Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

No Human Right To Sodomy: Christian Conservative Opposition To Sogi Human Rights, Cynthia Burack

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

The American Christian conservative movement is the most consistent and persistent adversary of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) civil rights in the US. In recent years, the Christian right has responded to changes in attitudes to same-sex sexuality in the US by relocating some of their attention and operations to issues and arenas of contest outside the US that hold more promise for implacable antagonism to rights and recognition for LGBTQ people. In some parts of the world, these US-based anti-LGBTQ actors have become recognized as “experts” on gender and sexual minorities and the dire consequences the existence of …

We Just Need To Pee: Bathroom Bills And The Intersection Of Human Rights, Gender, And Race, Lena Tenney

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Although rarely publicly discussed, bathrooms are a fundamental element of everyday life. In fact, the majority of the population does not question their right or ability to access public restroom facilities because they are a mundane aspect of daily routine. However, the recent rise of “bathroom bills” in state legislatures has sparked significant media coverage and highlighted activist movements seeking to guarantee safe, affirming, and legally protected access to bathrooms for people of all gender identities and expressions.

This paper will illustrate that bathroom access is not only a matter of public policy, but also a question of human rights. …

Homophobia, Human Rights And Diplomacy, Douglas Janoff

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Multilateral human rights diplomacy is a product of the triad relationship between intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), civil society organizations (CSOs), and states. This paper examines the emergence of LGBT rights within the context of the UN human rights system. Recently, the global debates around LGBT rights have become much more public and increasingly complex: Ministers, leaders, and even the UN Secretary-General routinely call on states to do more to protect sexual minorities. Countries such as Uganda and Russia are labeled “homophobic” — not just by human rights activists, but by other states. These “accusations” are delivered both bilaterally and in multilateral …

Interrogating Rights: How The United States Is Not Complying With The Racial Equality Treaty, Malia Lee Womack

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In 1994, the United States ratified the United Nations’ core anti-racism treaty, ICERD. Although it has been more than two decades since the United States became a member to the multilateral agreement, a wide range of scholarship determines that the nation is not in compliance with the treaty. Little of this research focuses on gender. This paper intervenes with the research by conducting a gendered analysis, with a focus on African American women, of key areas where the US is not meeting its duties to the multilateral agreement.

This manuscript proves that, first, the United States does not comply with …

Gender, Displacement And Transitional Justice, Sinead Mcgrath

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

In the past fifteen years, there has been huge emphasis on the need for gendered mechanisms dealing with both forced migration and peacebuilding. The UN landmark resolution on Women, Peace and Security (S/RES/1325) and the gender-mainstreaming of the 1951 Refugee Convention have urged all actors to increase the participation of women in peacebuilding and their protection in instances of displacement. An underdeveloped link between these issues has not been addressed by the academic community, particularly when looking at societies in transition and the relationship of displaced women to international migration organisations in the context of transitional justice. This study aims …

[Not] Buying It: Prostitution As Unwanted Sex, Rebecca Whisnant

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Noting the relative invisibility of prostitution buyers, or Johns, in discussions of the morality of prostitution, this article criticizes Johns’ behavior on the grounds that they are culpably involved in causing the typical harms of prostitution in the lives of the women whom they pay for sex. Those harms are, at bottom, the result of being habitually subjected to unwanted sex, and they are exacerbated rather than mitigated by such sex being bought and paid for. Efforts to normalize and legalize sex-buying should therefore be resisted.

Feminist Futures, Julia Nicole Court

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

No abstract provided.

‘How Little I Cared For Fame’: T. Sparrow And Women’S Investigative Journalism At The Fin De Siècle, Laura Vorachek

English Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the work of an overlooked female journalist, T. Sparrow, arguing that her career reveals the difficulties female journalists faced when negotiating between the expectations of middle-class gentility and the demands of investigative journalism.

Sparrow asserted her gentility rhetorically, in part because female reporters who took up investigative reporting were vulnerable to criticism for assaying beyond domestic subjects. Moreover, incognito investigative reporting often brought celebrity to its practitioners, which challenged the convention of middle-class female modesty.

