Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

From Prometheus To Pygmalion To Pandora: Teaching Greek Mythology With Frankenstein’S “Dark Brides”, Kyle William Bishop

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

As Mary Shelley unambiguously informs readers on the title page of her 1818 novel Frankenstein, her tale of Victor’s discovery of the secret of non-biological reproduction represents the Promethean myth, a morality tale warning against the usurpation of divine authority. In Shelley’s novel, Victor ultimately recognizes the dangerous path he has discovered, and he refuses to create a female companion for his hideous progeny, risking his own life to protect the world from a potential race of monsters. In the cinematic tradition, however, this unrealized “bride” often has been created, and these fantastic narratives realize the Pygmalion myth, that …

The Making Of Jewish-American Progress In Gertrude Stein’S, The Making Of Americans: Being A History Of A Family’S Progress, Rochel L. Gasson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation provides a comprehensive reading of Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans (TMOA), situating the novel at the intersection of literary modernism, Jewish American identity, and feminist thought. It argues that Stein reconceives American progress not as linear advancement but as a recursive, relational, and culturally grounded process. Through experimental form, repetitive syntax, and a sustained present tense, TMOA dramatizes the psychological and social complexities of immigrant families navigating assimilation while maintaining heritage. Characters such as the Old Man, his son, and the Dehning and Herland families reveal generational tensions, moral labor, and the ambivalences of upward …

"The Yellow Wall-Paper": Decoding Medical Patriarchal Structures (A Common Theme Within Gothic Literature/Horror), Yvonne T. Samuels

Masters Theses (Archived)

This paper makes the claim that Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” encoded the medical system as part of the patriarchy used to control and harm women, especially within the 19^th Century, and how this is a common theme within gothic literature and modern-day horror. Through the Feminist Literary Criticism framework and the methodology of textual analysis, certain literary devices Gilman uses, including the Gothic trope of the narrator’s environment in “The Yellow Wall-Paper” is analyzed to reveal women living in a patriarchal society during the 19^thCentury and the medical system being a source of power. “The …

Red Thread, Unknotted: A Visual Self-Inquiry Into Becoming Artist /Educator, Jennifer Jervis

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

This arts-based self-inquiry presents a counternarrative of one woman artist/educator navigating identity formation, agency, and resistance within the gendered structures of the contemporary art world. Informed by posthuman feminist theory and guided by a/r/tography, the study uses artmaking as both inquiry and data to challenge the persistent divide between artist and art educator—particularly as experienced by women. Through reflexive writing and textile-based creation, the author offers a material and embodied critique of the systemic expectations that diminish women’s artistic authority and invisibilize their creative labor. The resulting work becomes a site of resistance, reclaiming artist identity through the layered intersections …

“Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met. Museum?”: An Exploration Of Contemporary Feminist And Women’S Exhibitions And Collectives, Demi R. Dauterive

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the creation and evolution of feminist art exhibitions and collectives in the United States from the early 1970s through the 2020s. These exhibitions and the work they contain are analyzed alongside each wave of feminism that ran parallel to their existence. Beginning with the 1970s and Second Wave Feminism, Chapter One explores Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro’s Womanhouse in addition to Lucy Lippard’s Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists and the work of other smaller collectives. Chapter Two explores the DIY initiatives and subversive ideologies of Third Wave Feminism through artist groups such as the Guerrilla Girls and …

Reading Romance As An Act Of Resistance, Amy K. Krug

English Faculty Publications

A podcast discussion about how popular romance represents many different populations, including people of color, people with disabilities, and people who are LGBTQ+. Reading these romances with diverse characters can be a powerful mode of resistance against current anti-diversity efforts becoming more prevalent in society.

Listen to the episode. The transcript is available for download.

