Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

From Tawa'if To Wife? Making Sense Of Bollywood's Courtesan Genre, Teresa Hubel

Teresa Hubel

Introduction: Although constituting what might be described as only a thimbleful of water in the ocean that is Hindi cinema, the courtesan or tawa'if film is a distinctive Indian genre, one that has no real equivalent in the Western film industry. With Indian and diaspora audiences generally, it has also enjoyed a broad popularity, its music and dance sequences being among the most valued in Hindi film, their specificities often lovingly remembered and reconstructed by fans. Were you, for example, to start singing "Dil Cheez Kya Hai" or "Yeh Kya Hua" especially to a group of north Indians over the …

Bridging The Distances: Women Writers Exploring The Nightmare Of Vietnam, Christina Triezenberg

Christina Triezenberg

This essay seeks to challenge the now-common practice of excluding Vietnam-era antiwar verse from contemporary literary anthologies by exploring the works produced by professional and amateur female poets who, in many cases, had witnessed the war firsthand and reflected on their experiences in verse that depicts the often harsh realities of this still-contested conflict. By exploring poetry written by women who served in a variety of capacities during the war, this essay underscores the repeated attempts made by women writers to bridge the distances between the home front and the battlefront and offers a compelling argument about the importance of …

Territorios De Silencio: Testimonios Y Poéticasde Ausencia En Clemente Riedemann Y Juan Pablo Riveros, Marta Sierra

Marta J Sierra

No abstract provided.

Book Review: American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life Of Anne Hutchinson, The Woman Who Defied The Puritans, Marla Kohlman

Marla Kohlman

Review of American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans by Eve LaPlante

The Costs Of Exclusionary Practices In Women's Studies, Maxine Zinn, Lynn Weber, Elizabeth Higginbotham, Bonnie Dill

Lynn Weber

No abstract provided.

Anticipatory Socialization Of Pregnant Women: Learning Fetal Sex And Gendered Interactions, Medora Barnes

Medora W. Barnes

Dark Avunculate: Shame, Animality, And Queer Development In Oscar Wilde’S “The Star-Child”, Rasmus R. Simonsen

Rasmus R Simonsen, PhD

This article will outline the inequalities of the relationship between the Star-Child and his temporary master, known only as the Magician, in order to argue that Wilde’s fairy tale should be read as the formalization of a queer interval that traumatizes the Victorian norm of maturation. This is not to suggest that “Wilde’s Victorian readers [would] seem to have found [any]thing untoward about the fairy tales” (Duffy 328); nothing, at least, that hinted at the “homoromantic dimensions” which were to become so devastatingly central to his libel trial of 1895 (338). John-Charles Duffy has nevertheless shown that a complex interweaving …

Rereading And Rewriting Women's History, Jacqueline Harris

Jacqueline H Harris

Rereading and Rewriting Women's History by Jacqueline Haley Harris, Master of Science Utah State University, 2008 Major Professor: Dr. Evelyn Funda Department: English In Margaret Atwood's nonfiction book Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (2002), Atwood discusses the importance of the female writer's responsibility, that to write as a woman or about women means that you take upon yourself the responsibility of writing as a form of negotiation with our female dead and with what these dead took with them'the truth about who they were. By rereading and rewriting our communal past, women writers pay tribute to our …

A Queer Vegan Manifesto, Rasmus R. Simonsen

Rasmus R Simonsen, PhD

What does it mean for a person to declare her or his veganism to the world? How does the transition from one diet to another impact one’s sense of self? Veganism challenges the foundational character of how we “act out” our selves—not least of all in the context of sexuality and gender. In my paper, I am thus interested in the potential of veganism to disrupt the “natural” bond between gender formations and the consumption of animal products, as this relates to social and cultural genealogies. Consequently, I will explore a queer form of veganism that affirms the radical impact …

Women And Men: Gender In The Music Business: Historical Overview, Sharine Borslien

Sharine Borslien

No abstract provided.

Review Of Karmen Mackendrick, Divine Enticement: Theological Seductions, Journal Of Religion 95:2 (267-9), Mary-Jane V. Rubenstein

Mary-Jane Rubenstein

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Islam As A Religion And Muslim Women On Gender Equality: A Phenomenological Research Study, Sonia D. Galloway

Sonia D. Galloway, Ph.D.

