Although many feminist fairy-tale scholars have theorized how the tales shape the lives of their readers, few have explicitly examined what readers themselves have to say about how fairy tales impacted their choices and expectation. This article turns to fanfiction written by fans of ABC's Once Upon a Time television series to discover how these fans challenge or reify fairy-tale expectations, particularly in terms of gender. After outlining the brief history of fairy-tale reception studies concerned with gender, the article then turns to a close reading of three OUAT fanfiction retellings of Beauty and the Beast that show the couple in contemporary settings dealing with ordinary and magic-less problems, such as a loveless marriage, sexual violence, and the stillbirth of a child. The close reading of these stories reveal that even as they challenge the passive princess ideal seen in many early Disney retellings, they also challenge the ideal of the handsome prince who can ensure a happily ever after. Instead of saving the heroine from impending trauma, the hero must support her as she copes after trauma has already struck. In each of these stories, the couples must empathetically relate to each other's pain, support rather than force the recovery process, and redefine happily ever after as dynamic, peaceful moments rather than an absolute, static ending. The analysis of fanfiction writer and reader interactions reveals that these stories are also used as models for the readers' and writers' own experiences in supporting friends who have gone through trauma, emphasizing that fairy tales are still relevant to their readers' lives.

Emerging anti-violence work has focused on the importance of engaging men in primary prevention efforts, especially on postsecondary campuses, due to the statistical reality that men are overrepresented as perpetrators of sexual violence (Black et al, 2011; Piccigallo, Lilley, & Miller, 2012; Flood, 2019). This study sought to build upon this existing body of literature by inviting male university students into discussions around their perspectives of sexual violence prevention efforts on campus to better understand how prevention programming can be improved to elicit male student engagement. Six participants were recruited from McMaster University to participate in focus groups. Focus groups begun with the facilitation of a common activity used in anti-violence programming, titled “the gender boxes,” to contextualize the discussion around exploring the social construction of gender as it intersects with violence against women. The ensuing discussion revealed the following themes: (1) cisheteropatriarchal masculinity demands men perform gender in ways that recreate sexual scripts and traditional gender roles, as evidenced by their reflections on “the gender boxes” activity, (2) traditional masculinity intentionally obscures the dynamics of negotiating sex and consent, which subsequently create the potential for sexual violence to occur, (3) participants described feeling disengaged from existing prevention efforts, and (4) participants imagined potential improvements to engage men in sexual violence prevention, which largely reflected existing literature on the subject. This project contributes to anti-violence efforts through revealing the continued need to engage men in every stage of the process to then facilitate their investment in ending violence against women. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Whilst several studies acknowledge the role of gender norms and structures in environmental research, little attention is paid to the explicit influence of men and masculinities in pro-environmental behavior. Additionally, research concerning this man-environment nexus is almost nonexistent in the context of the Global South. This thesis aims to address this research gap by analyzing the influence of hegemonic masculinity norms on the attitudes of male university students in Rabat, Morocco to engage in pro-environmental behavior. The research is conducted by qualitative semi-structured focus group interviews with 15 male university students in Rabat during May and June 2023, with a theoretical framework drawing upon Martin Hultman and Paul M. Pulé’s theoretical efforts of Ecological Masculinities. The findings suggest that the contextual hegemonic masculinity norms socialize the respondents into internalizing a myopic approach to engaging in pro-environmental behavior; materializing into either anti-environmental attitudes or, more prominently, techno-scientific solutionist attitudes. Relatedly, the respondents dismiss engaging in the individual pro-environmental behaviors considered feminine in order to avoid judgements, social exclusion and demasculinization. The thesis concludes by delineating the importance of including men and multiple masculinities in environmental research, especially as men can be considered the gatekeepers to transformative climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Esta dissertação apresenta um estudo comparativo tendo como objetos de investigação os romances A varanda do frangipani (2007), de Mia Couto, e O filho da mãe (2009), de Bernardo Carvalho. Considerando que os dois romances se apresentam como narrativas ligadas ao gênero literário romance policial, buscou-se analisar de que maneiras tais romances apresentam modalizações e reformulações em relação aos aspectos formais e estruturais deste gênero. A partir destas constatações, a investigação debruça-se sobre os conflitos gerados pelas relações de gênero, enfatizando os encontrados na elaboração das identidades masculinas. Por fim, avalia-se de que maneira a violência se apresenta nas narrativas, tendo como princípio que nelas o crime fora suplantado por outras demandas. / This dissertation presents a comparative study that has as its main subject the novels \"A varanda do frangipani\" (2007), by Mia Couto, and \"O filho da mãe\" (2009), by Bernardo de Carvalho. Taking into account that both novels present themselves as narratives pertaining to the crime romance literary genre, the study analyses in which manner these romances present modalization and reestructuring in respect to the formal and structural aspects of the genre. From these findings, the investigation delves into the conflicts created by gender relations, emphasizing those found in the elaboration of masculine identities. At last, it is assessed in which manners violence is presented in these narratives, having as a principle that in them crime has been superseded by other demands.

