Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

"They Were Men In Those Days": Gender, Class, And Ethnicity In The Paul Bunyan Tales, Dean Schmit

Honors Capstone Projects

This paper examines the development of the Paul Bunyan stories from the nineteenth century through the twenty-first century through a gendered lens.

What Makes A Woman "Pious And Good": The Function Of Several Grimm Brothers' Cautionary Fairy Tales, Hannah Montante

English (MA) Theses

This thesis explores how several of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales, “Little Snow-white and the seven dwarfs,” “The Juniper Tree,” and “Cinderella” exhibit patriarchal expectations of women that fairy tale protagonists strive to uphold, while female villains feel driven to violence and artifice because of their inability to fit into this role. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published these stories in nineteenth-century Germany, which was predominantly Protestant and held the belief that women should be nurturing homemakers who took care of their husbands and children. These cautionary tales instruct women on how to behave and appear physically, likely because these stories …

Sexism's Effect On Female Suicide Ideation & Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Through Body Surveillance & Self-Esteem, Caitlin Gregory

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research has shown that women face an average of three sexist events per week (Fischer & Holz, 2010). These sexist experiences can present within domains of daily living, social media usage, workplace discrimination, psychological distress, and sexual objectification (Baires & Koch, 2020; Duggan, 2014; Oswald, et al. 2019; Perez, 2019; Rollero, 2013). Additionally, the literature has shown that types of sexist experiences can determine the severity of the impact on mental health outcomes, as benevolent sexism has showcased significant consequences on females’ self-esteem and body objectification and hostile sexism has been shown to impact selfevaluation and self-worth (Calogero & Jost, …

Inner Portraits, Bethany Salisbury

Graduate Theses

This paper investigates the many interconnected layers of women’s mental health through portraiture and how animal and plant symbolism can represent the way women's hormones and bodily health affect their mental health. I reveal how the artwork created presents these connections and inner mental health narratives to the viewer, creating a space of empathy, destigmatization, and self-reflection. This body of portraiture art connects five women through a series of both two-and three-dimensional portraits based on interviews using my own adaptation of Sara Lawrence-Lightfoots’ (1983) portrait methodology.

Women and non-binary individuals have always dealt with difficult interactions of bodily and mental …

« Monologue » : Une Femme Rompue Impactée Par Les Atteintes Sociétales, Sloane Larsen

World Languages Student Scholarship

“Monologue,” an essay from Simone de Beauvoir’s THE WOMAN DESTROYED, is a rambling and disjointed account of motherhood, madness, and chagrin. The short story is told by a mother named Murielle, a woman who has lost everything, including her daughter Sylvie, by suicide. Simone de Beauvoir, the author of this story, is considered the “mother” (Kruks and Coryell) of second-wave feminism and is well-known for her fight for equality between the sexes. In “Monologue,” de Beauvoir sheds light on the difficulties mothers face and proposes a reflection on life, femininity, and descent into madness. De Beauvoir incorporates her feminist theories …

“Beauty And The Beast” And The Representation Of The Female: How Fairy Tales Reinforce And Influence Our Current Understanding Of Gender Roles, Elizabeth N. Tran

English (MA) Theses

This thesis aims to contribute to the scholarship on young adult speculative fiction and its pivotal role in subverting the rigid gender roles that have been reinforced since the ancient world of fairy tales. To do so, I will explore Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s “Beauty and the Beast” through the lens of various feminist literary theories and overlapping discourses in gender studies. I intend to analyze and critique the ways in which this classic fairy tale has influenced the representation of the female as “Beauty” and the male as “Beast” in contemporary texts, especially in the YA speculative fiction genre. …

“Everything And Nothing”: Exhibiting Irishness At The Chicago World Fair Of 1893, Jessica Bocinski

English (MA) Theses

This project employs a cultural studies approach to investigate the overlapping productions of Irish identity at the Irish Villages of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. Conceptualized and designed by two British philanthropists and businesswomen, the Irish Villages presented an Irishness shaped by Ireland’s long history of colonial rule. For Irish Americans living in the United States during the late nineteenth century, the Irish Villages offered a particularly well-suited opportunity to present an identity that would facilitate their acceptance into American society. Rather than challenging or negating the colonial representations of Irishness that existed at places like the Chicago World’s …

Diversity Of Programming By Race And Gender In College And University Band Concerts, Liz Liss

Undergraduate Honors Theses

While there are many women (and others of non-male genders) as well as people of color who compose for concert bands, they are often not given equitable recognition or representation. Over the past several decades, pushes for diversity within the classical music realm and higher education have sparked numerous discussions surrounding current practices (Bond 2017, 154; Bowman 2020, 10; Cumberledge and Williams 2022, 4; Peters 2016, 22): who are we inviting into our programs, whose music are we playing, and who are we representing? Despite these concerns, there has been very little research to provide answers to these questions within …

The Agenda (May 2023): Newsletter For The Lincoln Lgbtq+ Resource Center, Lincoln Lgbtq+ Resource Center, Gonzaga University

Lincoln LGBTQ+ Resource Center Publications

The quarterly newsletter from the Lincoln LGBTQ+ Resource Center at Gonzaga.

