Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Women's Studies (280)
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (242)
- English Language and Literature (155)
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies (127)
- Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies (118)
-
- History (114)
- Film and Media Studies (103)
- American Studies (97)
- Sociology (93)
- Gender and Sexuality (65)
- Literature in English, North America (63)
- Other Film and Media Studies (61)
- Philosophy (59)
- Communication (55)
- Women's History (55)
- African American Studies (53)
- Creative Writing (53)
- Education (50)
- History of Gender (50)
- Art and Design (48)
- Literature in English, British Isles (47)
- American Literature (46)
- Theatre and Performance Studies (45)
- Psychology (43)
- Anthropology (42)
- Visual Studies (42)
- American Popular Culture (41)
- Institution
-
- City University of New York (CUNY) (91)
- Claremont Colleges (35)
- University of Massachusetts Amherst (30)
- Bard College (24)
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville (24)
-
- Western University (20)
- East Tennessee State University (15)
- Bowling Green State University (14)
- Virginia Commonwealth University (14)
- Washington University in St. Louis (14)
- University of Montana (12)
- Georgia Southern University (11)
- The University of San Francisco (11)
- University of Denver (11)
- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (10)
- SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad (10)
- Portland State University (9)
- Union College (9)
- University of Louisville (9)
- University of New Mexico (9)
- University of Kentucky (8)
- Kennesaw State University (7)
- Lesley University (7)
- Louisiana State University (7)
- University of New Orleans (7)
- California State University, Monterey Bay (6)
- California State University, San Bernardino (6)
- Longwood University (6)
- Marshall University (6)
- The University of Southern Mississippi (6)
- Keyword
-
- Feminism (90)
- Gender (84)
- Women (32)
- Identity (26)
- Sexuality (25)
-
- Queer (24)
- Masculinity (23)
- Intersectionality (20)
- Race (18)
- Transgender (18)
- Feminist (14)
- Poetry (13)
- Art (10)
- Lesbian (10)
- Patriarchy (10)
- Trauma (10)
- Representation (9)
- Gender Studies (8)
- Queer theory (8)
- Racism (8)
- Religion (8)
- Feminist Theory (7)
- Feminist theory (7)
- LGBTQ (7)
- Language (7)
- Painting (7)
- Sexual violence (7)
- Shakespeare (7)
- Violence (7)
- Abortion (6)
- Publication Year
- Publication
-
- Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects (55)
- Electronic Theses and Dissertations (46)
- Theses and Dissertations (45)
- Doctoral Dissertations (28)
- Masters Theses (23)
-
- Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository (20)
- Honors Theses (20)
- Honors Projects (15)
- Master's Theses (15)
- Scripps Senior Theses (15)
- Undergraduate Honors Theses (15)
- CMC Senior Theses (10)
- Capstone Collection (9)
- Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers (9)
- Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects (7)
- Dissertations (7)
- University Honors Theses (7)
- University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations (7)
- Capstone Projects and Master's Theses (6)
- Communication Studies (6)
- Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations (6)
- Graduate School of Art Theses (6)
- Honors College Theses (6)
- Senior Projects Spring 2022 (6)
- Senior Theses and Projects (6)
- Theses & Honors Papers (6)
- Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) (6)
- Theses, Dissertations and Capstones (6)
- All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects (5)
- Capstones (5)
Articles 1 - 30 of 667
Full-Text Articles in Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Perreando To New Lyrics: Integrating Feminist Reggaeton In Expressive Art Therapy A Literature Review | Perreando A Nueva Lírica: Una Revisión Literaria Sobre Integrar El Reggaetón Feminista A Las Terapias Con Artes Expresivas, Marilina Arsuaga
Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses
This paper presents how feminist reggaeton can be used as a creative tool for women's empowerment. The literature review explores the work that has been done with feminism in expressive arts therapies, defines what feminist reggaeton is, and presents different considerations to incorporate the musical genre into a therapeutic intervention. Among these considerations, there is the social stigma that is held about the musical genre and female gender; the community-based work; the importance of cultural identity centered on the Latinx, more specifically Puerto Rican; and recognition of the LGBTQ+ community in the creative spaces. To navigate these issues, the author …
The Controlled Narrative Of “Jane Roe:” Norma Mccorvey’S Life Beyond The 1973 Trial, Eleanor G. Strickland
The Controlled Narrative Of “Jane Roe:” Norma Mccorvey’S Life Beyond The 1973 Trial, Eleanor G. Strickland
Honors College Theses
Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, 1973, wrote two memoirs twenty years after the Supreme Court trial that surrounded her third pregnancy. These memoirs (I Am Roe, 1994, and Won by Love, 1997), along with the recent documentary AKA Jane Roe (2020), provide an insight into McCorvey’s life and how she was used by politicians and civilians during and after the influential trial. McCorvey lived a complicated life and was constantly being pulled in different directions spiritually, politically, and personally. This thesis shows how McCorvey attempted to re-write the narrative of her life using …
Restorative Practices In English Language Arts: My Journey Towards Linguistic Justice, Ariana Skeese
Restorative Practices In English Language Arts: My Journey Towards Linguistic Justice, Ariana Skeese
Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects
In this final portfolio, I examine anti-racist pedagogy in English Language Arts Education.
