Resisting Hegemonic Masculinity: Gender, Power, and Agency in the Narratives of Qaisra Shahraz and Soniah Kamal

This study resists hegemonic masculine narratives for the creation of stereotyped regimes expressed and reinforced in feminist fictional discourses by exploring internal social gender scenarios in Pakistan. This article demonstrates how female fictional writers illuminate patriarchal regimes, recreated and reinscribed in Pakistani cultural narratives as a resisting agenda of basic rights choices, social justice, and gender equality. To address the concerns of this study, a textual analysis research design guided by Connell’s theory was adopted providing insight into the axial coding technique. Further, this study is based on the gender performativity theory a postmodern feminist theory of sexuality and gender that permits individuals to express their sexual privileges and identities in terms of freedom, responsibility, and performance. The article concludes that the stereotyped regime of hegemonic masculinity in the selected novels has pigeonholed the pattern of gender socialization that limits women’s capabilities, autonomy, and agency.