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Talking About Motherhood Matters: Articulation Of Population Policies Through National Day Rally Speeches In Singapore, Jasmine E. Tan

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Women’s reproductive rights have always been a site of contestation. The central question this paper seeks to answer is how motherhood is constructed through the repetition of population policies by government officials and how this articulation becomes the script through which motherhood is in turn performed. This paper examines the rhetorical construction of what it means to be a mother in Singapore through the analysis of National Day Rally Speeches. Two themes emerged from this analysis: (1) Motherhood is an expensive experience and, (2) Motherhood required lifestyle changes. By unwittingly painting motherhood as negative experiences, population policies in Singapore could …

Women's, Gender, And Sexuality Studies Newsletter Spring 2012, Susana Peña

Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Healthy Choices And Heavy Burdens: Race, Citizenship And Gender In The ‘Obesity Epidemic’, Jeanne Firth

Journal of International Women's Studies

The ‘obesity epidemic’ is widely accepted as a major public health threat in the United States. This paper provides a critical examination of the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity’s action plan that is foundational to First Lady Michelle Obama’s ‘Let’s Move!’ campaign. The report reveals ideological anxieties about race, American citizenship, changing gender roles and women’s bodies. The framing of obesity as a personal problem and individual failing reflects the merger of American individualism and neoliberalism. Self-regulation and responsibility (and the mother’s responsibility for her children) are key in prescriptions to manage obesity, reflecting biopolitical techniques of governance …

Insurrectionary Womanliness: Gender And The (Boxing) Ring, Melanie J. Mcnaughton

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Integrating sociological theory on sport with Judith Butler’s concept of insurrectionary speech, the author explores why and how womanliness is produced and problematized. In particular, this article investigates how participating in combat sport violates conventional womanliness by foregrounding physical capability and aggression. Using her identity as a female fighter as a starting point to engage the cultural construction of womanliness, the author connects a critical/cultural look at gender and sport with autoethnography.

A Law And Literature Approach To Stumped By Debora Threedy, Kristin (Brandser) Kalsem

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In this response, I will begin by identifying questions and issues about Stumped that might present themselves from law in literature and law as literature perspectives. This analysis will be followed by a discussion of the play from a particular law and narrative approach, one that ideologically is allied with feminist jurisprudence and critical race studies. Finally, I will conclude by examining the play in connection with scholarship on the cultural study of law, specifically emphasizing ways in which law and literature mutually constitute one another as opposed to being distinct categories of knowledge.

Gender, Gender Roles, And Anxiety: Perceived Confirmability Of Self Report, Behavioral Avoidance, And Physiological Reactivity, Milena Stoyanova, Debra Anne Hope

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Despite the well-documented gender effect in anxiety, less is known about contributing factors to women’s greater risk for anxiety and fears. The present study examined the relationship between gender, gender role orientation (i.e., expressivity/instrumentality) and fear of harmless insects (tarantula), using a multimodal approach of self-report measures, a Behavioral Approach Test (BAT), and physiological reactivity. Participants (144 college students; 67 women, 77 men) completed a questionnaire packet and then were instructed to approach a tarantula. We were unable to replicate Pierce and Kirkpatrick’s (1992) findings that men underreport anxiety. Consistent with the literature, women in the study experienced greater anxiety …

The End Of Men Or The Rebirth Of Class? How Hanna Rosin Leaves Out The 1% & Family Law Fails The Other 99%, Naomi R. Cahn, June Carbone

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article argues that much of what has been described as “the end of men” is in fact the recreation of class. Greater inequality among men and among women has resurrected class differences and changed the way men and women relate to each other and channel resources to their children. While women have in fact gained ground in the workplace and acquired greater ability to live, work, play and raise children without men, a mere relative move towards sex equality only masks the more fundamental changes occurring in American society and the continuing existence of patriarchy. First, the improved freedom …

When Laws And Representation Are Not Enough: Enduring Impunity And Post-Conflict Sexual Violence In Liberia And Sierra Leone, Ashley D. Kitchen

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the course of history, literature and examination on the impact of civil war has focused little on women, especially in the cases of wartime rape. While the factors which sustain wartime rape are examined with frequency, using gender as an analytical lens, the analysis regarding post-conflict sexual violence and rape is studied far less, leading to the question: what factors are correlated with the continuance of widespread acts of rape even after the cessation of official conflict? Liberia and Sierra Leone suffered high levels of both wartime rape and also post-conflict sexual violence. This comparative case study, using process …

