Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

D&D Beyond Bikini-Mail: Having Women At The Table, Daniel Carlson

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Dungeons and Dragons represents a space that is often treated as an echo chamber for young (usually white) men to act out fantasies of power and control, which makes up for their inability to perform such actions in the real world. Using the work of Sherry Turkle and Michelle Dickey, I posit that this game is a nuanced location acting as a safe space for people to act out different aspects of their identity or life experiences in a low-risk environment enhanced by the connections made between the players and their characters. In this work, I have utililzed feminist frames …

Sexual Harassment Effects On Bodies Of Work: Engaging Students Through The Application Of Historical Context And Communication Theory To Pop Culture And Social Media, Bryan Vizzini, Kristina Drumheller

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Rarely do professors have the opportunity to branch out and create a course that is literally shaped by the day’s news. The mediated unveiling of sexual predators in the summer of 2018 provided an opportunity to teach an honors seminar that wrote itself over the course of five weeks. Professors from the communication and history disciplines drew on theory commonly used in the communication discipline and used historical readings to frame a discussion of popular culture and its relation to current events. Each week, a film was incorporated for discussion and student projects were drawn from examples of popular culture, …

Queerly Cultivating Anti-Racist Feminist Pedagogy, Laurie Fuller

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Queerly Cultivating Anti-Racist Feminist Pedagogy raises questions and analyzes classroom practices based on adrienne maree brown’s (2017) Emergent Strategy, a radical self-help manual for our current political climate that calls for a paradigm shift in organizing work. Black, mixed, queer, pansexual, feminist writer, pleasure activist, facilitator and sci-fi scholar, brown builds on a continuous tradition of women of color feminists resisting oppression to bring together science fiction and permaculture, biomimicry and organizing, pleasure and activism. She offers fresh perspectives on how to imagine liberation and provides dynamic ways to think about teaching and learning. Emergent Strategy provides principles to …

A Gaze Of Cruelty, Deferred: Actualizing The Female Gaze In Cate Shortland’S Berlin Syndrome (2017), Natasha Chuk

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Australian director Cate Shortland’s dramatic thriller Berlin Syndrome (2017) follows the conventions of the genre involving a psychologically unstable male perpetrator and his female victim, thus could hinge on patriarchal control. Instead, based on a close reading of feminist film scholar Laura Mulvey’s theoretical definition of the former, Shortland’s cinematic apparatus can be read as an inverse of the male gaze, a type of systematic ‘female gaze’. This observation both warrants clarification of the term and concept behind the female gaze and suggests a pressing need to re-evaluate the language of cinema and its habitually damaging depictions of women. In …

Exploring The Confines Of The Closet, Maddi Stillabower '28

Best First-Year Seminar Writing

Sedgwick’s “Epistemology of the Closet” and Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room both illustrate how the “closet” works within and between individuals. Unlike religious identity which can be easily explained through familial heritage, David is unable to trace his sexual orientation to any concrete reason. His inability to reconcile his identity with the beliefs of his culture highlights the conflicting experience of many in the queer community. His relationship with Giovanni reveals how internalized homophobia and the absence of queer role models play into feelings toward himself and all queer relationships. The constant dissonance between Giovanni’s genuine feelings and David’s fear of their …

“I Am A Conversation”: Media Literacy, Queer Pedagogy, And Steven Universe In College Curriculum, Misty Thomas

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

The recent cartoon show on Cartoon Network Steven Universe allows for the blending of both queer theory and media literacies to create a pedagogical space for students to investigate and analyze not only queerness, but also normative and non-normative identities. This show creates characters as well as relationships that both break with and subvert what would be considered traditional masculine and feminine identities. Additionally, Steven Universe also creates a space where sexuality and transgender bodies are represented. This paper demonstrates both the presence of queerness within the show and the pedagogical implications for using this piece of media within a …

Amc’S Infamous Criminal Partnerships: Suppressing The Female Antihero, Melissa Vosen Callens

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This paper explores the limited number of female antiheroes in AMC’s critically acclaimed drama series. Using a feminist lens, the author argues that audiences have failed to embrace female characters on AMC as antiheroes, particularly when they are in romantic relationships with male antiheroes, for three primary reasons. First, female characters often challenge binary thinking, and thus, gender role stereotypes. Rather than exhibiting passive, yet nurturing characteristics, characteristics often associated with femininity and motherhood, female characters within the dataset frequently challenge their partners and exert their dominance. Second, writers often fail to fully develop female characters. The absence of their …

Bad Girls: Agency, Revenge, And Redemption In Contemporary Drama, Courtney Watson

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Cultural movements including #TimesUp and #MeToo have contributed momentum to the demand for and development of smart, justified female criminal characters in contemporary television drama. These women are representations of shifting power dynamics, and they possess agency as they channel their desires and fury into success, redemption, and revenge. Building on works including Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, dramas produced since 2016—including The Handmaid’s Tale, Ozark, and Killing Eve—have featured the rise of women who use rule-breaking, rebellion, and crime to enact positive change.