Coming Out Of The Coffin: The History And Present Of Queerness In The Vampire Genre., Bailey Drummond
Coming Out Of The Coffin: The History And Present Of Queerness In The Vampire Genre., Bailey Drummond
Honors Projects
This essay delves into the captivating and lasting influence of vampires on popular culture since their creation. The fascination with vampires can be traced back to literary works such as John Polidori's "The Vampyre" and Bram Stoker's classic "Dracula," which have served as foundations for vampire mythology across different media platforms. Despite the evolution of media and cultural contexts, certain themes surrounding vampires have persisted throughout history. Notably, vampires have been portrayed as symbols of sexuality and queerness, reflecting societal fears and desires from past eras to the present day. These themes have been critically analyzed and dissected in various …
"My First Best Love": Women's Writing On College Friendships 1880–1905, Alyssa J. Kayser-Hirsh
"My First Best Love": Women's Writing On College Friendships 1880–1905, Alyssa J. Kayser-Hirsh
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, American society encouraged strong bonds between women. As separate sphere ideology took hold, highly-structured female relationships were created and maintained through shared rituals, language, and expectations. The resulting friendships enabled women to build a range of emotional ties with one another. At the same time, an expanding array of gender segregated educational institutions further promoted homosocial networks. Women’s college students built community through their shared experience inhabiting a collective space, forging social circles as well as one-on-one intimate relationships. This thesis examines women’s experiences of friendship within the college setting between 1880 …
Unnatural Issue: Gendered Adaptations Of “Peau D’Âne” In Contemporary French And English Texts, Amy M. Martin
Unnatural Issue: Gendered Adaptations Of “Peau D’Âne” In Contemporary French And English Texts, Amy M. Martin
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Unnatural Issue: Gendered Adaptations of “Peau d’Âne” in Contemporary French and English Texts explores trans-genre and transmedia adaptations of Charles Perrault’s seventeenth-century fairy tale using feminist and narratological theories to examine gendered aspects of storytelling and the treatment of father-daughter incest and blame in the work of selected French, British, and American creators. Texts are read comparatively, with analyses of the adaptations’ plots, motifs, characterizations, and modifications, both in relation to Perrault and to the other adaptations. This dissertation features prose and poetry texts by female authors—including Christine Angot, Catherine Cusset, and Emma Donoghue—in the first two chapters. Reading these …
Navigating Sexual Consent In Japan, Samara Mizutani Cesar
Navigating Sexual Consent In Japan, Samara Mizutani Cesar
MSU Graduate Theses
Employing an exploratory sequential research design, including focus groups and an online survey, this thesis explores the factors influencing how Japanese people navigate the gray zones of sexual consent. This study not only addresses gaps in the literature on sexual consent but also provides a preliminary understanding of Japanese individuals’ perceptions, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences in ambiguous sexual interactions, which is particularly meaningful given Japan’s recent legal revisions and changing sociocultural landscape. Findings indicated the impact of traditional sexual scripts on consent perceptions, with gender and relationship norms contributing to the dismissal of sexual assaults within specific relationships. It was …
Gendered Submission And The Poetics Of Privacy: Devotional And Domestic Poetry Of The 17th And 20th Centuries, Aoife Keefe
Gendered Submission And The Poetics Of Privacy: Devotional And Domestic Poetry Of The 17th And 20th Centuries, Aoife Keefe
English Honors Theses
The poetry born from the confessional and metaphysical genres together act as a poetic anthology of privacy and submission. This anthology holds poems that powerfully engage with the various gendered experiences of submission and the forfeiture of privacy and agency; while these acts are exalted in their masculine contexts, framed as willful abandons of control that empower the poet spiritually and sexually, in feminine contexts, surrender was never a choice, rather an involuntary and penetrative violation of privacy and bodily autonomy.
