Résumés
Abstract
This article explores the tension between women’s efforts to find time for themselves and traditional culture’s strong directives against women spending any time alone. Drawing on twenty-one contemporary legends from the Snopes website (http://www.snopes.com) that feature solitary female protagonists, it argues that the narratives demonstrate a gendered contestation of public space. Set in cars, hotels, shopping malls and in cyberspace, locations that sociologist Marc Augé (1995) describes as “non-places,” these legends warn of the dangers that await women if they venture into the world alone. In addressing the question of where women belong, the texts speak of female challenges to male domination of public spaces at the same time they reveal powerful male defenses.
Résumé
Cet article explore la tension entre les efforts que font les femmes pour trouver du temps pour elles-mêmes et les forts préjugés de la culture traditionnelle à l’égard des femmes passant du temps seules. En se basant sur vingt-et-une légendes contemporaines du site Internet Snopes (http://www.snopes.com) qui met en scène des protagonistes féminines solitaires, il argumente le fait que ces récits représentent une contestation sexuée de l’espace public. Se déroulant dans des voitures, des hôtels, des centres commerciaux et dans le cyberespace, endroits que le sociologue Marc Augé (1995) appelle des « non lieux », ces légendes préviennent les femmes des dangers qui les guettent si jamais elles s’aventurent toutes seules dans le monde. En remettant en question le lieu d’appartenance des femmes, cet article parle des défis féminins à la domination masculine des espaces publics, tout en révélant en même temps de puissantes défenses masculines.
Parties annexes
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