Pedagogy, Sexual Violence, And Contemporary Extremist Films: Baise-Moi (2000), Irréversible (2002), And Promising Young Woman (2020), Olivia Harris

All Theses

Baise-moi (dir. Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi, 2000), Irréversible (dir. Gaspar Noé, 2002), and Promising Young Woman (dir. Emerald Fennell, 2020) embody characteristics of the extreme. Working from James Quandt’s formative writing in 2004, I define extremism as the purposeful inclusion of transgressive themes and situations. However, each of the selected films portrays the extreme under different production styles, aesthetics, and modes of storytelling. My connections to early exploitation film (a precursor to extremist cinema) demonstrate the genre’s important history of teaching and educating. Similar to the original intent of classical exploitation films, which taught spectators about taboo topics …

Into The Spider-Verse: Cultural Identity In Spider-Man Media, Anika Gonzalez

Whittier Scholars Program

Superheroes have become a popular genre that is becoming more successful at creating box office records. As the superhero genre becomes more popular, more superheroes have been created as symbols that reflect the increase of cultural identity representation in contemporary media. Spider-Man is a superhero that also reflects these cultural identities by offering more diverse and relatable variants of the Spider-Man character that allow him to normalize and address their presence in media. This paper aims to analyze the different cultural identities that Spider-Man media can connect to and how this connection can lead to a greater understanding of cultural …

Lovecraftian Queerness: Weird And Queer Temporalities In Lovecraft Country And Detransition, Baby, Eurydice Dye

English (MA) Theses

By analyzing H. P. Lovecraft’s work through the lens of queer temporality, I offer a queer perspective on Lovecraft, reading the monstrous outside in his work as a queer figure and casting the temporal conflict common to Lovecraftian horror as a conflict between dominant time and outside time. I argue that, by placing queerly-temporal protagonists in conflict with dominant temporalities, queer fiction is essentially an inversion of Lovecraftian horror. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope of the novel, I develop a theory of the queer chronotope in fiction to align with the queer temporalities that queer characters inhabit. …

Minority Stress Through Time: Sexual Minority Stress & Suicidality Across Generations, Jenessa Canen

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Research suggests that sexual minority populations are at a much higher risk for suicide than their heterosexual peers. The primary explanation for this disparity is minority stress theory. The theory of minority stress proposes that in addition to everyday stressors experienced by most people, sexual minorities experience additional unique stressors related to their sexual minority identity. Since minority stress theory was proposed in 2003, much has changed about how the United States understands and views sexual minorities. Theoretically, this should impact the way minority stress is being experienced, which may be seen by examining minority stress across sexual minorities of …

Development & Validation Of A Scale Of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Alexander Davy

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are important to organizations and their employees. However, confusion in conceptualization and operationalization hinders the development of DEI research and application. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, I conceptualized DEI as a composite construct of three interrelated but differentiated components, that is, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Possible relationships among the three constructs were discussed. Second, I developed a three-dimensional scale to measure diversity, equity, and inclusion as separate constructs. The scale showed acceptable reliability, with Cronbach’s alpha levels for the overall scale and subscales range from .81 to .94. Convergent and divergent validity …

Narratives Of Feminist Resistance: Women's Bodily Autonomy And The Dystopian Mode, Grace J. Bromage

English Honors Theses

This undergraduate thesis examines how dystopian fiction has responded to the sociopolitical issue of restrictions on women’s bodily autonomy, a question that has become more timely since the reversal of Roe v. Wade in Summer 2022. Particularly, I aim to understand how readers can use dystopian novels to shape real-world dialogue and how authors can use narrative strategies to encourage readers to resist oppression. My first chapter takes a broad approach, tracing the development of dystopian fiction from a genre to a mode and using Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) as a case study of how …

The Effect Of Minority Stress On Sexual Minority College Students' Mental Health: The Role Of General Social Support And Sexuality-Specific Social Support, Lee A. Golembiewski

