<p>Syftet med denna studie är att belysa feminismens mångfald i förhållande till pornografi och därmed undersöka om feministisk pornografi, är genomförbart att producera. Som bisyfte har jag även resonerat kring om detta fenomen är en positiv utveckling för feminismen. Genom en kvalitativ textanalys och utifrån en queer och radikalfeministisk teoribildning har novellsamlingen Närstrid: Vanessa, vilken utger sig för att innehålla feministisk pornografi, analyserats. Resultatet visar att antologin uppnår kriterierna för vad feministisk pornografi innebär, men dock ter sig de återkommande verbala som fysiska maktuttrycken paradoxala att använda i kampen för jämställdhet.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Faculty of the Divinity School, August 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

This essay is a close reading of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: a Biography that focuses on representation of gender in the novel and the possible response it elicits in the reader. The essay argues that the implied reader of Orlando - as manifested in the novel - is a feminist one, as well as it explores the possibility of this implied feminist reader being a female. The reasons as to why this could be are extensively examined by analyzing the main character Orlando as he metamorphoses from an English nobleman into a grown woman. To support the thesis, the essay looks both into reader response criticism and feminist criticism to clarify what an implied reader actually is. The similarities between Orlando and “A Room of One’s Own” are also touched upon as these suggest that the implied reader is a feminist. The essay then takes a closer look at the narrator of the novel and what this narrator suggests about the identity of the implied reader of the novel. In addition to this it is also concluded that s/he controls the reader’s perception of Orlando’s gender in the novel, and that this also echoes the ideals presented in “A Room of One’s Own”. The essay concludes that the implied reader of Orlando indeed is a feminist, but not necessarily a female one.

This thesis concerns African women’s experience of comprehensive vulnerability, and a proposal to develop an African Women’s’ Public Theology to enable the church in Africa to adequately respond to that vulnerability. The research involved a case study of 126 women in the Kenyan district of Meru South undertaken through interviews, focus groups and participant observation, and revealed that women experience vulnerability in eight key areas, namely, Domestic violence, Inheritance, HIV and AIDS, Education, Health, Female Genital Mutilation, Polygamy and a lack of control and access to property. The thesis argues that this constitutes a comprehensive experience of vulnerability that has five fundamental causes, namely, Patriarchal traditions and customs; Poverty; Policies and law; Religion and the church; and Internalisation. The thesis then examines an appropriate response from Christians and the Church to this experience of comprehensive vulnerability. It notes that many of these concerns are voiced by African Women’s’ Theology, but that in order to adequately deal with the experiences and causes of women’s vulnerability identified in the research there is a need to engage the field of public policy, constitution and law making to really make a difference. An engagement with the male theologians, Duncan Forrester, Jesse Mugambi and Charles Villa-Vicencio provides the impetus to develop a public theology, whilst at the same time the thesis offers a gender sensitive critique of these attempts. Any public theology needs a social theory in order to engage the public sphere, and this thesis examines the work of the feminist philosopher and jurist, Martha Nussbaum in promoting the Human Capabilities Approach. We examine her formal proposal of ten fundamental human capabilities that should be supported by states and governments. Her work is affirmed for three important reasons, namely, it deals with the reality of women on the ground as revealed through the field research, it provides a public way of dealing with this vulnerability that is not based on one faith tradition, and yet thirdly, it is congruent with a Biblical faith that promotes Human Dignity, Freedom and Justice. In drawing the research to a close the thesis proposes an African Women’s Public Theology with the following seven characteristics. African Women’s Public Theology (i) is a member of the family of African Women’s Theologies, (ii) is grounded in the reality of the lives of African women, characterized by comprehensive vulnerability; (iii) claims the right for women to do theology in the public arena; (iv) works self-consciously in an inter- disciplinary manner; (v) challenges the church to be more active in seeking social justice, with an emphasis on gender justice; (vi) focuses on women’s capabilities – what they are actually able to be and to do; and (vii) challenges the hitherto male-dominated public theologies to take seriously the concerns, wisdom and passion of women seeking gender justice in Africa. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

This paper examines whether Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg demonstrates any evidence of a "feminine voice" in her opinions. There has been much jurisprudential literature written recently regrading the possible existence of a "feminine voice." This paper surveyes the literature and defines what is meant by a "feminine voice." The paper proceeds to analyze some of Justice Ginsburg's opinions to determine if a "feminine voice" is present. This study focuses on four areas of law the literature suggests evidence of a "feminine voice" might be found: cases involving gender, race, the Establishment Clause, and physician-assisted suicide. With the exception of cases concerning race, no evidence of a "feminine voice" was found. In race cases, there is evidence to suggest that Justice Ginsburg arrives at her decision in a way that is different from her male colleagues. The lack of evidence of a "feminine voice" in the other areas does not mean that no such voice exists; rather, it is just not present in all of the decisions written by Justice Ginsburg. The paper concludes that, at least in cases involving race, Justice Ginsburg does reason in a "feminine voice." While this is a narrow finding, the fact that there is evidence of a "feminine voice," at least in some cases, suggests that gender does play a role in judicial decision-making at the United States Supreme Court level. / Department of Political Science

This thesis provides a comparative analysis of the gender-differentiated outcomes of three different types of development models implemented in Latin America: industrialization by import substitution, structural adjustment programs, and the agroexport model. In undertaking this thesis, I attempted to answer three related questions: first, were women affected differentially than men were by the implementation of these three models. Second, if women were differentially affected, was their experience also conditioned by other factors, like the sector in which they found employment, their location in rural or urban environments, and their level of education. Finally, given that both of the answer to the former two questions was yes, I attempted to answer the question of why this was happening. In answering this final question, I used the analytical framework provided by feminist economics. Ultimately, I posited that while women’s differential experience was determined in part by certain domestic and individual level factors, like cultural norms and laws preventing women from working in the formal economy, much of their experience has to do with the male bias that inheres in much of classical and neoclassical economic theory.

