Hysteria has been researched from many different angles, but this thesis focuses on the persistence of gendered medical diagnoses following the demise of hysteria. In Chapter One, I provide an overview of hysteria’s long history, beginning with the first reference to the disorder in Ancient Egypt. I then conduct a study of nineteenth-century hysteria in Chapter Two, where I highlight the interactions between medicine and culture that characterized the hysteria epidemic in Victorian Britain and America. Chapter Three continues this discussion of nineteenth-century hysteria, detailing the rise of psychological explanations for hysteria in Europe. My most important research, however, comes in Chapters Four and Five where I chronicle the rise of specific diagnoses that replaced hysteria in the twentieth century. I focus on gendered wastebasket diagnoses—illnesses that predominantly affect women, are categorized based on shared symptoms rather than causes, and are defined in relation to femininity. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the descriptions of certain psychiatric conditions that are more frequently diagnosed in women contain stigmatizing language used to describe hysteria, especially in the nineteenth century. Outside of the psychiatric realm, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia are also wastebasket diagnoses that are described by both doctors and academics using the dismissive language of earlier descriptions of hysteria. I argue that throughout all of this history, the mutual influence of medical theory and cultural assumptions—particularly about gender and femininity—has allowed women’s mysterious medical complaints to remain unexplained. The ambiguous nature of conditions descended from hysteria and their association with femininity causes doctors to return to long-standing stereotypes that diminish the suffering of these patients. Many patients with these conditions struggle to access effective treatments for their symptoms. Understanding these illnesses in the historical context of hysteria can help explain and address these experiences. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / The medical field has long been influenced by its surrounding cultural context. Social factors, including gender, race, and class, all colour the ways in which illnesses are understood and patients are treated. This thesis examines these interactions between medicine and culture in the context of nineteenth-century hysteria and the related diagnoses that arose to replace it in the twentieth century. The disease entity hysteria disappeared in the early twentieth century, but patients continued to experience the symptoms associated with hysteria under a range of diagnostic titles. Situating these illnesses in the historical context of hysteria can help address patient complaints and deconstruct the stigmatizing stereotypes that affect these patients— particularly those stereotypes associated with femininity that were once attributed to hysteria patients

This research delves into the lived experiences of young women in Kenya, who must navigate societal norms, gender bias, and the stigma surrounding feminism while forging their identities. The study is focused on identity formation, women's issues, feminism, stigma, and misogyny. It seeks to fill a gap in previous research by examining how the stigma of feminism impacts everyday women's relationship with the movement and their own feminist identities. Through interviews with educated women who do not necessarily identify as feminists, the author aims to explore how women attempt to develop their lives and identities in a society rife with gender discrimination. The interviews covered various topics, including childhood and adult experiences related to otherness and difference, belonging and shame, parenting and upbringing, traditional norms, pressure, and expectations.

Playing with my luck is a performance which comments on feminine expectations and satirizes the oppressive social structures that women must follow in order to be accepted by patriarchal societies. The 10 Commandments short film borrows religious recognizable elements and displays some of Orthodox Christianity's conservative beliefs to parody the patriarchal and misogynistic ideologies that religion often promotes. / Master of Fine Arts / Playing with my luck is a performance which comments on feminine expectations and satirizes the oppressive social structures that women must follow in order to be accepted by patriarchal societies. The 10 Commandments short film borrows religious recognizable elements and displays some of Orthodox Christianity's conservative beliefs to parody the patriarchal and misogynistic ideologies that religion often promotes.

Toni Morrison and Kathy Acker write their novels within the subversive feminist literary movement described by Helene Cixous in “Laugh of the Medusa”. Through Morrison’s Paradise and Acker’s Blood and Guts in High School they create a platform for women silenced by their bodily trauma to express and eventually liberate themselves from their traumatic pasts. These female writers are calling attention to the pandemic of misogyny-related violence and allowing assault survivors to speak through their pain.

Neil Gaiman’s use of a hyper-masculine American culture in American Gods sheds light upon the multiple issues surrounding a misogynistic society in which women are treated as sexual objects and punished for their independence as sexual beings. Gaiman’s efforts at highlighting these issues are discreet and hidden under layers of patriarchal expectations, but through the use of his protagonist, Shadow, Gaiman is able to provide an alternative to the society he represents. While he successfully illustrates this more “ideal” society, his endeavors fall short and are almost imperceptible throughout his novel. Gaiman’s work in American Gods, while lacking in its overall presence, brings attention to the issues within a hyper-masculine society and it is through this unique, feminist approach that Gaiman is able to present his strong argument for change.

