Digital Commons Network^™

"W"- Men: Male Nurses' Negotiation Of Masculinity In A Predominantly Female Profession, Deborah Yoder (Deborah Jane Yoder) Miranda

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explores male nurses’ negotiation of masculine gender identities in the nontraditional work of registered nursing. Few registered nurses in the United States are men, and men leave the profession within the first four years after graduation at twice the rate of women. This study builds on previous work by seeking to understand why male nursing graduates of an institution formerly for women only, made the decision to become nurses, how they decided to attend a women’s college over a more gender balanced campus experience, and in what ways they negotiate gender identities in the configuration of nursing …

Friendships Between Men: Masculinity As A Relational Experience, Matthew L. Brooks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an auto/ethnographic account of close friendships between the researcher and other men. The various narratives contain intimate dialogues about being a man, having friends, and the process of resisting and succumbing to orthodox masculinity. The purpose of the research was to investigate and artfully depict the communication and development of close friendships between the researcher and other men, in hope of gaining more knowledge of the difficulty forming and maintaining male friendships given the strictures of orthodox masculinity.

The research combines methods of autoethnography and dialogic conversations with four male friends. In the first chapter I set …

A Gentlemen's Benevolence: Symptoms Of Class, Gender, And Social Change In Emma, Nicholas Nickleby, And The Mill On The Floss, Aubrey Lea Hammer

Theses and Dissertations

Austen, Dickens, and Eliot each responded to discussions of their time concerning class, gender, and social change. One of the ways they addressed these issues, and sought to find solutions to the problems facing their culture, was through benevolence. Knightley, in Emma, uses benevolence as a means of mediating self-interest and sympathy. By acting out of sympathy, through benevolence, he achieves the self-interested benefits of reinforcing the class system and achieving his romantic conquests. Likewise, Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby learns how to use benevolence as a means of social mobility from his mentors, the Cheerybles. Throughout Nicholas Nickleby the hero learns …

“Girls Play With Dolls And Boys Play With Soldiers”: Examining Teachers And Parents' Gender Beliefs And The Gender Identity Of 8-10 Year Old Jamaican Boys, Christopher Carlyle Clarke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This multi-case ethnographic study examined the gender beliefs of two teachers and 12 parents and the gender identity of thirty 8-10 year old boys in two primary schools in Jamaica. The study was conducted against the background of gross underachievement among Jamaican boys and the research literature pointing to gender socialization as a factor in the declining results and interest in academic studies. Through 10 weeks of observations, interviews and focus group discussions answers were sought for the following questions:

1. What beliefs do teachers hold about gender?

2. What beliefs do parents hold about gender?

3. What are boys' …

The Influence Of Masculinity Ideology On High-Risk Sexual Behavior Among Men Who Have Sex With Men, Christopher Wheldon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Epidemiologic evidence shows that the incidence of HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) is on the rise. high-risk sexual behaviors are the primary mode of transmission and are responsible for increased rates of infection. a growing body of evidence suggests that endorsement of normative beliefs and values regarding manhood and masculinity, or masculinity ideology, may help to explain certain high-risk sexual behaviors. this study investigated the associations between a measure of masculinity ideology and sexual risk taking among a sample of MSM. in addition, indirect pathways in which masculinity ideology may lead to sexual risk taking were …

My Lord Lackbeard: Enfranchisement And Expressions Of Beardlessness In Shakespeare's Canon From 1594 To 1601, C R. Junkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

William Shakespeare employs a series of male characters specifically described as beardless in those plays performed from 1594 to 1601. Will Fisher argues that such characters reveal early modern conceptions of masculinity; the beard was used in conjunction with other forms of material such as dress and weaponry to construct gender. Mark Albert Johnston notes that beards performed as currencies of exchange, denoting not just masculinity but economic power as well. Rather than signifying a lack or deficiency, the hairless chin is an active participant in a deeply complex tangle of competing political, economic and religious ideologies. Shakespeare's commentary on …

Becoming The New Man In Post-Postmodernist Fiction: Portrayals Of Masculinities In David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest And Chuck Palahnuik's Fight Club, Andrew Steven Delfino

English Theses

While scholars have analyzed the masculinity crisis portrayed in American fiction, few have focused on postmodernist fiction, few have examined masculinity without using feminist theory, and no articles propose an adequate solution for ending normative masculinity’s dominance. I examine the masculinity crisis as it is portrayed in two postmodernist novels, David Foster Wallace’s novel Infinite Jest and Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club. Both novels have male characters that ran the gamut of masculinities, but those that are the most successful at avoiding gender stereotypes (Donald Gately in Infinite Jest, and the narrator in Fight Club) develop a masculinity which incorporates …

The Public Spectacle Of Italian Masculinity: Nonverbal Display Of Gender Identity, Gino Perrotte

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Italian masculine identity is examined by looking at the following influences: history and structure of Italian society, the public places used for the performance and the culture surrounding the display of masculinity. This research uses an approach similar to an ethnography of communication. Initial data and ideas were gathered through observational fieldwork and interviews that took take place in Italy during July 2006 and July 2007. A methods section describes interviews that later took place with Americans in order to compare and contrast responses with ones previously collected from Italians. The data gathered from these interviews will be used to …

Confrontation: Endeavors In Futility, Gabriel Lashley Barlow

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is intended to compliment and describe the body of work that has been produced within the time I have been enrolled as a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University's Photography and Film department. The paper will include information on both my MFA candidacy presentation as well as a description of the evolution of my artistic endeavors. The main focus of this document is to discuss my formal examination of performance based video works pertaining to the absurd as described by Camus, and later expressed by Samuel Beckett, also the role of the masculine body's physicality within ritualized actions.

Breadfruit Fantasies, Matthew Steven Spahr

Theses and Dissertations

Breadfuit is a strange thing. It's a starchy potato-like sustenance not particularly noteworthy by most accounts. But it's history is amazing, an epic journey. Relocated from the Samoan island of Upalu to Oahu, Hawaii in the 12th Century as well as transplanted from Tahiti, as an economical food source for slaves in the West Indies in 1780 the lowly breadfruit has been held in the hands of Fletcher Christian, Captain Bligh, James Cook, King Kamehameha and innumerous other nameless individuals including Matt Spahr. This fruit contains the weight of colonialism, capitalism, exploration and tropical fantasy under its skin. The collision …

Manhood Constructions Among Engaged African American Male Collegians: Influences, Experiences, And Contexts, T. Elon Dancy Ii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The manhood constructions and collegiate experiences of twenty-four engaged African American men enrolled across twelve, four-year colleges were explored. The purpose of this study was to inform colleges about the ways in which these men construct their manhood. The manifestations of these constructions in African American college men's behavior, enrollment, and campus engagement were also investigated. The participants, who represented a range of college engagement, were enrolled in colleges that are situated across the nineteen southern and border states of the United States of America. The institutional selection matrix was further disaggregated according to predominant population (HBCU, HWI) and institutional …

Silent Cowboys And Verbose Detectives: Masculinity As Rhetoric In Wister, Hammett, And Chandler, Maria Carla Nissi

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the early part of the twentieth century, popular fiction and film in the form of Westerns and the noir detective story cultivated brands of masculinity through archetypal male characters. This project aims to propose and investigate the existence of a countervailing tradition between the language-resistant cowboy figure and his more verbally-inclined successor, the detective fiction hero. Chapter One deconstructs the Virginian’s silence in the original film version of Owen Wister’s novel The Virginian, and demonstrates a male aversion to language as a tool for guarding masculinity against the modernization and feminization of the West. The onslaught of modernization that …