Investigating Reverse Gender Roles in Moni Mohsin’s “The Diary of a Social Butterfly”

Abstract

Gender roles and gender stereotypes are those set patterns of society that are practised years after years. Men and women behave according to their fixed roles assigned to them by society. According to these roles, females are considered weaker, and submissive as compared to males. The main aim of this research is to investigate the reverse gender roles and stereotypes in The Diary of a Social Butterfly written by Moni Mohsin. Method of textual analysis is used to analyze the text, under the qualitative mode of inquiry. The text of Moni Mohsin’s novel, The Diary of a Social Butterfly, is analyzed in the milieu of Geetha’s theory of reverse gender roles from her book Theorizing Feminism. The research findings reveal that the writer has portrayed reverse gender roles in her novel. Moni Mohsin has depicted her main character as an emancipated woman who is not conforming to the traditional roles of females. In this novel, the female character is neither submissive nor an introvert rather, she is reversing the clichéd gender roles of being a socialite.