04 Gender Representation through Animal Metaphors: An Analysis of Urdu proverbs

Abstract

Proverbs are words of wisdom and wit presented in short phrases or sentences, they represent culture, myths, folklore narrative, societal norms and gender distribution in different societies. Gender specific proverbs using animals as metaphor to equate human qualities is an intriguing area and the present study unfolds the representation of males and females through animals in Urdu proverbs. Forty Urdu proverbs (having animal metaphor) have been collected and studied by adapting Fati-(2013) categories of analysis through gender perspective. The analysis shows that out of forty proverbs, there are 8 animals related to male gender while 10 are related to female gender. Twenty one times male animals have been found to be represented as negative and 18 times females have been represented in negative by using animal metaphor. Frequency of negative male representation is higher. This reflects although society generally approves devaluation of females and praise of males (Ncube&Moyo, 2011).