Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Women fascists'

Denna uppsats ämnar finna de faktorer som drev före detta suffragetter till att ansluta sig till den fascistiska organisationen British Union of Fascists (BUF), samt redogöra för organisationens syn på kvinnors och kvinnors roll i samhället.  BUF grundades 1932 och var den största och mest framstående fascistiska gruppen i Storbritannien under mellankrigstiden. I samband med att organisationen nådde sin höjd i mitten av 1930-talet blev den ökänd för sina våldsamma möten och konfrontationer med politiska motståndare. De våldsamma metoderna som fascisterna använde skulle alienera dem från den breda brittiska politiken. När BUF proklamerade sitt stöd för Adolf Hitlers Nazityskland kom organisationen att fördömas av både den brittiska allmänheten och de etablerade partierna. British Union of Fascists skulle motsätta sig andra världskriget och uppmanade regeringen att förbjuda organisationen och arresterade många högtuppsatta medlemmar 1940. Fascismen var känd för att ha en patriarkal, traditionalistisk och reaktionär syn på kön och kvinnor. Men trots detta lyckades organisationen attrahera tidigare suffragetter. Så hur kunde de som tidigare kämpat för jämställdhet gå med i en rörelse som motsatte sig jämställdhet? Vilken syn hade BUF på kvinnan och kvinnorollen? För att svara på detta har jag studerat och analyserat ideologisk text skrivna av organisationens grundare och ledare Oswald Mosley samt andra fascistiska medlemmar. Jag har också använt mig av tillgänglig forskning från etablerade professorer och historiker för att nå en slutsats.   Resultatet visar att British Union of Fascists hade en mycket traditionalistisk och reaktionär syn på kvinnan och kvinnorollen. Svaghet betraktades och beskrivs som feminint och manlighet betraktades och beskrivs som styrka. BUF ansåg att kvinnan rent naturligt föredrog hemmet framför arbete och att moderskapet var kvinnans högsta kallelse i livet. Fascisterna betraktade kvinnors framgångar i kampen för jämställdhet som samhällets degeneration och förfall. Resultaten visar även att det fanns många faktorer som drev de tidigare suffragetterna till British Union of Fascists. Vilka faktorer som var avgörande beror på suffragetten i fråga. I min forskning har jag hittat tre exempel på tidigare suffragetter som gick med i BUF. Dessa var Norah Dacre Fox, Mary Sophia Allen och Mary Richardson. De faktorer som fick Norah Dacre Fox att ansluta sig till BUF var primärt möjligheten för sig och sin partner att få politiska karriärer. Fox hävdade att BUF var suffragettrörelsens arvtagare men jag har inte hittat några bevis för att detta var en primär faktor som fick henne att gå med i organisationen. De faktorer som fick Mary Sophia Allen att gå med i BUF var sannolikt krigsutbrottet 1939. Allen var sedan tidigare en beundrare av Adolf Hitler vilket troligtvis fick henne att motsätta sig ett krig mot dennes regim. Hon tjänstgjorde även under första världskriget och var troligtvis väl medveten om krigets fasor, något som kan ha bidragit till att hon motsatte sig ett nytt krig. De faktorer som fick Mary Richardson att gå med BUF var att hon ansåg att organisation och fascismen som ideologi var det enda som kunde rädda landet från stagnation. Richardson såg också mycket i BUF som påminde henne om suffragettrörelsen, och som en militant suffragett i sin ungdom kan BUFs militarism och paramilitära aktioner ha varit attraktiva. Det är därför troligt att de faktorer som fick Richardson att gå med i fascisterna var en kombination mellan att tro på dem som en politisk kraft såväl som deras militanta tillvägagångssätt. Richardson lämnade organisationen efter interna bråk och kom att anklaga organisationen för att i själva verket motarbeta kvinnors rättigheter. Strävan efter jämlikhet kan därför mycket väl ha varit en bidragande faktor till att hon anslöt sig till fascisterna, men jag har inte hittat några bevis som uttryckligen pekar på detta.
This essay revolves around the fascist organization British Union of Fascists (BUF) and their view on women and women’s role in society. It also examines former suffragettes who joined the organization, with the goal of establishing which factors contributed to them seeking membership in the organization.  Founded in 1932, the BUF was the largest and most prominent fascist group in the United Kingdom during the interwar period. Reaching its peak in the mid-1930s, the organization would become infamous for violent rallies and clashes with political opponents. The violent methods of the fascists would alienate them from mainstream British politics. And the organization would be condemned by both the British political establishment and British public after pleading their allegiance to Adolf Hitlers Nazi Germany. The British Union of Fascists would oppose the second world war, prompting the government to ban the organization and arresting numerous high-ranking members in 1940. Fascism was known for having a patriarchal, traditionalist and reactionary view on gender and women. But despite this fact, the organization managed to attract former suffragettes. So how come that those who fought for equality between the sexes would join a movement that opposed the same? How did British Union of Fascists view women and the female role?  To answer this, I have studied, and analysed ideological text written by the organizations founder and leader Oswald Mosley, alongside other fascist members. I have also used available research by established professors and historians to reach a valid conclusion.    The result shows that the British Union of Fascists had a highly traditional and reactionary view on women. Weakness was viewed and described as feminine, while masculinity was viewed and described as strength. The group regarded the home as women’s natural habitat, and childbirth as their highest calling in life. The fascists viewed women’s recent achievements in the struggle for equality as the degeneration and downfall of society.  The results also shows that there were numerous factors that drove the former suffragettes, each depending on the suffragette in question. In my research I have found three examples of former suffragettes who joined the BUF. These were Norah Dacre Fox, Mary Sophia Allen and Mary Richardson. The factors that made Norah Dacre Fox join the BUF was primarily the possibility of herself and her partner to gain political careers through the organization. Fox did argue that she viewed the BUF as successors to the suffragette movement, but I have not found any evidence that proves that this was a primary factor for her joining the BUF. The factors that made Mary Sophia Allen join the BUF were most likely the outbreak of the second world war. She was an admirer of Adolf Hitler which probably made her oppose a war against his regime. She also served during the first world war, something that might have contributed to her opposing a new war due the horrors of warfare. Mary Richardson joined the BUF because she believed that the organization and the ideology of fascism were needed to save to country from its downfall. Richardson also saw a lot in the BUF that remined her of the suffragette movement, and as a militant suffragette in her youth the BUFs militarism and paramilitary actions might have been attractive. It is therefore likely that the factors that made Richardson join the fascists were a combination between agreeing with their views on the degeneration of British society as well as their militant actions. Richardson did leave the organization after a falling-out with its leader, and she would accuse the group of working against women’s rights. The pursuit of equality might very well have been a contributing factor for joining, but I have not found any evidence that explicitly points to this.

