History of Gender Commons^™

Spaulding, Bryan, Thomas Wreck

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Bryan Spaulding, also known as Letta the Queen, is a 22 year-old drag

performer known for both adult and children’s performances in Southern Maine. In this interview, he discusses his family, including his close relationship with his mother and two sisters; coming out; and friendships and chosen family. He then talks about the meanings of drag and drag performance, as well as his own roles within that genre. He also discusses how drag can serve as a powerful form of political activism. Spaulding describes his experiences as a theater major; as a Residential Assistant for the Rainbow floor on the …

Keen, Shahida, Olivia Davis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Shahida Keen is a 63 year old lesbian real estate agent originally from California but she grew up mainly in New Hampshire and Maine. She currently resides in South Portland, Maine and attended the University of New Hampshire. She worked as a massage therapist before getting into real estate and finding her love for helping women, families and members of the LGBTQ+ community find their home. Throughout her life she has been involved in many organizations in various capacities such as AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, Dyke Marches, Pride Marches, Sexual Minorities Action Committee and Seacoast Response to AIDS.

Shahida …

Parker, Kael, Mj Huot

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

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Kael Parker is a 44-year-old transgender man who was born in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He first came out as a lesbian to his family and friends in college before later discovering he was trans. He went to University of Maine Farmington (UMF) and while there he felt, for the most part, very at home and welcomed as a queer person. In this interview he talks about his life, finding people he connected with in the lesbian and the trans communities. He also talks about how his gender identity has shaped his life in a plethora of aspects. He talks …

Neilan, “Sive” Sadhbh, Isabelle “Izzy” Ferreira

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Sadhbh “Sive” Neilan is an 83 year old woman who identifies as a lesbian and a feminist. Neilan has been an active political figure, activist, and entrepreneur in the Southern Maine area since immigrating here in 1978. Neilan served as President of MLGPA (Maine lesbian gay political alliance) for a short period of time and ran as a democrat for the State Senate in the early 1990s. Neilan also owned and ran New Leaf Books, a feminist alternative bookstore in Rockport, Maine. In this interview, Neilan discusses the intersectional nature of her queer identity and feminist identity.

Citation

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Casar Student Debate Series #5 : 'The 2024 Us Elections On Gender & Reproductive Rights', The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

Every semester, CASAR AUC holds miscellaneous student debates discussing the hot controversial topics in the US, Egypt and from around the world in hopes of raising awareness about these topics & broadening the perspectives of our students as they learn to engage in fruitful discussions as they share different opinion on the topic being deliberated. At this CASAR Student Discussion event #5 in light of the current 2024 US Elections, we debated about who should win strictly from a gendered lens. A brief into was given by event moderator CASAR Assistant to Director and Adjunct Faculty Yasmeen El-Ghazaly, followed by …

A Gendered History Of History In Gender Studies, Emily Bruce

Public Lectures

This talk, the first in a new, multiyear lecture series sponsored by the Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies program, explores the role that the discipline of History played in the foundation of Women’s Studies and later evolution of the field at the University of Minnesota Morris. The contributions of beloved Professor Mimi Frenier are a central focus.

“Indescribable But Never To Be Forgotten”: Challenging The Gender Roles Of Victorian Era Women And Expanding Cultural Horizons Through Travels Abroad, Camryn Counsil

Student Publications

Between the years of 1862-8, the Webb-Black family traveled the world on a Grand Tour to countries such as Italy, Austria, and France. In letters home to their aunts, half-sisters Augusta, Menah, and Julia detailed their journeys within the physical and cultural spheres of the places they visited. Later copied into a bound volume, these epistles gave voice to women’s thoughts, emotions, and conflicts when exploring the realm of the unknown. From a young age, Victorian girls were taught to suppress their opinions and merely expect a life of motherhood. However, the women of these letters pushed beyond what was …

Rupert Murdoch: Altruism Inverted, Elizabeth Summerfield

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

American entrepreneur, television producer, media owner and philanthropist, Ted Turner, once described Rupert Murdoch as “the most dangerous man in the world” (Beahm, 1). This is not an unusual judgement. But it is also one which may contribute to sustaining the Murdoch “brand”, his notoriety and appeal to supporters.