A Gendered Perspective On Policing Violence In Happy Valley And Fargo, T. Allen Culpepper

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Portrayal of a police officer determined to fight crime and execute justice in a harsh, isolated environment has become a television and film subgenre, often featuring women facing gender-related challenges. The issues raised in Sally Wainwright’s British television series Happy Valley, can be made more accessible, particularly to American undergraduate students, via its commonalities with the Coen brothers film Fargo. In both, a tough but compassionate policewoman pursues the more sociopathic of a pair of criminals involved in a botched kidnapping attempt instigated by an inept businessman, taking on the case for personal and professional honor, and as …

I’Ll Just Weight On The Lord: The Lived Experience Of Obesity, Spirituality, And Health Behaviors In African American Women, Andrea S. Poynter, Florence M. Weierbach

International Journal of Faith Community Nursing

Obesity is one of the fastest growing health concerns impacting all racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic groups in the United States of America. Obesity has gained nationwide attention due to its health-related disorders such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and various cancer types that increase the annual medical cost on a financially stressed health system (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2022). Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in all races and genders within the US with African American women comprising a majority of those impacted by this chronic health condition (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Offices of …

Accessing Texts In The Public Domain With A Focus On Women’S Literature, Joanne E. Gates

Presentations, Proceedings & Performances

´Featuring the traditional sites, Gutenberg, On-Line Books Page, Internet Archive, and Hathi Trust, I will narrate the evolution of the Elizabeth Robins Web at JSU as it has been influenced by developments in open access electronic texts. I will focus on Mary Mark Ockerbloom’s A Celebration of Women Writers and recent additions as texts from 1928 entered the Public Domain.

Girls, Guns, And Zombies: Five Dimensions Of Teaching And Learning In The Walking Dead, Anthony Neely

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Rooted in sociocultural theory, this article utilizes a conceptual framework derived from Alexander, Schallert, and Reynolds’ four topographical dimensions of learning: who of learning, what of learning, where of learning, and when of learning. Situated learning (Lave and Wenger) is presented as a fifth dimension to address how learning occurs in communities of practice absent of formal schooling. Content analysis (Elo and Kyngass) is used to analyze a teaching and learning event from an episode of The Walking Dead based on the five topographical dimensions of learning listed above. Findings provide insights for pedagogical application for …

“We Don’T Do That”: Negotiating Graduate Education As A Bisexual+ Student, Kaity Prieto, Victoria B. Olivo

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

Bisexual+ people comprise the largest portion of the queer and trans community, yet there is limited research on bi+ subpopulations and a particular absence of literature exploring bisexual+ student identities and experiences. Much of the extant bi+ college student literature has centered on undergraduate experiences, leaving graduate experiences underexplored. Through this narrative inquiry study, guided by a queer theoretical framework, we sought to understand how bi+ graduate students navigate academic and professional contexts and how systems of power influence their identity negotiation narratives. Findings revealed pervasive bisexual+ erasure in academic contexts, pressure to conform to normative notions of professionalism, and …

" A Beautiful Maiden Shot My Heart" By Antar Bin Shadad:, Yasser K. R. Aman

Comparative Woman

This is a translation of an Arabic poem from Pre-Islamic poetry written by Antara Bin Shadad. This poem is an example of appropriation in literary translation. When the meaning is not only cultural but when it is ambience- bound as well, appropriation is difficult but not impossible to achieve. " رمتِ الفؤادَ مليحة عذراءُ" " A Beautiful Maiden Shot My Heart" is an example of a hard choice whether to translate a poem into classical or modern poetry. However, the best I have done was to appropriate between both choices. Images are almost kept the same, but the classical style, …

Body, Mind, And Archives: A Critical Questioning Of “Places For Knowledge” In David Treuer’S The Translation Of Dr. Apelles, Lisa Brau-Weglinski

Comparative Woman

Western conceptualizations of time and space are common topics to be queried within the field of Indigenous literary study. However, while the focus has been laid on temporal and spatial literary conventions, too little attention has been drawn to the conceptualization and norms around an identity forming element: knowledge. This paper is particularly suspicious of Western conceptualizations of “places for knowledge,” as this has very real consequences for how we understand and treat ourselves and others. As such, my work highlights that “places for knowledge” can cloud and limit our perception of reality, which, concerning the project of decolonization …

