Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Telecontraception: An Evaluative Research Study On Birth Control Accessibility Via Smart Phone Applications, Salma Yazmin Atiya

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Birth control accessibility in the United States continues to be a growing issue. Studies have shown that barriers such as transportation to clinics, ability to obtain an appointment at a clinic, having time off work or school, cost, lack of insurance, and residing in contraceptive deserts prevents women from obtaining birth control. However, with telemedicine on the rise, new technologies are becoming available, such as telecontraceptionâ??a recent innovation, where people can obtain birth control through a website or an app on smart phone devices. Telecontraception could potentially serve as a tool to narrow the birth control accessibility gap for uninsured …

Skirting The Law: Women In Vice During U.S. Prohibition In South Texas, 1900-1933, Carolina Monsivais

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation explores both women's participation in the vice industry north of the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas and the ways in which women were policed. The Dissertation analyzes the interactions that occurred between law enforcement agents and the women they arrested, primarily ethnic Mexican women. This analysis illuminates law enforcement tactics that were honed during this era through the interactions that agents had with women who worked in vice industries. I also argue that women in this industry demonstrated knowledge, agency, and resistance. In addition, it created avenues of work for women, particularly in South Texas. However, studies examining …

Disciplining The Female Body Through Fitness: "Women Participating In Crossfit And Perceptions Of The Body", Noemi Dimuzio

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Women's self-surveillance has been shaped through nutrition, technologies, social media and fitness. Women are constantly struggling with disciplining their bodies to produce a particular body image. The use of technologies has produced images of ideal bodies of beauty, perfection and constant awareness of body parts. The body can be shaped and molded in a variety places, most notably the gym. Fitness allows for the construction of the perfect body. Fitness creates a constant urge to develop and change the body and produces self-surveillance and discipline. There has been a shift from the Western thin ideal image to a new fitness …

Indigenous Masculinities And The Tarascan Borderlands In Sixteenth-Century Michoacán, Daniel Santana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation studies the hypermasculine narratives related to the expansion of the Tarascan state and its borderlands in early colonial Michoacán. Colonial texts such as the Relación de Michoacán and the relaciones geográficas depict the ascendance of the powerful Uacúsecha dynasty whose solar deity and male rulers oversaw the conquest of the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin and succeeded in holding back the Mexica (Aztecs) from penetrating their territories. The Dissertation pays particular attention to how contemporary political events, namely the Spanish conquest of Michoacán, endemic warfare in center-west Mexico, and political rivalries amongst Indigenous elites, influenced these accounts. Consequently, these narratives …

Stratified Access On The Border: Examining Experiences Of Reproductive Care, Maralyn Doering

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Patient care experiences shape and affect the way that patients perceive and contextualize health care (Koenig 2011). Prior care experiences can change how patients choose to receive care in the future. In Texas, reproductive health care research has primarily focused on troubling trends in reproductive health care outcomes. This can be noted by the high cervical cancer rate (CDC 2019), the high unintended pregnancy rate (Kost 2015), and the limited access to reproductive care, particularly preventative care (Hopkins et al. 2015). The focus of this research has been on structural barriers, such as funding cuts (White et al. 2012), barriers …

"Wommanly Noblesse:" Female Gender Dynamics In Medieval Romance, Mary Elizabeth Shaner

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Exploring systemic, gendered power dynamics and inequalities for women within medieval Matters of Rome, France, and Britain Romances is essential to understanding real-world sociopolitical power structures and female gender roles. Diverging from most previous scholarship in my use of critics as well as in my interpretation of Criseyde and Guinevere as protagonists, my argument examines how scholars would laud the heroic bravery of Geoffrey Chaucer's Criseyde and Sir Thomas Malory's Guinevere if they were male heroes, yet because of the narrative conventions of medieval Romance, Courtly Love, Chivalry, and the Antifeminist Traditions, these fictive women are seen as the destroyers …

From The Fangs Of Monsters: Gender, Empire, And Civilization In The Pacific, 1800-1850, Michael David Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As the nineteenth century commenced, contact between Pacific Islanders and Anglo-Americans increased as did the concern for what resulted from those interactions. In the United States, antebellum restrained men––those who upheld their Protestant faith, self-reliance, and familial values––used ideals of gender to combat the perceived “savagery” of Pacific Islanders and the corruption of American sailors among them. In the mission field, restrained men consciously sought after Anglo-American women’s influence often believing them to be the moral authority of a softer form of empire. This particular form of empire was not government led; nor did it entail the immediate conquest of …

