Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

13 Lunas 13/13 Moons 13: A Video-Project About Sexuality And Menstruation, Tina Escaja

Journal of International Women's Studies

The subject of menstruation is filled with powerful socio-cultural implications involving language, religion and gender relations. Yet, the topic is often relegated to silence, considered taboo, and strongly associated with impurity and shame. This schism between the natural reality of menstruation and its socio-cultural damnation highlights the marginal and oppressed condition of women who are considered inferior and impure in many cultures and religions for the mere fact of menstruating, despite ancient practices that validated and celebrated women’s menarche. The multimedia project 13 lunas 13/13 moons 13 allows for the interactive exploration of these themes while reflecting upon the patriarchal …

An Intersectional Examination Of Disability And Lgbtq+ Identities In Virtual Spaces, Justine E. Egner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a multi-methodological project that examines the experiences of being both LGBTQ+ and disabled from an intersectional perspective through narratives constructed in virtual spaces. In this project, I address the question ‘how do individuals who identify as both disabled/chronically ill and LGBTQ+ negotiate these often contradictory identities?’ I also complexify this intersectional analysis by examining how LGBTQ+/disabled identities are constructed in relation to race, class, and gender. Additionally, by conducting virtual ethnography as the primary method of data collection, I explore questions pertaining to how members of LBGTQ+ and disability online communities engage in virtual identity construction and …

Feminist Voice In The Works Of Indonesian Early Woman Writers: Reading Novels And Short Stories By Suwarsih Djojopuspito, Aquarini Priyatna

Journal of International Women's Studies

Suwarsih Djojopuspito is among the most important early Indonesian women/feminist writers. This research intends to emphasize her rightful position among the first Indonesian feminist writers. Focusing on her very important novel Manusia Bebas (published originally in Dutch as Buiten het Gareelin 1940), one collection of short stories, Empat Serangkai (1954), and a novel written in Sundanese, Marjanah (1959), I argue that feminist spirits and ideas have actually been existing and elaborated in works by women writers in the era prior to the Indonesian New Order (1966-1998) as exemplified by Suwarsih’s works. What is important in these works is that …

Race, Sexuality, And Masculinity On The Down Low, Stephen Kochenash

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In a so-called post-racial America, a new gay identity has flourished and come into the limelight. However, in recent years, researchers have concluded that not all men who have sex with other men (MSM) self-identify as gay, most noticeably a large population of Black men. It is possible that a tainted history of Black enslavement in this country that is inextricably linked with ideas of space, surveillance, subversion, and survival inform a Black male’s self-identification as being “on the down low” (DL). This begs the question: What does mainstream society view as gay-ness and how is the DL constructed …

Reclaiming The Streets: Investigating Female Experience Of Cinematic Urban Violence, Angelica De Vido

Journal of Feminist Scholarship

The spatial ideologies and narrative tropes of gendered victimhood, which are designed to induce fear and anxiety, are routinely employed to govern and restrict female access to and experience of urban spaces—both in cinematic depictions and in the real world. This paper explores how such tropes are challenged and rewritten in three screen narratives based in urban landscapes: London in Happy-Go- Lucky (2008), Paris in Amélie (2001), and New York in Sex and the City (1998–2004). Contrary to the ideologies of fear that routinely dominate urban narratives, I will argue that the texts under discussion instead display the city as …

Las Isabeles De Rosario Ferré Y Manuel Ramos Otero: Modelos De Desconstrucción De Género Y Sexualidad En La Literatura Puertorriqueña De La Década Del Setenta, Tania Carrasquillo Hernández

Faculty Publications

This essay analyzes the literary representation of Isabel Luberza Oppenheimer in the short stories “Cuando las mujeres quieren a los hombres” by Rosario Ferré and “La última plena que bailó Luberza” by Manuel Ramos Otero, both originally published in the seventh edition of the literary journal Zona. Carga y Descarga (1972–1975). Both stories, I argue, appropriate this historical character to transgress the heteronormativity imposed by the hegemonic power and to allow new representations for women and the LGBTQ community in the Puerto Rican literature of the seventies.