Cette thèse, qui recense plus de mille contes de fées composés entre 1808 et 1920, s’intéresse au renouveau du merveilleux, un registre vieillissant faisant face au désenchantement. Ce travail montre comment le conte, en juxtaposant la modernité et l’imaginaire, bascule dans le comique (parodie des auteurs du Grand Siècle, désacralisation des héros, sapement des valeurs chevaleresques). En même temps, les figures masculines chutent de leur piédestal en engendrant une modification des représentations du féminin.Dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle, les fées et les princesses sont réduites aux stéréotypes de genre : elles sont seulement belles, riches et bienfaisantes. Puis l’esprit fin-de-siècle impose de nouveaux canons, attribuant aux héroïnes les vices de leurs contemporains. Notre thèse dissèque cette vision misogyne afin de montrer comment la crainte de l’extinction de la « race » est née : les pouvoirs magiques des fées et la considération qu’on leur porte diminuent ; les princesses constatent que l’heureux dénouement promis n’est plus. Désormais, ces femmes au cœur de glace deviennent la source des souffrances masculines.Notre travail engage également une réflexion sur les perversions au XIXe siècle et démontre comment les auteurs de contes décadents se servent de motifs propres au merveilleux (manducation, servage des héroïnes) afin d’esthétiser la souffrance et la transformer en plaisir. Enfin, les réécritures de « La Belle au bois dormant » sont emblématiques de la fin-de-siècle. Cette princesse endormie incarne à la fois l’intouchable virginité et la pire des perversités. Sa passivité illustre les violences physiques et psychiques que la société lui impose et justifie ; son éveil revendique les droits des citoyennes et annonce le féminisme. / This thesis, taking an inventory of more than one thousand fairies tales written between 1808 and 1920, examines the marvellous’ renewal, an outmoded register facing disenchantment. This study shows how the fairy tale, placing modernity next to imagination, turns to comic (parody of the authors of the XVIIe century, deconsecration of heroes, destruction of chivalrous values). At the same time, male characters fall from their pedestal, making an alteration of the female’s representations.In the first half of the XIXe century, fairies and princesses are reduced to gender stereotypes : they are only beautiful, wealthy and benevolent. But the fin-de-siècle’s mind imposes new models, assigning to heroines the contemporaries’ vices. Our thesis reviews this misogynous representation to show how the fear the “race’s extinction” was born : the fairies’ magic power and the esteem for them decrease; the princesses notice that the promised happy end is not anymore. Henceforth, these ice-hearted women become the origin of male sufferings.Our work develops a thought about perversions in the XIXe century and shows how the decadent authors of tales use marvellous subjects (erotic devouring, serfdom of the heroines), in order to anesthetize suffering and transform it into pleasure. Finally, rewritings of “Sleeping Beauty” are emblematic to the fin-de-siècle. This sleeping princess personifies the untouchable virginity and the worst of the perversities both. Her passivity illustrates the physical and mental violence that society imposes her and justifies; her awakening claims female citizens’ rights and announces feminism.

Submitted by admin tede (tede@pucgoias.edu.br) on 2018-11-08T19:35:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LUÍS ANTÔNIO ALVES BEZERRA.pdf: 1963847 bytes, checksum: 24d18810a9a331d81b4323dd6db7b735 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-08T19:35:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LUÍS ANTÔNIO ALVES BEZERRA.pdf: 1963847 bytes, checksum: 24d18810a9a331d81b4323dd6db7b735 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-22 / This thesis aims at assessing violence to the detriment of women in the Old Testament, which served as a religious amalgam for her elimination in the social environment of male domination, but not before proceeding with an approach to Hebrew history, in addition to the contextualization of the ancient Hebrew codes : Covenant, Deuteronomy and Leviticus, with the intercalation and paradox of violence exercised against her in each of the Old Testament codices, which have been transfused into all societies, even the most modern, in the West. It contributed, therefore, the feminist historical oppression, by the patriarchal connotation biblical, religious and social for the enactment of laws that, notoriously, inhibited in the human genesis the devaluation by the feminine condition. Its recrudescence, in the social context, in Brazil needed to establish equality between the sexes, by the Federal Constitution of 1988 and specific punishment for gender violence, due to the publication of the Laws of Maria da Penha (Lei nº 11.340 / 2006), besides the Feminicide Law no. 13.104 / 2015), to reduce the existing androcentric intolerance in Brazilian society, still pending social re-signification, to reduce contempt, humiliation, monetization and domestic violence, so common in Brazilian homes. / Esta tese tem por fito aquilatar a violência em detrimento da mulher, no Antigo Testamento, que serviu de amálgama religioso para alijamento dela, no meio social de dominação masculina, não sem antes proceder uma abordagem da história hebraica, além da contextualização dos códigos antigos hebreus: Aliança, Deuteronômico e Levítico, com a intercalação e paradoxo da violência exercitada contra ela em cada qual dos códices veterotestamentários, que se transfundiram para todas as sociedades, até mesmo as mais modernas, no Ocidente. Contribuiu, assim, a opressão histórica feminina, pela conotação patriarcal bíblica, religiosa e social para a promulgação de leis que, notoriamente, inibiram na gênese humana o desvalor pela condição feminina. Seu recrudescimento, no contexto social, no Brasil necessitou estabelecer igualdade entre sexos, pela Constituição Federal de 1988 e punição específica pra a violência de gênero, em virtude da edição das Leis Maria da Penha (Lei nº 11.340/2006), além do Feminicídio (Lei nº 13.104/2015), para amainar a intolerância androcêntrica existente na sociedade brasileira, ainda pendente de ressignificação social, para diminuição do desprezo, humilhação, monetarização e da violência doméstica, tão comum nos lares brasileiros.