Examining Gender In Pharmaceutical Rhetoric Through A Cultural Studies Lens: A Case Study On The Gardasil Vaccine, Jennifer Fickley-Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On June 8, 2006, Merck announced the debut of Gardasil, the world's first vaccine found successful in preventing human papillomavirus (HPV) infections, a sexually transmitted infection that is one of the main causes of certain cancers in men and women, including cervical, vulvar, penile and anal cancers. To promote the vaccine's release, Merck launched Gardasil's "One Less" advertising campaign that included television commercials, print ads and a consumerfocused website (www.Gardasil.com), each promoting the message that "you" could now be "one less woman" affected by cervical cancer ("One Less" campaign). The vaccine, tested and approved only for females age 9-26, was …

Perceptions Of Walt Disney World: Antecedents To Return Visits, Tiffani A. Cosson

Honors Theses

Walt Disney World is an extremely popular tourist destination that attracts millions of visitors each year. Scholars have researched Walt Disney World and there are many different written articles on the subject, however there are very few that delve deep enough into the subject to generate quantitative data about visitors rather than only opinions about the parks. Due to its popularity and prominence in America, it is important to determine which demographic segment prefers to visit Walt Disney World. This can be used for both the parks themselves as a marketing tool, and consumers as well by knowing when the …

Land, Gender, And The Politics Of Identity Formation: Uncovering Hispana/Mexicana Voices In The Southwest, Karen R. Roybal

American Studies ETDs

The southwestern United States has an exceptional history that makes the region a prime focus for study concentrating on culture, tradition, language and land. As an area closely tied to the concept of conquest, the Southwest has had its share of issues related to colonization, imperialism, Manifest Destiny, and cultural erasure. This study focuses on the Southwest as a region that is closely linked to the land as it relates to the formation of identities of its people. Mexican Americans in the Southwest have historically experienced struggle, particularly after 1848 and the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, when …

Surfacing The Structures Of Patriarchy: Teaching And Learning Threshold Concepts In Women's Studies*, Holly Hassel, Amy Reddinger, Jessica Van Slooten

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Patriarchy is a threshold concept in women’s studies—a significant, defining concept that transforms students’ understanding of the discipline. This article reviews our design, implementation, and findings of a lesson study crafted to teach women’s studies students the complex idea of patriarchy as a social system. We analyze the lesson using both quantitative and qualitative analysis, in keeping with the ideals of feminist pedagogy, suggesting a new model of SoTL research for the women’s studies field.

To Lynch A Child: Bullying And Gender Nonconformity In Our Nation's Schools, Michael J. Higdon

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Helen Turner: Representations Of Women, Samantha Nicole Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This thesis investigates Helen Turner’s representations of women in gardens and domestic interiors, specifically by comparing and contrasting her paintings with those of Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, and Lilly Martin Spencer. I use five of Turner’s paintings to explore her representations of gender, the male gaze, and domesticity through a feminist model. I begin with a biography of Turner’s life and an introduction to those five paintings highlighted in this thesis. This is followed by an investigation of how the concept of gender in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century America affected the manner Turner chose to portray …

Machismo And The Glass Ceiling: A Comparative Cultural Study On The Role Of Gender In The Presidential Elections Of Hillary Clinton And Michelle Bachelet, Kayla Woodring

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

During her bid for president, Hillary Clinton was often questioned about allegations of sexism in media coverage surrounding her campaign. She once responded: "It's been deeply offensive to millions of women. I believe this campaign has been a groundbreaker in a lot of ways. But it certainly has been challenging given some of the attitudes in the press.” Were media mentalities and reporting really as biased toward Clinton’s gender as has been asserted? This study seeks to answer not only that question, but also to determine whether such bias is unique to a female presidential candidate in the United States. …

An Individual Of Feeling: Emotion, Gender, And Subjectivity In Historical Perspectives On Sensibility, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Communications: Faculty Publications

This chapter explores the intricacies of analyzing emotions as historical and cultural phenomena. Focusing on gendered assumptions that conflate emotions with women and the private, the chapter examines the contradictions between scholarly views of a wide-spread, public sensibility movement (in politics, economics, philosophy, aesthetics) and a more specific cult of sensibility associated with novels, a female readership and a separate domestic sphere. It argues that sensibility was pivotal to the development of Enlightenment emotional as well as rational subjectivity. Approaching emotions as complex cultural and historical formations clarifies how an individual of feeling was central to the emergence of the …