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Sexual minority (SM) college students continue to face greater mental health problems relative to their heterosexual peers (Woodford et al., 2014; Wilson & Liss, 2022). According to minority stress theory, SM individuals face distal (e.g., heterosexist discrimination) and proximal (e.g., expectations of rejection, internalized homophobia, and concealment) stressors related to their SM identity which can have negative effects on their mental health (Douglass & Conlin, 2020; Meyer, 2003). However, social support has been hypothesized to help protect against the effects of minority stress experienced by SM individuals (Cohen & Wills, 1985; Moody & Smith, 2013). Most of the existing research …

Factors Influencing African American Women To Attend A Rural Community College And Persist To An Associate Degree, Lorraine Anita Justice

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

African American women utilize the community college environments as an avenue to attain an education and eventually pursue career and educational goals while remaining in their own communities. However, not much is known about the unique perceptions and experiences of African American women impacting their enrollment and persistence at rural community colleges. The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive research study was to examine the reasons African American female students choose to enroll and attend a rural community college to further their education and persist towards graduation with an Associate degree.

The data were collected using semi-structure individual interviews. Twelve African …

The Silence In America’S Classrooms: The Portrayal Of Women And Gender In United States High School History Textbooks, Allie Elizabeth Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the twenty-first century, the process of adopting statewide history textbooks has become a political battleground surrounding concepts of race, gender, and identity in American history. By contextualizing the current discussion surrounding content in American history textbooks, I examine the portrayal of women in secondary United States social studies textbooks from the 1960s to the 2010s. In doing so, I show how portrayals of women's history evolve in the most widely adopted high school post-Civil War American history textbooks in each decade from the 1960s through to the 2000s. By comparing the evolution of the women’s and gender historiography to …

Acquitted By Reason Of Paroxysmal Insanity? Science And Gender In The Nineteenth-Century Murder Trial Of Mary Harris, Emmalee Morgan

History Honors Program

The acquittal of Mary Harris in 1865 demonstrates the culmination of new social and scientific ideologies through the strategy of her defense counsel and the utilization of expert medical witnesses. While at the same time, the prosecutorial strategy embodied the opinions of gender and insanity that were being phased out.

The aim of this project is to demonstrate the overlap and reciprocal influence of science, law, and society, with narratives of gender acting as consistent undertones in these three realms. The trial and acquittal seem to fall in line with the idea that the insanity plea is a sham — …

Resilience In Girlhood: An Analysis Of The Social Determinants Of Anxiety Disorders For Adolescent Girls, Maggie Sullivan '23

Honor Scholar Theses

Anxiety disorders affect twice as many women as men and often begin in adolescence or young adulthood, which is a unique period of accelerated development and identity formation. Evidence points to social determinants of health (SDH) such as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), socioeconomic status (SES), education, social media, and resilience that lead to this discrepancy. Girlhood is a distinct adolescence because girls face the effects of more ACEs, self-objectification, internalization of academic stress, and predisposition to low SES. This thesis summarizes research on the social determinants of anxiety for adolescent girls, utilizing a socio-ecological model and feminist research methods to …

Power, Pleasure, And Privilege: Defining Depauw’S Hookup Culture And Its Mental Health Implications, Reanna Stiehler '23

Honor Scholar Theses

Hookup culture is not primarily about sex, pleasure, connection, or freedom. Hookup culture is about power—how power is used, distributed, and desired. Previous work in hookup culture discusses a discourse of desire; however, the root and nature of this desire are unclear. I posit that hookup culture, as it currently exists, is strongly related to rape culture. In this thesis, I will explicate my anecdotal, qualitative, and quantitative evidence supporting this hypothesis.

The Domestic Worker In Latinx Fiction: The Discursive Formation Of Latinidad, Constance Von Igel De Mello

English (MA) Theses

The figure of the domestic worker in Latinx and Latin American fiction is a prominent character, permeating multiple genres and geographic locations. Post-colonial and feminist engagement with literature begs us to engage with the racialized and gendered constraints of this character in order to understand the borders of latinidad as based on the exclusion of certain bodies, predominantly black ones. Using the domestic worker characters from Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) and Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of Bones (1998), and underscoring their historical and socio-political background of Hispaniola, we can understand the embodied context of …

Ritual And Digital Craftsmanship: Imprudent Practices, Mik Patrik Mcdonnell

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

This essay explores the role of traditional and digital craftsmanship in my art practice as it relates to provocative imagery. I tackle the question of how my practice is influenced by my audience. My process and products both aim to agitate the ascetic individual. The argument opens on a poetic, personal note, before defining craft/craftsmanship and its social reception according to scholarship. I outline the intended audience for my work being those akin to my mother: christian, middle-aged, and leaning conservative. Because I employ devotional, virtuosic craftsmanship I argue my work is effective at provoking dialogue with these persons who …

