Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Love Letters For Liberatory Futures, Jessica Rodriguez-Jenkins, Roberta Hunte, Lakindra Mitchell Dove, Antonia R.G. Alvarez, Alma M. O. Trinidad, Gita Mehrotra

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This collection of letters serves to explore the narratives of a collective of women of color in academia by examining individual, collective, spiritual, and institutional strategies for surviving and transforming our institutional spaces and the ways that White Supremacy has shaped our journeys. Multiple perspectives are viewed, and we have written to our children, our future social work students, our future selves, our BIPOC faculty siblings, and our feared enemies to envision and embody more liberatory futures.

Keywords: liberation, academia, BIPOC faculty, institutional racism, White Supremacy

Jane Eyre, The Invisible Bisexual: Bisexual Erasure In Historical Literature, Christine L. Roland

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

The purpose of this article is to reveal Charlotte Brontë’s canonized heterosexual character Jane Eyre as bisexual and explain why critics unintentionally erase bisexuality in historical literature. Homosexuality emerged as a species in the 1800s, but the heterosexual-versus-homosexual binary scale overlooked bisexuality. Yet, bisexuality existed—and Victorian society encouraged it between women. Lesbianism and female “friendships” were promoted within female boarding schools and between women in heterosexual marriages; the precise relationships exemplified in Jane Eyre. Though Jane marries a man, her heterosexual “familial” marriage emerges only out of her bisexual nature, for she does not marry Rochester until he becomes effeminate. …

Sex In The Sixties: Playboy's Contradictory Contribution To Social Change In The 1960s, Emily Stucky

The Cardinal Edge

This paper summarizes the perceptions of Playboy magazine during the height of its influence, from 1955 to 1975, through the lens of social justice advocates in the 1960s. Many historical scholars characterize Playboy magazine as strictly anti-feminist, while others would cast Hugh Hefner as liberating in his ideology and political views, seen through reviews of the magazine throughout the 1960s and comments from Hefner himself. But it is more likely Playboy’s legacy is much more complicated than either of these positions allow. Playboy occupied a conflicting role in the 1960s: liberating in its post-war sex standards for both men …

Mama’S Got A Brand New Degree: Education And Changing Perceptions Of Femininity During The Mexican Revolution (1910-1917), Eden E. Baize

The Cardinal Edge

Bloody struggles, tense political debates, and general unease characterized Mexico in the early twentieth century. Under former president Porfirio Díaz, tensions grew as the lower classes pleaded for labor and land reform, culminating in a violent period of revolution from 1910 to 1917. As with all conflicts of this scale, the Mexican Revolution prompted the challenging of many long standing social conventions, specifically as they pertained to the role of government and the organization of social classes. With the restructuring of society already underway, many activists capitalized on the uncertainty of the era to push against the subjugation of women. …

Ships In Houston, Nadia Villafuerte, Julie Ann Ward

Undiscovered Americas

Ships in Houston by Nadia Villafuerte, translated by Julie Ann Ward, is a harrowing and heartrending collection of fifteen stories that bring to life characters who, though they exist independently from one another, inhabit the same world: Mexico’s southern border. Using acute attention to language, such as various dialects and slang, to create a nuanced and varied mood and setting, Villafuerte’s stories track exotic dancers, sex workers, truck drivers, drug dealers, immigration officials, and even a mayor’s daughter to create compelling fictions rooted in the harsh realities of borderlands that many choose to overlook. While the US’s southern border with …

A Community Of Knots, Katherine Mahler

MFA in Visual Arts Theses

In her 1965 essay On Weaving, the artist Anni Albers stated, “As it is possible to go from any place to any other, so also, starting from a defined and specialized field, can one arrive at a realization of ever-extending relationships. Thus tangential subjects come into view. The thoughts, however, can, I believe, be traced back to the event of a thread” (Albers XI). A thread is the beginning of coming into being. In this paper, I will discuss the lines of my work from the beginning of the program, exploring mapping to how my work as a teacher …

Grameen Method Of Microfinance As A Poverty-Alleviation Tool: Short And Long-Term Effects On Women’S Empowerment In Egypt, Zeina M. Shalaby