Investigating Trait Attribution Through Gendered Avatar Play: An Analysis Of The Sims 3, Erika M. Behrmann

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates whether the life-simulation videogame, The Sims 3, enables the deconstruction of the gender binary. The Sims 3 permits its players the capability to attribute similar traits to male or female avatars. In doing so, players can experiment with taboo trait attributions and potentially defy a male-female binary. A group of 82 The Sims 3 players was surveyed to determine their overall male and female Sims trait selections during gameplay. Participants were questioned on how their trait selection related to their personal identities. Results indicated that players tend to select traits that maintain a gender binary. This …

Gender, Aesthetics, And Sexuality In Play: Uneasy Lessons From Girls’ Dolls, Action Figures, And Television Programs, Courtney Lee Weida

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

How does children's play with dolls and action figures engender exploration of gendered identities: from aesthetics and appearances, to social standards, and various rituals and performances? This paper examines recent research in art education and gender studies concerning dolls and figural toys marketed to girls. As an artist and teacher educator, I will draw upon my teaching experiences and examine artifacts of pedagogy from popular material culture. I will address issues of consumption while taking into consideration taboos of gender and sexuality within public and private play. While children's toys as symbolic bodies may pose narrowly gendered and heteronormative models …

Erotic Entitlements Part I: A Reply To Sex Therapy In The Age Of Viagra: “Money Can’T Buy Melove”, Adrienne D. Davis

Scholarship@WashULaw

This is the first of three inquiries into what might be thought of as erotic entitlement. It explores the role of the erotic in regulatory and distributive regimes. Conceived as a reply to Susan Stiritz and Susan Appleton‘s provocative and rich essay Sex Therapy in the Age of Viagra, it starts by summarizing the innovations of their argument. It next uses their paper to pose some questions. First, in this time of contentious feminist, constitutional, and human rights sexual discourse, how is the erotic defined? How is the erotic related to and distinct from desire, the sexual, and even the …

Painting Parisian Identity: Place And Subjectivity In Fin-De-Siecle Art, Chelsea Anne Watts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I provide analysis of several nineteenth-century artworks in order to elucidate the connections between place and identity as expressed in visual representations of Paris. I utilize Bakhtin's idea of the dialogical as a means of identifying multiple subject positions that might be accessed by particular individuals who live in socially constructed spaces specific to fin-de-siècle Paris. I discuss the construction of three performed identities unique to nineteenth-century Paris: the Flâneur, the bohemian, and the primitivist. In each chapter I will parse out the social construction of the spaces where these identities existed and were performed, and link …

"Take Another Look At 'Em": Passing Performances Of Gender In The Junior-Freshman Weddings Of Florida State College For Women, 1909-1925, Sarah Lynne Jünke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Junior-freshmen weddings were all-female mock weddings that were performed as annual traditions on college campuses throughout the U.S. in the early part of the twentieth-century. In the weddings, college women played both the men's and women's roles, and were joined as husband and wife by their college administration. This thesis focuses on the junior-freshman weddings of Florida State College for Women during the years 1909-1925 and argues that the weddings expressed the conflicted cultural contexts that college women in the Progressive Era confronted, but that, significantly, this expression was done through passing performances of gender. The women's choice of passing …

Model Citizen: Exploring The Portrayal Of Unconventional Models On Television Shows In Relation To Women's Self Image, Nicole Jenelle James

All Capstone Projects

According to the renowned Mayo Clinic, having a low self-image can lead people to suffer harmful: physical, emotional, and behavioral consequences. Much of women’s selfimage is reliant on comparing themselves to the media’s perception of beauty. In an effort to bolster American women’s self-esteem, a workshop is proposed to explore the relation between portrayal of unconventional models on television shows and women’s/viewer’s self-image.

Erotic Mourning And Post-Traumatic Sexual Desire, Gila G. Ashtor

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "Erotic Mourning and Post-traumatic Sexual Desire" Gila Ashtor investigates the ways Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius 2000 memoir contains an alternative logic of affectivity that locates possibilities for mourning in the ambivalent directionalities of post-traumatic sexual desire. Ashtor links dominant conceptualizations of post-traumatic working-through and regimes of heteronormative sexual reproductivity in order to argue that Eggers's self-exhibitionistic spectacle of failed post-traumatic healing, precisely as a drama of undoing that replaces the cumulative acquisition of psychic cohesion with survival incoherent gestures, produces a version of what this paper will call "radical mourning." To particularize the …

