Gender and Sexuality Commons^™

Lgbti+ Language And Understandings In Nepal: Creating Spaces And Forging Identities, Patrick Sonnenberg

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The 1990 Nepali Constitution opened up opportunities for many forms of activism, and identity groups thus began solidifying to advocate for social change and justice (Karki 2012). After the Nepali Supreme Court ruling in 2007, Nepal became one of the first countries to offer a third gender category “Other,” becoming a leader for human rights in South Asia and the world (Mahato 2017). As Coyle and Boyce (2013) point out, there is little research on LGBTI individuals in Nepal. Furthermore, they advocate for more research and closer work with gender and sexual minority individuals in Nepal.

This research attempts to …

Black Feminism: Dismantling Tropes And Embracing Sisterhood, Elaine Negron

Student Publications

This paper examines the usage of films like Set it off (1996) and Girl’s Trip (2017) and their sisterhood as friends as a way to dismantle tropes typically used towards Black Women. It is through the story lines of each movie that the main characters contradict certain female tropes and go against the societal norms that women are suppose to follow. Meanwhile, dismantling these tropes leads to the empowerment of sisterhood in these communities.

Underrepresentation Of Women In Sports Leadership: Stereotypes, Discrimination, And Race, Keyleigh N. Wallick

Student Publications

Since the passage of Title IX in 1972, the number of women playing sports has significantly increased; however, the percentage of women in coaching positions has strikingly declined. Before the passage of Title IX, women occupied more than 90% of the coaching positions in women’s sports. In 2009, women held 21% of all head coaching positions in intercollegiate sports for both men and women’s teams and 43% of the head coaching positions for women’s teams (Miller & Flores, 2011). Between 2000 and 2014, 2,080 new head coaching jobs in women’s athletics have opened up and one-third have been filled by …

Girls Can Play: Analysis Of Racial And Economic Barriers Of Entry For Women Of Color In Sport, Quinn I. Igram

Student Publications

In order to understand the racial division of modern sport, it is essential to investigate the barriers to entry that occur for black youth at an institutional level. Inner-city and low-income youth are denied opportunities presented to predominately white middle and upper-class youth, who are awarded the opportunities to advance in the dimension of sport. Low-income children are being pushed out of sports, falling into a track that provides marginal community programming, while the economically advantaged are funneled into the other track of competitive private clubs. Race, economics, and social status become drivers for this segmentation in youth sport.

Although …

The Damaging Effects Of Intersectionality And Layers Of Oppression On United States Female Soccer Players, Brooke L. Priddy

Student Publications

Black athletes face structural and overt racism in all sports across the country, in which the majority of White Americans either chooses to ignore or sometimes even use to victimize certain athletes. They are discriminated against because of the color of their skin, despite achieving the same levels of success and fame as their white competitors. Black athletes must work harder than white athletes for the same end goal, not because of any sort of athletic disadvantage, but because of racial injustice and intolerance. Soccer is a prime example of how Black athletes face racism in sport. Black female soccer …

A Look At Female Genital Mutilation, Norhan H. Gomaa

Student Publications

Female Genital Mutilation is deeply rooted in misogyny and sexism. This paper looks at current and past efforts of NGOs and other organizations that have tried to eradicate the practice in many countries, mainly in Africa. The strategies and techniques of these organizations have failed for many reasons, this paper highlights those that have worked and those that have failed. The next possible steps to reduce the practice have been proposed in the paper.

Never Again! Surviving Liberalized Prostitution In Germany, Sandra Norak, Ingeborg Kraus

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article, co-authored by a six-year survivor of the sex trade industry in Germany (Sandra Norak) and a psychologist and trauma therapist (Ingeborg Kraus), provides perspectives on the difficulty of withstanding the coercion of traffickers and the difficulties of exiting prostitution in a country in which prostitution has been legalized, normalized and made “a job like any other.” This normalization persuades survivors to believe their traffickers that it is a legitimate occupation and encourages them to endure the violence. Liberalization also has prevented the development of needed trauma services to those seeking to exit the sex trade industry.

