FROM
THE SYMBOLIC TO THE DISCRIMINATIVE ANATHEMA
Brandusa PALADE
The underlying trends of
Romanian public language are still sexist and patriarchal. Media keeps
describing women as social objects of a society in which men have the symbolic
power, despite an increasing gender equalization of skills in the public
sphere. Moreover, the patriarchal stereotypes used in whatever education
shape women' s conservative self-image. Gender discrimination is thus "helped"
by a self-discriminative tendency of women themselves. This issue will
attempt to reveal by ironical, descriptive and analytic articles the dimension
of gender discrimination within the Romanian public language. One might
think that these realistic witnesses suggest a topic for a liberal reflection
upon women' s moral status. So far, it remains only a matter of theoretical
debate
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WOMEN'S
IMAGE IN ROMANIAN ADVERTISING
Corina CONSTANTIN
and Marius GRIGOROVICI
Based on an analysis of existing
sexist subordination in Romanian ads, the authors try to sustain the position
that this fact can be and must be legally and morally settled for by those
affected by it. That is because in Romania the advertising industry, by
its techniques, not only sharpens the sexist chauvinism existent in our
society, but also double its force, perpetuates it.
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ABOUT
A CERTAIN TYPE OF AVAILABILITY
Mihaela RABU
The article is provoked by
the erotic "call me!" advertisements published in the main Romanian newspapers.
These advertisements encourage the general idea that women are sexual objects
and a certain type of look – establishing physical prejudices.
If advertisements would contain images of men ready to fulfil women’s
sexual desires and with a certain "look", certainly soon, strong voices
of authorities will forbid using men as sexual objects !
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OUR
IMAGE IN ALL DAILIES
Mihaela MIROIU
This paper is the result
of a content analysis of five important Romanian.dailies. It shows how
the gender dimension is shaped by the mass-media discriminative discourse.
Women are referred to just as trivial Objects for the private use of men
or as sexual accessories. But media also perform an instructive activity
in the society. Therefore, this discriminative discourse may preserve and
continuously shape only sexist opinions. No wonder, than, the broad extension
of sexism in contemporary Romania
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CAREER
WOMAN
Brandusa PALADE
This paper deals with the
current linguistic censorship of women' s achievement of visible career
standards. This censorship works both on the level of discourse and the
collective imaginary. The discourse reflects the collective imaginary and
the collective imaginary shapes and informs the discourse. Moreover, this
mutual relationship between these elements creates a broad propensity of
disapproving women' s career interests. Thus, the continual use of patriarchal
stereotypes may succeed in discouraging a local reinvention of women' s
identity.
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THE
PREJUDICES OF OTHERS. MY PREJUDICES
Renate WEBER
This paper is an autobiographical
account. It shows how a Romanian woman could be influenced throughout her
education by patriarchal prejudices which could restrain her own rights.
It also describes how these prejudices could inhibit a woman's brilliant
career in the Romanian Bar. Fortunately, being awarded a scholarship in
human rights at Columbia University, Renate Weber had the opportunity to
reflect more skeptically on her own prejudices. She understood that women
rights are part of human rights and thus she stpped neglecting the first
ones.
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THE
NATURE - CULTURE CONFLICT AS A BRAKE
Cristian VASILESCU
There are some dangers that
stand in the way of women's emancipation from their very traditional sex-discriminated
place in Romanian society. I am talking about the very well known custom
of using models of emancipation, specific ways and certain ends - methods
which are not concerned about the wide differences between classes, customs,
desires and personalities of women. In this paper I am focusing on the
fallacy of using the model of the nature/culture dichotomy, and on the
idea that we have to use, if we want to help the Romanian women, a specific
model of life - like the feminist Anglo-Saxon model (strong individualism,
a strict autonomy, etc.) - and I am underlining that if we do this, we
are not something else but other kind of masters of women: feminist masters.
