Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Women In The 2016 Olympic And Paralympic Games: An Analysis Of Participation, Leadership, And Media Coverage, Emily J. Houghton, Lindsay Pieper, Maureen Smith

Human Performance Department Publications

The report analyzes the representation and participation of women in the international and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic organizations. Specifically, it examines the types and extent of opportunities that are provided for women in administrative and leadership roles within these structures as well as the chances women have to compete in the Games themselves. This report also assesses the extent that the IOC, IPC and United States Olympic Committee (USOC) are fulfilling their stated missions with respect to fairness to fairness and gender equity and whether or not legal statutes are being upheld.

Female Genital Mutilation: The Price Of Tradition, Erin Kerwin

3690: A Journal of First-Year Student Research Writing

Overview: Female genital mutilation is a form of gender-based violence that impacts girls and women in many regions around the world. Conventional wisdom mistakenly defines FGM as the removal of the clitoris, but there are three additional types: partial or total extraction of the clitoris and the labia minora, the narrowing of the vaginal opening, and other harmful non-medical procedures that mutilate the vaginal area (Siddig). This atrocity is predominantly performed in Nigeria and other African countries, but also other places in the world including the United States. Israa Siddig, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist, explains, “[FGM] is still practiced …

Strength In Numbers: The Power Of Alliances In The Handmaid’S Tale And 2017 Women’S March On Washington, Caroline Paley

3690: A Journal of First-Year Student Research Writing

Overview: Margaret Atwood captivates her readers as she spins the tale of a futuristic version of our own world after a totalitarian regime takes over. She welcomes the readers to the new, radical society, formerly the United States, known now as the Republic of Gilead. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood tells the story of a woman in this dystopian future who, like so many others, has been stripped of all her liberties and whose sole purpose is to reproduce for the overall good of society. Birth rates have declined and many citizens are sterile due to environmental pollution and …

Greening Gawain : Connecting Environmental Damage And Masculinity In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight., Austin Putty

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This paper explores medieval environmental attitudes through a historical reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the study of which provides a blueprint for what may be a method of combating climate change denial at its cultural roots, which I will argue in this paper links to an outdated mode of European warrior masculinity. This paper will demonstrate the connections between hegemonic masculinity and environmental degradation at work as a discourse in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight through chivalric behaviors, as well as a burgeoning environmental conscientiousness at play that undermines it. The conflict between Gawain and …

The Role Of Mail In The First Women’S Rights Movement: A Project Of Resistance And Knowledge Formation, Hannah-Abigail Mosier

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper argues that mail correspondence among 19^th century suffragists functions as a practice of creating space for cultivating a political feminist consciousness and sustaining the first women’s rights movement. Using Michel de Certeau’s theory of space and Nancy Fraser’s work on feminist counterpublics, letters from a variety of suffragists, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, were analyzed. Through a close reading of these letters, this paper identifies alternative discursive patterns as they circulate within those epistolary spaces. The early suffragists used letters to reaffirm their identity as white, middle-class, educated, Protestant women at the same time …

Three Women, Two Spheres, And A Contract: A Comparative Study Of Mary Astell And Mary Wollstonecraft Through The Lens Of Carole Pateman's "The Sexual Contract", Robyn Burke Dabora

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

This project examines the writings of Mary Astell (1666-1731) and Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) regarding women in light of ideas articulated by Carole Pateman (1940- ) in her book, The Sexual Contract (1988). In her work, Pateman critiques the prescriptions for the management of society suggested by classic contract theorists such as Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704) and cites that their solutions focus solely on men in the public sphere of society. Pateman illuminates the condition of women in the private sphere of the home, and asserts that this realm operates by mechanisms radically different from those of the …

Winged Women: Stewardesses, Sexism, And American Society, Michele Martin

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Airline stewardesses in the decades between 1950 and 1980 reflected a microcosm of the American feminist movement. Subjected to what feminist theorist Laura Mulvey called “the male gaze,” in which women are viewed as objects who exist for the viewer’s pleasure, they were selected for their youth and beauty and trained to serve. Regulations about height, weight, age, and marital status, ensured that stewardesses were young, thin, and single, and women in this job were fetishized as everything from girl next door to sex kitten. Stewardesses were expected to fulfill archetypal and stereotypical female roles, including mother, nurse, comforter, and …

