This dissertation offers an examination of Delany's critical trajectory from structuralism to poststructuralism and postmodernism across a gamut of genres from SF to sword-and-sorcery, pornography, autobiography and literary criticism. Delany's engagement with semiotics, Foucault and deconstruction form the theoretical focus, together with his own theories of how SF functions as a literary genre, and its standing and reception within the greater realm of literature. The impact of Delany as a gay, black SF writer is also examined against the backdrop of his varied output. I have used the term 'dislocation' to describe Delany's tackling of traditional subjects and genres, and opening them up to further possibilities through critical engagement. Lastly, Delany is also examined as a postmodern icon. A frequent participant in his own texts, as well using pseudonyms that have developed into fully-fledged characters, Delany has become a critical signifier in his own work. / English Studies / M. A. (English)

This thesis deals in it?s theoretical part with the changing of social role of women in the course of human existence and history of the feminist movement. It observes the differences between men and women from three perspectives: biological, psychological, sociological, and on their basis reveals their properties for which individuals choose the preference of life partner. Thesis also focuses on the labor market situation in terms of gender. In the practical part, based on interviews with 10 men and 10 women, I evaluate the views at how men see the role of women in society and also as well how women themselves see their role. At first I found out how the household in which the respondents grew up in work in the division of daily tasks, how they want their own households to work (or as they works) and then I compared the results. Then I focused on qualities and skills which are in interviews attributed to women and men, what´s the position of women in the labor market in their opinion or why the number of divorces is constantly increasing and why the age for starting a family is increasing as well. The work affects not only the view of men of women's social mission, but also the view of women themselves in the light of expectations that men (and society) have towards to women.

Este trabalho analisa, partindo de textos freudianos, o percurso do tornar-se mulher suas contribuições e impasses na Contemporaneidade. No encontro com o feminino, na tentativa de compreender o significado das fantasias e sintomas histéricos, Freud descobriu o inconsciente, o trauma, o sexual, que remetiam às experiências sexuais infantis. Ao estudar a sexualidade nas perversões, depara- se com a sexualidade infantil e sua natureza perverso- polimorfa. A sexualidade deixa, então, o campo da perversão para se inscrever no campo pulsional e do desejo. Nesse contexto, Freud desenvolve uma teoria da sexualidade feminina referenciada à castração e à primazia fálica, único caminho para a aquisição de uma feminilidade normal. Reflete-se e analisa-se o tornar-se mulher em Freud, remetendo-o à sociedade do espetáculo e à cultura do narcisismo. A mulher, nesta travessia, conquistou vários espaços, criando novos laços sociais: abandonou o espaço privado representado pelo casamento e a maternagem, para ocupar a cena do espetáculo. Ao contextualizar-se à cena do espetáculo no universo da sociedade de consumo e suas conseqüências na subjetividade feminina, passa-se a analisar mais detalhadamente a relação da mulher com o seu próprio corpo e com a sua sexualidade, marcada pelo excesso sexual e escravizada a um corpo idealizado, fonte de angústia e sofrimento. Na Contemporaneidade, é a imagem da mulher-corpo-sexo que se apresenta, com as máscaras e os adereços tecnológicos, na busca do corpo perfeito e desejado, na tentativa de tamponar a falta, a incompletude, a morte. É o corpo-sexo, enquanto objeto de desejo e de consumo, que vende qualquer coisa e se constitui em objeto de gozo do outro. Revela-se uma sexualidade escancarada, primitiva, sem nenhum limite. Passa-se da mulher- histérica para a mulher corpo-sexo, aquela que ocupa o lugar da prostituta na fantasia masculina, legitimada pelo social, idealizada e modelo de feminilidade. A feminilidade significada naquilo que o jogo de sedução e erotismo possui de mais sublime, misterioso e belo --- expresso na delicadeza de um gesto erótico, de um decote e de uma revelação encontra-se destituída de seu valor na Contemporaneidade. A mulher evidencia, através do corpo excessivamente erotizado, a necessidade de se buscar outros saberes, frente às novas formas de erotização , que se apresentam / This work analyzes, according to Freudian texts, the route to become a woman, its contributions and impasses today. Its in the encounter with the feminine, attempting to understand the meaning of fantasies and hysterical symptoms, that Freud found out the inconsciousness, the trauma, sex, that drove to childhood sexual experiences. Studying sexuality in perversion, we face childhood sexuality and its many-formed perverted nature. Sexuality leaves then, perversion field to come into impulse and desire field. In this context, Freud develops a theory of feminine sexuality referred to castration and phallic primacy, only way to the acquisition of a normal feminism. Reflecting and analyzing to become a woman according to Freud, sent it to the society of spectacle and narcissism worship. Woman, through this path, has