This article examines the deep origins of Murdoch’s cynical worldview, and the source of an ambition that drove him from ownership of a small provincial Australian newspaper to global media mogul. What compelled the need to disseminate often dangerously divisive views on as large a stage as possible, while purporting to …

French Interwar Popular Romance And Ideals Of Femininity: A Literary And Historical Study Of Magali, Kelly Kamrath

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Against a background of political turmoil, economic crises, and cultural upsets from both within and abroad, France between the two World Wars was home to a flourishing romance novel industry. At first glance lighthearted love stories seem simple and frivolous in comparison to the canonical writings of the time, such as those of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. However, this literature was far from art for art’s sake. The romance novels of interwar France, written half a century before the scholarship of romance fiction would truly begin, have yet to receive the attention they deserve. During the interwar period, …

Come As You Are: The Rise And Fall Of The Grunge Movement And Its Implications On The Identity Of Seattle, Colin J. Wood

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

This paper evaluates the rise of the Grunge movement through Nirvana’s Nevermind album as a unique burst of culture through the city of Seattle. Culturally, in the late 20th century, Seattle found its identity in the area around it, though other American cities overshadowed its significance. Through music, figures such as Jack Endino and the iconic Kurt Cobain gave Seattle an unfathomable uplift within global culture. This paper argues that grunge culture emerged as a distinct facet of Seattleite identity, with elements like flannel clothing and thrifting playing pivotal roles in shaping the city's recognizable and esteemed cultural landscape. It …

Saint Brigit And Her Habits: Exploring Queerness In Early Medieval Ireland, Jacqueline K. Stephenson

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

Saint Brigit's behavior and reception by society highlight an avenue by which women in the early medieval period could escape societal strictures, exercising agency over their bodies and their romantic choices, and carve out a distinct and unexpected place for themselves in a Christian patriarchal society. In Saint Brigit’s case, this is especially demonstrated by the breadth of her portrayed power as not just a nun but a saint, her extreme resistance to marriage, and her frequent comparisons to men. Indeed, her hagiography, written by Cogitosus in the seventh century, positioned her as one of the three principal and earliest …

Phillis Wheatley Peters’S British Publicity Campaign, Susan Carlile

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

Scholarship has tended to place its focus on Phillis Wheatley Peters’ unsuccessful efforts in America, followed by an account of one British figure, the Countess of Huntingdon, who patronized the publication of Poems on Various Subjects in London in 1773. However, the chronology of the British campaign, the modes of print publication, and the locations in which Phillis Wheatley Peters’ words were published deserve closer attention. This essay highlights previously unknown or unremarked upon British publications outside London, the Drewry Derby Mercury, the Ipswich Journal, the Hibernian, and John Gillies’s Memoirs of the Life of the Reverend George Whitefield, …

Wild Joy: An Exploration In Queer Spatial Dynamics, Kipper Thomas Reinsmith

Masters Theses

What does it mean to feel represented in a space?

What does a trans space look like?

How can we queer our interior spaces?

Our world is crafted by the many designers that have come before us. These systems, products, and spaces are built upon assumptions of the bodies that will use and occupy them—namely cisgender, able-bodied, straight folks.

Designing and creating objects as a trans person is an act of radical nature. To take up space, to design for trans luxury, for the sake of beauty, for joy itself, feels counterintuitive to the narratives we’ve been served: that of …

Strike A Pose: Performing Gestures Of Female Madness Across Media Circa 1900, Elyse S. Singer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines methods for performing female madness onstage, in the medical theatre, and before the camera circa 1900. My focus is on Western techniques for imitating white women’s hysteria in the United States, England, and France. I argue that theatrical gesture served—and continues to serve—as a safeguard, a survival technique, for the actor (and the spectator) to preserve rationality in the enactment or viewing of mentally ill characters. At the same time, these resilient mad gestures carry traces of the oppressive structures of power that have fostered their legibility. Embodying a person in mental distress is a high-stakes endeavor. …

The Women Eat Last: Traditions, Table Manners, And Gender Narratives At The Romanian Dining Table, Alexandra Constantinescu

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

Rooted in a rich history, with decades of oppressive politics and patriarchal displays of power, Romanian culture is shaped by complex narratives of resistance, endurance, adaptation, and transformation. Gender discourses in traditional Romanian culture portray women as the ideal frontline worker, heroic mother, outstanding housewife and an active member of the community. Expected to sacrifice personal aspirations and lifestyle for the well-being of others, they would almost exclusively be tasked with sourcing, preparing, and serving food for the family. They would be the last to sit at the family dining table - and the last to eat. In contrast, the …

Three Graces And A Referendum: Cathal Brugha Street’S History And Ireland’S Gender Discourses From Tradition To Transition, Brian Murphy

Level 3

No abstract provided.

