Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Why Don't I Look Like Her? The Impact Of Social Media On Female Body Image, Kendyl M. Klein

CMC Senior Theses

The purpose of this paper is to understand and criticize the role of social media in the development and/or encouragement of eating disorders, disordered eating, and body dissatisfaction in college-aged women. College women are exceptionally vulnerable to the impact that social media can have on their body image as they develop an outlook on their bodies and accept the developmental changes that occurred during puberty. This paper provides evidence that there is a relationship between the recent surge in disordered eating and high consumption of social media. I examine the ways in which traditional advertising has portrayed women throughout ...

A Portrayal Of Gender And A Description Of Gender Roles In Selected American Modern And Postmodern Plays., Bonny Ball Copenhaver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe how gender was portrayed and to determine how gender roles were depicted and defined in a selection of Modern and Postmodern American plays. This study was based on the symbolic interaction theory of gender that suggests that social roles are learned over time and are subject to constant reinforcement. The significance of this study was derived from the broad topic of gender because gender issues are relevant to a variety of fields and exploring the effects of gender in one field contributes to the understanding of gender in another field.

The plays ...

The Inequality Of Sport: Women < Men, Valarie Hanson

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

In lieu of an abstract, below is the first paragraph of the paper.

It has been 30 years since Title IX legislation granted women equal playing time, but the male-dominated world of sports journalism has yet to catch up with the law. Coverage of women's sports lags far behind men's and focuses on female athletes' femininity and sexuality over their achievements on the court and field. While female athleticism challenges gender norms, women athletes continue to be depicted in traditional roles that reaffirm their femininity - as wives and mothers or sex objects. By comparison, male athletes are framed ...

Masking Femininity: Women And Power In Shakespeare's Macbeth, As You Like It, And Titus Andronicus, Kelly Sorge

Honors Theses and Capstones

This paper analyzes the power that Lady Macbeth from Macbeth, Rosalind from As You Like It, and Tamora from Titus Andronicus assert and answers the questions of how women assert power in Shakespeare and the role gender plays in power.

A Feminist Perspective On The History Of Women As Witches, Maggie Rosen

Dissenting Voices

This paper explores the ways that women have been deemed witches throughout history. Salem, 1692, was a heightened time for witch accusations. The women accused left a mark on history and their identities became the mainstream stereotype of witches seen in media and pop culture. Transgressive women and women in power are called witches in contemporary United States as they were hundreds of years ago. The witch image is used to reinforce gender inequality and marginalize women who push back against our patriarchal society.

Changing Ideals Of Womanhood During The Nineteenth-Century Woman Movement, Susan M. Cruea

University Writing Program Faculty Publications

This article focuses on the Woman Movement, an organization which was developed as a result of the effort of women to improve their status in and usefulness to society. The objectives of the movement were to initiate measures of charitable benevolence, temperance and social welfare and to initiate struggles for civic rights, social freedoms, higher education, remunerative occupations, and the right to vote. The setting of these goals resulted from women's rising awareness of the precariousness of their situation in the patriarchal society of the 1800s.

Erotic Mindfulness: A Core Educational And Therapeutic Strategy In Somatic Sexology Practices, Marie I. Thouin-Savard

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Somatic sexology modalities such as sexual surrogacy, sexological bodywork, masturbation coaching, and orgasmic meditation have shown significant potential for helping individuals transcend sexual difficulties and grow into more fulfilling erotic lives. The use of an embodied state of consciousness similar to neo-traditional forms of mindfulness meditation may be a common factor contributing to therapeutic efficacy in a variety of somatic sexology methods. Comparing the structure of three somatic sexology modalities—sexual surrogacy, masturbation coaching, and orgasmic meditation—with recent evidence supporting the efficacy of neo-traditional mindfulness practices in promoting women’s sexual wellbeing reveals that somatic sexology practitioners use embodied ...

Extending Bell Hooks' Feminist Theory, Hazel T. Biana

Journal of International Women's Studies

In Feminist theory: from margin to center, feminist theorist bell hooks questioned the existing feminist discourses during her time by pointing out the lack of a solid definition of feminism and the predominance of white, privileged feminists in the movement. Although several other feminist theorists have made the same criticisms, what sets hooks apart is her invitation to a revolutionary feminist outlook, which uses a pluralistic lens to recognize the absence of oppressed groups and the interrogation of cultural representations. Even before “intersectionality” became a buzzword in feminist circles, hooks has already been talking about the interlocking webs of oppression ...

Scripting Resistance: Rape And The Avenging Woman In Hindi Cinema, Isha Karki

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article considers how contemporary Hindi cinema engages with traditional cinematic representations of rape and the extent to which it inscribes resistance by rewriting dominant cultural scripts. It analyses Pan Nalin’s Angry Indian Goddesses (2015) and Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s Pink (2016) by locating them within the tradition of the avenging woman genre in 1980s Hindi popular cinema. It argues that the historical avenging woman genre was unable to successfully dismantle dominant rape scripts, and that these contemporary films, by subverting the genre, offer alternatives to the problems inherent in the visualisation of rape. It explores issues of eroticisation ...

Women Disunited : Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale As A Critique Of Feminism, Alanna A. Callaway

Master's Theses

While there is plenty of traditional feminist critique of male power structures in Atwood's works, and particularly in The Handmaid's Tale, this thesis argues that the power structure of Gilead (the biblically-inflected nation Atwood imagines) also critiques the feminine roles that support and enable the repression of other women. Placing the novel in the contexts of Atwood's career, feminism, and dystopian literature, provides a fuller understanding of how the novel functions as an expression of the disunity of women.

Thus, this thesis turns the focus of The Handmaid's Tale from the consequences of patriarchal control and ...