"Cold War Playboys: Models of Masculinity in the Literature of Playboy" emphasizes the literary voices that emerged in response to the Cold War's redefinitions of space and sexuality and, thus, adds to the growing national discourse of Cold War literary and masculinity studies. I argue that the literature Playboy includes has always been a necessary feature to creating its masculinity model; however, that very literature often destabilizes the magazine's grand narrative because it presents readers with alternative models of masculinity. To make that argument, I presume five things: 1) masculinity, like femininity, is a construct; 2) the mid-century masculinity crisis should be attributed to redefinitions of space and sexuality; 3) the crisis generated a variety of masculinity models; 4) Playboy presents its own, unified model of masculinity through its editorial features; and 5) finally, that Playboy should be considered an early Cold War artifact because the space Playboy magazine represents, dually domestic and privatized, is hardly trivial--decade after decade, it has absorbed society's shifts and reflected them back to readers. Citing biographical, historical, critical, and textual evidence, I consider how the literature of Playboy magazine responds to the construction of Cold War discourses regarding sexuality and space. In particular, I examine how Playboy contributions from Jack Kerouac, Vladimir Nabokov, and James Baldwin detail models of masculinity informed by Cold War culture. Playboy's emphasis was obviously Playmates, but fiction always appeared in its pages. As its largest component, fiction became the backbone of Playboy. Therefore, Hefner's educated, sexual male identity included, and still includes, reading a wide array of literature--from Ian Fleming to Ursula le Guin. "Cold War Playboys" asks: How did literature gain primacy in Hefner's ideal male identity? What purposes does reading this literature serve when appealing to a particular masculinity? Answering these questions allows me to explore how one mass-produced magazine and specific literary figures participated in and resisted the construction of Cold War discourses regarding space and sexuality.

Esta dissertação apresenta um estudo comparativo tendo como objetos de investigação os romances A varanda do frangipani (2007), de Mia Couto, e O filho da mãe (2009), de Bernardo Carvalho. Considerando que os dois romances se apresentam como narrativas ligadas ao gênero literário romance policial, buscou-se analisar de que maneiras tais romances apresentam modalizações e reformulações em relação aos aspectos formais e estruturais deste gênero. A partir destas constatações, a investigação debruça-se sobre os conflitos gerados pelas relações de gênero, enfatizando os encontrados na elaboração das identidades masculinas. Por fim, avalia-se de que maneira a violência se apresenta nas narrativas, tendo como princípio que nelas o crime fora suplantado por outras demandas. / This dissertation presents a comparative study that has as its main subject the novels \"A varanda do frangipani\" (2007), by Mia Couto, and \"O filho da mãe\" (2009), by Bernardo de Carvalho. Taking into account that both novels present themselves as narratives pertaining to the crime romance literary genre, the study analyses in which manner these romances present modalization and reestructuring in respect to the formal and structural aspects of the genre. From these findings, the investigation delves into the conflicts created by gender relations, emphasizing those found in the elaboration of masculine identities. At last, it is assessed in which manners violence is presented in these narratives, having as a principle that in them crime has been superseded by other demands.

I denna studie ifrågasätter jag tolkningar av Matteus 19:12, som påstår att versen och dess användning av ordet “eunuck” (εὐνοῦχος) förespråkar celibatet - antingen som en ideal eller alternativ till äktenskapet. Detta gör jag genom en studie av både historiska och bibliska bakgrundsfaktorer - främst identiteter, socio-politiska roller och andra aspekter av eunucker i antiken. Jag börjar med grekisk-romerska synsätt, som bevisar att eunucker oftast betraktades som hyper-sexualiserade och fördömdes för sina avvikande sexuella och könsidentiteter åtminstone av den Grekiska och Romerska eliten. Likadana synsätt har jag funnit i skrifter av den judiska filosofen Filon av Alexandria. Rabbinska källor uppvisar däremot radikalt annorlunda synsätt, som betraktar inte eunucker som celibata, men inte eller som köns-överskridande, allmänt eller sexuellt omoraliska. Diskussion om den Syriska kontexten och problematiken med dess källor visar att det kan vara värt att begrunda även postkoloniala perspektiv i frågan om eunuckernas identiteter, hur de avspeglas i olika källor och vilka avsikter skulle man kunna ha haft i användningen av sådanakaraktärer. Efter denna analys drar jag slutsatsen att tolkningen av Matteus 19:12 som förespråkande celibat är svår att försvara utifrån ett historisk-kritiskt perspektiv. Jag argumenterar också att de andra tolkningarna likväl tenderar att missa eller ignorera potentiellt viktiga aspekter i hur eunucker har betraktats, avbildats och behandlats i dom antika samhällena och Bibeln. Jag föreslår därför att söka nya intersektionella tolkningssätt.