Mapping Gender And Territory: The Continent Allegories On European World Maps From The Late Middle Ages To The Renaissance Until The Early Enlightenment, Katharina Eva Oehmichen

Comparative Woman

The four-part set of female continent allegories, which originated in the early Renaissance, was born out of a European need for a new vehicle of thought that served the functions of representing imperial expansion and the superiority of Western science and civilization, while gratifying the curiosity of the readers about newly discovered lands at the same time. The shift from the Christian symbolic tradition of the representation of the continents on world maps mirrored the shift in Western perception and knowledge of the world and Europe’s position in it. Apart from geo-political and imperial agendas that might have favored a …

How Seamlessly...., Pulkita Anand

Comparative Woman

No abstract provided.

Living Losses, Courtney A. Brown Phd

Comparative Woman

Contextually, I am from a line of strong black women. I am from a community of strivers and survivors who’ve accomplished great things through the blanket of patriarchy and civil injustices. I stand on the shoulders of many who took literal and figurative hits so that I could have opportunities they only dreamed of. I have followed in this legacy shattering glass ceilings into unrecognizable pieces for those who will come next.

However, breaking through has not come without cuts, bruises, scrapes and wounds. The celebration of smashing stereotypes should at least be balanced with the acknowledgement of the formidable …

Forms Of Violence Against Jordanian Women And Girls With Disabilities: Correlations With Psychological Well-Being, Reem A. Alkenani, Burhan Mahmoud Hamadneh

Journal of International Women's Studies

The study aims to identify the forms of violence against women and girls with disabilities and their relationship to psychological well-being. The study used a descriptive approach with a correlational study design. We selected the study sample using stratified random sampling, which included 220 girls and women with physical and sensory disabilities aged 14 to 30 years from primary and secondary schools as well as universities in the Ajloun region of northern Jordan. We collected data using a scale for forms of violence (16 items) and a scale for psychological well-being (28 items) after verifying their validity and reliability in …

Predictors Of Wellbeing For Women With Disabilities In The United Arab Emirates, Tatiana Karabchuk, Osman Antwi-Boateng

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women with disabilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) face unique challenges due to traditional gender roles and societal expectations. Despite these challenges, recent social policies in the UAE aimed at supporting people with disabilities have significantly improved their life satisfaction. This study explores the determinants of happiness for women with disabilities compared disabled men using data from the 2017 National Survey for Happiness and Positivity. Contrary to expectations, women with disabilities in the UAE have highest happiness scores compared to women without disabilities and men with/without disabilities. Furthermore, both women with and without disabilities consistently over score men with/without …

Programmes For The Protection Of Children Of Determination From Abuse And Neglect In The United Arab Emirates, Fakir Al Gharaibeh, Bakhita Alketbi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This paper examines the initiatives and policies implemented in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to protect Children of Determination (COD) from abuse and neglect. Despite global efforts to address child abuse, children with disabilities, referred to here as children of determination, remain particularly vulnerable. This paper explores the social framework, legal protections, prevention strategies, challenges, and necessary measures to ensure that such children are safe and empowered to protect themselves from abuse. The paper also explores approaches to enhancing the efficacy of the caregivers engaged with these children so that they can predict, prevent, and deal with incidents of abuse. …

Evolving Narratives Of Gulf Press Representations Of Women With Disabilities, Shujun Jiang, Muhammed Musa

Journal of International Women's Studies

People with disabilities make up 16% of the world’s population, an estimated 1.3 billion individuals. Because many people rely on the media to make sense of the world, a skewed perception of people with disabilities has become dominant in society today. People with disabilities are largely depicted in the media as deserving of pity and charity and always dependent on others for survival. The media provides us with narratives that we use to create interpretations of the world around us and, consequently, become bases of norms and attitudes about issues and persons around us. This paper studies Gulf Cooperation Council …

Challenges Faced By Disabled Women In Benghazi And Al-Bayda, Libya: A Descriptive Study, Mastur Rehim

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study looks at the cultural, social, and legislative issues related to the experiences of disabled women in Libya, specifically in the cities of Benghazi and Al-Bayda. Using a descriptive-analytical approach, the study explores the many barriers to the full integration of women with disabilities into society. Data were gathered using quantitative and qualitative methods, including formal questionnaires and direct involvement via social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook. The sample was purposefully chosen to include women with a variety of disabilities between the ages of 18 and 33 and over, guaranteeing a complete representation of the target community. …

The Representation Of Women With Disabilities In Shahira Al-Hasan’S Cochlea’S Secrets, Mohammed Abou Adel, Amr M. Mohamed, Mubarak Altwaiji

