The research is specifically concerned with the notion of the military masque as a projected extension of the history of masqueing behaviour evident in gay men's attire.The creative outcome of the project is a collection of five interchangeable masques, an animated poetic work and a series of photographic images.This exegesis therefore, seeks to contextualise the created artifacts. In doing this it posits a historical and critical framework that considers the hyper-masculine1 and its relationship to gay men's masqueing.21 In this exegesis hyper masculinity is taken to mean an exaggeration of stereotypical male beliefs and behaviors through an emphasis on virility, strength and aggression and dress codification.2 Frye (1957), in his Anatomy of criticism offers a useful definition of masque as I frame it in this thesis. The term may be understood as "a species of drama in which spectacle plays an important role and in which the characters tend to be, or become aspects of human personality, rather than independent characters" (pp. 365-7). In this respect the masque is something donned that presents a decodable identity extra to, or other than the actual personality of the wearer.

Human sexual behaviour is highly variable and not tightly linked to biological reproduction. However, it has not been studied as social behaviour until the last 40 years and until recently it is largely deviant behaviour that has gained the attention of sociologists. Sociology has adopted an unnecessarily antibiologistic position and consequently neglected the body. In reviewing sociological approaches to sex I draw on social constructionism, particularly the work of Gagnon and Simon (1974) and their notion of scripts; these can be interpreted as discursive structures defining sexual acts and sexual actors at both the individual and societal level. I outline a range of social constructionist positions in relation to sexuality and adopt a moderately radical but realist one that concedes some place for the physiology of arousal linking the elements of the discursive realm of the sexual in social life. Finding the basic assumptions of symbolic interactionism a fruitful base from which to approach sexual conduct I reject the concept of 'desire' as too complex and obscure to serve as a starting point in understanding the social organisation of sex. A review of the ethnographic observational studies of settings in which men have casual sex shows that beats (public places such as parks and toilets) operate in a similar manner in many countries. Commercial sex venues are more varied. They are safer and more comfortable than beats and may offer private rooms and facilities for esoteric sex such as bondage. Sex in such settings is impersonal and anonymous, costs little effort, time or money, and offers a variety of partners. Interaction is largely nonverbal. Interview studies of men who have casual sex with other men tend to undersample men who are not gay-identified, but they offer insights into men's motivations and understandings. Both kinds of research are necessary. The empirical component of the thesis is a thematic analysis of transcripts from three interview studies of gay men in Sydney done between 1993 and 1997: Negotiating Sex (n = 9), the Sites study (n = 21) and the Seroconversion study (n = 70). All involved detailed narratives of sexual encounters. The analysis takes a situational interactionist approach with a specific focus on practice. Central questions asked are: how does the setting (beat, sex venue, home) affect what happens? What does sex mean to the men, and how does this affect what they do? How do men's sexual skills, tastes and experience relate to their practice? How do men's bodies and their understandings of the body affect their practice? What do different sexual practices mean and how are they organised and negotiated within the encounter? How (if at all) do men integrate considerations of safe sex into their practice? Physical surroundings were found to have a profound effect on practice. Sex venues as cultural institutions enable patterns of practice that do not occur elsewhere. Physical arrangements within beats and venues encourage or enable particular practices, such as oral sex or group sex. Motivations for and meanings of sex to the participants varied widely; these were related to practice within the men's own accounts but not in any clear predictive way. Men's sexual skills, tastes and preferences, which were also very varied, related to their practice. Men made trade-offs between risk and pleasure. Men looked for a range of features in casual partners. Suppression of social cues restricted the range of criteria on which partners were selected, enabling wider choice. Men's bodies affected their practice most strikingly in the issue of erection or the lack of it. Understandings of the body and physiological processes affected men's interpretations of information about HIV risk. These men have a vocabulary of sexual practices within which some common practices are less salient. These practices are socially patterned in ways that benefit men with certain tastes and abilities and frustrate those with others. Safe sex considerations are routinely integrated into sexual practice but in a way that leaves room for considerable risk of HIV transmission. In conclusion I argue that conceptualising sex between men exclusively in terms of gay identity and culture is inappropriate. The outcome of the empirical work confirms the theoretical analysis that found it necessary to incorporate some physiological notions, such as 'libido', into a social constructionist view of sex. The findings and their interpretations have important implications for framing effective HIV prevention programs. Some specific suggestions are made for how this might be done.

