none

This thesis aims to investigate women&rsquo / s oppression through analyzing the overlapping features of hegemonic ideology of beauty and fashion. The major goal of the study is to examine how beauty ideology is constructed and how it is practiced in the case of fashion. Additionally, the intersecting discourses of capitalist system and patriarchy have been questioned to understand women&rsquo / s oppression, as suggested by Dual-System theorists. Therefore, throughout the study, the common interests of capitalist and patriarchal systems in reproducing oppressive body politics have been demonstrated.

Wang Xiaobo is a Post-Mao novelist whose works have prompted tremendous attention from the intellectuals and the public after his death. The straightforward representation of sex in his fiction is often considered as one of the sources that contribute to his “liberal spirit”. This is because many of Wang Xiaobo’s stories full of sexual depictions are set during the Cultural Revolution. But Wang Xiaobo’s ambiguous manipulation of the relationship between sex and the power makes his resistance to authoritarianism a tricky issue. On the one hand, his nonchalant attitude to both sex and politics can be interpreted as a mocking of the Maoist ideology. On the other hand, the author’s detachment from the political background and the protagonist’s sexual carnival in the rural areas can be considered as indifferent to the Cultural Revolution. The engagement with Maoist ideology in the theoretical framework of suppression/revolt cannot give a satisfactory answer to the role of sex in his fiction. This thesis amends this framework by taking other elements than Maoist discourse into consideration. / Graduate

This dissertation explores the regulation of abortion in Canada following the landmark R v Morgentaler decision (1988), which struck down Canada’s existing abortion law, causing the procedure’s subsequent reclassification as a healthcare issue. The resulting fragility of abortion rights is still evident in the varying provincial regulations governing the nature of access to the procedure. While access has been accepted as the new terrain of abortion rights, research into this area to date has taken a largely national focus, surveying provincial barriers and compiling lists of potential motivations for differences in service. This dissertation builds on this work through the use of specific case studies of provinces representative of a spectrum of access in Canada – New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. Through the use of original interview data, these cases are compared and contrasted on previously enumerated grounds believed to have an influence on the treatment of abortion. By isolating the impact of specific processes responsible for the regulation of abortion, through research into its treatment in politics, law, medicine, and public discourse, this study endeavours to offer a more nuanced explanation for varying levels of provincial access to abortion services. Ultimately it finds that a province’s social climate, characterized by attitudes towards the ongoing rights versus morality debate championed by pro- and anti-choice social movements, has had the greatest impact in shaping public perceptions of the procedure. These attitudes in turn have a profound effect on the nature of provincial access. Using a citizenship framework grounded in social reproduction, which understands anti-abortion politics as elements of backlash against progressive advances in women’s citizenship, this dissertation argues for the need to understand abortion as a right of women’s citizenship to address the precarious treatment of abortion services. Recognition of women’s unique reproductive abilities through a citizenship paradigm is necessary before women can hope to achieve equality. Only when abortion is entrenched as a right of citizenship and this understanding of the procedure is embedded in social perceptions, can women not only be treated as equal citizens, but also understand themselves to be equal citizens. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-11-22 11:41:49.524

This thesis examines the recent phenomenon of Atat&uuml / rk&rsquo / s tattoos through a twofold theoretical framework of body politics and secularism. Firstly, it examines the growing interest on the body in social sciences, which has focused on the body as a site of both docility and subversivity. Additionally, the body has been rediscovered as a fetish object through which selfhood and subjectivity are continually reconstructed and contested. These developments were simultaneously conditioned by and manifested themselves in an understanding of &lsquo / the body as a project&rsquo / . Secondly, the study explores Atat&uuml / rk&rsquo / s continued legacy in Turkish politics and for the nation-people. 73 years after his death, Atat&uuml / rk still remains the utmost personification of the secular Turkish nation state. An effort is made to demonstrate how &lsquo / the secular&rsquo / , representing the normative nation-identity, and &lsquo / the religious&rsquo / , representing its Other, have been made in Turkish history. In light of these theories, Atat&uuml / rk tattoo almost seems like an oxymoron: &lsquo / tattoo&rsquo / carrying controversial and rebellious, and &lsquo / Atat&uuml / rk&rsquo / statist and conformist undertones. The main ambition of this thesis is to explore this contradiction through an analysis of whether the Atat&uuml / rk tattoo is a spontaneous (body) politics on the side of &lsquo / the people&rsquo / or whether it is a symptom of Kemalism&rsquo / s current position in society and politics. Finally, to better understand the subject, field research has been conducted with tattoo artists and people with the Atat&uuml / rk tattoo, in 3 cities, through the summer and fall of 2010.