conquered many spaces, creating new social links: has left private space, meant by marriage and motherhood, to be at the spectacle scenery. Viewing this scenery in the consumers universe society and its consequences in the feminine subjectivity, tending to analyze in details womans relation with her own body and sexuality, stressed by sexual excess and tied to an ideal body, source of sorrow and pain. At present-day, thats the image of woman-body-sex that comes up with masks and technological devices, searching the desired-perfect body, trying to deceive failure incompleteness, death. Its body-sex as object of desire and consumption, that sells anything and becomes others object of pleasure. It shows an open-wide sexuality, primitive, without limits. It changes from a hysterical to a body-sex woman, the one that plays the whore in the masculine fantasy, legitimated by the social, idealized and feminine model. Feminism meaning what the seduction and erotism game owns as the most sublime, mysterious and gorgeous-showed in a subtle erotic gesture, a neckline,a revelation has no value today. The woman shows, through her highly erotized body, the necessity of searching other knowledges, before new forms of erotization she faces

The purpose of this essay is to reckon about this violence of a gender, particularly about the crimes of rape in the city of Uberlândia between the decades of 1940 to 1960. This argument concerns about how this theme is showing its importance on the fields of history lately. Decomposing women´s paradigm of being lower than men, providing a better view on social relationships involving them. This project began from the research of several criminal trials that had been incinerated from Abelardo Penna Forum for lack of room. They are about 20.000 trials dating from 1890 to 1984 that can be found nowadays at CDHIS (Centro de Documentação e Pesquisa em História History Center of Documentation and Research) of Uberlândia Federal University. In this documentation we found information about the social subjects involved, for instance: names, professions, education, age, ethnicity, marital status, addresses, nationality and social rates. We were also allowed to check on the victims` speeches, as well as the defendants, judges, promoters, the commission agents, doctors, lawyers and witnesses involved in such a crime, what makes the source of this essay. Realizing the great possibilities of analyses on this documentation, the field of reflection used on this research has its goal on working the speeches built by the violence of a gender in Uberlândia City. And understand how culturally such a pattern behavior of femininity and masculinity were built in the Brazilian society, having as a reference the jurisprudence of this remote time, and mainly the Civil Code from 1916 and the Criminal Code from 1940. / A proposta deste trabalho é pensar a violência de gênero, em particular os crimes de estupro na cidade de Uberlândia entre as décadas de 1940 a 1960. Esta discussão abarcando a temática da violência de gênero tem demonstrado sua importância e atualidade no campo da história nos últimos anos. Decompondo o paradigma da mulher como sendo um ser inferior ao homem, e proporcionando novos olhares sobre as relações sociais destes sujeitos. Este trabalho de pesquisa teve início a partir de vários processos criminais que seriam incinerados pelo Fórum Abelardo Penna por falta de espaço físico. São aproximadamente 20.000 processos criminais de 1890 a 1984 que se encontram hoje no CDHIS (Centro de Documentação e Pesquisa em História) da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia. Nesta documentação encontramos informações sobre os sujeitos sociais envolvidos, como por exemplo: nome, profissão, grau de instrução, idade, cor, estado civil, endereço, nacionalidade e posição social. Evidenciamos ainda os discursos das vítimas, réus, juizes, promotores, delegados de polícia, médicos, advogados e testemunhas em relação ao crime ocorrido, e que é o fio condutor deste trabalho. Percebendo as diversas possibilidades de análise desta documentação, o campo de reflexão utilizado na pesquisa tem por objetivo trabalhar os discursos que foram construídos sobre a violência de gênero na cidade de Uberlândia. E compreender como culturalmente foi construído os modelos de comportamentos para a feminilidade e a masculinidade na sociedade brasileira, tendo como referencial a jurisprudência da época, e principalmente o Código Civil de 1916 e o Código Penal de 1940. / Mestre em História

Esta tese investiga as representações de maternidade em mulheres situadas na configuração monoparental feminina da contemporaneidade, analisando as implicações dessas significações no exercício da maternidade. Aborda as relações entre os significados, as atribuições da maternidade e a cultura, destacando as variações nas significações do ser mãe, atreladas aos deslocamentos dos sentidos do ser mulher, no curso do processo civilizador. Investiga as representações da maternidade para compreender a subjetividade da mulher-mãe na cultura contemporânea e os modos dessa exercer a função educativa no contexto monoparental, entendendo a centralidade do Desejo da Mãe na subjetivação do filho, na transmissão da ordem simbólica e na construção da sua cidadania. A pesquisa foi realizada com cinco mulheres sem cônjuge, com filhos, através de entrevistas semiabertas, sendo esse recurso empregado desde o campo conceitual da Psicanálise. A metodologia adotada