Gender Dichotomy and the Notion of Power in Shah’s Slum Child: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

Author(s) : Tayyiba Maryam, Farkhanda Shahid Khan

Abstract:

This article examines the noteworthy facets of gender biases, gender inequalities and the workings of power in Bina Shah’s Slum Child (2010). This qualitative study through character analysis exposes socio-political stigmas attached to Laila’s life while living in Pakistan, leaving her in impoverished circumstances. The study uses Foucauldian discourse on sexuality and power to analyze the vulnerability, gender discrimination and stereotypical construction of nine-year-old Laila, Shah’s protagonist. Power is a hegemonic and potent apparatus for identity formation and assertion; similarly, the point of convergence of Foucauldian discourse and feminism is the abuse of power and enforcement of informed choice in a patriarchal social system that functions on a significant sex-gender bias, favoring men with power while oppressing others – women and children, in both private and public spheres of life. While probing the abuses of power, this work concludes that the complicated rapport between men and women, marking them as superior and inferior, is an orthodox approach, subsequently, bringing an abuse of power, sexual assault and harassment on women’s part.