The Ball's In Her Court: Communicating Gender And Sexual Identity In Today's Wnba, Jose Maldonado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prior research has demonstrated certain societal issues that impact not only female basketball players, but all female athletes on more of a larger scale than just participating in sport. With social media rapidly becoming a popular form of communication today, and the dilemma of these women being analyzed for something other than their basketball prowess, it is important that certain communication strategies in a mediated environment be further researched. Using textual analysis, three of the WNBA's most popular players will be examined to determine if there are significant themes and differences that confirm the previously established gender norms, along with …

Cultivating Social Capital In Undergraduate Research: Key Sources And Distinctions By Gender, Heather Ann Daniels

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Women are outpacing men in overall educational attainment, however this is not the case in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields when women fall behind men. Establishing strong social connections is important to retention in STEM fields and persistence in the STEM pipeline. This study qualitatively examines what serves as social capital in STEM-focused undergraduate research and how social capital is accrued and deployed differently by men and women in ways that could be contributing to the gender gap in STEM. 17 students participating in external summer research programs at 12 different universities were interviewed at 3 points in …

The New Wine: Spirit, Transformation, And Gender In The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1960-1990, Jacob Aaron Waggoner

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Charismatic Catholic Renewal (CCR)—known in Mexico as the Renovación Cristiana en el Espíritu Santo—saw Roman Catholic believers experience ecstatic spiritual practices native to neo-Pentecostalism. At first highly ecumenical, CCR emerged from loosely organized prayer meetings in the late 1960s and early 1970s to become a coherent movement by around 1975. Like many developments after the Second Vatican Council, CCR represented an effort to revitalize the Church by re-centering and empowering the laity. Reflecting a broader reactionary shift in the 1980s, the Renewal gradually shed its potentially liberating elements. This transition was especially notable in the context of the U.S.-Mexico …

Esta Con La Partera: A Qualitative Feminist Perspective Of Women's Birthing Experiences In El Paso Texas, Anessa Anchondo-Rivera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The state of pregnancy is a political one, where women act within and from the social structures that can influence life choices. Through in-depth interviews, this qualitative study examines the choices of six women who birthed at the only birthing center in El Paso County, El Paso Texas. This research uses feminist standpoint theory and life course approach theory to examine how these six women interviewed negotiated their decision-making processes during their pregnancy and birth. Through the use of visual sociology, the research also uses the documentary Catching Babies as a secondary source to examine the services of Maternidad La …

Happily Ever After And Other Lies My Childhood Told Me, Rachel Anna Neff

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A manuscript-length book of poetry with a critical preface centered on the idea of mythology, nursery rhymes, and foundational (Western) fictions and how the cultural norms and expectations that those texts create influence an individual, particularly with respect to gender and gender identity.

Construcción De Subjetividades Identitarias Y Su Relación Espacial: Tres Representaciones Teatrales Del Feminicidio En Ciudad Juárez, Nidia Mariana Reyes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Ciudad Juárez, una de las fronteras más importantes de México debido a su producción industrial, adquirió renombre ya que a partir del año de 1993 se dio a conocer un alarmante aumento de violencia ejercida contra la mujer en la ciudad (misma que culminó con una ola de feminicidios). De esta manera se convirtió en un lugar de estudio y de inspiración para artistas que buscaban visibilizar dicha situación. Un ejemplo de lo anterior es el aumento en la producción literaria que hace del feminicidio en Ciudad Juárez su temática principal ha tenido un gran auge en el panorama artístico. …

Perspectives On Feminine Cultural Gender Role Values From Latina Leaders And Community Residents, Nazanin Mina Heydarian

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Marianismo and machismo are gender values prescribed to women and men respectively within Latino cultures. Characteristics associated with these gender values can be pro- or anti-social. Individuals, regardless of their own sex, self-identify with characteristics prescribed to both genders. There is little research examining how Latinos conceptualize and self-identify with both marianismo and machismo. The present study contributes to the literature by classifying how Latina leaders and non-leader community residents describe characteristics associated with marianismo and machismo. I identified characteristics of marianismo and machismo and their associated pro- and anti-social dimensions by means of a thematic analysis. The following characteristics …

Tiger Shell, Christopher Sinnett

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Poetry is everything. A poem is a shell filled with a sliver of poetry. Life goes in, life comes out. These shells are filled with what we know, and deep inside, what we do not know. The ocean goes in and out. Art is in the shell. The poet enters, does not perform, does not act, does not do. The poet is.

