Women's Studies Theses

Mexican/migrant Mothers and 'Anchor Babies" in Anti-Immigration Discourses: Meanings of Citizenship and Illegality in the United States

Margaret E. Franz — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:30:40 PDT

The right wing anti-immigration movement’s recent surge in racial panic and paranoia concerning the specter of the overly fertile Mexican migrant mother and her US-born child points to a discursive struggle over the meaning of citizenship and illegality. Starting from the assumption that both citizenship and illegality are highly contested and fluid political and moral categories, this project examines how white supremacist and heteronormative ideologies and political emotions like love and fear construct both Mexican migrants and their children as “illegal,” while simultaneously shrinking the meaning and enactment of citizenship for everyone. I argue that citizens of Mexican descent are racialized and sexualized as “illegal,” in order to warrant their exclusion, though not their expulsion, from the biopolitical fold of the nation-state.

Recovering Frances Virginia and the Frances Virginia Tea Room: Transition Era Activism at the Intersections of Womanism, Feminism, and Home Economics, 1920-1962

Mildred H. Coleman, (milliecoleman@comcast.net) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:45:39 PST

ABSTRACT This work answers the question “Who was Frances Virginia?” by recovering the story of an Atlanta entrepreneur, Frances Virginia Wikle Whitaker, and her tea room foodservice business. It acknowledges “Frances Virginia,” as the public knew her; and focuses on her career as demonstrative of an under‐theorized form of women’s activism. Her education and proclivity in the once all‐female domain of home economics have important characteristics that are under‐ represented, and often misinterpreted, in today’s discourse. I use a womanist theoretical lens within a historical frame to examine her story as a home economist during the tea room movement of the U. S. feminist movement’s Transition Era, 1920s‐1960s. Together, these elements illuminate the significance of Frances Virginia and her particular form of activism.

Queer Feelings, Political Potential: Tracing Affect in Performance Spaces

Dylan McCarthy Blackston — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:45:36 PST

This thesis layers theories of affect circulation, queer performance participation, counterpublics, and queer space and time with ethnographic work performed in queer performance spaces. In so doing, the thesis explores affective networks in queer performance spaces in order to begin a theoretical analysis of the connecting affects amongst queer performance participants. In my interviews, I found affective connections which I explored as keywords. These keywords express affects that, in part, create the affective networks of queer performance participants.

Not Simply Women's Bodybuilding: Gender and the Female Competition Categories

Sheena a. Hunter — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:45:34 PST

Once known only as Bodybuilding and Women’s Bodybuilding, the sport has grown to include multiple competition categories that both limit and expand opportunities for female bodybuilders. While the creation of additional categories, such as Fitness, Figure, Bikini, and Physique, appears to make the sport more inclusive to more variations and interpretation of the feminine, muscular physique, it also creates more in-between spaces. This auto ethnographic research explores the ways that multiple female competition categories within the sport of Bodybuilding define, reinforce, and complicate the gendered experiences of female physique athletes, by bringing freak theory into conversation with body categories.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Marketing of Merck & Co.'s Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Gardasil®

Malika A. Redmond — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:34:09 PST

This is a critical discourse analysis research project that examines the print and television advertisements of Merck & Co.’s Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine GARDASIL®. There are three commercial campaigns identified for this project: “Make the Connection/ Charm4Life,” “Tell Someone,” and “One Less/ I Choose.” Two print and two television commercials per campaign are analyzed. I used black feminist and girls studies theoretical frameworks to address how representations of race, class, “girl power,” and the cooptation of feminist language are both expressed and utilized in the marketing as a method to target consumers. I conclude with “parody/ protest” advertisements of the vaccine featuring young women demonstrating a critical consumer voice towards the marketing of the vaccine. As a result, I found that the PSAs used fear-driven messages about HPV’s link to cervical cancer beginning a year before the FDA’s approval of GARDASIL® in order to market and sell its product.

The Women Behind the Moves: A Phenomenological Study of Video Models

Loron Bartlett — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:42:08 PST

This research studied three women who have performed in hip hop music videos. Previous literature concerning these women, including memoirs, men’s magazine interviews, and Black feminist scholarship, has situated them as video vixens, terminology that all three participants disputed applied to them. The research was completed in two parts—a face-to-face phenomenological interview and a semi-structured telephone interview. In the phenomenological interview, the initial question—what are your experiences as a woman who dances/models in music videos?—was posed. The answers ranged from musings about professionalism and the lack thereof in the industry to the politics of skin color and nationality. The semi-structured interview allowed the participants to clarify or expound on experiences they discussed during the first interview.