The purpose of this study was to examine and explore the meanings, structures and essence of the lived experience of Muslim women via an Islamic theoretical (Kalam) framework. The study's goal was to describe a detailed and comprehensive description of how Muslim women use Islam to promote gender equality and improve treatment within their daily lives. The critical importance of gleaning a better understanding of Islam and the perceived invisibility of Muslim women motivated the researcher to undertake this study. The research study included a qualitative phenomenology research approach. Data were collected from multiple sources: observations, semi-structured individual interviews and …

Homonationalist Futurism: "Terrorism" And (Other) Queer Resistance To Empire, C. Heike Schotten

C. Heike Schotten

What Is Feminist About Open Access?: A Relational Approach To Copyright In The Academy, Carys J. Craig, Joseph F. Turcotte, Rosemary J. Coombe

Carys Craig

In a context of great technological and social change, existing intellectual property regimes such as copyright must contend with parallel forms of ownership and distribution. Proponents of open access question and undermine the paradigm of exclusivity central to traditional copyright law, thereby fundamentally challenging its ownership structures and the publishing practices these support. In this essay, we attempt to show what it is about the open access endeavour that resonates with a feminist theory of law and society - in other words, we consider what is “feminist” about open access. First, we provide an overview of a relational feminist critique …

Feminist Aesthetics And Copyright Law: Genius, Value, And Gendered Visions Of The Creative Self, Carys J. Craig

Carys Craig

Copyright law is fundamentally concerned with the value of cultural works — both the recognition and the creation of this value. Yet it is seldom acknowledged that copyright law makes or requires any value judgment in the sense of an aesthetic evaluation of copyright’s subject matter. Indeed, it is often emphasized that copyright protects original works of authorship regardless of their quality or merit. That copyright protection demands the satisfaction of only the most minimal of qualitative standards does not, however, dispose of the larger claim that forms the basis of this chapter: our copyright system is dominated by a …

Women's Experiences Of Sexual Attention: A Cross-Sectional Study Of U.S. University Students, Samantha Gregus, Christina Rummell, Thomas Rankin, Ronald Levant

Ronald F Levant

This cross-sectional investigation of women's experiences of sexual attention examined the role of dispositional and situational variables in how women experienced sexual attention (as positive, negative, or neutral). Methods: Participants were 350U.S. college women recruited from undergraduate psychology courses. They completed questionnaires on objectified body consciousness, social physique anxiety, self-esteem, body esteem, and social desirability. A subset (N = 275) also reported retrospectively on experiences with sexual attention in 1 of 4 contexts: at a bar/club, at a gym, at school, or at work. It was hypothesized that the context where sexual attention occurs would be associated with how positive …

A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Response Of Aamft Approved Supervisors To A Case Vignette Describing The Perpetration Of Violence In A Family , Kathleen Murphy Adams

Kathleen M. Adams

Concerns about how family therapists respond to violence in families have been discussed in the literature for more than two decades (e.g., Bograd, 1984; Cook & Franz-Cook, 1984; Crnkovic, Del Campo, & Steiner, 2000; Goldner, 1985; Hansen, 1993; Harway, Hansen, & Cervantes, 1991, 1997; James & McIntyre, 1983; Pressman, 1989; Shamai, 1996,).;This study was designed to determine to what extent clinical supervisors' awareness of violence in families reflects or contradicts the poor awareness of family therapists as reported in the literature. Feminist informed critical discourse analysis was used, with a particular emphasis on exploring how the language that supervisors used …

Dangerous Women: Vera Caspary’S Rewriting Of 'Lady Audley’S Secret' In 'Bedelia', Laura Vorachek

Laura Vorachek

Considering Vera Caspary's Bedelia as a reimagining of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret allows for a new critical interpretation that refutes the typical view of Bedelia as reinforcing traditional gender roles. Instead, Caspary critiques World War II America by bringing Victorian concerns with female roles into the twentieth century.

