Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Translation Of Some Works Of Louise Michel, Early French Feminist, Militant Anarchist, And Socialist Visionary, Julianna Kramer

Honors Theses

The socialist progressive Louise Michel infused her beliefs of equality and liberty from repressive governments into her daily life and career. Michel was a major leader of the Paris Commune, a revolutionary socialist government that controlled the city of Paris for roughly two months in 1871. She deployed militant tactics to defend the poor and demand legal and economic equality of the sexes.

She was a prolific writer, using writing as a revolutionary tool to disseminate socialist ideas to children and adults alike. A short story for children, titled Les dix sous de Marthe (Marthe’s Ten Coins), shows the ripple …

Contemporary Handicraft, Textile Art, And Feminist Social Critique, Kaitlynn Blow

Honors Theses

My thesis looks at the work of female contemporary artists who use what has historically been considered “women’s craft” such as embroidery, knitting, stitching and other various textile arts. Since the Women’s Art Movement of the 1970s, women have used these creative outlets to express discontent and injustice in their lives revolving around gender and identity. In my research, three main themes emerged as addressed in each chapter. The first theme addresses the topic of domesticity and memory including unseen female labor, such as domestic chores and motherhood, and how fabric holds memories. Chapter two covers gender politics- specifically the …

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 …

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 …

Redefining The "Reality Picture" By Reassessing Feminist Themes In The Early Cyberpunk Works Of William Gibson And Philip K. Dick, Samuel J. Williams

Honors Theses

As a literary genre, Cyberpunk permits the existence of characters, plots, settings, and styles that challenge heteronormative perceptions of gender. The representations of women in Neuromancer, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and A Scanner Darkly highlight a progression towards feminist ideals. Despite this progression, critics have classified these early manifestations of the Cyberpunk genre as non-feminist works that perpetuate misogynistic themes. These critics assert that the female characters in each work are Othered and heteronormative. The previous analyses of these works fail to consider the fictional context of the female characters. In this thesis, I closely analyze the major …

The Girl In The Postfeminist World: Rethinking The Impact Of Chick-Lit Fiction, Sarah T. O'Connor

Honors Theses

This thesis discusses “chick-lit” series in relation to popular culture, adolescent development, and feminist theory. The role of the female in the United States is currently dominated by both neo-liberal and conservative postfeminist ideology. Postfeminism advocates female empowerment via consumption, sexual attractiveness and physical beauty, while at the same time valorizing passive femininity and the roles of wife and mother. Chick-lit fiction provides a means by which postfeminist messages can be examined as they are presented to adolescent girl audiences, and reveals that the influence of this discourse over female subjectivity is inherently patriarchal. As a genre, chick lit is …