To Catch Who? Moral Panics in Contemporary Television Media

Crystal L. Baker — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:56:18 PST

My thesis looks at the creation of moral panics surrounding childhood, sexuality, and media proliferation of “stranger danger,” in American culture. I have chosen to analyze the television program “To Catch a Predator” to illustrate the ways in which these “stranger danger” narratives are related to childhood sexual moral panics and how these two phenomena work to encourage viewership and consumerism in American culture. The exacerbation of “predator” moral panics in reality television maintains the fear of invasion of secure suburban space largely due to the portrayal of African American men as threatening and/or violent within “To Catch a Predator’s” narrative.

Restorative Notions: Regaining My Voice, Regaining My Father: A Creative Womanist Approach to Healing from Sexual Abuse

Adenike A. Harris — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:47:36 PDT

This creative thesis illustrates how the writer initiated a ‘call-and-response’ dialogue as a healing strategy to heal her relationship with her non-abusive biological father after revealing to him that her stepfather had sexually abused her from ages 14 to 22. This memoir both contributes to the field of Women’s Studies and provides an example that other sexual abuse survivors can follow to heal their intimate relationships.

Hooking Up on College Campuses

Elena M. Weiss — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:17:11 PDT

A 2001 national study of college women’s sexual attitudes and behaviors revealed that students have stopped dating and started “hooking up.” Previous studies focused on fraternities and their
relation to the rape culture but neglected to connect rape culture to hook up culture. This study evaluated the culture surrounding rape by interviewing seventeen college aged men about masculinity, behavior in male homosocial groups, “hooking up” and rape. It addresses
the following questions: 1-How do college men understand “hooking up” and sexual consent? 2-In what ways might men’s understanding of “hooking up” and sexual consent be related to the ongoing incidence of rape on college campuses? 3- How do men understand and adhere to rape
myths? In-depth interviews with college men in this study point to their dependence on nonverbal communication when negotiating “hookups,” with implications for their understandings of consent and perpetuation of myths concerning women's sexuality.

You're Wearing the Orange Shorts? African American Hooters Girls and the All American Girl Next Door

Rachel E. Cook — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:07:56 PDT

Hooters restaurants are typically staffed by Caucasian women that resemble the company’s idea of an “All American Girl, Surfer Girl, Girl Next Door” image, promoted in employee training materials. However, my experience working for this company has been in a predominantly African American-staffed Hooters, atypical for the corporation. Through a mixed methods approach encompassing content analysis, participant observation, autoethnography, and interviews, this research seeks to understand the ideal Hooters Girl image promoted by the corporation, and the performance of that ideal in an atypical Hooters location.

Paradise Found? Black Gay Men in Atlanta: An Exploration of Community

Tobias L. Spears — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:02:29 PST

This study examines the ways in which Black gay men in Atlanta create and experience community and culture every day, notwithstanding those discursive sources that situate life for Black gay men as particularly troubled. Drawing on ethnographic methods, including participant observation and interviewing, I attempt to show the complexity of Black gay men by exploring their world in Atlanta, Georgia, a city that has increasingly become known as a Black Gay Mecca. Qualitative research examining the ways Black gay men create and experience community has the potential to broaden academic discourses that have increasingly medicalized the Black gay male experience, and complicate popular social sentiment which (when recognizing the existence of Black gay men) often posits their life as one dimensional or dimensionless.

Where my Girls at?: The Interpellation of Women in Gangsta Hip-Hop

Chanel R. Craft — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:26:35 PDT

This thesis interrogates gangsta hip-hop for the unique attention it plays to the drug trade. I read theories of hypervisibility/invisibility and Louis Althusser’s theory of interpellation alongside hip-hop feminist theory to examine the Black female criminal subjectivity that operates within hip-hop. Using methods of discourse analysis, I question the constructions of gangster femininity in rap lyrics as well as the absences of girlhood on Season 4 of HBO’s television drama The Wire. In doing so, I argue that the discursive construction of Black female subjectivity within gangsta hip-hop provides a hypervisibility that portrays Black women as violent while simultaneously erasing the broader social processes that impact the lives of Black women and girls. Hip-hop feminism allows the cultural formations of hip-hop to be read against the politics that structure the lives of women of color in order to provide a lens for analyzing how their criminality is constructed through media.

Space for Girls: Possibilities of Feminist Agency and Political Engagement on the Internet

Eszter Szucs — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:42:25 PDT

This thesis analyzes the teen-targeted website gURL.com, which is committed to providing safe space for young girls to explore different aspects of girlhood. I primarily focus on girls’ comments and conversations posted on the message boards in order to trace how teens mediate and extend the borders of the popular conceptualizations of contemporary girlhood. I interpret young women's online activities within the discursive framework of the complex relation between Girl Culture and feminism. Without overvaluing the freedom of online environments, I assume that the relatively unregulated space of the Internet enables girls to step outside the dominant stereotypes and discover alternative modes of doing feminist activism. I argue that these new venues of political engagement are adequate ways of resistance within the specific era of postmodern global capitalism.

