Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Impact Of Women On The Life And Legacy Of Mark Antony, Lauren E. Yaple

Honors Theses

Throughout the life of Mark Antony, the women he became involved with had a large impact on his political career, life, and legacy. These women, such as Fulvia and Cleopatra, used Antony as a means to achieve their own political, economic, and personal goals and were able to gain power in a very anti-feminist society through their relationships with and manipulations of him, affecting the career of Antony in many ways including his politics and his actions as a military commander, as showcased by the examination of primary sources from the late Roman Republic and early Roman empire periods. This …

The Portrayal Of Race And Gender In Revolutionary Cuban Cinema, Sarah Bartley

Honors Theses

Cinema has been one of the most useful tools to portray the political and social beliefs prevalent during a given point in history. Following the Cuban Revolution, once-marginalized communities were given far more opportunity to participate in education, in the workforce, and in society. Institutionalized racism and sexism were combatted as Fidel Castro’s major areas of focus after the Cuban Revolution’s 1959 victory. Class issues were improved as the wealth inequality that had defined pre-Revolutionary Cuba was minimized following the nationalizing of private property. Despite these improvements, however, there remained sentiments of dissatisfaction regarding social issues in Revolutionary Cuba, including …

On The Basis Of Sex: Personal Status Law Reforms And Economic Growth, Kylie Bring

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how law reform toward gender equity has an impact on economic growth in Arab countries in the Middle East. Personal status law reform granting women economic, social, and personal freedoms is spreading across the region and showing substantial change. Using case studies of major PSL reforms in Tunisia and Morocco, this thesis outlines qualitative and quantitative evidence to support the case that gender equity benefits the economic growth of the given country.

La Sensibilidad De La Lente Crítica: Las Dinámicas De Poder Y Los Papeles De Género En El Cine Mexicano Contemporáneo, China Campagnuolo

Honors Theses

This project explores the socio-cultural evolution of gender dynamics through the analysis of four contemporary Mexican films: Amores perros (2000) directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, Y tu mamá también (2001) directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Las elegidas (2015) directed by David Pablos, and Roma (2018) also directed by Cuarón. These directors are part ofMexico’s cinematic “New Wave,” a modern resurgence of Mexican film that depicts a realistic side of the nation’s political, social, and economic issues. In the opening chapter, I analyzeAmores perros and Y tu mamá también, two earlier films of the “New Wave.” These movies areheavily focused on toxic …

Purchasing Products To Make A Difference: A Study Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Gender, And Cosmetic Purchasing Behavior By College Students, Allegra Blomenberg

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences that exist in the way corporate social responsibility (CSR) is perceived by college students and how this affects cosmetic purchasing behavior. Two other objectives included finding what drives millennial cosmetic purchasing behavior as a whole and the ways in which millennials are informed of companies’ corporate social responsibilities. Through analyses of interview data from fourteen college-age millennials, the study showed that non-binary participants more positively perceived CSR and actively bought from responsible brands. The male participant perceived CSR positively but had never been sure to purchase products from a brand …

Acting Hysterical: Analyzing The Construction, Diagnosis And Portrayal Of Historical And Modern Hysterical Women, Gillian Singer

Honors Theses

Hysterical women’s stories from the 19th and 20th centuries have all too often been ignored and furthermore, invalidated through the capitalization and spectacularization of hysterical women’s experiences. “Acting Hysterical: Analyzing the Construction, Diagnosis and Portrayal of Historical and Modern ‘Hysterical’ Women” aims to acknowledge hysterical women’s narratives by studying the visual documentation of hysterical women. Visual documentation of hysteria began with the photographing of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot’s “hysterical” female patients and extends to modern cinematic representations from the last two decades of historical and modern hysterical women.

Medical Muses, a book based in years of research by Asti Hustvedt served …

"It Came In Little Waves": Feminist Imagery In Chantal Akerman's Je, Tu, Il, Elle +, Staci C. Dubow

Honors Theses

Chantal Akerman writes, “she who seeks shall find, find all too well, and end up clouding her vision with her own preconceptions.”[1] This thesis addresses the films of Chantal Akerman from a theoretical feminist film perspective. There are many lenses through which Akerman’s rich body of work can be viewed, and I would argue that she herself never intended for it to be understood in just one way. I wish to situate Akerman’s films, in particular her 1974 Je, Tu, Il, Elle (1h 30m), within a discourse of other feminist film theorists and makers that were further rooted in …

Women In Gaming: A Study Of Female Players’ Experiences In Online Fps Games, M Allison Mcdaniel

Honors Theses

Existing literature has long been divided over whether the gaming world fosters violence and misogyny or provides a space for people to explore diverse identities. Not enough is known about how women experience videogames, especially the hypermasculine environment of first-person shooter (FPS) games. Competition, violence, and war, are dominant features of these games. The following thesis explores what harassment and discrimination women playing FPS games face, how they respond, and in what ways they find games to be empowering. A survey was distributed online to an international sample of 141 female FPS gamers. This research finds that women who play …

War And Women Wielding Power: Lessons From Burundi, Liberia, And Chad, Emily Myers

Honors Theses

Since 1989, the world has seen civil war replace traditional war as the prevailing paradigm of conflict. Simultaneously, the world’s leading thinkers, international bodies, and aid organizations have encouraged the idea that women’s rights are human rights, and urged that policy issues be considered through a gendered lens. My thesis aims to connect these two concurrent shifts in geopolitics by examining the relationship between civil war and women. How do women experience civil war differently from men? How does the legacy of civil war change women’s lives? Specifically, my thesis examines the effects civil war has on women’s political power. …

