Digital Commons Network^™

The Gendered Nature Of Sexuality, Anna E. Spengen

Sociology Publications

This essay focuses on casual sex encounters, wherein the gendered nature of sexuality is thought to be most salient. Four specific areas of sexuality and its scripts are investigated as gendered within this essay: instigation, negotiation, the act of intercourse, and social repercussions of participation. These four categories are comparatively analyzed within the two dominant and competing perspectives of essentialism and social constructionism. This analysis seeks to highlight the superiority of a constructionist view in explaining the gendered nature of sexuality. The narrow minded view of essentialism, with its failure to acknowledge the influences of social and cultural factors, posits …

South Africa: Newsrooms In Transition, Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

South African is a beautiful country with a a diverse citizenry at the Southernmost tip of the African continent. But the nation also has a long history of racial struggle, which includes an era of racial segregation, called apartheid that ended formally in 1994 after nearly 50 years of policital oppression and protest. The country today is a land of contrasts. It has a vibrant media scene and one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, guaranteeing equality for all and freedom of the press. Women are breaking through newsroom boundaries, making up about half of the journalism workforce, …

The Culture Of Rights Protection In Canadian Refugee Law: Examining The Domestic Violence Cases, Efrat Arbel

All Faculty Publications

This article examines Canadian refugee law cases involving domestic violence, analyzed through a comparison with cases involving forced sterilization and genital cutting. Surveying 645 reported decisions, it suggests that Canadian adjudicators generally adopted different methods of analysis in refugee cases involving domestic violence, as compared with these other claims. The article argues that Canadian adjudicators rarely recognized domestic violence as a rights violation in itself but, instead, demonstrated a general predisposition toward finding domestic violence persecution in cultural difference. That is, adjudicators tended to recognize domestic violence claimants not as victims of persecutory practices but rather as victims of persecutory …

La Culture De La Protection Des Droits Fondamentaux En Droit Canadien Des Réfugiés: Un Examen Des Affaires De Violence Familiale, Efrat Arbel

All Faculty Publications

Cet article examine les cas canadiens de droit des réfugiés impliquant de la violence familiale, analysés par le biais d’une comparaison avec les cas de stérilisation forcée et de mutilations génitales. Parcourant 645 décisions publiées, il suggère que les arbitres canadiens ont en général adopté différentes méthodes d’analyse dans le cas des réfugiés de violence familiale, par rapport aux autres affaires. L’article soutient que les arbitres canadiens reconnaissent rarement la violence domestique comme une violation des droits en soi, mais au contraire, ont montré une prédisposition générale à reconnaître des situations violence domestique dans la différence culturelle. Autrement dit, les …

Computational Analysis Of The Body In European Fairy Tales, Scott Weingart, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This article explores how digital humanities research methods can be used to analyze the representations of gendered bodies in European fairy tales, a flexible and pervasive genre that has influenced Western children's education and acquisition of gender identity for centuries. By blending the theoretical and methodological concerns of folkloristics, gender studies, and large-scale scientific research, this article demonstrates the utility of cross-disciplinary collaboration in asking traditional questions of traditional materials with new methods. To facilitate this research, a hand-coded database listing every reference to a body or body part in the 233 fairy tales was created. Analysis revealed strong indications …

The Black And The White Bride: Dualism, Gender, And Bodies In European Fairy Tales, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Fairy tales are one of the most important folklore genres in Western culture, spanning literary and oral cultures, folk and elite cultures, and print and mass media forms. As Jack Zipes observes: ‘The cultural evolution of the fairy tale is closely bound historically to all kinds of storytelling and different civilizing processes that have undergirded the formation of nation-states.’¹⁴³ Studying fairy tales thus opens a window onto European history and cultures, ideologies, and aesthetics.

