This thesis provides a comparative case study of two South African women's magazines, Cosmopolitan and True Love. The comparison is based on the fact that Cosmopolitan is an international magazine brand which is largely read by white women in this country, while True Love is a local publication produced for, and consumed by, black South African women. The case study makes use of both text and audience analysis. The text analysis begins as a genre study, in an attempt to 'denaturalize' the magazine form, and includes an intertextual analysis of the magazines and their secondary texts, or brand extensions. The magazine genre is considered from a cultural studies perspective and in the light of feminist media criticism. A reception analysis, informed by focus group research, provides the audience analysis component of this case study. Primarily, this thesis is concerned with the reception of women's magazines by teenage girls. It interrogates the assumption that, in the absence of a local 'teen' magazine industry and western rite-of-passage ritual, women's magazines serve as cultural developmental markers and informal educational devices in the passage from girlhood to adulthood. This study adopts a poststructuralist view on the self as socially constructed within discourse. In this view, the media serve as resources for identity construction and negotiation. Gender, a particular discourse organized around the constructs of 'masculinity' and 'femininity', is inscribed in the subject along with other discourses, such as those of race, class and ethnicity. Women's magazines, which provide an example of a 'women's genre', give 'femininity' a material form. Their glossy visual appeal is illustrative of the commodity fetishism associated with advanced capitalism and their continuing success demonstrates how consumption, identity and desire are intimately connected within postmodern consumer culture. Above all, this thesis recognizes that women's magazines are discursive sites-of-struggle which need to be considered from a position which is neither purely condemning nor purely celebratory, but finds instead a balance between 'creativity' and 'constraint'. Both the text-based and audience-centred components of this study draw on strands of discourse analysis. The critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Norman Fairclough informs the thesis as a whole but is applied specifically to the text analysis. The concept of 'interpretive repertoires' proposed by theorists who use discourse analysis in social psychology (DASP) is applied t6 the analysis of focus group material. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

La « petite fille modèle » conserve, encore de nos jours, une image valorisée au sein de certaines classes sociales. Partant de cet engouement, il est possible de percevoir quel serait, pour certains, une féminité légitime. Quels modèles constituent la représentation de la ballerine, personnage irréel et fantasmé des ballets, et l’image plus concrète de la danseuse professionnelle dans la socialisation des pratiquantes enfants de loisirs et les stratégies éducatives des mères ? L’approche socio-anthropologique soutenue par un apport historique vise à apporter des éléments de compréhension sur ce que font réellement les pratiquantes quand elles entrent dans la « maison des femmes » que constitue l’école de danse. Les mères interviewées semblent parfois parler d’une seule voix. Bien conscientes des stéréotypes de genre ayant cours dans notre société, proposer cette activité à leur(s) fille(s) serait pour elles une manière d’offrir à ces dernières des moyens d’action. La danse classique apparaît comme une activité « rentable ». La transmission de la féminité associée et l’apprentissage d’autres acquis transposables rentrent dans le cadre d’un projet beaucoup plus vaste : c’est un investissement pour le futur en ce qui concerne la scolarité, la profession, le lien social, la santé, la culture, la famille, etc.. Tout se joue alors dans la tension entre : ce qui serait positif dans cette pratique, l’acquisition de stratégies féminines, et ce qui y serait négatif, toucher au paroxysme des stéréotypes de genre. Dotées d’atouts et d’une connaissance fine des attentes de notre société envers elles, les nouvelles générations pourraient ainsi composer avec les règles du jeu social. / These days "little miss perfect" promotes an image within specific social classes. This bold statement, makes it possible to experience what would be, for some, real femininity. The ballet dancer represents an unreal figure, a fantasy from ballet and the most stereotypical image of the professional dancer in children socialising during their spare time and mother’s educational strategies ? The socio-anthropological approach supported by a historical contribution aim to bring comprehensive elements on what ballet dancers really do when they enter the « women house » that provide dancing schools. Interviewed mothers seem to sometimes speak with a single voice. Being well aware of gender stereotypes occurring in our society, suggesting this activity to their daughters may be a way for them to offer the most recent form of action. Ballet dancing appears to be a « profitable » activity. The display of femininity associated and learning other transposable knowledges fit within the framework of a much more global project: it’s an investment in the future of schooling, occupation, social issues, health, culture, family, etc… All will be decided in relations between: what will be positive in this practice, gaining femininity strategies, and what will be negative, such as gender stereotypes paroxysm. Rich in assets and excellent knowledge of societies expectations towards them, new generations could re write the social rules.

