This dissertation examines one season of episodes of the television show Extreme Makeover. It focuses on the efforts of the show's producers, managers and staff as well of the majority of makeover candidates to frame their surgeries, training/instruction, and stylistic changes as transformative—of both the physical body and essential identity or self. My methods included watching and taking extensive notes on 18 one-hour episodes in the 2004-2005 season and then subjecting them to inductive analysis with a goal of understanding (a) how alterations of the body (particularly via cosmetic surgeries) and (b) how transformations of the self and (c) how femininity and masculinity were depicted on the show. The literature I use to frame my analysis reflects the central themes that I discovered—including the subjective feelings that the makeover candidates reported but also the differential experiences of women versus men. My two analysis chapters reflect these themes. I attempt to situate the study in literature on "reality" television shows, theories of emotions and bodies, and theories of gender. I am especially interested throughout in how the body, or embodiment, is represented in the discourse of the show's authorities and makeover candidates. At the conclusion of my study, I attempt so show how my findings can extend theoretical and empirical work in five areas: on theoretical debates of free choice versus false consciousness in cosmetic surgery, on men's increasing investment in beauty practices, on discussion of hegemonic masculinity and hegemonic femininity, on the male gaze, and on the political economy of Extreme Makeover. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2007. / May 3, 2007. / Reality Television, Extreme Makeover, Media, Gender, Emotion, Embodiment / Includes bibliographical references. / Patricia Y. Martin, Professor Directing Dissertation; Leigh H. Edwards, Outside Committee Member; Douglas Schrock, Committee Member; Jill Quadagno, Committee Member.

Florida judges have the discretion to withhold adjudication for felony offenders sentenced to probation. This sentencing option allows offenders to retain all rights normally lost upon felony conviction within the state of Florida, including the right to vote and carry fire arms. Those who receive adjudication withheld can also legally assert that they are not convicted felons. In short, they suffer none of the associated "civil" or social penalties that generally accompany criminal conviction. This research investigates the direct impact of individual characteristics such as race, ethnicity and gender on the withholding of adjudication for a sample of probationers (N=120,771) convicted in Florida courts between 1999 and 2002. The study also examines the situational influence of crime type and the cross level impact of socially threatening conditions such as black and Hispanic unemployment, racial composition and concentrated disadvantage on the effect of individual traits using Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling. The results indicate that blacks and Hispanics have substantially lower chances than white offenders, with similar personal and legal attributes, to receive adjudication withheld. The influence of race and ethnicity on adjudication withheld is more prominent for drug offenders and for blacks in areas of high black unemployment and for both blacks and Hispanics in places with elevated levels of disadvantage. Gender also significantly impacts adjudication withheld with female offenders significantly more likely to receive this beneficial sentencing decision when compared to male offenders. Additionally, women convicted of atypical crimes such as murder and auto theft do not enjoy the sentencing advantage that other female offenders have over males. Overall, the chance of adjudication withheld for female offenders is substantially increased in areas with stronger female earnings. The race, ethnicity and gender findings are discussed within the social threat and social control theoretical framework. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2006. / March 17, 2006. / Threat, Gender, Ethnicity, Race, Social Control / Includes bibliographical references. / Theodore Chiricos, Professor Directing Dissertation; Richard Tate, Outside Committee Member; William Bales, Committee Member.

