Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Rupturing The World Of Elite Athletics: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Suspension Of The 2011 Iaaf Regulations On Hyperandrogenism, Ella Browning

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2011 the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) published the Regulations on Hyperandrogenism, a health policy banning female athletes from track and field competition if their natural levels of testosterone were found to be higher than those of most female athletes. In 2014, Dutee Chand, a sprinter from India, was banned from competition based on these regulations. She appealed her ban in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and as a result the 2011 IAAF Hyperandrogenism Regulations were suspended for two years. The issues at stake in the suspension of these regulations are, at their core, rhetorical issues …

Media Representations Of Abortion Politics In Florida: Feminist Geographic Analysis Of Newspaper Articles, 2011-2013, Jennifer Iceton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Feminist geographers argue that gendered bodies and power are deeply entwined (McDowell 1992; Rose 1993). However, few geographers have investigated how gender and power interact in relation to the politics of abortion access. This thesis seeks to fill this gap by conducting a feminist content analysis of six newspapers from Florida’s three largest metropolitan areas to determine how articles featuring abortion are framed. Analysis of the dataset concludes that the politicization of the abortion debate results in the erasure of women from the conversation, the identification of a pregnant women trope which homogenizes all women into one category, and Planned …

When Maps Ignore The Territory: An Examination Of Gendered Language In Cancer Patient Literature, Joanna Bartell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cancer patients report having a high need for cancer information. Several studies show that the majority of patients surveyed report preferring information from the American Cancer Society (ACS). Ranging up to 129 pages, the ACS’ Detailed Guides (DG) are widely distributed throughout the United States, and offer patients an authoritative guide to help patients navigate the difficult terrain of the cancer journey. This dissertation examines the ACS’ cervical, endometrial, ovarian, penile, prostate, testicular, and vaginal cancer guides. Through a rhetorical analysis of the 7 guides, it was shown that the ACS DGs in question foster gendered narratives that strictly limit …

Our Counter-Life Herstories: The Experiences Of African American Women Faculty In U.S. Computing Education, Shetay Nicole Ashford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this life history qualitative study was to explore the Counter-Life Herstories of African American women faculty in U.S. Computing Education. Counter-Life Herstories are derived from Counterstories, life histories, and herstories as powerful social justice tools to uncover hidden truths about marginalized groups’ experiences. Through the collection of timelines, counter-life story interviews, and reflective journal writings, I co-constructed and interpreted the Counter-Life Herstories of five participants using an integrative conceptual framework that included critical race theory and Black feminist thought as interpretive frameworks, and Afrocentric feminist epistemology to govern my knowledge validation process. As an emerging African American …

Tough Guy, Sensitive Vas: Analyzing Masculinity, Male Contraceptives & The Sexual Division Of Labor, Kaeleen Kosmo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A Marxist feminist standpoint positions patriarchy and capitalism as mutually beneficial, thus interestingly situating the new market of male contraceptives (MCs). This project takes an in-depth look at the opinions of 15 young men regarding the use of MCs by examining how Western, heterosexual masculinity informs their attitudes and discusses how a new economic market of MCs may affect current social ideologies about of the sexual division of labor. Because notions of masculinity are essential in perpetuating such ideologies, understanding masculinity as it relates to a new market for MCs is imperative. During a series of focus groups men described …

"The Afro That Ate Kentucky": Appalachian Racial Formation, Lived Experience, And Intersectional Feminist Interventions, Sandra Louise Carpenter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines selections of Appalachian women’s personal narrative as well as Affrilachian Poetry written by Kentuckians Bianca Spriggs and Nikki Finney. This project’s goal lies in resisting oppression and erasure of Appalachian culture’s heterogeneity. Contrary to constructions of Appalachians as lazy, complacent, and white, many Appalachians organize communities of resistance from within the region itself. Challenging these representations, I argue that Appalachian feminists as well as Affrilachian poets create countercultures that disrupt monolithic, colonialist, and unquestioned constructions of Appalachia.

“Even Five Years Ago This Would Have Been Impossible:” Health Care Providers’ Perspectives On Trans* Health Care, Richard S. Henry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Trans* studies and issues have recently increased in coverage by the media and popular press. With recent changes in the DSM-5 (APA, 2000; APA 2013) and insurance law (HHS, 2014), trans* healthcare has been under increasing scrutiny. While a small number of studies (Bradford, Reisener, Honnold, & Xavier, 2013; Grant et al., 2011; Rounds, McGrath, & Walsh, 2013; Tanner et al., 2014) have documented discrimination and lack of cultural competencies from the perspective of trans* patients, little research exists that examines the training, support, and decision-making processes of medical professionals who treat trans* patients (Snelgrove et al., 2012, p. 2). …

