Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

“Kenough”: What Greta Gerwig’S Barbie Film Has To Teach Us About Social And Distributive Justice Related To Masculinity And Positive Masculine Qualities, B.D. White

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

Beyond Barbie’s feminist messages, the academy award winning film gently nudges the viewer to consider “male fragility,” prompting a deeper exploration of male role norms (MRNs) and masculine expression among cisgendered, American men. Conforming to these norms is linked to societal issues such as higher rape myth acceptance, homophobia, transphobia, and gender role strain. This analysis underscores the necessity of challenging traditional male norms for a more just society. This paper redefines MRNs, arguing that they are not a blueprint for healthy masculinity but a distortion rooted in a culture that restricts men's experiences. Norms are scrutinized, offering definitions, social …

Undoing The Absence Of Asexuality In The Classroom, Canton Winer

Feminist Pedagogy

Asexuality exists at the margins of sexuality, often invisible to and misunderstood outside—and even within—the LGBTQIA+ community. As an identity that generally refers to those who experience low/no sexual attraction, asexuality challenges the broadly held notion that everyone experiences sexual attraction. Given the centrality of sexuality to a great deal of feminist scholarship, the absence of asexuality in many feminist classrooms is striking. Moreover, decades of feminist and queer research and pedagogy have demonstrated the vast, liberatory potential of centering the margins as we seek to understand the social world. With that lineage in mind, asexuality presents a rich, relatively …

Love Letters For Liberatory Futures, Jessica Rodriguez-Jenkins, Roberta Hunte, Lakindra Mitchell Dove, Antonia R.G. Alvarez, Alma M. O. Trinidad, Gita Mehrotra

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This collection of letters serves to explore the narratives of a collective of women of color in academia by examining individual, collective, spiritual, and institutional strategies for surviving and transforming our institutional spaces and the ways that White Supremacy has shaped our journeys. Multiple perspectives are viewed, and we have written to our children, our future social work students, our future selves, our BIPOC faculty siblings, and our feared enemies to envision and embody more liberatory futures.

Keywords: liberation, academia, BIPOC faculty, institutional racism, White Supremacy

“Nope. Don’T Like That.” In Search Of Justice And Commitment To Nonmaleficence In Dance/Movement Therapy, Johnee Border

Dance/Movement Therapy Theses

The American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) and Dance/Movement Therapy Certification Board (DMTCB) have ensured those dance/movement therapists who have been educated, registered, and board-certified share a commitment to equity, justice, and nonmaleficence according to the ADTA and DMTCB’s Code of Ethics and Standards (The Code) (ADTA, 2015). “Nope. Don’t like that,” has been the actual, verbal, expression of the embodied experience of intersectional harm from a lack of assessed, decolonized dance/movement therapy practice and pedagogy. The ADTA, students, educators, and credentialed dance/movement therapists hold an established, ethical responsibility to justice and nonmaleficence, and as such, must demonstrate a commitment to …

Menstruation Products And Perceptions: Breaking Through The Crimson Ceiling, Ava Colleran

Young Historians Conference

This paper examines different views on menstruation throughout history and their effects on social, political, and economic landscapes. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Mayans all believed in the supposed ‘magical powers’ of menstrual blood. These societies held their own ideas on the limits of these magical abilities, and the good and evil forces they could be used for. Throughout these ancient societies, menstruation was used as a justification for the increased control of the state and men over women’s bodies. If menstrual blood did have these magical powers, it was a power that needed to be limited and controlled so …

Césaire, Mills, & De Beauvoir In Sociological Theory, Louis Edgar Esparza

The Journal of Social Encounters

The values and priorities of sociology as a discipline have changed dramatically over the past 70 years. Theories of race, class, and gender that had been excluded or marginalized in the positivist twentieth century now make up the classical core of social justice reading lists. Where did these central ideas germinate from? This article identifies and illustrates the influence of three representative theorists: Aime Césaire, C. Wright Mills, and Simone de Beauvoir. These three are commonly read for their incisive critiques of colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy, respectively. Focusing mainly on a critical appraisal of their principal texts in these respective …

Equity + Catalyst Framework Guide, Naomi M. Silas

Culminating Experience Projects

There has been a shift in society, in light of Covid-19 and the global pandemic, more people have begun to recognize the structural and institutional injustices that exist in this country. Social innovation allows collaboration between people from different sectors, disciplines, industries, and backgrounds; in order to create sustainable change to complex social issues. Design thinking is an iterative process used in business to create innovation and products; it’s also used for social impact.