foi a da pesquisa psicanalítica, em que o método freudiano de investigação dirigiu a escuta e interpretação das falas dos sujeitos. Para analisar essas falas, foram destacados elementos fundamentais desse grupo cultural, emergentes nos discursos das mulheres: a mãe, o filho e o pai. A base conceitual da Psicanálise sustenta a interpretação dos discursos das mães sobre o tema da maternidade, onde o narcisismo, a feminilidade, o complexo de Édipo e o Desejo de Mãe foram os eixos teóricos interpretativos principais, tomados na análise da subjetividade feminina. Na leitura e compreensão dessa temática, também foi realizado um diálogo com outras disciplinas das Ciências Humanas. A tese indica que os significados da maternidade e os modos de ocupação do lugar parental materno dependem das vivências narcísicas, identificatórias, edípicas e da economia de gozo da mulher, em conjunção com as expectativas culturais sobre parentalidade, filiação e conjugalidade. Em relação a essas questões, o estudo aponta a presença de pontos de tensão nas experiências das mães situadas na dobradiça, isto é, na transição da modernidade para a pós-modernidade. Os relatos permitem dizer que a Função Paterna inscrita na mulher, o pai simbólico da mãe, é o que torna possível a limitação da onipotência materna na configuração monoparental, assim como afirmar ser o pai real um importante agente na regulação da economia libidinal nessas famílias. Este estudo questiona o suposto da emergência de um matriarcado no laço social contemporâneo e o declínio da Função Paterna, assinalando que as mudanças da posição da mulher na cultura não implicam a realização da fantasia da mulher toda. Por outro lado, aponta uma possível mudança na economia pulsional das mulheres, naquilo que concerne ao gozo Outro, na maternidade. / This thesis investigates the representations of motherhood in women situated in the contemporary female single parent family configuration, analyzing the implications of these significations in the practice of motherhood. It approaches the relations among significances, motherhood attributions and culture, highlighting the variations in the significations of being a mother, linked to the displacements of the meanings of being a woman, along the civilizing process. It investigates the representations of motherhood in order to understand the subjectivity of the woman-mother in the contemporary culture and the ways they perform the educative function in the single parent context, understanding the centrality of Mother’s Wish in the subjectivation of the child, in the transmission of the symbolic order and in the construction of their citizenship. The research was developed with five women, no spouse, with children, by the means of semi-open interviews, being this resource used from the perspective of the conceptual field of Psychoanalysis. The methodology adopted was the psychoanalytic research, in which the listening and interpretation of the subjects’ speech was guided by Freud’s method of investigation. In order to analyze these speeches, fundamental elements of this cultural group, emerging from the women’s discourses, were highlighted: the mother, the child and the father. The conceptual basis of Psychoanalysis gives support to the interpretation of the discourses of these mothers about motherhood, where narcissism, femininity, the Oedipus complex and the Mother’s Wish were the main interpretative theoretical axes, taken in the analysis of female subjectivity. In the reading and understanding of this issue, a dialogue with other subjects of the Human Sciences was also developed. The thesis indicates that the significations of motherhood and the modes of occupation of the mother’s parental place depend on narcissistic, identification and oedipal experiences of the woman’s jouissance economy, associated with cultural expectations in relation to parenthood, filiation and conjugability. In relation to these questions, the study points to the presence of tension points in the experiences of mothers situated on the hinge, that is, in the transition from Modernity to Post-Modernity. From the reports, it is possible to say that the Paternal Function inscribed in the woman, the mother’s symbolic father, is what makes the limitation of maternal omnipotence possible in the single parent configuration, as well as to assert that the real father is an important agent in the regulation of the libidinal economy in these families. This study questions the supposed emergence of a matriarchy in the contemporary social bond and the decreasing of Paternal Function, pointing out that the changes of woman’s position in the culture don’t imply the coming true of the whole-woman fantasy. On the other hand, it points to a possible change in women’s drive economy, concerning the Other-jouissance, in motherhood.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to examine how femininity, Silikon, Vecko Revyn, and Darling. The study is made from a critical discourse analytical approach and text, pictures, and layout are all analysed. Some of the main characteristics of the material are the division in the categories"we"and"them", double messages, and personal address to the reader. Femininity is strongly associated with body, sexuality, beauty, and looks. A common representation is beauty defined by the features: thin, young, and fair skin. The most distinguished difference is the way differences between women and men are represented in the magazines.

