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This dissertation draws on feminist theory and ecofeminist philosophy to examine the connections between understandings of women and nature and the construction of pervasive conceptualizations and practices of childbirth. It also examines the relationship between conceptualizations of men and masculinity, culture and nature, and childbirth. In order to conduct such an examination, this study explores the dominant Western discourse around gender and childbirth. Specifically, the work aims to identify prominent characteristics and themes related to childbirth in both popular culture, such as Hollywood films (Knocked Up, The Backup Plan), documentaries (The Business of Being Born), birth guides, magazines, news articles, websites, and scholarly, medical and alternative healthcare discourse. This work seeks to consider how various conceptualizations of childbirth are used to legitimate, or, alternately, to undermine, patriarchal gender norms such as emphasized femininity and patriarchal (hegemonic) masculinity and, more generally, what ecofeminist philosopher Val Plumwood calls "master consciousness" (Val Plumwood 1993), a way of understanding the world that is reliant on an unjustifiably dualistic thinking and that is responsible for fostering social practices of domination. In particular, this work seeks to determine to what extent is our conceptualization of childbirth, and subsequent practice, based on potentially erroneous presumptions about the hierarchical division between the realms of culture and nature and masculinity and femininity? Perhaps most importantly, this dissertation sets out to consider the implications of alternative conceptualizations of childbirth emerging in the context of the natural birth movement. Specifically, I aim to determine whether or not these alternatives interpretations of childbirth counteract patriarchal gender categories and the culture/nature dualism. / Jeff Nall. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The literature regarding biological motion suggests that people may accurately identify and recognize the gender of others using movement cues in the absence of typical identifiers. This study compared identification and gender judgments of traditional point-light stimuli to skeleton stimuli. Controlling for previous experience and execution of actions, the frequency and familiarity of movements was also considered. Watching action clips, participants learned to identify 4 male and 4 female actors. Participants then identified the corresponding point-light or skeleton displays. Although results indicate higher than chance performance, no difference was observed between stimuli conditions. Analyses did show better gender recognition for common as well as previously viewed actions. This suggests that visual experience influences extraction and application of biological motion. Thus insufficient practice in relying on movement cues for identification could explain the significant yet poor performance in biological motion point-light research. / by Sara Manuel. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Agency and communion are fundamental dimensions underlying psychological processes. Although agency and communion are coherent dimensions, their origins, nature, stability differ across theoretical framework. Common to these frameworks are gender differences in agency and communion. The present study hypothesized that because agency and communion relate to gender, they may also relate to digit ratio. The present study is important because digit ratio may offer clues on the origins and nature of agency and communion, and their gender differences. Agency and Communion factors were extracted from implicit linguistic measures obtained by LIWC analysis of selfnarratives. Exploratory structural equation modeling indicated communion related to digit ratio in men, and gender differences in communion. Although the results supported the distal, biological influences of communion argued by evolutionary accounts, the null finding agency was not related to digit ratio, while not directly interpretable, did not contradict socialization accounts of agency. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

陳淑筠. / "2005年9月". / 論文(哲學碩士)--香港中文大學, 2005. / 參考文獻(leaves 225-233). / "2005 nian 9 yue". / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Chen Shuyun. / Lun wen (zhe xue shuo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2005. / Can kao wen xian (leaves 225-233). / 致謝 --- p.i / 摘要（中文） --- p.ii / 摘要（英文） --- p.iv / Chapter 第一章 --- 導論 --- p.1 / Chapter 第二章 --- 模特兒的發展歷史與性別化身體 --- p.25 / Chapter 第三章 --- 模特兒與模特兒公司的互動 --- p.68 / Chapter 第四章 --- 模特兒的日常工作與性別化身體 --- p.117 / Chapter 第五章 --- 男女模特兒的性別化身體 --- p.162 / Chapter 第六章 --- 結語 --- p.190 / 附錄：問卷調查 --- p.216 / 參考書目 --- p.225

