Gendered “realness” and its social and political effects are at the heart of transgender issues. “Realness” operates both as a structure for trans intelligibility and its process of containment, for its representation and its erasure. Power works through the concept of gendered “realness” in ways that force trans people to evoke a core, stable gender identity in order to prove their social and legal legitimacy; at the same time, the slippery nature of “realness,” its cultural power, and its ability to escape the parameters of determinacy, allow it to be harnessed in social, legal and institutional contexts in ways that undermine trans identities. By looking at what I refer to as “the politics of the real” I analyze gendered “realness” as an operation of power which circulates throughout United States having particular concrete, material effects for trans people. Through an analysis of transgender representation in photography, popular film, feminist theory, and legal cases, I explore the paradoxical nature of “realness” and its function in both dominant culture and transgender communities. As a driving concept for transgender representation and as a strategy for resistance, “realness” needs to be analyzed and evaluated.

This dissertation is an account of cultural change associated with incorporations of digital media and LGBT media into the commercial domain. As a production study of LGBT digital media at two networks, Bravo and Logo, it takes a multi-methods approach, including interviews with cultural workers, attendance at industry events, analysis of primary documents and site content, and the use of secondary sources. In addition to LGBT channel content, in recent years Bravo and Logo have purchased or launched LGBT-focused websites that began with the involvement of non-media professionals. A new cohort of LGBT cultural workers has emerged through economic and cultural convergence, bringing fan producers and writers from gay print into the networks. At the same time, with the increasing professionalization of digital media labor, boundary crossings associated with convergence have declined. The professional dispositions of Bravo's and Logo's cultural workers have informed programming strategies decentering LGBT-focused material. Besides commercial considerations, these developments reflect 'post-gay' integrationist discourses that also comprise mainstream narratives of gay identity. Furthermore, while digital media facilitates the targeting of specific audience segments, the expectation for web material to be "fluffy" militates against critical analysis at highly trafficked sites. Although social networking and crowdfunding platforms enable some content diversity, the potential of digital technologies is tempered by the interaction of norms for commercial online content with the habitus of key LGBT gatekeepers.

This critical ethnographic practitioner research study explored the ways critical multicultural pedagogies supported students with situated privilege to use critical literacy to understand and challenge heterosexism in a public school. Situated privilege denotes relative privilege in terms of one social identity or group and not necessarily another, so although some of the students in this study did not have privilege in terms of race or ability, they were all identified as heterosexual and thus had privilege in terms of sexual orientation. These students were enrolled in a Contemporary Issues class which I taught where they developed critical literacy strategies and initiated an action project, which disrupted the heterosexism in the school. Through this critical literacy project they held a Day of Solidarity where they made visible the support for people of all sexual orientations and formed a Gay Straight Alliance with other students in the school. I reviewed literature centered on heterosexism in public schools, scholarship on critical literacy theory and applications, and theories of multicultural education and critical pedagogies. Drawing on critical multicultural analysis and critical discourse analysis, I analyzed student writing, transcripts of class discussions, interviews with students and school personnel, students' surveys, and other artifacts along with my fieldnotes to explore the students' development of critical literacy and social justice activism. I found that using critical multicultural pedagogies emphasizing critical literacy can help prepare and motivate students with situated privilege to interrupt their own behavior and reinvent themselves as allies and agents of change. Some of the ways the students developed critical literacy were specific to their situated privilege. These included recognizing their own privilege and role in maintaining oppression, understanding the dynamics of oppression, problematizing their own participation in dominant Discourses, identifying as allies, and developing an awareness and willingness to use their power to take social action.

This dissertation, the first book-length investigation of the works of Julia Franck, investigates representations of the mother-daughter relationship in Franck’s five major texts: Der neue Koch (1997), Liebediener (1999), Bauchlandung: Geschichten zum Anfassen (2000), Lagerfeuer (2003), and Die Mittagsfrau (2007). Specifically, it examines the roles of “daughter” and “mother” as social constructs, which are open to resignification and reinvestigation. In the introduction, I outline the trajectory of Franck’s career, focusing particularly on her relationship with feminist scholarship and her persona as a representative of feminism in the German media. In chapter 1, I begin with Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity and look for examples of performative identity in Franck’s works of fiction. I further destabilize identity in chapter 2 by demonstrating how identity is contingent on space, drawing on Marc Augé’s theory of “places” and “non-places.” In chapter 3, I demonstrate how psychoanalysis, as the primary theoretical lens through which the mother-daughter relationship has been viewed, conflicts with destabilized gender binaries, as laid out in chapter 1. Consequently, I argue, the psychoanalytic models of attachment and identity are not relevant to an investigation of the mothers and daughters in Franck’s works. I explain my theory of “maternal drag” in chapter 4. I argue that the mother figures in Franck’s novels exhibit a performative maternal identity, specifically one that so conflicts with expectations of the maternal that it calls into question those very expectations. Finally, in the conclusion, I consider the wider implications of my theory, particularly in light of the media discussions in Germany surrounding feminism, motherhood, and the decline in birth-rate.

