Women's Studies Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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.

“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 …

Prudery And Perversion: Domination Of The Sexual Body In Middle-Class Men, Women, And Disenfranchised Bodies In Victorian England, Ashley Barnett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research argues that with the rise of the middle-class, Victorian England saw the development of a power model in which middle-class men, middle-class women and disenfranchised bodies of children and lower-class women suffered from the demands of bodily domination. Because the bodily health of middle-class men was believed to represent national health, it was imperative that he dominate his body, particularly with regard to sexual urges. Consequently, the bodies of women with whom he sought sexual release suffered from forms of bodily domination as well. Through an analysis of journals and private writings of those living in Victorian England, …

Abdurraqib, Samaa, Iris Sangiovanni, Samar Ahmed

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Samaa Abdurraqib is a Black, queer, Muslim woman living in Portland, Maine. Abdurraqib was raised in Columbus, Ohio. She attend the University of Ohio, and later the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received a PhD in English Literature. After graduating she worked as a visiting professor at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. Next she went on to work the American Civil Liberties Union in Maine as a reproductive rights organizer. She now works for the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. Her advocacy and organizing work has included places such as Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine, …

In Search Of Argentinidad: Identity Affirming Bodies In Movement In Latino-America, Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project is a multi-sited investigation into the production of Argentinidad (the embodied feeling of Argentine national identity) post the economic crisis of 2001 known as el Argentinazo. A special attention is paid to the role of the body as a culturally and socially mediated site of identity formation. Additionally, this project engages with the intersections of cultural and psychoanalytic theories that have influenced Argentinean self-identity in addition to social identities that are negotiated in moments of personal and national crisis. This project examines the roles and relationships of family and migration within Argentinean diasporic communities originating from the Provinces …

Female Moments / Male Structures: The Representation Of Women In Romantic Comedies, Jordan A. Scharaga

Media and Communication Studies Summer Fellows

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl again. With this formula it seems that romantic comedies are actually meant for men instead of women. If this is the case, then why do women watch these films? The repetition of female stars like Katharine Hepburn, Doris Day and Meg Ryan in romantic comedies allows audiences to find elements of truth in their characters as they grapple with the input of others in their life choices, combat the anxiety of being single, and prove they are less sexually naïve than society would like to admit. In 1999, a character struggles …

A Targeted Existence, Melissa J. Lauro

SURGE

Over the summer, I visited a friend from Gettysburg who was having a party. The party was fun for the first half, and I was having a good time, so I decided to stay the night instead of walk in the dark to the bus. This is what parents and educators and older sisters and women everywhere had taught me: stay with people you know; clutch your keys in your hand; don’t walk alone. I was staying with my friend from school; I was safe. [excerpt]

In God We Trust, Andrew C. Nosti

SURGE

Almost everywhere I turn I can hear someone saying, “America is a Christian nation!” likely yelled or grumbled with impressive, and sometimes concerning, aggression. I can’t go through a week without this phrase popping up, usually closely accompanied by the notion that America’s founding has roots in Christian principles. [excerpt]

The Search For Agency: Female Sexual Desire In U.S. Sex Education And Coming-Of-Age Cinema, Mckenzi A. Vanderberg

Honors Program Theses

The following essay provides an analysis of the gendered ideologies present in coming-of-age cinema, as well as a critique of heteronormative, patriarchal concepts that hinder female sexual agency and adolescent empowerment. More specifically, this essay will critique the harmful portrayal of female puberty as romantic, passive, and emotional in comedic coming-of-age cinema. This essay will be split into three primary segments. The first segment will consist of a literature review discussing the correlation between sexual desire and autonomy, as well as the importance of portraying female sexual agency rather than passivity in media and sex education curricula, in order to …

Sexing While A Survivor: Black Queer Desire, Je-Shawna C. Wholley

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The vast sexual exploitation of Black queer women is under addressed by therapeutic and family counseling experts alike. Scholarship on the subject shows that a history of sexual trauma can have direct negative implications on women’s sexuality and ability to access sexual pleasure. However, therapeutic and family counseling interventions lack an intersectional analysis that directly address the unique experiences of Black women – and even further, Black queer women, who are survivors. In this research study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Black queer, lesbian, bisexual and same-gender-loving survivors of sexual assault to assess how they located agency, empowerment, and pleasure …

Matilde Ros Leaves The Jungle, Susana Beatriz Camacho Vivar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

When Matilde defies her mother and abandons her privileged life in a South American capital to fight for environmental justice in the Amazon jungle, she never imagines her journey will bring her right back to where she started. As she insists on freeing herself, four other women around her do the same, defining their freedom when class, gender and race may still get to tell them who they are.

