Thesis (Ph.D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2006. / Document formatted into pages; contains v, 109 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of Utah, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [51]-52). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of Utah, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [51]-52).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [72]-77).

The apostle Paul's presentation of his own physical body within the Corinthian correspondence functions as a gender-nuanced argument for authoritative leadership that mirrors the humiliated and shameful glory of the crucified Christ. Paul is committed to exercising his authority only in keeping with weakness, lack of rhetorical power, and feminized shame. He boasts that his own servile and feminizing sufferings are patterned after those of Christ. Even the apostle's apparently glorious experiences are accompanied by the infliction of suffering and the removal of an ability or right to speak. Lastly, his Sinai account demonstrates that even Paul's boast of open speech and self-disclosure is implicated in a feminizing act of unveiling his own shame and weakness. Even as he argues for his superiority to Moses on the basis of what at first glance appears to be a masculine apostolic boldness, the apostle's status is called into question. For his boldness and openness of self-presentation habitually reveal Paul to be shamefully weak and socially feminized. Paul's willing self-humiliation is predicated upon an insistence that in his body he will mirror the socially-gendered shame and weakness of the glorious and powerful crucified Christ.

This study reports the systematic collection of accounts from 204 transsexual subjects, most of whom attended the Gender Identity Clinic at Charing Cross Hospital (Fulham). A review of the literature covers cross gender behaviour in other societies, recent biological, social and psychological studies on gendered and cross gendered behaviour, a medical history of transsexualism and 'sex reassignment surgery'. Psychological 'frames' for the study of cross gendered careers are derived from attributional theories, and symbolic interactionist approaches to the construction of sexual categories of behaviour and experience. The collection of accounts follows a methodology derived from Harr & and his associates' ethogenic approach to the study of social behaviour, and the principles of generating 'grounded (sociological) theory' propounded by Glaser and Strauss. There is a short statistical section on the population of research subjects as a whole. Transexuals' accounts, some 500 exerpts, are marshalled under nearly 200 headings and subheadings. These cover almost all areas of relevant life experience. The conclusions argue that there is a fundamental weakness in the imposition of psychiatric 'syndromes' on gender dysphoric phenomena. Rather, 'gender dysphoric careers' are proposed as fluctuating enterprises in the construction of meanings, some meanings being more fateful and workable than others. An attributional -'imaginative involvement' model to account for transsexualism is explicated. The implications which can be drawn from this, for the way the management of these unfortunate people could be improved, completes the text.

M.A. / This research study was undertaken from a social constructionist perspective. It aims to explore the impact of the emergence of female equality on the South African Male identity. Specifically the researcher tried to investigate how men from different racial and cultural groups cope with changes brought about by the new democracy and gender equality. The first part of the dissertation consists of a review of the literature on the shift from modernism to postmodernism. It includes postmodernist ideas on language, meaning, narrative and the social construction of gender as well as identity. The literature study further provides an overview of the different feminisms. Male identity is then reviewed highlighting the different factors that contribute to its formation, maintenance, as well as its expression in the South African context. In line with the researcher’s epistemology, the methodology was qualitative in nature and semi-structured interviews were used. The narratives of the participants were subjected to a thematic analysis. The significant themes that emerged from the analysis are presented in the results chapter. It is evident from the narratives of the research participants that some males are experiencing difficulty in trying to adapt to the emerging female conscience. It has also been noted that although men are now taking on a greater childcaring role and placing more emphasis on relationships such change seems to be occurring on a very small scale. The slow change in gender roles can be attributed to the normative structure of the patriarchal cultures in South Africa that make role change difficult. The results are thus discussed in light of the literature study as well as the South African context. Finally a conclusion is offered together with the reflections of the researcher and a discussion of the limitations of the study. Lastly recommendations are made in the hope that it would help psychologists, sociologists and lawmakers’ work towards a better understanding of men’s position in society and their fears. It is only through understanding both sides that one can facilitate better gender relationships. / Ms. Brenda Radebe