Crossing Boundaries: Land And Sea In Jane Austen's 'Persuasion', Laura Vorachek

Laura Vorachek

Jane Austen suggests in Persuasion the pressures that the increased mobility of the middle class placed on the established aristocratic society in her time. Anne Elliot especially brings to light the inherited assumptions of her society. She can marry within her social rank (Mr. Elliot or Charles Musgrove) or marry below her (Wentworth at age 23), but either is a choice within the limits established by her society. One owns land or one does not. But when Wentworth returns a man of name and wealth, he is not a member of the landed gentry nor is he below Anne in …

Speculation And The Emotional Economy Of 'Mansfield Park', Laura Vorachek

Laura Vorachek

At the midpoint of Mansfield Park (1814), the Bertram family dines at the Parsonage, and card games make up the after dinner entertainment. The characters form two groups, with Sir Thomas, Mrs. Norris, and Mr. and Mrs. Grant playing Whist, while Lady Bertram, Fanny, William, Edmund, and Henry and Mary Crawford play Speculation, This scene is central not only because Speculation reveals certain characters' personalities, but also because another type of “speculation” occurs during the game as the players contemplate or conjecture about one another. Moreover, “speculation” in the sense of gambling functions as a metaphor for the vicissitudes of …

Sex, Class, And The Internet, Brooke M. Beloso, Jan Haaken

Brooke M. Beloso

Women's Studies Professor Brooke Campbell talks with the Old Mole's Jan Haaken about recent controversies over erotic services offered on Craig's List. What's the difference between lining up a "date" on Craig's List and arranging a tryst through a "reputable" dating service? Campbell argues that the missing voices in these debates are those of sex workers themselves. You can find these voices at Bound, Not Gagged, Stella, and "Tales of the Night Fairies" (a film). Episode Synopsis, KBOO Community Radio, Portland, OR

Choose Your Own Sexuality: An Adventure In Queer History, Brooke M. Beloso

Brooke M. Beloso

Reading this page, you are not where you are. I have pulled you into me, because I knew your eye would eventually bring you here. Perhaps all we will ever know of each other is what we now share. So—if two can be one—be me; and I will be you. See through the eyes of someone who has not seen the landscape sprawling beneath the highest height you've ever climbed, or touched the face that most often faces yours. I can't guess why you cry when you cry alone, or where you go when you don't want to be found. …

Blue Bloods, Movie Queens, And Jane Does: Or How Princess Culture, American Film, And Girl Fandom Came Together In The 1910s, Diana Anselmo-Sequeira

Diana Anselmo-Sequeira

This article explores the complex relationship established between young film actresses and their adolescent female fans during the second decade of the twentieth century. In the 1910s, popular press often promoted movie stars in their teens—such as Mary Pickford, Shirley Mason, Mae Marsh, and Lila Lee—as rag-to-riches Cinderellas released from urban squalor due to employment in the motion pictures. Fan magazines also presented these girl stars as blue-blooded princesses, whose royal bloodline enriched American stardom. Such press pageantry invited girl fans to identify with girl stars’ mythologized biographies.

However, the depiction of female movie stars as manufactured blue bloods also …

Children’S Rights, Well-Being, And Sexual Agency, Samantha Brennan, Jennifer Epp

Samantha Brennan

No abstract provided.

The Monster Of Wall Street, Michael A. Stanley

Michael A Stanley

The scathing social satire that is Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho uses a unique stream-of consciousness narrative that draws the reader into the text by way of a fascination with the narrator. Patrick Bateman, a wealthy and powerful Wall Street elite who divides his time between giving fashion advice and frequenting New York’s trendiest restaurants and clubs, also happens to be a delusional psychotic and ostensibly a serial killer. Shifting between a narrative that sounds like a schizophrenic’s journal of descent into madness and occasionally addressing the reader directly, Ellis has created a voice for the main character that is …

Review Of Amber Jamilla Musser's Sensational Flesh: Race, Power, And Masochism, Margot Weiss

Margot Weiss

No abstract provided.

Queer Precarity And The Myth Of Gay Affluence, Margot Weiss, Amber Hollibaugh

Margot Weiss

Bdsm (Bondage, Discipline, Domination, Submission, Sadomasochism), Margot Weiss

Margot Weiss

Queer Economic Justice: Desire, Critique, And The Practice Of Knowledge, Margot Weiss

Margot Weiss

Responding To Gendered Dynamics: Experiences Of Women Working Over 25 Years At One University, Ellen Broido, Kirsten R. Brown, Katie Stygles

Kirsten R. Brown, Ph.D.