This thesis explores the meaning and experience of the bodily states associated with the condition referred to as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). It uses as a theoretical point of departure an understanding of the body as a socially constructed phenomenon and, in so dOing, offers an interpretation of illness that is seen to differ markedly from those offered by the medical and behavioural sciences. Using descriptive narrative research analysis, the thesis attempts to elicit personal trajectories of illness experience. In contrast to biomedical and social trajectories of illness, in which the interpretation and meaning given to the condition are imposed externally, personal trajectories are seen to provide unique subjective accounts of illness experience. And the value of using narrative accounts of illness is seen to lie in their ability to bring to light these individualised versions of illness experience. It is shown, in addition, that these narrative accounts of illness are also valuable in exposing the culturally shared knowledge that is employed in the process of assigning meaning to illness experiences. The aim of the thesis, then, in employing the descriptive narrative research method is to describe these shared cultural schemas. It is suggested that this approach leads to an interpretation of illness experience which sheds light on important links between the body, self and society. It is argued, more specifically, that Western capitalist society is associated with the creation of an "unnatural" environment and social context which is perceived to be inherently damaging and threatening to the well·being of those living in it; and that this assumption is pivotal to the interpretation of the illness experiences narrated and analysed for the thesis. This sociological reading of embodiment provides a basis for understanding the experience of illness, as not one simply embedded in the body or mind of the individual, but as one laden with personal meaning assimilated from, and hence revealing of, the social context in which the illness is experienced. As such, an attempt is made to provide an account of illness experience distinct from the dominant biomedical and behavioural accounts of ME.

Between 1939 and 1940 the United States Government conducted a study of the measurements of women’s bodies to establish a standardized system of garment and pattern sizes. The central theme of my research is to analyze the female figure in the context of a technology-driven global contemporary society. My thesis exhibition includes a body of work that echoes the pressures that Western Society employs by standardizing women’s appearances. The focus of the work is to confront the viewer with a visual examination, which illustrates the preconceived notion that Western Society portrays the female body as a commodity and exports those views to different cultures and societies. This calls to question: “who makes those standards endorsed by society and why women follow them?”. From the standardized measurements conducted by the United States Government, I generated a 2-D computer model of an outline of the generic female figure. Based on the 2-D representation, I constructed a series of ten 27”x36” inkjet prints and a 3-Dimensional prototype of the figurative form. The project consist on the manufacture of 14,698 molds base on the 3- Dimensional prototype -- 10% reduction of the size of the average female. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014.. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Orientador: Eni de Lourdes Puccinelli Orlandi / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T18:23:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Azevedo_AlineFernandesde_D.pdf: 2077437 bytes, checksum: 47d23fdf00e59db136f682735ee731b4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Esta tese tem por objetivo compreender os movimentos de sentido sobre/do corpo produzido em diferentes materialidades significantes, e que mantém relação com três práticas discursivas e corporais distintas, aqui teorizadas como tecnologias corporais: a dança, a medicalização do corpo e a tatuagem. Para tanto, priorizamos o espaço da festa rave como lugar de produção dessas práticas, sítio significante que abriga processos de identificação e individualização do sujeito contemporâneo, conforme a proposta de Pêcheux e Orlandi. Interessa-nos, pois, observar as formas de assujeitamento fabricadas na atualidade, em condições materiais e históricas específicas, tendo em vista a forma como o corpo se textualiza nas redes de sociabilidade da Internet. Partimos da suposição de que esse corpo ideologicamente marcado é também um corpo de desejo: lugar de falta, do possível. É pela/na falta que o sujeito se constitui em sujeito de desejo, é na tentativa de tamponá-la que ele tece para si sentidos inscritos em práticas capazes de metaforizar a falta em ser: nas discursividades analisadas, o movimento de sentidos compõe cartografias marcadas por suturas e cicatrizes. Essas metáforas do corpo, assim formuladas, possibilitam pensar as práticas ideológicas como profundamente paradoxais: é no furo, nos sentidos em fuga, que este trabalho dá a ver outros lugares de identificação, permitindo que a noção de resistência seja significada diferentemente / Abstract: The objective of this thesis is to understand the meaning of the movements on/of the body produced in significant different materiality and that keep the relationship between three different discourse and body practices, the dance, medication and tattoo. In order to do so we gave priority to the rave parties, where these are common practices, as a significant place that houses the identification and individualization processes of the contemporary subject according to the Pêcheux and Orlandi proposal. We are interested in observing the forms of subjection currently performed under specific historical and material conditions, aiming to understand how the body is contextualized in the social networks of the Internet. We started with the premise that this ideologically marked body is also a body of desire, a body that lacks a possible body. And it is for what lacks that the subject constituted him/herself in object of desire, and it is trying to disguise it that he/she builds meanings, written in practices that can metaphor the lack of being. In the analyzed discourse the movement of the meanings composes a cartography that is marked by sutures and scars. Formulated like this, these metaphors of the body make it possible to think the ideological practices as deeply paradoxical. It is in the puncture, in the meanings of escape, that this work makes it possible to see other identification places, allowing the notion of resistance to be differently diagnosed / Doutorado / Linguistica / Doutora em Linguística