Autism has been constructed as a White male category. Currently, the prevalence ratio is 4 males to every 1 female diagnosed with autism. Historically, research studies supported these gender diagnostic gaps by claiming a genetic or hormonal causation. However, more recent research suggests that the gap in diagnosis is the cause of diagnostic bias, and instead, autism looks very different in women and girls compared to boys. Because autism is assumed to be a male category, autism intervention supports in schools do not reflect the needs of autistic girls. Missing from autism research are the narratives, perspectives, and expertise of autistic people and their care networks. The majority of autism research today comes from the psychological and epidemiology fields and examines causation and the biological factors of autism. Autism is constructed as a problem to be “solved” and the autistic person as someone to be “cured.” The majority of autism research is about autistic people rather than with autistic people. This research is framed by an intersectional Disability Studies (DS) theoretical stance that forefronts the experiences of disabled people and understands disability to be an essential aspect of a person’s identity, rather than a problem to be solved. Working narratively through multimodal data collection, this study privileges the sense making of three autistic women and honors their forms of expression and communication. The study also includes the perspectives of the participants’ mothers as essential aspects of their care networks. Through their stories, the expertise of autistic women is honored as essential to all conversations regarding schooling interventions for autistic youth. By exclusively focusing on women, I challenge the myth of autism as a male category and challenge a positivist autism research approach that ignores gender altogether.

The introduction of comments regarding the care of persons with gender identity disorder (GID) residing in prison settings began in 1998 with Version 5 of the Standards of Care (SOC), the first major revision of the SOC since 1985. Minor revisions to this brief section were made for Version 6 in 2001. Since 2001, there have been many legal and regulatory actions in countries where the SOC are widely used as the minimum standards to evaluate and treat persons with GID that have referenced this section in the SOC. The original paragraph addressing care for incarcerated persons has proven to be helpful by its existence, but limiting in its brevity and lack of scope. Version 7, likely to be a significant revision compared with the minor changes in Version 6, can be informed by the information that has come to light in the last 6 years, most notably through court actions that have used, or misused, the SOC. This invited article reviews the background of this section, rationale for revisions, suggested conceptual changes, and specific content for consideration for inclusion in Version 7 of the SOC.

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The “think leader, think male” phenomenon continues to persist in terms of implicit conceptualizations that people hold about leaders (Schein, 1973; Offermann & Coats, 2018). Men are often perceived as more suitable occupants of leadership roles than women, resulting in women leaders facing stereotype-based expectations. Being in a situation where the stereotype about women applies (i.e., leadership) has been found to be an antecedent to experiencing stereotype threat—the psychological threat of validating a stereotype about the indivdiual’s social group, which can have detrimental effects on performance and self-perceptions. This research focuses on how women leaders' positive gender identity (i.e., the favorable regard that a woman holds for her gender identity) may buffer against stereotype threat. We hypothesized that the more positive a woman's gender identity, the better she would cope with identity-threatening experiences in terms of better performance, better perceived performance, and reduced identity separation. To examine the impact of stereotype threat on female participants’ performance on a leadership task, 72 female participants were primed with a blatant stereotype threat before completing a managerial in-basket task. Contrary to our predictions, the results revealed that stereotype threat vulnerability did not have a direct negative impact on women's performance on the leadership task, or their perceptions of how well they performed. However, our findings confirmed a significant interaction between positive gender identity and stereotype threat vulnerability on identity separation, revealing that the association between stereotype threat vulnerability and identity separation was weaker at higher levels of positive gender identity. In other words, positive gender identity buffered against the negative effect of stereotype threat on women’s identity separation. The unexpected results and the failure of stereotype threat to evoke vulnerability responses suggest that further investigation of stereotype threat boundary conditions, situational cues, and effect sizes is needed. Limitations and future research directions are discussed. / M.S. / Stereotype threat, a psychological phenomenon where individuals fear confirming negative stereotypes about their social group, can negatively impact performance and self-perceptions. This study aimed to understand if a positive gender identity (a woman's favorable regard for her gender) could help counter stereotype threat among female leaders. The results showed that stereotype threat did not directly impact the participants' task performance or their perception of their performance. However, positive gender identity helped buffer against the negative effect of stereotype threat on women's identity separation. The findings suggest that more research is needed to understand the boundaries, situational cues, and effect sizes of stereotype threat.