Middle School Technology and Media Literacy: An Action Research Case Study

Mekisha Renaé Parks — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:45:58 PDT

This qualitative action research case study seeks to modify a Middle School Computer Science Course at a medium‐sized private school in North Atlanta, Georgia by examining the intersection of media literacy, technology, and adolescent teens. The main purpose of this project is to improve the course by incorporating media literacy skills into the curriculum. Guided class discussions, active participant observation, participant journals, and participant projects will be used to learn more about students’ experience with Media Literacy education. Centering on reflective practices, teacher‐student dialogue, and peer collaboration, this project aims to identify, engage, and explore issues critical to the effective implementation of a new Media Literacy curriculum. The findings from this completed project shall be made available to school administration and the larger community for the continued improvement of the Middle School Computer Science program.

The Mystery of the Body: Embodiment in the Nancy Drew Mystery Series

Katie Still — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:16:43 PST

This thesis investigates the ways in which ideas about class, gender, and race are produced and articulated through the body in the Nancy Drew Mystery series in the 1930s. Physical descriptions and bodily movements, as well as material surroundings, work together to reify and contradict dominant ideas of normalcy and deviance being located on the body.

Power and Surrender: African American Sunni Women and Embodied Agency

Lisa Renae Frazier — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:16:42 PST

This thesis addresses the lack of scholarly attention devoted to African American Sunni women by examining how they use collective memory to negotiate embodied agency. Through an analysis of African American Sunni women’s narratives of testifying conversion, and vignettes from diaries and interviews, I show how African American Sunni women utilize racial, religious, and spiritual memory in the form of ritual practices and Islamic texts to multiply construct their bodies, and how this construction allows them to enact multimodal and nomadic forms of agency. A contextual analysis also illustrates how environment and interpretation (tafsir) further mobilizes forms of agency, articulating a need for flexibility in regard to the concept of embodied agency and challenging the dichotomy prevalent in Western and Eurocentric conceptions of liberatory agency.

Searching for the Womanist Within

Carmela L. Pattillo — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:16:42 PST

Searching for the Womanist Within is a play about self identity and the daily experience of African-American women who are at the intersecting oppressions of race, gender and class. The unique life perspective of Afeican-American women is explored through the retelling of stories from the writer’s life as well as the lives of other black women. In Feminist, Black Feminist, Afrocentric and Womanist drama it is common to steer away from conventional theatrical structures, Solo drama, a less conventional structure, was selected for this play. In addition to the play is an essay about the writing process, as well as a literature review and a statement of significance about this creative thesis.

"So Very," "So Fetch": Constructing Girls on Film in the Era of Girl Power and Girls in Crisis

Mary Larken McCord — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:16:42 PST

In the mid-1990s, two discourses of girlhood emerged in both the popular and academic spheres. Consolidated as the girl power discourse and girls in crisis discourse, the tension between these two intertwined discourses created a space for new narratives of female adolescence in the decade between 1995 and 2005. As sites of cultural construction and representation, teen films reveal the narratives of girlhood. The films under consideration serve as useful exemplars for an examination of how such discourses become mainstreamed, pervading society’s image of female adolescence.

Coloring: An Investigation of Racial Identity Politics within the Black Indian Community

Charlene Jeanette Graham — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:16:41 PST

Historical interconnections between Native Americans and many people of African descent in America created a group of Black Indians whose lineage continues today. Though largely unrecognized, they remain an important racially mixed group. Through analysis using qualitative feminist methodologies, this thesis examines the history and analyzes the narratives of African-Native American females regarding their racial identity and political claims of tribal citizenship. Their socialization, which includes kin keeping, extended families and the sharing of family stories, allows them to claim native ancestry because of the information usually passed down to them from mothers, grandmothers, aunts and other family members. Their culture and identity revealed that Black Indian women have particular attitudes regarding their racial identity. I conclude my investigation with the suggestion that Native and African American studies can be instrumental as an alternative method of studying American race relations and the ways race intersects with gender in the formation of identity politics.

In Search of Martha Root: An American Baha'i Feminist and Peace Advocate in the Early Twentieth Century

Jiling Yang — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:16:41 PST

Martha Root (1872-1939) was an exceptional religious and spiritual activist, a leading figure in the international women's peace movement, and a new organism of a new world in the early twentieth century. This thesis represents Martha Root from three aspects: the early life of Martha Root, her four world teaching trips from 1919 to 1939, with a focus on her peace advocacy, and an investigation into her gender awareness and identity construction by reflecting on Tahirih the Pure, Iran's Greatest Woman, Martha Root's only book.