This thesis considers women’s representation in television commercials in Australia and Bangladesh. It is an empirical study. A total of 780 advertisements were recorded from various television channels of Australia and Bangladesh. Among them 280 and 500 advertisements were taken from Bangladeshi and Australian television channels respectively. This thesis is about women’s representation in television commercials in Australia and Bangladesh. Bringing an interdisciplinary but empirical approach to a broad range of recently screened advertisements, the thesis examines how femininities are stereotypically represented in these two countries’ television commercials. The study suggests that women are produced and reproduced as sexual objects and/or objects to be looked at, and that representations of women’s bodies circulate around the binary of purity and pollution in heavily gendered and racialised ways. The interesting finding of this study is the extension of the ‘male-gaze’ concept where women come under the gaze from (hetero) sexual perspectives. The study suggests that images of femininity and racialisation are produced and reproduced. This constructs women’s secondary position and creates racial instability in societies.

For the past decade the attainment gap in college admission and graduation rates between Black males and their White counterparts has continued to grow. A growing body of research has held that there is a negative correlation between educational attainment and the decline of the Black family structure. As the structure of the Black family has deteriorated due to the lack of a male presence, so have participation rates in higher education for African American males. It is established that environmental and cultural factors have a profound influence on human behaviors, including academic performance. What is less understood is how environmental and cultural factors influence the way in which Black males come to perceive education and how those perceptions influence not only their behavior but their performance in school. It is unknown why being African American and male causes this segment of the population to stand out in the most negative and disheartening ways, both in school and in society. This study measures the perceived influence of four factors (societal dissonance, self-efficacy, African American male mentorship, and institutional support) on the academic success of African American male students at a predominantly White institution of higher education.

Nearly a centennial after the granted women’s suffrage in the United States, almost 40 yearsfrom the start of the 70’s women’s right’s movements women have shown that they canobtain same level in education as men can and graduate with competitive skills as men.However, according to statistics that is when the equality seems to loose its balance. Despitethis there are women in this “Yes We Can”-era of where a former First Lady was verycompetitive in a Presidential Race, that with certain success factors compete effectively invarious male-dominant fields.

