Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

"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 …

When Communities Fall: A Critical Analysis Of Toni Morrison's Sula, Sami Saigh

Rushton Journal of Undergraduate Humanities Research

When women dare to self-actualize they frequently face barriers that tear their spirits down, leading to guilt, shame, and feelings of inadequacy. For the lineage of women in Toni Morrison’s Sula, these consequences are fatal for everyone. As these factors thwart fundamental social development, communal collapse becomes easier, leaving entire cultures vulnerable to erasure. Whether self-determination is expressed through promiscuity or properness, paradoxical moralism leaves no room for either. This essay explores how Morrison offers a retrospective look from the graveyard of a town while illustrating the impact of the loss of friends, lovers, and communities.

What Is A Lesbian Document? Platforming Archival Description, Documents, And History In Sweden, Rachel Pierce

Proceedings from the Document Academy

As Joanna Drucker (2014) convincingly argues, “Most information visualizations are acts of interpretation masquerading as presentation" (p. 10). This article investigates the visuality and built-in argumentations of the Alvin interface for digitized Swedish cultural heritage, focusing on how the platform defines a document and the effects this definition has on the accessibility and interconnectedness of documents related to lesbian and feminist histories. This paper addresses how (failed) systematization and an emphasis on large quantities of documents and metadata breathes new life into outdated historiographies and renders documents and information related to feminist and lesbian histories and connections between these histories …

Gender Wobbles But It Don’T Fall Down: Feste And The Instability Of Gender In Twelfth Night, Evangeline Thurston Wilder

International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night appears to some readers as a conservative story of gender-bending, in which all is made “right” in the end. The central character, Viola, disguises herself as Cesario in order to survive. In the final scenes of the play, this character reveals herself to have been a woman all along, and immediately enters a cis-heterosexual marriage with the Duke Orsino. To other readers, the play appears to be an early depiction of what we might now call transmasculinity. In this view, the central character is not just dressing up as a man to survive; he really is Cesario. …

Faux Feminism In A Capitalistic Fever Dream: A Review Of Greta Gerwig's Barbie (2023), Amy La Porte, Lena Cavusoglu

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Somewhere between meaningful discourse about female agency and the commercial interests of a problematic doll franchise lies Mattel's box office hit film Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig. In a script-flipping interpretation of the real-world patriarchy, it catapults itself into overdue discussions about gender norms, objectification, and the pursuit of Westernized beauty ideals. While it may have introduced liberationist theories to a new generation of women, ultimately it is a film bound by cognitive dissonance. This paper will delve into the profit-making protagonist at the center of its story and argue the film's underlying incompatibility with diversity, feminism, and social …

Reigniting The Flame Of Change: The Resurgence Of Iran’S Radical Feminist Movement In The Aftermath Of Mahsa Ahmini’S Death, Putri Hergianasari, Tunjung Wijanarka

Journal Of Middle East and Islamic Studies

This article explores the significant impact of the radical feminist movement in Iran following the tragic death of Mahsa Ahmini. This incident sparked widespread international protests and shed light on the unjust treatment of women in Iran. The study employs a qualitative research method with descriptive analysis, and the authors use library research for the collection of data. The findings of this research reveal that the radical feminist movement in Iran has gained strength since Mahsa Ahmini’s passing, marked by numerous demonstrations led by feminist activists advocating for justice and reforms in the discriminatory legal framework. This movement fights for …

Romancing The University: Bipoc Scholars In Romance Novels In The 1980s And Now, Jayashree Kamble

Publications and Research

English-language mass-market romance novels written by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) writers and starring BIPOC protagonists are a small but important group. This article is a comparative analysis of how recent representations of diversity in this sub-set of the genre, specifically the character of the Black academic and the language of racial justice, compare with the first group of BIPOC novels that were published in 1984 (Sandra Kitt’s Adam and Eva and All Good Things as well as Barbara Stephens’s A Toast to Love). In Adrianna Herrera’s American Love Story (2019), Katrina Jackson’s Office Hours (2020), and …

Bi-Negativity: An Assessment Of Negativity Surrounding Bisexuality From The Lgbtq+ And Heterosexual Communities, Whitney R. Ford

The Confluence

This study was conducted to test the hypothesis that negative attitudes towards bisexual people (bi-negativity) exists within the LGBTQ+ and heterosexual communities and to determine if levels of bi-negativity are higher within the LGBTQ+ group. I administered the Gender-Based Attitudes Towards Bisexuality (GBAB) Scale by Nielsen et al. (2022) to measure bi-negativity using an online survey. The results, obtained from 87 participants who identify as LGBTQ+ and 121 participants who identify as heterosexual between the ages of 18 and 80, support my hypothesis that bi-negativity exists within both groups. However, contrary to my second hypothesis, higher levels of bi-negativity were …

Sharp Stick Grasps At Autistic Women’S Liminal Vulnerability, Meaghan Krazinski

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This film analysis of Sharp Stick by Lena Dunham critically explores how the film uptakes representations of the ideas around the vulnerabilities of Autistic women in popular culture, and yet does not explicitly name them as such. This liminality is critical and plays into the intersectional analysis that the author engages around the way vulnerability and Autistic identity is interpreted and read. The author draws upon McDermott's (2022) "neurotypical gaze" in an analysis that shows how traditional tropes around Autistic women’s vulnerability are social constructions that are brought into relief by stereotypes around race, gender, and ability. The author uses …

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.