Crossing The Color Line : Race, Sex, And The Contested Politics Of Colonialism In Ghana, Carina E. Ray

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Interracial sex mattered to the British colonial state in West Africa. In Crossing the Color Line, Carina E. Ray goes beyond this fact to reveal how Ghanaians shaped and defined these powerfully charged relations. The interplay between African and European perspectives and practices, argues Ray, transformed these relationships into key sites for consolidating colonial rule and for contesting its hierarchies of power. With rigorous methodology and innovative analyses, Ray brings Ghana and Britain into a single analytic frame to show how intimate relations between black men and white women in the metropole became deeply entangled with those between black women …

Iranian Women, Iranian Cinema: Negotiating With Ideology And Tradition, Najmeh Moradiyan Rizi

Journal of Religion & Film

Throughout the ruptures of Iran’s history, Iranian women have been at the core of any social and political changes and challenges. In this historical context, Iranian women’s body, sexuality, and individuality have been confined within the constitution of religion and tradition. In recent years, however, the new generation of Iranian women is negotiating the notions of femininity, sexuality, and modernity in Iran’s society. Along with this negotiation, Iranian cinema, as the visual showcase of Iranian culture and society, has recently represented an unprecedented portrayal of Iranian women on the screen. This portrayal stems from the gender consciousness of Iranian women …

Liberation Through Domination: Bdsm Culture And Submissive-Role Women, Lisa R. Rivoli

Student Publications

The alternative sexual practices of bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism (BDSM) are practiced by people all over the world. In this paper, I will examine the experiences of five submissive-role women in the Netherlands and five in south-central Pennsylvania, focusing specifically on how their involvement with the BDSM community and BDSM culture influences their self-perspective.I will begin my analysis by exploring anthropological perspectives of BDSM and their usefulness in studying sexual counterculture, followed by a consideration of feminist critiques of BDSM and societal barriers faced by women in the community. I will then address the …

Sexuality, Religion And Nationalism: A Contrapuntal Reading Of The History Of Female Activism And Political Change In Egypt, Jihan Zakarriya

Journal of International Women's Studies

Focusing on the Thomson Reuters Foundation Women Survey in 2013 that found Egypt to be ‘the worst Arab state for women’ (Boros 1), this paper aims at tracing the interaction between sexuality, religion, and politics, in controlling and marginalizing the public roles of Egyptian women throughout the 20th Century, which has reached its climax in post-Mubarak Egypt. I argue that, despite sexual and social abuses, the first decade of the 21th Century has witnessed the emergence of a promising potential of political feminist activism and power in Egypt.

Body Image And Beauty Routines Among College Women: Genital Grooming And Sexual Attitudes, Amber L. Hammons

Honors Theses

The selection of body altering products available to twenty-first century women is easily accessible and widely utilized. These products, though, are vastly different from those once available to their female predecessors. Although women’s bodies have been sites for societal pressure and control for centuries before the twenty-first, American girls in this century experience body image norms and pressures in qualitatively different ways than girls who came before them. Of particular interest to this study is the differing bodily experience of early twentieth century women to that of twenty-first century women.

The trading in of corsets and floor-length dresses for razors …

"A" Is Not For Ally, Ellen I. Henry

SURGE

Most people can recall their first crush. They think fondly back to age ten or eleven when they first “went boy-crazy” or couldn’t focus on sixth-grade English because that cute girl was in their class.

This did not happen for me. I do, however, vividly remember it happening for everyone around me. [excerpt]

I Watch Porn, Chelsea E. Broe

SURGE

I started watching porn when I was 16.