The thesis investigates the sociological, cultural and ideological factors that affect the production and marketing of two major translations published in Fascist Italy and targeting both adult and young readers. The dissertation focuses upon a selected corpus of translations of the American novels, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and Little Women (1868), which were repeatedly translated between the 1920s and 1940s. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, which encompasses fields such as the history of publishing, the sociology of translation, children’s literature, studies on the role and functions of the Paratext and scholarship on Fascism and its cultural policy, this study aims to offer a detailed examination of the Italian publishing market during the Ventennio. It probes the contexts informing the publishing history of these translations, their readerships, and interrelations with the growing importance of cinema, as well as questions related to the various retranslations produced. Furthermore, given the central role of publishing in the shaping of political consent and the contradictory attitude of the regime towards translations, this thesis explores ideological influences affecting selected translations of these novels that centre on issues of particular resonance for the regime, namely, race and gender. The dissertation is divided in two parallel sections, each one divided into three chapters. The opening chapters in each part examine the publishing history of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Little Women respectively, with attention to the USA, the UK, and France and a primary focus upon Italy, above all Fascist Italy. The following chapters in each section investigate the role that the visual representations of these two books played in conveying racial and gender aspects and in contributing to the construction of their meaning by the readers. Finally, the closing chapters of each section are devoted to a translation analysis of selected passages in order to survey translational behaviours used to depict feminine and racial features, given that these were known to be especially problematic during the Ventennio. This survey aims to pinpoint norms informing translations targeting both young people and adults.

Winifred Holtby was a novelist, journalist and feminist, writing in the 1920s and 1930s. This thesis focuses on her feminist resistance to the fashion for sexual division in interwar Britain. She reads it as a social and political backlash against women’s equal rights that seeks to drive women out of the workplace and back into the home. In Holtby’s view, the popularisation of Freud and the growing appeal of fascism contribute to this backlash by stressing women’s primary role as wives and mothers. For Holtby, Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, sums up this fashion for sexual division when he declares in 1932, ‘we want men who are men and women who are women’. Previous scholarship has focused on Holtby’s work in dialogue with her friend and fellow feminist, Vera Brittain. This thesis adopts a more panoramic perspective to consider Holtby’s work in the context of other feminist contemporaries and in the context of feminist intellectual history. Each chapter examines how Holtby draws inspiration from a figure in feminist history in order to challenge the influences of psychology and fascism on attitudes to women between the wars. Holtby declared that Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) was the ‘bible of the woman’s movement’ and the first chapter examines Wollstonecraft’s influence on Holtby’s feminist thought. The second chapter considers Holtby’s defence of the spinster against interwar prejudice that castigated the spinster as sexually frustrated and psychological abnormal. By subverting Charlotte Brontë’s romance narratives for an interwar ‘feminine middlebrow’ readership, Holtby valorises women’s work in the community. The third chapter addresses the fascist veneration of motherhood, analysing how Holtby recognises and assimilates the feminist potential of Alfred Adler’s theory of Individual Psychology to her anti-fascist critique.

