Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Assuming We Cause The World To End, Emma Ambler

Scripps Senior Theses

Four short stories about women dealing with apocalypse in its various forms.

Emerging Dark Matter: La’S Underground Women Musicians In The Digital Age, Linnea Rosenberg

Scripps Senior Theses

Virtual Angel is an independent e-zine publication that attempts to frame an emerging canon of self-made, women musicians that work in the margins of Los Angeles’ music and culture industries.

The Final Girl Grown Up: Representations Of Women In Horror Films From 1978-2016, Lauren Cupp

Scripps Senior Theses

Carol Clover defined a Final Girl as a stereotype of the pure, virginal sole survivor in 1980’s slasher films such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween. But does this representation hold up in 2016 films? Because the horror genre is so broad today, it’s almost impossible to nail down a certain stereotype of the genre, if there even is one. Films like the 1996 slasher parody Scream historically subverted the slasher genre, and since then there has been little to no iconic Final Girls. I argue that this trope is one very much set inside the confines of the 1980’s …

Against The Pursuit Of 'Life's Delirium': Modern Queer Readings Of Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" And Fanny Fern's "Ruth Hall", Nina Posner

Scripps Senior Theses

This essay explores modern queer readings of The Awakening and Ruth Hall, with an emphasis on feeling, time, femininity, and maternity.

Daughter, Wife, Mother: Women As Emblems Of Indian Authenticity Throughout The Diaspora, Saloni Kaur Kalkat

Scripps Senior Theses

It has been over a century since the maternal side of my family has resided in the natal land of our cultural heritage and religious proclivities – Punjab, India, where Sikhism was established. As an American I continue this extension of our roots from their source. Through the process of shifting location, cultural confluence, and passing time the experiences of the women in each successive generation of my family have altered significantly through our diasporic existence. However, even in the aftermath of colonization and immigration, the enduring responsibility of women is reliant upon their relation to family.

This ideology is …

Letting In The Night: The Moon, The Madwoman, And The Irrational Feminine In Jane Eyre And Wide Sargasso Sea, Sophia Rosenthal

Scripps Senior Theses

This analysis examines Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea through the lens of lunar imagery and the irrational feminine, arguing that both texts are aspects of an extended, collective narrative in which both heroines rescue and reclaim their feminine essence from the construction of a masculine idealism.

Reclaiming The Female Suicide Narrative: Rebirth, A Plunge, And The Absurd, Shelby T. Wax

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis looks at female suicide in literature from the 1890s to 1970s in the novels The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion. Looking at these female-penned novels in comparison the canon of Western literature, they all clearly indicate a change in the treatment of female protagonists suffering from loss. In The Awakening, suicide is represented as a rebirth. In Mrs. Dalloway, the protagonist suffers from a fragmentation of the self. In Play It As It Lays, the protagonist finds life through the Absurd.

Unbound: Dismantling The Genre Of Female Coming-Of-Age Films, Megan Edwards

Scripps Senior Theses

This is a reflection paper on the process of creating a multi-media art installation that dismantles traditional, patriarchal notions of female coming-of-age stories in film and presents alternative, feminist narratives to these stories through the voices of the women present within the author's own life.

Gynecologists, Bureaucrats, And Stoners: The Rise Of Women In Television Comedies And Critiquing The Postfeminist Perspective, Victoria Montecillo

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis looks to explore the rise of women in television comedy and the accompanying implications of this phenomenon. Using a historical framework, this thesis looks at the progression of representations of women in television comedies beginning in the 1950s up to today. Considering factors such as the rise of social media, as well as online television streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix as more legitimate avenues to distribute content, this thesis traces women’s place within television comedy, and argues that shows such as Parks and Recreation, The Mindy Project, and Broad City serve as examples of the progress …

Old Masterpieces, New Mistress-Pieces: Cindy Sherman's Reinterpretations Of Renaissance Portraits Of Women, Caitlyn D. Marianacci

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines a selection of eight photographs in the History Portraits series by American photographer, Cindy Sherman, produced from 1989 to 1990. The photographs are based on Renaissance paintings of biblical and secular women painted by old master artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Raphael. Sherman focused on the female types of Biblical mother and femme fatale, as well as wives and models. These types are defined in their relation to men and are depicted by men. In Sherman’s reinterpretations of their portraits, she retells the stories of these women in ways that reaffirm their independence …

Troika Of Fortune Tellers, Sophia D. Kalin

Scripps Senior Theses

This film is an oral history about the intergenerational relationship between three women: my grandmother, my mother, and I. Through our connection I explore the Russian traditions that my grandmother has cultivated and shared among the three of us, in particular, the tradition of fortune telling. I also explore my grandmother's struggle with dementia. Although her memory is fading, she can still remember the practice of reading fortunes and that tradition has preserved our bond and her legacy.

Women And Video Games: Pigeonholing The Past, Allison Perry

Scripps Senior Theses

Academic work dealing with the overlap between video games and female representation is limited in both volume and proper research. Most texts agree on three supposed flaws with video games: they alienate female participants, there are no games for female players, and female players cannot relate to female characters. This thesis sheds light on these points, not only citing specific counter-examples, but also showing how many of these issues reflect on a larger societal problems.

Can't Be Tamed: A Feminist Analysis Of Apocrypha And Other Scripture, Catherine Alison Ballard

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper is my own unique feminist analysis of certain apocryphal texts. Though the texts I use have common themes, they are divided into what I consider the three most societally important aspects of an ancient woman’s identity: virgin, mother, and whore. The Acts of Thecla and The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena deal with virginity. II Maccabees, The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas, and select chapters of Augustine’s Confessions represent motherhood. Finally, the hagiographies Life of Pelagia and Life of Mary navigate through the mire of sexualities that deviate from norms.

Die Frauen, Der Strafvollzug, Und Der Staat: Incarceration And Ideology In Post-Wwii Germany, Andrea Moody Kozak

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores how the material reality of Germany's women's prisons has been largely determined by their ideological foundations, and by the historical developments that have produced these ideologies. The German women's prison system is complex and imperfect, yet in many ways very progressive. It is the result of the last sixty years of tumultuous German history, and has been uniquely shaped by the capitalist and communist histories of the once-divided state. In its current state, it seems to have incorporated elements of a supposedly “rational” or individualistic conception of humanity as well as one that is relational and interdependent, …

Ni La Tierra, Ni Las Mujeres Somos Territorio De La Conquista, Adrienne Beitcher

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis focuses on the effects of neoliberal economic and social policies in Bolivia and their role in the feminization of poor indigenous migration. The thesis argues that these neoliberal policies most deeply affect poor indigenous women in Bolivia forcing them to migrate in order to provide for their families. Through migration, women become transnational mothers ( mothers across national borders). Based on interviews conducted in both Bolivian and Argentina with migrant women, the thesis uses the experiences of these women in order to examine both the short and long-term effects of this on "culture" and mother-child relationships as well …