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Ain't I A Woman, Too? Depictions Of Toxic Femininity, Transmisogynoir, And Violence On Star, Sunahtah D. Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the rate of the murder of Black trans women at the hands of Black cisgender men rises steadily every year (HRC, 2017), discourses regarding the detrimental impact of toxic masculinity within Black communities continue to increase within different branches of feminist literature. However, the role that Black cisgender women and toxic femininity play in the violent and systematic subjugation of Black trans women is largely ignored in feminist literature. In this thesis, I conduct a cultural analysis of the representations of the Black trans character Cotton Brown (from the Fox show Star) to examine how the show illustrates toxic …

2019 Iggad Conference Program, Charles Joyner Institute For Gullah And African Diaspora Studies

IGGAD Conference Programs

Program of the 2019 IGGAD Conference: Tracing the African Diaspora: Places of Suffering, Resilience, and Reinvention.

Resilience As Regeneration In Kate Atkinson’S Life After Life, Beatriz Domínguez García

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In Life After Life (2013), British writer Kate Atkinson returns to the rewriting of History as her-story that characterized her early fiction. The protagonist’s lifespan overlaps with the major historical events of the twentieth century, allowing the writer to explore how those affected the individual lives of women and, at the same time, problematizing history, memory, and the past. Above all, Life After Life highlights the deep vulnerability of women to systemic gender violence, although it also emphasizes women’s resilience. The purpose of this paper is to examine Atkinson’s peculiar rendering of resilience, which interestingly she locates in the body, …

Women, Metaphors And The Legitimisation Of Gender Bias In Spanish Proverbs, Benedicta Adokarley Lomotey

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper aims at analysing the role of proverbs in the sustenance of gender violence within the Spanish context. As demonstrated by feminist linguistic activities, one of the avenues through which the status quo of both men and women are enacted and sustained is through language. However, given the complex nature of the relationship between gender and language, speakers often overlook the role of discourse on gender relations. The author investigates this inter-connection using a multidimensional approach which includes insights from Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) theory of metaphor and Austin’s (1965) Speech Act theory. This study confirms that quite a …

Estranged Labour On The Global Assembly Line? ‘Sewing Girls’ Of Post-Colonial Garment Factories In Sri Lanka, Prajna Seneviratne

Journal of International Women's Studies

Inspired by the Marxian conceptualization of ‘estranged labour’, this paper seeks to explore the phenomenon of ‘sewing girls’ of global garment factories in Sri Lanka leaving waged work after a relatively short span of time, drawing on this trend of thought. Even though issues surrounding female labour in the global garment industry are widely researched, there is little or no evidence of existing literature attempting to place the empirical issues within a Marxist conceptual framework. It is in this context that this paper, which takes on a methodological approach of ethnography from a feminist perspective attempts to narrate the ‘stories’ …

Sexism And Gender Profiling: Two Decades Of Stereotypical Portrayal Of Women In Nollywood Films, Kevin Uwaecheghi Onyenankeya, Oluwayemisi Mary Onyenankeya, Oluyinka Osunkunle

Journal of International Women's Studies

Critics of Nollywood especially gender activists, have challenged its predominant, if not exclusive portrayal of women for its narrowly traditional occupational and domestic roles and images. This paper seeks to examine various ways women are depicted in Nollywood films, including physical appearance, domestic and family life, occupational life and interpersonal relationships over a 20 year period spanning the video film era. The research employed a quantitative content method to analyse 10 films while the coding sheet that contained established content categories served as the data gathering instrument. A multistage sampling technique was used to draw the sample. The findings revealed …

Feminist Media Studies Across Borders: Re-Visiting Studies Within The Brazilian National Context, Carolina Matos

Journal of International Women's Studies

Feminist media studies in the US and the UK have built a strong tradition of research, which has aimed to look at the correlation between structural gender inequalities in society and how these have been played out in the media. These range from classic studies on soap operas to debates on the sexualization of culture and the construction of forms of femininity within a post-feminist context (i.e. Gill, 2006; McNair, 2002; Ang, 1985; Tuchman at el, 1978). Research on the relationship between gender and the media has arguably become an important arena of inquiry in Latin America. Feminist media studies …

Brrap Brrap Pew Pew: Representations Of Abortion In Adult Animated Television Comedy, Erika A. Byrnison

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis documents and analyzes representation of abortion in American adult animated comedy, charging that it is under-examined and significant because representation on television in other genres has traditionally been absent or misleading. It covers theories on how pop culture communicates social norms, and posits that greater truthful representation of abortion in popular culture may be effective in reducing prevalent abortion stigma in the U.S. amongst the young by normalizing and more accurately representing the procedure. It reviews why our culture should be concerned about reducing abortion stigma in the U.S. It also identifies the “taboo ratings paradox,” wherein television …