Sparrow, therefore, strove for a delicate balance in her career—assuming the stance of a middle-class woman who lived among the poor, someone …

'But What About Feminist Porn?' Examining The Work Of Tristan Taormino, Rebecca Whisnant

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This article examines the work of Tristan Taormino, a prominent self-described feminist pornographer, in order to illustrate themes and commitments common among those who produce, perform in, and/or support feminist pornography. I argue that her work is burdened by thin and limited conceptions of feminism, authenticity, and sexual ethics, as well as by the profit-based exigencies of producing “feminist porn” within the mainstream pornography industry. I conclude that, if indeed feminist pornography is possible, Taormino’s work falls far short of the mark. Public Health Significance Statement: This study suggests that Taormino’s pornographic films are unlikely to have salutary effects on …

Religious Freedom In Faith-Based Educational Institutions In The Wake Of 'Obergefell V. Hodges': Believers Beware, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli’s fateful words, uttered in response to a question posed by Justice Samuel Alito during oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges,² likely sent chills up the spines of leaders in faith-based educational institutions, from pre-schools to universities. In Obergefell, a bare majority of the Supreme Court legalized same-sex unions in the United States. Verrilli’s words, combined with the outcome in Obergefell, have a potentially chilling effect on religious freedom. The decision does not only impact educational institutions—the primary focus of this article—but also a wide array of houses of worship. Other religiously affiliated …

Tripping On All The Faces: The Identity Work Of Native American Women Artists, Amanda Dee

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

Native American women artists are constantly tugging at a tangle of identities, all while others are pulling on them just as hard. These identities—Native American, Woman, Artist— struggle in one body to express themselves “authentically,” against and toward privacy, against and toward openness. On the outside, however, others flatten the identity of Natives as stoic, wise warriors with elaborate headdresses. Or even flatter to long braids, tan-skin. The confluence of a Cheyenne Lakota cowboy father and artist mother, Cannupa Hanska Luger produced a series in 2013 titled and expressing just that: "Stereotype: Misconceptions of the Native American" in Figure 1 …

'His Women Problem': An Analysis Of Gender On 'The Newsroom', Chad Painter, Patrick Ferrucci

Communication Faculty Publications

This textual analysis focuses on the portrayal of female journalists on Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, which premiered on HBO in 2012. The researchers argue that the four main female journalists are depicted as being unprofessional in the workplace, being inadequate at their jobs, and being motherly and weak. While these female journalists have impeccable credentials, stellar resumes, and a genuine interest in disseminating the best possible news, Sorkin and his fellow writers consistently depict these powerful women as inferior to the male characters.

The researchers conclude that Sorkin and his creative team failed in their ethical obligation to the audience …

Stealing Freedom: Auto Theft And Autonomous Individualism In American Film, James Todd Uhlman, John Alfred Heitmann

History Faculty Publications

In the real world today auto theft is usually about gangs, drugs, and money (Heitmann and Morales 5). However, since 1945, the cinematic representation of auto theft has had more to do with the symbolic meaning cars and driving hold in American culture. In the early twentieth century, the automobile and driving became associated with many of the classic qualities of American identity (March and Collette 107). The roots of that expectation stretch back even further to the role that movement played in the colonization of the continent. The unrestrained capacity to move became equated early in the American cultural …

Building Feminism, Resisting Porn Culture: Where To From Here, Rebecca Whisnant

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In this chapter, I discuss the key elements that radical feminism can contribute to the rebuilding of a powerful movement for women's liberation in the era of porn culture.

