Gender and Sexuality Commons^™

(Re)Memberance In Practice: Making Famous, Transforming The Legacies Of Ill-Fame, Fionna Fahey

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Recent legislation has increased scrutiny and vulnerability to sex worker communities. Sex work has been a highly contested issue in academia and politics, despite its long history. By centering works of thinkers from historically marginalized communities, this research will act intentionally in solidarity with sex workers most vulnerable to harm. Theorizers in Black and Indigenous Feminisms, Queer theory and Trans studies have crafted methodologies to (re)cover and (re)member histories lost to colonial structures of violence. This project centers the epistemologies of these communities in order to account for the variety of intersecting identities held by sex workers. Archival (re)search, oral …

Doe Re Mi: The Unsung Reality Of ‘Doe’ Nomenclature, Mercedes De Los Santos

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This two-person spoken word piece was written and performed at the University of California, Santa Barbara during the UCSB Womxn’s Ensemble Theatre Troupe’s 2020 production of One Night Stand: A Collection of Feminist Bedtime Stories (a non-profit production of feminist theatre). It is dedicated to Chanel Miller, and all of our fellow survivors everywhere--yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

The Subaltern Magazine, Rebecca Fox, Riese Nichols

Social Sciences

The Subaltern intends to reach Cal Poly students who do not feel as if their voices are heard and allow them the platform to share their stories. Our focus is on unheard stories from our campus - whether this involves race, class, gender identity, mental health, ethnicity, culture, or any unique part of one’s identity or experience. We hope that these stories will begin to shed light on what we usually consider “taboo” topics and allow students to feel as if they aren’t alone.

Being a very homogeneous campus, it is important for us to realize that privileged voices are …

Understanding Trauma And Victimization In Women's Incarceration: California's Treatment Response, Marissa Tuttle-Roache

Social Sciences

The purpose of this review is to provide an exploration of past research on women's pathways to incarceration, specifically discussing how this problem affects California women. Using research from various case studies, both quantitative and qualitative, this review examines the correlation between life experiences and incarceration for women. California laws and policies that mitigate the impact incarceration has historically had on women will be discussed. This research provides a better understanding of the treatment needs of incarcerated women and the programs that could provide them with some positive resources to succeed post incarceration and avoid recidivism.

Expanding Our Work, Elizabeth Adan

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Editorial Note, Sprinkle Vol. 12 Editorial Team

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

A Sprinkling Of Gratitude: An Introduction To Volume 12, Katie Ettl, Gage Greenspan

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Sexual Citizenship, Incest, And The State: "The Unseen Of The Crime", Kelsey Zazanis

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper analyzes the colonial state’s role in manufacturing sexual violence. Deconstructing parallels between sexual violence in state detention centers and incestuous abuse of children, this paper examines theories of normativity, sexual citizenship, U.S. nationalism, and Marxist interpretations of the family unit. In identifying all citizenship as sexual citizenship—and identifying queer as all those who are denied sexual citizenship—I suggest that liberation from the state is crucial to queer liberation and the amelioration of sexual violence.

Not All Your Neighbors Are Free: Community Building With Incarcerated Folks In San Luis Obispo, Gianna Bissa

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

The American criminal justice system is rooted in white supremacist ideology that is predicated on the murder, displacement, exploitation, and marginalization of people of color. Scholars and activists recognize the American prison system as a modern form of slavery. Only three miles away from Cal Poly’s campus, the California Men’s Colony State Prison (CMC) operates as one of thirty-four state prisons in California. Nearly 4,000 men, trans women, and nonbinary people are being held at the CMC. Not only can mass incarceration be identified as one of the most dreadful state projects that violates human freedom, but also non-incarcerated community …

Say Their Names: Black Feminist Thought And The Power Elite, Francisco Gaspar

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This article investigates the critical affinities between contemporary sociological theory and Black feminist thought. It specifically aims to assert the significance of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s “Say Her Name” report through the lens of C. Wright Mills, who uses the concept of the power elite to describe political, economic, and militaristic affairs. By providing a comparative analysis of this theoretical framework, I intend to convey how misogynoir and other oppressive ideologies have informed the dissemination of social justice work and knowledge production. Throughout this article, I reference several Black feminist scholars’ works in conversation with Crenshaw’s report. Additionally, I offer comparisons to …

The Place For Theory: Reproductive Justice Discourse In N. K. Jemisin’S The Fifth Season, Devon Graham

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

In this paper, I demonstrate how N.K. Jemisin, popular science fiction and fantasy author and winner of three Hugo Awards, is in conversation with Reproductive Justice theory in her novel The Fifth Season. I argue that N.K. Jemisin has resisted the hegemonic academic language and rhetoric by creating expansive theory and critique through her many works of speculative fiction and further demonstrate how Jemisin’s approach using literature as her means of production is crucial to her unique way of theorizing.Centrally, through close textual analysis, I argue that through The Fifth Season Jemisin is in conversation with other theorists, such …

Haunted By Fatness: Medicalization, Diet Culture, And The Failure Of Chrononormativity, Catherine Jeffery