A Renewed Call For Feminist Resistance To Population Control, Anne Hendrixson, Ellen Foley, Rajani Bhatia, Daniel Bendix, Susanne Schultz, Kalpana Wilson, Wangui Kimari

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Scholarship

We are feminist advocates for reproductive, environmental and climate justice who are deeply concerned about rising sea levels and rising inequalities. We are troubled that population numbers, composition and movements are often seen as causing or worsening climate change, environmental degradation, poverty, war and conflict. For instance, the United Nation’s 2019 World Population Prospects says that rapid population growth will stand in the way of accomplishing the Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty, equality and hunger.

Turning Passion Into Profit: When Leisure Becomes Work In Modern Roller Derby, Amanda Nicole Draft

Wayne State University Dissertations

Modern roller derby operates as a “by the skater, for the skater” business model, where participants are not paid but must devote a certain amount of time, effort, and money to sustaining their sport and respective organizations. At the same time, while derby is grounded in anti-corporate values, a growing industry has sprouted to support the sport, the larger share of which consists of small business retailers selling gear, apparel, and other accessories. I use the context of modern roller derby to examine the changing natures of work and leisure, specifically how they operate as greedy institutions and emphasizing the …

Volume 8: Gender, Governance And Islam, Deniz Kandiyoti, Nadje Al-Ali, Kathryn Spellman Poots

Exploring Muslim Contexts

Analyses the links between gender and governance in contemporary Muslim majority countries and diaspora contexts.

Following a period of rapid political change, both globally and in relation to the Middle East and South Asia, this collection sets new terms of reference for an analysis of the intersections between global, state, non-state and popular actors and their contradictory effects on the politics of gender.

The volume charts the shifts in academic discourse and global development practice that shape our understanding of gender both as an object of policy and as a terrain for activism. Nine individual case studies systematically explore how …

#Metoo And The Politics Of Collective Healing: Emotional Connection As Contestation, Allison Page, Jacquelyn Arcy

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

Participants in the #MeToo movement on Twitter expressed emotions like rage, pain, and solidarity in their personal accounts of sexual violence. This article explores the digital circulation of these affects and considers how the outpouring of tweets about sexual harassment and abuse contribute to a feminist politics centered on collective healing. The particular emotions expressed in the #MeToo Twitter archive subvert the logics of quantification and visibility that undergird popular feminism and the attention economy, and produce an affective excess that works toward movement founder Tarana Burke’s original project of “mass healing.” At a moment wherein popular feminism emphasizes individual …

The Fiction Of Women In Contemporary American Literature : The Borderlands Of Intersectional Feminism, Postcolonial American Studies, And Creative Writing, Skye Anicca

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A collection of nine short stories entitled THE TROUBLE WITH BRIGHT GIRLS is unified by women’s diverse coming-of-age experiences in late twentieth century transnational America. The story collection relies on techniques that highlight dislocation—temporal skips and wide temporal frames, fragmented and recursive narratives, borrowed genres, absurd premise, anti-heroines and anti-epiphanies—which gesture toward collective human experiences while troubling notions of universal knowledge and values and resisting redemption or closure. The critical introduction situates the collection through the theoretical lens of intersectional feminism, informed by Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of the borderlands, and in relation to field of multiethnic/transnational literature of the U.S. …

Cultivating Chingona Power: A Study On The Chingona Identity, Celia Orosco Haro

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Mujeres across the country are claiming the Chingona identity and using it to cultivate their Chingona strength, feel empowered, and live for their own approval. A Chingona in this newly reclaimed use means a woman who embodies confidence, acceptance of self, reclamation of sexuality, siguiendo le adelante por su propio camino sin importarle lo que digan los demás, rejects social and cultural norms/expectations of women, and uses her strengths to empower and uplift others. Through the reclamation of this identity, these mujeres are moving beyond being hijas de la chingada to being Chingonas. This research highlights the Chingona identity …

The Implications Of Science And Technology For Chinese Women: A Cultural Study Of The Chinese Era Of Reforms, Wenjing Liu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Abstract

This dissertation addresses the gendered implications of science and technology in the era of reforms. It argues that in this era, which began in 1978 and continues today, science and technology are highly romanticized as nearly omnipotent. This results in its being embedded not only into ordinary Chinese people’s lives, hoping to bring them positive changes, but also into the Chinese government’s political practices, hoping to achieve its political purposes through science and technology. It also points out that in the era of reforms, Chinese women’s lived experiences are full of tensions, struggles, and conflicts, as evidenced by the …

