Patriarchy and Gender Roles in Shobhaa De's Second Thoughts and Easterine Kire’s Life on Hold

Abstract: This article discusses about the patriarchy and gender roles that is evident in Shobhaa De's Second Thoughts and Easterine Kire's Life on Hold. Patriarchy is a system in which man is the Head and is in charge of all sorts of decision making, while women are to obey by the rules and demands laid on them by the man of the family. Gender role refers to the roles that men and women play in the society. The role that they’re expected to partake by the societal norms. The role that is differentiates and distinguishes them as men and women. This research aims to analyse the patriarchy and gender roles in Shobhaa De's Second Thoughts and Easterine Kire’s Life on Hold. Judith Butler suggests gender is not the result of nature, but is socially constructed. Male and female behaviour roles are not the result of biology but are constructed and reinforced by the society through media and culture. She argues that there are a number of exaggerated representations of masculinity and femininity which cause ‘gender trouble’. “There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very ‘expression’ that are said to be its results.” (Butler)

Patriarchy, Gender roles, women, marriage, men

1. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. De, Shobha. Second Thoughts. Penguin Random House India, 1996. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Kire, Easterine. Life on Hold. Barkweaver Publications, 2018. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

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