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Fight Like A Ya Girl: Fourth Wave Feminism, Defense, And Weaponization Through The Lens Of Object Relations, Amanda Blakeman Jun 2022

Fight Like A Ya Girl: Fourth Wave Feminism, Defense, And Weaponization Through The Lens Of Object Relations, Amanda Blakeman

Honors Theses

This thesis will discuss how the genre of Young Adult (YA) fiction, more specifically Fantasy YA fiction, reflects the major goals and objectives of fourth wave feminism, ultimately arguing for the need for more intersectional representation in heroine characters. YA Fantasy fiction consistently features a strong heroine in both spirit and body, one who uses weapons to take on systems of injustice in their respective worlds, from systematic child murder to modern slavery. What and how, then, are these books teaching the next generation about feminism? I attempt to answer this question with this thesis, looking at three YA female …


How Translations Affects Understanding In Euripides’ Medea, Alexis Nicole Candido Jun 2022

How Translations Affects Understanding In Euripides’ Medea, Alexis Nicole Candido

Honors Theses

This thesis considers Medea, from Euripides’ Medea, in her role as mother, wife, and a Woman of Corinth. Previous literature has considered the context within which Medea can be viewed as an icon for feminism in the modern world. Utilizing the translations from George Theodoridis, David Kovacs, Gilbert Murray, E. P. Coleridge, and Cecilia Luschnig, as well as my own translation, I investigated how Medea’s story can be viewed differently when carefully selecting words as a translation of the original Greek from her famous “Women of Corinth” speech. Each translation has similarities and differences, but they all portrayed a slightly …


Contemporary Handicraft, Textile Art, And Feminist Social Critique, Kaitlynn Blow Jun 2020

Contemporary Handicraft, Textile Art, And Feminist Social Critique, Kaitlynn Blow

Honors Theses

My thesis looks at the work of female contemporary artists who use what has historically been considered “women’s craft” such as embroidery, knitting, stitching and other various textile arts. Since the Women’s Art Movement of the 1970s, women have used these creative outlets to express discontent and injustice in their lives revolving around gender and identity. In my research, three main themes emerged as addressed in each chapter. The first theme addresses the topic of domesticity and memory including unseen female labor, such as domestic chores and motherhood, and how fabric holds memories. Chapter two covers gender politics- specifically the …


What Do Women Want? The Feminist Pursuit Of Happiness, Hannah Ruth Ellen May 2019

What Do Women Want? The Feminist Pursuit Of Happiness, Hannah Ruth Ellen

Honors Theses

“What do Women Want?” My thesis asks whether women can genuinely seek freedom while also hoping for happiness. I look closely at how male theorists define happiness and liberty for themselves and for others, and in particular for feminized others. My two central chapters focus on theories of individual happiness, happiness sought through another or others, and the ways feminist thinkers reimagine happiness in relationship to women’s freedom. I apply feminist critiques to the concept of psychodynamic therapy as an anti-revolutionary tool designed to isolate and silence women into believing that coping with oppression is equivalent to genuine happiness. I …


Les Réalisatrices Et Le « Regard Masculin » Dans Le Cinéma Francophone, Arianna Kosakowski Apr 2019

Les Réalisatrices Et Le « Regard Masculin » Dans Le Cinéma Francophone, Arianna Kosakowski

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on how the male gaze is confronted in French and Francophone cinema, particularly in the films of the female directors Celine Sciamma, Euzhan Palcy and Claire Denis. The male gaze is a look in cinema in which women are regarded generally as sexual objects. The male gaze renders women mostly relevant only to fulfill male sexual desires, and thus as weak or background characters with little to contribute to moving the narrative action along. All six films by the female directors analyzed in this thesis, however--Bande de filles and Tomboy (Sciamma), Rue case-nègres and A Dry …


A Woman's Gaze, Emily Fiore Jun 2018

A Woman's Gaze, Emily Fiore

Honors Theses

My work merges my passion of thinking politically and artistically. This series, A Woman’s Gaze, is an extension of my Political Science thesis, where I focused on artists who combat the male gaze by representing women’s lives realistically, from a woman’s perspective. These paintings focus on intimate scenarios from women’s lives where the male gaze is absent. The large scale imagery brings visibility to these otherwise private moments.


