Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Everything But Wrestling: How Women Wrestlers Perform Dominance, Lauren Gherman

Anthropology Honors Papers

Women’s wrestling continues to grow at the high school level, with more young girls joining the sport each year. Yet, as more women join wrestling, a heavily masculine sport, questions about gender preintimation on women’s teams arise. This study asks three questions about the role of gender on women’s teams: 1) Does an individual’s gender identity, in a heavily gendered sport like wrestling, factor into the development of team culture? 2) What, if any, forms of gendered socialization emerge as women enter wrestling? 3) In what way are women socialized because of their gender? Data was gathered via interviews, in …

What The Uk Can Learn From India About Trans Rights And Inclusive Feminism, Ammel Sharon

Popular Media

The article reflects on the UK Supreme Court’s recent interpretation of “woman” under the Equality Act 2010, noting its impact on trans inclusion in public spaces. In contrast, Indian feminist and queer movements have embraced more inclusive, self-reflective approaches to gender, resisting fixed legal definitions. Drawing on examples from sports activism, legal scholarship, and grassroots organising, the author calls for collective ethics that expand rather than restrict the possibilities of belonging.

Waging War On Peacebuilders: Digital Sexual Violence As A Barrier To Peace, Abigail T. Connors

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Technology’s rapid advancement is quickly cultivating an online world that is becoming increasingly dangerous for women that participate in public life. This paper explores the ways in which sexual violence is used in online spaces to harass and abuse women peacebuilders and inhibit their peacebuilding work. It first dives into exactly how digital sexual violence is conceptualized in modern scholarship and academic works, then examines the different shapes that digital sexual violence takes, how digital sexual violence impacts women peacebuilders personally and professionally, and how digital sexual violence, when used against women peacebuilders, impacts global democratic efforts. It concludes with …

“They Wear This Hideous Makeup All Over Their Face”: Dirty Girls And The Grrrl-Hag, Autumn Jacobs

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Filmed at the height of riot grrrl, the documentary Dirty Girls presents a microcosm of the scene at a Santa Monica high school as it follows a group of girls ostracized by the student body due to their opposition to and negation of standard models of early 1990s beauty. This paper aims to situate riot grrrl and the “dirty girls” into larger contexts of the historical oppression of women, that, when viewed beyond the specificities of their given period, illustrate recurring patterns that involve the negative depiction of older women, denoted as “old hags” in the Middle Ages and Early …

A Legal Analysis On The Link Between Pornography Consumption And The Perpetuation Of Abuse, Madelyn Garrett

Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Sex Offenses

This essay examines the connection between the overconsumption of pornography and the growing demand for violent and extreme types of pornography. This essay also looks at the abuse this demand perpetrates.

I Have Some Reservations: Examining Whether Federal Rules Of Evidence 413 And 414 Serve Legitimate Purposes Of Punishment For Native American Defendants, Cameryn Gonnella

Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Sex Offenses

This essay will analyze the legitimacy of Federal Rules 413 and 414 as applied to Native American defendants through the lens of the purposes of punishment: rehabilitation, deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, and restitution.

A New Look At Sex Offender Rehabilitation: Embracing Elective Chemical Castration, Alli Florence

Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Sex Offenses

This essay analyzes the historical and modern use of castration efforts on sex offenders and advocates for federally supported, elective chemical castration as an effective means of rehabilitative treatment and relapse prevention post-incarceration.

Dykebreaking: The Homophobic Rape Of Lesbian Woman And The Next Frontier Of Hate Crime Laws, Mallory L. Harrington

Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Sex Offenses

This article will explain the motivations behind homophobic rape by examining it as both a sex offense and a hate crime, before arguing that its unique status at the intersection of both categories of offenses places its victims in a particularly vulnerable position and situates those who offend in this way in a more serious category of offender than other sex offenders.