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of the clinical practices emerging around gender non-conforming children in the U.S. It explores the epistemic, techno-scientific and socio-cultural conditions of the emergence of these clinical practices, their related diagnostic categories, and their convergence with categories of personhood among children, such as the transgender child. In addition to diagnostic practices, it analyzes the development of psychotherapeutic and medical treatments for gender atypical children, particularly the recent treatment named "puberty suppression." This ethnography includes the study of 1) the expert revision of the psychiatric category of Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood (GIDC) by the American Psychiatric Association for the fifth edition of the DSM, 2) the diagnostic and treatment practices at two major pediatric gender clinics in the U.S., one mainly psychiatric and one endocrine. This project explores the relation between the concept and clinical practice of GIDC, and links the production of global expert knowledge to the unfolding of events in local clinics. It examines discourses of gender, body, identity, and childhood that construct, and are produced by, these medical concepts and practices. It explores the contemporary scientific and cultural appeal of innate and interior origins of identity and difference, and the status of children as clinical subjects in establishing scientific evidence of truth and authenticity. It situates the current medico-cultural notion of the brain as the location of gender identity within the culturally and historically specific conceptions of the body and the soul and the modern accounts of "the self" as interiority and psychic depth.

All-girls schools are commonly framed as institutions meant to empower girls to be their best selves in an enriching environment that fosters learning, compassion, and success. In elite, private schools, notions of language, privilege, and place are often tethered to the school’s history and traditions in ways that are seamlessly woven into the cultural fabric of the institution, subsequently informing particular constructions of students. Therefore, a closer examination of the dialogic power of belonging and expectations between an institution and its members is required. Failure to interrogate language and power dynamics in privileged spaces can perpetuate systems and structures of exclusivity and prohibit the construction of authentically inclusive practices and place-making within educational institutions. This study, which took place at an elite, independent, private all-girls school (the Clyde School) on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, interrogates how ideations of girls and girlhood are constructed and promoted as part of a school’s institutional identity and, in turn, how members of the institution understand, negotiate, and reimagine ideals, expectations, and forms of membership within the Clyde School. Drawing on literature from sociocultural, sociolinguistic, and communications perspectives, and concepts of literacy, identity, and place as constructed, situated and practiced, this study highlights the importance of context and discourse when examining how young people understand themselves, others, and their socially-situated realities. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, multimodal media-making, and participant observations. The primary method of data analysis was a critical analysis of discourse—an examination of the language, beliefs, values, and practices that collectively work to construct a school’s institutional identity; and foster insight into how students perceive and challenge notions of what it means to be a student at the Clyde School. The findings of this case study offer analyses of individual, collective, and institutional identity/ies. It considers the discursive practices, critical literacies, and place-making processes that young people use to navigate and negotiate their experiences in a particular sociocultural ecology. This study contributes to understandings of girlhood, youth studies, and elite, private independent school settings and provokes further questions about the possibilities of disrupting storylines and re-storying pedagogies.

This study explored the personal narratives of six AFAB (“assigned female at birth”) singers – three cis and three trans/non-binary performers of varying ages, ethnicities and locales – to understand how their experiences informed their musical, vocal and gender identities and shaped their musical and vocal lives. Using semi-structured interview process, the singers recounted their memories and understanding of significant events in their development, and together, each singer and I explored those recollections through a process of collaborative self-exploration. Emerging themes from those narratives underscored the need for further investigation into the intersection of AFAB voice, singing and gender, as both existing literature and the results of this study suggest a deeper understanding of the issues around gender socialization, normative expectations and voice is necessary to appropriately and effectively prepare singers at all levels of their musical and vocal education. Study results found that there are many sources of socially-mediated influences which shape AFAB singers’ development of self, their individual and social identities, and their perceptions of their voice – particularly in the context of normative expectations that define gender and gender identities. While all study participants clearly experienced pleasure in musical performance, the narratives revealed a complex web of expectations and influences that contributed significant amounts of anxiety, with both physiological and psychological repercussions, to the performers’ lives. The ways in which the singers both fell victim to and addressed these sources of stress suggest many topics for further exploration and discussion within the professional voice and music education community, including the role of expert influence, the development of personal agency and perceived self-efficacy, as well as the need for individualized, holistic approaches to vocal pedagogy.