Gender, Politics, Market Segmentation, And Taste: Adult Contemporary Radio At The End Of The Twentieth Century, Saesha Senger

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation explores issues of gender politics, market segmentation, and taste through an examination of the contributions of several artists who have achieved Adult Contemporary (AC) chart success. The scope of the project is limited to a period when many artists who figured prominently in both the broader mainstream of American popular music and the more specific Adult Contemporary category were most commercially viable: from the mid-1980s through the 1990s. My contention is that, as gender politics and gendered social norms continued to change in the United States at this time, Adult Contemporary – the chart, the format, and the …

Where We Belong: Spatial Imagining In American Women’S Life Narratives, 1859-1912, Gokce Tekeli

Theses and Dissertations--English

Where We Belong: Spatial Imagining in American Women’s Life Narratives, 1859-1912, studies three marginalized and disadvantaged American women’s self-life narratives during a transitional period in American history. In this dissertation, I am taking an interdisciplinary approach. Where We Belong borrows from social geography, new materialism, and autobiography studies in order to complicate critical discussions of women’s space and place in nineteenth-century women’s self-life narratives. Each chapter of Where We Belong presents a case study with the goal to provide a broader understanding of women’s strategies of belonging due to and despite their spatial exclusions. The overarching emphasis in each …

Dekalb, Illinois, Muslim Women’S Agency Negotiating And Re-Affirming Their Muslim Identity, Sinta Febrina

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Post 9/11 American Muslim women are stereotyped as victims of their patriarchal religion and as perpetrators of terror. These conditions led to the discrimination of American Muslim women which requires them to continuously strategize and negotiate their identity. This thesis examined DeKalb, Illinois Muslim women’s agency to strategize and negotiate their identity in lager American society. In this study, fifteen Muslim women from three different categories were interviewed: American-born citizens, naturalized citizens, and immigrants. This study found that Muslim women’s various backgrounds (country of origin, education, socio-economic status, and immigration status) affected their strategy and agency to negotiate and re-affirm …

Fear, Power, & Teeth (2007), Olivia Hockenbroch

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Vagina dentata is the myth of the toothed vagina; in most iterations, it serves as a warning to men that women’s vaginas must be conquered to be safe for a man’s sexual pleasure (Koehler, 2017). The vagina dentata myth has been carried forth from ancient ancestors in numerous cultures all over the world (Koehler). It is one of many destructive cultural myths that guides discourses about sex and women’s bodies. In this paper, I explore a recent articulation of the myth, the 2007 film Teeth, and I argue that in this film, the vagina dentata is made more complicated. While …

The Female Nature: Representations Of Motherhood And Nature In Dystopian Films, Veronica Andrea Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study will explore female representation and conceptualization of nature in dystopian narratives by examining dystopian films. The study is guided by film theory and ecofeminism to investigate themes of domination of both nature and women. The main goal is to examine the structure, themes, dialogue, and visuals in the films to explore the underlying essence of dystopian narratives and examine roles of reproduction and motherhood of female characters. The study contributes to previous studies on female and nature representation in media.

The Rise Of The Neoliberal Chinese Female Subject In Go Lala Go, Su-Lin Yu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Built upon feminist critique of neoliberalism, this paper will examine a prominent medium through which neoliberal feminist ideology is disseminated: Go Lala Go. By analyzing the film, I will show how it co-opts the discourse of neoliberalism, and reworks it to construct neoliberal female subjects. First, I will explore what kind of role neoliberalism has enacted in the formation of an emergent type of female subject in China. Then, I will demonstrate how the contentious process of neoliberal feminism affects young career women’s identities. More than career guides promoting different techniques for making women more successful at their workplaces, …

Brushaber, Skip, Jack Barrett, Branden Pratt

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Skip Brushaber is a 71-year old gay man who uses he/his/him pronouns. Skip worked as a nurse and social worker during the AIDS crisis. He was born in Buffalo, New York, on January 9th, 1947. Skip studied English in college but later became a nurse and social worker. He lived in New York and Pennsylvania before moving to Portland in 1980. He helped found the AIDS Project in 1983, a group in Portland that helped support individuals dealing with AIDS, and founded and wrote for Our Paper throughout the 80s, an LGBTQ paper aimed at covering issues related to queerness …

Surviving Domestic Violence In An Indian-Australian Household: An Autoethnography Of Resilience, Amar Freya

