Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

The Dangerous Women Of The Long Eighteenth Century: Exploring The Female Characters In Love In Excess, Roxana, And A Simple Story, Jillian Bailey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Long Eighteenth Century was a period in which change was constant and proceeding the Restoration Era; this sense of change continued throughout the era. Charles II created an era in which women were allowed on the theatre stage, and his mistresses accompanied him to court; Charles II set the stage for the proto-feminist ideas of the eighteenth century that would manifest themselves in Eliza Haywood’s Love in Excess, Daniel Defoe’s Roxana, and Elizabeth Inchbald’s A Simple Story. These novels showcase the enlightenment of women and some of their male contemporaries and the beginning struggles of female …

Trans Stories, Trans Voices: How The Internet Empowers Transgender Creators To Have Agency In Trans Fiction, Pepper J. Heifner

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Although many advocates believe that the increased representation of transgender people in mainstream fiction will lead to more understanding for the transgender community, many transgender scholars (Page, Richards) are critical of representation that is created without any involvement of actual transgender people. Some fear that the more radical perspectives of trans lives are being erased and replaced with a homogenous idea of the kinds of trans people who are “acceptable” (cárdenas). To avoid this homogeneity, it is important to allow for a multiplicity of trans perspectives and empower transgender people to have agency over their own narratives.

The goal of …

An All-Female Hamlet, Madisen Jade Evans

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A semester spent studying gender through the eyes of a female Hamlet.

Anglo-Saxon Literary Landscapes: Ecotheory And The Environmental Imagination, Renee R. Trilling

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Beyond Suffrage: Intermarriage, Land, And Meanings Of Citizenship And Marital Naturalization/Expatriation In The United States, Shiori Yamamoto

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation investigates how the laws of marital naturalization/expatriation, namely the Citizenship Act of 1855, the Expatriation Act of 1907, and the Cable Act of 1922 and its amendments throughout the 1930s, impacted the lives of women who married foreigners, especially in the American West, and demonstrates how women directly and indirectly challenged the practice of marital naturalization/expatriation. Those laws demanded women who married foreigners take the nationality of their husbands depending on the race of women and their husbands, making married women’s citizenship dependent on that of their husbands. Particularly under the Expatriation Act of 1907, all American women …

Maternal Criticism: Reading Two Middle Eastern Women Writers As Nonviolent Peace Activism, Charlyn Marie Ingwerson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation advocates for reading the literatures of two Middle Eastern women writers through a Maternal Critical lens that recognizes the demands of universal vulnerability in characters who resist violence, and responds in Maternal communities of Readers that connect readers to characters, readers to writers, and readers to other readers, carrying the struggle for equity forward. My unfolding argument, centered on Maternal Critical activity in the novels of Palestinian writer Sahar Khalifeh and Israeli writer Ronit Matalon, demonstrates how literature by these Middle Eastern women is part of a narrative context of women’s peacemaking and resistance to violence, a part …

Painting The Leaky Pipeline Pink: Girl Branded Media And The Promotion Of Stem, Juniper Patel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a critical feminist analysis of girl branded media depictions of girls in STEM. Through close textual analysis of three case studies—Disney Fairies films, Barbie: Dreamhouse Adventures, and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls media—I found that such STEM promotion tends to emphasize traditional gender roles and neoliberal market values. Disney Fairies films promote traditional gender roles via portrayals of play STEM, white hegemony, and western beauty standards. Additionally, these films promote the neoliberal ideal of industrialization as consequence free. Dreamhouse Adventures depicts STEM in relation to traditional gender norms such as caretaking, heteronormativity, and girl culture. Furthermore, this …

Museums, Feminism, And Social Impact, Audrey M. Clark

Museum Studies Theses

This paper aims to explore the history of women within the context of the museum institution; a history that has often encouraged collaboration and empowerment of marginalized groups. It will interpret the history of women and museums and the impact on the institution by surveying existing literature on feminism and museums and the biographies of a few notable female curators. As this paper hopes to encourage global thinking, museums from outside the western sphere will be included and emphasized. Specifically, it will look at organizations in the Middle East and that exist in only a digital format. This will lead …

Keith Haring: Silence = Death, Nellie Jalalian

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The American aids crisis is one of the most important epidemics of the contemporary world, yet many americans do not know the severity of the crisis or the true lasting effects on recent society. In my project I will go over personal accounts of individuals directly affected by the illness, like famed artist Keith Haring, to give it a more human perspective. I will also reflect on the art that was created at the time, and how that was reflective on the people affected. Aids is an immunodeficiency virus that has been proven difficult to diagnose in the early on …

The Formation Of Queer Consciousness In Gay, Latin, Men: How Experiences Affect The Lives Of Queer Latinos, Daniel Leon-Barranco

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

I am interested in investigating the question: How does experience, in a Latinx environment, affect the “coming out” process for queer, Latinx, men? Additionally, the aim of this research is to discover whether Queer Latinx peoples retain their cultural identity/consciousness or abandon it. This project is relevant to analyze whether Latinx culture impacts peoples to abstain from or retain their cultural identity/consciousness. I also hope that this research can prove whether an amalgamation of standpoint theory and Situated Knowledge can come together to affect the process of (re)claiming identity; as the Latinx man claims their sexual identity. This research aims …

Emerging Adults’ Identities, Attitudes, And Orientations Concerning Consensual Non-Monogamy, Amber Kory Stephens

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study considered the connection among aspects of emerging adults’ identities and their relational and sociosexual orientations as well as their attitudes toward consensual nonmonogamy (CNM). Results indicated significant relationships among individuals’ collective and social identity aspects, as dictated in the AIQ-IV, and how emerging adults label their relational orientations (e.g., strictly monogamous, monogamish, open, and polyamorous). Additionally, findings demonstrated that the salience/importance of social categories, roles, and reputations in one's identity influences how they choose to label their relational orientation, their attitudes toward non-monogamy, and their orientation toward uncommitted sex (sociosexual orientation). Discussion, implications and future directions follow.