Alfred Lord Tennyson, Julia Margaret Cameron, And The Arthurian Legends: Re-Writing And Re-Envisioning Women’S Roles In 19th Century England, Lisa Wagenhurst

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) the poet and Julia Margaret Cameron the photographer (1813-1879) worked collaboratively on the Idylls of the King; a work of epic poetry that Tennyson wrote about the legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. His re-envisioned tales were cautionary and provided guidelines as to how women should behave or face the consequences of causing the downfall of society. Victorian society was in a precarious situation as women were expected to behave in certain ways, but at the same time they were finding their voices and beginning to speak out about patriarchal society …

Silver Lining, Abigail Remington

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

artwork

Women’S Liberation, Family, And The Fight For Daycare At The University At Albany, Sheri Sarnoff

History Honors Program

On October 9 1970, the Albany Student Press, the University at Albany’s student newspaper, featured an article entitled, “Day Care A Basic Issue,” which discussed the Pierce Hall Day Care Center. The students using the center claimed that the University’s Administration contradicted their original support for the on-campus daycare center. The students exclaimed, “issue after issue has been fabricated (Space, money etc) to stall the progress on the Center.”¹ The article also featured a quote from a spokeswoman from the Women’s Liberation Front arguing that, “the Administration has continually enjoyed putting forth the facade of working with women, when …

Phoenix Ink: Psychodynamic Motivations For Tattoo Attainment By Survivors Of Trauma, December Renee Maxwell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tattoos adorn people from all over the world and date back as far as the Stone Age. Tattoos adorn people from all over the world and motivations for tattoo attainment have been studied recently. Still, there remains limited research on the potential therapeutic properties of tattoo attainment, particularly for survivors of sexual trauma. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experience of the tattoo process for survivors of sexual trauma and their motivations for tattoo attainment. This qualitative exploratory study interviewed both survivors of sexual trauma (N=10) and tattoo artists (N=7) to gain a wider perspective on the …

To Create A More Contented Family And Community Life: Home Demonstration Work In Arkansas, 1912 - 1952, Erin Turner Hogue

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Home demonstration work in Arkansas altered the farm woman’s role within the household, community, and farm economy. By raising the standard of living in rural homes, progressive reforms sought to make domestic life more comfortable and healthy for family members, as well as reduce demands for them. However, rural women used these programs to improve their living conditions while remaining effective producers on the farm. In this respect, home demonstration programs were more than a means of social control aimed at rural America; they were a resource for rural women. Analyzing how women responded and utilized the skills learned from …

Finding A New Home In Harlem: Alice Childress And The Committee For The Negro In The Arts, Judith E. Smith

American Studies Faculty Publication Series

Alice Childress’s performing career in the 1940s was primarily associated with the American Negro Theater, a collectively run professional theater company with a mission to nurture black talent and create compelling theater for Harlem audiences; as Childress would later comment, “We thought we were Harlem’s theater.” ANT made use of all available resources to accomplish this mission; producing plays written by black and white playwrights, hiring white teachers, and accepting white actors and technicians committed to its goals.

Flesh In Line With The Mind : Gender In Caitlin Kiernan’S The Drowning Girl., Sarah Buckley

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This paper analyzes how Caitlyn R. Kiernan in her novel The Drowning Girl characterizes gender identity, particularly in regards to women, both transgender and cisgender. The book's characterization of gender roles for cisgender men, cisgender women, and transgender women, while seeming on the surface to subvert sexist stereotypes, reproduces the pitfalls of feminist literary criticism popularized in the 1970s and 1980s. Notably, such themes include viewing women's madness as a method of transcending masculine rationality, a dichotomized essentialism of masculinity and femininity, and universalizing women's experience without regards to race, class, and nationality. Transgender autobiographical and literary archetypes employed in …

"What To Inspect When You're Expecting" : Critically Examining Constructions Of Women In What To Expect When You're Expecting., Kirsi Lancaster

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This paper critically analyzes and draws out harmful implications of the language used around pregnancy and women's bodies in the 2016 edition of What to Expect When You're Expecting, using a close reading of the text and multiple interdisciplinary sources. Themes include gender norms and essentialism, heteronormativity, surveillance of women's bodies, and the reduction of women to mere fetal environments.

