Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology; Issue No. 16: Emerging Gender, Media and Technology Scholarship in Africa
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/26823
2024-03-28T13:24:47Z[Issue no. 16 Cover]
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/27032
[Issue no. 16 Cover]
Steeves, H. Leslie
JPEG image of cover; Internet café in Accra, Ghana. Cafés are populated almost entirely by men and boys, and some do not allow females to enter. For context, see ‘Give a Laptop, Change the World: The Story of the OLPC in Ghana’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfVrTSq_iKc.
2020-02-01T00:00:00ZReading Representations of (Un)desirable GBTI Men on QueerLife’s 4Men Website Section
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/26831
Reading Representations of (Un)desirable GBTI Men on QueerLife’s 4Men Website Section
Vanyoro, Kudzaiishe
Using discourse analysis and semiotic analysis, this article examines how the language and images of the “4men” section of the South African site QueerLife construct masculinity and femininity as (un)desirable aspects in gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (GBTI) men’s relationships. The use of “(un)desirable” in this article suggests that there are contesting definitions of what constitutes desirable and undesirable traits in GBTI relationships. Although QueerLife states that it caters to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people, this article only focuses on GBTI men’s content in the 4men section. The article argues that despite claiming to cater to all within the LGBTI spectrum, representations on QueerLife 4men seem to treat masculinity as the most desirable trait. This encompasses traits such as penis size, athleticism, class, emotionlessness, and muscular, firmly built bodies. Overall, the analysis of these texts will show that among what such representations seek to achieve in post-apartheid South Africa is an appeal to white, urban, middle-class gay communities.
11 pages
2020-02-01T00:00:00ZNewspapers as Gendered Spaces: Photographic Representation of Kenyan Female Athletes in the Kenyan Press during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/26830
Newspapers as Gendered Spaces: Photographic Representation of Kenyan Female Athletes in the Kenyan Press during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Nyanoti, Joseph
Kenya is known globally as the home of world champions in athletics, including the Olympics. However, although the Olympic games dominate public discourse in Kenya when they are being held every four years, there is hardly any academic interest in the many press photographs that are published in this season. The main objective of this study is to analyze how female athletes were photographically represented compared with their male counterparts in the Rio 2016 Olympics in the Kenyan newspapers. I employed quantitative content analysis and semiotic analysis to study Kenya’s two leading daily newspapers, the Daily Nation and the Standard between August 5 and 21, 2016, the time the Olympic games took place. My findings indicate that the two newspapers allocated more photographic space to men compared with women athletes. The findings also show that photographs in this study depicted women as weaker than men, as emotional unlike their logical male counterparts, and generally as inferior to men.
10 pages
2020-02-01T00:00:00ZA Feminist Reading of Hashtag Activism in Ghana
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/26829
A Feminist Reading of Hashtag Activism in Ghana
Mohammed, Wunpini Fatimata
This article examines Akumaa Mama Zimbi’s activism in the Ghanaian social media landscape, specifically Twitter. I argue that while it is imperative to critique her hashtag activism for its complicity with patriarchal ideology in the repression of female sexuality, it is important to contextualize her work within conversations on gender activism and feminisms in Ghana. This article parses out the politics of and tensions in feminist movements on the continent demonstrating how certain activist labels can be depoliticized and used to undo decades of feminist work on the continent. By drawing on my lived experience as an ethnically marginalized Muslim woman born and raised in Ghana who is active in the country’s digital (activist) public sphere, I present a critical analysis of the pervasive conversations on gender activism and feminism in Ghana. I employ the conceptual framework of framing to examine the main topics that arise out of Akumaa’s #WearYourDrossNow campaign on Ghana Twitter which aims at discouraging young women from engaging in premarital sex. I assert that Akumaa’s work is inspired by her personal interpretation of gender activism and is closely tied to religious morality and conservative notions of female sexuality in Ghana.
13 pages
2020-02-01T00:00:00Z