Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Growing Up A Witness, Kayla Sorenson

Dissenting Voices

In this essay, I pose the question: Is there freedom for women in religion? I set out to find if there is the possibility for women to find liberation within a religious institution. In order to find the answer, I look within my own upbringing and the experiences of the women within my family that have the Jehovah’s Witness religion in their lives. I found that the institution is inherently patriarchal and poses a danger to women within it. However, women are able to find beliefs that allow fluidity and autonomy once they step outside of the bounds that ...

Readying The Rape Rack: Feminism And The Exploitation Of Non-Human Reproductive Systems, Mackenzie L. April

Dissenting Voices

In this paper I will discuss the sexual exploitation of non-human bodies, specifically, dairy cows. As a vegan and animal rights activist, I feel compelled to take this opportunity to share and maybe even enlighten fellow social justice advocates on feminist aspects of animal agriculture, an under-researched topic that many overlook and might not even consider relevant to feminist discourse.

The Pretty Pink Box, Allie Knapp

Dissenting Voices

This essay focuses on the consumerization, capitalization, and popularization of feminism within mainstream culture: how it is branded, how it is portrayed, and who it represents. As a young consumer and feminist, I acknowledge that this needs to be addressed for the sole reason that feminism is not a trend or fad that can afford to die out for its goals and strife are far from over- when we water down a political and social movement based on equality into nothing more than a trendy label, we put our needs at risk. It is important to critique and question what ...

Why Are There No Great, Female, And Egyptian Scholars?, Jasmine Mohamed

Dissenting Voices

This essay is a study on the topics that Egyptian women shine their lights on. I write this because I identify as an Egyptian woman, and I never hear these women’s names during my scholarship. I hope readers receive a sense of individualism for the “othered” women who write their ways out of their binds. My topic is crucial because Egyptian women are bound to either sexism in their own culture and racism in others, which begs my theory of a third space.

Treatment Of Female Politicians And Impact On Voter Perception In The U.S., Jenna Bygall

Dissenting Voices

This essay explores the treatment of female politicians in the United States government and the impact of negative treatment on potential candidates as well as voters’ perception of said candidates. Readers may obtain a better understanding of the stereotypes, double standards, and biases that are projected upon female politicians in the U.S. This work is based on a literature review of peer-reviewed journal entries, research-based books, and credible news sources.

The Abortion Fight: Neither Worn Nor Won, Angelica Whitehorne

Dissenting Voices

This paper includes a narrative intended to allow readers to embody a kind of ‘pregnancy panic’ often overlooked in the politics of reproductive rights. In an issue revolving around the biological anatomy of the person, their own feelings, needs, and experiences are not often weighed in the arguments. Through this narrative’s character, readers can reconnect to the humanity of fear and bridge a better understanding that abortion is not a gleeful murder but a necessity for survival and medical agency.

Note From The Editor, Barbara Lesavoy

Dissenting Voices

Brave. Creative. Radical. Unapologetic. Imaginative. The writers here are committed to the gender equality causes for which they write, passionate in their resolve to see these gender equality causes forward.

Our Voices, Women And Gender Studies Senior Seminar At The College At Brockport, Mackenzie April, Jenna Bygall, Jasmine Mohamed, Christina Karapinar, Allie Knapp, Kelsie Kupiec, Angelica Whitehorne, Kayla Sorenson

Dissenting Voices

Our voices provide a sense of individualization for the ‘othered’ women who write their ways out of their binds.

Dissenting Voices Volume 8 Issue 1 (Spring 2019) Complete Issue, Women And Gender Studies Senior Seminar At The College At Brockport

Dissenting Voices

Dissenting Voices Cover Art

Background Cover Design by Kalynda Culek ‘19
Cover People drawn by Jenna Bygall ‘19

The journal cover portrays an artistic rendition of each author holding a sign that communicates their feminist activism. Their words rise up from their signs to frame the sun. Pause and watch closely for their cues. And listen carefully to their voices. If walking near or around this progressively-minded group, you might hear the adage, “When Pigs Fly,” the “when” in reference to what is seemingly impossible. For the authors here, that impossibility is no longer impossible. Because pigs are flying, offering ...

Planning & Partnerships: Obtainable Opportunities For Increasing The Intercultural Competencies Of All Library Employees, Miranda Wisor, Meggan D. Smith

Musselman Library Staff Publications

To expand the inclusivity and diversity of the library’s environment, Musselman Library offers a variety of training and educational opportunities for staff and student employees. Using a variety of formats and partnerships with other departments, these efforts have led to intentional changes in library space, services and equipment available, and hiring practices. Practical examples include highlighting events on campus, hosting short film and reading discussions, and utilizing campus speakers.

Dynamis Of Healing, Pia Sophia Chaudhari

Religion

This book explores how traces of the energies and dynamics of Orthodox Christian theology and anthropology may be observed in the clinical work of depth psychology. Looking to theology to express its own religious truths and to psychology to see whether these truth claims show up in healing modalities, the author creatively engages both disciplines in order to highlight the possibilities for healing contained therein. Dynamis of Healing elucidates how theology and psychology are by no means fundamentally at odds with each other, but rather can work together in a beautiful and powerful synergia to address both the deepest needs ...

