Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-110).

M.A. / The aim of this study was to investigate possible differences in the six facets of the Neuroticism subscale of the NEO Personality Inventory Revised (measuring Emotional Stability / Instability) in relation to two eating disorder inventories, namely the EDI (Eating Disorder Inventory) and the EI (Eating Inventory) in males. The six facets of the Neuroticism scale are Anxiety, Angry Hostility, Depression, Impulsiveness, Self-Consciousness and Vulnerability. Based on the literature review, it was hypothesised that males with differential Neuroticism scores would show different scores on the eating disorder inventories. The sample consisted of 98 white, male, English speaking university students between the ages of 18 and 28, drawn from two tertiary education institutes in South Africa. The males were divided into high, medium and low groups for each facet of the Neuroticism scale according to the norm tables provided in the NEO PI-R manual. The NEO PI-R, the EDI and the EI were administered to all subjects. The results indicated that there are statistically significant differences between males with high, medium and low scores on the Anxiety, Depression, Self-Consciousness and Vulnerability facets of the Neuroticism subscales of the NEO PI-R in terms of the 11 subscales of the EDI taken together. There were also statistically significant differences between the males with high, medium and low scores on the Depression and Impulsiveness facets of the Neuroticism subscale of the NEO PI-R in terms of the 3 subscales of the EI taken together. It can be deduced that certain temperament traits may be related to eating disordered symptomatology and cognition. The above hypothesis was thus supported. These findings are also supported by findings from previous research which has found that emotional instability is evident in eating disordered individuals, even from childhood, and studies that have found that eating disordered individuals have tendencies towards neurotic personalities.

In this qualitative study, I examine the persistent trend of black women as an excluded relationship partner for white men. Integral to understanding the exclusion of black women as relationship partners is the construction of black female bodies, by influential white men historically and contemporarily, as the abject opposite of hegemonic femininity, which holds "middle-class, heterosexual, [w]hite femininity" as the norm (Collins 2005:193). This construction essentially places black women outside the bounds of hegemonic femininity, beauty, sexuality, and womanhood. Using the theoretical concept deep frame, which is the "conceptual infrastructure of the mind" (Lakoff 2006a:12) and representative of one's commonsense world view, I argue that the ways in which influential white men have constructed black female bodies is a critical component of the raced, gendered, and classed deep frame of white men. This deep frame undergirds how many white men perceive, interpret, understand, emote, and engage in actions where black women are concerned. Hence in this study, I qualitatively examine, through analyzing and interpreting the in-depth online questionnaires of 134 white male respondents, how the deep frame of white men affects how they perceive black women and ultimately the relationships they seek with black women. The results of the study show that many white male respondents, despite most having very limited or no personal interactions with black women, viewed black women through the one-dimensional lens of the raced, gendered, and classed deep frame. Many respondents perceived black women as unattractive unless capable of a white normative standard, as possessing a negative "black" culture, and as possessing negative and "unfeminine" attributes that make them complicit in their own rejection. These findings show how the deep frame disciplines white men to view black women as "out of bounds" as legitimate relationship partners, and disciplines the types of relationships they seek with black women. The results of this study also reveal that the conceptual approach of deep frame rooted in an understanding of the power of influential white men to control and construct society provides a theoretical alternative to the outmoded interracial marriage theories of caste and exchange.

The white male artist whose self-interrogation attaches to his whiteness, difference and former centrality, inevitably exposes himself to the critical scrutiny of current discourse on race and whiteness studies. In this dissertation I examine the concept and emergence of whiteness as a dominant construct in select socio-historical contexts, more particularly in the colonial sphere. While colonial whiteness has often failed to acknowledge or foreground the faceted nature of its composition, this became particularly marked in a South African context with polarisation in the political, cultural and linguistic spheres. However in encounters with the colonised, unifying pretensions of whiteness prevailed, reinforcing difference along racial lines. I examine the work of white South African male artist Brett Murray, in which the interrogation of whiteness and associated marginalization and invisibility is again foregrounded, but predominantly in a postcolonial context. As Murray cautiously navigates his satirical gaze at the culturally and conceptually flawed hybridity of South African (male) whiteness, he inadvertently exposes a nostalgic gaze at erstwhile racial centrality. I further consider whether as a postcolonial other Murray has in fact been able to transcend racially based self-interrogation by addressing more polemic issues associated with power, corruption and inhumanity that transcend race. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.

Thesis (D.Ph.) (Communication Arts)--University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-277). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (D.Ph.) (Communication Arts)--University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-277).