Social Support And Well-Being In Lgbt Adults, Jessica D. Brown

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among positive mental health, well-being, and perceived social support in individuals who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). The participants included 251 individuals from a rural area in the Midwest who completed an online survey; 47 of these individuals identified as LGBT. Well-Being was measured using the Warwick- Edinburg Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS; Stewart-Brown et al., 2002), and perceived social support was evaluated using the Multidimensional Scale for Perceived Social Support (MSPSS; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988). Scores were compared between LGBT and Non-LGBT participants. At an …

An Exploration Into The Causes And Consequences Of Women As A Minority In Technical Fields, Emily Fesnak

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This paper examines the causes behind why fewer women enter technology fields than men. By utilizing previous published research and studies from 1994-2016, the analyses made in this paper explore the evolution of women’s interest and leadership in technology fields. The research dictates that there are not just sociological and structural causes for female adherence to entering technology fields, but the research also points to psychological causes, as well. In order to improve female representation and leadership in technology fields, it is crucial that these causes are acknowledged and addressed directly. Specifically, employers must recognize the differences between male and …

Making Sex Work For The State : The Policing Of Sex Work In The United States., Madeline A Clabough

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This thesis analyzes the ways that sex work is regulated within the United States, and analyze the ways that regulation is shaped by contemporary feminist discourse. To do so, it analyzes the ways in which sex workers have been and pathologized since the 19th century, and address the ways that these conceptualizations have been incorporated into the legal regulation of sex workers. Finally, this thesis will look to contemporary practices in the state regulation of sex workers, and argue that the relationship between neoliberalism, the carceral state, and what has come to be termed “carceral feminism” operate in conjunction to …

Experiences Of Soviet Women Combatants During World War Ii, Michelle De Jesus Reyes

History Theses

World War II was arguably the most heroic event in the history of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), so much that it was known as the “Great Patriotic War.” Tens of millions of Russians were killed during the large scale conflict against their “fascist foes.” Still, the large population of the USSR were moved to action primarily by mass propaganda distributed by the Communist Party leaders. Women played a large role during the war, not just in the factories on the home front or as partisans, but as combat nurses and snipers as well. Since the losses …

Cultural Reimagining And Literary Voice: Southeastern Tribal Women Negotiate Cultural, Social, And Political Identity Through Literature, Linda Sue Shaffer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines literature written by women who identify with Native tribes that originally inhabited, and in some cases continue to inhabit, the southeastern area of what is now known as the United States. The analysis presented in each chapter applies tribally specific methods used for creating knowledge within the particular discourse community being represented through literature. The project also employs the perspectives of Native literary scholars to consider the ways in which the roles and lives of Native women have been influenced by Euro-American values and to analyze the ways in which these female authors engage literature as a …

The Gender Wage Gap In The Film Industry: A Review Of Literature, Christine Pires

Senior Theses

The gender wage gap is defined as the difference between the amounts of money paid to women and men, often for doing the same work (Cambridge, 2017). The gender wage gap is a reoccurring financial issue in all aspects of the business world. Most all career paths have had a wage gap between men and women. Having equal pay for equal work should be a thing of the past. However, women today are still fighting to close the wage gap and work equally in all fields. The film industry is one of the largest entertainment industries in America and still, …

Anne Boleyn: Living A Thousand Lives Forever, Amanda S. Nicholson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Writers and historians from earlier centuries imagined Anne Boleyn as a villain; a forward and evil woman intent on destroying Henry VII and his image. Modern accounts have been more accommodating, offering that she was misunderstood due to the constraints of the times. In an attempt to discover the historical Anne, I will be comparing and contrasting how she has been perceived in fiction and non-fiction literature, and will examine how the perception of Anne has shifted through time.

Feminist Cultural Analysis Of An Invisibilized Genocide: Gender, Disability, And Memory In Texts By Zabel Yesayan, Hasmik Djoulakian

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This research is a feminist cultural analysis of the novels, letters, and short stories of Zabel Yesayan. Yesayan was a writer, activist, and teacher during the early twentieth century, during the Armenian Genocide, and up until her death in the mid-1940s when the Soviet Union took control of Eastern European countries, including Armenia. This project insists not only on telling the history of an invisibilized genocide, but also on telling that history through a critical feminist lens based on the documented observations and creative interventions of a woman who lived during the genocide.