This dissertation is an investigation of the spatial and temporal Othering of subjects, characters, and themes in German-language film and literature by means of a series of case studies, which illustrate a certain kind of alterity. This work offers a classification for a new type of Othering based on the interactions among gender, sexuality, and a notion of home or belonging. Heimosexuality, this kind of Othering, can appear when certain conditions are met: new bodies (corporeal constructions) will result from the combination of gender-sexual behaviors with notions of “home” and the pressures of abjection. The entities that emerge from this process operate in various spatiotemporalities, fusions of space and time with Otherness (allospaces and allotimes). Building on Sigmund Freud’s idea of the uncanny, chapter one provides and introduction to and foundation for the theoretical concepts employed throughout the dissertation by presenting a unique combination of phenomenological, psychoanalytic, feminist, and queer theories. ^ The following chapters demonstrate the application of these concepts to four main cultural products. Chapter two argues that the characters in Frank Wedekind’s play, “Frühlings Erwachen” (1891), affect/effect each other’s bodies and sexual identities, as the adolescent characters demonstrate the polymorphous nature of corporeal eroticism and its dependence on national ideas of respectability. Chapter three is an analysis of Robert Musil’s novel, Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß (1906), in which Foucauldian disciplinary power, colored by ideas of cultural propriety and social fitness, mold the sexualized and gendered methods by which privileged young men subjugate their surroundings. Chapter four is an examination of Kutlug Ataman’s film, Lola und Bilidikid (1999), in which “majority Germans” and “minority Germans” affect each other’s attempts to construct a home despite obstacles of race, gender, and sexuality. Chapter five examines Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss’s film, Zurück auf los (2000), and its presentation of the re-temporalization of its Afro-German, HIV-positive, gay protagonist. Chapter six, the conclusion, builds on the theory presented in chapter one and posits the simulacral nature of identity categories, including that of belonging, whether Othering takes place in a national or anational or post-national setting. ^

In this master thesis a category of men otherwise often taken for granted is examined: noncriminal,non-violent men. With the help of in-depth interviews with young men who havepreviously lived a life with drugs and criminal behaviour, I examine the young men's identityand masculinity projects. To do this, I use theories by researchers R.W. Connell and MichaelS. Kimmel, among others. It turns out that the young men use othering, distancing anddichotomization in their identity projects, and that they work very hard to build a newmasculinity, constructed as totally separated from their former one. They also work very hardto dichotomize their identities, separated in now/then, followed by dichotomies such aspure/impure, honest/criminal, good/bad, deep/shallow and communicative/closed-off. Theirpresent masculinity projects must be seen in a context of what can be called a regionalSwedish masculinity, where equality, fatherhood, communication and respect for women arecentral features. I claim that the young men in their masculinity projects work exceptionallyhard to reach this kind of masculinity, and that they, in their struggle to do this use discoursesof embodiment, class, (dis)ability, sex, and authenticity.

In indigenous African societies, cultural expectations compel women to restrict themselves from excelling in whatever they do as a way of conforming to prevailing customary expectations. This is because those women who are said to disregard cultural expectations by aspring to achieve more than their male conterparts face societal consequences. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Andrew Mellon Foundation. / African Languages / PhD / Unrestricted

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The underrepresentation and the stereotypical portrayal of women in the news media is an enduring matter. This thesis examines the gender representation and portrayal in news coverage of the underrepresentation of women at the United Nations’ 26th Conference of Parties (COP26). As frame of reference, the theories watchdog journalism, representation, feminist media, and homophily are used. The study conducts a manual content analysis on news reports and news tweets concerning the topic. The analysis focuses on four categories of women; reporters, sources, women who advocate for better representation at COP26, and women in relation to climate change. Previous research shows that women are underrepresented as reporters and sources in political news. However, this study concludes that women are highly represented in the news coverage of this topic, while men are almost totally absent. Furthermore, the study concludes that the women in the stories are portrayed in stereotypical ways. Women’s role as celebrities is highlighted and thereby other roles occupied by women are downplayed. Also, the stereotypical portrayals of women as victims and saviours in relation to climate change impacts are present in the analysed news reports and tweets. Further research is suggested in gender representation in media coverage of gender inequal representation.