Title: Paths Through Tradition and Modernity in the Female Universe of Fascist Regime Cinema (1929-1943) Examining critical studies about women in Fascist Regime cinema, we discover that there are only a few publication and biographical essays on the diva phenomenon (divismo). Some studies, useful but quite peripheral, deal with the various socio-cultural aspects of the filmic production under Fascism. No critical space is devoted to women, when in fact women were true protagonists of the stories narrated on the silver screen. This research study intends to follow the female figure through “paths” and “typologies” (the sinner, the mother, the victim, the femme fatale ‘the new woman” etc.) during the period between 1929 and 1943. 1929 was chosen as a starting point, because it is the year when Mario Camerini shot Rotaie, while 1943 is the year when Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione was released. This movie marks a turning point, since it launches a female role which was completely new in the filmic production of the time. The two films embody two types of female figure: the first, frequent in melodrama, is the woman as instrument of conversion for the man; the second, instead, is the woman who leads the man to perdition, with her passionate sensuality. The first embodies the exemplary wife and mother, exalted by fascist propaganda, the second illustrates the collapse of the family as institution. Considering the vast corpus of films produced in the period mentioned above, we find paths leading in various directions; examining diachronically the evolution of the female figure, we find it most represented in two macro-genres: comedy and melodrama. The cinematic production of the Regime period focuses almost exclusively on comedy, the favorite escapist genre popular also in Hollywood. Comedy projected images of wealth at a difficult historic and economic time. Most Italian movies, while imitating American, French, Magyar and German models, prompt at less transgressive, less emancipated female types, yet still inspired by a desire for independence. The Regime displayed an ambivalent and contradictory attitude towards such female figures: on the one hand laws were passed that confined women to the domestic sphere, thereby promoting the syrupy image of exemplary wives and mothers, on the other hand women were actively involved in public life, therefore inevitably removed from paternal and conjugal tutelage. The comedies studied in chapters II, III and IV show a conciliatory ending; here the emancipatory desires of the women are redirected towards the reassuring domestic sphere. In the early Forties however, we find a certain disregard for the oleographic female model promoted by the regime. The melodrama (chapters V, VI, VII), quite uncommon until the late Thirties (well into the autarky years) and during the war, produces the most unusual women protagonists: prostitute, single mother, adulteress. Since melodrama is the natural space for female protagonism, we decided to give ample space to the examination of melodramatic films, despite the limited production in comparison to comedies. The educational message endorsed by the cinema, and particularly by mélo—the genre of the conflict between the individual and society—is almost always aimed at swerving away the female audience from behaviours that were deviant or contrary to common morals; in some films, instead, we catch the glimpse of a different message, because female protagonists are willing to go against the leading social rules, in order to affirm their right to freedom, despite the tragic end of their personal stories. (I bambini ci guardano, Ossessione, Malombra). The plots of the melodramas appear inspired and guided by the moral imperative to warn the ‘new woman’ who is exposed to the dangers of urban life, victim of her inner frailty, easy prey to male advances. Although the mélos are less numerous than the comedies, they still provide a code of conduct for young female audiences: no passional lapse is allowed for women before marriage; they absolutely must not confuse eros with agape.
