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Women: Indisputable Fans Of Baseball: An Ethnographic Study Of Female Baseball Fans, Shea Barickman Jun 2016

Women: Indisputable Fans Of Baseball: An Ethnographic Study Of Female Baseball Fans, Shea Barickman

Honors Theses

Baseball is known as America’s Pastime and has been a strong symbol of masculinity in American culture. The ratio of female to male fans, however, is actually the most equal of any major professional sport in the United States. This thesis examines that paradox. Drawing on participant observations at games, interviews with fans and an ethnographic study of a sports radio station in Kansas City, I find that the increasing participation of female fans is a result of baseball being experienced and marketed as a family-oriented game. This family experience gave women a point of entry and women have stuck …


Uncharted Territory: Critical Social Artistic Practices In The 21st Century, Kyra M. Detone Jun 2016

Uncharted Territory: Critical Social Artistic Practices In The 21st Century, Kyra M. Detone

Honors Theses

Since the early 1990s, the American art world has witnessed the rise of critical social artistic practices that are largely collaborative projects driven by participatory experiences between artists and community. With its roots in the activist, protest, and public art movements beginning in the late 60s, socially engaged art steps out of traditional viewing spaces like the museum and directly confronts society’s object-based and monetary understanding of art. Driven by process and dependent on coalition building, creative problem solving, and public service rather than profit, socially engaged critical practice is complex and demands a new vocabulary through which to critique …


A Gilded Cage: A Feminist Analysis Of Manor House Literature, Katelyn Billings Jun 2016

A Gilded Cage: A Feminist Analysis Of Manor House Literature, Katelyn Billings

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on women struggling with social rules and gender restrictions in Victorian and Edwardian English manor houses. The culture of the manor home had an incredibly powerful impact on the female protagonists of the literary texts I analyze, and in this thesis, I demonstrate how it stifled the growth and agency of women. With the end of the age of the British Great Houses in the twentieth century, there was the simultaneous rise of the New Woman, an emerging cultural icon that challenged conservative Victorian conventions. With the values and ideologies surrounding the New Woman in mind, this …


La Epoca De #Nofilter: El Impacto De Los Medios Sociales En La Imagen Corporal Latina, Rebecca Calvo-Cruz Jun 2016

La Epoca De #Nofilter: El Impacto De Los Medios Sociales En La Imagen Corporal Latina, Rebecca Calvo-Cruz

Honors Theses

Compartiendo fotos se ha convertido en un medio fundamental de comunicación que ofrece a los usuarios la oportunidad de un examen constante de sí mismos y otros. De hecho, a medida que más plataformas de medios sociales basados en fotos, como Instagram, ganan popularidad, cada vez es normal para los adultos jóvenes compartir fotos personales con el mundo en línea. Este año, el 54% de los usuarios del Internet mayores del año 18 dicen que “publican fotos originales en línea”, en comparación con 46% en 2012 (Duggan 2013). En Facebook, hay casi 300 millones de fotos publicadas cada día, que …


L' Obscurite' Manifestee (A Manifested Obscurity), Roswald Morales Jun 2016

L' Obscurite' Manifestee (A Manifested Obscurity), Roswald Morales

Honors Theses

There are three directors that have revolutionized the world of French cinema by bringing to the forefront topics that make its audiences uncomfortable. Abdellatif Kechiche, director of the film Black Venus (2010), Ousmane Sembène, director of the film Black Girl (1966), and Céline Sciamma, director of the film Girlhood (2014) have become renowned for discussing the portrayal of black women in French society. This is a topic at hand that reveals the devastating truth behind French society in regarding black women during various eras. Black Venus narrates the life of an African woman during the slavery period in Europe. Black …


'And I Am A Material Girl': How Aesthetics And Material Culture Fashion Femininity In Edith Wharton's The Age Of Innocence, From Text To Film, Avery Novitch Jun 2016

'And I Am A Material Girl': How Aesthetics And Material Culture Fashion Femininity In Edith Wharton's The Age Of Innocence, From Text To Film, Avery Novitch

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the role of aesthetics and material culture in Edith Wharton’s 1920 novel The Age of Innocence and in Martin Scorsese’s 1993 film adaptation. In Wharton’s Old New York, material opulence is arguably the most essential aspect of culture. Newland Archer is the primary authority on fashion and taste within the narrative, and is thus charged with enforcing standards of socially constructed Victorian femininity with regard to his two romantic interests, May Welland and Ellen Olenska. Scorsese’s film uses mise-en-scène to echo the detail rich design aesthetic found in Wharton’s prose; however, the film’s abandonment of Newland’s distinctly …