La Genara: La Libertad Falsa De La Mujer Elite En México, Emily Sullivan Jun 2018

La Genara: La Libertad Falsa De La Mujer Elite En México, Emily Sullivan

Honors Theses

The goal of feminism is to ensure the equality of all genders. This goal means that women are supposed to be seen as equal to men in society. However, despite the many feminist efforts to bring this equality into reality, many in the world still believe that women are inferior to men. This belief stems from historical oppression of women that has continued up until modern day times. In Mexico, there is still strong beliefs that exist that prevent women from achieving liberation and freedom in society. Ideas related to traditional family values, machismo, and internalized misogyny all act as …


The Importance Of State Intervention In Improving Gender Inequality In China, Jenny Cheng Jun 2018

The Importance Of State Intervention In Improving Gender Inequality In China, Jenny Cheng

Honors Theses

Over the last century, China has undergone a tremendous amount of change. For women, these changes have brought unprecedented rights and opportunities. The state plays a critical role in the status of women in China and this is shown in the accomplishments that the Chinese government has achieved regarding women's rights. To understand gender disparity in China, it is important to understand traditional customs and rituals, traditional ideologies, and the traditional roles that the state used to play in the subordination women in ancient Chinese society. However, enormous changes have occurred in the last century. The fall of the last …


Nasty Women: Television Portrayals Of Societal Anxieties Toward Female Leaders, Emily Sullivan Jun 2018

Nasty Women: Television Portrayals Of Societal Anxieties Toward Female Leaders, Emily Sullivan

Honors Theses

Historically, women have been excluded from leadership positions around the world, while instead men occupy the highest positions of power in society. The lack of female leadership is especially prevalent in the United States, where there has never been a female president, and the majority of high political offices are still held by men. In a similar manner, women have also been excluded from the sphere of comedy throughout history. Women have constantly had to deal with the assertion that women are not funny. This double exclusion from both leadership and comedy has led to the development of my concept …


Paid Maternity Leave Legislation: Do Laws Mandating Paid Family Leave Impact Attitudes Towards Working Mothers?, Brianna Seid Jun 2017

Paid Maternity Leave Legislation: Do Laws Mandating Paid Family Leave Impact Attitudes Towards Working Mothers?, Brianna Seid

Honors Theses

Prior research has shown that the availability of paid maternity leave for new mothers can influence a variety of factors such as women's mental health and life satisfaction long-term career outcomes and children's long run outcomes. However scholars have suggested that there is a backlash effect among certain groups of people when particularly strong advancements are made in areas of women's rights. Research also suggests that attitudes towards certain behavior are impacted by legislation that attempts to regulate such behavior. The current research assessed whether the implementation of paid family leave impacted attitudes towards mothers in the workforce. This study …


Monstrous Mothers: The Politics Of Forced Mothering, Gillian Henry Jun 2017

Monstrous Mothers: The Politics Of Forced Mothering, Gillian Henry

Honors Theses

Can a woman be a woman without being a mother? By studying the control of women's bodies around reproduction, my work elucidates the insistence on women becoming "good mothers" for society. Is the childless woman a monster? Analysis of the Medea trope identifies that the most monstrous woman of all is thought to be the woman who kills her children. And while white women fight for reproductive choice, women of color fight for reproductive freedom, as coercive policies such as forced sterilization deprive women of color as even being considered as potential mothers. Society's insistence on women fulfilling their destiny …


Breaking The Glass Slipper: Analyzing Female Figures' Roles In Disney Animated Cinema From 1950-2013, Brianna Prudencia Gutiérrez Jun 2017

Breaking The Glass Slipper: Analyzing Female Figures' Roles In Disney Animated Cinema From 1950-2013, Brianna Prudencia Gutiérrez

