Washington Mushore

BREAKING GENDER STEREOTYPES: WOMEN AND WORK IN THE FILM THE NO. 1 LADIES’ DETECTIVE AGENCY

The aim of this article is to show that women are physically capable of performing (and free to perform) any task or work and pursue any career path in life. Guided by Amazon Feminist film theory, the article rejects the notion that work should be gendered. The argument made here is that if women are to be truly liberated, they must be at the centre of their own emancipation. They should be able to decide and pursue their dreams or career paths in life, without fear, without allowing men to decide for them what work they ought to do. In respect of world views, male frames usually exploit women by assigning subordinate roles or jobs to them. Furthermore, they discriminate against women based on the assumption or stereotype that they are passive, weak and physically helpless. To demonstrate the role films play in liberating or providing alternative images of women, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (2008), directed by Anthony Minghella, is used as an example.

The reportage of land and ownership in selected private media in Zimbabwe

The aim of this article is to scrutinise how the concepts of land and land ownership were discussed in the private media in Zimbabwe during the Zimbabwe land reform exercise – dubbed ‘the third Chimurenga’ that took place in the period 2000–2008. Using textual analysis, the articles argues that ownership of land, according to the so called ‘private or independent’ newspapers in Zimbabwe was supposed to be accorded to the farmer or person, regardless of the racial bias, who was more productive on the land and who was contributing more to the economic well-being of the nation (Zimbabwe). Accordingly, the private newspapers in Zimbabwe regarded land as belonging to, or as the rightful property of the white commercial farmers/settlers because they perceived them to be more productive on the land than the native people of Zimbabwe who were ultimately seen and labelled as invaders on the so-called white commercial farms. In order to substantiate the above claims and arguments, a number of The Daily News stories of the period were purposively sampled and are used as examples.