Digital Commons Network^™

The Social Contract And Feminism, Grace A. Albertson

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

This paper seeks to prove the value placed on women in society, and disprove the claim that the social contract is inherently patriarchal. Radical feminists claim that society as a whole is irreparably flawed and operates patriarchally. Therefore, they call for a systematic shift and condemn the current fabric of our society and nation. The social contract, an idea centered around the philosophical works of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes served as the primary way that the founders of the United States justified the formation of American democracy and had immense influence on American political thought. However, feminists seek to …

Mrs. Dalloway (1925) Vs. The Hours (2002): How Does The Patriarchy Infringe On The Autonomy Of Marginalized Characters?, Mary E. Belton

2023 Symposium

Fans of Virginia Woolf know that her literature, such as A Room of One’s Own and Mrs. Dalloway, cover feminist themes. In adaptations of Virginia Woolf’s work, the same feminist themes are present. For example, Michael Cunningham’s The Hours, based on three women whose lives are connected through Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway, carries similar feminist themes. In the 2002 adaptation of The Hours, directed by Stephen Daldry, the relationships between men and women in the film illustrate how the patriarchy operates socially.

To those who don’t know Virginia Woolf’s work well or are unaware of how …

Define Feminine, I’M Feminine: A Comparative Analysis Of Female Character Designs Created Through The Male And Female Gaze, Denise Angeline B. Nadala

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

The study intends to analyze how character designs are affected by their creators, target audience, and intentions in order to further understand the male gaze theory and, consequently, what it looks like in comparison to the female gaze. The researcher intends to use visual semiotic analysis in analyzing 3 characters from a film, animation, and video game that were initially created through the male gaze, and later revisited in the female gaze. These designs are the subject for determining what factors of character designs the gazes affect. The results of this study were then translated into a set of 8 …

“An Impediment To Those Who Would Walk The Difficult Way”: How St. Francis Of Assisi’S Revolution In Catholic Thought Was Built On The Perceived Inferiority Of Femininity, Julian F. Balsley

Young Historians Conference

St. Francis of Assisi is undoubtedly one of the most famous saints in the Catholic Church. Known for his complete poverty and deep love for the poor and animals, the Little Poor Man of Assisi has become renowned for his way of life and the fraternity he started that has continued for over eight hundred years. In an organization rife with cardinal sin, Francis was in stark contrast with his asceticism and rankless order. However, St. Francis’ entire ideology is built on the Catholic belief that women are inherently inferior to men and dangerous to those following God. Francis used …

Exploring Felix Stalten’S Bambi Narrative: Biblical Tenets And Lois Tyson In Dialogue, Haley C. Kollstedt, Meghan L. Wells, Hannah D. Albright

Scholars Symposium

Our presentation offers three critical feminist interpretations of Felix Salten's 1923 novel Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest. As Christian theorists, we explore oppressive influences in societal structures as represented in the novel, as well as in Walt Disney's 1942 film adaptation of Salten's work. The Bambi narrative proposes a unique perspective on 20th century interwar Europe and its implications for today's culture. We invite the audience to consider a Christian understanding of the story as we also rely on scholar Lois Tyson’s instructional presentations in Critical Theory Today on the uses of feminism to help us …

# Activism: Feminist Activism In A Digital World, Liana S. Forsyth Ba, Katie Chovanec Bsc, Elizabeth Lewis Ba, Christine Taylhardat Ba, Chesta Yadav Ba, Xynyi Yang Ba

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Feminist campaigns such as #MeToo, #BeenRapedNeverReported, and #YesAllWomen represent only a fraction of the numerous digital campaigns that feminists have created to challenge rape culture and to call out other forms of oppression, provide public and easily accessible spaces that can contribute to learning about, challenging, and dismantling misogyny and rape culture. Digital technologies and social media platforms have had a significant influence on feminists’ ability to organize and advocate across various platforms while simultaneously reaching a large audience to fight against misogyny, patriarchy, and sexism.