Gender Differences And Factors Affecting Brand Loyalty, Olivia Rajska

Honors Capstones

Little is known about apparel brand loyalty regarding satisfaction of clothing purchase. This study was developed to examine whether brand satisfaction and brand reputation influence brand loyalty. Another objective of this study was to compare clothing satisfaction of a loyal brand between males and females. Following a focus group interview, a survey questionnaire was developed. A total of 106 participants consisting of 46 males and 58 females completed the survey questionnaire. Results of Pearson Correlations showed brand loyalty was positively related to brand satisfaction (r = .37, p <.001) and brand reputation (r = .33, p <.001). A strong positive correlation (r = .51, p <.001) was found between brand satisfaction and brand reputation. Independent sample t-tests indicated significant differences between males and females in trend (Mf = 4.46, Mm=3.98), promotion(MF = 3.60, Mm=2.90), return policies (Mf = 3.98, Mm=3.20)., display (Mf = 4.08, Mm=3.02), fitting rooms(MF = 3.64, Mm=2.68), store environment (Mf = 4.21, Mm=3.54), sales associates (Mp = 4.02, Mm=3.39) and overall experience (Mf = 3.15, Mm=2.63) on a 5-point scale. This study had implications for apparel retailers and marketers and they could develop brand loyalty for male and female customers. In order to develop customer loyalty, apparel brand should focus on trendy apparel, sales and promotions, return policies, displays, fitting rooms, merchandise layout, sales associates and an overall good store experience.

Feminist Approaches And The South African News Media, Denise Buiten

Arts Papers and Journal Articles

Despite apparent feminist advancements within contemporary South Africa, gender transformation in the South African media industry has been both limited and irregular in terms of the ways in which newsroom cultures are being transformed, and the ways in which this impacts on the production of gendered media texts. Based on interviews with journalists and editors from three weekly South African newspapers, the Sunday Times, the Sunday Sun and the Mail & Guardian, this article explores the ways in which journalists articulate their understandings of gender and gender transformation within the media, and reflects on the ways in which these articulations …

Gender And The African Burial Ground, Ashley Parks

Theses & ETDs

This thesis is an examination of the African Burial Ground in New York. In the analysis I consider burials that were associated with items of adornment and shells, coins, and other items in the time periods from the 1760s to 1794. Through the application of queer theory within a Black feminist archaeological framework, I hope to open up new understandings of gender during this time period. The analysis focuses on the gendered aspects of burial good associations as well as how two burials, Burials 259 and 332, challenge the conflation of sex and gender in archaeology, as well as the …

Challenging Imperial Expectations Black And White Female Homesteaders In Kansas, Tonia M. Compton

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In 1870 on the southeastern Nebraska prairie near Beatrice, a young Bohemian woman, Ann Schleiss, set up housekeeping on her homestead claim near Beatrice. At twenty-two years of age, Schleiss staked her claim on 160 acres of the American public domain. She established her residence there in April, moving into a “very poor dilapidated [sod] structure” that was already on the land. Her family lived only a half-mile away and, after planting her first crops with the help of locally hired men, she returned home. Schleiss at times hired out as domestic help in the area. In July, she returned …

Power Girls Before Girl Power: 1980s Toy-Based Girl Cartoons, Katia Perea

Publications and Research

The socio/cultural history and partnership of toy advertisement and children’s television is rich and well documented (Schneider 1989, Kunkel 1988, Seiter 1993). In this article I discuss the influence of policy in girl’s cartoon programming as well as the relationship between commercialization and financial motivation in creating a girl cartoon media product. I then discuss the formulaic, gender normative parameters this new genre set in place to identify girl cartoons as well as girl media consumption and how within those parameters girl cartoon characters were able to represent an empowered girl popular culture product a decade before the nomenclature Girl …

A Case Study Of Patriarchy And Slavery: The Hermeneutical Importance Of QurʾĀnic Assumptions In The Development Of A Values-Based And Purposive Oriented QurʾĀn-Sunna Hermeneutic, A. Duderija

Research Publications (2011 to 2015)

