This thesis identifies the price inconstancies between male and female consumer personal care products, such as razors and deodorants. Economic research suggests consumers purchase products based on their willingness to pay, which depends upon satisfaction granted from the product. If this is true, the question must be asked: what grants these consumers high satisfaction from product purchasing? To answer this question, this thesis investigates the rhetorical effect that stems from product design. Using a rhetorical criticism technique, I analyze how product design allows consumers to project their gender identity. I assert that consumers are interpellated to choose products based on their gender. Once this interpellation takes place, a constitutive rhetoric formed by the product’s design already assumes the consumer’s wants by embedding masculine or feminine ideologies. The analysis shows product design perpetuates clear gender dichotomy and fortifies the belief of gender binaries. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This dissertation takes a deep look at a first-person narrative from a man who develops complete impotence following androgen-deprivation treatment for prostate cancer. After feeling depressed for some time about what he imagined to be the permanent loss of his sexual life, the man, pseudonymously called Michael in this dissertation, tried using a strap-on dildo. Michael was surprised and pleased to find that using the dildo for sex brings him sexual satisfaction including orgasm. The dildo transforms "from object to organ" as Michael gradually comes to experience the dildo as a part of his own body. He also experiences a shift in his gendered and sexual identity, discovering that the dildo is neither a prosthetic penis nor a medical device, but a post-gendered object subject to playful interpretation. This dissertation aims to elaborate how the phenomenon presented in the case study narrative takes place, to discuss the implications this phenomenon has in a number of theoretical domains, and to apply these findings to clinical practice. It uses phenomenological elaboration and hermeneutic narrative analysis to explore the case study phenomenon. Then, the case study phenomenon is interrogated from various theoretical approaches in order to elaborate the implications of this phenomenon regarding the relationships between physical body morphology, lived embodied experience, and gender identity, the relationship between the body and sensorium-expanding technology, and the breadth and range of human sexuality. The case study narrative serves as a locus for dialogue between feminist phenomenological and feminist poststructural thought on the question of the relationship between the material body and identity, and also includes discussions of transsexuality and male lesbian identities in terms of how the case study phenomenon is related to the embodied experiences of people in these groups. The dissertation also explores how Michael's partner contributes to Michael's change in embodied experience and identity and contributes to the creation of an imaginative and playful space for sexuality to emerge, suggesting that sexuality is created in an interpersonal context rather than being located in a single person or having a particular aim or trajectory. Dissertation findings suggest that conceptual and technical playfulness, including the creation of an imaginative and playful space, may be beneficial in the clinical treatment of sexual "dysfunctions," persons with non-binary or flexible gender identities, transsexual persons, and for clinical conceptualization of sexuality and embodiment in general. Dissertation findings imply that there exists great complexity and variability in embodied experience, that the body is deeply significant for developing identity and that bodily changes may alter identity, and that sexuality is an event that emerges with others. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts / Clinical Psychology / PhD / Dissertation

Identifying factors related to adolescent sexual activity is an important issue for health care, education, and public policy. This research explores the idea that sexual identity relates to adolescent sexual activity and the riskiness of the behavior. Sexual identity is composed of many factors, including self-esteem, sexual self-efficacy, body image, and social isolation. As well, the development of sexual identity is related to age and familial relations. From a symbolic interaction perspective, the formation of sexual identity occurs through the creation of highly subjective symbols or meanings assigned to sexuality. Riskier sexual behaviors seem to occur predominantly in adolescence, and understanding the meanings associated with sexual identity may help to explain why. It was hypothesized that adolescent sexual identity would be related to whether or not adolescents had participated in sexual activity and if they had, whether such activity was safer or riskier. The data, collected from 2,373 7th through 12th graders, were part of a community-based program in a rural northwest community. Participants were divided into three groups based upon their sexual activity status of abstaining behavior, safer behavior, or riskier behavior. Group membership was determined utilizing measures of birth control use, sexually transmitted disease history, and pregnancy experience. Discriminating variables included self-esteem, sexual self-efficacy, body image, social isolation, parental monitoring, and age. Analysis revealed significant sex differences on all six discriminating variables. Stepwise discriminant function analysis found age, parental monitoring, and sexual self-efficacy to be significant contributors to the model for both sexes. The discriminant function classification, utilizing all six variables, correctly classified 93% of both females and males, illuminating the significance of sexual identity in discriminating among the groups. Older adolescents with an increased sense of sexual identity and parents who monitor their behavior, may be more inclined to participate in safer sexual behaviors. The development of sexual identity is a culmination of cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes that together help the individual see her/himself as a sexual person. The research presented here provides insight into the sexual identity of adolescents. Such knowledge may be beneficial in designing sexuality education programs designed to facilitate positive, well-developed sexual identity. / Graduation date: 1995

Using a feminist approach in a postcolonial setting, the interactions between weaving, identity, gender, tourism development, and post-colonial history are explored. This ethnographic research is focused on the indigenous female weavers in Wulai, Taiwan who have experienced both colonialism and tourism development. During Japan’s occupation, the Atayal – one of twelve indigenous groups in Taiwan – were forced to abandon their most important socio-cultural activities: facial tattooing, headhunting, and weaving. The Atayal lost most of their original textiles because many of them were taken to Japan. Today, these textiles are preserved in a few Japanese museums. Meanwhile, in Taiwan, the Atayal’s textiles are now reconstructed by the hands of some indigenous women in Wulai who weave primarily for museums. Others, on the other hand, weave for domestic tourists although they have little success in competition with less expensive Han Chinese' factory-made woven products. The reintroduction of weaving not only required the Atayal weavers to retrace their weaving history and to reconstruct and revive lost skills but also opened up a new opportunity to create new motifs with imported looms. The reintroduction of weaving has had multiple effects on the Atayal community. The meaning of weaving has changed from the representation of the Atayal women’s gender identity alone to the representation of the Atayal’s collective ethnic identity as a whole. Now the Atayal proudly claim their weaving culture as a part of their ethnic identity. It has become an ethnic symbol and a tourism product. However, the indigenous residents of Wulai are now barely involved directly with tourism business although symbols of their identity are used to promote tourism.

Using a feminist approach in a postcolonial setting, the interactions between weaving, identity, gender, tourism development, and post-colonial history are explored. This ethnographic research is focused on the indigenous female weavers in Wulai, Taiwan who have experienced both colonialism and tourism development. During Japan’s occupation, the Atayal – one of twelve indigenous groups in Taiwan – were forced to abandon their most important socio-cultural activities: facial tattooing, headhunting, and weaving. The Atayal lost most of their original textiles because many of them were taken to Japan. Today, these textiles are preserved in a few Japanese museums. Meanwhile, in Taiwan, the Atayal’s textiles are now reconstructed by the hands of some indigenous women in Wulai who weave primarily for museums. Others, on the other hand, weave for domestic tourists although they have little success in competition with less expensive Han Chinese' factory-made woven products. The reintroduction of weaving not only required the Atayal weavers to retrace their weaving history and to reconstruct and revive lost skills but also opened up a new opportunity to create new motifs with imported looms. The reintroduction of weaving has had multiple effects on the Atayal community. The meaning of weaving has changed from the representation of the Atayal women’s gender identity alone to the representation of the Atayal’s collective ethnic identity as a whole. Now the Atayal proudly claim their weaving culture as a part of their ethnic identity. It has become an ethnic symbol and a tourism product. However, the indigenous residents of Wulai are now barely involved directly with tourism business although symbols of their identity are used to promote tourism.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Sociology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-141). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR38795

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 198-212).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 250-262).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 90 p. Includes abstract.