The goal of the Equity + Catalyst Framework is to bridge concepts that include design thinking, and embodiment, as well as lived experiences and community care …

Black Feminism And Me/Maine Webinar, University Of Maine Alumni Association

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Video of the University of Maine Alumni Association's Black Feminism and Me/Maine Webinar.

The conversation was facilitated by Laren Babb who pursued a graduate degree in chemistry from the University of Maine. Around the table will be: Dr. Samaa Abdurraqib, Associate Director, Maine Humanities Council; Dr. Lori Banks, Assistant Professor of Biology, Bates College; Dr. Leslie Hill, Professor Emerita of Politics, Bates College; Amara Ifeji, Director of Youth Engagement and Policy, Maine Environmental Association and National Geographic Young Explorer; and Kosi Ifeji, Bangor High School student and Youth Hub Coordinator, Maine Environmental Education Association.

The event was made possible with …

Trajectory Of Trauma: The Experiences Of Black Girls In The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Heather Nicholson-Bester

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This critical ethnographic research utilizes participatory action research (PAR) and case studies to explore the impacts that zero-tolerance policies have had on the lives of Black girls and women. This work contributes to a small but growing body of work on the intersectional struggles faced by Black girls within the School-to-Prison Pipeline. An aim of this research was to work with the participants to amplify their voices and center them as experts on their own lives. Working with a small sample of three girls and women enabled the creation of detailed narratives of their experiences. These narratives point to the …

Sr. Melissa Anne: Valuing Experiences, Anna Garcia

Ask a Sister: Interview Wisdom from Catholic Women Religious

This paper consists of an interview with Sister Melissa Anne. She has traveled around the Western side of the United States, Mexico, and Central America translating (Spanish) with integral evangelization ministries.

Race, Resilience, And Resistance: A Culturally Relevant Examination Of How Black Women School Leaders Advance Racial Equity And Social Justice In U.S. Schools, Tonya Evette Walls

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This culturally relevant qualitative examination of the leadership of Black women educational leaders (BWEL) committed to advancing a social justice leadership agenda within the contested spaces (Stovall, 2004) comprising United States (U.S.) P-12 schools, employs an African centered emancipatory methodology (Kershaw, 1990, 1992; Tillman, 2002), situated in a conceptual framework grounded in the research on applied critical leadership (Santamaria, 2013). It examines, highlights, celebrates, and makes transparent, the unique leadership of BWEL. Engaged to rebuke the silencing and marginalization of women educational leaders of color in the educational leadership discourse, this study bridges engages a multiple case study approach, phenomenological …

Fearless: Mollie Sherman, Christina L. Bassler

SURGE

As the 14 days to End Sexual Assault ends, Surge highlights the fearless actions of Mollie Sherman, for her courage to speak up against sexual assault. [excerpt]

“Documenting The Untold Stories Of Feminist Activists At Welfare Rights Initiative: A Digital Oral History Archive Project.”, Cynthia Tobar

Publications and Research

This chapter recounts the creation of a digital oral history archive documenting the Welfare Rights Initiative (WRI), a grassroots student activist and community leadership training organization located at Hunter College. The author examines, through these oral history interviews, social movement activity at the level of a grassroots organization as exemplified by WRI, which was developed to aid student welfare recipients to become agents of social change and actively involve them with policymaking. The project depicts the experiences of members in this feminist grassroots organization and provides us with new insights to the origins of advocacy, documenting the singular historical importance …

Cross-Race Relationships As Sites Of Transformation: Navigating The Protective Shell And The Insular Bubble, Karen Audrey Geiger

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The context of leadership has evolved to incorporate greater social identity differences. Therefore, learning ways to navigate differences in social identity becomes important work leaders must now do. Because these differences surface in relationship with others, examining a relational framework helps us understand the nature of what happens between people (Ely & Roberts, 2008). This study explored the processes by which Black African American and White European American women enact leadership by creating and sustaining cross-race relationships as they work to change unjust systems around them. Using grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2006; Strauss & Corbin, 1990), a model was developed …