“Well, Don’T Walk Around Naked... Unless You’Re A Girl”: Gender, Sexuality, And Risk In Jamtronica Festival Subcultural Scenes, Kaitlyne A. Motl

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

The purpose of this study was to explore emerging issues surrounding gendered fear, threat, and violence perpetration at music festivals – particularly events that feature a synthesis of jam band and electronic dance music acts – a genre termed jamtronica by its fans. Though gendered violence perpetration and prevention have been widely studied within other party-oriented settings (i.e., sexual violence perpetration on college campuses), very little research exists to address how wider disparities of gender and sexuality permeate a community whose members frequently claim the scene’s immunity from external inequalities.

In this three-year multi-sited ethnography, I incorporate participant observations, group …

Asexuality: To Include Or Not To Include A Slice Of Cake In The Lgbtq+ Community, Devin Oliva-Farrell

Tredway Library Prize for First-Year Research

Due to the growing number of sexual orientations and genders that have joined the LGBTQ+ community, a debate has sparked on whether all of these should be included. Specifically, this paper analyzes the debate on whether asexuality should be included or excluded from the group. The results from including or excluding asexuality will have drastic effects on the LGBTQ+ community, self-identified asexuals, and society as a whole when it comes to examining sexualities and genders.

This is illustrated in the following ways: 1) examining the definition of asexuality; 2) exploring the debates surrounding its inclusion or exclusion; 3) highlighting the …

Fat Girls: Sexuality, Transgression, And Fatness In Popular Culture, Maryann Kozlowski

Theses and Dissertations--Gender and Women's Studies

This dissertation focuses on representations, histories, and personal accounts of fat women’s bodies and sexualities. I address stereotypes and representations of fat women's sexuality in popular culture, including film, advertising, television, and literature. Through this examination, I move beyond one-dimensional representations of fat women's sexualities to a more complex, nuanced understanding of the realities of being fat, sexual, and a woman today. Fat women are often represented as either sexless, miserable, and lonely, or alternately, hypersexual and sexually deviant, with the inability to control their appetites for both food and sex. (see Bordo, Gilman, Farrell, Shaw, Wolf) By parsing through …

Same-Sex Sexuality And The Duration Of First Marriages, Aaron Hoy, Andrew S. London

Sociology Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Examining Forty Years Of The Social Organization Of Feminisms: Ethnography Of Two Women’S Bookstores In The Us South, Mary Catherine Whitlock

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

At the height of their popularity in the 1990s, there were 140 feminist bookstores in the US and Canada (Onosaka 2006). Today, in 2017, there are thirteen left. Feminist bookstores began opening in the 1970s promoting ideas about lesbian separatism, woman only spaces, and nurturing a feminist community. Although many functioned as for-profit stores, many also operated community centers and non-profit organizations. Feminist bookstores provide an excellent site for scholars view decades of social movement organizing merging theory, practice, activism, and academics. As a social movement organization, feminist bookstores as are the quintessential node of academia and activism. Of the …

The Transformation Of Gender And Sexuality In 1920s America: A Literary Interpretation, Taylor Gilkison

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The 1920s in America marked a new decade of freedom and exploration for youths. With the conclusion of the First World War in 1918 and the addition of the nineteenth amendment to the United States Constitution in 1919, women gained more prominent roles in both politics and society. The early twentieth century ushered in a new age of sexual expression and attempted gender balance. Secular thinking became more widespread than ever, which was reflected in the arts throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Artists and writers alike were not only expressing themselves through their works, but documenting the …

Decoding Darkmatter, Crystal J. Waterton

Theses and Dissertations

Decoding DarkMatter is a documentary film about two Asian transgender poetry performance artists: Alok Vaid-Menon and Janani Balasubramanian. It documents their journey from Stanford University to their first large theater production; It Gets Bitter, at Joe’s Pub in New York City.

Lesbian Love Sonnets: Adrienne Rich And Carol Ann Duffy, Robin Seiler-Garman

Senior Theses

Our conceptualization of sexuality is rooted in gender. Modern, western society defines sexuality as which genders one is and is not attracted to—often appearing as a binary between homosexuality and heterosexuality. Recently, however, queer theorists have begun to push against the idea of binary sexuality altogether.