Owning The Body: Bodily Autonomy And Consent In The Works Of Octavia Butler, Korryn Plantenberg

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

During the 1980’s the Second Wave feminist movement provided more interest in interdisciplinary movements towards equity in the case of gender. One movement that slowly grew was Womanism, which included the intersection between race and gender. Specifically, the experiences of black women in the United States. Inspired by this movement authors such as Octavia Butler was a black science fiction author who wrote literature focused on black women. Alongside her preoccupation, with race in science fiction, Butler explores the nature of consent and bodily autonomy in utopian and dystopian futures. Within her novels, she uses Womanism to engage with futuristic …

Patriarchal Violence, Rona Kaufman

Buffalo Law Review

For over a century, feminist theorists and activists have sought equality for women. They have aimed their efforts at the many distinct and related causes of women’s inequality, among them gendered violence, sexual violence, domestic violence, and violence against women. Recognizing the need to understand problems in order to solve them, feminist theorists have devoted decades to conceptualizing various manifestations of such violence, ranging from private acts, such as sexual assault and intimate partner abuse, to public acts, such as the incarceration of mothers and the criminalization of pregnancy. In this article, I argue in favor of conceptualizing the many …

This Woman's Work: A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Domestic Workers Who Swept The Shards Of A Shattered Glass Ceiling, Grier Mcclard

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

In "This Woman's Work: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Domestic Workers who Swept the Shards of a Shattered Glass Ceiling" Grier McClard argues that the industry of Domestic Service experienced a massive shift in the second half of the 20th century, transforming from a sign of wealth and privilege, to a necessity for many. Despite the necessity of domestic workers for families, they are consistently one of the most unprotected and underpaid class of workers. McClard ties these changes in Domestic Work to Second Wave feminist ideology, and the influx of women working away from their houses.

How Lgbtqia+ Citizenship Transcends The Nation- State Paradigm: An Argument For Supranational Queer Citizenship, Marcus Cantrell

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Current conceptions of citizenship, which are heteronormative and tie citizenship to membership in a nation-state, do not account for the quotidian experiences of LGBTQ people across the globe. Seeing as the queer community is a relatively small one, many queer people feel a sense of shared fate with LGBTQ people across the diaspora and feel helpless when they see their queer siblings being persecuted in egregious ways. Thus, the need for a new type of uniquely queer citizenship becomes salient. This thesis posits that a supranational queer citizenship would be the most effective conception of citizenship for queer people because …

Making The Political Personal: Consciousness Raising For The Contemporary Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist, Danica Fuerst

Honors College Theses

Consciousness raising (CR) typically refers to the specific small group practice pioneered by second-wave feminists, but as networked media gradually replaced the small group process, new forms that are descended from the original CR emerged. This thesis traces consciousness raising from it's origins in the late 1960s and early '70s, through third-wave feminism, to contemporary feminist uses. It analyzes the rhetorical effects and functions of CR from the perspective of Symbolic Convergence theory, considering the various media through which CR is practiced. Finally, using the understanding of CR and its functions that this provides, it analyzes how one specific contemporary …

Tea Service: Queering Time And Creating Community, Lauren Wheeler

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the concept of queer temporality and the importance of community in a person’s quality of life. Contrast between traditional English tea service and unconventional, queered tea service is used in dualistic metaphor to explore the contrast of community with people who seek to uphold cisheteronormativity and with people who disrupt it. Further, tea can be seen in various contexts as a site of social resistance. Queer temporality can be defined as the nonlinear and unconventional uses of time which are experienced in opposition to cisheteronormative temporalities. The importance of community amongst queer individuals is emphasized through shared …

Algorithms And The Alphabet Mafia: How Tiktok Influenced Gender, Sexuality, And The Lgbtq+ Community During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Hope Smith

Honors Theses

A massive surge in popularity of the social media app TikTok coincided with the first major surge of COVID-19 cases in the United States. As U.S. Americans began leaving their houses again and the U.S. approaches a semblance of a “post-pandemic” era, many LGBTQ+ social media users, particularly TikTok users, have mentioned the influence social media had on understanding their queer identity. This study seeks to contribute to a larger field of research into how social media is affecting identity development in adolescents and young adults. This study employs an anonymous online survey to ask undergraduate students at the University …