However, there are significant gaps in this research such as the challenges that correspond …

Collective Dialogues On Motherhood For Feminist Futures, Bree Mcmahon, Dina Benbrahim, Ryan Gibboney, Ashley Hairston Doughty

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This conversation allowed mothers and non-mothers to connect with per- sonal stories and universal struggles during a supportive virtual moment. Some con- venors are design researchers, practitioners, students, and/or educators. This conver- sation also served as a space for designers to reflect on the role and responsibility of design in interrogating reproductive care systems in their current context. The goal of the convenors is to move toward and promote co-designing a preferable feminist fu- ture for mothers. There are few spaces like maternal health care and the experience of motherhood that would benefit simply through qualitative data collection, storytell- ing, …

Design As A Practice Of Care: Feminist Perspectives On Preventing Harm And Promoting Healing Through Design, Alison Place

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design as a discipline has traditionally positioned itself as an enterprise in service to capitalism, perpetuating the domination of wealth and the exploitation of la-bor and resources, but recent discourse in the field has increasingly raised ques-tions around design's social and environmental impact. These discourses typically address themes of inclusion, sustainability and ethics, but some have gone fur-ther to explore the potential for care to play a role in the design process. More than ever, an interrogation of the connection between design and care is need-ed, as issues such as climate change, social inequality, global pandemics and ag-ing populations require …

Beyond Progress: Exploring Alternative Trajectories For Design Museums, Anja Neidhardt, Heather Wiltse, Anna Croon

DRS Biennial Conference Series

How can design museums be disentangled from systems like patriarchy, so that they become able to support change towards more justice? To explore this question, we use our standpoint as design researchers in combination with a feminist perspective. Historically, most design museums supported a path of progress which supposedly leads straight from the past into the future. Even though today attempts to change design museums can be observed, criteria for good design and methods for collecting and exhibiting mainly stay unchanged. However, when questioning them, it becomes clear that they were shaped by a white, male, imperialist perspective. Through shifting …

Impacts Of The #Menaretrash Movement On Dlsu Grade 12 Students’ Perspective On Feminism, Alyssa Lorine P. David, Maureene Gem Q. Delos Reyes, Ken Rainier O. Kabashima, Caezer Kyle G. Pangilinan

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

Protected attributes such as race, gender, and sexual orientation cause widespread controversy due to discrimination. As a result, people worldwide gather and form social movements to target inequalities that have caused the marginalized and vulnerable groups harm, as seen in the feminist movement. However, it has been observed that certain areas of the feminist movement are more radical than others, wherein their strategies mainly focus on more divisive feminist goals. This paper aims to tackle the radical movement of the #MenAreTrash, and whether Grade 12 students of De La Salle University from the Philippines are exposed to this phenomenon. Moreover, …

Leadership Through The Lens Of Young Female Professionals: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study, Alfonso R. Astudillo Iv, Zean M. Banez, Martin Gabriel A. Bastian, Carl Lemuel C. Caburian, Michael T. Cadorna, Aaron Michael J. Hoyland, Prince Dave M. Layugan

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress

This study aims to highlight the lived experiences of young female professionals who currently lead in their fields, as well as the essence of a woman leader in such instances. The researchers used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to illuminate the key informants' lived experiences as leaders with the anticipation to arrive at a novel perspective of leadership. The research findings align with the concept of purpose-driven leadership. The links between themes like compassion, empowerment, and adaptability are, however, intriguing because these leadership attributes are strongly associated with feminist conceptions of relationality, flexibility, and intuition. The key informants' collective reverence may …

America's Next Top Model Magnified, Nina Violi

Capstone Showcase

America's Next Top Model was a reality television show that aired from 2003 to 2018 and the show gave women (and men in the later seasons) a chance to become models and be trained by the best in the business. While the show looked like a positive experience from the viewers' perspective, there were many situations when the models were put in uncomfortable situations. The show is related back to the feminism theory.

Girls Can’T Like Star Wars: An Analysis Of Feminism Within Fandoms, Julia Neff

Capstone Showcase

Finding the intersection between feminist theory and fandom theory, this paper analysis how women are regarded within a fandom community by their peers and how they are dismissed in a societal context. This paper specifically compares what is "accepted" by society about young women being a fan of a boy band versus an adult man as a fan of a sports team.

Luce Irigaray, Radical Feminism, & The Me Too Movement, Allie Nye

Capstone Showcase

Luce Irigaray, a French feminist theorist, used her writing as a tool to further the postmodern feminist movement and her theory of sexual difference. Her work highlights the divergence from traditional, modernist thought and the dream of a well rounded western society that is grounded in the recognition of sexual difference. The #MeToo Movement, the defining feminist movement of present day, proves Irigaray’s point of a need for the recognition of sexual difference. The importance of women being able to speak their mind is one the foundations of Irigaray’s work and a pillar of the #MeToo Movement. Moving beyond the …

The Grizzled Wolf And The Mauled Lamb: An Interpretation Of Animal Language In Melville’S Translation Of Ovid's "Tereus, Procne, And Philomela", Dylan Rossin

Capstone Showcase

An analysis of animal language in Ovids's "Tereus, Procne, and Philomela" shows that the women have power in this story despite what an initial reading might show.

