This dissertation discusses medieval and Renaissance clerical and cultural constructions of femininity and female masculinity, and it analyses the complex relationship between such conceptions and the literary representation of the transvestite woman. Medieval theology legitimated female masculinity as transcendence of temporal sexuality. A woman who contained her affective femininity and replaced it with rational and ascetic behaviour was frequently lauded for having become male in all but body. In the middle of the first millennium, hagiographic legends abounded in which women appear to have embodied the patristic equation between spiritual rationality and masculinity. This dissertation proposes a radically different interpretation: the saint exchanges a sexualised form of femininity--ironically imposed upon her by a male society--for a non sexual but nevertheless feminine self valuation. / Early modern culture perceived transvestism in a multiform manner. It signifies monstrosity in the polemical pamphlet, serves to indicate an estimable apex of humanity in Shakespearean comedy, and represents women in roles that range from monstrous disrupter to adept uniter in the works of such other playwrights as Ben Jonson and Thomas Middleton. While the pamphlet's social commentary argues that masculinity rendered a woman monstrously unfeminine, the literature finds ways of interrogating definitions of the sex-gender system in a world which was constantly and fundamentally mutating. The drama employs elements such as inversion, monstrosity and transgressions of class to negotiate a society in flux.

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Though historical scholarship on gender and international relations has grown over the last few decades, there has been little work done on women in the Foreign Service. The main objective of this thesis is to examine the role of women diplomats within the Foreign Service since 1945 and to examine how gender differences related to the low numbers of women within the field during a time when women's representation in other male-dominated fields increased substantially. The study is divided into three chapters that focus on determining how certain factors affected women's marginalization within the field. The first chapter examines the basic statistics of the women diplomats. Chapter two explores the policies of other countries towards accepting female diplomats, and the last chapter investigates how women conducted foreign policy and carried out the goals of the administration. The conclusion provides an analysis of the findings of all three areas and how they relate to women's access to fields both within and outside politics. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of History in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2009. / December 10, 2008. / Perception, Gatekeeper, Ambassador, Diplomacy, Femininity, Masculinity / Includes bibliographical references. / Suzanne Sinke, Professor Directing Thesis; Charles Upchurch, Committee Member; Michael Creswell, Committee Member.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 210-219). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2003. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 210-219).

Ng Chin Pang. / Thesis (M.Div.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-91). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgments --- p.i / Abstract --- p.iii / Chapter Chapter1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter2 --- Theories on Sex and the Emergence of Sexual Identity --- p.4 / Chapter 2.1 --- "Origins and Development on the Concept of Sex in the ""Western"" World" / Chapter 2.1.1 --- Augustine's Notion on Sexual Desire / Chapter 2.1.2 --- Protestant Theology of Sex / Chapter 2.1.3 --- "Emergence of ""Western"" Sexual Identity" / Chapter 2.2 --- The Concept of Sexual Desire in China / Chapter 2.2.1 --- The Discourse of Sexual Desire in Late Imperial China / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Transformation of Sexual Identity in Modern China: Male Homosexuality as the Verdict / Chapter Chapter3 --- Queer Theory- a Post-colonial Perspective --- p.38 / Chapter 3.1 --- Postcolonial Theory as a source of Theology Discourse / Chapter 3.1.1 --- From Colonialism to Post-colonialism / Chapter 3.1.2 --- Building a Hybridized Sexual Ethics / Chapter 3.2 --- Queer Theory as a Source of Theology Discourse / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Queer Theory and Queer Politics / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Queering the Socially Constructed Sexual Identities / Chapter Chapter4 --- A Post-colonial Sexual Theology --- p.59 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Modes of Discourse / Chapter 4.1.1 --- Transgressive Metaphors / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Hybrid Sexual Theologies / Chapter 4.2 --- A New Framework about Sexual Desire / Chapter 4.2.1 --- Building our Relations in Erotic Desire / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Beyond Sexuality and Spirituality Dichotomy / Chapter 4.3 --- Conclusion: Building an Inclusive Community / Bibliography --- p.85