In this dissertation, I examine relationships between gender and agency in the works of Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell. Gaskells position within discussions of nineteenth-century feminisms has long been a subject of debate, and her celebration of and focus on femininity, womens lives, and the domestic sphere of nineteenth-century womanhood is inevitably crucial in critical analyses of her work. I argue that Gaskells take on gender is a more sophisticated one than has been recognised. In her fictional depictions of the agency and power of women and men, as well as in commentary from her correspondence and her biography of her friend and contemporary woman author Charlotte Brontë, Gaskell conceives of the traditionally feminine sphere of influence as more conducive to action than the masculine realm, where notions of authority and responsibility paradoxically place limits on individual ability and agency. These ideas are further complicated in Gaskells work by an awareness of the constructed or unfixed nature of gender, a conscious recognition of gender roles as not essentially tied to sex difference but rather as fluid, mutable, and primarily utilitarian.<p> My argument situates Gaskells position contextually, with reference to contemporary nineteenth-century discussions of the roles and expectations of men and women. It is organised in terms of the thematic focus of her novels, with chapters on industry and class relations, fallen women, religion and marriage, and home and family. Within this framework I suggest a progression in the complexity of Gaskells thinking both chronologically and in the shift of focus from topics that are centered in masculine spheres of power, such as the economic, political, and religious, to those that are firmly ensconced in the feminine domestic realm of the personal home and local community. I end with a discussion of The Life of Charlotte Brontë and Gaskells thoughts on female authorship, concluding that Gaskells locating of agency in the feminine is a means by which she can promote alternative ways of being and recognize that diverse ways of seeing the world and ones own identity or position within it are essential in order to create and maintain effective societies.

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. / February 2009

Current scholarship on contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare MBE focuses on analyzing his deconstruction of identities through ready-made cultural paradigms epitomized by the use of Dutch wax textiles as an expression of “African-ness.” Through subversive tactics, Shonibare creates disoriented views of power that unveil the masquerade of identity. What is often unstated within this critique, however, is the role of the feminine performance. From the swinging maiden to the ballerina sur les pointes, women and femininity maintain an indelible role in Shonibare’s production. Thus, by evaluating gender with greater precision, I will highlight Shonibare’s dependency on stereotypes of femininity and the female body for cultural intelligibility.

In this dissertation, I examine relationships between gender and agency in the works of Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell. Gaskells position within discussions of nineteenth-century feminisms has long been a subject of debate, and her celebration of and focus on femininity, womens lives, and the domestic sphere of nineteenth-century womanhood is inevitably crucial in critical analyses of her work. I argue that Gaskells take on gender is a more sophisticated one than has been recognised. In her fictional depictions of the agency and power of women and men, as well as in commentary from her correspondence and her biography of her friend and contemporary woman author Charlotte Brontë, Gaskell conceives of the traditionally feminine sphere of influence as more conducive to action than the masculine realm, where notions of authority and responsibility paradoxically place limits on individual ability and agency. These ideas are further complicated in Gaskells work by an awareness of the constructed or unfixed nature of gender, a conscious recognition of gender roles as not essentially tied to sex difference but rather as fluid, mutable, and primarily utilitarian.<p> My argument situates Gaskells position contextually, with reference to contemporary nineteenth-century discussions of the roles and expectations of men and women. It is organised in terms of the thematic focus of her novels, with chapters on industry and class relations, fallen women, religion and marriage, and home and family. Within this framework I suggest a progression in the complexity of Gaskells thinking both chronologically and in the shift of focus from topics that are centered in masculine spheres of power, such as the economic, political, and religious, to those that are firmly ensconced in the feminine domestic realm of the personal home and local community. I end with a discussion of The Life of Charlotte Brontë and Gaskells thoughts on female authorship, concluding that Gaskells locating of agency in the feminine is a means by which she can promote alternative ways of being and recognize that diverse ways of seeing the world and ones own identity or position within it are essential in order to create and maintain effective societies.

Although many critics, and Eavan Boland herself, have written about how her poetry functions to reclaim the Irish feminine image from its static position as lyric representation of the nation, much remains to be said about how Boland represents and reimagines Ireland in her poetry. Using the metaphor of cartography, which Boland frequently refers to in her writing, I argue that she lyrically "maps" the nation across space, time, and language. Her palimpsestic poetic maps of Ireland include what a mere pictorial representation could never, and what prior male-written poetry never did, show: the space of a Dublin suburb, the history of her marriage, the mental scarring of an imposed English language represented as physical fractures on skin or land. Her own subjectivity is the most important component of this map, and so she liberally inserts fragments of her own life into pre-existing national narratives. Through close readings of poems published between 1990 and 2007, I explore how Boland mixes national history, geography, family stories, and memories of her own life to arrive at a poetic "structure extrinsic to meaning which uncovers / the inner secret of it" (ITV 47). This is not a truth about history, nor merely a declaration that women, particularly Irish women, have been silenced in poetry and history. Instead, the inner secret is her own recognition of the connection between herself and the women of whom she writes, as well as her readers; that the framework she builds from pieces of the past provides a way to understand our current selves. Boland remains conscious of the constructed nature of this framework in each poem where she challenges official narratives and maps of the nation, replacing their truth with her own. She loads specific places, histories, and uses of language, as well as the ideas of these things themselves, with complex and even contradictory meanings. Her poems represent not the truth but a truth, and one which has been carefully crafted at that. Put together, these explorations of "Ireland" and all its various truths constitute an imaginative map of the nation as she perceives it.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 123 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-71).