À travers cette étude, un essai théorique sur les dispositifs littéraires au cœur de l'écriture de la violence en Afrique subsaharienne au XXIe siècle sera proposé. L’objectif de ce travail sera de déterminer si l'existence d'un dispositif littéraire féminin émergeant en réaction à un contexte violent est envisageable. Le point d’orgue de cette étude sera de démontrer en quoi le dispositif littéraire est en interaction avec le dispositif violent en y instaurant à la fois ordre et désordre, au-delà des frontières génériques. Ces recherches s'axent autour de six œuvres rédigées entre 2000 et 2010. Tanella Boni, écrivaine et philosophe, sera mise à l’honneur à travers l’étude de deux romans : "Matins de couvre-feu" (2005) et "Les nègres n’iront jamais au paradis" (2006). À ces deux fictions sera greffé son opus poétique "Chaque jour l’espérance" (2002). Nous comparerons ces ouvrages à deux fictions et un recueil poétique de Véronique Tadjo : "L’ombre d’Imana : Voyages jusqu’au bout du Rwanda" (2000) et "Loin de mon père" (2010) et "A mi-chemin" (2000). / Through this study, a theoretical essay on literary devices at the heart of writing violence in sub-Saharan Africa in the twenty-first century will be proposed. The objective of this work will be to determine if the existence of a feminine literary device emerging in response to a violent context is conceivable. The highlight of this study will be to demonstrate how the literary device is interacting with the violent device by introducing both order and disorder, beyond the generic borders. This research focuses on six works written between 2000 and 2010. Tanella Boni, writer and philosopher, will be honored through the study of two novels: "Curfew" (2005) and "Negroes n ' will never go to heaven" (2006). To these two fictions will be grafted his poetic opus "Everyday Hope" (2002). We will compare these works with two fiction and a poetic collection of Veronique Tadjo: "The shadow of Imana: Travels to the end of Rwanda" (2000) and "Far from my father" (2010) and "Midway" (2000).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ.251-267)

Western society is pervaded by a value system that leads to a virtually natural discrimination against women and an accompanying unbridled “right” to Earth. Dichotomies, whereby, amongst others, masculinity is prioritized over femininity, lie at the heart of these value systems. These dichotomies are underpinned by the gender ideologies in the texts of the Old Testament that are regarded as normative. The possibility that creation texts of the Old Testament contain dimensions of ecojustice was foreseen, specifically regarding the potential femininity of the god constructs in cosmological texts. The ideological values leading to the construction of certain god characters were weighed up against the six principles of ecojustice promoted by the Earth Bible series. These principles are: intrinsic value, interconnectedness, voice, purpose, mutual custodianship and resistance to exploitation. The method of body criticism was employed in analyzing the texts and exposing the values foundational thereto. Body criticism as analytical tool is based upon the findings of modern cognitive science regarding the embodiment of thought, the cognitive unconscious as well as the metaphoricity of human abstract constructs. The paradigm or model of embodied realism was construed, wherein the body is regarded as “text” reflecting the deepest values and convictions of a community. God constructs represent the ideal symbolic body of a community, a regulating body that moulds and refines the values and norms of that community. In an ecojust phenomenology of the body, including the concepts of an ideal body and god constructs, gender will function as a dynamic interactive continuum. In the exposition of the body ideology of antique Israel, the focus was placed on the Israelite regulatory body in the form of God as foundation of the patriarchal ideology of the ancient world. That ideal or regulatory body was found to be decidedly male. The body critical analysis of Genesis 1:1-2:4a exposed that cosmogony as accommodating a metaphor of a god that is clearly and pertinently male. The god construct of the first creation narrative is a rhetorical power mechanism for the confirmation of male dominance. Values inherent to the god construct leave no room for Earth as equal subject. With the possible exception of a moment of wonderment and awe in Genesis 1:31, this text does not support the principles of ecojustice. The god metaphor in Psalm 74 is strictly and brutally male. Nature and Earth and her components simply form the stage on which the male dominated cult performs. The gender values underlying the god construct in Proverbs 8 and 9 represent the typical male-female dichotomy or duality. Woman Wisdom is a rhetorical power strategy employed in the service of the male God. The god character in Job 38:1-42:6 represents a contrast with the previous god constructs since hierarchized gender constructs seem to be absent. Multi-faceted gender continuum metaphorizations safeguard the god construct against one-sided and exclusive masculinity. A god construct and cosmology that serves ecojustice is constituted by the mutual incorporation of masculine and feminine values. The metaphor of a balanced body thus construed can be utilized as starting point for the regeneration of ecojust principles. Values wherein femininity is incorporated, specifically with regards to the construction of a god character, lead to a more just attitude towards Earth. Values that lead to the construction of a god character as male, or the metaphorization of a god as exclusively and one-sidedly masculine, lead to an attitude of disregard and destructiveness towards Earth. This hypothesis was confirmed by the findings of the body critical analysis of well known and important Biblical cosmological texts. Mutual incorporation of male as well as female values should constitute the god symbols of society. A society that share the conviction of ecojustice will deconstruct traditional polarizing gender categories and gender hierarchies and replace them with concepts such as the continuum of gender, empathic absorption, mutual incorporation and reciprocal constitution. / Prof. Hennie Viviers