Gender In Winterson's Sexing The Cherry, Paul Kintzele

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Gender in Winterson's Sexing the Cherry" Paul Kintzele examines the ways in which Jeanette Winterson's 1989 novel explores and critiques aspects of gender and sexuality. While acknowledging the importance of the performance theory of gender that derives from the work of Judith Butler, Kintzele contends that such an approach must be complemented with a psychoanalytic approach that insists on a particular distinction between sex and gender. Although some scholars map the sex/gender distinction onto the perennial nature/nurture binary and thus reduce sex to biology or anatomy, scholars of psychoanalysis such as Joan Copjec and Charles Shepherdson, read …

Nationhood And Women In Postcolonial African Literature, Elda Hungwe, Chipo Hungwe

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Nationhood and Women in Postcolonial African Literature" Elda Hungwe and Chipo Hungwe, through an analysis of Pepetela's Mayombe, Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah, and Ngugi's Petals of Blood discuss nationhood and nation in postcolonial African literature within the framework of the postcolonial theory. Postcolonial theory negates master narratives of nation and nationhood, hence it deconstructs such narratives as problematic. Hungwe and Hungwe discuss problems associated with definitions of nation where groups or members are peripheralized. While Hungwe and Hungwe acknowledge that nationalism served a critical role during decolonization, their conclusion is that in postcolonial Africa notions of …

A Home Divided: A Post-National Approach To Family, Gender And Region In Modern Galician Narrative, Danny Michael Barreto

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

By focusing on the case of Galicia, A Home Divided represents an attempt to understand the multiple linguistic and gendered subjectivities that are enclosed within and excluded from larger regional/national Iberian identities. Contemporary debates about identity in post-national Iberia are often contingent upon the belief that since the nineteenth century there was a singular, official Spanish national identity that in the last few decades has been superseded by the political recognition of Spain's autonomous communities. I engage with these discussions by taking nineteenth-century Galicia as a starting point for thinking about post-national Iberian identities. Through a close reading of the …

A Home Divided: A Post-National Approach To Family, Gender And Region In Modern Galician Narrative, Danny Michael Barreto

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

By focusing on the case of Galicia, A Home Divided represents an attempt to understand the multiple linguistic and gendered subjectivities that are enclosed within and excluded from larger regional/national Iberian identities. Contemporary debates about identity in post-national Iberia are often contingent upon the belief that since the nineteenth century there was a singular, official Spanish national identity that in the last few decades has been superseded by the political recognition of Spain's autonomous communities. I engage with these discussions by taking nineteenth-century Galicia as a starting point for thinking about post-national Iberian identities. Through a close reading of the …

Sport As Art: The Female Athlete In French Literature, Christina Ann Tsaturyan

Theses and Dissertations

The modern conception of organized, codified sport originated in Europe during the 19th century. At this time, instructors began to institute the practice of certain physical activities at school as a means of teaching morals, forming character, and initiating social exchange. Sport is particularly appropriate for forming men because of its public, physical nature. The values it instills—courage, strength, leadership—are also decidedly masculine. What, then, is made of the female athlete? Are the noble qualities that sports affirm inapplicable to women? In this thesis, I argue that female participation in sports often leads to masculinization, unless the sport is transformed …

Crossing Borders, Crossing Margins: Immigrant Women And Transnational Narrative In Contemporary Spain, Neica Michelle Shepherd

Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions)

Crossing Borders, Crossing Margins analyzes transnational literature and films produced from the 1990s to the present and draws upon literary theory, feminist theory, and cultural studies. This dissertation examines how the elaboration of Spanish national identity is contested, diverted, and re-shaped in representations of feminine immigration in a seemingly post-national era characterized by porous national borders. Several of the tropes deployed in the contemporary texts call attention to the psychological and ideological legacies of Spain's conflictive histories with the Americas, Africa, and even Europe, evincing the vestiges of traumatic histories that continue to bear upon individual and collective structures of …

A Comparative Study Of Self-Disclosure In Face-To-Face And Email Communication Between Americans And Chinese, Carolyn Durand

Senior Honors Projects

Self-disclosure occurs when one person communicates personal information about his or her self to another. This information can include facts, opinions, or feelings, and can vary in both breadth and depth. The amount of self-disclosure a person offers depends on several factors. The gender and personality of the person, the relationship they have with the listener, or target, the topic they are discussing, and the medium through which they are communicating all influence how much they are willing to reveal about themselves.

Another aspect that affects self-disclosure is culture. Culture refers to a set of beliefs, values, and traditions shared …