The first thing I noticed was the porn actresses’ vulvas. They were hairless, perfectly symmetrical, with beautiful folds of labia. This being my only venue to see other female bodies, I assumed what I saw was normal (after all, they all looked pretty similar to each other) and that my own body, not looking like those of these women, was flawed. [excerpt]

Paradoxes Of Porn, Jessie M. Pierce

SURGE

So I have a confession: I’m kind of obsessed with porn. Which is weird considering that I have never actually seen any. [excerpt]

My (Not So) Angry Vagina, Mary E. Maloney

SURGE

Why is feminism a dirty word? Why are celebrities from Susan Sarandon to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry explicitly rejecting the feminist label? And why is Carrie Underwood saying, “I wouldn’t go so far as to say I am a feminist, that can come off as a negative connotation.”

Since when was there a negativity surrounding feminism? Well, basically since forever. [excerpt]

Fearless: The Vagina Monologues, Center For Public Service

SURGE

Performed annually around the world to celebrate womanhood, empower survivors of sexual assault and abuse, and create an open forum for challenging cultural attitudes toward women, the Vagina Monologues will be performed by Gettysburg College students next Thursday and Friday (February 20 & 21). [excerpt]

The Power Of Multiplying: Reproductive Control In American Culture, 1850-1930, Virginia B. Engholm

Theses and Dissertations--English

Prior to the advent of modern birth control beginning in the nineteenth century, the biological reproductive cycle of pregnancy, post-partum recovery, and nursing dominated women’s adult years. The average birth rate per woman in 1800 was just over seven, but by 1900, that rate had fallen to just under than three and a half. The question that this dissertation explores is what cultural narratives about reproduction and reproductive control emerge in the wake of this demographic shift. What’s at stake in a woman’s decision to reproduce, for herself, her family, her nation? How do women, and society, control birth?

In …

Doctors And Sheikhs: "Truths" In Virginity Discourse In Jordanian Media, Ebtihal Mahadeen

Journal of International Women's Studies

This article is concerned with the role Jordanian media play in circulating certain discourses on virginity, namely religious and medical discourses, which are presented as "truths" that ultimately maintain the conservative status quo with regards to Jordanian women's sexuality. It is argued that media discussions (on the textual, production, and consumption levels) largely perpetuate patriarchal control over women's sexuality and render invisible more progressive points of view. Simultaneously, critical opinions expressed at any of these levels, while vastly important, operate from within the same discursive fields and are thus rendered less radical.

Twice As Likely To..., Adrienne M. Ellis

SURGE

TRIGGER WARNING!

I am white. I am bisexual. I am female. I have been sexually assaulted. Three times. [excerpt]

I Don't Want To Save Second Base, Chelsea E. Broe

SURGE

Tomorrow kicks off Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I have one request: This October, let’s not save second base.

I know, I know, you probably think this month is a good thing. If not for all of those T-shirts demanding every female-bodied person to feel their boobies, or the bracelets simply proclaiming “I love boobies,” people with breasts might forget that they even have them, or at the very least might start to think that their breasts are their own business. But the female body seems to be an object owned by the public, so we must always be reminded …

Brooks Better Not Come Back, Helena E. Yang

SURGE

Every time a new season of the Bachelorette starts, I tell myself that I won’t watch this season—that I won’t give in to the trashiness and the petty drama which is the Bachelor. But I can’t help it. Season after season I’m hooked and 17 seasons later… here I am. [excerpt]

Does My Hair Bother You? Part 2, Adrienne M. Ellis

SURGE

I stopped shaving my legs in May. The decision to quit shaving was part social experiment, but a lot of it had to do with NOT HAVING TO SHAVE MY LEGS ANYMORE.

Honestly I didn’t make the decision to stop shaving my leg hair as some sort of feminist statement. I really just found it stupid how society pressures women to have smooth “sexy” legs. How did this pressure begin? Historically women didn’t shave their legs or underarms in the United States; however, hair removal was a common cultural practice in many other parts of the world such as …

Does My Hair Bother You? Part 1, Nadejiah Z. Towns

SURGE

“It’s AMAZING that it’s considered revolutionary to wear my hair the way it grows out of my head…” – Tracie Thoms

I don’t wear my natural hair because I want to join the “revolutionary movement” that has recently swept across our nation. I’m not desperately seeking to get in touch with my roots. Nor do I desire to be acknowledged as the soulful “sista” that eats, sleeps and breathes “Black Power“. I wear my natural hair because I was naive enough to ignore warnings of the effects that Gettysburg’s harsh water would have on my “black hair”. So …