Gender and Sexuality Commons^™

Gender Matters: Making The Case For Trans Inclusion, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

The transgender communities are producing an important and nuanced critique of our gender system. For community members, the project is self-constitutive and, therefore, has an immediacy that also marks the efforts of other marginalized groups who have attempted to make sense of the world through description, interrogation, and, ultimately, a program for transformation. The transgender project also has universalizing elements because, existing within the gender system, each one of us embodies a particular gender articulation. It is through this articulation that we define ourselves in relation to the gender we were assigned at birth, the gender we choose, the gender …

Getting Their Hands Dirty: Collaborating To Engage Undergraduates In Learning, Amanda J. Swygart-Hobaugh M.L.S., Ph.D.

Mandy (Amanda) Swygart-Hobaugh

Presentation on collaboration with Dr. Hannah Britton, Associate Professor of Political Science and Women’s Studies, on the redesign of her Women and Politics course toward achieving an articulated pedagogical aim of shifting from “providing instruction” to “producing learning” via engaging students’ in original research/analysis.

"Pigs And Raunch: 21st-Century Feminism?", Amanda J. Swygart-Hobaugh M.L.S., Ph.D.

Mandy (Amanda) Swygart-Hobaugh

No abstract provided.

Syllabus - "Selling Sex: Feminist Discourses On The Sex Work Industry" (Cornell College, Women's Studies Course), Amanda J. Swygart-Hobaugh M.L.S., Ph.D.

Mandy (Amanda) Swygart-Hobaugh

We examined competing feminist discourses regarding women’s involvement/portrayal in the sex work industry. Grounded in feminist theoretical and methodological perspectives, our discussions were guided by the following considerations: (1) What are the competing feminist discourses regarding sex work, and what are the similarities/differences between these discourses? (2) How are these competing discourses deployed in a global context, and what issues/concerns arise within a global consideration of sex work? (3) Is sex work inherently degrading/objectifying to women, or can one allow that it may also be sexually liberating? (4) How might one’s social situatedness (i.e. social class, race/ethnicity, gender, education, non-sex …

"(En)Gendering Cooking", Amanda J. Swygart-Hobaugh M.L.S., Ph.D.

Mandy (Amanda) Swygart-Hobaugh

No abstract provided.

Homosexuality In Fushigi Yuugi And Gravitation: An Investigation Into The Cultural Background Of Homosexuality In Japanese Animation, Michele Gibney

Michele Gibney

This paper will delve into the following issues: how the Japanese view homosexual males and how the agency of the reader and/or viewer impacts the depictions of visual displays of intimate behavior by homosexual males. The purpose of this paper will be an attempt to define some sort of answer to each question within the context of the Japanese cultural products of manga and anime. I am going to dissect shifting sexualities as they are represented in two different examples of Japanese anime aimed at slightly differing audience groups. The two shows that I will focus on are: Fushigi Yuugi …

Healing The War Between The Genders: The Power Of The Soul-Centered Relationship (Book Author, Linda Marks; Book Reviewer, Carroy Ferguson), Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

As humanity seeks to understand its next evolutionary journey and to evolve its consciousness, insightful thinkers and writers have emerged to identify where we must first heal and to provide guidance for how to heal. In her book Healing The War Between The Genders: The Power of the Soul-Centered Relationship, Linda Marks adeptly discusses what she calls a “cultural heart wound” as being at the center of the gender struggle. In this context, the struggle actually transcends heterosexual relationships, gender-role conflicts, and particular one-to-one dynamics per se. As each person has what are often called male and female energies, “the …

Constructing The “Social Evil”: An Analysis Of Anti-Prostitution Crusades In Progressive-Era Chicago, 1907-1915, Amanda J. Swygart-Hobaugh M.L.S., Ph.D.

Mandy (Amanda) Swygart-Hobaugh

This study analyzes anti-prostitution crusades in Chicago during the Progressive Era, using a social constructionist theoretical perspective to explore how crusaders constructed prostitution as a social problem. My multi-faceted theoretical framework drew on both social constructionist theories as well as social movement theories examining collective action frames as master frames. For organizational purposes, the separate analytical chapters examine different groups of crusaders: the crusaders against “white slavery,” those battling “vice,” and a group of Hull House women crusading against the “social evil.” My analyses revealed the following: (1) broader discourses present during the Progressive Era shaped the contours of the …

Science, Identity, And The Construction Of The Gay Political Narrative, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