Film Review: A Feminist Critique Of The Representation Of Women In 21st-Century Bollywood Sports Biopics, Amitabh Roy

Journal of International Women's Studies

This review critically analyses the portrayal of women in Bollywood sports biopics using a feminist perspective, with reference to three influential 21st-century films: Mary Kom (2014), Saina (2021), and Shabaash Mithu (2022). While these movies ostensibly celebrate women’s sporting achievements, a close reading discloses the durability of patriarchal currents in the narrative, visual composition, and character construction. Using feminist theories like Laura Mulvey’s “male gaze,” Judith Butler’s “gender performativity,” and bell hooks’s intersectionality, this work contends that these films simultaneously empower and limit their heroines. Exploring how femininity, family, and national pride are performed in these films, this review examines …

Poetry And Empowerment In Islam, Stephanie Kerr

Journal of the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression

Project Mentor(s): Katharine Whitcomb

In this collection I hope to express the abundance of empowerment my religion, Islam, has given me. Before my conversion I, like many, believed some misconceptions about women in Islam but now I have gained confidence and discovered I am capable of more than I ever thought. In this community I have also met many Muslim women who feel the same sense of empowerment. Presentation recording available in the SOURCE 2025 playlist: https://www.youtube.com/@cwusource5518

Quilting As Reproductive Justice Information Activism, Liz Chenevey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Love Amid The Rage: Feminist Affect In Women's Life-Writing, Genesis Siverio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aim of this thesis is to show the ways women’s emotions or affect, particularly rage and love, are described by women writers in their most intimate stories. I discuss the way emotion has been demeaned, and how feminist scholars have instead viewed the body as a place of insight, reclaiming a knowledge from the senses. In the midst of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy, women give voice to their affectual experiences and cultivate the feelings they have so often been denied. Focusing on the particular ways women’s anger manifests in their lives and in their bodies, I zoom in on …

Merawat Tulisan Dan Perlawanan Perempuan: Terbitan Berkala Sebagai Ruang Dan Praktik Feminis, Asri Pratiwi Wulandari, Mia Siscawati

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Women writers have always contributed to literary development, but their works and thoughts have been structurally forgotten and erased. We conducted this research to unearth women writers' lives, works, and thoughts, which continue to be ignored in literary studies. We use feminist qualitative method and literature review technique to study literary initiatives from women writers in the past such as women-only periodicals. This research uses Virginia Woolf's thoughts as an analytical tool, and our findings show that the women-only space initiative was a response to the mainstream literary ecosystem's lack of support for women writers in various eras and countries. …

Film Review: Motherhood And Mathematics: Hegemonic Femininity And Deviance In Shakuntala Devi (2020), Bharat Dhiman

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

From The Margins To The Center: A Discourse Analysis Of Vietnamese Feminism On Facebook Confession Pages, Phan Van Kien, Dao Quang Trung, Tran Bao Son, Nguyen Le Dinh Quy

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study investigates how feminist ideas are taking shape in contemporary Vietnam, focusing on how young women engage with social media—particularly university confession pages—as sites for emotional expression, identity negotiation, and resistance to traditional gender norms. In a society marked by rapid modernization, increased digital connectivity, and the enduring influence of Confucian values, online platforms have emerged as significant cultural spaces where new meanings of femininity, desire, and agency are constructed and contested. Using a qualitative approach, this study combines semi-structured interviews with discourse analysis to explore how university-aged women express themselves in digital spaces that are anonymous, performative, and …

The Blurry Line: Examining The Balance Between Feminism And Nationalism For Women In Early 20th Century Ireland, Seamus M. Clune

History Summer Fellows

The early 20th century in Ireland was a complex and confusing period. Between British Imperialism, The Gaelic Revival, World War I, the suffrage movement, and the Irish War of Independence, the period was fast and turbulent. Above the shifting ground, Irish women activists balanced two key political causes: feminism and Irish nationalism. Past scholarship has examined the coexistence of these two ideals. At times, one suppressed the other. At other times, they worked in tandem. This project offers a new interpretation of Irish women's political activity through a close reading of the letters and memoirs of three people: Constance Markievicz …

Theorizing Graphic Embodiments: A Feminist Perspective, Lisa Detora, Jeannie Ludlow

All Faculty Scholarship

In response to the increasing politicization and polarization of discourses around gender, sexuality, and the body, feminist theorists like Judith Butler call for feminism to strive toward flexibility and responsivity. This essay lays out some of the theoretical considerations that inform studies of graphic embodiment—or studies of embodiment in graphic narratives—both generally and within feminist studies, then examines several graphic texts by Tillie Walden and Élodie Durand that exemplify feminist theories of embodiment, with particular attention to the creative co-construction of embodied narratives.

