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Capital Embodiment: White Beauty And Bodies In Sally Rooney’S Conversations With Friends, Josie K. Forsthoff
Capital Embodiment: White Beauty And Bodies In Sally Rooney’S Conversations With Friends, Josie K. Forsthoff
Honors Theses
Beauty standards that have long been understood by feminist theorists as sexist also have a history of being rooted in racism. By reproducing the white, slender representations of beauty uncritically, authors potentially perpetuate the racist, classist, and sexist hierarchies in which our cultural norms are rooted. Popular, contemporary author Sally Rooney consciously writes about the privileges of wealth but fails to write in the same way about the capital of beauty and slender bodies. My literary analysis focuses on the political power and implications of the white beauty and embodiment of Frances in her debut novel from 2017. Rooney’s representation …
Pro-Understanding: Understanding The Pro-Choice Catholic, Natalie Eilerman
Pro-Understanding: Understanding The Pro-Choice Catholic, Natalie Eilerman
Honors Theses
Abortion is a widely debated and polarizing topic in the United States. While many Catholic leaders and members tend to hold beliefs against abortion, some Catholics are pro-choice. This study explores the perspectives and experiences of this often-under-recognized group. Mixed methods research was conducted to analyze 1) how perspectives towards abortion are changing among Catholics in the United States (using data from the General Social Survey from 1977-2018), and 2) the experiences of college students at a private, predominately white, Catholic university in the Midwest who identify as pro-choice and Catholic. Quantitative analysis shows that Catholics’ attitudes towards abortion are …
From Prop To Partner: The Evolution Of Female Roles In American Opera, Mariah J. Berryman
From Prop To Partner: The Evolution Of Female Roles In American Opera, Mariah J. Berryman
Honors Theses
For many years, women in opera have been in service to their plots. They have always been present but have either been relegated to passive roles in their own stories or actively considered societal outcasts. They were dramatically stereotyped as either airheads or witches, mothers or daughters, love interests or foes to be conquered. And, along with the character stereotypes came typically associated vocal stereotypes. Lighter and higher voices were assigned to roles that portrayed virtue, innocence, and other general characteristics of the “feminine ideal.” Conversely, lower voices were assigned to sinful, outcast, “fallen women.” These vocal stereotypes are especially …
“You Don’T Understand… It’S Not About Virginity”: Sexual Markets, Identity Construction, And Violent Masculinity On An Incel Forum Board, Joshua A. Segalewitz
“You Don’T Understand… It’S Not About Virginity”: Sexual Markets, Identity Construction, And Violent Masculinity On An Incel Forum Board, Joshua A. Segalewitz
Honors Theses
The “manosphere” is an online collection of antifeminists and men’s rights activists. Incels, short for involuntary celibates, interact in this space and have been labeled as extreme misogynists, white supremacists, and domestic terrorists. I engage with popular sociological theories of masculinity (including hegemonic, hybrid, and inclusive masculinities) to analyze dominant discourses on the website incels.is. The data for this project are comments from 100 threads randomly sampled from 4,532 total threads posted in 2018. Using a grounded theory approach, I first explore how incels think about sexuality as an economy, devising a scheme that places everyone in a sexual hierarchy …
Preachers, Politics And The Pulpit: The Influence Of Church Structure On How Clergy Approach Political Topics And How Congregations Receive Their Messages, Michael Bender
Honors Theses
Inspired by the Catholic Church’s nationwide resistance to President Obama’s contraceptive mandate in the summer of 2012, this honors thesis paper attempts to discover a link between church polity (or church structure) and whether political messages are more or less likely to be preached by clergy from the pulpit and accepted by their congregants. Given that churches are places where attendees are exposed to political messages, this paper hypothesizes that structurally centralized Christian denominations are more likely to have preached on the contraceptive mandate than decentralized denominations. Accordingly, it is assumed that Catholics are more likely to have heard about …
Black White And In-Between: Race And Ethnicity In The Criminal Justice System 1885-1915, Elizabeth M. Wilhelm
Black White And In-Between: Race And Ethnicity In The Criminal Justice System 1885-1915, Elizabeth M. Wilhelm
Honors Theses
Events in the past year have brought racial and ethnic discrimination in the criminal justice system to the forefront of American consciousness. In reality, race has been used to create stereotypes for centuries, often supported by “scientific” and “statistical” evidence to support the idea that certain races are more likely to commit crimes than others. In my research, I trace the development of these ideas as well as the evidence used to support these racial notions primarily by drawing upon conference transcripts from two professional organizations: The National Prison Association and the National Conference of Charities and Corrections covering the …