Keeping And Challenging Familial Attachments: The Bakla Within Contemporary Mainstream Filipino Film, Abraham James A. Mata
Keeping And Challenging Familial Attachments: The Bakla Within Contemporary Mainstream Filipino Film, Abraham James A. Mata
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Throughout Filipino television and film, it is difficult to ignore the almost always apparent bakla. The bakla, often portrayed as either an effeminate gay man or a trans woman, largely appears as a side character in many Filipino films. Many depictions of this queer figure in the past have cast them as merely comedic relief or perverted figures. However, within the past two decades of the 21st century, many Filipino films have been produced with a central bakla character. Through an analysis of five mainstream films from the years of 2013-2023, this project is seeking to answer how mainstream depictions …
Disney Princess Films: Feminist Movements And The Changing Of Gender Roles, Mckinley M. Frees
Disney Princess Films: Feminist Movements And The Changing Of Gender Roles, Mckinley M. Frees
Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects
No abstract provided.
Revenge Of The Nerds: Tech Masculinity And Digital Hegemony, Benjamin M. Latini
Revenge Of The Nerds: Tech Masculinity And Digital Hegemony, Benjamin M. Latini
Doctoral Dissertations
Revenge of the Nerds provides a cultural history of the evolution of white nerd masculinities in American culture through interpretations of a wide variety of texts and representations using the methods of literary studies and American studies. The dissertation is organized around four overlapping stages of nerd masculinity based on changes in technology and their effects on culture, as well as white male nerds’ efforts to remain culturally relevant and gain the benefits of being close to hegemonic masculinity. The four nerd types are the computer nerd, the gamer, the gatekeeper nerd, and the maladaptive nerd which reflect the following …
Politics Of Refusal: Justice And Liberation For Black Trans Lives, Quincy Smith
Politics Of Refusal: Justice And Liberation For Black Trans Lives, Quincy Smith
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This thesis investigates the challenges faced by Black trans people. In this thesis, I will explore how protest is used to highlight and confront the obstacles faced by the Black trans community. I will also examine the cultural work of Black trans people and what they teach us. The Brooklyn Liberation march and the TV show Pose is an important part of Black trans legacy. They both look at the complications surrounding Black trans lives and contributes to Black trans representation in protesting and fighting marginalization. This thesis will argue the importance of allyship to create safe space for Black …
Witnessing Conspiracy Theories: Developing An Intersectional Approach To Conspiracy Theory Research, David Guignion
Witnessing Conspiracy Theories: Developing An Intersectional Approach To Conspiracy Theory Research, David Guignion
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
This dissertation proposes an intersectional approach to conspiracy theory research that engages conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorists by considering their proximity and affiliations with hegemonic power structures. Against challenges to conspiracy theories based on their lack of empirical legitimacy (Rosenblum and Muirhead 2019) and building on arguments that propound their status as “subjugated knowledges” (Bratich 2008), this dissertation argues that conspiracy theories can be vectors of anti-oppressive resistance against systemic forces that disenfranchise racial, gender, and class minorities. Conspiracy theories are not a homogenous phenomenon; they are particular instances of potentially generative suspicion against powerful forces. The dissertation deploys Kelly …
Responding To Disproportionate Skin Cancer Rates Affecting Adult Men Aged 18-60, Aaron Thompson
Responding To Disproportionate Skin Cancer Rates Affecting Adult Men Aged 18-60, Aaron Thompson
Capstone Collection
Skin cancer is a deadly disease that kills significantly more men than women every year. At the same time, women are more than twice as likely to apply daily sun protection factor (SPF) than men. This research study explores how key stakeholders within the skin care industry have responded to the data showing increasing disparities between male and female skin cancer rates. To fulfill the objectives of this research study, qualitative data was collected from six semi-structured interviews with adult males between the ages of 18 and 60. The interviews were intentionally designed to engage with the American, adult male’s …