Medieval German Christian Women’S Religious Experience, Elliot Knell

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

In the medieval period, both professed women and laywomen were deeply involved in manuscript production, and the use of books was often a vital part of their religious practices. In order to fully understand the value that manuscripts held for medieval women it is important to understand the medical and philosophical understandings of sex that permeated medieval society in order to better understand gendered experiences within Christian spaces. Additionally, examining how vision was understood as both a physical and spiritual process allows for a deeper understanding of how visual art is used in religious contexts. In the medieval period, understandings …

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. …

Queerform/Ing, Matthew Solon-Lee Weimer

Art Theses and Dissertations

My artwork is situated within and around vessels and the Queer Homoerotic World and explores sexuality as a Demisexual within them. This is accomplished through the two processes of my creation, Minivague and Queerform/ing: balancing sexual tension and explicit expression, while subverting traditional norms and stereotypes with queerness to distance oneself from stereotypical Gay Art. Altering/emphasizing makes the artwork more romantic, lighter, whimsical, softer, and tender than the figure/s and the situations actually are. The process is also emphasizing what one sees or wants to be seen. The Pink Boy becomes a celebration of intimacy of any form. I discuss …

Living In A Barbie World: Barbie's Origins And Her Impact On The American Mother, 1959-1965, Colleen Caldwell

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This thesis examines the impact of the 1959 release of Barbie on white middle class American mothers. It works to show how the doll represented an idealized image of American womanhood and beauty standards, while also showing different careers women could potentially hold. This thesis analyzes popular culture from the time such as, magazines, television commercials, and newspaper editorials along with studying the actual dolls and outfits. Through studying these sources, it becomes clear that Mattel recognized that mothers were the people buying the dolls for their daughters and the company sought ways to appeal to them as buyers. The …

Manque De Réussite : Le Préjudice Dans Le Football Français, Will Bedell

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

Despite being called The Beautiful Game, soccer in France has a few issues that take away from its beauty. This presentation aims to identify the causes and reasons behind the issues of racism, homophobia, and sexism which plague the French soccer scene. By looking at the causes of these from within French culture, history, and their society we can hope to understand why they exist as well as to establish the sources from which these issues arise.

"Female Faithfulness Encouraged": Gendered Piety In Early American Print, Kadienne Sizemore

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Following the American Revolution, membership in Baptist churches grew exponentially and the influence of the Baptist persuasion was significant. As one of the fastest-growing Protestant denominations in early America, Baptists and their interests were often indicative of larger trends in religiosity. Conceptions of piety, including beliefs surrounding submission, faithfulness, and duty, were central to the structure of Baptist congregations and their proximate communities. This paper explores the role of gender in the discussion, presentation, and justification of Baptist notions of piety in their publications during the Early American Republic. To build on the work of historians exploring female autonomy in …

That Way: An Examination Of Male Relationships In Film During The Hays Code, Jane Knudsen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The Hays Code (1934-1968) influenced the construct of United States masculinity and the discourse surrounding masculine presentation between the 1920s to the 1960s. The Hays Code and World War II affected the culture surrounding male/male relationships in the United States. Previous research done by David Lugowski (1999) and Jeffrey Suzik (1999) shows that both World Wars led to crises of masculinity in which the hegemonic ideal of masculinity was restructured to establish men as providers and warriors, and Code-era films reflected the discourse. To understand the gender roles in the 20^th century, I analyzed the Hays code, male bonds, …

