Women's Studies Commons^™

A History Of The Underground Comix Scene: The Seriousness Of An Unserious Genre, Harris Darcie Shugart

Master's Theses

The Underground Comix Scene of the 1960s and 1970s was born out of an age of censorship. The Comics Code Authority, a regulatory body created by the Comics Magazine Association of America in 1954, established guidelines requiring publishing houses to self-regulate following a recommendation from the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1953. Comix with an X, for their X-rated nature, represent an emerging counter-culture in the latter half of the 1960s and the 1970s, with an epicenter of San Francisco. These comix and their artists were not interested in obtaining the looming ‘Seal of Approval’ from the …

"Ostracized As We Are With God": Mina Loy's Anti-Career And The Search For Originality, Peyton L. Phillips

Master's Theses

Among many modernist artists, Mina Loy remains one of the most complex and allusive. Recent posthumous exposure of Loy's life and work adds to this precarity. A significant piece of Loy's life that is especially complex to contemporaries is her time spent writing. By establishing Loy's subjective relationship with her Victorian upbringing, this paper seeks to show examples of its influence on her search for originality. Mainly, the paper examines Loy's concept of originality, where that concept may have come from, and how it is reflected in her literature. The paper analyzes three of Loy's literary works, her poems "Virgins …

Two Leading Female Figures Of The Anti-Colonial Struggle In Africa, Marie-Ange Anezi Djie

Master's Theses

The Eurocentric and male narrative of the anti-colonial struggle in Africa during the twentieth century marginalized women’s contributions and presented them as passive victims of colonialism. Therefore, this study offers a more comprehensive historical account of women's leadership in Africa and a more inclusive and liberated narrative of the anti-colonial movement. Achieving this goal involves delving into the roles and contributions of two prominent female figures in the anti-colonial resistance in Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa during the twentieth century: Huda Shaarawi from Egypt and Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti from Nigeria. Furthermore, this study aims to demonstrate that the actions and strategies of …

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 …

Feral And Free: The Queering Of Motherhood In Rachel Yoder’S Nightbitch, Cassandra Haskell

Master's Theses

This thesis explores motherhood from a perspective that seeks to inform and challenge the patriarchal definitions of motherhood in order to simultaneously confront its restrictions and create new meanings from its institutionalized definition. The main text that this thesis analyzes is the 2021 novel Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, as well as the 2024 film of the same name, critiquing how it successfully queers motherhood by questioning, challenging, and defying the impractical expectations placed upon mothers by society. Some secondary scholars whose works that I utilize to support my argument are authors such as Audre Lorde, Jessica Calarco, Adrienne Rich and …

Sadomasochistic Sensations: A Phenomenological Analysis Of Black Ontology, Embodiment, And Transcendence, Sam Forrey

Master's Theses

Over the past fifteen years, feminists have challenged the notion that sexual sadomasochism perpetuates racial and gender-based violence, and instead claim that the practice can be a powerful site to control and subvert oppression. In this thesis, I contribute to this growing discourse and argue that sensations experienced during practices of Black sexual sadomasochism and attention to the feelings and affects that arise from them can be used to mediate Black being in a violently antiblack United States. Through applications of Black feminist thought, Black anti-humanism, and phenomenology, I claim that antiblack oppression denies Black people the experience of tactile …

“Get Out Of The House Before It Kills You”: Haunted Housewives And The Feminist Gothic In Ira Levin’S Rosemary’S Baby And The Stepford Wives, Sarah Jeffries

Master's Theses

Ira Levin’s works Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives have been cultural touchstones since their releases in 1967 and 1972, respectively, with their legacy as iconic American horror stories cemented by successful film adaptations. At the surface level, these stories can be read as tales about unfortunate housewives that face unusual horrors. Rosemary Woodhouse finds herself trapped in a gothic New York City apartment building, the Bramford, where her husband and neighbors collude to force her to carry and birth Satan’s son, like a perverse Virgin Mary. Joanna Ebert is similarly stuck in suburban Stepford, Connecticut where she discovers the …

Queer Futurity Needs Queer Grief: An Analysis Of The U.S. Public Response To Queer Loss, Jordan Nicole Mckinnon

Master's Theses

Grief is an inevitable part of the human experience. However, communities, especially those where a majority of members have disprivileged identities, experience disenfranchised grief, or grief that is not openly acknowledged, socially accepted, or publicly mourned. Members of the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, plus other identities not encompassed in the acronym) community, and their allies can experience a type of disenfranchised grief known as queer grief. I argue that everyone, not just allies and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, should recognize and publicly acknowledge queer grief, because if queer lives lost are not recognized as worthy …

Loverboy Rules: A Transtheoretical Exploration Of Andy Bernard's Failed Masculinity, Jessie Marta Olstad