First things first, we need more people, more of the time, out there presenting radical feminist critique. I happen to know, for instance, that many bright and well-intentioned young people are toeing the third wave, sexual libertarian line because it's all they've been taught in their women's studies classes. And, of course, many people outside the academy have very little exposure to feminist critiques of virtually anything. So part of this …

Not Your Father’S Playboy, Not Your Mother’S Feminist Movement: Feminism In A Porn Culture, Rebecca Whisnant

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This chapter is about the state of contemporary feminism and how it relates to the porn culture that surrounds us. This is important because whatever porn culture is, and there are a variety of definitions, it's not what feminists, or women, or anybody with a lick of sense, ever meant by "sexual liberation." There have, however, been contentious debates between radical and liberal feminists about the relationship between pornography, power and choice. I aim to unravel some of those debates here and highlight how liberal notions of "choice," favored by self-proclaimed "third-wave feminists," confuse and undermine our thinking not only …

F***** From The Start: Misogyny In Medieval Literature, Amanda Dee

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

It all started at the very beginning. In Genesis, when Eve was created from the rib of Adam and when she bit into the forbidden fruit, the literary character of Eve determined the perception of women who would be born hundreds of years after the biblical story was told -possibly until the end of eternity. About 1,600 years after this story allegedly originated, Joesph Swetnam decried the rib, the woman, as "a crooked thing, good for nothing else." He blames Eve as representative of womankind for "man's fall" (Greenblatt 1651). Interpretations like this, of the woman as the sinful servant …

Gender Disparity Within The Employment Sector In Saudi Arabia, Alyssa Bovell, Libby Durnwald

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

The purpose of our research is to examine why an increased access to higher education has not resulted in an expansion of employment opportunities for women in Saudi Arabia, and how this affects the development of the country. We examine this topic through a feminist and cultural relativist lens in order to understand why Saudi Arabian women are living in such a gender-segregated state. The lack of opportunity to enjoy one’s right to employment renders the progressivism of women’s rights as civil society has taken measure to eradicate such a disparity in the employment sector and disrupt the institutional norms …

Navigating Body, Class, And Disability In The Life Of Agnes Burns Wieck, Caroline Waldron Merithew

History Faculty Publications

The concerns expressed in Burns Wieck’s letter to Hapgood typify many of the issues that occupied her during the course of her life. She, like many Americans in the early twentieth century, thought that there were economic disparities as well as great cultural divisions between the working and middle classes in a capitalist system. Burns Wieck worried about how nature and environment shaped physical and emotional existence for her as a woman and as a worker.4 A question she asked about childbirth in her letter—“Why, oh why, can’t they find some way to humanize that experience?”—is one that she might …

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

English Faculty Publications

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 …

Mothering Against Norms: Diane Wilson And Environmental Activism, Danielle Poe

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Diane Wilson is a mother and an environmental activist, two roles that challenge:

• Common perceptions about what a mother is and what her obligations to her children are.
• Common stereotypes about environmental activists and the focus of their acts.

Her story reveals the ways in which mothering is always practiced in a context, and sometimes in order to work toward a society in which her children can thrive, a mother may have to challenge the context itself and take time away from her children.

When Wilson engages in questioning, challenging, and changing the world, she faces pressure from local and …

Joan Jett In "I Love Rock 'N' Roll": Gender Boundaries And Female Address, Megan Colleen O'Mera

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

Joan Jett was not like other 23-year-olds. But, what else would you expect from a woman who grew up idolizing Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin? When she grew into adulthood under the lens of the public eye, Jett's shockingly masculine style in I Love Rock 'n' Roll was not what the average 1981 MTV viewer was accustomed to seeing from a female music video artist. Her female contemporaries such as Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benetar and Madonna were more traditionally feminine, sometimes even overtly sexual. Instead bending her style to feminize or sexualize herself, Jett expresses her gender by exposing the …

Dependence On Or The Subordination Of Women? Examining The Political, Domestic, And Religious Roles Of Women In Mesoamerican, Andean, And Spanish Societies In The 15th Century, Christine Alwan

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

What is the value of a woman? In the modern West, one may answer with appeals to human rights and the inherent dignity and equality of the human person. However, before the recognition of human rights, many societies’ ideas about the value of women laid in the specific roles women played religiously, politically, and domestically within a particular society. Through the examination of women’s roles in Mesoamerican Aztec society, Andean Incan society, and Spanish society in the 15th century, one is able to observe how gender ideology influenced the roles women played and how these roles had significant implications for …