It is the task of this paper to argue that the development of a new Qurʾān-sunna hermeneutic(and therefore Islamic legal theory) which hermeneutically privileges an ethico-religious and purposive approach to a Qurʾānic interpretation (based on ethically objectivist nature of ethical value) has the potential to engender a gender symmetrical Islamic law. In order for this to be achieved, it is argued further, that the hermeneutical importance of the mirroring of the various socio-cultural and ethico-moral assumptions prevalent in the Qurʾān’s revelatory milieu in the actual Qurʾānic text itself must be taken into account as evident in those passages pertaining to …

Silent Sentinels: Archaeology, Magic, And The Gendered Control Of Domestic Boundaries In New England, 1620-1725, C. Riley Auge

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The following dissertation is an historical archaeological study of the material culture of gendered protective magic used by Anglo-Europeans in seventeenth-century New England as a tactic to construct boundaries that mitigated perceived personal, social, spiritual, and environmental dangers. Such boundary construction was paramount in the seventeenth-century battle between good and evil epitomized by the belief in and struggle against witchcraft. This dissertation sought to answer three interrelated research questions: 1) What constitutes protective magical material culture in seventeenth-century contexts and how is it recognizable in the archaeological record? 2) What signifies gender specific protective magical practices and what can these …

Relationship Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Resilience, And Religious Orientation And Practices Among University Student Earthquake Survivors In Haiti, Harvey J. Burnett Jr, Herbert Helm

Faculty Publications

This study examined the prevalence of PTSD symptoms; the relationship between PTSD and resilience, religious orientation and religious practices; and how gender is associated with these variables among a volunteer sample of 140 students attending a Christian university in Haiti approximately four months after the January 2010 earthquake. Using the PTSD Checklist-Civilian (PCL-C), the Resilience Scale (RS), and the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) found no significant relationship between PTSD, resilience, religious orientation and religious practices. Results did indicate that 34% of the sample had PCL-C scores indicative of PTSD; female participants had higher PTSD symptoms than males; higher levels of …

I Play To Beat The Machine: Masculinity And The Video Game Industry In The United States, Anne Mcdivitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the video game industry within the United States from the first game that was created in 1958 until the shift to Japanese dominance of the industry in 1985, and how white, middle class masculinity was reflected through the sphere of video gaming. The first section examines the projections of white, middle class masculinity in U.S. culture and how that affected the types of video games that the developers created. The second section examines reflections of this masculine culture that surrounded video gaming in the 1970s and 1980s in the developers, gamers, and the media, while demonstrating how …

The Insignificance Of Feature Frequency In Classifying Gender Of Twitter Tweets, Amanda Marie Kroft

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2011, Internet users spent almost 23% of their time on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Twitter alone was estimated to have over 200 million active users. With social media being such a popular online pastime, a tremendous amount of information becomes available from the posts that users put on social media sites. This information has the potential to reveal details about the social media users, such as the relationship between characteristics of the users and what they post. This relationship is a hot research topic and one of the most frequently studied characteristic is the gender …

Health-Related Quality Of Life And Life Satisfaction In Colorectal Cancer Survivors: Trajectories Of Adjustment, Jeff Dunn, Shu Kay Ng, William Breitbart, Joanne Aitken, Pip Youl, Peter D. Baade, Suzanne K. Chambers

Research outputs 2013

Background: This longitudinal study describes the five year trajectories of health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) and life satisfaction in long term colorectal cancer survivors.Patients and methods: A population-based sample of 1966 colorectal cancer survivors were surveyed at six time points from five months to five years post-diagnosis. Predictor variables were: socio-demographic variables, optimism; cancer threat appraisal; perceived social support. Quality of life was assessed with the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Colorectal (HR-QOL); and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Growth mixture models were applied to identify trajectory classes and their predictors.Results: Distinct adjustment trajectories were identified for HR-QOL and life satisfaction. …

The Ecology Of Medical Care In Beijing, Shuang Shao, Feifei Zhao, Jing Wang, Lei Feng, Xiaoqin Lu, Juan Du, Yuxiang Yan, Chao Wang, Yinghong Fu, Jingjing Wu, Xinwei Yu, Kaykeng Khoo, Youxin Wang, Wei Wang

