Arts and Humanities Commons^™

This Female Fights Back: Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan, And Ambivalence Towards Feminism In Ms. Marvel Comics, Noelle Donnelly

Gender & Queer Studies Research Papers

This thesis examines the ambivalent stance taken by 1970s Ms. Marvel comics towards feminism, as well as the active push back against ambivalence taken by the 2014 run with the same title.

Umaine Women In Academia Makes Presence On Campus With Upcoming Presentation, Josh Fabel

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

This Monday, Dec. 7, the group University of Maine Women in Academia will be hosting a presentation highlighting “Gender and Intersectionality in Higher Education.”

Libération Sexuelle Ou Aliénation Textuelle : La Subalterne Peut-Elle Parler De Son Corps ?, Carla Calargé, Alexandra Gueydan-Turek

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article analyzes two erotic works : L’amande and La traversée des sens. It aims to look at whether the sexual liberation of the female protagonists succeeds in defining a subversive discourse which allows Arab women to escape binary representations made of them or whether, on the contrary the author reproduces such representations. After a quick overview of the difficult situation in which Arab feminists often find themselves both the East and the West, this study examines if Nedjma’s two novels adopt a feminist posture or if they fail to reach the objectives that critics have attributed to them.

Retrograde Returns Of The American Housewife: Reimagining An Old Character In A New Millennium, Ruth Emelia Wollersheim

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the immensely popular return of the housewife character in the twenty-first century. From films like The Stepford Wives (2004), to television dramas like Desperate Housewives (2004-2012) and The Good Wife (2009- ), to reality shows like Wife Swap (2004- ), Bravo’s The Real Housewives franchise (2006- ), Basketball Wives (2010- ), Mob Wives (2011- ), and most recently on the blogosphere with personalities like The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, the housewife character has reentered our imaginations on a mass scale. This anachronistic character trend is in stark contrast to the urban, working superwoman ideal of the 1980s …

The Legal Framework Of Contracting: Gender Equality, The Provision Of Services, And European Public Procurement Law, E.K. Sarter

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

The article examines the legal framework of public contracting in the EU. It argues that while European public procurement law explicitly allows for measures to foster gender equality be taken into account in public tendering, European legislation and jurisdiction also impose limits to the range of these measures.

More Than Plumbing: The History Of Sexual Education In Ontario, 1960-1979, Michelle K P Hutchinson Grondin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

During the 1960s and 1970s, Ontario educators were concerned that the “sexual revolution” would encourage youths to engage in sexually promiscuous behaviour, become unwed mothers, and contract STIs. As parents were perceived as unreliable sex educators, school administrators and educators felt compelled to teach traditional sexual values, and the importance of the nuclear family through sexual education. This dissertation analyzes the creation and instruction of sexual education in physical and health education courses throughout the 1960s and 1970s in Ontario. This study provides the first comprehensive discussion of sexual education in Ontario during the sixties and seventies through an examination …

Suffering Sisters, Silent Majorities, And Societal Oppression: Comparing The Anti-War Themes And Strategies Of Kurt Vonnegut’S Slaughterhouse-Five And Katherine Anne Porter’S “Pale Horse, Pale Rider”, Melissa N. Miller

Senior Honors Theses

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Katherine Anne Porter’s “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” are quite dissimilar in style, but these two works convey overall anti-war themes. The works were written in different eras, portray different wars, and are strongly influenced by the lives of the authors themselves; however, these unique factors work together in both works to convey similar messages regarding war’s oppressive nature and corruption of mankind. Vonnegut and Porter employ various methods to communicate these messages, some unique to the respective works and some shared by the two. The characters of Montana Wildhack and Miranda Gay—two oppressed female characters imprisoned …

Ready, Aim, Feminism: When Women Went Off To War, Anika N. Jensen

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

I like to imagine that if Sarah Emma Edmonds were my contemporary she would often sport a t-shirt saying, "This is what a feminist looks like."

Edmonds was a patriot, a feminist, and, along with an estimated 400 other women, a soldier in the American Civil War. Fed up with her father’s abuse and appalled at the prospect of an arranged marriage Edmonds left her New Brunswick home at the age of fifteen and soon adopted a male identity to become a successful worker. When the war erupted, she was compelled by a sense of patriotism and adventure to join …

Out Of Silence: Abortion Stories From The 1 In 3 Campaign, Student Women's Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

A flyer promoting the performance of Out of Silence: Abortion Stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign held on the University of Maine campus November 5 and 6, 2015. The event was sponsored by the Student Women's Association and Mabel Wadsworth Women's Health Center.