In this thesis I investigate the theoretical or philosophical notion/archetype of the Dionysian in relation to the transgressive female body in performance. I do so through 1) an investigation into the theories behind the Dionysian and the transgressive; 2) an examination of the performative practice of the transgressive female body; and 3) a personal exploration of the theatrical practice. 1) In the first chapter I introduce and thoroughly explore the archetypal concept of the Dionysian, and identify its significance because of its intrinsic association with the transgressive. I associate it with its oppositional force, the Apollonian, which is similarly significant because it is through the Dionysian disruption of the Apollonian from which the very notion of the transgressive springs. Through a review of Camille Paglia's seminal text on the subject of the Dionysian¹, this chapter provides a historical, mythological and theoretical context for the schism between the two archetypal aesthetics, starting from the description of the mythology of the ancient Greek gods, Dionysus and Apollo, and unpacks the transgressive nature of the Dionysian. Drawing on concurring theories of Friedrich Nietzsche and Julia Kristeva, as well as Hans Thies-Lehmann's writings on post-dramatic theatre², Chapter One attempts to firmly establish the inherent link between the Dionysian and theatre and performance, as well as the Dionysian and the transgressive, and provide a thorough theoretical framework for the rest of the thesis. 2) The second chapter investigates the work of two female performance artists³ who (re)present⁴ their bodies as transgressive in performance, namely Marina Abramovic and Karen Finley. It critically examines specific performance works of theirs, and through this examination it explores how they (re)present their bodies as transgressive in performance, and why they do so. This chapter furthermore establishes the connection between the transgressive female performing body, as (re)presented by Abramovic and Finley, and the Dionysian. In so doing it explores how they negotiate this ancient aesthetic or practice in a contemporary performance context. I believe that these performance artists are in fact striving to celebrate and reclaim the Dionysian within their work, and I attempt to establish this within this chapter. 3) The third chapter of this thesis analyses my own practical exploration of the transgressive female body in performance in a piece entitled Bleeding Mermaid (2008). It examines this exploration in the context of the theory of the Dionysian, as well as investigating how and why I (re)presented my body as transgressive in the performance. The analysis furthermore questions how I understand my work on the (re)presentation of the transgressive female body in relation to, and within the context of, Finley and Abramovic's work on the same subject. Through this investigation, I aim to establish a link between the Dionysian and the transgressive female performing body; and investigate the motivation(s) behind the (re)presentation of the transgressive female body in performance. I hope to open up a pathway to the reclamation of the Dionysian, both in performance practice and research. ¹Paglia, Camille. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. England: Penguin Books, 1990. ²Lehmann, Hans-Thies. Postdramatic Theatre. Trans. and Intro. Karen Jürs-Munby. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. ³Performance Art began around the 1960s in Europe and America. It is performance with a sense of immediacy – in that it is hard to replicate as it interacts with each unique audience – it is thus effectively a fresh/new experience each time. It breaks the boundaries of traditional theatre (form, structure, venue, time etc) and is often shocking or provocative in nature. It mixed the aesthetics of theatre and art, often taking place in installation settings. Performance Art has developed and morphed throughout the years, and is also referred to as Live Art in Britain. A performance artist is someone who produces performance art. It is possible that Performance Art no longer exists/is possible because it no longer shocks or affects the audience. ⁴My use of the brackets in (re)presented/(re)present throughout this thesis is because I would like to make simultaneous reference to the words/connotations of "presentation" and "representation", without being bound to the connotations of illusion/falseness/non-reality as is associated with the word "representation" (in opposition to the concept of the "real"), and thus be left only with the one-dimensional approach/meaning of "presentation".

This project examines the presence and significance of ecofeminism and pedagogy within contemporary Young Adult literatures, particularly girls’ ecofantasy literatures. Specifically, I examine the role and representations of the female body in nature and any real or perceived connections between them. To accomplish this, I bring the theories of several feminist, ecofeminist, and environmental studies scholars together with my primary texts, Green Angel and Green Witch by Alice Hoffman, to examine the depiction of the female body in nature through interconnectedness and reciprocity between human and non-human nature, green transformations, and the archetype of the witch. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013.