The thesis investigates the ways in which James Baldwin, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison’s fictional portrayals of forms of love, eroticism and sexuality that are excluded or prohibited by social norms, destabilise heteronormativity as the only legitimate option for non-harmful and pleasurable sensual and sexual expression. It aims to situate Baldwin, Walker and Morrison in a continuum of African American authors, beginning with Harlem Renaissance writer Bruce Nugent – the first African American writer to openly explore the relationship between homosexuality and Blackness – that have examined the intertwining issues of transgressive sexuality and race in increasingly explicit ways. By highlighting the ways in which Baldwin, Walker and Morrison decentre heteronormativity, the project aims to uncover how their novels expose the systems of power and knowledge by which racial forms of oppression are maintained, thereby debunking both the notion of Black “authenticity” and Black sexual stereotypes. Finally, the project hopes to show how the process of “queering” heteronormativity in these ways effectively serves to legitimise all forms of love, eroticism and sexuality that are non-harmful, opening up a new trajectory for contemporary twentieth-century authors who delve into these themes. Theoretical Approach: The thesis will argue for a queer reading of Baldwin, Walker and Morrison’s novels that underscores the writers’ treatment of sexuality as a discursive construct. Specifically, this theoretical perspective looks to their legitimisation of alternative forms of love, eroticism and sexuality that are non-harmful – a process that, in each case, serves to counteract and denaturalise White heteronormativity as the only rightful option for sexual desire and practice. Through this approach, the thesis strives to reveal how by working to legitimise such taboo expressions, these writers deconstruct the idea of the “other” as aberrant, thus calling attention to the specific political and moral systems by which love, eroticism and sexuality are judged in the modern Western world. Chapter Break Down: Chapters one and two of the project situate my argument in the context of critical earlier American writing encompassing canonical fiction, including political protest and African American folklorist novels, political polemics, Puritan captivity narratives, slave narratives, political essays, and experimentalist fiction. Together, these chapters provide a detailed overview of discourses surrounding sexuality, considering what is socially determined to be sexually “perverse” as a shifting concept, the meaning of which changes in tandem with changes in social and historical context. They also extensively analyse Black cultural specificity, examining both the sociological genesis of Black sexual stereotypes that led in part to the justification of the modern slave trade and the subsequent impact of slavery on African American sexual practices. In chapter three, the literary analysis begins with a consideration of the broadened possibilities of sexual acceptability Baldwin puts forth in his anti-protest style of fiction, by examining relationships between characters that do not fit conventional racial or sexual stereotypes, their social contexts, and the narrative perspectives employed by the author. Chapter four examines how Walker’s work carries forward Baldwin’s ideas, by further opening up the spectrum of socially acceptable forms of love, eroticism and sexuality through her presentation of an even wider array of erotically transgressive characters, and her effort to write about them during sustained periods of American conservatism. In chapter five, I examine how Morrison complicates the traditional understanding of what constitutes legitimate sexuality by infusing positive elements into sensual and sexual acts that appear to be nothing other than violent, illegal or psychologically regressive, thereby exposing the impact of social and historical context on the individual, further emphasising the changing and discursive nature of sexuality. The thesis finally argues that Baldwin, Walker and Morrison’s particular depictions of alternative sexuality roll back into a bigger idea of human experience that claims as necessary a re-thinking of social norms based on ethical considerations, rather than arbitrary social codes of morality that lead to both racial and sexual discrimination. Their novels thus ultimately involve us in human issues of justice and responsibility beyond the boundaries of race and sexuality.