The Evolution Of Revenge: Genre, Feminist Theory And Jennifer’S Body, Sophia Birks

Capstone Showcase

The representation and proliferation of violence against women in media, when applying genre theory, reflects the social climate of rape culture and the social response to sexual violence. Looking at the Rape-Revenge genre through the scope of Feminist Theory, the only way to reintroduce female agency into a trauma led narrative is to reclaim the tropes used to perpetuation female exploitation and a popular culture ambivalent to male on female violence. Within this subversion and deconstruction, a genre benefiting from female trauma finally includes an honest artistic retelling of that female experience. With the intention of the creator in line …

Faking The News: Antiwar Activists, The Italo-Ethiopian War, And The Practice Of Human Rights, Caroline Waldron Merithew

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In “Faking the News,” I bring past and present together to underscore lessons already learned by antifascist antiwar activists from the 1930s. These activists used, what they termed, "Authentic News," to combat the propaganda Benito Mussolini's regime was making up about the Italo-Ethiopian war. How might knowing about how people faked the news,and faked out fascism, in the past shape current and future human rights actions and help us go against the grain today for a better world tomorrow?

The Amelia Earhart Legacy At Purdue University, Jessica Perkins

Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference

My research began with the question of what Amelia Earhart’s impact was on Purdue University. The focus of my research examined Earhart’s time at Purdue where she worked in the Department of Aeronautics as well as a consultant in careers for women. Most of my research was done by examining primary source documents from the George Palmer Putnam Collection of Amelia Earhart Papers. In accordance with the archival material, I also used secondary sources to gain a greater perspective of the Purdue community’s relationship with Earhart. My findings are that the impact of Amelia Earhart’s presence at Purdue University extends …

Feminism And Faith: How Women Find Empowerment In The Roman Catholic Church, Amanda Schar

Celebration of Learning

This project examines the relationship between feminism and Catholicism, focusing on whether or not women feel empowered by the Roman Catholic Church. Female members of the Augustana community were surveyed and asked to share their own experiences with their Catholic faith.

Themes discussed include the decision to stay in the Church versus the decision to leave, the importance of Catholicism as a cultural identity, and the multitude of ways women have found to empower themselves within the existing Church structure.

Female Empowerment In Classical Spanish Theatre, Sarah Gielink, Johanna Adrian Burr

Student Symposium

Last spring, after reading Golden Age plays in our Early Modern Spanish Literature and Culture course, Adrian Burr and I became interested in the role women played in these stories. Within the Spanish comedia, women are relegated to two stock roles, the “dama” (lady), or the “criada” (maid), while men are able to play a much wider variation of roles. Classical Spanish works by playwrights such as Lope de Vega, Miguel de Cervantes, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca are still produced today, just as English-speakers still revive Shakespearean works. We became curious about how modern directors and theatre practitioners …

Feminism And Mythology: Hiratsuka Raicho And Japanese Feminism, Edris Akers

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

In the early 1900s of Japan, Hiratsuka Raicho started a journal called Bluestocking. In its early years, it focused on women’s literature. Soon after, the focus of the journal shifted to women’s issues. In one of the first issues, Raicho made reference to Japan’s creation myths in an attempt to stress the suppression of women’s rights in Japan. Raicho’s dialog regarding women’s reproductive health stirred innumerable conversations within the community. Through her poetry she made clear her own feelings on women’s rights of the time period. I will introduce the ode to mythology in feminism in Japan in the …

Beauty As Art: Somaesthetic Consumption As Alternative To Docility, Talia Welsh

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Erotica As Public Pedagogy: Learning Identity Through Popular Cultural Sources, Carolyn Meeker, Craig M. Mcgill

Adult Education Research Conference

Women who are feminist and submissive struggle to learn about and navigate their identities. This study found popular cultural texts played a key role in identity construction for these women.

