Male Chauvinism and Patriarchal Power in My Feudal Lord: A Feminist Critique of Gender Oppression”

Abstract

This paper examines the representation of male chauvinism and patriarchal power in Tehmina Durrani’s My Feudal Lord through the feminist theory of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. The memoir is read as a powerful literary exposure of the ways male supremacy operates through violence, emotional manipulation, sexual double standards, social privilege, and feudal authority. The study argues that Mustafa Khar is not represented merely as an abusive husband, but as the embodiment of a patriarchal system that normalizes women’s subordination while preserving male impunity. Through close textual reading, the paper investigates how chauvinistic masculinity is performed through the control of female speech, bodily punishment, public humiliation, maternal blackmail, and moral hypocrisy. Spivak’s concern with the silencing of the subaltern woman provides a valuable theoretical frame for understanding how patriarchy denies women the conditions necessary to speak and be heard. The analysis further shows that Durrani’s memoir challenges this silencing by transforming personal suffering into public testimony. Thus, My Feudal Lord emerges not only as a narrative of women’s oppression, but also as a feminist intervention against feudal patriarchy and male authoritarian power.