Social Construction of Gender in This Street Doesn’t Have Speed Bump

Jahani in This Steet Doesn’t Have Speed Bump (2016) attempts to narrate the challenges of a daily life of Shohreh, a divorced woman, in Kermanshah who is the first female taxi-driver seeks to overturn the social codes of femininity on her body. Gender identity, behavioral performances and physical appearance of Shohreh are constantly judged based on social constructions of femaleness. According to Butler society determines subject s perception of self; she argues that each individual is a product of its background culture and traditions. In male-dominant societies like Iran, women are subjugated and oppressed although some rebels try to subvert the patriarchal social order. Butler s subversive performative theory discussed in Gender Trouble (1990) and Lorber s so-called undoing gender from her Social Construction of Gender (1991) are applied as theoretical frameworks to analyze the selected novels in order to get familiar with women s problems and their resistance steps in traditional, male-dominant societies to achieve freedom and independency. Examining the possibility of resistance against gender binaries and their associated concepts is the main focus of this research. The extent of women s agency and social presence or their voices in public are also considered. The protagonist of the novel is praised because of her bravery in undoing gender norms. Shohreh doesn’t conform to the feminine expectations of her city; through her job she protests the mainstream ideas of femaleness and she presents herself as she wishes. Resisting patriarchy and gendered minds demands courageous personality that Shohreh has. In different sub-section of discussion part, main ideas and key concepts for disestablishing gender norms are mentioned with quoted lines of the selected novel.