<p> The purpose of this project was to locate a potential funding source and write a grant to create a mindfulness program for female survivors of sexual violence. The program will be hosted by the Long Beach Trauma Recovery Center, an agency which treats trauma survivors exclusively and is committed to the use of evidence-based interventions. The Ahmanson Foundation was selected as the potential funder. </p><p> The mindfulness program will aim to decrease trauma symptoms, improve coping skills, and increase mindfulness in survivors through mindfulness-based stress reduction courses in both English and Spanish. The program will be evaluated through the use of reliable and valid scales using a pre-test/post-test design. If funded, this program would give up to 200 survivors an opportunity to learn a practice that has been proven to improve quality of life and promote healing.</p>

<p> There is no question that early modern France was a patriarchal society. In fact, during this period, there was an increase in legislation further subordinating women under the authority of their fathers and then of their husbands. The legal identities of women as daughters and wives was officially negligible. However, this dissertation argues that in practice, family needs trumped the constricting legal prescriptions placed upon women. In examining the estate accounts, contracts, and family papers of the Saulx-Tavanes, Brulart, Le Goux, Joly, Marmier, and Baissey families, it is abundantly clear that women of both the <i>noblesse de robe</i> and <i>noblesse d'&eacute;p&eacute;e </i> were actively engaged in estate management which required negotiations of the legal hurdles placed in front of them. At least unofficially noblemen expected their wives to enter marriage armed with a cadre of managerial skills to be employed for the good of the family during their marriage and if necessary after. Furthermore, noble husbands, many of whom were legists themselves, seemed to have fully embraced women's negotiations of familial authority as commonplace. </p><p> Fran&ccedil;oise Brulart was a member of the <i>noblesse de robe </i> in Burgundy, albeit of the highest echelon, who married a prominent member of the <i>noblesse d'&eacute;p&eacute;e,</i> Claude de Saulx-Tavanes. From the onset of their marriage, Fran&ccedil;oise and Claude worked together in a sort of collaborative partnership, one in which he clearly depended on her to take an active role in co-managing the estate and family economy. Upon his death, rather than naming a male relative as the trustee over his properties, he left Fran&ccedil;oise in charge. In her viduity, she increased her assiduous estate administration while successfully continuing to promote and defend the family rights and assets. Fran&ccedil;oise's experiences and agency were far from singular. Through the analysis of documents involving not only Fran&ccedil;oise Brulart, but also those of Louise Joly, Anne de Marmier and Anne de Baissey, it is clear that both in marriage and in widowhood, family success and advancement relied on the ability of noble women to administer the estates frugally, and to sustain, and if possible to grow, the family assets.</p>

In response to contemporary moral and feminist criticisms regarding the hypothesised effect magazine discourses of sexuality have on readers, this thesis explores how six groups of adolescents and young adults respond to representations of sexualities from the teen and women's magazines Cosmopolitan, Cleo, Girlfriend and Dolly. Drawing upon theories of poststructural feminism, cultural studies and audience reception this work expands upon existing magazine literature by attending to the ways teen and women's magazines are interpreted and talked about by different groups of adolescents and young adults. This analysis fills a gap in contemporary magazine research, which has generally failed to address how gender and sexuality, as they are portrayed in contemporary periodical publications, are made sense of by readers. Therefore, in focusing on reader talk this thesis is also able to address the ways in which individual and collective identities are constructed interactively in the socially specific context of focus group discussions. Attention is given to looking at the complexities surrounding the relationships that exist between magazine reading, representations of sexuality and adolescents and young adults through an examination of the discourses girls, boys, young women and young men draw upon in their talk on magazine representations of sexualities. I argue that readers of magazines are active producers of meaning who think and talk about magazine representations of sexualities in a variety of complex, contradictory and often ambiguous ways. Research participants employ interpretive repertoires, drawn together from various new, traditional and alternative discourses about sexuality, in the process of attributing meaning to contemporary sexualities, as both cultural objects and aspects of everyday life. Thus, rather than take up and accept the sexual subject positions that magazines make available to readers, the talk of the research participants in this project illustrates how sexualities are constantly being negotiated. The articulation and performance of masculine and feminine sexualities is therefore recognized within this thesis as a highly contradictory, contextual and negotiated process.

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No description available.

No description available.