Baby Cribs In Prison Cells: Assessing Opinions About Prison Nursery Programs By Humanizing Incarcerated Mothers, Erin Ostheimer Jun 2016

Baby Cribs In Prison Cells: Assessing Opinions About Prison Nursery Programs By Humanizing Incarcerated Mothers, Erin Ostheimer

Honors Theses

Through my research, I analyzed prison nursery programs in the United States. Prison nurseries are programs that exist in nine states that allow mothers who are pregnant when they are incarcerated to keep their infants with them in prison for a finite amount of time. Previous scholarship on the topic has shown that prison nurseries are effective in reducing rates of recidivism and fostering a bond between mother and infant. My research explored the question of why these programs are so rare given their success. I assessed Union College student and professor attitudes about maternal incarceration to better understand how …


Voices Trapped Within The Portrait: Annetje Kool Pieter Vanderlyn And The Expectations Regarding Gender In Public And Private Spheres In A Burgeoning Nation, Abigail Hollander Jun 2016

Voices Trapped Within The Portrait: Annetje Kool Pieter Vanderlyn And The Expectations Regarding Gender In Public And Private Spheres In A Burgeoning Nation, Abigail Hollander

Honors Theses

The main subjects of this study, Pieter Vanderlyn, the attributed artist of “A Portrait of Annetje Kool” (c.1740), and Annetje Kool, the sitter, both had subversive identities relative to the sociocultural expectations of New Netherland, a Hudson River Valley based settlement. The oil portrait on canvas depicts a young woman in an elaborate dress with lace and gilt embellishments. To understand this portrait’s historical context, this thesis examines how male and female voices functioned on the margins of the moral boundaries that shaped expectations of gender appropriate thought and action during the colonial, revolutionary, and post-revolutionary eras in New York …


The Persistence Of Patriarchy In Latin America: An Analysis Of Negative And Positive Trends, Eliza Burbano Jun 2016

The Persistence Of Patriarchy In Latin America: An Analysis Of Negative And Positive Trends, Eliza Burbano

Honors Theses

The last 25 years have seen the rise of women as political leaders in Latin America. There are now three female presidents, including Michelle Bachelet (Chile), Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (Argentina), and Dilma Rousseff (Brazil). This sociopolitical progress owes its success to the consolidation of democratic institutions, a strong feminist movements such as Argentina’s “Movimiento Nacional de Mujeres” and a strong regional push towards egalitarian legislation. According to ECLAC there are a number of important feminist movements in the region that catalyze egalitarian legislative changes. #NIUNAMENOS is one of such campaigns promoting zero tolerance against gender violence and aims is …


An Interdisciplinary Approach To Domestic Violence In The Legal System: The Importance Of Victim Advocates, Joanna Chalifoux Jun 2016

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Domestic Violence In The Legal System: The Importance Of Victim Advocates, Joanna Chalifoux

Honors Theses

Domestic violence is an aspect of the legal system where there typically is a lack of communication among the institutions involved. Therefore, the benefit of an interdisciplinary approach to domestic violence in the legal system is assessed by emphasizing the importance of the presence of victim advocates in the courtroom. In this dissertation, the issue will be evaluated through a feminist point of view— with the belief that domestic violence is a gendered phenomenon in which the majority of the perpetrators are male and the victims are female. In order to research this, several judges, lawyers, and victim advocates who …


Faithlessly Or Faithless Lie?: The Name Symbolism Conundrum In Sedgwick's Hope Leslie, Erin Wade Jun 2016

Faithlessly Or Faithless Lie?: The Name Symbolism Conundrum In Sedgwick's Hope Leslie, Erin Wade

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on the symbolic importance of names in Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s Hope Leslie. While, historically, other scholars have examined the title character’s name, I argue that examining the oft-ignored significance of Faith Leslie’s name is extraordinarily important to the thematic content of the novel and could be more interesting than an examination of Hope Leslie’s name. To delve fully into the possible meanings of the dual pronunciations of Faith’s name — as either faithlessly or faithless lie — I look at religious discrimination against Catholics and Natives during the 17th and 19th centuries, as well as literary …


“Can The Subaltern [E-Communicate]?” Exploring The Complex Relationship Between The Worldwide Web And The World’S Most Marginalized Women, Julia Hotz Jun 2016

“Can The Subaltern [E-Communicate]?” Exploring The Complex Relationship Between The Worldwide Web And The World’S Most Marginalized Women, Julia Hotz

