Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

A Trauma-Informed Socially Just Approach To Working With Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth Utilizing Expressive Arts Therapy, Ciara Carr

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Youth involved with the juvenile justice system often have a history of trauma and oppression resulting from their positionality and circumstances. Most juvenile justice-involved youth are boys, youth of color, low-income, LGBTQIA2S+, disabled, and traumatized. This literature review explores the history of the juvenile justice system, issues with the present-day model, and trauma-informed and transformative justice approaches to practice. The implementation of socially just, trauma-informed expressive arts therapy programs is proposed as a more equitable practice to replace commonly used punitive practices across the United States. More research is needed to understand the impact of such programs on this population …

Kiss Of Love Campaign: Contesting Public Morality To Counter Collective Violence, Sonia Krishna Kurup Miss

Peace and Conflict Studies

The paper studies the immense opposition to a nonviolent campaign against the practice of moral policing in Kerala to understand the dominant spaces, collective identities, and discourses that give shape to the outrage of public morality in India. The campaign through its politics specifically targeted rightwing and political groups as well as socially embedded familial and institutional structures that exercise control over individuals through patriarchal regimes. The adverse reaction to the campaign revealed that collective aggression or violence can be used to impose majoritarian values and exert social control through the authority of public morality and everyday acts of moral …

Research Methods In Psychology: A Feminist Exercise To Facilitate Students’ Understanding Of Operational Definitions, Observation, And Inter-Rater Reliability, Amy C. Moors

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

"As an illustrative example of how I use a feminist-centered approach to teach core research methods concepts, below, I outline the aims and details of how to replicate one of my students’ favorite activities. This activity ties together concepts of operational definitions, observation, and inter-rater reliability through coding of “creepy” behaviors in a Saturday Night Live short video produced by The Lonely Island, featuring Nicki Minaj and John Waters (2011; see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLPZmPaHme0). In the first part of the exercise, students are instructed to code observations of creepy behaviors without an operational definition. In the second part, students …

Does Money Indeed Buy Happiness? “The Forms Of Capital” In Fitzgerald’S Gatsby And Watts’ No One Is Coming To Save Us, Allie Harrison Vernon

English (MA) Theses

Looking primarily at two critically acclaimed texts that concern themselves with American citizenship—F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Stephanie Powell Watts’ No One is Coming to Save Us—I analyze the claims made about citizenship identities, rights, and consequential access to said rights. I ask, how do these narratives about citizenship sustain, create, or re-envision American myth? Similarly, how do the narratives interact with the dominant culture at large? Do any of these texts achieve oppositional value, and/or modify the complex hegemonic structure? I use Pierre Bourdieu’s “The Forms of Capital” to investigate the ways in which economic, cultural, …

Posthuman And Alien Breeding: The Implications Of Cybersex In Octavia Butler’S Dawn 2019., Elizabeth Rutkowski

Master's Theses

Speculative science fiction affords new ways for authors to represent social problems of the modern day in an apocalyptic manner. Authors such as Octavia Butler use science fiction to analyze social injustices revolving around race, gender, and sexuality. Throughout her novel Dawn, Butler uses the posthuman to represent minority groups in the late twentieth century. The posthuman represents those who have moved from humanity towards a new opportunity that is mixed with the potential for struggle. 1 As demonstrated through Butler’s work posthumanism blurs the lines between binaries such as male / female, straight / gay, and consensual / nonconsensual …

Abuse Or Be Abused: Traumatic Memory, Sex Inequality, And Millennium As A Socio-Literary Device, Kate Rose

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article applies the research of French psychiatrist Muriel Salmona to literary analysis of Stieg Larsson’s protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, in the Millennium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2008; The Girl Who Played with Fire, 2009; The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, 2010). It suggests that Larsson’s novels may be useful in raising awareness of childhood sexual abuse, through reading neglected signs linked to the neurology of traumatic memory. In the tradition of Nordic noir novels, hyperboles in Salander’s sensationalized identity serve to magnify and bring to light a misunderstood social problem. The article …

Toward Culturally Competent Archival (Re)Description Of Marginalized Histories, Annie Tang, Dorothy Berry, Kelly Bolding, Rachel E. Winston

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

Influenced by the radical archives movement, panelists discuss their (re)processing projects for which they wrote or rewrote descriptions in culturally competent approaches. Their case studies include materials regarding underrepresented peoples and historically oppressed groups who are marginalized from or maligned in the archival record. Targeted to processors, this session aims to teach participants to apply their cultural competencies in writing finding aids through an introduction to cultural competency framework, the case study examples, and a short audience-participation exercise.