Once Upon A Time On Mango Street, Drake Deornellis

Montview Liberty University Journal of Undergraduate Research

This paper examines how the use of fairytale allusions in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street critiques and recreates standard constructions of female identity. Narrated by the young main character Esperanza, the novel explores the experiences of a variety of Latina women living on Mango Street. As Esperanza retells these stories, she frequently compares these women to fairytale characters, such as Cinderella and Rapunzel. These fairytales often define women as either “angels” or “monsters”: either they are perfect, or they are evil. Furthermore, this perfection for women is associated with dependence and passivity. As the women in the novel ...

"I Like . . . Red Bone:" Colorism, Rappers, And Black College Sorority Women At A Predominantly White Institution, Whitney Frierson

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I examine black college sorority women’s views about skin tone bias in hip-hop culture. I conduct interviews with 12 black undergraduate women in Black Greek Letter Sororities at a predominantly white institution. Prior research finds that rap music sends skin color messages to adolescent women through lyrical content and music videos. I build on this work by exploring how the experiences of being in college shape black college sorority women’s views on skin tone bias and hip-hop. I find that time in college has been an important life stage in which black sorority women gained ...

Do Prostitution Advertisements Reduce Violence Against Women? A Methodological Examination Of Cunningham, Deangelo, And Tripp Findings, Katie Feifer, Jody Raphael, Kezban Yagci Sokat

Dignity: A Journal on Sexual Exploitation and Violence

A recent study by Cunningham, DeAngelo, and Tripp (unpublished 2017, 2019) found that advertising prostitution online led to a lower rate of homicide of women in the United States. These findings have circulated widely in the mainstream media as proof that advertising prostitution online increases the safety of prostituted women. The study’s findings were used to argue against the 2018 passage of a federal anti-trafficking bill: Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), known collectively as FOSTA-SESTA. This new law holds websites that knowingly facilitate sex trafficking accountable ...

Jerusalem’S Song: William Blake As Forerunner To Jung’S Feminist Psychology, Trudy D. Eblen

Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English

William Blake's final epic poem, The Song of Jerusalem, consists of two textual narratives: the verbal (let me call it the conscious state) and the visual (the unconscious). I primarily focus on the visual, where the eponymous heroine psychically matures along the trajectory of a Jungian process of individuation (somewhat similar to the ancient universal initiation rite of maturation, as most famously described by Joseph Campbell). Preceding in Blake's corpus is a succession of his other female poetic characters, who represent various stages of successful and failed individuation—Thel, Lyca, Oothoon, and Ahania; these culminate in Jerusalem, Blake ...

Licentious Legends: A Folklore Podcast, Alexandra L. Haynes

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports

Licentious Legends was created out of a need to both understand and educate about sexual contemporary legends; not just what they are and what defines them, but the effect that they have on those who experience them. The purpose of this podcast is not to shame, but to take what has been found and educate about the joys and dangers of these legends. These legends range from the everyday (such as "The Hook"), to legends about a young man killing himself with a plunger. In an effort to gather as many examples as they could, Faye interviewed several of their ...

Academic Feminists Analyses Of Female Celebrities From The 1980s To Today, Brittany A. Carey

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the history of academic feminists and their changing debates over race, class, sexism, and sexual preference from the 1980s to the present. In the 1980s, white feminists tended to focus on sexism in the workplace and class discrimination, while black feminists focused instead on the racism and classism that black women faced both inside and outside of academia. More recently, millennial feminists, in both third- and fourth-wave feminism, have continued to focus on racial discrimination within feminism (and broader society) while also examining women’s sexual preferences. However, they have stopped focusing on sexism in the workplace ...

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, Sarah Adcock

Graduate School of Art Theses

I view my creative process as alchemy, the transformation of materials through experimentation. I use wax as a material that transcends its historical use as a sculptural process for casting and instead, use it for its transmutable qualities to inform content. Because of its plasticity and duality as fragile and resilient, wax is symbolically submissive and assertive. By applying heat, wax can be molded and formed into new shapes. Once it cools, wax reverts back to its natural state; solid and impermeable. I use objects to explore desires of origin and life. Transitional objects, the first “me not me” possession ...

The Relationship Between Frequency Of Yoga And Meditation On Ptsd Symptoms In Individuals Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence, Kimberly Polignani

Dissertations

Intimate partner violence (IPV) has become a growing phenomenon in the United States,

affecting nearly 13% of the population. The adverse mental health outcomes from people who experience IPV are prevalent and more than half have a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, therapeutic techniques for PTSD appear to be feasible for IPV survivors and their mental health issues. Complementary and alternative medicine has become a widely accepted approach for PTSD. Being two complementary and alternative medicine techniques, yoga and meditation are effective forms of therapy in many diagnoses, including PTSD. This study utilized a not-for-profit organization called the ...

Gender In Apocalyptic California: The Ecological Frontier, Marykate Eileen Messimer

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is the consequence of ideologies that promote human reproduction and resource consumption by sacrificing human justice, nonhuman species, and the land. Both biology and queer ecologies resist this notion of human separation and supremacy by showing that no body is a singular, impermeable entity, that all beings are biologically and inexorably connected. My dissertation demonstrates that fiction writers use this knowledge to locate a utopian vision that can counteract the dystopian impotence of living within climate change. This argument is founded on novels written by women and set in California, a state that uniquely inhabits a utopian and ...