Honors Theses

Famously heralded by early Internet pioneers and contemporary globalization theorists as providing a “state of perfect freedom and equality”, the Internet, on one hand, may be used to benefit the world’s least privileged women; these efforts have taken variety of forms, from serving as a space where women can share ideas, to creating an encyclopedia of practical women’s health and political information, to providing a medium through which women can directly access economic opportunities. Yet through critically examining the ways in which the Internet is used, we see how such apparently benevolent initiatives may sometimes silence the very marginalized, female …


Las Madres De Plaza De Mayo Y Los Medios Sociales: La No Desaparicion De Los Desaparecidos, Matthew Christal Jun 2016

Las Madres De Plaza De Mayo Y Los Medios Sociales: La No Desaparicion De Los Desaparecidos, Matthew Christal

Honors Theses

El diccionario Merriam Webster define "desaparecer" de varias maneras: dejar de ser visible: pasar fuera de vista: dejar de existir: morir o desaparecer por completo: perderse: ir a un lugar que no se conoce. En el caso de las Madres de Plaza de Mayo, estas definiciones son referencias a sus hijos e hijas que desaparecieron durante la guerra sucia. Normalmente, cuando pensamos en periodos de historia muy oscuros, pensamos en eventos como el holocausto. La guerra sucia fue el “holocausto” para los argentinos entre 1976 hasta 1983. Las madres de los desaparecidos han sido la razón por qué las memorias …


War And Women Wielding Power: Lessons From Burundi, Liberia, And Chad, Emily Myers Jun 2016

War And Women Wielding Power: Lessons From Burundi, Liberia, And Chad, Emily Myers

Honors Theses

Since 1989, the world has seen civil war replace traditional war as the prevailing paradigm of conflict. Simultaneously, the world’s leading thinkers, international bodies, and aid organizations have encouraged the idea that women’s rights are human rights, and urged that policy issues be considered through a gendered lens. My thesis aims to connect these two concurrent shifts in geopolitics by examining the relationship between civil war and women. How do women experience civil war differently from men? How does the legacy of civil war change women’s lives? Specifically, my thesis examines the effects civil war has on women’s political power. …


Lesbia A Voice From The Unheard, Jullisa Webb Jun 2016

Lesbia A Voice From The Unheard, Jullisa Webb

Honors Theses

This compositional thesis examines and utilizes the works of the infamous Latin poet Catullus in his advances to gain the amours of his mysterious love figure named Lesbia. In an attempt to try and deviate from normal social standards, this thesis gives a woman a voice, power, and supremacy against a man by rejecting his advances, not typical in the era of Catullus. Lesbia takes on the form of female embodiment of power, strength, and defiance. First I translated in a literal way the poems Catullus wrote to Lesbia. Then I transformed and altered Catullus’ poetry into letters with a …


The Internet, Prostitution, And Rape: Can Taking Prostitution “Indoors” Mitigate Social Harms?, Maryssa Brogis Jun 2016

The Internet, Prostitution, And Rape: Can Taking Prostitution “Indoors” Mitigate Social Harms?, Maryssa Brogis

Honors Theses

Prostitution is often debated as an illegal activity that causes individual and social harms. This study uses feminist theories on prostitution in conjunction with econometric tools to find if prostitution can actually reduce social harms such as rape. Prostitution is a highly debated subject within feminist literature, as some believe prostitution is considered legitimate work, while others view prostitution as extremely harmful toward women and an act that perpetuates female submission. This econometric study adds to the feminist debate on prostitution by implementing the internet’s role in expanding the indoor market as a potential causal factor in the relationship between …


A Lineage Of Black Feminist Art, Kiana Miller Jun 2016

A Lineage Of Black Feminist Art, Kiana Miller

Honors Theses

This Black Feminist Art thesis project displays Black lives with full representational impact and it allows a space for agency to be shown. Through an empirical literature review, original poetry and artwork this thesis expresses dimensions of Black feminist/womanist voices. The purpose of this thesis is putting real images of Black lives out into the world in order to have a positive impact, giving young girls an artistic role model that looks like them, and the ability to read a book with images and stories of lives that may resemble theirs, lastly sharing a social commentary as well as a …


A Culture Of Vaginas: Representations Of The Vagina In The 21st Century America, Kyra M. Detone Jun 2016

A Culture Of Vaginas: Representations Of The Vagina In The 21st Century America, Kyra M. Detone