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

In the summer of 2016, BBC Three filmed an autopsy of an obese woman in a documentary called Obesity: The Post Mortem. In addition, BBC has released a “behind the scenes” video of the procedure, detailing the real-life process of shipping a body overseas for “medical research.” This essay begins by pointing out the expressions of fears of fatness and of fat people present in Netflix’s full-length version of the autopsy as well as in the behind-the-scenes clip, by focusing on narration in the films as well as stylization such as sound and cinematography choices. I will use the …

Anti-Colonial Action In Real Time: Mestizx Latinx People, Place, Cisheteropatriarchy, And Our Way Forward, Alejandro Bupara

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Mestizx Latinx peoples, being of both white and Indigenous heritage, are colonized peoples on colonized lands living under the settlers’ systems of white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, and capitalism. Mestizx Latinx people have made various attempts to reckon with this colonized status and define an anti-colonial, liberatory way forward for ourselves. This essay explores the contemporary context of Mestizx peoples in the United States, positioning our history within the broader story of settler colonialism. It investigates our disconnection from our ancestral lands and traditions, arguing that Mestizx Latinx people have formed new attachments to places on these colonized lands via the hood …

Child's Pose, Kelsey Zazanis

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Written from the perspective of my eight-year-old self, this poem illustrates the state-sanctioned power differentials between children and their legal guardians that give birth to incestuous violence. I hope for the reader to recall their own eight-year-old mind, life, and emotional world to further understand this severe power disparity.

Disney's Mulan And Unlocking Queer Asian-American Masculinity, Jess Kung

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Disney’s Mulan is a text easily celebrated for its nonwhite and queerable cast of characters. In this paper, I meditate on the ways that this Western interpretation of the myth can be used to explore the intersection between queer gender and Asian-American identity. This paper first looks at the origins of the Mulan myth and its original values of collective goals and filial piety, and then it considers how the Disney movie makes its characters embody “foreign” Western ideas that expose the inherent queerness of Asian-American masculinity. I also take a personal approach, drawing both from theorists and from my …

Men Who Care: Analyzing Masculinity Within Peer Support Organizations, Victoria Ford

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This study examines the concept of “healthy masculinity” through qualitative interviews with men in peer support roles. Men involved in peer support organizations highlighted values of empathy, understanding, and protecting others as being central to masculinity. Results revealed that men in peer support roles invoked cultural idioms or phrases of masculinity, which centered around the following themes: the lack of men, how men in peer support are different from other men, and how these are the “right kind” of men.

Queer Life Is Tragic: Lauren Berlant’S “Cruel Optimism” And Lee Edelman’S Negative Queerness In Life Is Strange, Tara Fredenburg

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

Life is Strange (2015), by Raoul Barbet and Michel Koch, has sparked outrage for “queerbaiting” lesbian and bisexual women in the gaming community, but criticisms pointed toward the game have failed to address its most pernicious argument. By placing the controversy within the historical context of the 1930s Hays Production Code, examining one of the game’s central lessons in conversation with philosopher Lauren Berlant’s concept of “cruel optimism” and critical theorist Lee Edelman’s anti-reproductive definition of queerness, I contend that Life is Strange (2015) reveals the inability of adherents to heteropatriarchal ideals to conceive a world beyond the current, oppressive …

(W)Holes Of Your Heart: Trans Utopian Performance In Janelle Monáe’S “Pynk”, Carlos J. Gómez

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This essay wields trans methods to trace the trans cultural production of Black feminist thought, specifically by asking the following question: what is trans about Janelle Monáe’s Black feminist theorizing in “Pynk?” Thinking of Black feminist studies astrans studies allows us to disorient the white, which is to say anti-Black, disposition of trans studies. In this analysis, I describe the trans utopian performance of Black feminist sociality, inhabitation, and fugitivity. Moreover, I delineate the trans critiques of sex/gender essentialism, individualism, the State, and the body embedded in Monáe’s film and suggest the radical potential of a Black feminist theory …

What Advantage Does Difference Make? Leveling The Imperial Playing Field, Daniel Heinz

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

In this article, I revisit the last ten years of international sport policies on gender testing in order to revise normative constructions of the athletes’ bodies. Specifically, I focus on the International Association of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) new regulation from 2018 governing the eligibility of certain female athletes with differences of sexual development accompanied by elevated levels of natural testosterone. I argue that the IAAF testosterone regulation is based on a colonial continuity of upholding gender norms and racial hierarchies.

Heganism, Thomas E. Randall

Between the Species

An emblematic association exists between meat consumption and the gender identity hegemonic masculinity. This association is so strong that men who pursue meatless diets (especially vegans) are likely to be socially ostracized. Heganism is a diet/gender identity that aims to reconstruct hegemonic masculinity with the goal of removing these stigmas attached to male veganism. Yet heganism fails to do this, and, in fact, worsens the marginalization of male vegans. Therefore, heganism ought to be rejected. Instead, an alternative option for reducing the marginalization of male vegans could be found in the emergent literature on non-hegemonic masculinities. By rejecting hegemonic …

Editorial: Sprinkle Throughout The Years, Emma Sturm

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Editorial: Continuing Our Work, Elizabeth Adan

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

No abstract provided.