Telling The Truth, Seeking Justice: Feminist Pedagogy And The Comfort Women Legacy, Sina Lee

Feminist Pedagogy

This commentary explores the pedagogical significance of teaching the legacy of comfort women—women subjected to sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II—in U.S. gender studies classrooms. Drawing on feminist pedagogy, the essay examines how testimonies from survivors like Hak-sun Kim and Bok-dong Kim empower students to critically engage with the intersections of war, colonialism, gender-based violence, and transnational justice movements. Through assigned readings, survivor testimonies, and documentary media, students confront the ongoing impact of colonialism and are encouraged to reconceptualize peace as a radical, actionable process. The essay also highlights the role of the United States in …

A Pedagogy Of Peace & Prose: Helping Students Engage With And Articulate Perspectives On The Plight Of Palestine Through A Tripartite Textual Analysis, Sydney E. Brammer

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

2025 Acssc Program, Acssc Planning Committee

Annual Celebration for Student Scholarship and Creativity

No abstract provided.

Unintended Consequences: Assessing The Impact Of Dobbs V Jackson (2022) On The Provision Of Maternal Healthcare In Cases Of Obstetric Emergencies In The United States, Lauren Carson

Women's & Gender Studies Student Scholarship

Lauren Carson ’25, Political Science, Health Policy and Management, and Women’s and Gender Studies major

Faculty mentor: Dr. Abigail Brooks, Women’s and Gender Studies

The goal of this project is to assess the impact of the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) decision on the provision of maternal healthcare in the United States. Since the decision, many healthcare providers across the political spectrum and from a diversity of backgrounds have spoken out about state level restrictions on care, particularly in instances of obstetric emergencies. This project utilizes two case studies, Idaho and Texas, to analyze correlations between highly restrictive …

The Translucent Fortress: Improving The Design Of Rural Domestic Violence Shelters, Owen Baker Phillips

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Domestic violence is a nationwide social plague that effects millions of women each year and has increased in severity since Covid-19 (2020-2022). In the state of Georgia, 37.4% of women report experiencing some sort of physical violence by an intimate partner (NCADV, 2020). Severity and frequency of domestic violence increases drastically if the victim is living in a rural location. Qualitative studies conducted in Iowa, North Carolina, and Virginia all report that on average, women living in rural areas report 150% more domestic violence experiences at a higher severity than their urban counterparts and must travel on average 300% further …

Is Love A “Pathological Condition Of The Soul”? Joyce Carol Oates's Beasts And Rape: A Love Story, Nicolas P. Boileau

Bearing Witness: Joyce Carol Oates Studies

This paper seeks to address the question of Oates’s relation to feminist and gender theories by looking at two novellas published consecutively, Beasts and Rape: A Love Story in the beginning of the 2000s. The short texts share a common storyline based on rape, which is far from uncommon in Oates’s fiction. However, I argue that there is something very specific in these two novellas in the way Oates chooses to handle the testimony of the rape, both overtly and covertly, both in graphic details and in repressed forms of expression, giving way to a reflection on women’s vulnerable position …

Charity Begins At Home: A Case Study Of Rural Western Pennsylvania During The Great Depression, Jacob A. Battle, Colin J. Wood, Christian E. Mumpower

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Rural Pennsylvania is often neglected when discussing the world-shaping events of the Great Depression. This study addresses a significant gap in historical research by exploring how a small-town in Pennsylvania, New Bethlehem, survived and even thrived during the Great Depression. New Bethlehem, situated in the fertile Redbank Valley, built its settlement on local resources and rural communalism. During the Depression, the townsfolk banded together through wealthy philanthropy, backyard gardens, and homegrown charity to withstand the crippling implications of the event. By examining church records, newspaper archives, and conducting oral interviews, this article reveals the resilience and resourcefulness of rural Pennsylvanian …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 100, No. 3, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Magazine edition of the College Heights Herald for the period February 17 - April 20, 2025.

