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Full-Text Articles in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

“We Need To Figure Out Who We Are”: Reframing Manhood In An Online Discussion Forum, Tomas Sanjuan Jr. Oct 2023

“We Need To Figure Out Who We Are”: Reframing Manhood In An Online Discussion Forum, Tomas Sanjuan Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I explore the potential of online communities in negotiating alternative forms of “doing” masculinity. I focus on the /r/bropill which is hosted on Reddit – home to thousands of active discussion forums called subreddits. I argue that the members of /r/bropill subreddit are attempting to redefine what it means to live your life not only as a man but as a “good man.” Using a purposive sample, I analyzed 24 discussions which totaled 1325 posts (n = 1325). I conducted a qualitative textual analysis of the original posts and comments inspired by grounded theory. My findings reveal …


“We Need To Figure Out Who We Are”: Reframing Manhood In An Online Discussion Forum, Tomas Sanjuan Jr. Oct 2023

“We Need To Figure Out Who We Are”: Reframing Manhood In An Online Discussion Forum, Tomas Sanjuan Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I explore the potential of online communities in negotiating alternative forms of “doing” masculinity. I focus on the /r/bropill which is hosted on Reddit – home to thousands of active discussion forums called subreddits. I argue that the members of /r/bropill subreddit are attempting to redefine what it means to live your life not only as a man but as a “good man.” Using a purposive sample, I analyzed 24 discussions which totaled 1325 posts (n = 1325). I conducted a qualitative textual analysis of the original posts and comments inspired by grounded theory. My findings reveal …


Deconstructing And Decolonizing Identities Of “Gender” And “Sex” When Viewed As Anti-Black: Black Narratives Outside Of The Binary, Didier Salgado Mar 2023

Deconstructing And Decolonizing Identities Of “Gender” And “Sex” When Viewed As Anti-Black: Black Narratives Outside Of The Binary, Didier Salgado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How is “Reality” experienced in the Black body? Is “Reality” an objective article which is outside of the realm of personal experience? Assigned sex is often assumed an objective biological phenomenon that exists everywhere and in all communities. Gender is often thought about as a socially constructed form of identity which is expressed in various ways. In this thesis, I critically examine the terror of “reality” on the Black body, looking at the ways that Black people who’ve experienced discomfort with gender and sex categories experience the “world” around them. Diving deeply into their own experiences and the meanings they …


“You Feel Like You Belong Nowhere”: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence And Social Identity In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Myriam Denov, Laura Eramian, Meaghan C. Shevell May 2020

“You Feel Like You Belong Nowhere”: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence And Social Identity In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Myriam Denov, Laura Eramian, Meaghan C. Shevell

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Globally, the systematic use of sexual violence in modern warfare has resulted in the birth of thousands of children. Research has begun to focus on this often invisible group and the obstacles they face, including stigma, discrimination and exclusion based on their birth origins. Although sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide has been documented on a massive scale, little research has focused on the relational dynamics between mothers who experienced genocide rape and the children they bore. This paper explores the post-genocide realities of these two under-explored populations, revealing two key tensions in relation to identity-building and belonging. Drawing upon …


Gofundtransitions: Narratives Of Transnormativity And The Limits Of Crowdfunding Livable Futures, Hayden J. Fulton Mar 2020

Gofundtransitions: Narratives Of Transnormativity And The Limits Of Crowdfunding Livable Futures, Hayden J. Fulton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Crowdfunding websites, such as GoFundMe, have provided a new avenue for (some) individuals to fund their healthcare needs. The use of these sites requires individuals to story their medical need, in the hopes of receiving financial assistance. Trans individuals encounter unique challenges within the healthcare system, including providers’ lack of knowledge, a dearth of competent care, and widespread individual and institutional cissexism. Because of the difficulties acquiring competent trans-healthcare compounded with broader inadequacies in our healthcare system, many trans folks and their loved ones turn to crowdfunding platforms to help cover the cost of medical transition. In this thesis I …


“I Want To Be Who I Am”: Stories Of Rejecting Binary Gender, Ana Balius Jun 2018

“I Want To Be Who I Am”: Stories Of Rejecting Binary Gender, Ana Balius

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Historically, in academic literature—sociological and otherwise—surrounding the daily lives of LGBT+ people, people who reject binary gender are very marginally represented. In this study, I specifically seek to understand the way my participants articulate their sense of their gender identities through the stories they tell of their experiences. This study attempts to answer the following questions: What are the stories of gender identity construction for people who reject binary gender? How do they understand the ways they are held accountable to binary gender in the day-to-day? How do they perceive and make meaning of gender in their lives? Through ten …