This feminist oral history project located at the intersections of disability, feminist, body politics, and educational theory presents an analysis of three individual student narratives about their experiences with learning disabilities and learning differences (LD/Ds) at the high school and university levels. This thesis introduces students' accounts of their daily lives, pasts, personal views, experiences, and memories about having learning disabilities and learning differences into the existing scholarship on LDs and reveals how students' narrated experiences might shed light on the ways in which education might be reformed to better meet the needs of students like them. In response to these oral histories, I recommend a more distinctively holistic approach to intervention for students with learning disabilities and differences and introduce regime theory as a potential approach to educational reform to improve circumstances for marginalized individuals in the U.S. educational system. Adopting a broader, more universal model would result in more comprehensive and effective training for professionals to prepare them to more quickly and accurately recognize patterns and trends (such as the growing number of LD/D diagnoses over the past decade), and disability in education being reframed, reimagined, and handled as a social issue, a repairable condition in need of attention and resources.

Magister Artium - MA / Migration has become very prominent in South Africa, and unlike most countries on the continent, it is an extremely prominent destinations for migrants. The country attracts migrants because there is a common perception that there are better economic opportunities, jobs and living conditions within South Africa. Countries like Zimbabwe, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Senegal, Mozambique and Nigeria are statistically high ranking in migrants entering South Africa on a daily basis (Stats SA, 2011). Most forced migration research seeks to explain the behaviour, impact, and challenges faced by the displaced with the intention of influencing agencies and governments to develop more effective responses to address the challenges. As a case study focusing on women, gender and migration at the micro-level, this study deals with the gendered and classed experiences and struggles of women migrants working as hairdressers in street salons in Bellville, Cape Town. The study explores how women who are socially marked as “other” in terms of gender, class, space, identity and nationality navigate an environment in which social worth and belonging is constantly defined by physical appearance and the environment in which the body is physically located. Through a feminist qualitative research method, the study focuses mainly on women’s experiences through interviews and participant observation. The research is therefore deeply grounded and rooted in feminist theoretical perspective and feminist methodological approaches in order to understand women’s lives and gender roles, their body politics and working lives. One of the major findings of this study is that the lack of a gendered analysis of migration has perpetuated stereotypes about who “migrants” are, what access they can have in a foreign country, in what ways they are considered “other”, and, most importantly, how they respond to their experiences of “othering” and political marginalization. It is argued that migration has been constantly changing: many contemporary migrant women are driven by adventure, desire and spirit, and not by famine, war, spouses and poverty. This study therefore develops recommendations for future researchers and policy makers in considering gender and the dynamic changes surrounding migration.

Transsexuella personer hör till de mest utsatta personer i världen. Deras rättigheter regleras och diskrimineras av statlig lagstiftning som strider mot de mänskliga rättigheterna och de utsätts för våld och diskriminering p.g.a. deras avvikande könsidentitet som överskrider existerande genusbarriärer eller för att de utmanar de dominerande uppfattningarna om genus roller. Uppsatsen belyser sambandet mellan transnationell aktivism och kroppspolitik, för att påvisa hur transsexuella rättigheter diskrimineras och hurkroppar ses som en statlig angelägenhet. Jag utgår ifrån ett genusperspektiv inom IR, för att hänvisa till ett genussystem som förklarar de ojämna maktrelationerna och vill därmed betona lagens roll inom beskrivningen av samhälle och i föreläggandet av förändring. Studien påvisar ett samband på individ, statlig och transnationell nivå, för att illustrera den komplexa relationen mellan den politiska och diskursiva möjligheten inom den transnationella aktivismen. Genom en jämförande fallstudie av Chile och Finland, påvisar jag likheter och olikheter som påverkar hur transnationell aktivism tas emot, och ifall den påverkatländernas interna lagstiftning för transsexuella rättigheter. Chile och Finland visade sig vara stater med mycket likheter, varav den oberoende variabel som skiljer dem åt är den religiösa aspekten. Chile påvisar den tydliga relation som finns mellan staten och den katolska kyrkan, medan Finland ses som en sekulär stat. / Transgender people belong to the most vulnerable people in the world. Their rights are regulated and discriminated by state laws that violate human rights, and are subjected to violence and discrimination because of their gender identity, which exceeds existing gender barriers or because they challenge dominant views on gender roles. The paper highlights the connection between transnational activism and body politics, to show how transsexual rights are discriminated and seen as an affair of the state. I assume a gender gender perspective within IR, referring to a gender system that explains the uneven power relations,and thus wish to emphasise the role of the law in description of society and in the description of change. The study provides an insight into a relationship at the individual, state and transnational level. Through a comparative case study of Chile and Finland, both of which are current about the issue of gender reassignment, I demonstrate how transnational activism is used and received, and if the transnational activism has effected the internal laws for transsexual rights. The countries showed to have a lot in common,whereby the independent variable that differs is the religious aspect. Chile shows the strong connection between the state and the catholic church, while Finland is seen as a secular state.

No description available.

No description available.