The interplay between gender and sexuality additionally manifests in the history of literature. Because the two are so intimately intertwined, writing about sexuality necessitates writing about gender. Twenty-One Love Poems by Adrienne Rich and Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy are two poetry collections where, as lesbian poets, gender and sexuality play an important role. …

A Feminist's Guide To Sex Education, Alana Freitas, Hanna Ohaus, Courtney Cummings

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

No abstract provided.

It's Not A Myth, Annie Fisher, Kelly Gough, Sydney Paley, Sarah White

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The End Of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism For Men By Robert Jensen, Heather Brunskell-Evans

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This book is a story of one man’s journey through patriarchy, and his reflections on the issues of masculinity, sexuality, rape, pornography, prostitution, and transgenderism. Robert Jensen’s latest book The End of Patriarchy: Radical Feminism for Men (2017) is written from his own gender location as a man who became persuaded by the intellectual and political coherence of radical feminism. In focusing on contemporary issues of sexuality/gender, he tackles topics that are controversial not only in the dominant culture but within feminism itself. In exploring these from a radical feminist perspective, he pin-points the crucial differences between radical feminism and …

Same-Sex Sexuality And The Risk Of Divorce: Results From Two National Studies, Andrew S. London, Aaron Hoy

Sociology Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Nymphs And Nymphomania: Mythological Medicine And Classical Nudity In Nineteenth Century Britain, Isabella Luta

Journal of International Women's Studies

The concept of women being overwhelmed by excessive sexual desire had been present in medical discourse for a long time, but the nineteenth century saw a shift from describing this using the term ‘Furor Uterinus’ to ‘Nymphomania’. In this paper I will investigate the significance behind this change and explore how myth influenced medicine to tackle the question of why ‘Nymphomania’ became the preferred term for excessive female sexuality in the 19th century. I will consider the connections between artistic depictions of nymphs and medical descriptions of nymphomaniacs, whilst exploring the etymology of ‘Nymphomania’ and ambiguous uses of Latin and …

Winter Wren By Theresa Kishkan, Vivian M. Hansen

The Goose

Review of Theresa Kishkan's Winter Wren.

Sexual Identity And Disturbed Intellectual Female Terrain In J. M. Coetzee's Foe And Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's The Ship: An Ecofeminist Reading, Jihan Zakarriya

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines the representation of mental and cultural subjugation in J. M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986) and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra’s The Ship (1970) from an ecofeminist perspective. Central to the ecofeminist theory is the deconstruction of the systematic ways within which cultural and political forces act, and which do not merely buttress gender inequality, but also produce oppressive patriarchal and hierarchal social, spatial and environmental systems. This paper specifically relates the psychological effects of sexism and discrimination on the female characters in the two novels to both the workings of the social laws in their societies and the cultural and …

Christians’ Cut: Popular Religion And The Global Health Campaign For Medical Male Circumcision In Swaziland, Casey Golomski, Sonene Nyawo

Anthropology

Swaziland faces one of the worst HIV epidemics in the world and is a site for the current global health campaign in sub-Saharan Africa to medically circumcise the majority of the male population. Given that Swaziland is also majority Christian, how does the most popular religion influence acceptance, rejection or understandings of medical male circumcision? This article considers interpretive differences by Christians across the Kingdom’s three ecumenical organisations, showing how a diverse group people singly glossed as ‘Christian’ in most public health acceptability studies critically rejected the procedure in unity, but not uniformly. Participants saw medical male circumcision’s promotion and …

The Spaces Between Us: A Queer<=>Intersectional Analysis Of The Narratives Of Black Gay International Students, Bryan S. Hubain

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The experiences of international students along the lines of race and ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and nationality are virtually unknown. This study utilizes experience-centered narrative inquiry to explore the experiences of Black gay international students, and how they are racialized and sexualized in American higher education. Using a Queer and Intersectional framework, this study highlighted power structures and processes that continue to marginalize Black gay international students in the U.S. and in their home countries. Their narratives reflected significant moments or events that were important to them and how they understand their identities and realities. This study provides a strong foundation …

Sexuality And Human Rights (Spring 2017), Robert D. Tobin

Syllabi

"What happens when we think of sexuality, with all its transgressive and individualistic energies, in terms of rationally established universal human rights? Literary texts that focus on individual cases in the context larger cultural and social traditions with a particular attention to the power of language can help us sort through some of the complex ideas that emerge from a discussion of sexual rights. In this class, we will focus on the relationship between sex and politics, especially in questions of gay, lesbian, and transgender right, as well as sex work and HIV/AIDS."