• Wilborn, Price. You Matter & You Are Not Alone
• Smith, Kane. Peggy Crowe Reflects on Counseling Center in Face of Staff Shortages
• Stafford, Hallie. Help with Horses – New Beginnings Therapeutic Horse Riding
• Hawkins, Kaylee. How a WKU Professor Helps Improve Student Mental Health – Jay Gabbard, National Alliance on Mental Illness Recovery Support Group
• McMahon, Jake. More Than a Coach – Brent Chumbley, Track & Field
• Simpson, Libby. WKU’s American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Brings Mental Health Into the Light
• Hardesty, Emma. Trans …

Human Dignity And Prostitution, Clara Kernodle

Harding Undergraduate Research Conference

In the twenty-first century, it is common to see feminists and pro-sex work voices lauding prostitution and other forms of the sex industry as viable expressions of women’s sexual and financial agency. As long as every participating party consents, they argue, sex work is not only tolerable, but admirable and positive – a form of transaction or service deserving license, protection, and respect in the name of individual freedom and female agency. Such voices argue that prostitution can even be dignified, as the sex industry supposedly allows participants full freedom to express their sexuality. In this paper, I offer an …

Make Them Hear You: Examining The Evolution Of Activism And Advocacy In The Gay Rights Movement, Angela Davis

Best Integrated Writing

This paper provides a thorough accounting and discussion of the strategies the LGBT movement employed during the past sixty years in an effort to achieve greater legal protections against exclusion and mistreatment. It offers an assessment of the successes and challenges of the movement, providing insights into the efficacies of strategies that may be employed in future waves of the movement.

Feasting At The Threshold: Eucharistic Eroticism And Homonationalism In Diane Duane's The Tale Of The Five, Taylor Driggers

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Diane Duane’s ongoing fantasy series The Tale of the Five (1979–present) is set in a world marked by constant bodily transgressions and surprises, where a human and dragon can occupy the same body and become lovers and a one-night stand can bring one face-to-face with God. This essay will argue that Duane’s series articulates eroticism in a manner comparable to Linn Marie Tonstad’s (2016) queer re-visioning of transubstantiation and bodily and spiritual transformation through the Eucharist. Acts of eating and drinking serve to highlight how characters’ pansexual, polyamorous relations with each other and the love of the Goddess spill over …

Masculinity As Capitalism: Abuse, Control, And Domination Of The Earth In The Construction Of Gender Identity, J Guadalupe Dimayuga

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2025

This presentation explores the intersection of masculinity, capitalism, and ecological domination, arguing that hegemonic masculinity cannot be dismantled without addressing the capitalist system perpetuating it. Western feminist literature critiques masculinity and its manifestations but often overlooks capitalism as the root cause, thus failing to dismantle it and provide meaningful alternatives. Through an analysis of ecological and Marxist feminist texts, this presentation argues for a feminist philosophy that integrates the two for a more nuanced understanding of masculinity. This philosophy is supported by highlighting the ways in which capitalism enforces exploitation, control, and domination within gender identity. By integrating Indigenous perspectives …

El Sonido Del Exotismo: Retratos De España En Carmen, Grace Quasebarth

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Este artículo examinará la “orientalización” de la identidad nacional de España, que resulta de la creación de estereotipos tanto creados en el extranjero como apropiados por la misma España durante el siglo XIX. Específicamente, voy a examinar la influencia de la ópera francesa Carmen de Georges Bizet (1875) en la creación de la imagen nacional española actual en la “Canción del torero” de dicha la producción de Ana Zamora para el Teatro de la Zarzuela de la zarzuela por el mismo nombre (1887) en 2014. Como obra plenamente romántica, hace hincapié en las características de ese movimiento cultura; por ejemplo, …

Le Silence, Le Prédéterminisme Et La Sexualité : Le Cas De Thérèse Desqueyroux, Daniel E. Folger

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

Le silence fait partie intégrante de l’histoire de Thérèse Desqueyroux. A Argelouse, née d’une famille dont la tradition exige l’effacement de l’individualité, elle n’échappe pas à cette répression en se mariant avec Bernard, ni en se sauvant à Paris. La nature inéluctable de son destin fait qu’elle est parfois comparée aux héroïnes tragiques Andromaque et Phèdre. Néanmoins, la parole de cette dernière possède un pouvoir que celle de Thérèse ne détient pas. Malgré la nature étouffante du mutisme imposé sur elle, le silence prend quelquefois un côté positif, notamment lorsque Thérèse est auprès de son amie Anne de la Trave. …

Le Genre En Jeu : Le Corps Sexué Socialement Construit Dans La Dispute De Marivaux, Aubrey Lewis