Governor's Remarks Evoke Concerns Of Sexism, Brooke Bailey

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Governor Paul LePage has been known as a politician who ‘tells it how it is.’ He’s based his campaigns on throwing political correctness out of the window and catering to the voters who agree that our country has gone too soft. But being less politically correct does not give you the right to be sexist. At a town hall meeting on Wednesday, LePage was asked a question about a citizen initiative to increase clean elections by limiting public financing in the state of Maine. LePage’s response was, "That's like giving my wife my checkbook. I’m telling you, it’s giving your …

Breaking Away From Reverence And Rape: The Afi Directing Workshop For Women, Feminism, And The Politics Of The Accidental Archive, Philis M. Barragán Goetz

History Faculty Publications

In 1974, the American Film Institute opened the Directing Workshop for Women (DWW). Trying to normalize the idea of a woman director, the program admitted nineteen women, providing each one with the materials to direct two films. Focusing on the DWW's first cycle, this article argues that the DWW's history is a vehicle for understanding the complex ways in which moderate and radical feminists interpreted the role of the women's rights movement in the commercial film industry by examining the controversy and media attention that surrounded it, as well as the ways in which race, class, and fame operated to …

Strategic Silences: Voiceless Heroes In Fairy Tales, Jeana Jorgensen

Jeana Jorgensen

In a number of international fairy tale types, such as ATU 451 ("The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers"), the female protagonist voluntarily stops speaking in order to attain the object of her quest. In ATU 451, found in the collected tales of the Grimms and Hans Christian Andersen as well as in oral tradition, the protagonist remains silent while weaving the shirts needed to disenchant her brothers from their birdlike forms. While this silence is undoubtedly disempowering in some ways as she cannot defend herself from persecution and accusations of wickedness, here I argue that the choice to remain silent …

“Ain’T No Real Pimps Out There No More”: Street-Involved Women’S Characterizations Of Men Who Facilitate Street-Based Sex Work, Susan Dewey, Rhett Epler

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Drawing upon five years of ethnographic research with over 100 Denver, Colorado women involved in street­‐based sex work and drug use, this paper explores what the women's discursive framings of men who facilitate women's sex work activities reveal about the exclusionary social and criminal justice practices that shape their lives.

Patriarchy, Empire, And Ping Pong Shows: The Political Economy Of Sex Tourism In Thailand, Kristen Kelley

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

This project provides a postcolonial feminist analysis of the prosperity and reputation of the sex tourism industry in Thailand. It examines the ways in which Western imperialism created the space for the globalization of sex work, as well as providing a postcolonial analysis of the hegemonic structures which have existed throughout Thailand's history that enable the sex tourism industry to thrive today. This project also explores how policy making and enforcement in Thailand affects the sex tourism industry, as well as the ways in which activism works to change or support these policies, and how this affects individuals who are …

Slutwalk Participants, 2015, Student Women's Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

A group photograph of students assembled on the steps of Fogler Library, University of Maine, for the 2015 "SlutWalk," calling for an end of victim blaming and 'slut shaming' targets of sexual assault, particularly in regard to the appearance of women rape victims. Signs held by some participants read: "Stop Slut Shaming. End Rape Culture;" "Don't tell us how to dress. Tell men not to rape;" "Shame and Blame belong only to the Rapist;" "Rape is a crime of violence, power, and control. No One Deserves It;" and "Consent in the sheets. Dissent in the streets."

The Beautiful Project 2015, Student Women's Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

A flyer promoting The Beautiful Project 2015, hosted by the University of Maine Student Women's Association.

Patriarchy Getting You Down?, Student Women's Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Meme captured from the Student Women's Association promoting the first Feminist Discussion Day at UMaine.

Umaine Women's History Trivia, Student Women's Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

A flyer announcing a quiz night hosted by the Student Women's Association as part of the University of Maine's Sesquicentennial celebration. The promotion states, "As UMaine turns 150, join us to learn about some of the women past and present who have helped make our campus what it is today."

Reclaiming And Reconciling What Was Originally Ours--Christianity And Feminism: A Concise History, Soquel Filice

History

No abstract provided.

The Vagina Monologues, Student Women's Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

A flyer promoting the annual performance of The Vagina Monologues at the University of Maine.

Pro-Choice Week 2015, Student Women's Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

A flyer promoting activities planned and hosted by the University of Maine Student Women's Association as part of Pro-Choice Week, 2015.

