Feminism and human rights in Utoh-Ezeajugh’s <i>Our Wives Have Gone Mad Again</i> and Femi Osofisan’s <i>Yungba-Yungba and the Dance Contest</i>

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of feminism and human rights as captured in Tracie Utoh-Ezeajugh’s Our Wives Have Gone Mad Again and Femi Osofisan’s Yungba-Yungba and the Dance Contest. Feminism is a reaction by the womenfolk to societal misrepresentation whereby patriarchy classifies women as docile, passive, men-haters, witches, etc. Feminism is the clamouring of women’s rights on the platform of equality of sexes. It is an intellectual or political movement with a driving force for the recognition of the legal claims of women to their rights as are available in their societies; which are predominately enjoyed by men alone. Feminism purposes to investigate the nature of gender inequality. The term “gender” is an aspect of the collective unconscious of a complex human experience. It is an archetypal element that demands rituals, sex, aggression, social status gender affects power and authority. It is unsurprising; therefore, that patriarchy employs power and authority to dominate over women. This is because men believe they are the lords umpiring over the use of woman. And that is why feminism portrays women’s and men’s social functions, challenges, experience, interest and feminist politics in different fields of study as anthropology and sociology, communication, media studies, psychoanalysis, home economics, literature and education.

Keywords: Feminism, Human rights, Sexual objectification, Patriarchy, Womenfolk