“Neither East Nor West”: Shia Women Negotiating Gender Norms In America, Raheleh Dayerizadeh Apr 2018

“Neither East Nor West”: Shia Women Negotiating Gender Norms In America, Raheleh Dayerizadeh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With growing hostilities towards the Ummah (Muslim global community and Diaspora) in Western countries and the fear of Sharia laws, the socialization of international human rights norms within religious institutions, makes for a timely case study. Specifically, this dissertation project aims to capture the process of norm transformation at the grassroots level by investigating the religious, cultural, and social encounter between Islam and the West by interviewing Shia women at a local mosque in Florida. Critical constructivism, post-colonial feminism, and qualitative interpretive methods, are used to address the following: how practicing Shia women are navigating between competing liberal gender equality …


An Intersectional Examination Of Disability And Lgbtq+ Identities In Virtual Spaces, Justine E. Egner Apr 2018

An Intersectional Examination Of Disability And Lgbtq+ Identities In Virtual Spaces, Justine E. Egner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a multi-methodological project that examines the experiences of being both LGBTQ+ and disabled from an intersectional perspective through narratives constructed in virtual spaces. In this project, I address the question ‘how do individuals who identify as both disabled/chronically ill and LGBTQ+ negotiate these often contradictory identities?’ I also complexify this intersectional analysis by examining how LGBTQ+/disabled identities are constructed in relation to race, class, and gender. Additionally, by conducting virtual ethnography as the primary method of data collection, I explore questions pertaining to how members of LBGTQ+ and disability online communities engage in virtual identity construction and …


The Time To Love: Ideologies Of "Good" Parenting At A Family Service Organization In The Southeastern United States, Anna Davidson Abella Nov 2017

The Time To Love: Ideologies Of "Good" Parenting At A Family Service Organization In The Southeastern United States, Anna Davidson Abella

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to understand definitions of what it means to be a “good” parent as described by parents and child development specialists at a family service organization in the Southeastern United States. Previous research on social reproduction and concerted cultivation have opened up pathways to understanding how social and economic inequality manifest in family life and the social structures of which they are a part. This ethnographic study is an effort to contribute to an anthropology of parenting by unveiling the ways that definitions of “good” parenting in middle-class and wealthy communities reflect time-intensive, attachment-based ideologies …


The Time To Love: Ideologies Of "Good" Parenting At A Family Service Organization In The Southeastern United States, Anna Davidson Abella Nov 2017

The Time To Love: Ideologies Of "Good" Parenting At A Family Service Organization In The Southeastern United States, Anna Davidson Abella

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to understand definitions of what it means to be a “good” parent as described by parents and child development specialists at a family service organization in the Southeastern United States. Previous research on social reproduction and concerted cultivation have opened up pathways to understanding how social and economic inequality manifest in family life and the social structures of which they are a part. This ethnographic study is an effort to contribute to an anthropology of parenting by unveiling the ways that definitions of “good” parenting in middle-class and wealthy communities reflect time-intensive, attachment-based ideologies …


Examining Forty Years Of The Social Organization Of Feminisms: Ethnography Of Two Women’S Bookstores In The Us South, Mary Catherine Whitlock Jul 2017

Examining Forty Years Of The Social Organization Of Feminisms: Ethnography Of Two Women’S Bookstores In The Us South, Mary Catherine Whitlock

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

At the height of their popularity in the 1990s, there were 140 feminist bookstores in the US and Canada (Onosaka 2006). Today, in 2017, there are thirteen left. Feminist bookstores began opening in the 1970s promoting ideas about lesbian separatism, woman only spaces, and nurturing a feminist community. Although many functioned as for-profit stores, many also operated community centers and non-profit organizations. Feminist bookstores provide an excellent site for scholars view decades of social movement organizing merging theory, practice, activism, and academics. As a social movement organization, feminist bookstores as are the quintessential node of academia and activism. Of the …


“Can You Believe They Think I’M Intimidating?” An Exploration Of Identity In Tall Women, Elizabeth Joy Fuller Jun 2017