A Feminist Ethnography Of Care In The Infant/Toddler Classroom, Chesley Anne Sorrells
A Feminist Ethnography Of Care In The Infant/Toddler Classroom, Chesley Anne Sorrells
Doctoral Dissertations
In the neoliberal context of the Global North, early care and education (ECE) is a conceptually dichotomized and stratified field, with ‘care’ widely considered to be separate from - and lesser than - ‘education.’ Feminist perspectives challenge this dichotomization by reconceptualizing care as foundational to education, centering the historically feminized ideals of emotion, relationality, and interdependence. This three-part qualitative dissertation presents the findings of an 8-month feminist ethnography of care practices in one infant/toddler classroom. Participant observation and semi-structured teacher interviews were used to explore the following research questions: 1) What are teachers’ lived experiences of care in this early …
The Haunting Aesthetics Of Empire: Filipinx America, Us Empire, And Cultural Production, Alana J. Bock
The Haunting Aesthetics Of Empire: Filipinx America, Us Empire, And Cultural Production, Alana J. Bock
American Studies ETDs
Throughout this dissertation, I argue that US imperial knowledge production affirms US exceptionalism by disavowing the imperial violence wrought on the Philippines and its people. This disavowal not only renders the Philippines and Filipinx bodies illegible, but also haunts the Filipinx American diaspora. I argue that the haunted logics of empire are a set of relations, rather than specters of specific times and places, in which knowledge and power work together to continually produce and reproduce a specific and limiting reality and sensorium through which to view the world. In my interrogation of empire’s haunted logics, I not only look …
Linguistic Features Of Metaphor, Metonymy And Narrative Gap In “The Yellow Wallpaper:” A Literary Analysis, Sherry Kaye Ms.
Linguistic Features Of Metaphor, Metonymy And Narrative Gap In “The Yellow Wallpaper:” A Literary Analysis, Sherry Kaye Ms.
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In 1890, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote a piece of fiction that reflected her personal experience for treatment of nervous exhaustion. The story she developed created controversy and comment after it was published and, years later, agitation among feminists who found allegories of truth in its narrative. This thesis explores the use of linguistic features employed by Gilman to establish cognitive connections between physical structures and social institutions, such as marriage and domesticity, that confine women within contractual obligations. Gilman’s use of extended metaphor challenges conventional conceptions of the home, inanimate objects, and institutional authority and her use of metonymy extrapolates …
Love On The Spectrum: Djuna Barnes’S Case Against Categorization In Nightwood, Kaitlyn A. Alford
Love On The Spectrum: Djuna Barnes’S Case Against Categorization In Nightwood, Kaitlyn A. Alford
Masters Theses
Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood is a challenging and beautiful text that continues to confound readers almost 100 years after its original publication. Though the text is often read as a “lesbian” novel, I consider the possibilities available when we read this text instead with a more open queerness in mind. By looking at the novel’s treatment of image, time, history, gender, sexuality, and identity, a new way of reading is revealed which rejects moves of taxonomization and categorization. This thesis explores how Barnes challenges dominant modes of representation and understanding, not to be a simple contrarian, but to present a new …
Long In The Tooth: The Commodification Of Teeth, Land, And Character; Resistance To British Oral Culture In Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, And The Americas 1770-1900, Emma B. Mincks
English Language and Literature ETDs