I'M Sorry For Everything, Hille Sennott

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

My work is rooted in the fact that women are practically conditioned to apologize for everything, and tells the intimate story of my life. By recording my apologies for several months and deeply examining my behavior, I noticed themes and made work based on these — work that exposed my private moments. I noticed a disconnect between times I needed to apologize, and this compulsive need to take on the blame for every little thing. I examine the feminine battle of soft and strong, eventually coming to the conclusion that there are occasions calling for both. Women are taught to …

How To Be The Perfect Asian Wife!, Sophia Hill

Art and Art History Honors Projects

“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife” critiques exploitative power systems that assault female bodies of color in intersectional ways. This work explores strategies of healing and resistance through inserting one’s own narrative of flourishing rather than surviving, while reflecting violent realities. Three large drawings mimic pervasive advertisement language and presentation reflecting the oppressive strategies used to contain women of color. Created with charcoal, watercolor, and ink, these 'advertisements' contrast with an interactive rice bag filled with comics of my everyday experiences. These documentations compel viewers to reflect on their own participation in systems of power.

It's Just A Toy, Lauren Strauss

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies

Each and every one of us experiences gender stereotyping, whether we realize it or not. It is such a simple concept and something people don't tend to think about. Although, from a young age, we are exposed to our parents' and societies' views on gender and the toys we should play with, which then stick around for generations. The color pink and dolls are for girls and trucks and the color blue are for boys, right? Well, not necessarily. Toys are also expressed through the idea that women have to be the stay at home mom and take care of …

Naming The Nameless: An Exploration Of Queer Poetry And Empowerment, Jesse Yelvington

2018 Award Winners

No abstract provided.

What Is My Role In Changing The System? A New Model Of Responsibility For Structural Injustice, Robin Zheng

Women's and Gender Studies Program: Faculty Publications

What responsibility do individuals bear for structural injustice? Iris Marion Young has offered the most fully developed account to date, the Social Connections Model. She argues that we all bear responsibility because we each causally contribute to structural processes that produce injustice. My aim in this article is to motivate and defend an alternative account that improves on Young’s model by addressing five fundamental challenges faced by any such theory. The core idea of what I call the Role-Ideal Model is that we are each responsible for structural injustice through and in virtue of our social roles, i.e. our roles …

Girls Are Us: A Collection Of Oral Histories From The Jmu Community, Anne M. Sherman

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

On a campus where women make up a majority of the student population, it is especially important that female voices are heard and given a platform on which they can control their own narrative. I wanted to give those female-identifying voices that platform. I conducted a series of interviews to examine how college-aged female-identifying students feel about their identity and how they construct that identity within the climate of the JMU community. I was particularly interested in the intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual preference, and ability. I asked each person to share their stories of times when they …

Prospective And Dyadic Associations Between Expectant Parents’ Prenatal Hormone Changes And Postpartum Parenting Outcomes, Robin S. Edelstein, William J. Chopik, Darby E. Saxbe, Britney M. Wardecker, Amy C. Moors, Onawa P. Labelle

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

During the transition to parenthood, both men and women experience hormone changes that are thought to promote parental care. Yet very few studies have explicitly tested the hypothesis that prenatal hormone changes are associated with postpartum parenting behavior. In a longitudinal study of 27 first-time expectant couples, we assessed whether prenatal hormone changes predicted self and partner-reported parenting outcomes at three months postpartum. Expectant fathers showed prenatal declines in testosterone and estradiol, and larger declines in these hormones predicted larger contributions to household and infant care tasks postpartum. Women whose partners showed larger testosterone declines also reported receiving more support …

Gender, Othering, And Loki 2015, Amanda Munson

Master's Theses

With many enigmatic characters and engaging stories, Norse literature and mythology have had a formative impact on English literature from the early Middle Ages in poetry like the Edda and many Icelandic sagas. A lot of scholarship has been done on Nordic myth and literature, including character studies on many figures, especially Odin and Thor. However, it is difficult to find studies of the figures who make up the "other" in Nordic tales, such as the trickster Loki. While Loki plays a significant role in many tales, his position as the "other" in general Norse mythology and folklore is perhaps …

Sugar For Sale: Constructions Of Intimacy In The Sugar Bowl, Emily Zimmermann

The Partisan

No abstract provided.

Object To Your Affection, Melissa J. Lauro

SURGE

Recently a guy in one of my classes defended objectification of women on the grounds that if he cares for a girl, he will treat her like he treats his most treasured objects; he used his coat as an example. He said that he loved his coat, he wouldn’t let it touch the ground, and he took great care of it; he would do the same for any girl he cared about, for “his girl.” [excerpt]

But, Why Not?, Anonymous

SURGE

I am the lucky one.