Orientador: Ana Cláudia Bortolozzi Maia / Banca: Rinaldo Correr / Banca: Lúcia Pereira Leite / Resumo: Questões de gênero são definidas por aspectos biológicos, psicológicos e sociais e se configuram culturalmente, de diferentes modos, em diferentes períodos históricos. Partindo da premissa que a construção social de gênero é influenciada pela educação sexual familiar, esta pesquisa, qualitativa-descritiva, tem por objetivo investigar os estereótipos de gênero a partir do relato de 25 mães de crianças de 4 a 6 anos. Para a coleta de dados foi utilizado um questionário e as respostas foram agrupadas a partir da análise de conteúdo em três categorias: 1) características atribuídas ao gênero, 2) vantagens e desvantagens e 3) concepções sobre a educação de meninos e meninas. Nos relatos, vários estereótipos de gênero foram identificados como características femininas: passividade, sensibilidade e emoção; e masculinas: razão, força, e objetividade. As vantagens atribuídas ao gênero foram, sobretudo, relacionadas aos aspectos sociais da vida privada e pública: ao feminino o cuidado de filhos e ao masculino, o mundo do trabalho. Concluí-se que os estereótipos sexuais são reproduzidos nas falas destas mães, seja pelas concepções pessoais sobre o feminino e o masculino, seja pelas atribuições de vantagens e desvantagens que relacionam ao gênero. Além disso, as mães, tendo por base o padrão sexista, direcionam a educação dos filhos em função dos padrões de gênero, embora essa diferenciação não apareça, pelo próprio relato das mães, quando relatam as brincadeiras e brinquedos de que seus filhos gostam. Novos estudos poderão aprofundar a questão, ouvindo pais e outros membros da família, além das próprias crianças, na idade pré-escolar ou mais avançada. / Abstract: Gender matters are defined by biological, psychological and social aspects and they are set culturally, from different ways, in different historical periods. from the premise that the social construction of gender is influenced by the familiar sexual education, this research, qualitative-descriptive, has as a goal to investigate the gender stereotypes from 25 mothers of 4 to 6 year-old children. For the data collection it was used a questionnaire and the answers were grouped from the content analysis in three categories: 1) characteristics attributed to gender, 2) advantages and disadvantages and 3) conceptions about the boys's and girls?s education. In the reports, several gender stereotypes were identified as female characteristics (passivity, sensibility and emotion) and male characteristics (reason, strength, objectivity). The advantages attributed to gender were, mostly, related to the social aspects of private and public life: to the female the care of children and to the male, the work world. We conclude that: the sexual stereotypes are reproduced in these mothers's speech, whether by the personal conceptions about the female and the male, by the attributions of advantages and disadvantages that are related to the gender. Besides, the mothers, basing on the sexist pattern, direct the children's education in function of the gender patterns, although this differentiation doesn't appear, by the own mothers's report, when they report the games and toys that their children like. New studies can deepen the matter, listening to the parents and other members of the family, besides the own children in the kindergarten age or more advanced. / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:29:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-09-29Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:38:01Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 reis_kcf_me_bauru.pdf: 1284797 bytes, checksum: 09cbc501ca793d230ea06d38215ceccc (MD5) / Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) / Questões de gênero são definidas por aspectos biológicos, psicológicos e sociais e se configuram culturalmente, de diferentes modos, em diferentes períodos históricos. Partindo da premissa que a construção social de gênero é influenciada pela educação sexual familiar, esta pesquisa, qualitativa-descritiva, tem por objetivo investigar os estereótipos de gênero a partir do relato de 25 mães de crianças de 4 a 6 anos. Para a coleta de dados foi utilizado um questionário e as respostas foram agrupadas a partir da análise de conteúdo em três categorias: 1) características atribuídas ao gênero, 2) vantagens e desvantagens e 3) concepções sobre a educação de meninos e meninas. Nos relatos, vários estereótipos de gênero foram identificados como características femininas: passividade, sensibilidade e emoção; e masculinas: razão, força, e objetividade. As vantagens atribuídas ao gênero foram, sobretudo, relacionadas aos aspectos sociais da vida privada e pública: ao feminino o cuidado de filhos e ao masculino, o mundo do trabalho. Concluí-se que os estereótipos sexuais são reproduzidos nas falas destas mães, seja pelas concepções pessoais sobre o feminino e o masculino, seja pelas atribuições de vantagens e desvantagens que relacionam ao gênero. Além disso, as mães, tendo por base o padrão sexista, direcionam a educação dos filhos em função dos padrões de gênero, embora essa diferenciação não apareça, pelo próprio relato das mães, quando relatam as brincadeiras e brinquedos de que seus filhos gostam. Novos estudos poderão aprofundar a questão, ouvindo pais e outros membros da família, além das próprias crianças, na idade pré-escolar ou mais avançada. / Gender matters are defined by biological, psychological and social aspects and they are set culturally, from different ways, in different historical periods. from the premise that the social construction of gender is influenced by the familiar sexual education, this research, qualitative-descriptive, has as a goal to investigate the gender stereotypes from 25 mothers of 4 to 6 year-old children. For the data collection it was used a questionnaire and the answers were grouped from the content analysis in three categories: 1) characteristics attributed to gender, 2) advantages and disadvantages and 3) conceptions about the boys’s and girls?s education. In the reports, several gender stereotypes were identified as female characteristics (passivity, sensibility and emotion) and male characteristics (reason, strength, objectivity). The advantages attributed to gender were, mostly, related to the social aspects of private and public life: to the female the care of children and to the male, the work world. We conclude that: the sexual stereotypes are reproduced in these mothers’s speech, whether by the personal conceptions about the female and the male, by the attributions of advantages and disadvantages that are related to the gender. Besides, the mothers, basing on the sexist pattern, direct the children’s education in function of the gender patterns, although this differentiation doesn’t appear, by the own mothers’s report, when they report the games and toys that their children like. New studies can deepen the matter, listening to the parents and other members of the family, besides the own children in the kindergarten age or more advanced.

