TY - JOUR
T1 - Heroines Under Control
T2 - Unexpected Portrayals of Women in the Organ of the Bulgarian Communist Party, 1944-1989
AU - Sternadori, Miglena
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - This is a framing analysis of the news coverage of women's issues in the official newspaper of the Bulgarian Communist Party over three nonconsecutive years. At the start of the Communist regime, women were ideologically constructed as warriors and tearless mothers of lost sons, deserving of complete equality. In the 1960s, the emphasis unexpectedly shifted to fashion and beauty as part of the Party's pronatalist propaganda. The age of perestroika in the late 1980s deconstructed the "double burden" faced by women and suggested social policies to relieve it, while still maintaining that chores were women's work only. Throughout the decades, the ideal Bulgarian woman was seen as androgynous, combining masculine and feminine traits to both contribute to the country's industrialization and birth the next generation of male elites. The analysis shows how quasi-feminist policies offered women limited career fulfillment while maintaining oppressive expectations, such as having sons over daughters, being attractive, and shouldering all household chores.
AB - This is a framing analysis of the news coverage of women's issues in the official newspaper of the Bulgarian Communist Party over three nonconsecutive years. At the start of the Communist regime, women were ideologically constructed as warriors and tearless mothers of lost sons, deserving of complete equality. In the 1960s, the emphasis unexpectedly shifted to fashion and beauty as part of the Party's pronatalist propaganda. The age of perestroika in the late 1980s deconstructed the "double burden" faced by women and suggested social policies to relieve it, while still maintaining that chores were women's work only. Throughout the decades, the ideal Bulgarian woman was seen as androgynous, combining masculine and feminine traits to both contribute to the country's industrialization and birth the next generation of male elites. The analysis shows how quasi-feminist policies offered women limited career fulfillment while maintaining oppressive expectations, such as having sons over daughters, being attractive, and shouldering all household chores.
KW - Bulgaria
KW - Communism
KW - Eastern Europe
KW - gender roles
KW - ideology
KW - news
KW - women
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84879617529&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/07491409.2013.795510
DO - 10.1080/07491409.2013.795510
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84879617529
SN - 0749-1409
VL - 36
SP - 142
EP - 166
JO - Women's Studies in Communication
JF - Women's Studies in Communication
IS - 2
ER -