The Influence Of Interpersonal Dyadic Differences On Condom Use Among Men Who Have Sex With Men, Andrew M. O'Neil

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background: Men who have sex with men (MSM) continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS and other STIs. Condom use is one of the most effective methods of prevention, but rates of condom use have been steadily declining among MSM. Therefore, determining what factors influence condom use decision-making among MSM is important. Interpersonal factors such as physical attractiveness, race, and age have been explored in relation to condom use. However, there is a dearth of research exploring the influence of discrepancies between casual partners in these social categories and its influence on condom use directly.

Purpose: The purpose of this …

“A Woman’S Story”: Lady Macbeth And Performing Femininity In The Early 1600s – Late 1900s, Phyllis Lebert

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper uses gender studies to understand the themes of gender performance further, and more specifically, femininity, in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It also explores the many ways feminine gender performance has changed as society has changed. Thus, proving gender is performative rather than innate. It does this by examining first the text within the context of Elizabethan society. Moreover, by examining three pivotal performances of Lady Macbeth through history within the context of their social structures as well. The three performances are that of Sarah Siddons in the Late 18th Century, Ellen Terry in the 19th Century, and Judy Dench in …

Refusing White Privacy, Olivia Dunbar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In “Refusing White Privacy” I look at theories in White Data and Surveillance Studies around what data is, how it is made to exist, and for whom, in order to intervene in the conceptualization of data as an inevitable residue of human life and relationship. Through this intervention, I show that the alleged crises of privacy ushered in by allegedly non-racial smart technologies (a preoccupation in WDSS) is underwritten by racializing technologies from the Antebellum era to the present.

The Subject Of Jouissance: The Late Lacan And Gender And Queer Theories, Frederic C. Baitinger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Subject of Jouissance argues that Lacan’s approach to psychoanalysis, far from being heteronormative, offers a notion of identity that deconstructs gender as a social norm, and opens onto a non-normative theory of the subject (of jouissance) that still remains to be fully explored by feminist, gender, and queer scholars. Drawing mostly on the later Lacan, The Subject of Jouissance shows that by locating the identity of the subject in the singularity of its bodily mode of enjoyment (that Lacan calls “jouissance”), and not in the Imaginary illusions of the ego, nor in the Symbolic social structures, Lacan fosters thinking …

Shifting Abortion Attitudes Using An Empathy-Based Media Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Study, Mary Ellen Hunt

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

U.S. abortion restrictions diminish access and perpetuate a culture of hostility toward abortion seekers. Support for restrictions is high—potentially, because restriction knowledge is low and attitudes are complex. The current study focused on knowledge and support of restrictions and empathy for abortions seekers among Arkansans. The purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of a video intervention intended to increase awareness of Arkansas abortion restrictions and induce empathy for abortion seekers.

Using a randomized controlled trial with pre-, post-, and follow-up design, a sample of Arkansans (N = 369) were randomly assigned to one of five video conditions--either a control or …

Analog To Digital Preservation Of The “Women Trailblazers In The Law” Oral History Project, Camelia Naranch, Carol Wilson

Digital Initiatives Symposium

In November 2018, Stanford Law School Library unveiled to the public an online exhibit of more than 100 oral histories of American women lawyers, scholars, judges, and government officials who helped diversify the legal profession in the late twentieth century. Called the “Women Trailblazers in the Law” Oral History Project, it is a collaboration between Stanford Law School Library and the American Bar Association. Our presentation discusses the details of the analog to digital preservation process, whereby the physical collection was converted into digital formats suitable for long term archival storage as well as online access for the general public. …

Unraveling Ethos: The Commodification Of Ethical Clothing, Oliva Hanson

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

In the last decade there has been a noticeable attempt to subvert traditional modes of clothing production. The recent emergence of “ethical consumption” in the fashion industry is a case in point. This project argues that these new formations and practices around ethical consumption are mere appropriations of anti-corporate politics and sentiments for consumers in the West. Signification of ethical consumption through language and cultural capital give more value to individual articles of clothing and branded entities. This reformation of the clothing industry towards an ethical attitude is a rebranding tactic that avoids the source-issue altogether. Through advertising and normalization …

“This Is The True Story:” The Representation Of The Lgtbq Community In Mtv’S The Real World, Morgan Rae Ohman

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

In this project, Morgan Ohman seeks to explore the MTV reality show The Real World by analyzing several cast members of the show who identify as part of the LGBTQ community. MTV’s The Real World, a reality TV show that first aired in 1992, captures the lives of seven young people between the ages of 18-24 that are selected to live in a house together for several months. The show’s dramatic the opening title sequence, “what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real?” raises fundamental questions about the relationship of reality TV and the politics of …

Politics, Protest And Patience: Gendered Rights And Human Security In India And South Korea, Anika Backelin-Harrison

Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies Honors Papers

National security measures are often framed from a masculinist, hegemonic viewpoint, determining that the wellbeing of a state and its citizens is dependent on protection by a patriarchal government. This paper argues that the health and strength of a country and its citizens are better promoted through a focus on human security, defined by the United Nations as the right of all people to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair. Moreover, a gendered approach to human security is necessary to advance economic development, personal security and freedom from violence. Nonetheless, women all over the world are …