Gender and Sexuality Commons^™

The Handbook Of Self-Loathing, Haley Bresnahan, Kristen Pagnan, Katie Dumas

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork on body image and dieting (including "fat phobia").

Wonder Woman Complex, Camellia Khalvati, Sarah Dawson, Kathleen Doll

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork deconstructing the institution of marriage, beauty standards, motherhood, and work ("the glorification of busy").

What You Need To Know About Sex, Lauren Gardner, Paula Pearl, Jessie Roth, Cristina Smith

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork examining messages about sex and contraception in the media, intimate partner violence, sexuality and gender in popular music, and sexuality.

Potpourri, Jasmin Sanchez, Jessica Swaney

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings, artwork, and activities addressing rape culture and victim blaming, a feminist perspective of crocheting, gendered titles for women professionals, reclaiming language (particularly the word bitch), and the music of Claire Boucher (a.k.a. Grimes). Original zine contents include a CD and crocheted "FemPower" bookmark.

I'M A Barbie Girl, In A Barbie World, Sydnee Goodman, Brenda Haug, Nicole Winkler

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork examining beauty standards in advertising and fashion (including "The Disney Effect"), eating disorders, dieting, and cosmetic surgery.

Pussy Pride, Andy Fab

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and art about Riot Grrrrl history and culture, written from the perspective of a self-proclaimed "gay boy."

The Feminist Technique, Nate Woodward, Jessica Rabalis, Emily Risbrough

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork on male feminism and masculinities, dating, rape culture, and interpersonal consent.

50 Shades Of Feminism, Debbie Urimolchai, Chontelle Vargas, Ariel Jean Chaklai

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork on white privilege and Westernized feminism, intersectionality, and purdah (or pardah).

Does Breastfeeding Offer Protection Against Maternal Depressive Symptomatology? A Prospective Study From Pregnancy To 2 Years After Birth, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Martie G. Haselton, Christine Dunkel Schetter, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Depression is the leading cause of disability in women (Nobel 2005) and is the most prevalent of all childbearing-related illnesses, affecting approximately 13% of women worldwide within the first 12 [...] Mothers who breastfeed typically exhibit lower levels of depressive symptomatology than mothers who do not. However, very few studies have investigated the directionality of this relationship. Of the prospective studies published, all but one focus exclusively on whether maternal depression reduces rates of subsequent breastfeeding. This study again examines this relationship, but also the reverse--that breastfeeding might predict lower levels of later depression. Using multilevel modeling, we investigated the …

The Importance Of Female Choice: Evolutionary Perspectives On Constraints, Expressions, And Variations, David Frederick, Tania A. Reynolds, Maryanne L. Fisher

Psychology Faculty Books and Book Chapters

This chapter introduces the reader to some of the influential perspectives on female mate choice in human evolutionary biology, including parental investment theory. We then present two key theories in evolutionary psychology that have been applied to understand variations in women’s mating preferences and choices: sexual strategies theory and strategic pluralism theory. Although the importance of female choice has gained widespread acceptance in the biological sciences, the influence that female choice has on mating systems can be limited by many factors, such as control over mating decisions by parents and men’s control over women’s sexuality. Despite these constraints on female …

The Feminist Mix, Akiko Watanabe, Olivia Barker

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork responding to feminist issues involving dating, reproductive rights, body image, and race.

Feminism Without Illusions: A Fallopian Discourse From A Male Perspective, Nelson Aguirre

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork about males as feminists , including a historical examples of male feminist actions and the list "How Can You Be a Better Feminist Man?".

The Vag Mag, Courtney Mckinney, Priscilla Spradlin, Jennifer Draime

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork about female genital mutilation (FGM), body awareness and empowerment, Vajazzling, and vaginal health and awareness.

World Of Dying Dreams, Nicole Kaprielian, Micah Tatum

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork about gender discrimination in song lyrics and feminist music

Confessions Of The 3 Sexketeers, H. H., K. K., Madi Mcpadden

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork about vaginal health and awareness, sex myths, stereotyping involving race and sexuality, gender roles, "The Declaration of Sexual Independence," and intimacy.

Women Around The World, Alex Dodds, Briss Donis, Lama Alsalem

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork about violence and discrimination against women in Juarez, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

Transexuality Beauty And Love: The Beautiful Life Of A Transgender Person In Love, Katlin Fuller, Hannah (Garrett) Jackson, Megan Mckoam

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings, artwork, and activities (crossword puzzle) about trans positivity, transphobia, sexual identity definitions, and beauty standards.

Vagina, Allison Mccutcheon, Rachel Chernick, Summer Bradbury

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork promoting vaginal health and awareness.

Feminists Uniting Continuously Kicking Ass , Angela Macfarlane, Sarah Horst, Sophie Landau

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings and artwork depicting the objectification of women by the mass media and society at large.

Insecurities, Paola Pratt, Ellie Greenberg, Megan Duff

Women’s Studies, Feminist Zine Archive

Writings, artwork, and activities addressing cultural norms/beauty standards and mass media influence of body image.

"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

This essay analyzes the Hyers Sisters, a Reconstruction-era African American sister act, and their radical efforts to transcend social limits of gender, class, and race in their early concert careers and three major productions, Out of Bondage and Peculiar Sam, or The Underground Railroad, two slavery-to-freedom epics, and Urlina, the African Princess, the first known African American play set in Africa. At a time when serious, realistic roles and romantic plotlines featuring black actors were nearly nonexistent due to the country’s appetite for stereotypical caricatures, the Hyers Sisters used gender passing to perform opposite one another as heterosexual lovers in …

Increasing Parity Is Associated With Cumulative Effects On Memory, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this investigation was to determine if reproductive experience is associated with cumulative effects on human memory performance during pregnancy and if these effects persist into the postpartum period.