Research outputs 2013

Background: We presented the pattern of health care consumption, and the utilization of available resources by describing the ecology of medical care in Beijing on a monthly basis and by describing the socio-demographic characteristics associated with receipt care in different settings. Methods: A cohort of 6,592 adults, 15 years of age and older were sampled to estimate the number of urbanresident adults per 1,000 who visited a medical facility at least once in a month, by the method of three-stage stratified and cluster random sampling. Separate logistic regression analyses assessed the association between those receiving care in different types of …

Race, Gender, And Leadership Promotion: The Moderating Effect Of Social Dominance Orientation, Chelsea Chatham

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The current study aims to examine the effects that applicant race and gender have on ratings of promotability for a leadership role. The current study will also investigate the role that Social Dominance Orientation, an individual difference variable that reflects attitudes towards intergroup relations being equal or not, plays in attitudes towards a candidate's promotability. 213 participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in a 2 (candidates race: Caucasian vs. African-American) × 2 (candidates gender: male vs. female) factorial design and asked to assess the promotability of the candidate based on a brief work history and interview responses. …

'May It Please The Court?': A Short Story, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

This story tells a fictional account of a black woman lawyer who is about to try the biggest case of her life. While many black women lawyers seek to express their individuality and bring the best of themselves into their work and lives, conventions and norms about race and gender force them to give huge attention to things that likely matter little in the long run. In this story, we go on a journey of self-discovery with the protagonist, Angel, in hopes that she will be able to please the court in this—her trial of a lifetime.

Feminist Zines: (Pre)Occupations Of Gender, Politics, And D.I.Y. In A Digital Age, Courtney Lee Weida

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

This article examines the potential of recent feminist zines as frameworks of grassroots D.I.Y. and direct democracy in physical and digital communities. While the height of zine creations as works on paper may be traced to the 1990s, this form of feminist counterculture has evolved and persisted in cyberspace, predating, accompanying, and arguably outlasting the physical reality of protests, revolutions, and political expressions such as the Occupy Movement(s). Contemporary zines contain not only email addresses alongside ‘snail mail’ addresses, but also links to digital sites accompanying real-world resources. Zinesters today utilize the handmade craftsmanship and hand drawn and written techniques …

Closing The Gap: A Research Agenda For The Study Of Health Needs Among American Indian/Native Hawaiian Transgender Individuals, Irene S. Vernon, Trudie Jackson

Ethnic Studies Review

Objectives: To explore health research needs of American Indian and Native Hawaiian (AIINH) transgender individuals. Methods: This qualitative study is composed of four focus groups and one informal meeting, totaling 42 AIINH transgender individuals in four major cities. The theoretical and methodological approaches combined grounded theory with the principles of community based participatory research. Results: Healthcare and resiliency are two main themes that emerged as research needs with important subcategories within them. Access to quality care from medical professionals and access to care that is unique to their trans gender status were subcategories within healthcare. Lived experiences, culture, and history …

Advertising Androgyny: How Models' Gender Presentation Impacts Young Adults' Evaluations Of Advertisements And The Effects Of An Inclusive Instructional Frame, Arielle Scherr

Theses & ETDs

This study investigated how the gender presentation of models in advertisements and an instructional frame emphasizing gender fluidity affected adolescents' and young adults' evaluations of these ads. Participants were exposed to five advertising images picturing a feminine female, a masculine female, a feminine male, a masculine male, and a pair of jeans (control). Participants then completed a survey measuring their evaluations of model attractiveness, ad effectiveness, ad relatability, self-attractiveness, sex role orientation, and media-inspired social comparison behavior. Participants exposed to the inclusive instructional frame rated the four model images as more effective and relatable than participants in the control group …

Making Sense Of Mason Jars : A Qualitative Exploration Of Contemporary Home Canning, P. Suzanne Pennington