In many of her works, Yesayan imagines …

Revolutionary Every Day: A Dramatic Exploration Of Women And Their Agency In The Black Panther Party., Kristen Michelle Walker

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

This capstone project is centered around Black Panther women and explores what it means to be a revolutionary black woman dealing with politics surrounding gender in both private and public spaces during the late 1960’s and beyond. In addition, the project includes an original fictional play based on the experiences of Panther women around the world. In addressing the social conditions that impacted female Panther activism and agency, together the capstone project and play operate as a commentary on power, gender relations, and society in and around the Black Panther Party.

"Tell Me You Own Me, Gimme Them Coins": Postfeminist Fascination With Lolita, Lana Del Rey, And Sugar Culture On Tumblr, Rachel E. Davis

Honors Theses

This research sought to describe the size and analyze the content of communities on Tumblr that share posts regarding Lolita, Lana Del Rey, and sugar culture. Research questions included: Why might young women on Tumblr choose to share posts relating to these things? How are they interpreting the images and texts they share? Is this a means of expressing desire, or are these individuals subverting these images and ideas as a means of critiquing gender expectations? A qualitative textual analysis was conducted on data collected by social media analytics software. Tumblr communities sharing content regarding Lolita, Lana Del Rey, and …

Unthink Pink : Master Narratives And Counterstories Of Breast Cancer., Jessica C. Hume

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the construction and impact of the master narrative breast cancer which is supported and reified by the contemporary breast cancer awareness movement. I contend that historical problematic constructions of the female body were interwoven with the beginning of the movement around the turn of the twentieth century. As a partial result, the female body with breast cancer is abject, and therefore subject to policing and discipline. The master narrative of breast cancer, through pinkwashing, enacts this policing and discipline. The master narrative expresses several distinct messages which may be exclusive of the experiences of many people, causing …

The Plight Of Undocumented Female Migrants: Identifying Structural Factors That Contribute To The Proliferation Of Sex Trafficking And The Failings Of International Law, Hannah K. Valles

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the conditions at two specific border zones, the United States-Mexico border and the Mexico-Guatemalan border, that render undocumented female migrants vulnerable to abduction or recruitment into sexual exploitation. In addition to exploring the factors that expose women to trafficking networks, the study scrutinizes the legal failings of the international law-making community with regards to the safeguarding of women whose socio-economic conditions and environment of perpetual violence prompt their extralegal international movement. The paper provides an overview of the social, economic, and historical factors that underpin the flourishing of sex trafficking operations in …

Media Erotics & Adaptation: A Comparative Textual Analysis Of Carmilla, Rebecca Wait

Honors Projects

This project is concerned with understanding the different ways in which Carmilla (1872), a gothic novella, and it’s 2014 web series adaptation differently approach the same basic narrative, especially with regards to their respective representations of individuals who identify as sexual and gender minorities. One of the major functions of importance in this study was to understand the temporality and cultural conditions, which lead to the perceived need for a postmodern adaptation of a pre-modernist text. Through textual analysis, the author compared J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872) to Jordan Hall's adaptation (2014). In this analysis, significant differences existed between …

Man/Boy., Nick Hartman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Verisimilitude, or the appearance of being true, is a concept I turn upside down; relating it to a guise I wear as a contemporary male in a society dictated by learned social behavior and gender norms. Cultural iconography and expected gender norms are tropes I confront within my artwork. Drawings of seemingly everyday objects act as meditations or a fetishized repetition of supposed unobtainable objects and ideals that deal with masculine societal norms. Manliness, machismo, masculinity… it is all a culturally learned and expected pose placed on all men. Coming to the realization that I do not necessarily fit …

Breaking The Cycle Of Silence : The Significance Of Anya Seton's Historical Fiction., Lindsey Marie Okoroafo (Jesnek)

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the feminist significance of Anya Seton’s historical novels, My Theodosia (1941), Katherine (1954), and The Winthrop Woman (1958). The two main goals of this project are to 1.) identify and explain the reasons why Seton’s historical novels have not received the scholarly attention they are due, and 2.) to call attention to the ways in which My Theodosia, Katherine, and The Winthrop Woman offer important feminist interventions to patriarchal social order. Ultimately, I argue that My Theodosia, Katherine, and The Winthrop Woman deserve more scholarly attention because they are significant contributions to women’s …