This dissertation focuses on a textual analysis of the representation of femininity and female sexuality in popular Hindi cinema. Popular Hindi cinema has been a major point of reference for Indian culture in the last century, and will undoubtedly persist in the 21 st century. To an extent, Hindi cinema has shaped and reflected the burgeoning transformation of a 'traditional India' to a 'modern India'. (I use the term modern to reflect the impact the west has had on Indian society, and how this impact in turn is reflected on screen). Issues surrounding gender and sexuality tend to be avoided, if not subverted in Hindi cinema. More specifically, issues surrounding femininity and female sexuality in Hindi cinema is either not recognised or 'mis-recognised' on screen. Feminist studies, in relation to film, have taken up these issues, to a large extent in the west (cf. Hollows, 2000; Kaplan, 2000; Macdonald, 1995). Chatterji (1998) maintains that the interest of feminists in film began as a general concern for the underrepresentation and mis-representation of women in cinema. This study explores issues surrounding the 'presences' and 'absences' (as identified by Chatterji) in the representations of female sexuality and femininity in popular Hindi cinema. The project offers a comparative study of the films produced by two popular Hindi cinema filmmakers. Pooja Bhatt's Jism (The Body) (January, 2003) is analysed in comparison to Karan Johar's Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham (Sometimes happiness, sometimes sadness) (November, 2000). The study compares, contrasts and analyses the ways in which each of these films (and thus, how each filmmaker) positions female sexuality and femininity in popular Hindi cinema. Keywords: popular Hindi cinema, femininity, female sexuality, gender, representation. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

This study measures the attitudes men and women form toward women from a sample of feature articles and interviews in four men's lifestyle magazines (Maxim, Stuff Esquire and GQ) from the years 2002-2004. Attitudes were measured with a 15-item semantic differential analysis. Across all four magazines, attitudes toward the women were positive, active, and impotent. A MANCOVA tested the hypotheses that attitudes would vary by magazine title, gender, and sexism scores as measured by the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). Magazine title was the only significant main effect, showing that women featured in Stuff magazine received the most negative ratings on all three semantic differential scales. Gender and ASI score did not significantly affect individual attitudes. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

At present, there is speculation that women's alcohol use is a growing biomedical concern. Whilst not dismissing the potential health problems from excessive alcohol use by women that the evidence suggests, this thesis does not necessarily take the view that women's alcohol use/abuse is merely a reflection of a biomedical concern. Drawing predominantly from feminist tools of analysis, this thesis examines the discourse of alcohol use/abuse and reveals that mainstream interpretations of the epidemiological evidence are informed by an underlying sexism inherent in the research process itself. However, it is also argued that although popular interpretations can be contested on the grounds of sexism, there is a significant body of evidence that suggests women suffer more alcohol-related biological harm than men do. Given that epidemiological researchers are evidently observing something organically manifest, something perfectly correlative with the popular representation of a female vulnerability to alcohol related harm, this investigation cannot be reduced to the realm of cultural analysis and interpretation. The question then emerges, how can cultural assumptions that guide interpretations of the evidence become biologically manifest? Upon deeper reflection, this investigation turns its attention to relations of power and reveals the biological body and the discourses that produce it to be more closely aligned than generally presumed. This thesis argues that nature (the body) and culture (discourse) are not inherently oppositional, thus, the way we "conceptualise" the world must be inseparable from the "matter" under investigation. Based on this revelation, it is reasonable to consider that normalising discourse, which founds the meaning-making process of alcohol use, is not simply a re-presentation of the natural/organic world, but is constitutive of, and inherently writing the biological world it describes. Thus, rather than erecting material/conceptual borders that reinforce the polarisation of the nature/culture division, this thesis proposes a way to think difference more generously, in a way that allows for a closer reconciliation of the historical division between the "theory" and the "lived" experience.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Title from file title page. Jaye Atkinson, committee chair; Merrill Morris, Mary Ann Romski, Yuki Fujioka, committee members. Electronic text (127 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Nov. 5, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-123).

Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Graduate Program in Communication Studies. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/05/08). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-268).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 331-348).

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Kent State University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Apr. 9, 2009). Advisor: Elaine Hall. Keywords: framing, cosmetic surgery. Includes bibliographical references (p. 178-184).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1987. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 39).