The Undergraduate Research Journal

Many people suffer from poverty globally, and economic tools used to combat it have varied from one country to another with some enacting noticeable change. The topic of micro-credit attracted attention after the Grameen Bank’s microfinance method was recognized for decreasing poverty in rural Bangladesh by granting loans to women almost exclusively. This paper explores the application of the Grameen method of microfinance in Egypt by reviewing the specific conditions surrounding women’s poverty in Egypt and the economic and social outcomes of past Grameen microfinance efforts in Egypt. While the Grameen method of microfinance successfully improved well-being indicators and economic …

A Forgotten Woman Writer: Representations Of Women In Faridah Ahmad’S Creative Writings, Sylvia Azmy

The Undergraduate Research Journal

In her creative writings Farida Ahmad (1939-2018), an Egyptian woman writer and journalist excluded from the Arabic literary canon, subtly presents a different narrative about the leftist movement in the seventies and eighties. This research argues that Ahmad’s works, which present that women’s liberation and nation’s liberation are different, faced structural marginalization. She presents that in her novella, Akhāfu ʻalayka Minnī, using the relationship dynamics between two intellectual leftist activists, Mustafa and Nadia. Mustafa marginalizes Nadia from the political sphere through his patronizing attitude. Moreover, he utilizes the sexual (nation) liberation rhetoric and conservative rhetoric to convince Nadia to be …

Queering Feminism: Rejecting Imperialist Methods Of Silencing, Mikayla Burress

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Intersectionality In The Case Of Cece Mcdonald, Austin Greitz

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Western Nations’ Use Of The Malala Fund, Austin Greitz

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Reproductive Rights As A Tactic Of Necropolitics Under Neoimperialism, Haley Kimberlin

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Gender Discrimination In The Classroom: How Teaching Policies Can Help Close The Gap, Olivia Wycoff

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

A Woman Born Twice: Esther Greenwood’S Reconstruction Of The Female Identity In A Pervasively Patriarchal 1950’S America, Taylor Steinbeck

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Binary Ever After: Gender Representation Of Non-Human & Non-Animal Characters In Disney/Pixar’S Inside Out, Sarah Hethershaw

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

The Corset: Constriction Or Liberation?, Amanda Leib

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Let My People Go: A Reconceptualization Of Black Exodus Discourses Using The Color Purple, Isaac Seessel

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Where Does Sexual Orientation Come From? Essentialism, Social Constructivism, And The Limits Of Existing Epigenetic Research, Matt Klepfer

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Medicating Gender, Emma Hahn

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

The Silent Victims: Hiv In The Deaf Community, Hali Kohls

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

The Complex Intersections Of Being A Latina Immigrant Survivor: How Multiple Systems Of Oppression Enable Intimate Partner Violence, Zulema Aleman

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

The realm of intimate partner violence education, prevention and awareness is one that is currently growing. Even though there are improvements happening, there are communities being left out of both the movement and body of research. This paper aims at connecting the stories of undocumented Latinas who are survivors of intimate partner violence in the central coast of California with the current body of research on immigrant survivors. In doing so, it seeks to explore the areas where the body of research matches the stories of these women in the central coast of California and where there is a lack …

Revolutionizing Space: A Case Study On Accessibility And Comfort, Jennifer Macmartin

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Influenced by a dynamic and revolutionary crip theory, this piece seeks to operationalize the combination of crip theory/disability studies and intersectional feminist praxis. Dis/ability is consistently disregarded as a central social identity, as the world has been literally built and maintained by (temporarily) able-bodied people with the intent to accommodate able-bodied people’s needs and comfort. DeafSpace, a revolutionary project prioritizing deaf people’s needs and comfort, serves as a case study for potential revolutionary architectural projects that focus on dis/ability accommodation, accessibility, and comfort. However, in seeking additional solutions to this issue, we must be conscious of tokenizing the experiences of …

Enriching The Story: Asexuality And Aromanticism In Literature, Adrienne Whisman

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper examines the role of asexual and aromantic coding within Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights and Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse. Both books utilize relationships and sexuality in order to portray arguments within the book. Brontë portrays Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship as transcending physicality, both as a way to portray them as soulmates but also to foreshadow events. Woolf utilizes Lily’s disinterest in sex and marriage as a way to contrast her to other women in the novel. Both characterizations can be read as asexual, or in Lily’s case also aromantic. This queer reading allows insight into the …