A Case Study Of Four Female Electrician Technicians In A Male-Dominated Occupation, Maniphone S. Dickerson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the reasons the four female participants decided to pursue electrician technician training, their perspectives of the apprenticeship program, their perceptions of successful employment in a male-dominated occupation, and differences in treatment based on their gender. The exploratory questions that guided the study were: what led the females to make the decision for applying to the electrician technician apprenticeship; what was the nature of the education and training experiences of the participants in the electrician technician apprenticeship program, what were the participants’ perceptions of being successful in advancement within the workforce as a …

He_Rtland: The Violence Of Neoliberalism, Hector Sotomayor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Perhaps, under the consciousness of today, “neoliberalism” has defined our world during the previous and current centuries more than any other socioeconomic system. But the evolution of this ideology, which initially aimed to enhance, or rather, reinvent capitalism and individual freedom, has, in essence, induced an unrecognized problem. I argue that neoliberalism is the catalyst for much of the hostility in this globalized society where tensions and poverty are casualties of individual and corporate prosperity. Because of this revelation, I argue that neoliberalism inadvertently instills violence that is both unseen and gendered. In order to formulate my argument, I introduce …

Let’S Move! Biocitizens And The Fat Kids On The Block, Mary Catherine Dickman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project analyzed First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign for how it constructs obesity and health. Let’s Move! is a national internet-based campaign to end childhood obesity. The literature on Let’s Move! is limited and focuses on the privatization and corporatization of children’s physical education in public schools. Taking an intersectional approach to critical fat studies, I use critical discourse analysis to investigate how the language used in the Let’s Move! campaign (re)enforces and (re)signifies cultural notions of fat as a social problem – specifically that fat bodies are diseased, unproductive, and a financial burden. I maintain that the …

Essays On The Impact Of Ceo Gender On Corporate Policies And Outcomes, Nilesh Sah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the first essay I examine the cash policies of female-led firms. Recent research finds that female CEOs eschew riskier corporate policies, but it makes contradicting claims whether this is due to risk aversion. Benchmarking risk aversion by the management of firms’ cash, I find that female CEOs are risk averse relative to male CEOs. Specifically, they hold significantly (18%) more cash, even for the same level of dividend payout as male CEOs. Further, they have significantly higher speed of adjustment for cash deficits, are more likely to use excess cash to increase dividends, but are equally likely to use …

Interpretations Of Educational Experiences Of Women In Chitral, Pakistan, Rakshinda Shah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This feminist oral history project records, interprets, and analyzes the educational experiences of seven Ismaili college women in Chitral, Pakistan. Chitral is a part of the world where educating girls and women is not a priority. Yet in the scarce literature available one can observe an increase in the literacy rates, especially amongst the Ismaili Muslims in the North of Chitral District. This thesis introduces students' accounts of their personal educational journeys. I argue that the students' accounts exemplify third space feminism. They negotiate contradictions and social invisibility in their daily lives in quiet activism that shadows but changes the …

The Triumvirate Of Intersectionality: A Case Study On The Mobilization Of Domésticas In Brazil, Kristen Lei Nash

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I look at the mobilization of the domestic workers in Brazil as a social movement. In Brazil, the domestic workers have managed to organize continuously for over eight decades using both informal and formal mechanisms to connect workers all over the country in unique ways. By viewing these women and the ways in which they have organized in the framework of a social movement, we can begin to identify their repertoires of contention and how those repertoires have contributed to the successes of the movement. In order to guide this investigation, I ask, how has the doméstica …

'She Shall Not Be Moved': Black Women's Spiritual Practice In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Paradise, And Home, Rondrea Danielle Mathis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

‘She Shall Not Be Moved’: Black Women’s Spiritual Practice in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Paradise, and Home argues that from The Bluest Eye, Morrison’s debut novel, to her 2012 novel, Home, Morrison brings her female characters to voice, autonomy, and personal divinity through unconventional spiritual work. The project addresses the history of Black women’s activist and spiritual work, Toni Morrison’s engagement with unconventional spiritual practice, and closes with a personal interrogation of the author’s connection to Black women’s spiritual practice.