Does Racial Triangulation Unravel Intersectionality?, Samantha Keng

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This essay explores how Claire Kim’s idea of racial triangulation complicates intersectionality in its classic sense. Specifically, I argue that the racial triangulation of Asian Americans introduces new dilemmas for intersectional frameworks by destabilizing analyses of subject formation and understandings of privilege and oppression. How, for example, can Asian American complicity in anti Blackness be incorporated into understandings of identity and its mobilization? By expanding discussions of race beyond binary thinking, racial triangulation both poses new questions and creates new possibilities in the realm of intersectional theory. Especially given today’s racial landscape, this paper attempts to engage in the critical …

Banning Blackness: Race, Gender-Based Violence, And Classroom Censorship, Amelia Roskin-Frazee

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper examines how the relationship between race and gender-based violence impacts how schools choose which books to ban. In particular, this paper focuses on Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) and the novel’s place on the American Library Association’s compiled lists of the most frequency banned books in the United States. Using an analysis of The Bluest Eye in conversation with the work of academics such as Spillers (1987) and Crenshaw (1991), this paper posits the intersection between race and rape in The Bluest Eye — and how that intersection implicates white supremacy in gendered violence —which leads to …

The Challenges Lgbt+ Asylum-Seekers And Refugees Face In The United States, Yordanos Molla

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

The discussion surrounding LGBT+ asylum-seekers and refugees is becoming more prominent as advocacy for LGBT+ rights increases around the world. LGBT+ asylum-seekers and refugees encounter unique challenges due to their identities that shape their journey to find sanctuary, such as history of discrimination, requirement to validate one’s LGBT+ identity, and detrimental issues of mental health. Other problems regarding LGBT+ asylum-seekers and refugees involve mental health and active global legislation prohibiting homosexuality. These problems are analyzed throughout this research paper in order to provide solutions to improve the current resettlement process for LGBT+ refugees. Resolutions that assist LGBT+ asylum-seekers and refugees …

A Gender-Non-Conforming Method: Trans* Methodologies For Trans* Subjects, Ilia Forkin

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper analyses the methodology of sociological studies on gender-non-conforming (GNC) subjects in the context of prominent critiques by GNC theorists who have asserted the necessity of centering the needs, perspectives, and cultural work of transgender (trans*) and GNC academics and subjects. The paper explains how studies which favor an interactionist model of sociology prioritize notions of gender which uphold heteronormativity and erase the lived-experiences of the subjects they concern. As a solution to this obstacle, this paper proposes strategies to assist in the creation of participatory models of sociology which engage with gender in a way which reflects the …

Necrocapitalism And U.S. Imperialism: The Gulf War, Hurricane Katrina, Palestine, Gentrification, And Police, Gianna Bissa

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

U.S. American law has been responsible for slavery and genocide through the use of imperial forces such as the military and policing since the beginning of the formation of this nation. In this essay, I present contemporary forms of State sanctioned violence that have ultimately increased the United States’ economy through rendering particular communities as disposable. I use examples of war, removal, occupation, and murder perpetrated by American law in order to disrupt the notion that law guarantees security. Furthermore; I build from Foucault’s theories of biopolitics and apply a more modern framework of necrocapitalism to further contextualize and problematize …

Decolonizing Gender-Based Violence Advocacy: The Development Of An Undocumented Survivor Resource Training, Zulema Aleman

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

The field of advocacy for the end of gender-based violence has constantly grown. Some could say that there is continual action taking place at multiple levels to ensure the protection of survivors, but the direction is often influenced by the perspective of those in positions of power. Regardless, both the social and legal movements have focused primarily on gender and often disregarded how other social identities, such as immigration status and race, intersect with sexual violence and thus create a range of experiences. The undocumented community is one of these groups who face higher rates of gender-based violence due to …

The Legacy Of The Feminist Bookstore Network: Lesbianism’S Indelible Bookstore Beginnings, Hannah Quire

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

In the mid-to-late twentieth century, lesbian feminist bookstores exploded across the United States, facilitating the creation and spread of a network that would be fleeting but impactful for those involved. Through its brief vibrancy, the lesbian feminist bookstore network not only provided an outlet through which women could discover their own local communities, but also served as a catalyst through which lesbian feminist politics was expanded, enforced, and encouraged. The positivity of the movement, however, was branded with a distinct lack of intersectional politics, a move that would ultimately see the movement to its demise.

A Forbidden Act: Illicit Sex And The Colonial Heterosexual Matrix, Rain Tiller

sprinkle: an undergraduate journal of feminist and queer studies

This paper will discuss the cases in which illicit sex becomes mechanisms of disruption. The first section will explore the theoretical underpinnings of sex and the body as an access point to politics and normative critique. Then, I will discuss the examples of illicit sex in the novels Women of Sand and Myrrh and Woman at Point Zero. It is important to study the role of sex in literature to expand the symbolic understanding of sex and sexuality. It is also necessary to bring an analysis of colonial dynamics to sexuality studies in order to fully critique the racial and …