The concept of human dignity is a contested term but it is also vital in the world where there are many forms of violations that challenge human beings. The concept of human dignity is crucial in that it affects all spheres of life such as religion, employment, economics, politics and so on. The world of work is another area where several forms of oppression and exploitation are manifested and in the process the human dignity of workers is greatly compromised. As the world of work is a vast subject to be discussed in one dissertation, a specific area needs to be explored in order to understand violations of human dignity. In this regard, experiences of women in paid domestic work in Malawi provide an opportunity of understanding the violations of human dignity and ways in which theology can assist in promoting the concept of human dignity. The aim of this research project is to establish how the concept of human dignity can be promoted in women domestic work in Malawi. This dissertation is developed through the works of African women theology which is grouped within the family of liberation theologies. This research study uses theological underpinnings of African women theologians who belong to the Circle of Concerned Women African Theologians (hereinafter, the Circle). The prominent members of the Circle such as Musimbi Kanyoro, Mercy Oduyoye, Denise Ackerman, Isabel Phiri and Fulata Moyo just to mention a few, present theological insights that encompass a theoretical focus of human dignity. This concept of human dignity is needed both in the church and society. The study is based on the broad framework of African women theology with a special focus on the following concepts: feminist cultural hermeneutics, gender analysis, narrative theological discourses, partnership and prophetic witness. It is also appreciated that African women theologians do not isolate themselves from global feminism; as a result, works of Rebecca Chopp will also be used in this dissertation. In many cases forms of oppression that are manifested in women domestic service such as sexual violence and humiliation, economic exploitation and powerlessness are a result of violations of human dignity. Such violations have adverse effects on the life and general health of women who work in domestic service in Malawi. It is then suggested that a clear understanding and application of the concept of human dignity in African women theology serves as a tool for social transformation in women domestic service, that is, making workplaces for women domestic work to be favourable for women in Malawi and beyond in the 21st century. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

James Deen and his distinct following of fans has allowed for a discussion of what pornography means to women and teenage girls to be teased out. His fans are vocal, public and unashamed in their fascination with him, dismissing previously held ideologies that porn be a clearly private activity that is shameful to be addressed publicly; especially for women. James Deen’s uniquely unintimidating demeanor, both physically and personally, has made him more forgivable for his mistakes (i.e. rape “joke” Tweets), evidence of an intense desire for women to find porn that they can relate to and positively consume. Despite his shortcomings, James Deen is immensely popular among women and because of this, brings to light my critique of the limited definition of feminist pornography as it stands today in academia. James Deen works against the grain of the porn industry, representing a new type of porn star that lends women their own gaze and further access to genuine pleasure intended for them. When James Deen breaks the common subject-object barrier of mainstream porn by pleasuring women on-screen, he disrupts the visual coding that holds the patriarchal gaze together at its seams, and works to produce female pleasure as a sexual truth. Not only that, but his consciousness around consent further allows women to be able to identify sexual pleasure with roles of submission. This construction of power-knowledge-pleasure to include women, and enthusiastic consent, aligns him with feminist porn aims to primarily focus on women, sexual openness and not shame, and sex positivity and not negativity. Moving beyond the foci of James Deen’s films and his personality, the theory of disidentification is integral to understanding some women’s relationship with him, and how even the more complicated aspects of porn should be considered for inclusion within the definition of feminist porn. To ignore this survival tactic is to silence women’s participation in an already exclusionary industry. To include disidentificatory practices in feminist porn is to take into account the convoluted, nonlinear and illogical ways women and teenage girls are consuming porn. When the definition is opened up to include all porn that “works on and against dominant ideology” (as James Deen’s does), experienced anxieties due to inconsistencies between one’s erotics and politics can be relieved, fantasy is further understood as a real and validated sexual tool, and masochism’s role in porn is logically brought into this dialogue. When fantasy is accepted as a complex and mysterious phenomenon, disenfranchised demographics such as women are given license. Masochism is no longer limited to an absent and repressed tendency that places women in a punished state. James Deen’s masochistic aesthetic threatens patriarchal dogma and offers up something new to the world of pornography. While James Deen does not profess to be a feminist, his porn practices and personality set him apart from the majority of the mainstream porn world and within the feminist porn sphere. In the end, the good that he is doing in providing women and teenage girls an option in an otherwise barren landscape of phallocentric porn should be enough to earn him academic scholarship and inclusion in the realm of feminist pornography.

“‘Am I Sexy Yet?’: Contextualizing the Movement of Exotic Dance and Its Effects on Female Dancers’ Self-image and Sexual Expression” looks at exotic dancing in three contexts––a pole fitness studio, a strip club, and a college dance concert––and how the movement is experienced by the dancers in each space. It questions how the movement changes meaning for the dancers, audience, and mainstream culture based on the context and location, even with similar content. Specifically, it analyzes how the experiences of the dancers affect their self confidence, sexuality, and sexual expression. Then, it applies Audre Lorde's “Uses of the Erotic” to their experiences to show how this movement can be looked at through a different lens as deeper, more freeing, and more transgressive than it is usually thought to be.