Honors Theses

In 1996, Eve Ensler opened her acclaimed, off-Broadway performance of The Vagina Monologues in New York City with these lines: “I bet you’re worried. I was worried. That’s why I began this piece. I was worried about vaginas.” These lines and Ensler’s monologues as a whole pose a provocative question for the modern woman, one that has been present in feminist dialogue since the late 1960s: Does the vagina have a community in American society? Nearly three decades after the first production of The Vagina Monologues, in what is argued to be a “post-feminist” period, scholars, writers, artists, and …


America’S First Ladies: A Catalyst For Change In Female Leadership, Power And Influence Or A Reinforcement Of Gender Norms In American Society?, Deborah Kim Grinhaus Jun 2015

America’S First Ladies: A Catalyst For Change In Female Leadership, Power And Influence Or A Reinforcement Of Gender Norms In American Society?, Deborah Kim Grinhaus

Honors Theses

My work examines the nature of The Office of the First Lady of the United States as a lens through which to view female leadership, power and influence in America. Through analyzing the singular experiences of four controversial First Ladies; Abigail Adams, Jacqueline Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, this dissertation illustrates the ambiguities and challenges associated with The Office of First Lady as a metaphor for female power. Why analyze the First Ladyship as compared to other political posts held by women? The Office itself is not elected, appointed, institutionalized or legal. Therefore, how do these women use The …


The Divorce Revolution: The Macro And Micro-Level Factors In The Risk Of Divorce, Arielle Homer Jun 2015

The Divorce Revolution: The Macro And Micro-Level Factors In The Risk Of Divorce, Arielle Homer

Honors Theses

Over the past fifty or so years, American society has endured overwhelming changes, affecting nearly all aspects of life. A new set of values emerged and families began adopting more liberal mindsets, leading to an increase in the divorce rate. The first aim of this study is to explain the social, macro-level causes of divorce. Literature on the 1960s identifies these influences as the importance of “the self”, feminism, birth control, no-fault divorce laws, and religious teachings. Further, I use data from the General Social Survey to determine whether micro-level factors influence an individual’s risk of divorce, both during this …


An Experiment In Gendered Writing: Translation And Original Prose Composition, Julie Warren Jun 2015

An Experiment In Gendered Writing: Translation And Original Prose Composition, Julie Warren

Honors Theses

This thesis is a two-part project of translation and prose composition. In part one, I am translating two letters from Ovid’s Heroides, a collection of elegiac poems written from the female perspective of women in mythology to their male lovers. I chose the only two letters, Hypsipyle’s and Medea’s, in the collection that are both written to the same man, Jason. In part two, I am composing two letters in Latin from Jason’s perspective to Hypsipyle and Medea. As Ovid was a male writing from the female perspective and I am a female writing from the male perspective, my goal …


The Role Of Women In Punk, Katherine Barner Jun 2015

The Role Of Women In Punk, Katherine Barner

Honors Theses

This thesis, entitled “The Role of Women in Punk,” is an interdisciplinary thesis of the Political Science and Anthropology Department of Union College. To come to the conclusions of this thesis, I read a variety academic papers and research; numerous books on theory, punk, and feminism; and performed fieldwork at punk concerts and original punk venues of the 1970’s in Albany and New York City. I combined my own findings from my fieldwork with the historical and theoretical analysis of other academics and writers. Through the combination of political/anthropological theory, historical analysis, and my independent fieldwork, I was able to …


A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: The Visual Culture Of Twentieth Century Feminism In The United States, Julianne Quinn Jun 2015

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: The Visual Culture Of Twentieth Century Feminism In The United States, Julianne Quinn

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the role that visual signs and signifiers played in the resource mobilization of feminism in the United States during the twentieth century. Visual cultures are important sociological characteristics of a society by creating a symbolism that is specific to a time and place. First, social movement theory is described and how it is related to a culture’s visual expression. Next, these theories are applied to each of the three “waves” of feminism that occurred during the twentieth century, as well as an explanation of the trajectory of each wave. To supplement the investigation into each wave are …


“Listen To Many”: Intersectionality, Tragedy, And William Shakespeare, Anna Flores Jun 2015

“Listen To Many”: Intersectionality, Tragedy, And William Shakespeare, Anna Flores

Honors Theses

Centuries after his own lifetime, William Shakespeare dominates the Western canon and continues to have a profound effect on Western society. As the values of that society shift and social movements progress, so too must critical reception of Shakespeare's work. The purpose of this thesis is to reexamine Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida (1601), Othello (1604), and Antony and Cleopatra (1606) through a feminist lens in order to expose the larger societal issues addressed within the play. This thesis draws on Intersectionality, a modern branch of feminism, to discuss sexism, racism, classism, and homophobia within Shakespeare’s texts and the way in …


