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This study was performed to provide social workers with knowledge about the psychosocial risks of a lesbian client's coming-out event. A survey was administered consisting of 22 questions and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depressed Mood Scale (CES-D).

Tills research project arose from an awareness that many Christian women experience female sexual desire and the expression of sexual pleasure within a religious context to be a forbidden subject and that they are consequently isolated in silence. The social construction of sexuality within the history of Christianity was briefly explored to see which discourses underpin current constructions of White Christian female sexuality. Tills feminist, participatory action research project challenged the silence on women's sexuality by inviting three women to narrate their personal stories of sexuality. With the help of narrative therapeutic practices, some of the dominant social and religious discourses that constitute White Christian female sexuality were challenged and explored. This research project aimed at the co-construction of narratives of sexuality that will hopefully be life-giving to Christian women's experiences with sexuality. / Practical Theology / M.Th. (Specialization in Pastoral Therapy))

People spend substantial parts of their life in a close dyadic relationship. The results range from the fulfillment of emotional, intellectual, social and physical needs, to physical and emotional abuse. The study clarifies the association between sex-role identity type, with its two traits (masculinity and femininity), and relationship satisfaction, at the dyadic level. The latter implies a focus on the identical (or different) levels of presence of the two constructs among partners in couples. Extraneous factors and personal (non-dyadic) effects are covered in addition. The two main variables are evaluated with the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). In each case, a second instrument was administered for validation. The survey-type study followed a correlational, cross-sectional design. The main purposes have been to test new theoretical frameworks against empirical data, and knowledge production. A three-pronged approach included: an extensive literature review to identify methodological and knowledge gaps; a theory-driven design and methodology to ensure a sound study; and empirical data collection to verify the theoretical position through hypothesis testing. Likely sources of bias were countered by involving balanced numbers of male and female, and homosexual and heterosexual respondents, from non-student populations, over a wide age range, and living in close relationships spanning at least two years. The correlational design and relatively small sub-samples dictated the application of descriptive frequencies, and chi-square, variance (ANOVA) and regression analyses, as statistical techniques. The findings emerged as more similar than different for homosexual and heterosexual participants. This implies that homosexuals are not a deviant group, but equally able to achieve happiness. Congruent (identical) sex-role identity traits between partners were not strong(est) in predicting satisfaction. However, femininity and androgyny, as highest adaptive type, and identical sex-role identity types between partners did. As a result, the initial sex-role identity congruence theory has been modified into the adaptive femininity trait theory. Married heterosexual women face a predicament. While for them an undifferentiated sex-role identity type correlates with their husbands' happiness, and their own unhappiness, the inverse applies to their femininity and androgyny. The practical implications of this and other conclusions are also detailed. / Psychology / D. Litt et Phil (Psychology)

