The polemical debate, within feminist theory in North America, in the 1980s, around essentialism is the central focus of this thesis. / In particular, this work attempts to critically examine the notion of essentialism, the resistance to accepting a feminine "essence," and the loosely defined and employed terminology surrounding this field of inquiry. In accomplishing these objectives I draw upon, and critique, the more recent work elaborated around theorizing with/through the "body." / Aspects of feminist theory which are examined as contributive towards the above aim are an analysis of the explicit, and implicit, dangers of accepting or discarding essentialism, and an analysis of the inherent ontological and philosophical tenets that function within this present discourse. / It is maintained that by addressing the issue of essentialism, the relationship between subjectivity, identity, and gender, within feminist theory, will be liberated from further constraining propositions.

This study focuses on one source of sex tourism diaries: posts on the World Sex Guide written about tourists who had sex while in Latin America. My interest is in exploring how posters on the World Sex Guide make sense of their involvement in sex tourism. Starting from the premise that the diaries constitute a forum in which a hegemonic masculinity is created and perpetuated I ask: what types of relations are valued and reproduced by the posters? How do the tourists construct the women whose services they seek? What do their narratives reveal about their own sense of selfhood in the process? I situate the diaries as pornographic representations or rhetorical strategies that are constituted by their context, interpretations, and inscriptions. I then undertake a discursive analysis to reveal their purpose and implications. In particular, I argue that the performances posted on the World Sex Guide reinforce lines of gender, race, economics, status, nationality, and ethnicity in a way that bolsters Western hegemonic masculinities, the implications of which have import not only in online settings but offline as well.

Adverse economic and social conditions during the 1930s prompted fears that Britain and its populace were becoming feminized. Mass unemployment, the collapse of the older forms of masculinist industry, and the sudden expansion of London's consumer culture were three major events that contributed to perceptions of declining masculinity and rampant feminization. Unemployment, it was feared, transformed muscular, self-reliant laborers into emasculate, dependent idlers. The demise of industry (coal mining, ship building, and iron/steel working) turned symbolic garrisons of imperial strength and power into derelict wastelands. London's consumerism in the form of cheap goods and escapist entertainment was thought to pacify and enfeeble the (male) inhabitants. These three pivotal events fueled apprehensions about the breakdown in traditional, patriarchal structures and heightened sensitivities to and furthered the use of masculine/feminine dichotomies within public discourse.The aim of my dissertation is to explore the ways in which complex networks of gender anxieties resonate in 1930s British fiction through the establishment and erosion of rhetorical gender/ed boundaries. Although fears regarding the political landscape, social unrest, and war were instrumental in shaping the literary responses of the decade, those fears were also informed by and articulated through a gender-conscious rhetoric. Emasculation imagery worked in concert with the complementary feminization imagery to capture the popular imagination. Apprehensions about women's potential to disrupt traditional boundaries (sexualized women, i.e. women taking men's jobs) merged with generalized fears of the feminine (constructed Woman, i.e. an undefined fear femaleness), and both were inscribed with the power to disrupt, threaten, and subsume. These "discourses of gender and gendered discourses," to adopt Lyn Pykett's phrase, played an integral part in shaping how the 1930s populace interpreted their rapidly changing world. By promoting gender to the center of my interpretive paradigm, I aim to identify how representations of the private realm interact with and contribute to the public/political narrative thrusts. / Department of English

The Disney princess line includes nine films, in our study we have extended this line to include the latest three films from Walt Disney Pictures that follow the same pattern. These films are Tangled (2010), Brave (2012) and Frozen (2013). We have conducted our study using the same method used by England, Descartes and Collier-Meeks (2011) in their study of the first nine films, starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs produced in 1937 to Princess and the Frog from 2009. A quantitative study was executed where we focused on gender role portrayal, the main characters behavioral characteristics and performed rescues. We applied the following theories to our result; the Social Constructivism, Laura Mulvey’s theory of the Male Gaze, Michel Foucault’s theory of power and discourse, intersectionality and Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver’s model of communication. Our result of the content coding shows a more nuanced depiction of both male and female main characters where the roles have shifted. The female main characters have been asigned a more traditionally masculine role in the films. The story in all of our three films revolves around the female main characters efforts to achieve their goals. The male main characters have abandoned their shiny armour and white horse and persued a role as the one who leads the female to her goal. A one-way analysis of variance was implemented to see differences over time in gender role portrayal of men and women. The result suggest that the male and female roles have changed over time, altough the men are those who have changed the most.