Master's Theses

NBC's U.S adaptation of The Office is one of the most well-known sitcoms to come out of modern television, surpassing its original British counterpart’s two seasons with its own nine. It is a representation, as well, of the time it aired (2005-2013), reflecting on the modern American workplace and the everyday person. Within it, The Office also reflected how society was constructed at the time with its humor surrounding gender, homosexuality, and race – as a tolerant but not welcoming atmosphere to people who were not white, heterosexual, men. More specifically, The Office presents multiple adaptations of masculinity to teach …

Looking For Love: Motivations Of Dating App Usage In Millennials, Mel Ekins

Master's Theses

Dating applications (apps) have become a popular method for young adults to make romantic connections. The apps themselves are easy to use and sometimes are created to be “game-like” to entice people to want to utilize them. People can “match” with other users and strike up conversations. Extensive research has been conducted on motivations for dating and using the dating app Tinder. This study looks at users’ reasons for using Bumble, where little research has been done. This study focuses on millennials aged 26-42, whereas most other studies have focused on college students under 23. This study uses a mixed …

Sport As A Means Of Emancipation: A Global Feminist Perspective, Exploring The Case Study Of Sahrawi Athlete Inma Zanoguera, Olivia Alexandre

Master's Theses

This thesis explores how sport can serve as an effective means of emancipation against intersecting forms of oppression, framed in the colonial context of Western Sahara. Through the case study of Sahrawi athlete and activist Inma Zanoguera, this research examines the emancipatory potential of athletics at the intersection of feminism, decolonization and the pursuit of self-determination.

Chronicling the multidimensional journey of Inma Zanoguera, her narrative becomes the vehicle of a bigger message : How athletic pursuits provide a platform for subverting entrenched systems of patriarchal, racial and political oppression. As Zanoguera states, "I believe in the power of sports to …

Knowledge Production And The Unthinkable: Weaving Stories Of Art, Gender, And Land, Christin Huntsman

Master's Theses

Colonialism is deeply and violently embedded in Western knowledge formation—dominant power structures produce epistemes that uphold and perpetuate colonial narratives. This kind of knowledge production forecloses other possibilities. Western discourse of truth becomes universalized to the point that other worldviews, other knowledges that do not conform to hegemonic norms, are suppressed or silenced. This thesis examines three areas of hegemony and erasure: art, gender, and land. First, the history of art clearly marks a delineation between Western elitist artistic masterpieces and non-Western ethnographic artifacts. Eurocentrism of art in the academy determines what counts as art and how art is categorized. …

Leveling Up Financial Literacy: Evidence From Game-Based Intervention With Aspiration Treatment Amongst Rural Women In India, Akash Shaji

Master's Theses

In India, rural women exhibit notably low financial literacy levels, necessitating effective and scalable educational interventions. Our randomized controlled trial evaluated a novel approach, combining game-based financial literacy education with a video documentary-based aspirations intervention, targeting women in self-help groups in Karnataka. The study included 348 participants and employed an ANCOVA model adjusted for clustering to analyze the effects. The results demonstrate significant improvements in financial literacy and aspirations, particularly when interventions are combined. The game-based intervention alone significantly enhanced digital literacy, financial confidence, and behavioral indices such as agency, pathways, and aspirations. The aspirations intervention also independently affected financial …

Vrouwenwerk | Beyondtheglassceiling: Educate, Empower, Reimagine, Malou Lena Julia Desplenter

Master's Theses

In contemporary society, social media platforms have emerged as powerful tools for advocacy and activism. This thesis explores the potential of Instagram in raising awareness and fostering dialogue around workplace equity for women in Belgium. Inspired by influential women's advocacy accounts, I embarked on a journey to fill a noticeable gap in the digital landscape – the absence of Belgian-centric content addressing workplace empowerment for women. Grounded in the unique intersections of Belgian national policies, European Union directives, and global socio-economic dynamics, this capstone delves into the multifaceted challenges faced by Belgian women in the workplace.

Through critical historical analysis …

Calladitas No Nos Vemos Más Bonitas: Testimonios Of Mexican Migrant Catholic Mothers’ Resistance To Marianismo, Jessica Guadalupe Ornelas

Master's Theses

The purposeful killing of women due to their gender (feminicide) is an atrocious global act that has been ascending at an alarming rate, over the past couple of years. Specifically, last year in México and in the duration of six months, there were close to 3,000 victims of gender based killings in México, which is about 10 casualties daily (ONU Mujeres, 2022). While most studies have centered their attention on systemic causes that lead to gender based violence, the amount of research that closely analyzes the ways these causes are interwoven with womens’ everyday lived experiences of social and personal …