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis focuses on the representation of women in media aimed at women. A critical examination of visual communication (magazines, advertising and visual story-telling1) will demonstrate that the media may be regarded as highly influential in the way women perceive their bodies, reproduction and sexuality. I begin by examining the presentation of the ‘ideal’ woman as an instance of the Pygmalion complex. This reading of the media’s formulation of the female ideal aims to demonstrate the psychological effects of the Pygmalion complex on women, and illustrates how the resultant striving for perfection drives production and consumption. I shall demonstrate how the image of the ‘ideal’ woman is increasingly more sophisticated and convincingly portrayed through the use of digital manipulation, plastic surgery, excessive dieting and exercise regimes. I propose that the average woman is left feeling inadequate and is undermined by the voice of her own cultural representation. This thesis also investigates the persistence of the virgin / whore binary in the media’s depiction of female sexuality. I propose that this is an essentialist and dualistic presentation of female sexuality as either ‘good’ (surrendered, submissive and conforming – i.e. the virgin); or ‘bad’ (transgressive, explicit, dangerous and destructive – i.e. the whore). I further suggest that this polarised appropriation of women’s sexuality deprives women of ownership of their own sexuality. I also propose that the media’s treatment of female sexuality presents women as being in competition within one another for male attention and approval and that this representation damages female solidarity. Finally I demonstrate that pornography has infiltrated all aspects of popular culture, from magazines to music videos. My hypothesis is that this use of pornographic conventions depicts the rape and abuse of women as normative, commonplace and even entertaining, and that this has a detrimental effect on both women’s and men’s sexual and social wellbeing. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is gerig op hoe vroue in die media wat op vroue gerig is, verbeeld word. 'n Kritiese ondersoek van visuele kommunikasie (in tydskrifte, reklame en visuele verhaling2) sal toon hoe die media as uiters invloedryk beskou kan word ten opsigte van hoe vroue hul eie liggame, voortplanting en seksualiteit beskou. Ek begin deur die voorstelling van die 'ideale' vrou as 'n voorbeeld van die Pygmalionkompleks te ondersoek. Hierdie beskouing van die media se formulering van die ideaal van vrouwees is daarop gerig om die sielkundige effek van die Pygmalion-kompleks op vroue te demonstreer en illustreer hoe produksie en verbruik deur die strewe na perfeksie wat as gevolg van hierdie formulering ontstaan, aangedryf word. Ek sal toon hoe die beeld van die 'ideale' vrou, as meer en meer gesofistikeerd, oortuigend weergegee word deur middel van digitale manipulasie, plastiese snykunde, oormatige volg van diëte en oefenprogramme. Ek voer aan dat die gemiddelde vrou hierdeur met die gevoel gelaat word dat sy tekortskiet en ondermyn word deur die boodskap van die publikasies wat haar eie kulturele beeld verwoord. Hierdie tesis ondersoek ook die volhardendheid van die tweeledige voorstelling van vroulike seksualiteit in die beelding van maagd en hoer wat in die media aangebied word. Ek voer aan dat dit 'n wesenlike en dualistiese voorstelling van vroulike seksualiteit as óf 'goed' (uitgelewer, gedwee en konformerend – d.w.s. die maagd), óf 'sleg' (oortredend/sondig, eksplisiet, gevaarlik en vernietigend – d.w.s. die hoer) is. Ek stel verder voor dat hierdie gepolariseerde toe-eiening van die vrou se seksualiteit vrouens van eienaarskap van hul eie seksualiteit ontneem. Ek stel ook voor dat die voorstelling van die vrou se seksualiteit soos dit in die media aangebied word, suggereer dat vrouens ter wille van die aandag van 'n man en om goedkeuring te wen met mekaar kompeteer en dat hierdie voorstelling skade doen aan die gevoel van solidariteit tussen vroue. Ten slotte demonstreer ek hoe pornografie reeds alle aspekte van die populêre kultuur vanaf tydskrifte tot musiekvideos binnegedring het. My hipotese is dat hierdie gebruik van pornografiese konvensies die verkragting en mishandeling van vroue as normatief, alledaags en selfs vermaaklik uitbeeld en dat dit 'n nadelige effek het op die seksuele en die sosiale welsyn van mans sowel as vroue.

by Siu Pik-ngan. / Questionnarie in Chinese. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-79). / List of Tables --- p.v / List of Figures --- p.vi / List of Appendices --- p.vii / Introduction --- p.1 / Method --- p.28 / Results --- p.36 / Discussion --- p.55 / References --- p.74 / Appendices --- p.80

Young women’s sexual attitudes, experiences, and sense of self develop within multiple social contexts, including the schools in which they spend so much of their time, their romantic and sexual relationships, and a larger normative climate of expectations and beliefs about sexuality. Girls may struggle to develop a healthy view of their sexuality in the face of prevailing sexual beliefs that in many ways deny girls’ sexual desire and define female sexuality as passive and vulnerable. Despite these negative messages, however, many girls do develop positive attitudes about their sexuality, feeling entitled to sexual pleasure and safety. This study explores how young women develop this sense of sexual agency during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. Using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I place adolescent sexual development in a social context, by considering the role of schools and early sexual relationships in young women’s developing sexual agency. Additionally, I consider the consequences of girls’ sexual attitudes and first sexual experiences not only for their sexual health but for their later sexual relationships as well. Finally, I consider how young women’s experience of sexual agency may be connected to another manifestation of gender inequality in relationships - housework. Findings suggest that girls’ attitudes toward sex and contraception are related to their sexual relationships in adulthood: girls who see sex as having negative consequences - either for their social relationships, their sense of self, or their future - are less likely to experience sexual agency in their adult relationships. Results also suggest that schools may play contradictory roles in girls’ sexual empowerment, as girls who do well in school were more confident about their ability to use contraception but were also more likely to associate sex with guilt and shame. Additionally, schools provide a peer context for the development of sexual attitudes. Finally, results suggest that explanations for gender inequality in housework are less relevant for sexual behavior, though women and men who are committed to equality in their relationships are likely to be more egalitarian in both housework and sex. / text