This dissertation is about teeth- rather, how they are portrayed in British colonial discourses of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century and their development as a commodified material object associated with purity, lands, and visceral emotionality. What do teeth specifically, and orality more generally, mean to eighteenth and nineteenth-century readers in relation to the logics of white possession? How did objectified subjects react to and respond to the affective tension created by this objectification? Teeth are represented in relation to feminine purity throughout British writing from at least the 1600’s. However, between 1770-1900, teeth gain additional cultural meanings, most …
Women's Work: The Sublime Is Now, Michelle Blackstone
Women's Work: The Sublime Is Now, Michelle Blackstone
MFA in Visual Arts Theses
What influences the lens through which we view art and the value we ascribe to it? This paper investigates the ways in which the historically gendered philosophy of “The Sublime,” a lack of institutional access, and traditionally gendered materials have acted as impediments for women in the arts. Discussion is given to the ways that masculine rhetoric in terms of “The Sublime” prevented women from attaining what was once considered the highest level of artistic achievement. Further attention is given to obstructions female artists face(d) in terms of gaining intuitional access within the art world. Finally, I examine the ways …
Gender Washing Autocracies In Egypt: Drawing On The Presidency’S Of Anwar El Sadat And Hosni Mubarak, Menat Aly
Gender Washing Autocracies In Egypt: Drawing On The Presidency’S Of Anwar El Sadat And Hosni Mubarak, Menat Aly
Theses and Dissertations
Research Question:
The main research question this study seeks to address is: Why did the autocratic regimes of Anwar el Sadat and Hosni Mubarak choose to advance women’s rights?
Hypothesis:
Autocratic governments under Sadat and Mubarak used gender instrumentally, and their focus on empowering women in their societies was functional to promoting their vision of "modernization" internationally and to enhancing their image, while at the same time concealing their autocratic practices.
Research Problem
Authoritarian [1]systems in the Arab world have long used different tactics in order to consolidate their regimes. Indeed, one such tactic is the use of gender …
The Death And Rebirth Of The Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe And Sylvia Plath, Noha Ibrahim
The Death And Rebirth Of The Feminine Muse: Edgar Allan Poe And Sylvia Plath, Noha Ibrahim
Theses and Dissertations
While drawing on mythology and a literary history that associated women with death as well as creativity, Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Plath experimented with binary oppositions such as masculine/feminine, composition/decomposition, and death/(re)birth. They gained inspiration from the same source, the dead muse, but how do they transform traditions that derive from classical and medieval literary precedent, perhaps in ways that are inherently critical of patriarchal modes of gender dynamics? Why is Poe fixated on a feminine dead muse while Plath is inspired by what she calls her “father-sea-god muse”? How do both authors represent the female body, and how …
Trans Futures In The Present Moment, Willow Grace Eckmayer
Trans Futures In The Present Moment, Willow Grace Eckmayer
University Honors Theses
The current climate for trans folks in the U.S. remains increasingly hostile and many researchers have called attention to the "joy deficit" within the existing trans literature (Shuster & Westbrook, 2022). This study investigates what trans individuals are currently doing to survive, thrive, and resist in a belligerent socio-political climate. To answer this, five community conversations with 25 participants were held using a semi-structured conversation guide. Within the analysis, the central theme that emerged was that trans individuals are using their communities to create radical futures. Our communities are supporting us through mutual aid and radical acts of care, which …
"It's Not The Same Anymore" (2023): A Reflection On The Creative Process Behind My Queer Coming-Of-Age Short Film, Olivia Lee
University Honors Theses
"It's Not The Same Anymore" stands as a poignant queer coming-of-age short film crafted by individuals who share the queer experience, with the intention of resonating deeply with the queer community. The narrative intimately captures the journey of a young queer woman as she navigates the realms of love, heartbreak, and the quest for self-discovery. Amidst a media landscape that frequently falls short in its representation of LGBTQ+ voices and authentic lived experiences, this film aspires to bridge the gap and bring forth a much-needed sense of belonging and recognition.