A Queen’S Reputation: A Feminist Analysis Of The Cultural Appropriations Of Cleopatra, Chamara Moore

Honors Theses

While there is no doubt that Cleopatra is considered a notable historical figure and popularly regarded character throughout modern media, there is a distinct pattern in her portrayal throughout time as a woman whose power is defined by her sexual promiscuity. Even throughout periods of powerful female monarchs, political change, and social progress her prowess as a leader has been assumingly attributed to her affairs with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. The purpose of this study is to examine how literature and media has contributed to this sexualized reputation of a queen who yielded authority over such a prosperous nation. …

Expanding The Literary Enterprise: How We Experience The Texts Of The Advanced Placement English Literature And Composition Curriculum, Molly Ostrow

Honors Theses

How we read the texts of the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition curriculum.

Sex And The College Hookup: Gender Differences In Perceiving And Experiencing Sexual Interaction, Kelsey Fish

Honors Theses

While much literature exists on college students and casual sex, few studies provide an in-depth direct comparison of a male versus female perspective of a specific population. The purpose of this study was to examine the sexual culture and “hookup” scene among students at a small liberal arts college in the northeast United States and to distinguish the differences between men and women in perceiving and experiencing sexual interaction. An open-ended questionnaire was created using the online survey instrument, Google Forms. The survey was distributed to 500 random student e-mail addresses. While some responses were synonymous with previous studies and …

The Perception Of Literary Quality Differing As A Function Of Authorial Gender And Emotionality, Sarah Dean

Honors Theses

Previous research suggests that gender acknowledgment yields significant consequences on subsequent judgments. In the current research, we examined whether gender of authorial names affected the perception of literary quality. Participants read a short story excerpt designated as male‐authored or female‐authored that contained either exaggerated emotional content or minimal emotional content. Following presentation of the passage, participants reported perceived quality and emotionality and then completed the 10-item short form of the Need for Affect Questionnaire (NAQ-S; cf. Maio & Esses, 2001) followed by the 18‐item Need for Cognition Scale (Cacioppo, Petty, & Kao 1984). Results indicated that participants rated female authors …

Acting The Part: How Audience Problematizes Butlerian Performativity In The Films Of Darren Aronofsky Kathryn Bigelow And Lars Van Trier, Ryan Semerad

Honors Theses

Feminist and gender studies critics laud Judith Butler’s theory of the performative construction of identity because of its capacity to liberate gender from the biological essentialism entailed by previous identity theories. In this thesis, I show how six twenty-first century films demonstrate the importance and problematic nature of ‘audience’ in the performative construction of identity. Each film employs a dialectic model between their protagonists and the reception they receive from diegetic audiences within the film to describe performativity. Black Swan (2010) and The Wrestler (2008) demonstrate how performative identities require an audience to legitimize them. Antichrist (2009) and The Hurt …

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 …

Gender, Nature, And The Fairytale Structure In Robin Mckinley's Works, Molly Rogers

Honors Theses

Robin McKinley is an American fantasy author who uses fairytale structure to explore themes of gender and nature. Her first book, Beauty, a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” was published in 1978. She continues to write fairytales and other fantastic fiction, utilizing the fairytale form and structure. She has won a few awards, including the Newbery Award in 1985 for her novel The Hero and the Crown. Her latest book, Pegasus, was published in 2010. Jack Zipes describes McKinley’s heroines as "self-confident, courageous young women who take the initiative in a world which they help to define with men…it …

Les Femmes Mythiques: Ce Que Ces Symboles Révèlent De La Société Française Et Les Valeurs De La France, Rachel Mayer

Honors Theses

In history, women have always played traditional roles and - in general - submitted. However, there are women who are developing symbolic and powerful images in French society. These women have a mythical and symbolic quality. But what do they symbolize? Every woman who resonates with French society plays another important role: to unveil the dimensions of French values ​​that they represent in French society. Moreover, the way they have established their roles and places in culture unveils the status of women across the story. We can examine mythical and symbolic women of different ages to understand the role of …

Leadership Is Passion: Understanding The Changing Experiences Of Women Student Leaders At A Co-Educational Liberal Arts Institution, Aleena Paul

Honors Theses

The traditional definition of leadership emphasizes the actions of individual leaders with culturally-ascribed masculine personality traits and behaviors who control all aspects of an organization. A new post-industrial paradigm, in contrast, defines leadership as interpersonal relationships. This evolving paradigm, with its emphasis on culturally-attributed feminine traits such as collaboration and participation, has allowed for a broader conceptualization of leadership that brings forth discussions on women leaders and their experiences. According to current research, while there is increasing involvement and empowerment of women leaders, their experiences continue to be hindered by gender stereotypes. This study attempts to explore the experiences of …

Féminisme Français : Fait, Fiction, Jennifer Granina

Honors Theses

What gives power to an idea? What makes it real in the hearts and minds of people who believe in it? What creates the desire to struggle for this idea, an ethereal and elusive conception? These are the questions that must be considered by philosophers, by those who believe enough in an idea to make it a reality. It was the mission of feminists in France since the beginning of the 19th century. For them, feminism was not a movement that had a beginning and an end, it was a force, present in the world since the creation of the …