Les fins du voyage chez Peter Fleming sont entendues comme déclins, comme lignes de rupture, comme aboutissements, comme principes moteurs et comme finalités. Trois pistes sont explorées pour comprendre ces fins ; la première postule une volonté anesthétique de la part de l’auteur : la finalité de nier son expérience esthétique et en même temps de rechercher l’extrême en tant qu’anesthésique, en tant que palliation, reproduction et transfert d’expériences traumatiques. La seconde concerne son utilisation de l’art rhétorique pour reproduire et en même temps se jouer des conventions et des attentes du lecteur. On peut parler ici d’une psychologie inversée qui va lui permettre de brouiller ses pistes, de multiplier les interprétations potentielles et de réfléchir son identité de manière protéiforme. Enfin, la troisième propose l’étude des aspects dunamiques de ses récits – un néologisme faisant référence à la sphère de la potentialité. Ce modèle permet de construire une analyse littéraire et anthropologique des alternatives pensées, envisagées et narrées par l’auteur qui va complémenter celle des discours et des itinéraires actualisés. L’identité auctoriale est définie dans ce contexte comme un espace intermédiaire, trans-mondes et hétérotopique, qui se situe entre tous les possibles et ce qui est. / The ends of travel in Peter Fleming’s works are seen as declines, lines of rupture, outcomes, driving principles and goals. Three paths are explored to understand these ends. The first postulates an anaesthetic intention on the part of the author: the purpose of denying his aesthetic experience and at the same time of seeking extreme sensation as an anesthetic, as palliation, reproduction and transfer of traumatic experience. The second focuses on his use of rhetorical art to reproduce and, at the same time, to play with the conventions and expectations of the reader. His use of reverse psychology allows the creation of a broad spectrum of interpretations and the projection of his identity in a protean manner. Finally, the third aims at analyzing the dunamic aspects of his narratives – a neologism referring to the sphere of potentiality. This model allows the literary and anthropological analysis of the potential alternatives contemplated, suggested and narrated by the author, one that is meant to complement the study of his actual itineraries and discourses. Authorial identity is defined in this context as an intermediate, trans-world and heterotopic space which lies between what is and everything that could be.

After many decades in which femininity, ‘female experience,’ and the social-political situation of women have formed the rightful foci of research, the male psyche and self have, at least since the 1980s, begun to receive attention in the US and UK academy. However, in most European countries masculinity studies are still the exception, and in comparison to the importance of gender studies they represent a minority interest in the field of gender research worldwide. Due to the relative lack of communication and exchange among the various disciplines dealing with masculinity, no consensus has been reached about the role that biological determinism, anthropological, evolutionary, and socio-historical factors, and representations as well as images of masculinity circulating in the cultural imaginary actually play in the construction of masculinity. Thus masculinity is still a highly problematic and controversial field of study that is located at the intersection of the humanities and the arts, the social sciences and natural science. This chapter begins by critically taking stock of the images of masculinity presented in the media in the early twenty-first century; it then offers a short survey of current approaches to and concepts in masculinity studies, ranging from a survey of US American perspectives and Raewyn Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity to recent European approaches and theories. This is followed by a discussion of topics that are still unresolved by masculinity studies, such as the notion and importance of the body, female masculinities, and the question of whether there is something ‘queer’ about or within masculinity as such. In the conclusion, the chapter presents complementary, and up until now neglected, perspectives on masculinity and argues for rethinking masculinity with the help of concepts taken from intersectional, trans-, and interdisciplinary theories, the new field of comparative masculinity studies, and transgender and intersex studies. Masculinity studies as well as gender, transgender, queer, and intersex studies interest me because they ultimately revolve around more complex understandings of identity and subjectivity. Because of their inherent power to blur and question binaries, masculinity and sexuality studies are intimately linked to questions of epistemology (“What can we know?”) and insurgent forms of knowledge (“What are we allowed to know?”), as well as to the distribution of power and the marginalization of minorities within societies.

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