Why Are Men So Obsessed With Pornography? Andrea Dworkin Was Right, Robert Jensen

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Women And Gender Studies (Syllabus), Karen Weingarten

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

At Home In Horror: Women And Body Horror, Brooklynn Kreps

University Honors Theses

While most discussion around the subgenre of body horror focuses on its birthplace of film, the richest iterations come from women writing body horror fiction to explain the experience of womanhood. As body horror focuses on fear of painful or absurd mishap with the body. Women experience pain or absurdity in their own bodies every day with processes like menstruation, pregnancy, puberty, and heightened chances of becoming a victim of sexual assault. Furthermore, women experience society's forceful shaming and fear about natural processes of the body and experiences such as anger and sexual desire. Using this idea as a framework, …

Margaret Cavendish And Radical Self-Love, Marina Burandt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Margaret Cavendish was an early modern Englishwoman writer who lived from 1623 to 1673. She wrote under her own name at a time when it was more common for women to write under a pen name, and published almost everything she wrote. Her writings include a multiplicity of genres, from science fiction, poetry, drama, and philosophy, to letters, biography, and autobiography. Cavendish’s style often blends multiple genres and forms, showcasing a modality that is driven by complexity and hybridity. Cavendish was a surprisingly modern figure in many ways, as her writings show. The Description of a New World, Called the …

An Erotics Manifesto: Developing Critical Feminist Theory Through Erotic Fiction, Cairn Des Lions

University Honors Theses

Erotic literature provides a unique lens through which feminists can develop theory because it reveals the natures of our gendered relations in the contexts of our desires. By either writing or critically reading erotic literature, feminists can explore questions about what and why we desire, how we act upon our desires, and what our desires and actions reveal about our relationships to each other. This thesis uses feminist theory to analyze the potential of fiction focused on eroticism to aid in rethinking gender and sexuality norms.

Tradwives: The Housewifization Of The Girl Boss, Gagan Kaur

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the reemergence of a particular performance of domesticity in the post-pandemic era, focusing on the rise of the "tradwife" (traditional wife) movement alongside the normalization and spread of Alt-Right ideology through popular social media platforms. It argues that the tradwife is not a return to tradition, but a commodified performance of domesticity built on the erasure of social reproductive labor. Tracing the lineage of the “housewife” from the enclosure of the commons to imperial domesticity and from the “girl boss” to tradwife influencer culture, this project situates the tradwife within a longer history of "housewifization"—wherein women's labor …

The Dialectic Of Airless Space, Ophelia Arc

Masters Theses

The Dialectic of Airless Space is a cumulative, cross-disciplinary research project that explores ‘airless space’ as a somatic and psychological condition shaped by institutional environments. Unfolding over time through five interrelated books, the project weaves together writing, ephemera, textile sculpture, and drawing to archive the invisible architectures of bodily and mental experience.

Gender And Climate Change, Amanda Roth

Climate Change and the Individual, 2025-26

This recorded lesson explores how and why climate change is a feminist issue with attention to how climate change disproportionately impacts women globally, how some theoretical approaches to feminism center climate change as a feminist issue, and how women are acting as change-makers around climate.