That’s how I’ve felt growing up in backwater Pennsyltucky, yet somehow managing to be openly queer. I came out to my friends and family as bi/pan-sexual in the 8th grade. None of my coming-out experiences resulted in horror stories. At that point most people had already guessed and accepted the fact that I was most definitely a queer kid. Even the most conservatively religious members of my friend group seemed perfectly okay with the fact that my sexuality didn’t fit with their ideas of morality. I was who I was, and to all outward appearances …

“Finding Coping Skills To Empower”: Black Mothers’ Survival Strategies In Environments With High Levels Of Violence, Lakendra Fort

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

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It’S Not Just A Gay Male Thing: Sexual Minority Women And Men Are Equally Attracted To Consensual Non-Monogamy, Amy C. Moors, Jennifer D. Rubin, Jes L. Matsick, Ali Ziegler, Terri D. Conley

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Concerned with the invisibility of non-gay male interests in alternatives to monogamy, the present study empirically examines three questions: Are there differences between female and male sexual minorities in a) attitudes toward consensual non-monogamy, and b) desire to engage in different types of consensual non-monogamy (e.g., sexual and romantic/polyamory versus sexual only/swinging), and c) schemas for love? An online community sample of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals (n = 111) were recruited for a study about attitudes toward relationships. Results show that sexual minority men and women hold similar attitudes toward CNM and similar levels of desire to engage in …

Does Monogamy Harm Women? Deconstructing Monogamy With A Feminist Lens, Ali Ziegler, Jes L. Matsick, Amy C. Moors, Jennifer D. Rubin, Terri D. Conley

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper, we utilize a critical feminist lens to analyze the advantages and disadvantages found within two different romantic relationship configurations: monogamy and polyamory. While visibility of polyamorous relationships has increased in recent years, there is still a lack of information and a plethora of misinformation concerning non-monogamous romantic relationship dynamics (Conley, Moors, Matsick, & Ziegler, 2012; Conley, Ziegler, Moors, Matsick, & Valentine, 2012). One such notion is that polyamory is differentially damaging to women vis-à-vis men. From a phenomenological perspective, sociocultural values dictate that women, unlike men, are prescribed to be dependent upon monogamy in order to define …

On The Margins: Considering Diversity Among Consensually Non-Monogamous Relationships, Jennifer D. Rubin, Amy C. Moors, Jes L. Matsick, Ali Ziegler, Terri D. Conley

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Consensual non-monogamy (CNM) encompasses romantic relationships in which all partners agree that engaging in sexual and/or romantic relationships with other people is allowed and part of their relationship arrangement (Conley, Moors, Matsick & Ziegler, 2012). Previous research indicates that individuals who participate in CNM relationships are demographically homogenous (Sheff & Hammers, 2010; Sheff, 2005); however, we argue that this may be an artifact of community-based recruitment strategies that have created an inaccurate reflection of people who engage in CNM. To achieve a more nuanced understanding of the identities of individuals engaged in departures from monogamy, the present study provides a …

Love For Sale: How Working Conditions Influence The Dramaturgical Presentation Of Self For Sex Workers In Amsterdam, Elizabeth Scheib

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research investigates how working conditions affect the dramaturgical presentation of self for sex workers in Amsterdam. Seven participants were interviewed in person; three were female window sex workers and four were male brothel sex workers. The theoretical perspective was inspired by sociologists Erving Goffman and Arlie Hochschild. The findings were discussed through the subcategories on the preparation for work/use of costume and props, feelings on competition and co-workers, feelings on work and success, the emotional labour of client interaction, and feelings on discrimination or other negative aspects of the job. This research concludes that emotional labour of client interactions …

“I Would Feel Uncomfortable If My Child’S Teacher Were Gay”: Examining The Role Of Symbolic Homophobia And Political Affiliation, Michael Moore, Amy C. Moors

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Symbolic homophobia is a general negative disposition towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, which is demonstrated in symbolic forms of prejudice rather than overt actions. Stigma towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals has transformed from overt forms of prejudice to slightly less blatant more subtle forms in recent years (Schafer & Shaw, 2009). Based on previous research, it is has also been shown that conservatives will have higher levels of symbolic homophobia. (Linneman, 2004), Thus, in order to assess the more nuanced forms of prejudice in relation to political affiliation, Study 1 created a scale to assess symbolic homophobia. …