Formgiving To Feminist Futures As Design Activism, Maryam Heidaripour, Laura Forlano

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design activism is the enforcement of positive socio-political change by intervening in daily lives. In this paper, we argue that ‘formgiving’ to futures--design interventions such as physical objects, embodied experiences, and affective engagements--is an activist practice with the unique qualities of engaging participants and facilitating the co-creation of alternatives. Central to our exploration is the question of how to participate in the work of generating new ways of conceptualizing, materializing, and experiencing alternative futures. Drawing on feminist theory and, in particular, its profound commitment to social justice, we discuss three core dimensions that are relevant to the practice of ‘formgiving’ …

Wonder Woman: Classical Hero, Modern Superheroine, And Feminist Figure, Victoria A. Karnes

Celebration of Learning

Wonder Woman, an Amazonian princess and superheroine who has been inspiring women since her comic debut in 1941. From her origins to the villains she faces, Wonder Woman’s stories and character are wrapped up in allusions to famous myths and figures of Greek and Roman literature. In my Senior Inquiry, I investigate Wonder Woman’s Classical connections and compare the ancient portrayal of Amazonian women to their portrayal in the comics and the recent films Wonder Woman (2017) and Justice League (2017). Also, in my Senior Inquiry, I analyze Dr. William Marston’s complicated and problematic feminist views which inspired his creation …

Fabricated History And False Feminism: How Disney Reimagined And Reshaped The Story Of Pocahontas, Lydia A. Cyrus

COLA Research and Creativity Conference

This paper seeks to unpack the representation of women and Native Americans in the 1995 Disney film Pocahontas and how Disney took a historical event and blended the elements of a true story and the elements of typical Disney films to create a fictional story of Pocahontas and John Smith. The paper seeks to critically view the ideas of feminism in the film and how the Powhatan tribe was portrayed in the film as well and how both subjects make the Disney film dangerous for viewers as it distorts history.

A Feminist Analysis Of Human And Animal Oppression: Intersectionality Among Species, Kelsey Brown

Scholars Week

In this paper I focus on animal exploitation as a feminist issue. I discuss reproductive exploitation in humans and domesticated animals, language as a tool of oppression, the power dynamics involved in hunting and consuming animals, and the barriers that are faced when people try to access health food such as environmental racism and food deserts. Using an anti-capitalist intersectional feminist framework, I expose how the current capitalist patriarchy aids in the oppression of all marginalized groups, including animals.

Mujeres Libres: Lessons On Anarchism And Feminism From Spain's Free Women, Alexandra Hastings

Scholars Week

Mujeres Libres was an anarchist women's organization formed during the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1939 by women who were working to eliminate the rampant, hypocritical sexism within the anarchist movement. Although Mujeres Libres was only active for three years, they mobilized over 20,000 women who all recognized that anarchism and feminism go hand in hand. This paper argues that Mujeres Libres was a successful example of both anarchism and feminism in practice, and contemporary feminists should see the framework and philosophy of this organization as something to model their own women's liberation movement after.

The Language Of Non-Normative Sexuality And Genders, Emily Bolam, Samantha Jarvis

Scholars Week

This project is about how asexual, intersex and transgender identities challenge normative ideas about what it means to be human. Our research primarily focused on how language used in the medical community influences societal perceptions of non-normative identities. Western culture is pervasively heteronormative, meaning that there is a narrow idea of what constitutes a “normal” human being, which is typically heterosexual and limited to a binary gender system. While society is making strides with accepting non-hetero sexual identities, there persists the notion that humans are inherently sexual beings. Asexuality, an orientation characterized by a lack of sexual attraction, challenges this …

Masks And Performance As Representations Of Gender Oppression And Repression In Edith Wharton’S The House Of Mirth And Nella Larsen’S Passing, Carrie A. Wilson

SEWSA 2016 Intersectionality in the New Millennium: An Assessment of Culture, Power, and Society

Edith Wharton and Nella Larsen’s literature focus on metaphorically representing gender oppression and repression as masked social performances that result in death being the ultimate release from the drama. Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth depicts the heroine Lily Bart who, in the public social realm, attempts to mask herself as a disturbingly superficial character. Wharton’s masquerade imagery demonstrates the extent to which Lily socially capitalizes her beauty. Lily fixates on "clearness" and "lucidity" in events leading up to her death, which shows how dying releases her from the dishonest social masquerade (260). Nella Larsen’s heroine Irene Redfield similarly uses …