Titolo: Percorsi tra tradizione e modernità all'interno dell'universo femminile nel cinema di regime (1929-1943) Se si prendono in esame gli studi critici sulla figura femminile nel cinema del Ventennio, si scopre che esistono solo alcune pubblicazioni, per lo più biografie o saggi sul divismo. Altri studi, utili ma piuttosto periferici, affrontano aspetti socio-culturali della produzione filmica sotto il fascismo, senza riservare alle donne quello spazio da protagoniste che di fatto possedevano all'interno delle storie raccontate sul grande schermo. Questo lavoro di ricerca si propone dunque di tracciare un €œritratto€ della figura muliebre attraverso €œpercorsi€ per tipologie (la peccatrice, la madre, la vittima, la femme fatale, la €œdonna nuova€, ecc..), in un periodo compreso tra il 1929 e il 1943. Si è scelto come termine a quo il 1929, quando Mario Camerini gira Rotaie, mentre come termine ad quem il 1943, l'€™anno di Ossessione (1943), diretto da Luchino Visconti, un film di svolta, in quanto si afferma un ruolo femminile inedito rispetto a quello veicolato dalla produzione del periodo. Le due pellicole rappresentano infatti le due anime della figura femminile: la prima, che ritroveremo con una certa continuità  all'€™interno del melodramma, è la donna come strumento di conversione€ dell'™uomo. La seconda invece trascina l'€™uomo, attraverso la passione dei sensi, alla perdizione. La prima incarna la moglie e madre esemplare tanto decantata dalla propaganda fascista, la seconda lo sfaldamento dell’istituzione familiare. Considerando l'€™ampio corpus di film girati nel periodo preso in esame, i percorsi si sono diramati in più direzioni mantenendo però come stella polare l'€™evoluzione diacronica delle presenze femminili all'€™interno dei due macrogeneri (la commedia e il melodramma). La produzione cinematografica di regime rivolge il proprio interesse quasi esclusivo alla commedia, genere d'€™evasione prediletto anche a Hollywood, per iniettare sogni di benessere in un contesto critico sul piano storico ed economico. La maggior parte delle pellicole, pur imitando i modelli americani o francesi o magiari o tedeschi, propone tipologie di donne meno emancipate e trasgressive di quelle straniere, ma ugualmente animate da desideri di indipendenza verso cui il regime mostrava un atteggiamento ambiguo e contraddittorio: mentre si emanavano leggi volte a relegarle ancora al focolare domestico, promuovendone l'€™immagine edulcorata di madri e mogli esemplari, si voleva, allo stesso tempo, coinvolgerle attivamente nella vita pubblica, allontanandole inevitabilmente dalla tutela paterna o coniugale. Le commedie analizzate (capitoli II, III, IV) offrono quasi sempre un finale conciliante in cui le pulsioni di emancipazione dell'€™universo muliebre vengono smorzate all'€™interno del rassicurante nucleo domestico, anche se in alcuni film, soprattutto dei primi anni Quaranta, si riscontra una certa insofferenza nei riguardi del modello oleografico femminile propagandato dal regime. E'ˆ il genere melodrammatico (capitoli V, VI, VII), poco frequentato dalla produzione cinematografica se non verso la fine degli anni Trenta, in piena campagna autarchica, e durante la guerra, che riserva alle protagoniste parti pressoché inusuali fino a quel momento: prostituta, ragazza madre, adultera. Essendo il melodramma luogo naturale per un protagonismo al femminile, si è deciso di riservare ampio spazio all'€™analisi di pellicole melodrammatiche, nonostante la loro ridotta presenza sul grande schermo rispetto alle commedie. Il messaggio educativo riservato al cinema, e in particolare al mélo, genere del conflitto dell'€™individuo con la società, è quasi sempre quello di indirizzare il pubblico, soprattutto femminile, a non lasciarsi andare a comportamenti devianti, contrari alla morale comune; in qualche film trapela invece un messaggio diverso grazie a protagoniste disposte a mettersi contro le regole sociali imperanti, pur di affermare il loro diritto alla libertà, nonostante l'€™esito tragico delle loro storie personali (I bambini ci guardano, Ossessione, Malombra). Le trame dei film melodrammatici appaiono ispirate e guidate dall'urgenza morale di ammonire la €œdonna nuova€ esposta ai pericoli della vita cittadina, vittima della propria fragilità interiore, facile preda delle avances maschili. Il codice di condotta morale rivolto alle giovani spettatrici è questo: non è concesso alle donne alcuna debolezza passionale prima e dopo il matrimonio; non devono assolutamente confondere eros con agape.