Contemporary Jewish Female Artists: Critiquing Challenging And Dismantling The Patriarchal Construction Of Judaism, Cosette Shachnow Jun 2014

Contemporary Jewish Female Artists: Critiquing Challenging And Dismantling The Patriarchal Construction Of Judaism, Cosette Shachnow

Honors Theses

The unfaltering Jewish legal system defined by the Torah (the ancient biblical text) articulates laws describing the manner in which worshippers should live and behave. Despite pivotal historical events affecting the Jewish community these laws have not changed with the passage of time. Many Jews interpret and incorporate some, or all, of teachings and laws into their daily lives. This thesis investigates art that reflects on the contemporary Jewish-American experience and identity as parallel to the second and third wave feminist movements. This thesis aims to reveal the manner in which contemporary female Jewish artists, specifically Hèlene Aylon, Yona Verwer, …


Jewish Women In The Ghettos, Concentration Camps, And Partisans During The Holocaust, Sara Vicks Jun 2014

Jewish Women In The Ghettos, Concentration Camps, And Partisans During The Holocaust, Sara Vicks

Honors Theses

Men like, Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl, and Elie Wiesel, have provided us with valuable insight on the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Only until recently, was there a disproportion of female memoirs of the Holocaust beyond the story Anne Frank. The purpose of this study was to research the Jewish women’s experience in the ghettos, the concentration camps, and the partisans to add to a broader understanding of the Holocaust and its female victims. The hostile environment for Jewish males after Hitler’s rise to power led to a complete role reversal for Jewish men and women. Jewish …


Sex And The College Hookup: Gender Differences In Perceiving And Experiencing Sexual Interaction, Kelsey Fish Jun 2014

Sex And The College Hookup: Gender Differences In Perceiving And Experiencing Sexual Interaction, Kelsey Fish

Honors Theses

While much literature exists on college students and casual sex, few studies provide an in-depth direct comparison of a male versus female perspective of a specific population. The purpose of this study was to examine the sexual culture and “hookup” scene among students at a small liberal arts college in the northeast United States and to distinguish the differences between men and women in perceiving and experiencing sexual interaction. An open-ended questionnaire was created using the online survey instrument, Google Forms. The survey was distributed to 500 random student e-mail addresses. While some responses were synonymous with previous studies and …


Who's Laughing Now? From Lovable Lucy To Top-Of-The-Rock Tina: How Women In Comedy Changed From 1950-2014, Caroline Hershey Jun 2014

Who's Laughing Now? From Lovable Lucy To Top-Of-The-Rock Tina: How Women In Comedy Changed From 1950-2014, Caroline Hershey

Honors Theses

This thesis discusses the evolutionary progression of women in comedy from the 1950s to the present day. By looking at the stand-out female comedians and entertainers from each generation, the change from Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy to Carol Burnett as host of The Carol Burnett Show, to Tina Fey and the multitalented new group of women in comedy. By examining the cultural and political climate of the time and how it influenced the unique style of comedy associated with each individual, a clear progression emerges. I would like to present my chapter on Tina Fey to highlight how …


El Exiliado Dentro Del Exilio: La Experiencia De Luis Cernuda En Su Exilio Fuera De Espana, Trevor Martin Jun 2014

El Exiliado Dentro Del Exilio: La Experiencia De Luis Cernuda En Su Exilio Fuera De Espana, Trevor Martin

Honors Theses

The life experiences and the level to which assimilation is possible following a political exile can be modulated by many factors including the age, gender, ethnicity, religion, political ideologies and sexual orientation of the individual condemned to exile. Whereas, previous academic studies have been devoted to investigating the roles of many of these influences on the experience of exile, the role homosexuality plays has been almost completely neglected in the academic literature. This paper uses the great homosexual poet of The Generation of 27, Luis Cernuda, as a case study to explore the issue of how homosexuality affects the experience …


The Post Title Ix Portrayal Of Female Athletes In The Media, Kelsey Mcdonald Jun 2014

The Post Title Ix Portrayal Of Female Athletes In The Media, Kelsey Mcdonald

Honors Theses

This thesis looks to elaborate on recent studies done by Michael Messner, Cheryl Cooky, Robin H. Hextrum and other scholars regarding the exclusion and misrepresentation of female athletes and women’s sport in the media since the enactment of Title IX in 1972. This thesis provides an overview of the history of Title IX, a detailed analysis of the ways which female athletes are portrayed in the media and trends that have occurred based on the coverage women’s sports have received since 1972. The research included and data collected for this thesis are based on ESPN’s SportsCenter and the headlines on …