The Partners Of Transgender People : Gender, Sexuality, And Embodiment In Relationships Through Transition, Carey Jean Sojka

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In this dissertation, I explore the gendered, sexual, and embodied negotiations of the social world by thirty-five partners of transgender people as their significant other experienced various aspects of gender transition. This research shows the ways that people peripheral to a gender transition can be intimately impacted by it. Participants in this study demonstrated shifted understandings of their own and their partner’s gender and sexuality (i.e. Jason Cromwell’s (1999) transsituated perspective), as well as shifted understandings of gender and sexuality on a structural level, thus expanding our understanding of transgender studies by addressing how the perspectives of intimate partners of …

Where Do Women Stand? Attitudes Towards Female Political Participation In India And The Us, Grace Anne Carlson

Audre Lorde Prize

This paper aimed to study attitudes towards gender inequalities in politics, both in the United States and India. Using original survey research and World Values Survey data, American and Indian attitudes towards women in politics were analyzed and compared. Ultimately, the project found that respondents in both countries still hold distinctly unequal views on women in the political sphere.

Fertility And Reproduction's Niche: Human Sexual Diversity, Samuel W. Austin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abstract: Biologically exploring the origins and forms of human sexuality is of paramount importance. Scientific research has indicated that homosexuality was linked to reproduction, fertility, and adaptive child caring strategies, traits that seem to display cross-cultural similarities. This suggests that sexual diversity may be one of human’s earliest adaptations. While most of the previous research has been on individuals of European descent, little research on Native American populations has been completed to test whether these patterns continue in their population.

The research presented here tests the Sexually Antagonistic Hypothesis for Male Homosexuality, Fraternal Birth Order Effect, and childhood atypical gender …

Gender And Sexuality (First Edition), Carol C. Mukhopadhyay, Tami Blumenfield, Susan Harper, Abby Gondak

Anthropology Publications

Learning Objectives:

• Identify ways in which culture shapes sex/gender and sexuality.
• Describe ways in which gender and sexuality organize and structure the societies in which we live.
• Assess the range of possible ways of constructing gender and sexuality by sharing examples from different cultures, including small-scale societies.
• Analyze how anthropology as a discipline is affected by gender ideology and gender norms.
• Evaluate cultural “origin” stories that are not supported by anthropological data.

Politics Of Feminist Revision In Di Prima's Loba, Polina Mackay

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Politics of Feminist Revision in di Prima's Loba" Polina Mackay explores Diane di Prima's two-volume epic Loba (1998) and, through a comparison of di Prima to the work of Adrienne Rich, argues that Loba practices a politics of feminist revision. Further, Mackay examines the ways in which di Prima starts to move away from the recovery project of female voices in patriarchal culture, associated with late twentieth-century Feminism, towards a women's literature which need not be defined entirely through its resistance to patriarchal narratives of gender in men's literature. Here it focuses on di Prima's revisionist …

“I Know You Want It”: Teaching The Blurred Lines Of Eighteenth-Century Rape Culture, Emily J. Dowd-Arrow, Sarah R. Creel

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

“‘I Know You Want It’: Teaching the Blurred Lines of Eighteenth-Century Rape Culture” is a collaborative pedagogical article that addresses the problem of so-called “post-feminism” in the contemporary college classroom by way of a comparative approach to eighteenth-century literature. Specifically, we contextualize and compare the early and late work of Eliza Haywood with current cultural debates and events in order to demonstrate not only the relevance of Haywood and eighteenth-century writers like her, but the importance of continuing the feminist conversation. The article provides texts, readings, and discussion points for consideration, as well as links to relevant contemporary issues and …