This essay, entitled Masculinities and Femininities in Vilhelm Moberg's Raskens and Mans kvinna, is about the masculinities and the femininities that are depicted in Vilhelm Moberg's two novels Raskens (1927) and Mans kvinna (1933). The theory consists of masculinity studies and femininity studies which are complemented with historical research about masculinity and femininity. In my analysis I found several motives concerning the masculinities and femininities. The motives are infidelity, possession of property and land, appearance, revenge, violence and alcohol. The ideal man in Moberg's novels is tall, strong and strong-willed. The two male main characters, Rasken and Håkan, have this in common, even though they have very different goals in their lives. One thing that is different about the masculinities portrayed in the novels is that possession of property and land is depicted as desirable in Raskens, while freedom from property is desirable in Mans kvinna. The ideal woman, at least the woman who is desired by the men in the novels, is young and beautiful, but also hardworking and industrious. At large, it is a traditional and norm based image of the woman and the man that is described in the novels. However, Moberg problematises these images by showing the women's vulnerability and how the men's "manly" behaviour leads to destructiveness.

This work fills a gap in research on Indonesian popular culture by delving into the presentation of femininity and masculinity in Indonesian music videos. Through a textual analysis of four videos, a survey of the video YouTube comments, and interviews with Indonesians about these videos, the author examines the presentation of Order/Chaos and other Male/Female binaries in the music videos and their relationship with the current pop culture and political environment.

Bakalauro darbo ,,Moteriškumo ženklai“ objektas – moteriškumo esmė ir ją išreiškiantys simboliai. Teorinėje darbo dalyje moteriškumo samprata nagrinėjama mitologiniu, etnokultūriniu bei šiuolaikiniu aspektais, analizuojama minėto reiškinio simbolika, atkreipiant dėmesį į vieną iš pagrindinių dabarties problemų - tikrosios moteriškumo esmės praradimą. Archetipinis moters kaip namų, šeimos, dorovinių vertybių saugotojos statusas, jos siejimas mitologinėje sąmonėje su Motina Žeme šio darbo tikslo – sugrąžinti šiuolaikinį pasaulį (su moterimi) prie tikrosios moteriškumo esmės – turinį. Nors dabartinis sociumo kontekstas aktualizuoja aktyvią, nepriklausomą, seksualią moterį, tačiau visa tai, remiantis šiuolaikinės literatūros ir dailės patirtimi, čia nėra laikoma idealu. Moteris ir toliau lieka gėrio ir grožio įsikūnijimu. Pažeidus šiuos principus, ji tampa nelaiminga (J. Ivanauskaitės, J. Skablauskaitės proza ir kt.). Kūrybiniame darbe ryškią opoziciją šiuolaikinio gyvenimo disharmonijai sudaro gamtos motyvai, reprezentuojantys moters ir gamtos (žemės) paskirtį – vaisingumą ir gyvastingumą. Kompozicijoje ,,Moteriškumo ženklai“ ryškiausi gamtos motyvai: mėnuo, lietus, sėklos, daigai – simboliai, reiškiantys vaisingumą. Jais siekiama atskleisti Motinos Žemės ir Moters prigimties tapatumą bei Didžiąją Paskirtį drastiškojo XXI a. akivaizdoje. Neatsitiktinai tekstilės kompozicijoje panaudota retos kiauraraščių technikos ornamentika. Interpretuojant atskirus jos motyvus – rombus... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The object of the bachelor work “The Signs of Femininity” is the essence of femininity and symbols expressing it. In the theoretical part of the work the conception of femininity is analysed in mythological, ethnocultural and modern aspects. Moreover, symbolism of the phenomenon mentioned above is examined when spotlighting one of the major contemporary problems, i.e., the loss of real essence of femininity. According to the female archetype status, a woman is treated as a custodian of home, family and moral values as well as associated with the Mother Earth in the mythological consciousness. Fertility and ability to create a new life is considered as the biggest gift of a woman’s nature. However, at the beginning of 21st century the role and image of a woman has considerably changed. Though an outwardly active, independent and sexy woman is actualized in contemporary society, nevertheless, with reference to the experience based on contemporary literature and arts, this type of woman is not considered the ideal. It appears that a woman still remains the embodiment of goodness and beauty. In the creative part of the work nature motifs representing the mission of a woman and the nature (the Mother Earth), i.e., fertility and vitality, stands in opposition to the disharmony of contemporary life. In the decorative textile composition “The Signs of Femininity” nature motifs, such as the moon, rain, seeds and sprouts are prevailing and serve as fertility symbols that help to... [to full text]

As a contraceptive technology, women’s sterilization is a medical event that is uniquely situated in relation to the dominant discursive link between women and reproduction. Intended as a contraceptive option that permanently ends a woman’s potential ability to sexually reproduce, women’s sterilization presents a significant point for exploring the discursive formation of femininity, and how the concepts thereof relate to broader questions of access, control, and regulation of sterilization and the female sterilization patient. This study uses a Foucauldian feminist theory of discourse to explore such questions in a qualitative discourse analysis of women’s sterilization, from both a historical perspective and from within contemporary medical texts. Sterilization has had a particularly tumultuous history in the provision of reproductive healthcare for women; situated within public health and welfare discourse that differentiates the “unfit” from the “fit” reproducers, women have been forcibly sterilized under classist and racist eugenic programs, while subtle yet coercive forms of sterilization abuse continue to occur as inequality of reproductive healthcare access is an ongoing issue for immigrant women, poor women, and women of colour. In light of this historical analysis, as well as the impact of feminist and bioethics discourse upon contemporary medical practice, an analysis of medical texts further explores the association of women with reproduction in the discursive form of the sterilization patient. This study argues that the sterilization patient is situated within a discourse of ideal femininity, associated with normalized forms of mothering, sexuality, and family structure. Given the historical link between the discursive “fit” reproducer, these concepts have continued implications for women’s experience of accessing sterilization as a contraceptive option. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2007-07-17 17:09:15.595