"How Do We Not Go Back To The Factory?" Negotiating Neoliberal Conditions In A Latina-Led Transnational Development Organization In El Paso (Texas), Anthony Michael Jimenez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: As the structure of the global economy shifted the United States' manufacturing base South of the U.S-Mexico in the years up to and post-NAFTA, thousands of women of Mexican descent residing in El Paso (Texas) were displaced from their garment factory jobs and left without social, political and economic support. Subsequently, some of these women joined La Mujer Obrera, an organization committed to fostering community development for low-income women from both sides of the U.S-Mexico border. The organization faces difficulties in receiving economic aid from the local government, which is apparently due to their development model being incompatible with …

Guerreras Sitiadas: Ansiedades De Género En Dos Obras Del Siglo De Oro, Daniel Alfredo Vega

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Uno de los momentos más dramáticos de la historia de España fue la Guerra de Sucesión Castellana que tomó lugar entre 1475 y 1479. Durante ese periodo, se desató una contienda de sucesión por el trono que habí­a quedado vacante tras la muerte del rey Enrique IV. Siglo y medio más tarde, Lope de Vega y Tirso de Molina escogieron este conflicto como telón de fondo para ambientar dos obras dramáticas en las cuales se ven representadas diversas ansiedades y temas relacionados con género.

Segundo Barrio: Rich, Poor, Or Both?, Julie Anne Krill

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This manuscript describes an exploratory study which was undertaken in Segundo Barrio; a historic neighborhood in El Paso, Texas. The purpose of the study was to identify formal and informal sources of social support through the perceptions of female residents in different stages of life. This community, while economically disadvantaged, has unique characteristics and resources and the researcher was interested in seeing how different age groups perceive them.

Guiding Research Questions:

What sources of social support do residents of Segundo Barrio identify as key sources of support within their neighborhood, Greater El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua?

* Social …

Studying Rape Through A Theorectical Lens: The Development Of A Serial Rape Model Using Fbi Data, Brooke Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The current study assessed whether there is an empirical foundation for different theories of rape including the feminist, evolutionary, social disorganization, psychopathy, and rapist type theories. Using a data set from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on serial rapists collected in the early 1990's, the study included two phases. The first phase assessed whether FBI data supported the previously mentioned theories of rape by analyzing associations between individual variables that are thought to support each theory. Support was demonstrated for the evolutionary and psychopathy theories. Using MPlus statistical software to accommodate the multi-level nature of the data, the second …

Mujeres Haciendo Frente Al Desplazamiento Forzado / Women Confronting Forced Displacement, Rocio Clarisa Lemus

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The main question of this research whether or not a relationship exists between gender and forced displacement. More specifically, my interest is to document the experiences that women undergo when they are forced to leave their places of origin due to the Colombian War. The present research looks both to study the current condition of women who live in displaced condition in Bogotá and to contribute to the discussion regarding the concept of ambivalent empowerment. The analysis of the information is enriched by the Intersectionality Theory of Patricia Hill Collins . The research method and design used in this research …

Deterring Bonds: Why She Can't Leave., Yolanda Cora Seidler

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Is it always true that the marriage bonds nurture love?

Domestic violence knows np boundaries it happens everywhere it touches everyone, regardless of age, income, level of education, occupation, race/ethnicity, and religious belief. For this study, because of its unique characteristics, the military community was selected. Some of its differences with the civil community as well as its response to victims, protection, rights, and the offenders accountability are discussed.

It's Bigger And Hip-Hop: Richard Wright, Hip-Hop, And Masculinity, Marcos Julian Del Hierro

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In Native Son, Richard Wright presents a view of the impoverished, inner-city from an insider's perspective, which reflects the anger and hate brewing towards the rest of the nation as a result of living under harsh, isolating conditions. Wright's main character, Bigger Thomas serves as an archetypal ghetto figure both in his attitudes and the treatment he receives from Anglo Americans. Additionally, the reception of Native Son by a majority white reading audience also reflected the voyeuristic thrill of the bourgeoisie when consuming cultural products by African Americans. The selection of Wright's novel into the Book of the Month …

Taste Of Dirt, Brianna Lynn Heisey

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Taste of Dirt is a novel about a young female wildland fire fighter and her travels across the western U.S with her fire crew. The forest, the open road, the animals, and the men and women she meets along the way help her overcome her fears and re-discover her place in nature. This Thesis is approximately 240 pages and includes a dedication, acknowledgements, a table of contents, a 25 page introduction, 16 complete chapters and a curriculeam vita. Enjoy.