Feminist modes of resistance within the dynamics of sweethearting in Jeanne Thompson’s Father’s Day
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15362/ijbs.v31i2.631Keywords:
Sweethearting, Theatre, Interpersonal relationshipsAbstract
This paper examines Jeanne Thompson’s one act play Father’s Day, which satirizes gender disparities in Bahamian society and invites critical reflection on the power dynamics involved in sweethearting, a practice of emotional and sexual infidelity that is an entrenched cultural aspect of Bahamian society. Framed within this practice, the play proposes a dismantling of the system of gender inequality for women in such relationships who have been disempowered by male privilege within a patriarchally structured society. Thompson’s play foregrounds women who represent images of violated womanhood but, importantly, it shows the intricate ways in which these women transcend the physical and psychic violation wrought by such predatory relationships. Refusing to be circumscribed by the limitations imposed upon them in these relationships, they shift the power dynamics and expand the ground of possibilities for more viable futures. Ultimately, they become architects of their own self-fashioning, achieving a measure of agency and self-determination by subverting the pernicious intent of patriarchy. This self-empowerment makes it possible for them to imagine a more equitable existence for themselves, and for the wider society.
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