Honors Theses

In this study, heroines and villainesses in nineteen Disney animated films from 1950- 2013 are characterized as traditional, complex, or non-traditional. A total of twenty-four female characters are classified based on their representation, actions, personality traits, appearance, and relationship status. Traditional female figures are beautiful dependent on male figures and engage in a heterosexual relationship as part of their "happily ever after." The traditional female figures in this study are Cinderella from Cinderella (1950) Lady from Lady and the Tramp (1955) Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) from Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Duchess from The AristoCats (1970). Complex female figures are, in the …


Dress And Womanhood Of Ancient Rome, Eliza Burbano Jun 2016

Dress And Womanhood Of Ancient Rome, Eliza Burbano

Honors Theses

Fashion transcends its own role of imagery, as it becomes the medium through which individuals express their place in society. Fashion history would not consider the ancient world as part of the history of the discipline. Nevertheless, the function of dress in ancient cultures like that of Rome has definitely helped shape social hierarchies that are still present today. Clothing structured Roman society deeply, just as class, race, and sexuality did. Scholar Kelly Olson (2002) defines the function of clothing as part of a sign system. This study argues that dress in ancient Rome goes beyond this idea, in that …


Women: Indisputable Fans Of Baseball: An Ethnographic Study Of Female Baseball Fans, Shea Barickman Jun 2016

Women: Indisputable Fans Of Baseball: An Ethnographic Study Of Female Baseball Fans, Shea Barickman

Honors Theses

Baseball is known as America’s Pastime and has been a strong symbol of masculinity in American culture. The ratio of female to male fans, however, is actually the most equal of any major professional sport in the United States. This thesis examines that paradox. Drawing on participant observations at games, interviews with fans and an ethnographic study of a sports radio station in Kansas City, I find that the increasing participation of female fans is a result of baseball being experienced and marketed as a family-oriented game. This family experience gave women a point of entry and women have stuck …


A Gilded Cage: A Feminist Analysis Of Manor House Literature, Katelyn Billings Jun 2016

A Gilded Cage: A Feminist Analysis Of Manor House Literature, Katelyn Billings

Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on women struggling with social rules and gender restrictions in Victorian and Edwardian English manor houses. The culture of the manor home had an incredibly powerful impact on the female protagonists of the literary texts I analyze, and in this thesis, I demonstrate how it stifled the growth and agency of women. With the end of the age of the British Great Houses in the twentieth century, there was the simultaneous rise of the New Woman, an emerging cultural icon that challenged conservative Victorian conventions. With the values and ideologies surrounding the New Woman in mind, this …


Las Madres De Plaza De Mayo Y Los Medios Sociales: La No Desaparicion De Los Desaparecidos, Matthew Christal Jun 2016

Las Madres De Plaza De Mayo Y Los Medios Sociales: La No Desaparicion De Los Desaparecidos, Matthew Christal

Honors Theses

El diccionario Merriam Webster define "desaparecer" de varias maneras: dejar de ser visible: pasar fuera de vista: dejar de existir: morir o desaparecer por completo: perderse: ir a un lugar que no se conoce. En el caso de las Madres de Plaza de Mayo, estas definiciones son referencias a sus hijos e hijas que desaparecieron durante la guerra sucia. Normalmente, cuando pensamos en periodos de historia muy oscuros, pensamos en eventos como el holocausto. La guerra sucia fue el “holocausto” para los argentinos entre 1976 hasta 1983. Las madres de los desaparecidos han sido la razón por qué las memorias …


L' Obscurite' Manifestee (A Manifested Obscurity), Roswald Morales Jun 2016

L' Obscurite' Manifestee (A Manifested Obscurity), Roswald Morales

Honors Theses

There are three directors that have revolutionized the world of French cinema by bringing to the forefront topics that make its audiences uncomfortable. Abdellatif Kechiche, director of the film Black Venus (2010), Ousmane Sembène, director of the film Black Girl (1966), and Céline Sciamma, director of the film Girlhood (2014) have become renowned for discussing the portrayal of black women in French society. This is a topic at hand that reveals the devastating truth behind French society in regarding black women during various eras. Black Venus narrates the life of an African woman during the slavery period in Europe. Black …