Women And Poverty, Carlos Ani

Trotter Review

The issue regarding relationships between the status of women, economic health for all people, and social justice is a challenge in every society today. Until fairly recently, poverty and under development were assumed to put all members of affected households - men, women, and children - at an equal disadvantage. "Households" were regarded as static entities where labor and resources are pooled and equally shared. The implicit conclusion was that changes thought of as beneficial for development would be neutral in their effects on the different members of the households. Empirical evidence reveals, however, that the costs and benefits of …

Wic Recognizes Role Models, Elizabeth Beaulieu

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Every year, the Women in the Curriculum and the Women's Studies Program honor three women with the Maryann Hartman Award for contributions and accomplishments. It is the groups' intent that the recognized women serve as a source of inspiration for all women.

Support Key To Onward Success, Christie Johnston

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

The Onward Program, nationally known as the Student Support Services has striven to help students disadvantaged by a physical, mental or financial obstacle since 1970.

Computer Speech No Different From Others, Ryan Robbins

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Last week's filing of a civil rights lawsuit by the state against University of Maine student Casey Belangers for threatening another student on FirstClass raises concerns for how the First Amendment relates to computer networks.

Education Puzzle Needs Solutions, Misty Edgecomb

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

See Dick and Jane. Look! They go to school. See Jane go through the metal detector. The school policeman smiles. See Dick go through the metal detector. Oh no! Look, Dick has a gun.

Women Gain Confidence Through Self-Defense Courses, Krista Marrs

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

With the ongoing concern for student safety on campus, two public safety officers are offering a women's self-defense class and both say participants are making great progress.

Umaine Commits To Classroom Equity, Andrea Page

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Several students addressed the Vision 2000 mission plan for changing gender equity at the University of Maine Thursday.

Professor Credits Women For Harlem Renaissance, Sveta Popova

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Black women writers had an important place in the Harlem Renaissance although literary scholars typically deny them proper recognition, an English professor and researcher said Wednesday.

Gays Only, Maine Campus

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

The Campus Living advisory committee recently approved the creation of a gay wing in Knox Hall. This gay wing would be a "safe zone" open to gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and their supporters.

Activist Speaks To Umaine About Hate Crimes, Keith Edwards

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Claudia Brenner, a gay and lesbian activist, spoke at the University of Maine Tuesday in a lecture titled, "Claiming Our Voices: A Personal Experience."

Concentration Camp Survivor Says: 'Forgive, Don't Forget', Bridget Soper

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Few people today can imagine trading a whole day's food for the use of a sewing needle. Judith Isaacson can imagine trading everything she had to eat for a needle, because as a holocaust survivor in a concentration camps, she did just that.

Um Re-Emphasizes Commitment To Racial And Cultural Diversity, Maine Perspective

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

The University of Maine continues and re-emphasizes its commitment to promote awareness and appreciation of racial and cultural diversity in a state where minorities are sorely underrepresented.

Maine Perspective, Maine Perspective

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

October 1990 issue of the Maine Perspective newsletter containing multiple stories discussing the lack of sexual equity, pluralizm, and educational equity at the University of Maine and steps taken in an attempt to address these concerns.

A Feminized Work Force, A Humanized Workplace, Evelyn Murphy

New England Journal of Public Policy

Enhancing the opportunities for women in the workplace in the next decade will become an economic imperative, not just an issue of social justice. In this article Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Murphy sets forth recommendations for policymakers in both the public and private sector that begin to change our notions of what constitutes a humanized workplace. If the economy is to remain strong, these initiatives will be required to improve business productivity as well as the life of all family members.

Screwballs Comic: "Toke N' Choke", Tom Higgins

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

A four-panel black and white comic strip drawn and authored by Tom Higgins expressing ethnic, black male stereotypes.

Long description.

Panel one: In the foreground is one of the usual white, men characters. The man has a long, rectangular nose and long, flat-top hair style. A speech bubble over his head says, "Hey man, did you get th' stuff?" He is looking in the direction of a black man wearing a striped Zoot suit and black fedora who has opened a door and is walking into the room, toward the white character. The black character is drawn as if he …

Group Says Time Has Come For Celebration, Mike Laberge

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

For the members of the newly formed Afro American Association, celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday on campus was an idea whose time had come.