Orientador: Jorge Sidney Coli Junior / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-12T20:36:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulitsch_ViviandaSilva_D.pdf: 19154700 bytes, checksum: 1fc2727325ff96d4ed507b69e374ed84 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Esta tese constitui uma pesquisa em história da arte, relativamente ao tríptico intitulado La Faiseuse D'Anges (A fazedora de anjos), de autoria do artista brasileiro e filho de imigrantes alemães, Pedro Weingärtner (1853-1929). É objetivo geral desta tese relacionar, analisar e propor uma leitura crítica acerca dos aspectos picturais, sociais, culturais e historiográficos das representações constantes no tríptico, integrante do acervo da Pinacoteca de São Paulo. O artista percebe a mulher como o centro da sociedade - um pilar - e o lugar capital do casamento em sua vida, como fator de reconhecimento. A injunção desse status quo está nos detalhes dos objetos e da cena de carnaval e dos interiores que Weingärtner propositalmente colocou em sua composição, ao reproduzir essa realidade cotidiana, característica da pintura de gênero do século XIX, em toda a Europa.Entende-se que a simbologia e a sugestão foram sua primeira opção de linguagem. Depois, apoiou-se na obra literária Fausto, de Goethe, que permeia as três partes do tríptico. O título enigmático, relativo às abortadeiras, colocava em pé de igualdade todo tipo de prática que, de alguma forma, tentasse prejudicar a vida de um novo ser em geração. Pedro Weingärtner criou um tríptico sob um clima prejudicial em relação ao nascimento, resolveu sugerir o abandono e o colocou em posição igualitária ao crime de infanticídio. / Abstract: This thesis constitutes a research about Art History, focused on the triptych entitled La Faiseuse D'Anges (Angels maker) by the Brazilian artist and German immigrants' son, Pedro Weingärtner (1853-1929). The general goal of this work is to analyze and propose a critical reading of pictorial, social, cultural and historiographical aspects of the representations contained at the triptych, part of Picture Gallery of São Paulo State collection. The artist perceives the woman as the society center - a pillar - and the main place of marriage in her life as a fact of recognition. The injunction of this status quo is in the objects' details, in the carnival scenes and in the interiors than Weingärtner places on purpose in his composition, reproducing this daily reality, characteristical in 19th century paintings, all over Europe. Symbology and suggestion are understood as his first language option. Afterward, the artist based his work on Faust by Goethe, a literary text that pervades the whole triptych. The enigmatic title, referred to women who practiced abortion, put in the same level all practices that, somehow, attempted to damage the life of a new human being. Pedro Weingärtner created a triptych under a birth damaging approach and suggested the abandonment as well as put it in the same position of infanticide crime. / Doutorado / Historia da Arte / Doutor em História

O trabalho tem por objetivo explicitar as possíveis relações entre loucura e feminilidade, tomando como ponto de partida observações efetuadas no exercício clínico, tanto em consultório particular como em instituições de saúde mental, a partir das contribuições teóricas de Freud e Lacan. Denominamos de atravessamentos do feminino as expressões de sofrimento psíquico, em particular nos pacientes que passavam momentos de crise ou desorganização psíquica grave e que, de formas variadas, apresentavam signos referidos ao universo feminino. Inicialmente, realizamos uma retomada histórica da construção do conceito de histeria e, neste percurso, abordamos o quadro da loucura histérica, a partir do qual salientamos como a inclusão da histeria no campo médico acabou por desarticular os três termos que o quadro de loucura histérica carregava: loucura - histeria - feminino. Em seguida, foram analisados os relatos clínicos freudianos de Dora e de Schreber, desde que ambos são ilustrativos de como certos aspectos da feminilidade que irrompem na vida desses sujeitos podem ser entendidos como manifestações clínicas, produzidas como respostas possíveis à hiância aberta pelo encontro com o enigma da feminilidade. / The aim of this paper is to establish the possible relationships between insanity and femininity, using observations from clinical practice, (private practice as well as mental health institutions), as a jumping off point, beginning with theorical contributions from Freud and Lacan. The title feminine cross-over is given to expressions of psychological suffering, particularly in patients who have been through moments of crisis or grave psychological disorientation and which, in their varied manifestations, show signs which refer to the feminine universe. First, a background study of the construction of the concept of hysteria was carried out, in the course of which the clinical profile of hysterical insanity became apparent. Using this, the inclusion of hysteria in the medical field ended up being articulated by three terms loaded into the profile of hysterical insanity: insanity - hysteria - feminine. Next, Dora and Schreber\'s Freudian clinical reports were analyzed, since both illustrate how aspects of femininity which appear in the subjects\' lives can be understood as clinical manifestations, produced as possible answers to the beance (gap) opened by the shock with the enigma of femininity.