Food & Cultural Entrepreneurship: Recipes For Upward Social Mobility Among Emprendedoras Inmigrantes In The Bay Area, Mariel Hernandez

Master's Theses

A qualitative research study explores the experiences of female immigrant entrepreneurs in the San Francisco Bay Area including their journey of self-employment and the challenges they have faced based on their sex, migration status and access to social capital and resources. Understanding existing knowledge on migration theory and labor economics, sustainable labor integration, as well as the gendered nature of labor migration, it is determined that female migrants can access upward social mobility through labor markets and entrepreneurship. The study identifies various commonalities between the participants including and their opportunities for social mobility. Based on five interviews with immigrant women, …

Abortion, Medieval Christianity, And The Christian Far-Right: The Harms Of Rhetoric And Misconstruing The Past, Madison Givens

Master's Theses

This research explores the intersection of abortion, Medieval Christianity, and the Christian far-right, with a focus on the harms of rhetoric and the misconstruing of history. The study argues that a selective reading of history is being used by the Christian far-right to justify violence against reproductive rights activists, including police brutality and mass shootings, as well as to promote forced sterilization and other forms of reproductive control. This thesis examines the harms of rhetoric and misconstruing the past in the abortion and medieval Christianity debate. By analyzing the role of language, symbols, and history in shaping the abortion debate …

The Mythos Of Lilith: A Collection Of Madwomen, Megan Mau

Master's Theses

For too long, women’s stories have been mitigated, translated, truncated, and censored, if they were even recorded at all before the world could hear them. What could women be writing that would be so threatening to incite such censorship? To a male-dominated world, anything that could disrupt their illusions of power is a threat. If a woman penned a narrative of her experiences in this world, or if she were to begin speaking on a new way of thinking that called for change, that must be stopped. The ultimate goal is to prevent women from writing or stepping out of …

F. Scott Fitzgerald’S Homme Épuisé: Usurping The “Madwoman” In Tender Is The Night (1934) [2022], Emma Hill

Master's Theses

Nineteenth-century women writers commonly use themes of entrapment and madness in what are now classified as gothic novels. In texts such as Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, and The Yellow Wallpaper, confinement and madness are synchronous in developing the figure of “the madwoman.” These texts were written during a time when it was uncommon for female writers to seek publication, and many used pseudonyms to get their works published or to be taken seriously by critics. The “madwoman” emerged as a powerful trope to articulate what writing under a patriarchal system feels like. That is to say, confinement scenarios resulting from female …

We Need New Heroes: Tracing Heroic Masculinities From Homeric Epic To Contemporary Comic Cinema, Matthew Gallagher

Master's Theses

For as long as stories have been told, written, and performed heroes have been the measures of a culture. A people’s values, their fears, their hopes, their customs have all been preserved in the stories of their heroes, and in recent decades, I would argue, in the stories of their superheroes. Tracing modern depictions of cinematic superheroes back to some of the earliest extant narratives of heroes in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, we see that most of our heroes in the past three millennia have been men. And in the modern explosion of superhero movies’ success and popularity, we see …

'Disembodied Bones': Recovering The Poetry And Prose Of Elinor Wylie 2021, Sarah R. Bullock

Master's Theses

Picking a book to read is like diving for a pearl, writes Elinor Wylie, a 20th Century American poet, novelist, essayist and prominent magazine literary editor. In her essay "The Pearl Diver", she writes that it is the diver that risks the unknown- unaided by diving equipment in the form of library indexes-who gains the greatest joy, Wylie states (Fugitive Prose, 869). Wylie explains:

I venture to perceive an analogy between the rebellious pearl diver and myself, in my slight experience with public libraries...how much more delightful, how much more stimulating, to abandon the paraphernalia of card indexes and mahogany …

Women In The Outdoors: Navigating Fear And Creating Space For Spiritual Inspiration 2021, Morgan Costello

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between fear and spiritual inspiration for women in the outdoors. Specifically, this study looked at participants from SUNY Cortland’s Outdoor Education Practicum, a core course in the Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Studies Department that culminates with a two-week outdoor experience, with the goals of teaching outdoor skills and building community. This was a mixed-method study, with quantitative data collected according to pre(mid)post design and qualitative data coming from journal entries over a 5-day period. Testing was conducted using the Outdoor Situational Fear Inventory to measure fear, and the Nature Relatedness …

Monstrous Feelings: Bisexuals, Vampires, & Ghosts, Oh My!, Jordan Lolmaugh

Master's Theses

Bisexuality is an identity and epistemology that has been underutilized across queer theory and sexuality studies. In an effort to bridge that gap, this thesis attempts to intertwine bisexuality theory with queer theory to highlight the theoretical strength they offer one another. Further, this paper examines the ways in which bisexuality haunts and is haunted by mononormativity, and the ways in which bisexuality is monstrous. Through the use of cinematic texts, queer theory, bisexual theory, and affect theory, I will examine how bisexuality functions as both an identity and a epistemological landscape. The primary questions that drive this research include: …