METHODS: Verbal recall memory performance was assessed in 254 women four times during pregnancy and at 3 months postpartum. The relation between parity and memory function was evaluated with hierarchical linear modeling and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA).

RESULTS: The data indicate that the previously documented adverse effects of pregnancy on memory performance are compounded with successive pregnancies. During gestation and postpartum, multiparity was associated with poorer memory function, …

Explaining The Gender Gap In Fear Of Crime: Assessments Of Risk And Vulnerability Among New York City Residents, Karen A. Snedker

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

In the fear of crime literature, there is a consensus that women consistently report higher levels of fear. I examine how men and women assess their risks in light of prior experience, the environmental conditions that signal risk, and perceived personal vulnerability to provide a more thorough account of the gender disparity. Findings from in-depth interviews with New York City residents suggest that subjective evaluations of vulnerability are strong indicators of fear of crime for men and women. Furthermore, qualitative data reveal that gender assessments of vulnerability are related to issues of socialization, social learning processes and notions of effective …

Sectoral Changes And The Increase In Women's Labor Force Participation, Rahşan Akbulut

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, women in the United States decided to move increasingly into the labor market. This paper investigates the growth of the service sector as an explanation for the increase in women's employment. It develops an economic model that can account for the increase in women's employment and the growth of the service sector at the same time. A growth model with two sectors and a home production technology is constructed in order to quantitatively assess the contribution of sectoral productivity differences to the change in women's employment decision. The sectoral productivities are taken …

The Angel And The Imp: The Duncan Sisters’ Performances Of Race And Gender, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

From 1923 to 1959 Vivian and Rosetta Duncan performed the show Topsy and Eva in front of thousands of audiences in the United States and abroad. This essay examines how the Duncan Sisters’ appropriation of blackness through a yin and yang performance of black and white womanhood, their sexualized but ultimately infantilizing routine as young girls, and their take on anarchistic comedy resulted in a particular spin on age, gender, race, and sexuality that reinforced their privilege as white women even while it pushed the boundaries of acceptable femininity in the swiftly shifting American culture of the first half of …

Acting Virtuous: Chastity, Theatricality, And The Tragedie Of Mariam, Kent Lehnhof

English Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Given the interrelation of female chastity and female theatricality in early modem discourses, it comes as no surprise that both figure importantly in what is believed to be the first original English drama to be written by a woman. As Elizabeth Cary explores a Jewish queen 's sexual purity in The Tragedie of Mariam, she does so by concentrating on questions of performance. Cary's title character explicitly abjures theatricality even as she embraces chastity, creating a fissure in Renaissance discourses on women that threatens to swallow up the antifeminist idea that female chastity is always an act.

Body Image And Body Type Preferences In St. Kitts, Caribbean: A Cross- Cultural Comparison With U.S. Samples Regarding Attitudes Towards Muscularity, Body Fat, And Breast Size, Peter B. Gray, David Frederick

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

We investigated body image in St. Kitts, a Caribbean island where tourism, international media, and relatively high levels of body fat are common. Participants were men and women recruited from St. Kitts (n = 39) and, for comparison, U.S. samples from universities (n = 618) and the Internet (n = 438). Participants were shown computer generated images varying in apparent body fat level and muscularity or breast size and they indicated their body type preferences and attitudes. Overall, there were only modest differences in body type preferences between St. Kitts and the Internet sample, with the St. Kitts participants being …

“I Would Feel Uncomfortable If My Child’S Teacher Were Gay”: Examining The Role Of Symbolic Homophobia And Political Affiliation, Michael Moore, Amy C. Moors

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Symbolic homophobia is a general negative disposition towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, which is demonstrated in symbolic forms of prejudice rather than overt actions. Stigma towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals has transformed from overt forms of prejudice to slightly less blatant more subtle forms in recent years (Schafer & Shaw, 2009). Based on previous research, it is has also been shown that conservatives will have higher levels of symbolic homophobia. (Linneman, 2004), Thus, in order to assess the more nuanced forms of prejudice in relation to political affiliation, Study 1 created a scale to assess symbolic homophobia. …

Neighborhood Conditions And Fear Of Crime: A Reconsideration Of Sex Differences, Karen A. Snedker

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Research indicates that men and women commonly express different amounts of fear about crime. This article explores the sex difference in fear of crime levels by assessing differences in fear of crime in relation to urban environments. Using data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics Criminal Victimization and Perceptions of Community Safety, the present analysis employs multinomial logistic regressions to examine gradations in two measures of fear of crime. Some aspects of the neighborhood environment do differentially influence men and women’s fear of crime levels, including serious crime in the neighborhood, physical and social disorder. Findings highlight that women’s greater …

Para-Romantic Love And Para-Friendships: Development And Assessment Of A Multiple-Parasocial Relationships Scale, Riva Tukachinsky

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Parasocial-relationships (PSR) are viewers' imaginary relationships with media personae. Despite the growing body of research on PSR, the field is still lacking a clear conceptualization and precise measure of this phenomenon. The present study suggests a novel theorization of PSR as para-friendship and para-love. Study 1 demonstrates construct validity of a new Multiple-PSR scale using the logic of a multi-trait multi-method approach. Study 2 replicates the factorial solution using confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, Study 3 provides evidence for the criterion validity of the scales. Together, these findings suggest that PSR encompass several types of relationships that might mediate different media …