Some game publishers and developers do not think that games with non-sexualized female protagonists are worth making because they would not sell. With close to a half of gamers being female (47%) it is a bit puzzling that they are not catered to. This could be because publishers think that male gamers, who they perceive as their main demographic, would not buy games with non-sexualized female protagonists. A study was done to see if that statement is correct. By questioning 91 Swedish male gamers, aged 18 and above, it was found that in games where one can choose the character’s sex 46% of the subjects play as a female character at least half of the time and in total 90% of the 91 subjects have at some point chosen to play as a female character. No one of the subjects have any negative thoughts about there being more games with non-sexualized female protagonists who are heroic in their own right and not a trophy, when asked 47% said it would be “Very good”, 24% said it would be “Good” and 29% said that they have “No opinion” in the matter.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate whether personal creative activity predicted perceived stress in men living with a chronic physical illness. Personal creative activity was measured with the Creative Achievement Questionnaire (Carson, Peterson, & Higgins, 2005), select questions from the Flow Questionnaire (Collins, 2006), the Everyday Creativity Questionnaire (Ivcevic & Mayer, 2009) and the Creative Behaviour Inventory (Hocevar, 1979). Perceived stress was measured with the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983). Sequential Multiple Regression was used to assess the relationship between personal creative activity and perceived stress levels of males with chronic illness. It was hypothesized that there would be a negative relationship between men‟s personal creative activity involvement and their perceived level of stress; that is, higher personal creative activity scores would be associated with lower perceived stress levels. This relationship was expected to be demonstrated by all men regardless of their diagnosis.<p> Participants included 139 males with chronic illness (mean age: 50 years). Findings indicated that personal creative activity was not related to perceived stress. However the participants reported being involved in many different personal creative activities not included in the four creative measures, which may help explain the low scores on the creativity measures that may have skewed the data and resulted in low correlations. Age and number of symptoms were related to perceived stress. As the participants aged, their perceived stress decreased; and the more symptoms they reported, the higher their perceived stress. The strengths and limitations of the current study are outlined, along with implications for future research and practice. Future research is needed to further examine the relationship between creativity and perceived stress in men with chronic illness as well as to develop creativity measures that include more male-oriented activities.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate whether personal creative activity predicted perceived stress in men living with a chronic physical illness. Personal creative activity was measured with the Creative Achievement Questionnaire (Carson, Peterson, & Higgins, 2005), select questions from the Flow Questionnaire (Collins, 2006), the Everyday Creativity Questionnaire (Ivcevic & Mayer, 2009) and the Creative Behaviour Inventory (Hocevar, 1979). Perceived stress was measured with the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983). Sequential Multiple Regression was used to assess the relationship between personal creative activity and perceived stress levels of males with chronic illness. It was hypothesized that there would be a negative relationship between men‟s personal creative activity involvement and their perceived level of stress; that is, higher personal creative activity scores would be associated with lower perceived stress levels. This relationship was expected to be demonstrated by all men regardless of their diagnosis.<p> Participants included 139 males with chronic illness (mean age: 50 years). Findings indicated that personal creative activity was not related to perceived stress. However the participants reported being involved in many different personal creative activities not included in the four creative measures, which may help explain the low scores on the creativity measures that may have skewed the data and resulted in low correlations. Age and number of symptoms were related to perceived stress. As the participants aged, their perceived stress decreased; and the more symptoms they reported, the higher their perceived stress. The strengths and limitations of the current study are outlined, along with implications for future research and practice. Future research is needed to further examine the relationship between creativity and perceived stress in men with chronic illness as well as to develop creativity measures that include more male-oriented activities.

No description available.

The purpose of this research project was to examine representations of male characters and masculinity in Disney animated feature films. Social learning theory, gender and hegemonic masculinity were used to theoretically frame this study. Twenty-two movies were examined; a total of ninety-one characters were included in the analysis. The movies included in the sample were produced between 1930 and 2007. This study sought to examine the dimensions of character descriptions, physical descriptions, socioeconomic status, sexuality, family structures and practices, and aggression as well as to understand how constructions of masculinity in Disney films changed over time. The results of the present study regarding character role indicate that good characters were most often middle aged, slender and fit but not muscular, single, royalty, and had community as family. They were most often heterosexual, equally likely to be romantically involved as to be not romantically involved, were sexual in nature, and were most often the victims of physical aggression. Evil characters were most often middle aged, slender and fit but not muscular, single, royalty, had community as family, and were well dressed. Evil characters were most likely to trap other characters and to steal. Neutral characters were most often old/elderly, overweight and not muscular, and were most often employed as inventors, royalty, and diamond miners. They were also most often single and to have community as family. The results regarding character centrality indicated that central characters were most often white, slender and fit but not muscular, single, middle aged, showed physical strength, and were well dressed compared to peripheral characters. Central characters were heterosexual, romantically involved, sexual in nature, engaged in hand to hand fighting, and engaged in social isolation and name calling. Peripheral characters were most often white, slender and fit but not muscular, single, and also more likely than central characters to be old/elderly. For the analysis of masculinity across time, it was found that the types of masculinity shown in Disney films did not match with hegemonic masculinity historically. Overall, the most common theme of masculinity that was observed throughout all decades was the fatherhood movement.