Raising Pan Americans: Early Women Activists Of Hemispheric Cooperation, 1916–1944, Dina Berger

History: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article examines the early years of the Pan American Round Table (PART), a women’s group founded in Texas in 1916 that internationalized to Latin America by 1928. While men built bridges and highways that connected the United States and Latin America, women of the PART built metaphorical ones of friendship and understanding. They acted as agents of “soft” diplomacy reshaping Pan Americanism, a U.S. foreign policy goal intended to foster commercial and political ties and to spread democracy in Latin America. Their activist work on behalf of Pan Americanism became a vehicle for personal and community enrichment: through education …

The Chicago Women's Liberation Union: White Socialist Feminism And Women's Health Organizing In The 1970s, Lara Griffin

Honors Papers

This thesis examines the organizing projects of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union from 1969-1977. This thesis will examine the relationship between the development of socialist feminism in the central organization and in the activist health projects. While the central organization cultivated the theoretical definition of socialist feminism, the health programs put this vision into practice, and often discovered tensions between the needs of women and the theory of the organization. These tensions centrally revolved around the white middle class identities of the members of the CWLU and their broader goal of being an organization to empower all women. Ultimately, this …

Moving Forward/Looking Back: Reclaiming And Revising Our Feminist Past And Searching For Solidarity, Cassandra Denise Fetters

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

Interweaving personal anecdotes, feminist theory, and literary and popular culture references, this article attempts to provide answers to the question of how we build a social movement and establish solidarity among women while still recognizing and respecting difference. The article traces historical accounts of feminists contending with the “difference impasse” and argues that we should return to and revise the feminist thought that preceded us, weaving together theories from our feminist past with contemporary models, including those of feminist psychoanalyst Jessica Benjamin and her ideas of “mutual recognition” and intersubjectivity. Drawing on fictional accounts from literature by women writers, the …

Building Bridges: Church Women United And Social Reform Work Across The Mid-Twentieth Century, Melinda M. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--History

Church Women United incorporated in December 1941 as an interdenominational and interracial movement of liberal Protestant women committed to social reform. The one hundred organizers represented ten million Protestant women across the United States. They organized with the express purposes of helping to bring peace on Earth and to develop total equality within all humanity.

Church Women United was the bridge between the First and Second Wave of Feminism and the bridge between the Social Gospel and Social Justice Movements. Additionally they connected laterally with numerous social and religious groups across American society. As such, they exemplify the continuity and …

Student Women's Association Logo, Student Women's Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

The retired logo for the Student Women's Association of the University of Maine. In October 2017, the Student Women's Association changed it's name and identity to The Feminist Collective.

Student Women's Association Meeting Minutes, Student Women's Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Typed minutes documenting meetings of the Student Women's Association between October 5, 2015 and December 7, 2015.

Striving For Salvation : Margaret Anna Cusack, Sainthood, Religious Foundations And Revolution In Ireland, 1829-1899, Sean Heather K. Mcgraw

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Margaret Anna Cusack, later Sister Mary Frances Clare, and also known as Mother Clare, (6 May 1829 - 5 June 1899) was an Anglo-Irish Protestant who became a Catholic Nun and the foundress of a still existent Catholic religious order, the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. She was also a vociferous champion for the poor, for Irish political rights, for Irish nationalism, and was the first Irish nationalist woman historian and a prolific writer who wrote more than one hundred works. She was a radical, a revolutionary, a champion and hero, a source of conflict and …

African American Women Leaders In The Civil Rights Movement: A Narrative Inquiry, Janet Dewart Bell

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to give recognition to and lift up the voices of African American women leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. African American women were active leaders at all levels of the Civil Rights Movement, though the larger society, the civil rights establishment, and sometimes even the women themselves failed to acknowledge their significant leadership contributions. The recent and growing body of popular and nonacademic work on African American women leaders, which includes some leaders’ writings about their own experiences, often employs the terms “advocate” or “activist” rather than “leader.” In the academic literature, particularly on …

Abortion Is Communism: A Genealogy Of "Abortion Culture", Heather Nicole Bradford

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In the twenty years since the collapse of communism in the Eastern Bloc, various scholars of history, women's studies, sociology, political science, and reproductive rights have studied the occurrence of abortion in these formerly communist countries. Although some have sought to question the notion of "abortion culture," most look to these countries as places where abortion was tragically prevalent and accepted. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the assumed knowledge concerning abortion and how this obscures understandings of abortion in formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe. By creating genealogy of "abortion culture," this research seeks to trace the …