Abuse Or Be Abused: Traumatic Memory, Sex Inequality, And Millennium As A Socio-Literary Device, Kate Rose

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article applies the research of French psychiatrist Muriel Salmona to literary analysis of Stieg Larsson’s protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, in the Millennium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2008; The Girl Who Played with Fire, 2009; The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, 2010). It suggests that Larsson’s novels may be useful in raising awareness of childhood sexual abuse, through reading neglected signs linked to the neurology of traumatic memory. In the tradition of Nordic noir novels, hyperboles in Salander’s sensationalized identity serve to magnify and bring to light a misunderstood social problem. The article …

Women's And Gender Studies Newsletter, V1n1, Fall 2018, University Of Northern Iowa. Women's And Gender Studies.

Women's and Gender Studies Newsletter

In This Issue:
--Our Students are Making a Difference
--A Letter From Our Director
--Meet Our Students
--WGS Spotlights
--WGS Affiliate Faculty
--Programming News
--Alumni Update
--Scholarships and Awards

Something Old, Something New: Historicizing Same-Sex Marriage Within Ongoing Struggles Over African Marriage In South Africa, Michael W. Yarbrough

Publications and Research

This article examines contemporary struggles over same-sex marriage in the daily lives of black lesbian- and gay-identified South Africans. Based primarily on 21 in-depth interviews with such South Africans drawn from a larger project on post-apartheid South African marriage, the author argues that their current struggles for relationship recognition share much in common with contemporaneous struggles of their heterosexual counterparts, and that these commonalities reflect ongoing tensions between more extended-family and more dyadic understandings of African marriage. The increasing influence of dyadic understandings of marriage, and of associated ideals of romantic love, has helped inspire same-sex marriage claims and, in …

Referencing Audre Lorde, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

This chapter is close a reading and textual analysis of canonical texts, speeches, and archived audio recordings of Audre Lorde. It embraces Lorde’s many identities, including her identity as a librarian who chose to depart from the library as a means of survival. The author urges reference librarians to study Lorde’s example and learn from Lorde’s choice to act in a space where silence can be transformed into language and action. Acknowledgment of the limitations and opportunities that Lorde teaches us in reference service and institutional structures, may allow for librarians to move toward a realm of justice.

Lesbian Librarianship For All: A Manifesto, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

This essay intends to bridge the gap between two under-appreciated communities by committing to ways that each enhances the other. The complications for being a lesbian librarian outlined here may be applied to any librarian or any lesbian by acknowledging how the two communities mirror each other in positions of marginality, struggle, and implication for silence, each active in a movement toward justice. I intend for this chapter to act as a type of autobiographical manifesto, coupled with an invitation for both lesbians and librarians to stake a claim as lesbian librarian.

A Blueprint On Self-Exploration To Justice: Introduction To “Referencing Audre Lorde” & “Lesbian Librarianship For All”, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

My approach to social justice problematizes the profession by challenging the librarian to focus inwardly to a space concentrated with identity and self-exploration. To galvanize justice, the librarian may impose her or himself into the reference interaction as an element of praxis.

Strengths And Coping Strategies In The Life Narratives Of Sexual Minority Women, Laurie Drabble, Karen F. Trocki, Brenda Salcedo, Bobbi R. Morales, Rachael Korcha

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This study explored self-described strengths and strategies for coping with stress among sexual minority women (SMW), drawing on qualitative narratives of sexual minority and heterosexual women who were recruited from a population-based sample. In-depth follow-up qualitative telephone interviews were conducted with 48 women who had participated in the National Alcohol Survey, a U.S. population-based survey. Participants included 25 SMW and 16 matched exclusively heterosexual women. Narrative data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis and constant comparison to explore the study aim, with an emphasis on themes that diverged or that were particularly salient for SMW relative to heterosexual women. Strengths …

Introduction To Sociology Zero-Cost Syllabus, Mateo Sancho Cardiel

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus will help you to create your OER Introduction to Sociology course. The course is designed in order to create connections with the news, with classic and contemporary cinema and with hot topics in our everchanging society, making it a useful tool to engage students beyond the conventional approach to the content.