Rap music has been a major force in American culture since the 1970s. It can be political, uplifting, and celebratory. It can also be misogynistic and degrading to women, the focus of the current research. This paper begins with a brief history of the importance of music in the African American community. It then provides a history of rap music and major influences on its development through the decades. A systematic comparison of Billboard’s top 5 rap videos for 2004 and 2014 follows. This section, the core analysis, compares the lyrical and visual content in terms of the representation of African American women. Findings reveal three stereotypes—Jezebel, Sapphire, and Mammy/“Baby Mama”—dominate the presentation of African American women in the videos. Based on these three stereotypes, the videos present African American women as greedy, dishonest, sex objects, with no respect for themselves or others, including the children under their care. The women in the videos are scorned by men and exist to bring pleasure to them. Differences between 2004 and 2014 with respect to misogyny and degradation of a group that has historically suffered from dual disadvantage—because of both race and gender—are minimal. This research is a call to action to pay close attention to rap songs and rap music videos and to demand change both from rap artists and the companies that back them.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The present research examines the post-formative Islamic legal literature surrounding the question of women’s leadership to gauge whether and to what extent the development of Islamic legislation pertaining to women was determined by genderattitudes prevalent in Muslim society. There are three main theories to explain the prevalence of Islamic legal rulings divesting women of leadership roles. The first is the traditional view that these rulings are best explained by the application of the theoretical and hermeneutical approaches of classical Islamic legal theory to the Islamic source texts, the Qur’ān and Sunnah. The second is that the rulings are best explained as the consequence of the widespread gender attitudes in near-eastern society during the formative and early post-formative period of Islamic Law. The third is that legal inertia is the primary factor in explaining the existing post-formative Islamic legal corpus and little can be determined from it regarding the origin and early perpetuation of the laws. These competing theories are tested and explored by returning to a broad survey of Islamic legal texts from the four canonical schools of thought. The relevant passages from these texts are first translated and then examined according to three separate analytical approaches – a legal-hermeneutical analysis, an analysis of gender motifs, and a diachronic analysis of legal arguments – to explore the ways in which classical legal scholars arrived at and justified the prohibition of female leadership in politics, the judiciary, and congregational prayer. Key

Este trabalho realiza uma leitura comparativa entre as peças Otelo, de William Shakespeare, e A mulher sem pecado, de Nelson Rodrigues. A hipótese que se investiga é a de o casamento ser um cenário profícuo para a precipitação da tragédia, na medida em que o relacionamento conjugal pode se constituir em lugar de choque entre o discurso de auto-definição do indivíduo e discursos outros, circulantes no social, veiculadores de preconceitos patriarcais, sobretudo a misoginia, incorporados pelo próprio indivíduo como verdades. Reproduz-se, assim, no casamento, o conflito definidor por excelência da tragédia, a saber, a tensão entre o indivíduo e uma potência superior a ele, que pode estar incorporada à sua própria subjetividade, no caso da tragédia moderna / This dissertation will provide a comparative reading of William Shakespeares Othello and Nelson Rodriguess A mulher sem pecado. The hypothesis to be investigated is that marriage constitutes a profitable scenario for the emergency of tragedy, as we think of marriage as a possible site of tension between individual discourse and the confluence of other discourses that circulate in society, introducing patriarchal prejudice misogyny in particular which is incorporated by the individual as absolute truth. It would be thus reproduced in marriage the conflict that defines tragedy, that is, the tension between the individual and some power superior to it, which may be embodied in its own subjectivity if we consider modern tragedy