Ariake no Wakare was thought to be a lost tale, but its unique manuscript was rediscovered in the early 1950s. Thirteenth-century references and internal evidence suggest a date of composition in the 1190s by an author in Teika's circle, and attest to Ariake's prominence in the thirteenth-century prose fiction canon. Thematically, it is virtually a 'summa' of previous monogatari themes woven together with remarkable dexterity and often startling originality. The term giko monogatari, 'pseudo-classical tales,' widely used to describe such late Heian and Kamakura period tales, and the associated style term gikobun, turn out to be Meiji era coinages with originally much wider and less pejorative connotations - a change perhaps related to contemporary language debates that valorized vernacular writing styles. The use of respect language and narrative asides, and the interaction between the narration and the plot, evokes a narrator with a distinct point of view, and suggest she may be the lady-in-waiting Jiju, making the text more explicitly autobiographical, and perhaps accounting for aspects of the narrative structure. Statistical information about Ariake, and analysis of respect language and certain fields of the lexicon reveal that Ariake is linguistically much closer to the Genji than are the few other giko monogatari for which information is available, but there are also a few very marked differences. Similar analysis of other giko monogatari would clarify whether these differences are characteristic of the subgenre or peculiar to Ariake no Wakare. Ariake no Wakare critiques male behaviour in courtship and marriage, and explores female-to-male crossdressing; the male gaze (kaimami); incestuous sexual abuse; both male and female same-sex and same-gender love; spirit possession in a context of marriage, pregnancy, and rival female desires, and other instances of the conspicuously gendered supernatural; and the gendered significance of genealogy. The treatment of gender roles and sexuality focuses on the interaction of performance skill and innate ability or inclination, and presents the mysterious beauty of the ambiguously gendered and liminally human, while genealogy is celebrated as privileged female knowledge. The text simultaneously invites and resists modern modes of reading. Rather than merely imitative, Ariake's treatment of familiar elements with changed contexts and interpretations produces both nostalgia and novelty. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

This thesis explores how gender and sexuality are expressed in southern Manabí Province, Ecuador. The study employs ethnographic methods to recruit local people who identify as LGBTQ (called LGBTI regionally) to participate in interviews on sexuality and gender identity/expression. Based on this research, I explore the construction of “gay” in this part of Ecuador as identity and performance; additionally, reflective viewpoints of those who self-identify as “gay” are thematically incorporated. The term “gay” is used to describe a spectrum of identities that include: homosexual, transformista, travestí, transexual, and transgénero. These identities are not necessarily static, as many individuals traverse categories in a culturally specific progression that I describe. I propose that coastal Ecuadorians utilize a structuring of sexualities and genders within the region that challenges Western LGBTQ+ labels. This research suggests a new regional depiction of non-conforming identities and their manifestations through language, shared strife, communal beliefs, and individual experience. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (MA)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

By posing a provocative question, “What is a Woman?” this thesis intended to deconstruct normative conceptions of womanhood which are essentialised to marriage. To achieve these ends, I located the key questions of this thesis within intersecting theoretical premises of decolonial, African and Black feminisms. Intersectionality augmented by the framework of uMakhulu , that privileges the indigenous world-senses, are the tools of analysis to achieve better insight into how notions of womanhood bear multiplicities, complexities and ambiguities. Through the narrated life-stories of twenty ‘unmarried’ Basotho women (Methepa), I explored re-constructions of womanhood and the role of women’s agency in this process. Through these ‘invisibilised’ narratives, it is established that womanhood and the meanings thereof are located within a messy terrain of intersecting religio-socio-cultural and indigenous forces. I argued that these beg unpacking in identity re-construction to reveal multidimensional and complex constructions of Mosotho womanhood. Untangling these intricacies provides an anchor for deconstructing, and finally debasing, colonial hetero-patriarchal eurocentric universalism that plagues contemporary constructions of womanhood essentialised to marriage. At the core of this thesis lies the contention that ‘unmarried’ Basotho women (Methepa) are agents who are aware of the gendered social, cultural, religious terrain that necessitates marriage; which in turn, shapes their constructions of womanhood and agency. Unstructured interviews on past lived experiences of childhood and adulthood reveal self-definition characteristic to ‘unmarried’ Basotho women’s (Methepa) agency constructed and enacted within the locus of marginality. Within the analytic chapters titled ‘(Re)construction of womanhood’ is an appreciation of how women’s agency and their re-constructions of womanhood are shaped by childhood experiences of ‘becoming’ Woman as reflected upon in the chapter titled ‘The young Mosotho girl’. These chapters reflect the continuities of time; ‘then-now’ and space; ‘there-here’, to illustrate how ‘unmarried’ women’s senses of self and subjectivities are located in intersecting ‘modern’ Christianised and ‘indigenous’ terrains. Moreover, the findings reveal multiple reconfigurations of womanhood characterised by a complex, contradictory and convoluted enmeshment of multiple forces borne out of the world-senses of ‘unmarried’ Basotho women (Methepa). My conclusion is, partly that ‘unmarried’ Basotho women’s (Methepa) constructions of womanhood deconstruct the hegemonic constructions of womanhood. Therefore, not only does the analysis achieve epistemic redress by giving voice to historically silenced and subordinated knowledges, but it also places as central the indigenous African world-senses as the new anchor of African women’s identity and agency. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Sociology / PhD / Unrestricted