<p> Betrayal trauma theory posits that victims of abuse perpetrated by someone close are more likely to dissociate from awareness of the abuse in order to protect the needed relationship. Shame may likewise protect the relationship by turning the victim's attention inward, thereby increasing the likelihood that the abusive environment will be overlooked. In this dissertation, the associations between shame, dissociation, and betrayal trauma were examined in two experimental studies. A third study examined the consequences of chronic shame. Aims were to determine whether shame and dissociation have a unique link with high betrayal traumas (HiBT), to understand the nature of the relationship between shame and dissociation, and to investigate the consequences of chronic shame. </p><p> In study 1, 124 female trauma survivors were randomly assigned to a high or low betrayal threat condition. Greater exposure to HiBT but not low betrayal traumas (LoBT) predicted increased shame and dissociation following high betrayal threat. Greater exposure to LoBT but not HiBT predicted increased fear following non-betrayal threat. Compared to non-dissociators, dissociators from threat endorsed more negative psychological consequences. </p><p> In study 2, 127 female trauma survivors completed a dissociation induction and battery of questionnaires. The bypassed shame theory, which proposes that dissociation serves to disconnect from the pain of shame, was examined. Results partially supported bypassed shame theory. Although feelings of shame led to a larger dissociation response to the induction, dissociation did not interrupt shame but rather led to even higher shame. Implications are discussed for a possible contributing role of shame to betrayal blindness. </p><p> In study 3, 247 trauma survivors completed online questionnaires addressing chronic shame hypotheses. Regression results revealed that all forms of chronic shame, especially trauma-focused shame, predicted negative health consequences. Correlation results revealed that HiBT was associated with more types of negative outcomes compared to LoBT and that HiBT but not LoBT was associated with chronic shame. </p><p> Taken together, results indicate that, like dissociation, shame may be both an adaptive and detrimental response following betrayal trauma and that emotional and cognitive responses other than fear warrant attention in trauma research and practice.</p>

<p> The major objective of this study is to critically engage with the representation of princesses in Walt Disney Studio animated films. Although popular feminist criticism of the last four decades claims that the Disney Studio creates negative portrayals of women in their fairy tales films, a deeper understanding of women's roles can by found through the use of critical analysis and close reading of <i>Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast,</i> and <i>Tangled.</i> The work of the Disney Studio animation will be closely examined and discussed while exploring the domestic and feminist issues present within these four specific films. Through analyzing these films, I will demonstrate that these characters have a depth and complexity to them that showcase an evolution that mirrors the changes within American society.</p>

<p>One in four college aged women have been raped or sexually assaulted. The InterACT Sexual Assault Prevention Program offers promise as an effective intervention for rape prevention, intervention, and response training. Several bystander interventions, including InterACT, regard empathy as a crucial component of successful rape prevention efforts. </p><p> Theoretical foundations for the link between empathy and prosocial behavior are well established; however, the link between rape-specific empathy and rape-specific prosocial behavior has received less attention until recently. Experimental evaluations confirmed InterACT is successful in increasing general and rape-specific empathy among participants. </p><p> Limited research has identified emotional and cognitive components responsible for motivating rape helping behaviors. The current study is the first to empirically identify rape-specific empathy as a significant predictor of rape-specific helping behavior. Such evidence urges rape prevention programs to include rape-specific empathy exercises in intervention designs. Implications for continued research and programming are discussed. </p>

Abstract In my thesis work, using expressive gestures, feminist theory and embroidery, I have explored experiences of immigrant women and their continuous struggle to thrive in a new homeland. My work is informed by my experiences as a first generation immigrant woman from Sri Lanka as well as my awareness and experiences of other immigrant women’s experiences from other countries. Although some women have lesser challenges, most immigrant women struggle to thrive in unfamiliar surroundings. This struggle has been a recurring theme in immigrant women’s lives throughout history, and women continue to go through immense hardships in trying to merge into a new society. While still daydreaming of their motherlands, most immigrant women suffer emotionally and psychologically due to lack of extended family support, education, finances, language skills, social and work skills, as well as tensions between traditional and cultural expectations. In spite of these obstacles immigrant women continuously make an effort to reclaim their strength and power. With advances in education and life experiences some of these difficult issues are fading away in my life, although, sometimes they do haunt me. In my artwork I have explored these common experiences and challenges overcome by me as well as other immigrant women through feminist theory, drawing and sculptural techniques and used embroidery, sewing and stitching to bring them to life. I hope to generate awareness through my artwork of women’s experiences that will influence the changes that contribute the empowerment of women.