Na die 1994-verkiesing in Suid-Afrika het die posisie van wit, Afrikaanse mans (WAM’s) binne die gender-orde verander. Die vervlegting van WAM’s se subjektiwiteit met ’n dominante ideologie is deur die nuwe regering ongedaan gemaak. Gevolglik het veranderde diskoerse van mag en maskuliniteit al hoe meer in Suid-Afrikaanse literatuur ter sprake gekom. Hierdie verhandeling kyk na hoe WAM’s se maskuliniteit in twee literêre tekste, Kontrei deur Kleinboer (2003) en Om na ’n wit plafon te staar deur Jaco Kirsten (2009), manifesteer. Hierdie twee tekste is aan ’n stiplees onderwerp en, gebaseer op sekere teorieë van maskuliniteit, is sekere merkers van maskuliniteit belig. Beide tekste het die lewe van ’n WAM in post-apartheid Suid-Afrika as onderwerp en in beide tekste manifesteer magsverlies, onsekerheid, psigologiese gefragmenteerdheid en vervreemding op verkillende wyses in die manlike subjektiwiteit. ’n Eklektiese benadering tot maskuliniteit word in hoofstuk twee gevolg deurdat verskeie teorieë oor maskuliniteit bestudeer is. Die teoretiese perspektiewe van Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault en Judith Butler word bespreek, aangesien hulle idees aangaande maskuliniteit suksesvol en ekstensief deur ander akademici toegepas is op die analise van maskuliniteit en literatuur. Psigoanalise en maskuliniteit word bespreek met spesifieke verwysing na die simboliek van die Oedipus-kompleks en die Lacaniaanse leegte wat maskuliniteit onderlê. In samehang met psigoanalise word maskuliniteit belig deur die falliese aard van die tekste en karakters uit te wys. Foucault se teorie oor diskoerse wat mekaar onderhou en terselfdertyd ondermyn, word in die tekste belig en die fragmentering van die karakters se maskuliniteit word uitgewys. Butler se herhaaldelike “performances” van die manlike rol kom in beide tekste voor. Verder word maskuliniteit as ’n sosiale konstruksie teen die agtergrond van Marxisme en sosiologie beskou. Hoofstuk drie kyk na die konteks waarbinne WAM’s se maskuliniteit in Suid-Afrika afspeel. In hoofstuk vier en vyf word die manlike karakters in beide tekste bespreek deur na hegemoniese merkers van maskuliniteit te kyk. Die man as jagter, soldaat en boer, beoefenaar van geweld en hoë-risiko gedrag, sy gebrek aan emosionele intimiteit, sy optrede teenoor vrouens en swartes as “ander”, sy seksualiteit, patriargale en fratriargale verbintenisse en politiese ingesteldhede word as merkers van maskuliniteit bespreek. ENGLISH : After the 1994 elections in South Africa the position of white, Afrikaans men (WAM’s) changed within the gender order. The intertwinement of WAM’s subjectivity with a dominant ideology was undone by the new government. Consequently, changing discourses of power and masculinity became more present within South African literature. This dissertation looks at how WAM’s masculinity manifests in two literary texts, Kontrei by Kleinboer (2003) and Om na ’n wit plafon te staar by Jaco Kirsten (2009). These two texts were submitted to a close reading and, based on certain theories of masculinity, certain markers of masculinity were exposed. Both texts have the life of a WAM in post-apartheid South Africa as subject and in both texts the loss of power, uncertainty, psychological fragmentation and alienation manifest in different ways in the masculine subjectivity. An eclectic approach of masculinity is followed in chapter two as a variety of theories about masculinity were studied. The theoretical perspectives of Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault and Judith Butler are discussed, as their ideas have been used successfully and extensively by academics to analyze masculinity an literature. Psycho-analysis and masculinity are discussed with specific reference to the symbolism of the Oedipus complex and the Lacanian emptiness that underlies masculinity. Interconnected with psycho-analysis the phallic nature of the text and characters are exposed. Foucault’s theory about discourses that support and undermine each other simultaneously is exposed in the texts and the fragmentation of the characters’ masculinities are shown. Butler’s repetitive “performances” of the male role appears in both texts. Furthermore, masculinity is seen as social construct against a Marxist and sociological background. Chapter three looks at the context in which masculinity unfolds for WAM’s in South Africa. In chapter four and five the male characters in both texts are discussed by looking at hegemonic markers of masculinity. The man as hunter, soldier and farmer, perpetrator of violence and high risk behaviour, his lack of emotional intimacy, his behaviour towards women and blacks as “other”, his sexuality, patriarchal and fraternal connections and political predispositions are discussed as markers of masculinity. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Afrikaans / unrestricted

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