“Can You Believe They Think I’M Intimidating?” An Exploration Of Identity In Tall Women, Elizabeth Joy Fuller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States today, there is a dominant cultural narrative telling us that tallness is desirable and enjoyed by those who experience it. Much of the existing research on height correlates tallness with promotions, higher salaries, and general happiness. However, this research does not take into account the limitations of some of the previous research which tends to accept tall people’s vocabulary of motives at face value as the totality of their experience as a tall person. In particular, tall women tend to have much more to say about their lives as tall women than simply that it has …


Her-Storicizing Baldness: Situating Women's Experiences With Baldness From Skin And Hair Disorders, Kasie Holmes Jul 2014

Her-Storicizing Baldness: Situating Women's Experiences With Baldness From Skin And Hair Disorders, Kasie Holmes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A general goal to my study was to promote an inclusive approach to baldness by sharing and centering women's experiences with baldness from skin and hair conditions, such as autoimmune alopecia areata conditions and monilethrix. Specifically, a main goal of my study was to her-storicize the lived experiences of women who are bald from skin and hair conditions by examining medical and cultural discourses surrounding these conditions, femininity, and female baldness. Additionally, my study considers strategies of accommodation and resistance that bald women perform in a given context, space, or time. For instance, I consider the ways participants manage their …


Checking Out: A Qualitative Study Of Supermarket Cashiers' Emotional Response To Customer Mistreatment, Michael E. Lawless Mar 2014

Checking Out: A Qualitative Study Of Supermarket Cashiers' Emotional Response To Customer Mistreatment, Michael E. Lawless

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Western culture, and especially the United States, the increasingly service based economy focuses on creating an emotionally positive experience for customers. This leads to increasing pressures on service workers to hide and suppress their emotions even when mistreated by customers, in order to meet their employers', and general cultural, customer service standards. This thesis investigates the questions of what kinds of emotional challenges supermarket cashiers experience as a result of mistreatment from their customers, how do they manage to cope with these challenges, and whether there are any differences in challenges or coping strategies between younger and older cashiers, …


Beyond The Backlash: Muslim And Middle Eastern Immigrants' Experiences In America, Ten Years Post-9/11, Gregory J. Mills Jan 2012

Beyond The Backlash: Muslim And Middle Eastern Immigrants' Experiences In America, Ten Years Post-9/11, Gregory J. Mills

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I explore the perceived character of Islamophobia in American society, and how Islamophobia is embedded in the everyday lived experiences and identity negotiations of a sample of Middle Eastern immigrants, ten years post-9/11. Data consist of 13 qualitative interviews with first-generation Middle Eastern immigrants, including Muslims, Christians, and those who claim no religion. Findings suggest that perceived discrimination and cultural hostility vary across both gender and religion. Women who cover with the hijab perceive far more discrimination and humiliating experiences than men or women who do not cover in the sample. Iranians also receive extremely poor treatment, …


Selling The Third Wave: The Commodification And Consumption Of The Flat Track Roller Girl, Mary Catherine Whitlock Jan 2012

Selling The Third Wave: The Commodification And Consumption Of The Flat Track Roller Girl, Mary Catherine Whitlock

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In an ethnographic examination of the "modern" roller derby movement that began in the early 2000s, I explore Women's Flat Track Derby in Florida. What does it mean to be a roller derby player? How is she conceptualized and commodified? Or more centrally, how is third wave feminism used as a catalyst of this commodification? In order to fully appreciate, understand, and even embrace roller derby, I look at roller derby leagues as social movement organizations (SMOs) in order to note how they frame themselves and maintain collective identity the commodification of third wave feminism. First, I will explore various …


Sexually Explicit, Socially Empowered: Sexual Liberation And Feminist Discourse In 1960s Playboy And Cosmopolitan, Lina Salete Chaves Jan 2011

Sexually Explicit, Socially Empowered: Sexual Liberation And Feminist Discourse In 1960s Playboy And Cosmopolitan, Lina Salete Chaves

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I provide an analysis of 1960s American popular culture by examining Playboy, "The Playboy Philosophy," Cosmopolitan, and Sex and the Single Girl. These cultural artifacts furthered the feminist movement by challenging gender structures and sexuality. I discuss how these publications focused on the advancement of the individual through careerism, consumerism and sexuality. These publications assisted in challenging and breaking down various aspects of gender and sexual boundaries and assisted in reworking social limitations that kept women from advancing themselves outside of the pre-set gender roles of domesticity. Regardless of the traditional feminist critique of …