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

La Dispute de Marivaux est avant tout une comédie en prose écrite pour explorer des thèmes tels que la vanité, la psyché humaine et l'amour-propre. Dans cet essai, j'explorerai un aspect souvent négligé de cette pièce—le genre et le sexe—en soutenant que le jeu délibéré de Marivaux avec le langage, l'intrigue et les enjeux de la pièce sont des interventions directes dans le discours sur le genre en tant que construction sociale. S'inspirant de l'ouvrage de Judith Butler "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution : An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory,” cet essai analyse La Dispute de Marivaux non seulement …

"Quiero Ser Hombre": Grito De Libertad Y Afirmación Feminista En La Obra De Carmen De Burgos Y Julia De Burgos, Lizely M. Lopez Cordero

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

A las escritoras Carmen de Burgos (España) y Julia de Burgos (Puerto Rico) las separa un mar, las clases sociales y el tiempo. Aunque ambas escritoras comparten un apellido que está lejos de parentesco alguno, el denominador común que las une es la transgresión. Una transgresión definida por su desafío a las normas sociales impuestas a la mujer y por penetrar esos espacios que les eran vedados, mediante su producción literaria y el activismo social y político. Las muestras claras de estos actos de transgresión y subversión quedan reflejadas en la última obra de Carmen de Burgos, Quiero vivir mi …

“Woman At Point Zero” Challenges Faulty Person Schemas, Josephine Ebersole

KU Inspires! Undergraduate Research Day

This paper explores how literature can challenge faulty-person schemas as defined by Mark Bracher through an analysis of Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi. The paper outlines how Saadawi pushes her readers to question faulty-person schemas and biases and also question the impact these schemas have on institutions and structures that are rooted in bias to oppress and control minorities. The main character in the novel, Firdaus, is a woman who fights against oppressive structures for her protection and freedom, and through humanizing such a character, Saadawi demonstrates how faulty-person schemas place inaccurate judgements on people and encourage …

Promising Young Woman And The Structural Failure To Protect Women, Josephine Ebersole

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

This paper explores Emerald Fennel's film Promising Young Woman and the relationship between women and male violence and how male violence is protected by misogynistic structures, specifically in the case of sexual assault. The paper argues that institutions and structures that are rooted in patriarchy and misogyny are fundamentally unable to protect women from the actions of violent men, both in the film and in reality.

Winter's End: Stopping The Rite And Reclaiming Spring, Jessica Wilson

Theatre & Dance ETDs

This dissertation examines intersections of patriarchy, feminist movements, and the recurring theme of women’s sacrifice, through an artistic lens. Using The Rite of Spring as a central subject, I explore the societal expectation of women’s sacrifice and its persistent representation in art. By analyzing two pivotal interpretations, Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (1913) and Pina Bausch’s Das Fruhlingsopfer (1975), within the chronological context of feminist waves in the United States, I investigate how these works reflect and critique cycles of violence against women. Four core patterns emerge as focal points: tradition, autonomy, witnessing, and betrayal. Additionally, my choreographic reinterpretation …

Gender Myths & Colonial Lies, Sophie Camilleri

Honors Papers and Posters

The gender binary is deeply ingrained in today's society, despite a general lack of knowledge on where this system originates from. It is crucial to counter misinformation stemming from propaganda and fear campaigns surrounding the gender binary. This research sheds light on the oppressive roots of gender, as well as its role in the colonization of marginalized individuals around the globe. This paper will make connections to present day systems of oppression and the long-term effects of colonization on Black and Hispanic women.

Celibacy, Or Death, Ari I. Stanley

Toyon: Multilingual Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

Queerly Writing, Queerly Researching: Using Art-Based Research To Re-Examine My Past And The Imagined Future Of Queer Educators, Matthew Panozzo

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

Through my own coming out process, I turned to LGBTQ+ books as mentors and guides on how to live authentically. These texts shaped my time as a middle and high school English teacher, as well as my time as a doctoral student. This article uses excerpts from Caught Between Closets (Panozzo, 2020), a social fiction written as my doctoral dissertation, to explore and highlight the way queer K-12 educators navigate personal and professional closets. These excerpts were written using a reiterative process (writing to research; researching to write) to re-examine personal experiences, empirical research, multimodal texts, and grey literature. This …