S. Freud et J. Lacan, tout au long de leur élaboration ne cesseront, chacun à leur façon, de réaffirmer la place fondatrice, logique, du père dans la structuration du sujet. Position peu reconnue par les théories post-freudiennes, et qui trouvepourtant aujourd'hui une nouvelle actualité dans une culture situant dans le déclin du père la source de son malaise.« Qui est le père ? », « qu'est-ce qu'être père ? », « quoi dire au père ? ».... Le père pose de fait une question qui affronte le sujet à un réel, à un impossible à dire, tout en lui permettant de s’écrire.Ce travail de thèse se propose, d'une part, de montrer comment se pose et s’élabore la question du père chez Freud et Lacan. D'autre part, de ressaisir cette question dans sa fonction de nouage d'un « impossible à dire » et d'un « possible d'écrire », d'où va se déplier la logique d'une clinique du sujet en impasse. / S Freud and J. Lacan, throughout their elaboration will not stop, each in theirway, reaffirming the founding, logical place, of the father in the structuring of the subject. Position little recognized by the post-Freudian theories, and which finds nevertheless today a new current events in a culture placing in the declineof the father the source of its faintness.« Who is the father? », « what to be father? », « what tell the father? ».... The father asks de facto a question which faces the subject in a reality, in an impossible to be said, while allowing him to spell.This work of thesis suggests, on one hand, showing how settles and develops the question of the father at Freud and Lacan. On the other hand, to seize again this question in its function of knotting of a « impossible to be told » and of a« possible to write », where from is going to unfold the clinical logic of the subject in dead end.

The thesis analyzes the instruments of gender stereotypes reproduction and gender identity construction in Czech TV series Dokonalý svět. Is the media content gendered? With which instruments of gender stereotypes reproduction and gender identity construction is TV viewer confronted and on which levels? I use the theory of social construction of reality, the theory of the lenses of gender or the characters and narrative structure of the TV series (soup opera) to come to a conclusion. The thesis focuses on the fact that Dokonalý svět does not only reflect the stereotypes on the other hand. It confronts the standard gender orders by the comic character. The comedy character ridicules some gender stereotypes and shakes their social status.

Our concern in this work was a shared field of study between gender and sexuality in the search of underlying variables of sexual behavior. Basically our scope was to gather data to empirically support one of the theoretical approaches of sex differences in sexual behavior - essentialism, explaining behavior on the basis of biological sex or evolution; or social constructionism applying variables like gender or masculinity and feminity. For this purpose, 602 participants (166 men, 436 women), aged 18-45 yr., filled out the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and the Inventory of Sexual Behavior. Results in general support the social constructionism approaches, as in the most types of sexual behavior we found differences between gender groups, but not between the sexes. However, explanations provided by theories of essentialism should not be discarded, as there were also differences between sexes in few specific areas of human sexuality, namely masturbation, and overall sexual activity. Key words: gender, sexuality, masculinity, feminity, sexual behavior, sex differences

This thesis critically analyzes some measures of masculinity and femininity. Special attention is paid primarily to a BSRI (Bem Sex-Role Inventory), which is the most widespread but completely invalid instrument for measuring gender identity. At the same time, there is presented an alternative approach to the topic of gender identity based on an application of statistical discriminant analysis technique to generally shared stereotypical evaluations of typical men and women. In empirical part, proposed approach is successfully tested in practice by creating an index of masculinity / femininity. Results of analyzes of relations between the determined gender identity and various other components of gender belief system (cognitive gender schematization, an explicit M / F and gender attitudes) suggest the validity of this approach. Between feminity (regardless of sex) and a measure of traditional gender attitudes has been found small but significant negative correlation (rs = -0.3). Keywords: masculinity, feminity, discriminant analysis, critique of BSRI

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1995. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 48).