This Article contends that the current debate over gay civil rights is, at base, a dispute over the nature of same-sex desire. Pro-gay forces advocate an ethnic or identity model of homosexuality based on the conviction that sexual orientation is an immutable, unchosen, and benign characteristic. The assertion that, in essence, gays are "born that way," has produced a gay political narrative that rests on claims of shared identity (i.e., homosexuals are a blameless minority) and arguments of equivalence (i.e., as a blameless minority, homosexuals deserve equal treatment and protection against discrimination). The pro-family counter-narrative is based on a behavioral …

September 11 Attacks And Surviving Same-Sex Partners: Defining Family Through Tragedy, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

The September 11 relief efforts present a unique prism through which to view the status of same-sex relationships and to consider which families count when the United States is supposedly at its most generous, most united, and most injured. On a basic human level, would the nation grieve for Peggy Neff, who lost her partner of 18 years when Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, as it had for the widow of a fire fighter? Would Neff be eligible to file a claim with the multi-billion dollar federal September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, which Congress established to compensate victims and …

Narcissistic Self-Love, Male Body Objectification, And Homoeroticism In John Woos’ The Killer And Face/Off, Michele Gibney

Michele Gibney

A theme of homoeroticism/sexually charged appreciation of the male body exerts itself as a clear visual in The Killer and Face/Off. In this paper, some of these homoerotic images and the theoretically gender-based reasoning behind them will be explored. In some ways, Woos’ films The Killer and Face/Off, can be “read” as both example and counterexample to masculine-feminine discussions of gendered cinema. Laura Mulvey, for instance, posits the thesis that cinema is a vision dominated by patriarchal society. Both films I will be analyzing exemplify the superior role of male societal functions; such as males in positions of authority, or …

Untidy Gender: Domestic Service In Turkey, Gul Ozyegin

Gul Ozyegin

Homosexuality As Contagion: From The Well Of Loneliness To The Boy Scouts, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

In the political arena, there are currently two central and competing views of homosexuality. Pro-family organizations, working from a contagion model of homosexuality, contend that homosexuality is an immoral, unhealthy, and freely chosen vice. Many pro-gay organizations espouse an identity model of homosexuality under which sexual orientation is an immutable, unchosen, and benign characteristic. Both pro-family and pro-gay organizations believe that to define homosexuality is to control its legal and political status. This sometimes bitter debate regarding the nature of same-sex desire might seem like an exceedingly contemporary development. However, the ex-gay media blitz of 2000 represents only the latest …

A Coalfield Tapestry: Weaving The Socioeconomic Fabric Of Women's Lives, Ann M. Oberhauser, Anne-Marie Turnage

Ann Oberhauser

The "Lesbian On Display:” An Analysis Of Representations Of “Lesbian” Identities And Sexualities In Contemporary American Film, Amanda J. Swygart-Hobaugh M.L.S., Ph.D.

Mandy (Amanda) Swygart-Hobaugh

Staged Sexuality: A Dramaturgical Analysis Of Erotic Dancing, Amanda J. Swygart-Hobaugh M.L.S., Ph.D.

Mandy (Amanda) Swygart-Hobaugh

(Re)Claiming The Discourse Of Desire: An Analysis Of Women’S Erotic Texts, Amanda J. Swygart-Hobaugh M.L.S., Ph.D.

Mandy (Amanda) Swygart-Hobaugh

Relativism, Reflective Equilibrium, And Justice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

THIS PAPER IS THE CO-WINNER OF THE FRED BERGER PRIZE IN PHILOSOPHY OF LAW FOR THE 1999 AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BEST PUBLISHED PAPER IN THE PREVIOUS TWO YEARS.

The conflict between liberal legal theory and critical legal studies (CLS) is often framed as a matter of whether there is a theory of justice that the law should embody which all rational people could or must accept. In a divided society, the CLS critique of this view is overwhelming: there is no such justice that can command universal assent. But the liberal critique of CLS, that it degenerates into …

The Paradox Of Ideology, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A standard problem with the objectivity of social scientific theory in particular is that it is either self-referential, in which case it seems to undermine itself as ideology, or self-excepting, which seem pragmatically self-refuting. Using the example of Marx and his theory of ideology, I show how self-referential theories that include themselves in their scope of explanation can be objective. Ideology may be roughly defined as belief distorted by class interest. I show how Marx thought that natural science was informed by class interest but not therefore necessarily ideology. Capitalists have an interest in understanding the natural world (to a …