Food And Feminism, Ellie Myers

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

Food production is a rarely thought about topic in industrialized countries like the U.S. There is an assumption that our food comes from big farms in the states, but in reality, “the poorest two-thirds of humanity feed the richest third” (Hamer, 28). This paper seeks to understand how this patriarchal relationship of American agribusiness and between lesser developed countries, specifically India, is affecting both the producers and consumers of these bioengineered crops. This will examine how food production is a feminist issue and how ecofeminism believes this problem can be remedied by local knowledge is the solution to the global …

Women, Disabled, Jana Marguerite Bennett

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Women are disabled. This is not simply the notion that some women have disabilities (in the way that I myself am a woman with a hearing loss), but that the very fact of being a woman is a disability. I have no doubt that there are people who might find this statement offensive. People with disabilities (as commonly understood) might find it so because it would seem to lessen difficulties, pains, and real encumbrances that disability entails. Some feminists might do so because it would seem to emphasize some of the very stereotypes of women that they wish to overcome: …

Drag Kings: Performing Masculinity, Lauren Cummerlander

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

Gender performance as a means of political message has always been fascinating to me. The idea of being able to put on and take off gender at will is interesting; the added layer of power relations makes it even more intriguing. What better illustration of gender performance than drag. Drag is all about the performance of gender, with the goal of disrupting the power hierarchy. To me drag is an important part of gender performance because it is one which illustrates that gender is a performance and is nothing more than culturally accepted features that come to identify people. Surprisingly …

Extreme Pornography And Obscenity Legislation, Julianne Morgan

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act (CJIA), a piece of UK legislation that came into effect in 2009, seeks to criminalize the possession of extreme pornography with a particular focus on controlling the spread of such images available via the internet. The law mandates that an image is pornographic “if it is of such a nature that it must reasonably assumed to have been produced solely or principally for the purpose of sexual arousal.” An image is considered extreme if it is “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character” and “if it portrays, in an …

The Myth Of Choice: The Cultural Shift In Cosmetic Surgery, Kelly Neyer

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

What comes to mind when you hear the words cosmetic surgery? The majority of the population would think of breast augmentations, liposuction, or rhinoplasties; but what about vaginal rejuvenation, labiaplasties, or pubic liposuction? In the United States, cosmetic surgery is undergoing a major cultural shift concerning the types of procedures done on women. Moving away from the outer, visible parts of a female body, cosmetic surgery is advancing to the inner and more private domains of a female body. Known as female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS), these procedures are part of the larger cultural shift in the trends and practices …

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

English Faculty Publications

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.

Feminism, Cultural Violence Of, Danielle Poe

Philosophy Faculty Publications

For most, if not all, self-defined feminists, feminism means support for equality between women and men. The difficulty with this definition, though, is determining what one means by "equality," by "women and men," and by "sex" and "gender." For some feminists, equality requires that differences between women and men be acknowledged and valued. For other feminists, equality means that the category "human" encompasses women and men and that the differences within a sex are greater than differences between the sexes.

Feminists also differ on what they mean by "women" and "men"; these terms can be defined biologically, genetically, culturally, religiously, …

Portrayal Of Women And Clothing In Domestic Housework Commercials, Julie Brady Ramaccia

Joyce Durham Essay Contest in Women's and Gender Studies

5✸`‰©5❷O";">There are over 90 million televisions in the United States, serving roughly 98% of the United States’ population. An average American will watch 30,000 commercials in a year, which results in a total of over 2,000,000 commercials in a lifetime (Allan and Coltrane, 1996; Bretl and Cantor, 1988). An American will end up spending about three years of his or her life watching commercials (Kilbourne, 2001). Since the media and particularly commercials are so pervasive in American society, it is imperative that the effects of this advertising be studied and understood. It is also important to analyze the clothing …