This paper analyses Mr. Scogan and his treatment of women with the use of Althusser’s Marxist theory which (supposedly and in this case successfully) reveals the ideology which infuses every State and every larger social group. Feminist theory is then used to analyse his philosophy which influences both his utopia, “the Rational State”, as well as his treatment of women – the conclusion drawn after analysing several events or discussions in Crome Yellow, such as on the Home Farm, the Rational State and the Charity Fair was that Mr. Scogan is perhaps not representative of all men and certainly not of men (and men’s notions) at the timeof Crome Yellow’s publication, but he is representative of a stereotypical man who oppress women based on their femininity. The worst case scenario drawn was that Mr. Scogan could be a rapist of young virgins.

The aim of this paper is to answer three questions about Chuck Palahniuks novel Fight Club. The three questions were chosen because they were widely debated after the release of David Fincher screenplay based on the same book. The questions are: Is the critique on consumerculture offered in Fight Club valid? What does Fight Club say about the relation between man and woman? Can the work be considered fascist? The critique against consumer culture is found valid and not a disguised complaint about the feminization of society. The main female character Marla is vital for Jack as a blueprint for Tyler. Tyler and Marla are found much alike. The fascist tendencies are present in Tylers character but he can be seen as the protagonist Jacks created father. In the course of Jacks struggle for independence Tyler is doomed to be defeated, so the fascist attitudes can’t be said to be represented by Fight Club as a whole.

Our work is a feminist biography of Gabrielle Duchene (1870-1954), feminist activist, unionist, pacifist, antifascist, fellow traveller of the French Communist Party and an innovator as a propagandist. She represents one of the few personalities of the interwar period to symbolize the ideological congruence of these movements and to have tried to find a solution, another way, to the clash of their contradictions. All along her engagement, Gabrielle Duchene will make non-conventional choices. The objective of our research is to analyze her atypical reactions in order to put the multi-marginalization process into context and to understand all the influences in the creation of her amalgamated pacifism. The term 'multi-marginalization' is employed to name the exclusion or mistrust toward Gabrielle Duchene, openly expressed or not, by more than one social or political group. These exclusions generally come from the non-conformist reactions of Gabrielle Duchene. The example of her support to the Feminist Pacifist Congress held at The Hague, in 1915, is revealing: her choice is rejected by the majority of the French bourgeois feminists. What Gabrielle Duchene proposes to transcend the divisions with is her amalgamated pacifism: the fusion of the feminist, pacifist, antifascist (procommunist) principles, allowing to reconcile the points of view and the different methods of action in a common goal.
One of the most important factors of Gabrielle Duchene's activism is the impact of the Russian experience and the communist control on her integral pacifism. From 1927 to 1931, she develops a tinged pacifism, characterized by a change of rhetoric, influenced by the manipulation mechanisms put into place by the communists. As of 1932, she takes part in the antifascist movement, controlled by the communists, without however abandoning her feminist pacifism. The analysis of the different periods of activism of Gabrielle Duchene allows us to consider women's activities, still largely unexplored, in antifascist and communist history, and to demonstrate the convergence between the antifascist and the feminist pacifist movements in the 1930s. Moreover, our research takes a 'gendered' perspective. We use gender as an analytical tool, and not as an analytical category, in order to understand our subject as a sexualized being, whose activist and social experiences are defined by the inequalities resulting from this differentiation.

The aim of my thesis is to discover what is the status of women in czech Association of anti- fascist groups (AAFG). I am interested in how gender affects and limits the participation of women within the movement. This thesis also aims to describe the inner workings of selected anti-fascist organisation. The theoretical part is devoted to show the concept of subcultural and social movement, which is the Association of anti-fascist groups (AAFG) part. I will also offer a gender perspective of the researches of subcultures and women's participation in them to the readers. The main part of the thesis describes selected methods of the research - especially semi-structured interview and semiotic content analysis - and their use in practice. This part of the thesis is at the same time devoted to the theme of ethical discussion of the research and research's self-reference of the researcher. Then this part analyzes the data and presents the findings resulted from the research. In this thesis I focus on the "revival" of the Association of anti-fascist groups (AAFG) and its possible impact of larger involvement of women.

Diplomová práce zkoumá roli žen v historii českého punku. V úvodní části práce je popsána historie a vývoj punku ve světě. V této části jsou vysvětleny významy pojmu punk jako subkultura (v terminologii pozdějších výzkumů scéna) a punk jako hudební žánr. Popsána jsou specifika ženské punkové módy a stylu. Jsou uvedeny role, ve kterých se ženy v punkové scéně realizují a typické ženské role v hudebních skupinách. Součástí teoretické části práce je stručný popis historie punku na území České republiky a zapojení žen v české punkové scéně. Jako jeden z hlavních zdrojů při vypracování diplomové práce byly využity rozhovory vedené metodou odvozenou od metodologie orální historie. Dílčím cílem práce bylo ověření použitelnosti analytického programu Atlas.ti pro analýzu orálně-historických interview. Tento software byl využit pro analýzu výzkumných rozhovorů. Druhá polovina práce se zabývá interpretací témat obsažených v rozhovorech. Věnuje se specifickým oblastem života v souvislosti s punkovou subkulturou jako jsou důvody, které přivedly ženy k punku, role přátel a vztahů, setkání punkového myšlení s autoritou v podobě rodičů a školy. Dále se práce zabývá transformací punkových názorů v dospělosti ve vztahu k zaměstnání a vlastní rodině. Poslední část interpretace se věnuje ženským rolím, které byly v...