Book Review: Battering States: The Politics Of Domestic Violence In Israel. By Madelaine Adelman. Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt University Press, 2017. Pp. Xiv+290. $69.95 (Cloth); $34.95 (Paper)., Amy Leisenring

Faculty Publications, Sociology

In Battering States: The Politics of Domestic Violence in Israel, anthropologist Madelaine Adelman utilizes an impressive array of ethnographic methods to examine how statecraft shapes domestic violence. Her thoughtful project is interdisciplinary in nature and analyzes when and how intimate partner violence intersects with cultural politics of the state. Her focus centers on Israel, where a number of distinctive factors make this a particularly compelling site for the type of study in which she engages: the existence of a “contentious multinational and multiethnic population,” “competing and overlapping sets of religious civil family law” (p. 2), pervasive state securitism and political …

Gender & Sexuality Services Newsletter, September 2018, University Of Northern Iowa. Gender & Sexuality Services.

Gender & Sexuality Services Newsletter

In This Issue:
--Safe Zone Ally Training
--Get A Mentor
--No Class Cancelled
--That's So Gay
--LGBTQ+ Affirming Christian Group
--Past Apologetics
--LGBTQ* Students: Want to Share Your Story?
--Stay Connected With Gender & Sexuality Services

Young And Unafraid: Queer Criminology's Unbounded Potential, Vanessa R. Panfil

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Queer criminology, a fairly young subfield, deals with matters of import for sexual and gender minorities, particularly LGBTQ+ populations. Areas of interest include reducing invisibility and inequity, though these pursuits can sometimes be accompanied with potential pitfalls or unintended consequences. This article provides an overview of the goals and considerations of queer criminology, while focusing on how to cultivate queer criminology's unbounded potential to help address pressing social problems. Several global issues of immediate concern for LGBTQ+ people are identified, such as criminalization and devaluation of their lives, which has resulted in their detainment and torture, persecution when they organize …

Bias-Motivated Homicides: Toward A New Typology, Lindsey Sank Davis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite significant progress towards equal protection under the law for women, LGBT individuals, and people of color in the United States, hate crime remains a pervasive problem, and rates appear to have increased in recent years. Bias-motivated homicide – arguably the most serious form of hate crime – is statistically rare but may have far-reaching consequences for marginalized communities. Data from the Uniform Crime Reports and the National Crime Victimization Survey have suggested that, on average, fewer than 10 bias-motivated homicides occur in the United States per year; however, data from open sources indicate that the rate of bias-motivated homicide …

"But The Heart Stays Turkish": Identifications Of Immigrants And Boundaries Of Belonging In America, Zeynep Selen Bayhan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation focuses on the symbolic boundary-making processes of first-generation Turkish immigrants in New York and New Jersey, where Islam has been tainted with negative meanings and symbols. By focusing on the characteristics, salience and endurance of ethno-national, religious and gender boundaries that immigrants perceive and experience in the U.S., it examines the possibilities of social inclusion and assimilation/integration of immigrants into the mainstream society. The dissertation addresses following research questions: What sort of symbols and markers, as well as narratives do immigrants use in order to construct boundaries regarding American society? How do Turkish immigrants, in the aftermath of …

Insecure Hegemony: The Cultural Construction Of 'Righteous Retaliation' In The Hunt For Osama Bin Laden, Marisa Tramontano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the American “authorized discourse” about the hunt for and killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to better understand it as an episode in American cultural hegemony maintenance. Through a structural hermeneutic analysis of presidential speeches and widely-circulated national strategy documents, high distribution news coverage, and entertainment media, alongside one-on-one interviews and focus groups, I illuminate the symbolic mechanics by which the death of Osama bin Laden was constructed as righteous and legitimate retaliatory violence in response to the unprompted, offensive violence of the 9/11 attacks.

Drawing on an array of theoretical approaches including classical sociologists Karl …

Gender Identity And Justice In Nigeria: An Appraisal Of Women In Lagos State, Oluwaseun Olanrewaju

The Journal of Social Encounters

This paper examines gender identity and justice in the light of gender discrimination against women in Nigeria. Through the use of primary research, with the specific focus on women resident in Lagos state, the findings of this research show that in Nigeria, women are often considered as subservient to men. This paper therefore asserts that there is an urgent need to address gender inequality in order to create a gender balanced society. Furthermore, the paper concludes that gender equality will translate to justice for women and empower them to contribute positively to the overall development of Nigeria.