Contexte : Les différences de fonctionnement physique entre les hommes et les femmes ne sont pas bien comprises. Les chercheurs ont porté attention aux différences biologiques entre les hommes et les femmes mais ne se sont pas concentrés sur les différences de fonctionnement physique et de mobilité qui pourraient être reliées au sexe et au genre. En particulier, les effets de la masculinité et de la féminité sur le fonctionnement physique des personnes âgées n’ont pas été examinés. Objectifs : L’objectif principal de cette recherche est d’évaluer l’association entre fonctionnement physique et rôles de genre. Pour atteindre cet objectif, nous avons examiné : 1) la validité de la version courte (12 items) de l’Inventaire des rôles sexués de Bem (IRSB) ; 2) les associations transversales et longitudinales entre l’IRSB et des indicateurs de mobilité et de performance physique, et finalement 3) les variables jouant un rôle de médiation entre l’IRSB et la performance physique. Méthodes : Les données de l’étude internationale sur la mobilité au cours du vieillissement (IMIAS) recueillies en 2012 et 2014 ont été utilisées dans cette recherche. Cette étude s’est déroulée dans 5 villes : Saint-Hyacinthe (Québec) and Kingston (Ontario) au Canada, Tirana (Albanie), Manizales (Colombie) et Natal (Brésil), avec un échantillon approximatif à chaque site de 200 hommes et 200 femmes âgés de 65 à 74 ans vivant dans la communauté (N=2004). Deux aspects du fonctionnement physique ont été examinés dans cette thèse : la mobilité et la performance physique. La mobilité a été mesurée par deux questions sur la difficulté à marcher un Km et à monter un étage d’escaliers. La performance physique a été objectivée par le Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB). Cette batterie inclut des mesures de la marche, de l’équilibre et de la force musculaire et elle mesure le temps requis pour exécuter trois tests : marcher quatre mètres, se tenir début en position de tandem et se lever d’une chaise cinq fois. Pour la validation psychométrique de l’instrument IRSB, des analyses factorielles exploratoires et confirmatoires ont été réalisées. Pour les études d’associations transversales, des analyses de régression de Poisson ont permis l’estimation des ratios de prévalence pour les incapacités de mobilité et la mauvaise performance physique, comparant les rôles masculins, féminins et indifférenciés. Pour l’étude de l’incidence de la mauvaise performance physique, les estimations de risque relatif ont été obtenues à l’aide de la régression de Poisson. L’étude des variables de médiation entre les rôles de genre et la performance physique a inclus le tabagisme, l’inactivité physique, la consommation d’alcool, l’index de masse corporelle élevé, le nombre de maladies chroniques et la dépression. Finalement, une méta-analyse a été effectuée pour examiner l’homogénéité des associations entre les rôles de genre et la performance physique dans les cinq sites de recherche. Résultats : Les résultats des analyses factorielles pour l’instrument de mesure IRSB ont révélé qu’une solution à deux facteurs (instrumentalité-expression) donne une validité conceptuelle satisfaisante, ainsi qu’un ajustement aux données supérieur par rapport à une solution à trois facteurs. La solution à deux facteurs permet d’assigner un score de masculinité et un score de féminité à chaque participant et de classifier les personnes âgées dans quatre catégories selon leur typologie de rôle de genre : masculin, féminin, androgyne et indifférencié. En ce qui concerne les associations avec les indicateurs de mobilité et de fonctionnement physique, les rôles féminins et indifférenciés sont des facteurs indépendants associés à la prévalence des incapacités dans la mobilité et à la mauvaise performance après ajustement avec des variables de confusion potentielle. Les rôles féminins et indifférenciés sont des facteurs de risque associés à une détérioration plus rapide du fonctionnement des extrémités inferieures. Nous avons rapporté une incidence de mauvaise performance physique plus élevée pour ceux qui adoptent un rôle féminin (IRR ajusté=2.36, intervalle de confiance de 95% 1.55-3.60) ou le rôle indifférencié (IRR ajusté=2.19, 95% Intervalle de confiance de 95% 1.45-3.30) comparé au rôle androgyne. Le score de masculinité est associé à la performance physique, alors que le score de féminité ne l’est pas. Une augmentation d’une unité sur le score de masculinité est associée à une incidence de mauvais fonctionnement physique plus faible (IRR ajusté=0.76, 95% intervalle de confiance de 95% 0.67-0.87). Les rôles de genre agissent sur les comportements de santé (tabagisme et