The Maine Queer-Y: An Analysis Of A "Gender Queer" Book Challenge In Maine, Antyna Gould

Honors College

Beneath the idyllic scenery of Midcoast Maine lives a monster. This monster does not have a preference for where it lives, in fact its siblings reside all over the country. It is not a physical being, but a rising trend gaining national attention, book bans. Across the nation groups and individuals are attempting to censor information contained within books due to their allegedly inappropriate nature for a designated age range. For the last year one book in particular has received much scorn. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe is a graphic novel memoir with a focus on the author’s journey as …

Calling In Antiracist Accomplices Beyond The Writing Center, Hillary Coenen

Writing Center Journal

A reflective, ethnographic study of a grassroots, antiracist educational workshop (The Conversation Workshops, TCW) reveals that writing center (WC) pedagogy and feminist invitational rhetoric’s (FIR) influence on TCW enables participants to recognize their own and their partners’ expertise, meaningful experiences, valuable perspectives, and their need to be listened to, accounted for, and understood. In an invitational model, particularly one based on a one-with- one, interpersonal dynamic, participants are more like collaborators than audiences, an approach that can be applied in diverse educational settings, and which reflects the WC’s model of one-with- one pedagogy. This dynamic also reveals one of TCW’s …

Lg Ms 052 Sage Hylton (-Lemons) Papers, K A. Perry

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Sage Hylton-Lemons grew up in Portland, Maine. In high school, Hylton-Lemons found sanctuary as a gay teenager in the youthdriven group Outright, where his involvement progressed from attending weekly meetings to being a member of the Board, then President of the Board. As an Outright member and activist, Hylton-Lemons spoke at schools and events, became a peer-advisor, and helped other communities organize their own Outrights. He was instrumental in conceiving and organizing Outright's first annual prom in 1998. He was profoundly influenced by Christian T. Chenard, a nurse practitioner for the City of Portland Public Health Positive Healthcare Program. …

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 …

Inclement, Susan Wismer

The Goose

"Inclement," by Susan Wismer, is from Hageography:

Hagios, a Greek word for holy.

Hag, an old woman. Hag, an overhang at the edge of a cliff

Rough notes. Foot notes. Choreographies of happenstance.

International Relations From Below: Teaching Absences In International Relations, Tamara Soukotta

Feminist Pedagogy

For four years (2017-2022) I was part of a teaching team to teach the subject of International Relations (IR) to second-year Bachelor International Studies students. The course was structured to have twelve lectures; these lectures were to be delivered by the course leaders to an audience of 500-800 students. In addition to the lectures, students had four tutorial classes, where the rest of the teaching team worked with smaller groups of students (12-15 students in each group). These classes were designed to help the students link theories and practices. As a woman of colour teaching IR in a Dutch university, …

From Vertical To Horizontal Empowerment Of Women (In) Peace And Security: Toward A Feminist Perspective Of Human Security, Ma. Lourdes Veneracion-Rallonza

Political Science Department Faculty Publications

Human security, a people-centered approach to security, typically seeks to examine vulnerabilities and identify ways of protecting people from threats. However, people are not perennial victims—they also have agency and are capable of acting on their own. This study looks at how the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda has created both the discursive and actual spaces for women's agency, particularly in the case of women's civil society organizations (CSOs), as illustrated by their work on the ground. This chapter investigates how the Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute (GZOPI), Sulong Peace, and Women Engaged in Action on United Nations Security …

Mama’S Got A Brand New Degree: Education And Changing Perceptions Of Femininity During The Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), Eden E. Baize

The Cardinal Edge

Bloody struggles, tense political debates, and general unease characterized Mexico in the early twentieth century. Under former president Porfirio Díaz, tensions grew as the lower classes pleaded for labor and land reform, culminating in a violent period of revolution from 1910 to 1917. As with all conflicts of this scale, the Mexican Revolution prompted the challenging of many long standing social conventions, specifically as they pertained to the role of government and the organization of social classes. With the restructuring of society already underway, many activists capitalized on the uncertainty of the era to push against the subjugation of women. …

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 …

Generative Ai And Opportunities For Feminist Classroom Assignments, Sarah F. Small

Feminist Pedagogy

Handwringing about ChatGPT and generative AI has penetrated teaching circles. Many educators are concerned it will disrupt education in negative ways. However, I introduce two approaches to assignments in which students work in tandem with AI to develop better understandings of reflexivity and feminist epistemology. I believe, if we are intentional in our teaching practice, our educational responses to generative AI can be in feminist directions.