A link to the short film can be found here: …
Unearthing Complexity: Tangible Histories Of Water And Earth, Alexis Violet
Unearthing Complexity: Tangible Histories Of Water And Earth, Alexis Violet
Masters Theses
Unearthing Complexity investigates conceptions of time and surface through geological stories of the water and earth. Building on theories of deep time, hydrofeminism, critical zones, and grounding, I hope to foster a deeper awareness of time scales other than our own and a more tangible understanding of the embodied experience of matter in the universe. Working toward a new literacy of the water and earth in which they are recognized as living, changing bodies to which we are inherently tied at a molecular level, the site of this multiscalar inquiry occurs in the coastal zones of the Narragansett Bay where …
Vegetal Being: Dreamwork, Ritual, And Performance In Han Kang’S The Vegetarian, Briana Hanratty
Vegetal Being: Dreamwork, Ritual, And Performance In Han Kang’S The Vegetarian, Briana Hanratty
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In this thesis, I am writing towards an ecofeminist informed reading of the English version of The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith. My aim is to display how, like an ecosystem of complex interdependency, it is impossible to separate body from theory from text from ecological context. To engage with this form of ecofeminism, I center an autotheoretical methodology with voices from ritual theory and performance theory in order to examine how Yeong-hye, the titular vegetarian of Han Kang’s novel, operates as a narrative-level metaphor for the desire for erotic ecology as a mode of ecological and …
“Girl Power, Selfies, And Sexiness”: An Investigation Into The Neoliberal And Postfeminist Era Of Influencer Marketing, Amalie A. Werenskiold
“Girl Power, Selfies, And Sexiness”: An Investigation Into The Neoliberal And Postfeminist Era Of Influencer Marketing, Amalie A. Werenskiold
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In today’s social media-centered popular culture, fashion, and lifestyle influencers maintain rigid and sexist forms of femininity which are spread to a large consumer base through influencer marketing. Research on postmodern feminism has revealed that the standardized modern woman is supplied with freedom, fun, and sexiness, allowing women to live their lives as they best see fit. Yet not all women are able to experience similar feelings of liberation and gender inequality is still a regular feature of society. This study observes Instagram images, captions, and comment sections of 61 distinct female influencers from the Instagram explore page. The evidence …
Reclaiming Narratives Of Sexual Assault: An Examination Of The #Metoo Movement And Social Media, Katherine V. Marano
Reclaiming Narratives Of Sexual Assault: An Examination Of The #Metoo Movement And Social Media, Katherine V. Marano
Student Theses and Dissertations
Untruths depicted by American media has shaped narratives about sexual assault and negatively affected the credibility of female sexual assault victims. Since women began the viral #MeToo movement in 2017, there is a need for research about the shifting sexual assault narratives in the United States. My project examines how this movement and use of social media has allowed women to reclaim narratives about sexual assault, spanning from October 2017 to April 2023. Specifically, my project analyzes ways in which the media responded to the #MeToo movement and how female created social media videos amplify sexual assault stories. I argue …
Woman Flytrap, Brianna Jo Hobson
Woman Flytrap, Brianna Jo Hobson
Student Theses and Dissertations
Woman FlyTrap is a short story zine collection that explores the topic of sexual violence through the perpetrator and victim relationship with an explicit lens. Replete with cultural and entomological themes and motifs, Woman Flytrap seeks to remind survivors that we are not alone. In our bodies or in our lives. Neither in the world. There are over a million insects to every human, proving that there is strength in numbers. All five stories in the collection present different abstracts: revenge, transformation, justice, healing, body image, self-harm, mourning, etc. There is also a playlist and a section about the author. …
Queer Not: Medieval Romance's Toll On Queerness, Kyle Gaydo
Queer Not: Medieval Romance's Toll On Queerness, Kyle Gaydo
Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)
How does a contemporary audience handle medieval queerness? What, exactly, constitutes medieval queerness, and how does the medieval literary genre of romance impact it? This thesis attempts to grapple with these questions, and many more, utilizing the 13th-century Old French romance Le Roman de Silence by Heldris de Cornuälle. Medieval romances are particularly fruitful for this analysis because, on one hand, the genre consistently re/turns to cisheteronormativity, and, on the other, because scholarship generally has not applied queer theory to the study of romance. Silence follows Silence, a young Englishwoman who is raised as a boy to protect her family’s …