Revolution Beneath The Burqa: Afghan Women’S Grassroots Resistance And A Goal Of Sustainable Change Under The Taliban (1990s-2000s), Ava Stover

Senior Theses

This case study examines two juxtaposing initiatives; The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and Beauty Without Borders, and their differing approaches to addressing systemic oppression and empowering Afghan women post-Taliban takeover in 1996. RAWA employs a grassroots model while Beauty Without Borders, a Western-led initiative, emphasizes beautification. The study considers RAWA’s effectiveness in addressing structural inequalities while highlighting the limitations of externally driven programs like Beauty Without Borders. This analysis contributes to understanding how grassroots movements can achieve sustainable systemic change, while the West’s continuous misinterpretation of cultures and lifestyles different from their own has perpetuated failed …

You Are Not The Hero: Women’S Role In “Rapunzel”, Amber L. Budd

The Confluence

This paper uses the Feminist literary theory to examine the roles and presentation of characters in the fairy tale “Rapunzel” and how the women reinforce patriarchal ideals by conforming to either angelic or monstrous behaviors.

Dancing On My Own: Examining Character Development In Hbo’S Girls, Phoebe Portnoy

Honors College Theses

In recent years, the HBO series Girls has experienced a resurgence in viewership and public discourse. Situated within the landscape of postfeminist television, there have been many conversations about how the show represents the privileged, self-involved, and unmotivated behaviors of many millennials. However, there was a lack of research focused on the growth of the lead characters from the series’ beginning to its end. I conducted a textual analysis of Girls, examining the four main characters’ development in career, romance, and female friendship. I examined their goals, emotions, and actions in these categories throughout seven episodes across three seasons …

The Life Of Marie Curie And Her Impact On Feminism In The Sciences, Jamie Chin

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Chemist Marie Curie had an incredible impact on the field of chemistry by discovering radium and polonium and being the first person to win two Nobel Prizes - one in physics and one in chemistry. Despite the extreme sexism that she faced as a female scientist, she still made a lasting impact in the chemistry and feminism through her accomplishments. Today, women make about half of the United States’ workforce and 57 percent of college graduates, yet they remain underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields. For this project, we investigated the influence of Marie Curie’s life on feminism …

How Ideological Background Affects Consumption Of And Attitudes Toward Pornography Amongst Women, Roslyn N. Addy

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Pornography is a notoriously male dominated field in consumption terms and as such, research regarding women’s consumption of pornography is limited and often contains focus on men’s consumption of pornography. The research conducted by Roslyn Addy and Dr. Desiree Crevecoeur-MacPhail intends to bring women in the pornography sphere as consumers rather than onlookers or subjects of pornography affected by male pornography users. Little is known about women’s actual thoughts, feelings, and use of pornography which limits the market of pornography that targets women and limits real conversations about pornography between women. The researchers have found that ideology does predict pornography …

Reimagining Heroes: The Evolving Narratives Of Helen And Achilles In Feminist Greek Mythology Retellings, Elena A. Smith

Honors Scholar Theses

“Reimagining Heroes: The Evolving Narratives of Helen and Achilles in Feminist Greek Mythology Retellings” is an analysis of an array of novels, monographs, and critiques regarding the genre of mythology retellings. Combining feminist ideas with historical examples, this thesis delves into why retellings are so popular in the twenty-first century and why the stories of Greek Antiquity have stayed relevant.

This thesis focuses specifically on Helen of Troy, Achilles, and the events of the Trojan War in The Iliad. Comparing the epic with retellings of its events may reveal why these characters, gods, and heroes have continued to be discussed …

The Prescribing Of Gender, A Scope On The Societal Ideologies Showcased Within Le Roman De Silence, Derrian Fernandez

Master's Theses

Culture is constantly evolving, its ideologies cementing themselves within our minds, shaping how we as a society guide ourselves through living in such. Social class, religion, gender, all are forms of identity that have a place, and a certain understanding and standing within our culture and society. Through this understanding of ourselves, we are defined, creating multiple forms of distinct expression to help differentiate our place further. A pope is expected to wear a certain attire just as a bride is expected to. The same ideology trickles down, creating demarcations of attire that subsequently ingrain themselves into our culture and …