Baby Cribs In Prison Cells: Assessing Opinions About Prison Nursery Programs By Humanizing Incarcerated Mothers, Erin Ostheimer Jun 2016

Baby Cribs In Prison Cells: Assessing Opinions About Prison Nursery Programs By Humanizing Incarcerated Mothers, Erin Ostheimer

Honors Theses

Through my research, I analyzed prison nursery programs in the United States. Prison nurseries are programs that exist in nine states that allow mothers who are pregnant when they are incarcerated to keep their infants with them in prison for a finite amount of time. Previous scholarship on the topic has shown that prison nurseries are effective in reducing rates of recidivism and fostering a bond between mother and infant. My research explored the question of why these programs are so rare given their success. I assessed Union College student and professor attitudes about maternal incarceration to better understand how …


An Interdisciplinary Approach To Domestic Violence In The Legal System: The Importance Of Victim Advocates, Joanna Chalifoux Jun 2016

An Interdisciplinary Approach To Domestic Violence In The Legal System: The Importance Of Victim Advocates, Joanna Chalifoux

Honors Theses

Domestic violence is an aspect of the legal system where there typically is a lack of communication among the institutions involved. Therefore, the benefit of an interdisciplinary approach to domestic violence in the legal system is assessed by emphasizing the importance of the presence of victim advocates in the courtroom. In this dissertation, the issue will be evaluated through a feminist point of view— with the belief that domestic violence is a gendered phenomenon in which the majority of the perpetrators are male and the victims are female. In order to research this, several judges, lawyers, and victim advocates who …


A Lineage Of Black Feminist Art, Kiana Miller Jun 2016

A Lineage Of Black Feminist Art, Kiana Miller

Honors Theses

This Black Feminist Art thesis project displays Black lives with full representational impact and it allows a space for agency to be shown. Through an empirical literature review, original poetry and artwork this thesis expresses dimensions of Black feminist/womanist voices. The purpose of this thesis is putting real images of Black lives out into the world in order to have a positive impact, giving young girls an artistic role model that looks like them, and the ability to read a book with images and stories of lives that may resemble theirs, lastly sharing a social commentary as well as a …


Jewish Women In The Ghettos, Concentration Camps, And Partisans During The Holocaust, Sara Vicks Jun 2014

Jewish Women In The Ghettos, Concentration Camps, And Partisans During The Holocaust, Sara Vicks

Honors Theses

Men like, Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl, and Elie Wiesel, have provided us with valuable insight on the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. Only until recently, was there a disproportion of female memoirs of the Holocaust beyond the story Anne Frank. The purpose of this study was to research the Jewish women’s experience in the ghettos, the concentration camps, and the partisans to add to a broader understanding of the Holocaust and its female victims. The hostile environment for Jewish males after Hitler’s rise to power led to a complete role reversal for Jewish men and women. Jewish …


Femmes Politiques En France : Une Comparaison Des Femmes Politiques De La France Et Des Antilles Françaises, Sarah F. Stiles Jun 2008

Femmes Politiques En France : Une Comparaison Des Femmes Politiques De La France Et Des Antilles Françaises, Sarah F. Stiles

Honors Theses

Les femmes françaises et antillaises se sont battues interminablement au cours d’une longue histoire des luttes féminines pour qu’elles puissent avoir de l’égalité dans la société et dans la politique. Cette lutte a pris beaucoup de formes selon les cultures des femmes, et une étude sur la situation des femmes révèle que ces différences culturelles aussi bien que les stéréotypes et les vues traditionnelles des femmes, en plus d’une domination des hommes en politique, ont créé ses barrières redoutables pour les femmes qui s’intéressent à s’engager dans la politique. En même temps, il existe une tendance, notamment en France, d’oublier …