People spend substantial parts of their life in a close dyadic relationship. The results range from the fulfillment of emotional, intellectual, social and physical needs, to physical and emotional abuse. The study clarifies the association between sex-role identity type, with its two traits (masculinity and femininity), and relationship satisfaction, at the dyadic level. The latter implies a focus on the identical (or different) levels of presence of the two constructs among partners in couples. Extraneous factors and personal (non-dyadic) effects are covered in addition. The two main variables are evaluated with the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). In each case, a second instrument was administered for validation. The survey-type study followed a correlational, cross-sectional design. The main purposes have been to test new theoretical frameworks against empirical data, and knowledge production. A three-pronged approach included: an extensive literature review to identify methodological and knowledge gaps; a theory-driven design and methodology to ensure a sound study; and empirical data collection to verify the theoretical position through hypothesis testing. Likely sources of bias were countered by involving balanced numbers of male and female, and homosexual and heterosexual respondents, from non-student populations, over a wide age range, and living in close relationships spanning at least two years. The correlational design and relatively small sub-samples dictated the application of descriptive frequencies, and chi-square, variance (ANOVA) and regression analyses, as statistical techniques. The findings emerged as more similar than different for homosexual and heterosexual participants. This implies that homosexuals are not a deviant group, but equally able to achieve happiness. Congruent (identical) sex-role identity traits between partners were not strong(est) in predicting satisfaction. However, femininity and androgyny, as highest adaptive type, and identical sex-role identity types between partners did. As a result, the initial sex-role identity congruence theory has been modified into the adaptive femininity trait theory. Married heterosexual women face a predicament. While for them an undifferentiated sex-role identity type correlates with their husbands' happiness, and their own unhappiness, the inverse applies to their femininity and androgyny. The practical implications of this and other conclusions are also detailed. / Psychology / D. Litt et Phil (Psychology)

Current debates in the anthropology of the Indian middle classes suggest a preponderant theme of balance - between 'Indian' and 'Western'; 'traditional' and 'modern'; 'global' and 'local'. Scholars like Säävälä (2010) Nisbett (2007, 2009), and Donner (2011) demonstrate a range of practices through which the ideal of middle class life is positioned in a precarious median between the imagined decadence of the upper classes and the perceived immorality and lack of responsibility of the working classes. Sexuality and intimacy, it has been observed, are important sites, where this balancing act is played out and risks to its stability are disciplined. Young women have particularly come under a great deal of pressure to position themselves dually as modern representatives of a global nation, who are, at the same time, epitomes of a nationalised narrative of tradition. In this thesis I examine, through an ethnographic study, the ways in which young women's bodies are implicated in the normative reproduction of everyday middle class life, as well as unpacking the social meanings of youth and adulthood for women in this context. Further, locating my study in the context of women's colleges in Chennai, this thesis comments on the significance of educational spaces as sites where normative ideals of middle class life and femininity are both produced and contested. The chief arguments in this thesis are organised into five chapters that draw primarily on ethnographic material to examine categories of risk, danger and pleasure as mutually constituted in young women's lives through everyday practice, as well as the making of the everyday as a precarious and compositional event.

Tills research project arose from an awareness that many Christian women experience female sexual desire and the expression of sexual pleasure within a religious context to be a forbidden subject and that they are consequently isolated in silence. The social construction of sexuality within the history of Christianity was briefly explored to see which discourses underpin current constructions of White Christian female sexuality. Tills feminist, participatory action research project challenged the silence on women's sexuality by inviting three women to narrate their personal stories of sexuality. With the help of narrative therapeutic practices, some of the dominant social and religious discourses that constitute White Christian female sexuality were challenged and explored. This research project aimed at the co-construction of narratives of sexuality that will hopefully be life-giving to Christian women's experiences with sexuality. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Specialization in Pastoral Therapy))