The Women’S Renaissance: An Analysis Of Gender Expectations And Experiences In Early Modern Europe, Taryn Shelnutt-Beam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 1976 Joan Kelly released her influential article “Did Women have a Renaissance?” Kelly argued that women did not enjoy any of the benefits of the period. Rather, she claimed, the lives of women were actually worse after the 1400s than they had been before. Since 1976, new primary documents authored by women have been discovered. Moreover, new access to relevant writings by authors like Francesco Barbaro, Pier Vergerio, Leonardo Bruni, Juan Luis Vives, and Erasmus make revisiting Kelly’s arguments possible. This thesis uses a sample of these texts to explore women’s experiences and create innovative avenues to explore in …

Medicinal Vibrations, Lauren E. Gardner

The Purdue Historian

In the course of the mid to late 20th and 21st centuries the term "vibrator" has been synonymous with sexual gratification and the female sex drive. However, its original usage is more in line with a therapeutic medical treatment administered and recommended by medical professionals. In this article the history of the vibrator discusses the roots of medicines views on the female body and the ways in which their ailments were treated, with medicine not fully understanding the female sexual gratification of clitoral stimulation until the 1920s. These previous decades are colored by ancient understandings of the female sex and …

A Sense Of Loss: The Effect Of Prisoner Camp Conditions On German Pows’ Masculinity During The First World War, Analucia Lugo

The Purdue Historian

During the First World War, almost a million German soldiers became prisoners of war (POW) and held captive in enemy camps. The moment of capture and arrest caused these men to experience debilitating emotions, including guilt and fear. Varied conditions at POW camps bolstered these responses and often determined prisoner health and morale throughout the war. This article examines how camps in Britain, France, and Russia treated German POWs, and how German nationalism affected these soldiers' senses of masculinity and patriotism during and after the war.

Writing, Performance, Resistance: Examining Feminist Ideology And Theory In Theatre Since The Second Wave, Olivia Cross

Theater Honors Papers

This project seeks to identify and analyze how feminist theatre is informed by theory and activism in its resistance against white, heteronormative, and patriarchal hegemony offstage through onstage representation. By identifying three consistent themes of gender & sexuality, race, and trauma and the methods used to effectively convey them to an audience, feminist theatre displays how advocacy takes unique forms to uproot the status quo. Furthermore, this research highlights how theatre is a viable and rich outlet for feminist intellectual history, displaying its versatility as a frame of analysis.

Republican Manhood And The Disabled Revolutionary War Veteran In The Early American Republic, 1789 – 1797, Virgil Clark

Madison Historical Review

In the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War, several Disabled Continental Army soldiers scattered across the burgeoning Republic were driven by desperation to write letters, pleading with General George Washington for his support. The soldiers’ decision to draft these letters stemmed from their profound frustration and disillusionment with the post-Revolution American state. The soldiers' discontent resulted from the sense of neglect they experienced after the state rejected their petitions for a Disabled Veteran’s pension. As time passed and rent went unpaid, medical bills piled up, and the threat of vagrancy loomed over these men like a malevolent specter. Unable to …

Silent Cycles: Unveiling 19th-Century Perspectives On Menstruation, Women's Agency, And Societal Transformations, Anna Bennethum

Campus Research Month

In the 19th century, menstruation was a topic often vieled in silence and misinformation. Nonetheless, it is pivotal in discussions on women's agency and societal shifts. This paper explores 19th-century medical perceptions, the dissemination of reproductive knowledge through women's publications, and a case study of Adventist health publications. Through primary source analysis, this paper reveals how access to medical knowledge empowered women, especially in pursuing higher education. Additionally, examination of Adventist health publications showcases alternative remedies to menstrual disorders, granting women control over their reproductive health. This study illuminates the intersection of menstruation, women's agency, and societal change, emphasizing the …

Genderless And Sexualized: Caribbean Enslaved Women In The 18th Century, Amy Van Arsdell

Campus Research Month

This study focuses on the uniquely-gendered experiences of enslaved women in the Caribbean in the 18^th century. First, I examine the racialized views of femininity and how enslaved women were denied the privileges of white femininity and forced to do the same work as men, yet were still valued less than their male counterparts because of their gender. The study goes on to highlight the sexual oppression enslaved women experienced, and its adverse effects on their health. The study concludes that despite the intersectional racism and sexism they faced, enslaved women were able to use their gender to resist …