inactivité physique), sur l’index de masse corporelle et sur les maladies chroniques et la dépression, tous des facteurs de risque pour la performance physique. Les effets des rôles de genre ne sont que partiellement expliqués par ces facteurs de médiation et un effet direct des rôles de genre sur le fonctionnement physique reste toujours significatif. Conclusion : Les rôles de genre sont présents dans tous les cinq sites de recherche. La mobilité et la performance physique des personnes âgées sont associées au type de rôle de genre avec un possible effet protecteur pour les personnes androgynes, indépendamment du fait qu’ils soient un homme ou une femme. Les rôles de genre semblent influencer les comportements de santé et les risques de développer une maladie chronique et de souffrir de dépression, ce qui peut avoir des effets sur la fonction physique au cours du vieillissement. Cette étude est la première sur le sujet et nos résultats devraient être confirmés par des études futures avant d’être traduits en interventions concrètes de santé publique. / Background: Gender differences in mobility disability among older adults are not well understood. Studies have focused on the biological differences between men and women, but not on the mobility differences due to interrelationships of sex and gender. The associations between masculinity, and femininity on physical function in old age have never been examined. Objective: The main objective of this dissertation is to study the relationships between physical function and gender roles in old age. To accomplish this objective, I have: 1) assessed the psychometric properties and construct validity of the 12-items short form Bem Sex Roles Inventory (BSRI), 2) examined the cross-sectional associations between BSRI and mobility and physical performance, and 3) examined mediating pathways between BSRI and physical performance. Methods: A total of 2004 community-dwelling older adults from the International Mobility in Aging Study (IMIAS) aged 65 to 74 years were recruited in Natal (Brazil), Manizales (Colombia), Tirana (Albania), Kingston (Ontario, Canada), and Saint-Hyacinthe (Quebec, Canada). Two aspects of mobility loss will be assessed in this dissertation: first, Mobility disability is a self-reported measure of the difficulty to walk half a mile or climb one flight of stairs without assistance. Second, poor physical function or performance of the lower extremities which is assessed by an objective tool and defined as inability to perform physical action in the manner considered normal in the short physical performance battery (SPPB). This battery includes three timed tests of lower extremity function: a hierarchical test of standing balance, a four-meter walk, and five repetitive chair stands. To assess the validity of BSRI in old age as a measure of gender roles. The psychometric properties of the 12- items short form BSRI were assessed by means of exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). To assess the cross-sectional associations between gender roles and both measures of mobility loss, I used Poisson regression analysis to estimate prevalence rate ratios of gender role types using the androgynous type as reference category. To calculate the incidence of poor physical performance after two years of follow up, Poisson regression was conducted for the estimation of relative risks. Body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, chronic diseases, and depression were tested as potential mediators in the pathway between gender roles and physical performance in old age. Finally, taking account the possible differences in associations between countries, I have conducted a meta-analysis to estimate overall effects of masculinity and femininity scores on physical performance based on five distinct studies representing each research site of IMIAS. Results: The results of Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed a three-factor model. This model was further confirmed by CFA and compared with the original two-factor structure model. CFA results revealed that a two-factor solution (instrumentality-expressiveness) has satisfactory construct validity and superior fit to data compared to the three-factor solution. These factor analysis findings allowed to calculate scores of masculinity and femininity and classify participants into four categories according to gender roles: Masculine, feminine, androgynous and undifferentiated. Feminine and undifferentiated gender roles are independent risk factors associated with the prevalence of mobility disability and low physical performance in older adults. Consistent with cross sectional analysis, higher