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The practice and popularity of home canning in the United States has dramatically fluctuated since John Mason’s 1858 invention of the ‘fruit’ jar, influenced by cultural trends and sociopolitical events such as war, economic oscillation, activist movements such as environmentalism, and the politicization of food. The contemporary social context in which popular interest in home canning has most recently revived is an era of high cultural awareness and activity regarding multiple food issues. Traditional American foodways, including food preservation techniques such as home canning, are regaining importance as many Americans look to the past for solutions to current needs. This …

H.D. And Freedom : Realization Through Nature, Vision, And Gender Authority, Jared Young

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis is a study in the constructs of H.D.'s poetry, and how they work in relation to the reader. Specifically, H.D.'s concern was creating a sense of freedom for her readers as a means to representation and identity. To achieve this state of consciousness, H.D. began by exploring the sacredness within nature. In the process of articulating her idea into a more exact form she turned her focus towards gender. By removing the objective aesthetics surrounding women, H.D. developed a gender authority. Through this authority she continued her quest for freedom and, in doing so, instilled a sense of …

Tabaqueras On The Shop Floor : Gendered Labor Process And Production Model Transformations In Cigar Factories In Santiago, Dominican Republic, 1940-2011, Ingrid Mercedes Bircann-Barkey

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation uncovers the different gendered labor processes that have shaped the cigar women workers or tabaqueras' work experiences on the cigar shop floor or galera since the 1940s. I argue that contradictory processes of exclusion and inclusion in the urban-rural nexus of the tobacco/cigar economy may be based on gendered notions of skills. This gendered notion may be traced to how changes in state policy, international markets, and financial systems as well as changes in premium cigar production models, have transformed the galera's social organization and labor process.

Greensboro And Beyond: Remediating The Structural Sexism In Truth And Reconciliation Processes And Determining The Potential Impact And Benefits Of Truth Processes In The United States, Peggy Maisel

Faculty Scholarship

Over the last 35 years approximately forty truth commissions have investigated human rights violations and abuses in a wide range of countries and communities. Each of these forty commissions provides different lessons on how investigating and testifying about past abuse can lead to healing and change. I have participated in two of the more remarkable Truth and Reconciliation processes, the first as an observer, the other as an advisor. The former is perhaps the most widely known and discussed TRC process, the one which took place in South Africa from 1996 to 1998 that examined the entire apartheid era in …

Gendered Divisions Of Fertility Work: Socioeconomic Predictors Of Female Versus Male Sterilization, Andrea Bertotti

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Research

Domestic labor researchers have examined a multitude of duties disproportionately performed by women, yet the responsibility associated with navigating a couple's fertility—fertility work—has been overlooked. Using data from the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth (N = 1,415), the author examined how racial and socioeconomic factors affect the division of contraceptive fertility work among married and cohabiting women who rely on either their partners' vasectomies or their own sterilizations. Drawing theoretical connections between fertility work and housework, resource- and gender-based perspectives were used to assess whether women's or their partners' characteristics are stronger predictors of sterilization type, and whether women's …

The Glass Cliff: An Examination Of The Female Superintendency In South Carolina, Blanche Boyd Bowles

Theses and Dissertations

South Carolina public school districts are confronted with a series of difficult circumstances and rely more on female superintendents than the national average. The investigation of female South Carolina superintendents was guided by the glass cliff conceptual framework. The glass cliff represents situations where females are promoted over males to risky or precarious leadership positions where the chance of failure is high

The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to examine the relationship between the sex of South Carolina public school superintendents to (a) self-reported transformational leadership behaviors and (b) select district indicators indicative of the difficult circumstances confronted …

Examining The Differences In Rapport Between Male And Female Cancer Genetic Counselors And Female Clients, John Abernethy

Theses and Dissertations

Genetic counseling is a field in which client-counselor rapport plays a critical role in client satisfaction with the genetic counseling process. One factor that may impact this rapport is gender of the genetic counselor. Previous studies in the field of psychological counseling suggest that gender is not a significant moderator of this rapport. To the best of our knowledge, no study has been published in the field of genetic counseling examining the impact that the gender of the genetic counselor has on client-counselor rapport. To study this effect, an amended version of Horvath & Greenberg's (1989) Working Alliance Inventory tool …