This study focuses on one source of sex tourism diaries: posts on the World Sex Guide written about tourists who had sex while in Latin America. My interest is in exploring how posters on the World Sex Guide make sense of their involvement in sex tourism. Starting from the premise that the diaries constitute a forum in which a hegemonic masculinity is created and perpetuated I ask: what types of relations are valued and reproduced by the posters? How do the tourists construct the women whose services they seek? What do their narratives reveal about their own sense of selfhood in the process? I situate the diaries as pornographic representations or rhetorical strategies that are constituted by their context, interpretations, and inscriptions. I then undertake a discursive analysis to reveal their purpose and implications. In particular, I argue that the performances posted on the World Sex Guide reinforce lines of gender, race, economics, status, nationality, and ethnicity in a way that bolsters Western hegemonic masculinities, the implications of which have import not only in online settings but offline as well.

Female wrestlers live in paradoxical worlds on and off the mat. Wrestling is a traditionally masculine activity, demanding specific gender performances, while the social world has different gendered expectations for women. Using grounded theory analysis of qualitative interviews with ten Canadian female wrestlers. this research explores and examines wrestlers' experiences across contexts in order to understand the potential effects of wrestling on wrestlers' gender performances and the social definition of femininity. On the mat, wrestlers' performances incorporate masculine qualities, including assertiveness, competitiveness, confidence, and independence. Off the mat, wrestlers display normatively feminine qualities, including attentiveness to appearance, displays of heterosexuality, sociability, and emotionality. They also retain several of their on-the-mat masculine characteristics, resulting in less traditionally feminine displays in contrast to the hegemonic norm. Wrestlers' performances may affect the social definition of femininity by displaying an alternative performance of femininity, and by expanding the limitations of what is considered feminine.

The focus of this study is the exploration and interpretation of women's visual and textual experiences of menopause. It is a conversational mapping of embodied space and time as they re-imagine memories and actual experiences which have informed their changing sense of self during the transitional stages of menopause. The research examines the ways in which artwork, visual diaries, journals, creative writing and poetry make visible a fresh perception of their female sense of the lived body. The project examines the contemporary cultural meanings of femininity, sexuality and identity which have informed women's understanding of their bodies and gender during the transformative years of menopause, and it explores the ways in which these forms of knowledge have influenced their artistic modes of self-representation.In the first chapter I acquaint the reader with the context of the research, and outline my understandings of the human body and social theories. I direct the exploration of texts towards a range of feminist theoretical perspectives which suggest women's biological and reproductive bodies provide spaces for re-visioning personal and social change.The next two chapters explain how I develop theoretical and methodological arts-based approaches enabling an innovative and appropriate investigation of the phenomenon in question. I explain how I have blended various textual expressive genres with interpretive research methodologies and philosophical viewpoints. In these chapters I recount the imaginative strategies and techniques used to portray the ontological, phenomenological and epistemological perspectives of the lived experience of menopause.Following this, I present seven stories. Each story portrays how artistic genres grasp particular experiences and transform them into imaginative expressive inter-textual representations. / The stories also demonstrate how this type of research is done, and how the meaning-making processes of collaborative research draw out resonances towards real and imagined, and internal and external sites of personal and political significance.Accompanying the stories is a fourth chapter entitled Menopause Perspecta X 5. In writing this section, I adopt a different narrational approach and voice as I move from the realm of storyteller to that of art curator presenting a series of visual images and the poetic writings of five women. As well as portraying different voices speaking at different levels, each presentation continues the task of opening spaces for translation between word and image.The thesis concludes with a reflective overview of the menopausal body, image and text. In the coda, Notes Towards A Work In Progress, I express my thoughts on creating alternative spatial practices, and tell another story. Through its poetic and lyrical content, I attempt to offer possibilities for restoring a sense of menopausal self, love, hope, and a meaningful relationship with the world.

Thesis (MPhil(R)) - University of Glasgow, 2008. / MPhil(R) thesis submitted to the Department of Scottish Literature, Faculty of Arts, University of Glasgow, 2008. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1994. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-184).

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-106). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.