incidence of poor physical performance was observed among participants endorsing the feminine role or the undifferentiated role compared to the androgynous role. Higher masculinity but not femininity scores predicted good physical performance two years later. Gender roles predicted poor physical performance through statistically significant direct and indirect pathways. Cumulative smoking, BMI, physical activity, multimorbidity, and depression were serial mediators explaining the indirect effect of gender roles on physical performance. These intermediate behavioral and pathological pathways only partially mediated the observed associations. None of the potential serial mediators in the present study could completely account for the association between gender roles and physical performance. Conclusions: Traditional gender roles are existent in the five research sites of IMIAS. Gender roles influence physical function in old age with a possible protective effect of androgyny in old age independent of biological sex. Gender roles influence health behaviors which in turn contribute to chronic conditions and faster decline of lower extremities physical function. This study adds to the scant literature on this topic and the findings obtained from this dissertation need to be confirmed by future longitudinal studies for the appropriate translation into public health actions.

Julien Green a avoué avoir recours à l’art pour y enfermer tout ce que le monde lui offrait de déplaisant, voire d’inquiétant. Son équilibre mental dépendait de cette démarche créative et cathartique. Une telle expérience a fait surgir un univers tourmenté, dominé par des forces maléfiques dont l’influence voue les êtres au tragique. Dans une logique tout d’abord conventionnelle, les figures féminines apparaissent comme l’image la plus visible d’influences néfastes. Leur drame provient de l’obsession extrême d’un corps porté à les trahir. Qu’elles soient laides ou belles, l’attachement à leur image mine l’existence des héroïnes et les voue à la déchéance, car elles deviennent le champ de bataille où les forces du bien et du mal s’opposent. Elles sont alors pour Green le support privilégié d’une réflexion qui sonde la profondeur de l’imprégnation tragique des récits de fiction.L’encadrement social et religieux apparaît comme une forme de protection de la femme face au mal auquel elle semble promise. Mais la soumission aux normes bourgeoises s’avère pernicieuse : elle enferme les êtres sur eux-mêmes et nourrit fatalement en eux les caractéristiques propices au développement d’un mal dont l’évolution se révèle incontrôlable. En dépit de la charge négative attribuée à nombreuses de ses héroïnes, Green dépasse la représentation misogyne première. La femme bénéfique, souvent imparfaite mais purifiée par les peines endurées, par son besoin de vivre dans la vérité, devient le signe discret d’une ouverture face au tragique. Par sa présence Green parvient à introduire subtilement dans ses romans l’espérance chrétienne, sans rendre son œuvre édifiante. / Julien Green admitted turning to art to encompass everything in the world he found unpleasant or even worrying. His mental well-being depended on this creative and cathartic practice. It brought to the forefront a tormented universe dominated by malevolent forces, with tragic consequences for those involved.In accordance with conventional logic, female characters are portrayed as bearing the brunt of these harmful influences. Their drama springs from an obsession with their bodies which is destined to betray them. Be they ugly or beautiful, their attachment to their image undermines them as heroines and dooms them to failure, for they become the battlefield on which the forces of good and evil are opposed. For Green they are the preferred medium through which he fathoms the depths of the tragic in his works of fiction. The social and religious setting of the novels may appear to be a form of protection for women in the face of the evil which awaits them. But their compliance to the norms of the bourgeoisie proves to be harmful: it imprisons them within themselves and, fatally, engenders characteristics which lead to the development of an evil which proves to be out of control.In spite of the negative charges against numerous of his heroines, Green rises above simple misogyny. The altruistic woman, often far from perfect, but tempered by hardships endured, becomes, by her need to live the truth, a discreet sign of hope in the face of tragedy. It is through his female characters that Green succeeds in introducing subtly the notion of Christian hope in his novels, without making his work 'edifying'.