Women’S/Gender Roles In Contemporary Society, Jasmina Sinanovic

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

"We Just Treat Everyone The Same": Lgbtq Aquatic Management Strategies, Barriers And Implementation, Austin R. Anderson, Eric Knee, William D. Ramos, Tiffany Monique Quash

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

This study examined the management of aquatic venues in a number of areas (facilities, programming, human resource management, marketing, policies) as it pertains to LGBTQ participants and participation. The study utilized in-depth semi-structured interviews with 16 aquatic managers to examine steps that are currently being taken (or lack thereof) when it comes to creating environments that are perceived to be open, or closed, to LGBTQ participants. A grounded theory-based process of data collection and analysis resulted in emergent themes. These themes included: (a) gendered spaces, (b) non-aquatic initiatives, (c) staff knowledgeability, (d) departmental and organizational mission, (e) aquatic-specific programming and …

Toward Culturally Competent Archival (Re)Description Of Marginalized Histories, Annie Tang, Dorothy Berry, Kelly Bolding, Rachel E. Winston

Library Presentations, Posters, and Audiovisual Materials

Influenced by the radical archives movement, panelists discuss their (re)processing projects for which they wrote or rewrote descriptions in culturally competent approaches. Their case studies include materials regarding underrepresented peoples and historically oppressed groups who are marginalized from or maligned in the archival record. Targeted to processors, this session aims to teach participants to apply their cultural competencies in writing finding aids through an introduction to cultural competency framework, the case study examples, and a short audience-participation exercise.

“María Llena Eres De Gracia” Y Una Desconocida: La Fortaleza Del Espíritu Humano, Yaakov Oliveira

Best Integrated Writing

The compassion for, and understanding of, The Other, without bias, is the most revealing attribute of this paper. Given that immigration, and undocumented people constantly coming to the US, has become a national issue, it is inspiring to see that there still are ways of evaluating the problematic--with objectivity--yet with admiration. This writer is capable of seeing with the inner eyes, perceiving the colloquialisms of the Spanish language, the traits of the culture, and the emotion of both narratives that he is comparing. At the end of the day, film and art remain as the bridge between cultures.

Best Integrated Writing 2018 - Complete Edition

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University. The journal is published annually by the Wright State University Department of English Language and Literatures.

Moving Women Of Color From Reliable Voters To Candidates For Public Office, Christina Bejarano, Wendy Smooth

Latino Public Policy

In recent presidential elections, women, people of color, millennials, and new immigrants shaped the outcomes of those elections. Women of color standing at the nexus of two underrepresented groups in politics- racial minorities and women- demonstrated their commitments to democracy by maintaining their traditions as reliable voters, far exceeding expectations. In this project, we ask what is necessary to move these women of color from reliable voters to candidates for political office and locate our answer with women of color. They are doing much of the work to deepen democratic engagement in communities of color, namely mobilizing voters and political …

Queering Sexual Health: The Intersection Of Sexual Health And Lgbtq Identities In Worcester, Ma, Sara Richman Davidow

Sustainability and Social Justice

This research examined what support, services, and programming existed at the intersection of sexual health and LGBTQ identities in Worcester MA. The data analyzed were interviews with professionals in sexual health or LGBTQ related fields as well as the public websites of sexual health or LGBTQ organizations. The researcher examined this data, along with literature on the rise of sexual health and LGBTQ communities, to understand (1) how inclusive sexual health resources in Worcester were and (2) what themes still need to be addressed to make gender and sexuality minorities comfortable seeking sexual health medical aid. The findings indicated that …

Queering Player Agency And Paratexts: An Analysis And Expansion Of Queerbaiting In Video Games, Jessica Kathryn Needham

Cultural Analysis and Social Theory Major Research Papers

Queerbaiting refers to the way that consumers are lured in with a queer storyline only to have it taken away, collapse into tragic cliché, or fail to offer affirmative representation. Recent queerbaiting research has focused almost exclusively on television, leaving gaps in the ways queer representation is negotiated in other media forms. Using video games as a starting point, this Major Research Project seeks to fill in these research gaps by applying Eve Ng’s queerbaiting theory that situates queerbaiting at the intersection of contextuality and producer paratexts. Persona 4 and the Life is Strange series have been charged with queerbaiting …