Incredi-Bull-Ly Inclusive?: Assessing The Climate On A College Campus, Aubrey Lynne Hall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students have unique experiences on campus such as discrimination, exclusivity, and homo/transphobia. Stated simply, this research project intends to address these issues by 1) identify students' perceptions of gender identity and sexual orientation diversity on campus, 2) identify the experiences of LGBT students during their time at the institution, and 3) acknowledge suggestions from the student body for ways the University being studied is, or may continue to be, inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Through the application of the campus climate framework and modification of existing climate surveys, a student-centered campus climate …

Her-Storicizing Baldness: Situating Women's Experiences With Baldness From Skin And Hair Disorders, Kasie Holmes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A general goal to my study was to promote an inclusive approach to baldness by sharing and centering women's experiences with baldness from skin and hair conditions, such as autoimmune alopecia areata conditions and monilethrix. Specifically, a main goal of my study was to her-storicize the lived experiences of women who are bald from skin and hair conditions by examining medical and cultural discourses surrounding these conditions, femininity, and female baldness. Additionally, my study considers strategies of accommodation and resistance that bald women perform in a given context, space, or time. For instance, I consider the ways participants manage their …

The Problems And Potentials In Haunted Maternal Horror Narratives, Sarah Laura Novak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will examine the representation of motherhood in horror cinema in order to discuss the problems and potentials of repeated domestic traditions. While maternal horror narratives impose gender roles based on heterosexual hegemonic biases, some of these films also examine the feminine experience and criticize the patriarchal institutional structures that affect domesticity and femininity. If we discuss these promising features, we can build on the implied trajectories, and engender more representation of marginalized experience in order to seek out new methods of cultural stabilization and unity. This proposal relies on Jacques Derrida's theory of hauntology, which addresses past and …

In The (Radical) Pursuit Of Self-Care: Feminist Participatory Action Research With Victim Advocates, Robyn L. Homer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite victim advocates' missions of helping survivors of abuse, advocacy work takes a toll on workers. Advocates perform a multitude of tasks in their jobs including care work, emotional labor, and empowerment counseling which may subject them to consequences such as burnout, compassion fatigue, and compassion satisfaction. As such, this thesis details the work I conducted with the Butterfly Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault agency shelter advocates. The purpose of my thesis was to (1) document and review advocates' self-identified work-related needs and to (2) co-construct an educational intervention with the advocates using feminist participatory action research that would help …

"Is That What You Dream About? Being A Monster?": Bella Swan And The Construction Of The Monstrous-Feminine In The Twilight Saga, Amanda Jayne Firestone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

This dissertation argues that Bella Swan is a representation of Barbara Creed's monstrous-feminine which serves to reinforce ideologies that insist women are abject, inherently dangerous to men, and threatening to a patriarchal status quo. Through close-textual analysis of The Twilight Saga, I demonstrate how the monstrous-feminine frames the hysterical teenage body, hypersexuality, and eternal motherhood as simultaneously unacceptable and unavoidable. These negative women's stereotypes continue to persist in dominant popular culture, and this doublebind is overcome only by the impossible perfection of vampirism. The monstrous-feminine invites constructions of teenage bodies as unstable and unreliable, women's sexuality as dangerous and …

Illness Perceptions Of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Elizabeth Baker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a chronic illness that affects approximately five million premenopausal women in the United States and is associated with significant cosmetic, reproductive, metabolic, and psychological consequences. Despite its prevalence, few studies have explored the lived experiences and illness perceptions of women living with PCOS. Identifying illness perceptions of women living with (WLW) PCOS is important, because mounting research suggests that a person's perceptions of their chronic illness and its management determine that person's coping behaviors (e.g., adherence, self-management) and, consequently, illness outcomes.

In this dissertation, the Common Sense Model (CSM) is used as a framework to …

Checking Out: A Qualitative Study Of Supermarket Cashiers' Emotional Response To Customer Mistreatment, Michael E. Lawless

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Western culture, and especially the United States, the increasingly service based economy focuses on creating an emotionally positive experience for customers. This leads to increasing pressures on service workers to hide and suppress their emotions even when mistreated by customers, in order to meet their employers', and general cultural, customer service standards. This thesis investigates the questions of what kinds of emotional challenges supermarket cashiers experience as a result of mistreatment from their customers, how do they manage to cope with these challenges, and whether there are any differences in challenges or coping strategies between younger and older cashiers, …

Reconceptualizing The Role Of Essentialism In Attitudes Toward Gays And Lesbians: The Intersection Of Gender And Sexual Orientation, Vanessa Hettinger

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Social psychology researchers have become increasingly interested in the role of essentialist beliefs in predicting attitudes toward social groups. However, there is little agreement about what the term actually means, whether it means different things for different groups, what endorsement of essentialism (or its sub-components) means for attitudes, and how much this varies depending on the relevant social context. This underlying lack of clarity helps to explain some of the difficulty in understanding the relationships between essentialist beliefs about sexual orientation and attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. In the current project, I suggest a fundamental shift in the approach …

"We're Taking Slut Back": Analyzing Racialized Gender Politics In Chicago's 2012 Slutwalk March, Aphrodite Kocieda