Ambiguous Identities: Gesturing Towards An Intersectional Conception Of Freedom, Shaun Soman

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Writing in The Ethics of Ambiguity (1948), existential philosopher and feminist theorist Simone de Beauvoir declared that each individual’s freedom depends upon that of others. This claim was meant to motivate others to not remain complicit in the oppression of others; however, when considering the xenophobic rhetoric within Western feminists’ rhetoric about “liberating” Muslim women, one realizes that this demand warrants further scrutiny. In this paper, I apply Alia Al-Saji’s work on Western feminists’ approaches to liberating “other” women to de Beauvoir’s “we” in order to strengthen this latter concept. Overall, my aim with this work is to demonstrate that …

Misrepresentation Of Women Of Color In Western Media, Nicole C. Schutte

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper delves into the misrepresentation of women of color in western media. From the perspective of bell hooks (1992), the commodification of the Other serves sinister societal “needs” in order to uphold the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. Patricia Hill Collins (2000) and Judith Williamson (1986) interpret this as keeping the western racial hierarchy, gender dichotomy, and capitalist markets intact. A vast majority of people believe that any form of representation in the media is a sense of inclusion when in fact misrepresentation is counterproductive and problematic. Catherine A. Lutz and Jane L. Collins (1993) would agree that inaccurate portrayals …

Exploiting Non-Western Women In Media Representations, Gabrielle Miller

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Media representations and advertisements serve as visual mediums through which cultural values are projected and reinforced. Western capitalism relies on Eurocentric media representations that exploit perceived differences of non-white and non-western cultures to sell western products. This paper analyzes recent advertisements from Kellogg’s and Suit Supply as examples of media representations that employ Eurocentric perspectives of non-western cultures to uphold white masculinist and colonial power structures. Therefore, I suggest that the non- western cultures in the Kellogg’s and Suit Supply advertisements exist within a western capitalist vacuum. This way of consuming and representing serves to reinforce western ways of knowing …

Standing Under A Sign To Which One Does Not Belong: Desire And (Dis)Identification In Catherine Opie’S Self-Portrait Series, Jenna June

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper will take a closer look at Catherine Opie’s Self-Portrait series. Spanning a decade, from 1993 to 2004, each self-portrait is both reflective of an important time in Opie’s life, and are emblematic of a particular period in the LGBTQ movement. Traditional interpretations of these images have read them as independent of one another. When read together however, they present a subtle yet powerful statement on identity and desire. Using José Muñoz’ disidentification theory as a critical lens, I plan to unpack these images and offer new insights that will bring them in line with contemporary queer theory. While …

Creative Submission: I Return To The Place I Ran From, Ian Gillespie

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Lgbtq People Of Color And Digital Spaces Of Empowerment, Eden Bonjo

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

In recent history, the internet has been considered a place where disembodied users can escape the limitations of their corporeal bodies. But in the contemporary moment, the digital and the physical worlds have become mutually constitutive. What happens when a politics of race, sexuality, and gender is centered in an analysis of digital activity? LGBTQ people of color use strategies to navigate marginalizing social dynamics of power both offline and online. This negotiation is important because of how integral the internet has become to everyday life. In the age of social media, cultural production has become the business of the …

La Negra Tiene Tumbao: Multimodal Resistance Strategies Of Afro-Latinxs And Other Queer Constructions, Kassandra Colón Cisneros

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

The importance of sound in Afro- diasporic communities hearkens back to the slave cry on the plantation field, a sound that showed there is social life within social death. These survival and resistance strategies still exist today, and are not limited to music; they can also be traced through aesthetics, as well as routes and history that connect Afro-Latinxs to the diaspora. The deployment of diasporic resistance through what Juan Flores calls “baggage,” show the possibility and radical potential for survival in white spaces. Recognizing the necessity to dismantle white heteronormative spaces, my research will analyze how Afro-Latinxs—especially those who …