doing femininity and masculinity.
Finally, I as the editor in the article The Grammar of Knowledge: A
Look at Feminism and Feminist Epistemologies turn to what might be an-
other main theme of this issue of The School Field – i.e. feminist episte-
mology. Here, I start with Marianne Janack’s definition about the im-
portance of “gender as an analytic category in discussions, criticisms,
and reconstructions of epistemic practices, norms, and ideals” (Janack,
n.d.). I emphasise the role, importance and uniting agent of feminist
12 My note for those not familiar with specifics of the Slovenian language (in short): unlike
in English, in Slovenian, gender is not only visible in pronouns and nouns, but there needs
to be gender-based agreement with adjectives and verbs as well. This feature often serves as
an argument against the possibility of more gender-fair language.
10
Mirjana Adamović in her contribution What Can We Learn About
Feminism from Web Portals? – Analysing Media Bulletins examines the
“feminist” contents of the most visited Croatian web portals and analyses
feminist activities, their connotations and hierarchal power relationships.
Through analysis, she identifies five thematic frameworks: feminist pio-
neers, female politicians and feminism, celebrity feminism, feminist ac-
tivism, and feminism and film. It is shown that young people cannot real-
ly obtain a realistic picture of feminism through web portals, and rarely,
in a few occasional news items, can they obtain a quick education on fem-
inist values, and that there is much decoupling of feminist values from
feminism.
Mojca Šorli in her article Feminism and Gender-Neutral Language:
Between Systems and Effects presents and reflects on gender-sensitive use
of language through debates conducted in the last few years in Slovenia
on the Slovenian language.12 As shown, this use exceeds inclusivity in lan-
guage; it must be supplemented with the awareness that choosing the mas-
culine gender is not only a matter of grammatical rules, but androcentric-
ity as a norm in society as a whole. Since language, as she puts it, is a key
factor in the actualisation or deceleration of social equalities, what kind of
messages are being sent to children, young adults?
Majda Hrženjak bases her contribution Sporty Boys and Fashion
Girls: Manoeuvring Between Dominant Norms of Gender Identity on
Lévi-Straussian formula “girls : boys = fashion : football”. The article anal-
yses how teenagers deploy clothing practices and other techniques of body
self-regulation to help them deal with social control and peer pressure.
The main reflection relates to the processes of self-construction of mas-
culine and feminine identity. In the end, she turns to the role of school
in avoiding reinforcement of traditional gender dichotomy and support-
ing expressions of alternative ways of doing femininity and masculinity.
Finally, I as the editor in the article The Grammar of Knowledge: A
Look at Feminism and Feminist Epistemologies turn to what might be an-
other main theme of this issue of The School Field – i.e. feminist episte-
mology. Here, I start with Marianne Janack’s definition about the im-
portance of “gender as an analytic category in discussions, criticisms,
and reconstructions of epistemic practices, norms, and ideals” (Janack,
n.d.). I emphasise the role, importance and uniting agent of feminist
12 My note for those not familiar with specifics of the Slovenian language (in short): unlike
in English, in Slovenian, gender is not only visible in pronouns and nouns, but there needs
to be gender-based agreement with adjectives and verbs as well. This feature often serves as
an argument against the possibility of more gender-fair language.
10