The Qualitative Report

This study explores how my personal experiences with domestic violence in my family have shaped my identity and my current self as an Indian-Australian woman, teacher, and researcher. Domestic violence touches many children and their families and affects their sense of identity and belonging as individuals and in their social spaces. An autoethnographical method is used to investigate my experiences within a domestically violent family and how it has shaped my identity as an Indian-Australian woman. The study reveals various themes including three themes that were noted to be the most significant: patriarchy in Indian culture, resilience, identity and belonging. …

More Than Skin-Deep: Reading Past Whiteness In Hemingway’S “Hills Like White Elephants”, Laura Valeri

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

The author argues a much neglected element in the seminal Hemingway's story "Hills Like White Elephant." Reading the story by taking into context a subtext of racial bias lends new interpretation to the story.

Speaking And Silence As Means Of Resistance In Alifa Rifaat's Distant View Of A Minaret And Bahiyya's Eyes, Sumaya M. Alhaj Mohammad

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study aims at investigating the dilemma of creating a counter discourse that speaks against the dominant androcentric one in Alifa Rifaat’s fiction. The study explores the characterization of the protagonists of two short stories: “Distant View of a Minaret” and “Bahiyya’s Eyes,” culled from Rifaat’s collection Distant View of a Minaret and Other Short Stories (1983). These stories present two different paradigms of resistance that the female protagonists use, which are speaking and silence. The study argues that both speaking and silence are attempts to heal women’s cyclic trauma, as they are means of representing women’s experience and oppression …

Apology Or No Apology: Indigenous Models Of Subjection And Emancipation In Pakistani Women’S Fiction, Aroosa Kanwal

Journal of International Women's Studies

This survey paper focuses on Pakistani Anglophone literary narratives that examine the multiple identities of victimized women as opposed to the commonly endorsed essentialist and reductive argument that is too easily conscripted into post-9/11 global discourses surrounding women of colour. In the context of the global hegemony of Western scholarship, my purpose in this paper is to foreground the simultaneous liberation and subjection, centricity and marginality, of Pakistani women. I argue that it is important to situate third world women’s subjection as well as agency in relation to the class, regional, ethnic and religious diversities that inform the degree and …

A Motherwork Challenge To Dominant Discourse: A Review Of Immigration, Motherhood, And Parental Involvement: Narratives Of Communal Agency In The Face Of Power Asymmetry, Katie D. Scott

The Qualitative Report

In Lilian Cibils dissertation-turned-book, Immigration, Motherhood and Parental Involvement: Narratives of Communal Agency in the Face of Power Asymmetry (2017), the stories of seven Mexican immigrant mothers provide insight into what motherhood looks like outside the mainstream ideology of parental involvement. Using a critical feminist lens, Cibils employs the concept of motherwork as an alternative to a cultural deficit approach for understanding Mexican immigrant motherhood.

Liberating The Imago Dei: An Examination Of Jewish And Christian Feminist Biblical Anthropology, Carissa S. Wyant

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This study provides a comparative analysis of the work of Roman Catholic feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson and that of Jewish feminist theologian Judith Plaskow, who have both sought to reconstruct the Imago Dei (“image of God”) within their respective traditions. By way of this analysis, it makes a methodological and a substantive contribution. Methodologically, it expands on Elizabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza’s feminist critical approach to reading Scripture by relating it to Francis Clooney’s comparative theological approach to reading texts in religious traditions other than one’s own. Although there have been attempts at comparisons of various religious traditions from a feminist perspective, this …

Hip-Hop's Influence On Stripper Culture: The Era Of Cardi B'S, Taylor Bell

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

Twenty years ago the terms 'stripper' or 'exotic dancer' would have made heads turn. However, today feminist politics traditional negative stimga on strip culture is being challenged by the presence of the jhip-hop industry within the strip club space. With the emergence of former stripper Cardi B as well as discussions in American politics around former port star Stormy Daniles, it's clear that the way society thinks and interacts with strip culture is evolving away from the stereotypical negative one. 39 pages.

The Logic Of Sexuation In Deleuze And Lacan, Matthew Lovett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In The Logic of Sexuation in Deleuze and Lacan, I argue for an account of sexual difference that responds to a tension in feminist philosophy, namely, the problem of the ontological status of the sexed body. In so doing, I turn to the work of Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Lacan. I argue that, rather than being antithetical, the two can be productively read together, in particular with regard to this very question. Ultimately basing my reading in the Deleuzian passive syntheses and dynamic geneses of Difference and Repetition and The Logic of Sense as well as in Lacan’s twentieth …