Stigmatization Of In Transit Migration And The Devaluation Of Humanitarian Aid Resource Labor, Gabriela Perez Laurent

Master's Theses

This analysis aims to gain insight into migrant stigmatization and the devaluation of humanitarian aid labor. Building off previous feminist scholarship on unpaid labor, this thesis seeks to add to our understanding of the dynamics of gendered devaluation of not only humanitarian volunteer labor, but also humanitarian aid support to stigmatized populations. The analysis expands on the production of illegalization and highlights the effects of stigmatization highlights the effects of stigmatization upon in transit populations on Tohono O'odham lands. Erin Hatton's framework of devaluation is applied to humanitarian aid distribution to analyze the devaluation of their labor due to proximity …

Heteronormativity In Healthcare: Neoliberalism, Bio-Politics, And Necropolitics, Grace Avila

Master's Theses

This thesis will discuss heteronormativity in healthcare. It will take a social science and theoretical approach to acknowledge LGBTQ+ health disparities, apply theoretical approaches to why these disparities exist, and offer solutions to combat health disparities experienced by sexual and gender minorities. Neoliberalism, bio-politics, and necropolitics will be the theoretical approaches utilized to understand the basis of disparities experienced by the LGBTQ+ community. Neoliberalism will include themes of capitalism and public health policies which influence discrimination in healthcare. Bio-politics will outline how the intersection of the biological body and politics can exacerbate health disparities through the power of controlling bodies. …

Why Is Race A Risk Factor For Infants Born With Birth Defects?: Deconstructing The Biological Basis Of Race In Maternal-Fetal Medicine Through The Lens Of Reproductive Justice, Amrita Bhagia

Master's Theses

Several studies have shown that marginalized populations, especially those of non-white race/ethnicity, have an increased risk of having infants born with severe birth defects. Existing hypotheses from the scientific literature on the topic of birth defects have primarily suggested that these trends may be the result of differential genetic susceptibilities within certain racial groups, a theory that reifies the (currently disproven) biological basis of race. Through this thesis, I argue that the myth of the biological basis of race continues to exist within maternal-fetal medicine today, where it is used to further the narrative that the bodies of women of …

Rethinking Intimacy: Liberation Through Decolonial & Queer World-Making, Michelle Mae Mcguire

Master's Theses

Relationships play an important role in both the private and public spheres of our lives. If we understand our bodies to be the vessels through which we interact with all other objects, we come to understand the process of world-making as a summation of our relationships. Intimacy is the prevailing structure that helps assign meaning to these relationships. Intimacy binds together unfixed spatial and social relations that stretch across time and space. This essay examines the three intersecting sets of relations involved in intimacy as a means to deconstruct heteropatriarchal order and highlight the multiplicity of attachments and relationships that …

Our Stories, Our Voices: The Lived Experiences Of Black Families With Young Children During Covid-19, Devalin Jackson

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of Black families raising young children during shelter in place orders and distance learning due to Covid-19. The study was conducted virtually through Zoom and Google form due to county shelter in place orders. Participants were recruited from the school in which the researcher worked. Through the use of virtual interviews, the five participants highlighted themes of reconnections, isolations, empowerment, family values and conversations. The families shared experiences of resilience and hope and brought thoughts of how these experiences could be highlighted in instructional and curriculum designs; especially during …

Imperial Subjection And The Orientalist Gaze: Turning Asian Women’S Bodies Into Entertainment, Miriam Ahn

Master's Theses

This thesis analyzes the structural factors that provide meaning and space to performances where violence is served as entertainment. What are the structural conditions that turn gendered and racialized violent forms of display into enjoyment? By exploring the sex tourism in Thailand, particularly ping-pong shows, I will analyze aspects of international political economy and feminist studies to address forms of display based on the abjectness of the other. I argue that sex tourism in Thailand is not part of local culture but is upheld by imperial hegemonic perceptions of the colonized and gendered bodies. The perspectives of Orientalism, patriarchal systems, …

She Se Puede: Exploring The Career Development Of Latinas In The San Francisco Bay Area, Brittney Varela

Master's Theses

The professional identities of Latinas in the United States have undergone some major changes in recent times. As women and ethnic minorities, Latinas are a part of two underrepresented groups facing inequities in the workforce. This research focuses on the career development of ten Latinas in the San Francisco Bay area, with their stories and experiences publicized on a public podcast. She Se Puede podcast consists of ten episodes recorded at the University of San Francisco, discussing career development and major factors that limit the professional advancement of Latinas. This applied project was designed around scholarly research and in-person interviews, …