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined bodied activism in Chicago's Slutwalk 2012 march, a contemporary movement initiated in Toronto, Canada that publicly challenged the mainstream sentiment that women are responsible for their own rape and victimization. Adopting an intersectional approach, I used textual analysis to discuss photographs posted on the official Chicago Slutwalk website to explore the ways this form of public bodied protest discursively engages women's empowerment from movement feminism as well as third wave and postfeminisms. I additionally analyzed the overall website and its promotional materials for the Slutwalk marches as well as how Chicago's photographic representations privilege the white female …

Cuba's Chords Of Change: Music, Race, Class & Motherhood At The Turn Of The 21st Century, Saundra Marie Amrhein

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an ethnography and biographical study that examines the impact of the immense socioeconomic changes underway in Cuba at the turn of the 21st century and the flexible identity categories through which individuals navigate a social crisis.

The biography and ethnography in this thesis are centered on the life of Violeta Aldama, an aging revolutionary and Afro-Cuban mother who struggles to make ends meet while fighting to steer her son, Brian, through a classical music education and into a music career. Amid growing racial inequalities when many Afro-Cubans are locked out of the most lucrative jobs in the …

When Celebrity Women Tweet: Examining Authenticity, Empowerment, And Responsibility In The Surveillance Of Celebrity Twitter, Megan M. Wood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a textual analysis of stories in online celebrity news articles about celebrity women and their use of Twitter. It adds to the burgeoning discussion about gendered and racialized bodies online using scholarship from critical feminist, surveillance, and digital media studies. Throughout, my work attends to notions of authenticity and surveillance, examining how what I term a "call to authenticity"--the use of technologies of self-surveillance to verify "authentic" displays of the self--serves to animate contradictory post-feminist paradigms of femininity which function together to discipline and subjugate femininity. I ask: How do post-feminist questions of empowerment and responsibility become …

The Political Economy Of Maternal Health In A Medically Pluralistic Environment: A Case Study In The Callejón De Huaylas, Isabella Chan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines maternal decision-making regarding prenatal care and childbirth in the rural, north-central Andes in the province of Carhuaz. Semi-structured interviews (n=30) and participatory action research workshops (n=7) were conducted with local women to elucidate how they conceptualize, experience, and negotiate the shifting landscape of prenatal care and childbirth practices and providers. Semi-structured interviews with obstetricians, midwives, and social workers (n=9) were also conducted to compare perspectives and identify disconnects in knowledge and practices existing between these two groups in order to facilitate an open conversation on how to jointly improve the maternal experience and reduce maternal mortality and …

La Dictadura Desde La Escritura Femenina De Carmen Martín Gaite, Julia Álvarez E Isabel Allende, Mariella Orama

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

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Unbearable Weight, Unbearable Witness: The (Im)Possibility Of Witnessing Eating Disorders In Cyberspace, Kristen Nicole Gay

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that the recent erasure of digital pro-anorexia ("pro-ana") narratives by websites such as Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram represents an attempt to silence female self-starvers and reify the authority of medical associations to speak for female bodies. I draw parallels between these attempts and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's theory of epistemic violence, since the experiences of women are effectively discredited, through metaphors that render the thin body dangerous, to shore up professional medical authority. As an attempt to privilege the experiences of the self-starvers, I analyze one Tumblr blog with eating disorder content to listen to the letters users …

Learning From Voices Of Diverse Youth: School-Based Practices To Promote Positive Psychosocial Functioning Of Lgbtq High School Students, Troy Nicholas Loker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify school-based practices that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth endorse as ways for high schools to provide social, emotional, and academic support to LGBTQ youth. A diverse sample of LGBTQ high school students (N = 18) from one large urban school district in a southeastern state participated in individual semi-structured interviews and/or small group brainstorming sessions. Eleven individual interviews were conducted to gather detailed accounts of a) supportive behaviors and policies that youth had experienced in their schools, as well as b) supportive behaviors and policies that were suggested as …

The Harm Of Influence: When Exposure To Homosexuality Elicits Anger And Punishment Tendencies, Timothy Andrew Caswell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the current project, I examined the distinct elicitors and behavioral outcomes of anti-gay anger and anti-gay disgust. The CAD triad hypothesis (Rozin, Lower, Imada, & Haidt, 1999) suggests that anger and disgust are elicited by distinct moral violations and cognitive appraisals. A plethora of research has documented the strong link between disgust and sexual prejudice, but very little attention has been given to the role of anger in sexual prejudice. The biocultural framework of stigmatization (Neuberg, Smith, & Asher, 2000) suggests that people who counter-socialize against prevailing social norms are stigmatized by others. If homosexual sexual behavior does not …