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examines the representation of women living with disabilities in Shahira Al-Hassan’s novel Cochlea’s Secrets. This is an important endeavor as it highlights fiction’s role in advocating for women with disabilities, particularly in the Arab region. Such a study is crucial for increasing awareness and support for women with disabilities, especially in literary writing. Also, worldwide readers can learn about the impact of Arab novelists in supporting women with disabilities. Fiction, like the media, plays a pivotal role in promoting the status of women living with disabilities and enhancing their societal role. By addressing this topic from the perspective …

Exploring The Lived Experiences Of Women Students With Mobility Disabilities Accessing Higher Education In Oman, Zalikha Al-Marzouqi, Aida Al-Dhoani

Journal of International Women's Studies

The higher education system in Oman offers various services to support disabled students to create a positive relationship between students with disabilities, their families, and the community. Both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Development share the responsibility of educating students with disabilities. However, women students with disabilities, particularly those with mobility disabilities, still face challenges within higher education institutions. While Omani law allows women with disabilities to pursue higher education, it is uncertain whether women students with mobility disabilities encounter difficulties in accessing education at higher education institutions. Notably, there have been no studies specifically exploring …

Review Of Literature On Emirati Women With Disabilities, Their Education, And Career Prospects, Mohammed Humaid Aljanahi, Abdulfattah Yaghi, Ali Al Ahbabi

Journal of International Women's Studies

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has made significant advancements in women empowerment and has established legal frameworks to support people with disabilities, particularly women (People of Determination, POD). However, there is a notable lack of information regarding the career choices of Emirati Women of Determination (EWOD). This literature review aims to address this gap by examining the limited research on EWOD’s career choices and the challenges they encounter. The societal stigma surrounding disabilities, especially with women, often results in underreporting which hinders data collection efforts. While existing research predominantly relies on qualitative methods, providing valuable insights, it lacks generalizability. This …

Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes Towards Marriage Of Persons With Disabilities In The United Arab Emirates: Recommendations For A Gendered Approach, Ziyad Kamel Ellala, Najeh Rajeh Alsalhi, Fakir Al Gharaibeh, Mazen Alshawabekh

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study aimed to investigate the attitudes of university students in the United Arab Emirates towards the marriage of people with disabilities. To achieve this goal, a sample of 396 students, consisting of 222 women and 174 men, was selected. All participants were administered a scale of 15 items built according to the closed-ended Likert. The results indicated a high level of positive attitudes towards this type of marriage. Furthermore, the results showed no statistically significant differences in attitudes attributed to variables such as gender and academic year, while there were statistically significant differences favoring students in scientific colleges over …

Legal Framework For Advancing The Rights Of Women And Girls With Disabilities In Saudi Arabia: Strategies For Implementation And Enforcement, Ahmed M. Bamashmoos

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study evaluates the effectiveness of Saudi Arabia’s legal framework in promoting the rights of women and girls with disabilities through a comparative analysis with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Sweden’s disability policies. Employing legislative texts and policy documents, the research identifies gaps and benchmarks against international norms to propose necessary enhancements. The findings indicate that while Saudi Arabia has established a comprehensive legal structure focused on non-discrimination, accessibility, and reasonable accommodation, there are significant shortcomings in enforcement and gender-specific protections. Recommendations include enhancing legal protections for gender-specific needs, improving enforcement mechanisms via …

The Role Of National Legislation In Empowering Kuwaiti Women With Disabilities, Haila Al-Mekaimi

Journal of International Women's Studies

The State of Kuwait has issued numerous legislations aimed at empowering persons with disabilities, including the State Constitution (1961), Law No. 49 of 1996 (articles 1-6), Law No. 8 of 2010 (articles 2, 3, 5, and 6), and various amendments to these laws. This article is based on a field study conducted to investigate the influence of national law on civil society organizations that support people with disabilities, with a focus on women with disabilities in the State of Kuwait. The researcher collaborated with the Kuwaiti Union of Women Associations and numerous public benefit groups, including the Kuwait Disabled Sports …

The Constitutional And Policy-Oriented Framework Of Rights, Services, And Integration Of People Of Determination In The United Arab Emirates, Muhamad Olimat, Osman Antwi-Boateng

Journal of International Women's Studies

The term “People of Determination” (PODs), coined by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government, refers to women and men with disabilities and is articulated and inspired by the country’s history, culture, and traditions. This study aims to examine the constitutional and policy-oriented framework of PODs in terms of rights, services, and their integration process in UAE society. In so doing, it explores the UAE’s perspective on PODs in terms of conceptualization, services, framework of empowerment, institutions, rehabilitation efforts, employment, and societal integration. Although the UAE is a federal state composed of seven emirates with federal institutions, each emirate has established …