This essay examines YouTube comments to videos with male and female streaming players of the online game League of Legends. The research carries out a critical discourse analysis with the aim to find gender relevant language in order to analyze ideologies about gender stereotypes among viewers of streamers. The results showed that comments concerning players’ bodies and appearance were more common in comments on female than male players. There was also a higher expectation for female players to match sexual stereotypes close to the imagery of avatars than for male players to do so. Female players received more comments with sexual implications. Both male and female players received offers of sexual acts, but violent acts were only aimed against women. Written comments defending female players showed that there are ideological power struggles between viewers in this specific genre and that some viewers defend the female players’ place in the scene of streamed gaming. / Denna studie undersöker kommentarer på YouTube-videos med spelare av ett online-spel vid namn League of Legends. Undersökningen för en kritisk diskursanalys med syfte att hitta diskurs relevant för kön för att utreda vilka ideologier om kön och sexuella stereotyper som återfinns bland konsumenter av sådana videos. Resultatet visar att kommentarer som nämner spelarens kropp och utseende är betydligt vanligare för kvinnliga än manliga spelare. Resultatet visade också att det fanns en högre förväntan att kvinnliga spelare skulle matcha sexuella stereotyper som liknar bilden av kvinnliga avatarer än att manliga spelare skulle göra det. Kvinnliga spelare fick fler kommentarer av sexuell karaktär. Både manliga och kvinnliga spelare fick erbjudanden om sexuella handlingar, men våldsamma sexuella handlingar var bara riktade mot kvinnor. Svar på kommentarer som försvarar kvinnliga spelare visar på en kraftmätning mellan de som tittar på manliga och kvinnliga spelare inom denna specifika genre och att kvinnliga spelares plats inom denna sfär försvaras av vissa tittare.

Les discours scientifiques et politiques sur la jeunesse s’attachent généralement aux problématiques de déviance, comportements à risque, délinquance et décrochage scolaire et oublient le plus souvent l’aspect heuristique de la variable genre. L’analyse de la répartition des filles et des garçons dans les espaces, équipements et temps de loisirs de trois communes périphériques de l’agglomération bordelaise montre l’hégémonie des garçons sur les loisirs organisés et le décrochage massif des filles à l’entrée au collège. Tout se passe comme si les garçons investissaient les espaces publics lorsqu’ils ne trouvent plus de réponses dans des pratiques encadrées, alors que les filles disparaissent de ces espaces et se replient vers la sphère privée. S’inscrivant dans une approche de géographie sociale, la thèse développe la pertinence d’une approche féministe comme paradigme scientifique dans la compréhension d’une territorialité différenciée femmes/hommes dans l’espace public. A travers une enquête de terrain comparative de la fréquentation des espaces et équipements des loisirs des jeunes, la recherche interroge les politiques publiques sur les notions de mixité et d’égalité réelle entre les filles et les garçons dans notre société. L’étude met en avant quatre constats forts : l’inégalité, l’offre de loisirs subventionnée s’adresse en moyenne à deux fois plus de garçons que de filles. La non mixité et le renforcement des inégalités, les activités non mixtes masculines sont beaucoup plus importantes que les activités non mixtes féminines. L’invisibilité et le décrochage des filles : Les filles décrochent à partir de l’entrée en sixième, elles disparaissent des équipements et espaces publics destinés aux loisirs des jeunes. La performativité du genre : La constitution d’espaces de loisir spécifiquement masculin et la valorisation des « cultures masculines » représentent l’essentiel de la pratique jeunesse autonome et en accès libre. / Science-based and political discourses on youth usually focus on issues such as risk behaviour, deliquency, and dropping out of school, and most of the time omit the heuristic dimension of gender. The analysis of the distribution of girls and boys across spaces, equipments and leisure activities in three suburban areas of Bordeaux show how the use of organised leisure is dominated by boys and while girls stay away from these from the start of lower secondary school. It is all as if boys invest public spaces when organised practices do not fit their needs anymore, while girls disappear from these spaces and withdraw into the private sphere. Drawing on the approach of social geography, this thesis demonstrates the relevance of a feminist approach as a science-based paradigm which is useful to understand how public spaces become gender-differentiated. A comparison of how boys and girls use public spaces and leisure equipments results in a questionning of the notions of gender ‘mixity’ and equality in the context of public policies in contemporary society. Four main findings have been identified : (1) – inequalities : state-sponsored leisure targets twice as many boys as girls. (2) – ‘non-mixity’ and the reinforcement of inequalities : boys-only activities are seen as more important than girls-only ones. (3) - The invisibility of girls. They stop using these structures from the start of lower secondary school, they disappear from the public spaces targeting young people. (4) - Gender performativity : The constitution of spaces of specifically male leisure and the valuation of the " male cultures " represent the main part of the practice autonomous youth and in free access.