IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v30y2023i3p1124-1141.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Constructing subjects that matter: A case of conditional recognition for Pakistani Khawajasiras

Author

Listed:
  • Muhammad Aqeel Awan
  • Daniela Pianezzi

Abstract

This paper examines how media discourses on gender and work play a part in regulating the lives of a community of Pakistani gender diverse people, called Khawajasiras. Developing a critical discourse analysis of media news, we show how this regulatory process results in discursive mechanisms positioning Khawajasiras' work as “dirty” and in need of “respectable” and exclusively “feminine” alternatives. This regulatory process revolves around delegitimizing Khawajasiras' non‐normative work and their gender fluidity in the job market. Khawajasiras' recognition is thus conditional upon their reproduction of a socially heteronormative notion of work and gender. We conclude that this regulatory process not only forecloses possibilities of resignification for this historically disenfranchised community but also risks producing new forms of abjection by enforcing notions of “fake” (with an implicitly assumed notion of “authentic”) Khawajasira. The findings of this paper ultimately problematize contemporary ideals of recognition of non‐normative gendered groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Muhammad Aqeel Awan & Daniela Pianezzi, 2023. "Constructing subjects that matter: A case of conditional recognition for Pakistani Khawajasiras," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 1124-1141, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:30:y:2023:i:3:p:1124-1141
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12981
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12981
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12981?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alison Pullen & Torkild Thanem & Melissa Tyler & Louise Wallenberg & Sara Louise Muhr & Katie Rose Sullivan & Craig Rich, 2016. "Situated Transgressiveness: Exploring One Transwoman's Lived Experiences across Three Situated Contexts," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 52-70, January.
    2. Agnès Vayreda & Ester Conesa & Beatriz Revelles‐Benavente & Ana M. González Ramos, 2019. "Subjectivation processes and gender in a neoliberal model of science in three Spanish research centres," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 430-447, May.
    3. Alison Pullen & Torkild Thanem & Melissa Tyler & Louise Wallenberg & Alison Pullen & Torkild Thanem & Melissa Tyler & Louise Wallenberg, 2016. "Sexual Politics, Organizational Practices: Interrogating Queer Theory, Work and Organization," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 1-6, January.
    4. Angelo Benozzo & Maria Chiara Pizzorno & Huw Bell & Mirka Koro-Ljungberg, 2015. "Coming Out, But Into What? Problematizing Discursive Variations of Revealing the Gay Self in the Workplace," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 292-306, May.
    5. Eve Chiapello & Norman Fairclough, 2002. "Understanding the new management ideology: a transdisciplinary contribution from critical discourse analysis and new sociology of capitalism," Post-Print hal-00466541, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Awan, Aqeel, 2023. "Constructing subjects that matter: a case of conditional recognition for Pakistani Khawajasiras," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118225, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Chloé Vitry, 2021. "Queering space and organizing with Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 935-949, May.
    3. David Watson & Angelo Benozzo & Roberta Fida, 2024. "Trans People in the Workplace: Possibilities for Subverting Heteronormativity," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(3), pages 744-765, June.
    4. Saoirse Caitlin O'Shea, 2020. "Working at gender? An autoethnography," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1438-1449, November.
    5. Emma Jeanes & Kirsty Janes, 2021. "Trans men doing gender at work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 1237-1259, July.
    6. Rhea Ashley Hoskin & Lilith A. Whiley, 2023. "Femme‐toring: Leveraging critical femininities and femme theory to cultivate alternative approaches to mentoring," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1317-1333, July.
    7. Helena Liu, 2017. "Sensuality as Subversion: Doing Masculinity with Chinese Australian Professionals," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 194-212, March.
    8. Sonia Livingstone & Peter Lunt, 2007. "Representing Citizens and Consumers in Media and Communications Regulation," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 611(1), pages 51-65, May.
    9. Graz Jean-Christophe & Hauert Christophe, 2014. "Beyond the transatlantic divide: the multiple authorities of standards in the global political economy of services," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 113-150, April.
    10. Enrico Fontana, 2020. "Managing diversity through transgender inclusion in developing countries: A collaborative corporate social responsibility initiative from Bangladesh," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2548-2562, November.
    11. Laura Girella, 2013. "Regulating through the "Logic of Appropriateness" and the "Rhetoric of the Expert": The Role of Consultants in the Case of Intangibles Reporting in Germany," FINANCIAL REPORTING, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2013(3-4), pages 75-109.
    12. Matthew Egan & Barbara de Lima Voss, 2023. "Ephemeral promises of happiness: Coming out in the Australian accounting profession into the late 2010s," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(6), pages 2033-2048, November.
    13. Fredrick Ajwang & Saurabh Arora & Joanes Atela & Joel Onyango & Mohammad Kyari, 2023. "Enabling modernisation, marginalising alternatives? Kenya's agricultural policy and smallholders," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(1), pages 3-20, January.
    14. Thomas Diefenbach & Rune Todnem By & Patricia Klarner, 2009. "A Multi-dimensional Analysis of Managers’ Power – Functional, Socio-political, Interpretive-discursive, and Socio-cultural Approaches," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 20(4), pages 413-431.
    15. Aleksi Soini, 2022. "A gay reflection on microaggressions, symbolic normativities, and pink hair," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1594-1611, September.
    16. Sophie Hennekam & Jean‐pierre Dumazert, 2023. "Intersectional (in)visibility of transgender individuals with an ethnic minority background throughout a gender transition: Four longitudinal case studies," Post-Print hal-04249878, HAL.
    17. Katherine Doerr, 2024. "“Flying under the radar”: Postfeminism and teaching in academic science," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 710-726, May.
    18. Christy Glass & Alison Cook, 2020. "Performative contortions: How White women and people of colour navigate elite leadership roles," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1232-1252, November.
    19. Ghafele, Roya, 2010. "Of war and peace: analyzing the policy discourse on intellectual property," MPRA Paper 38091, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Doris Sommer & Pier Luigi Sacco, 2019. "Optimism of the Will. Antonio Gramsci Takes in Max Weber," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-31, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:30:y:2023:i:3:p:1124-1141. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.