This essay examines the sadomasochistic relationship between the main characters of the Twilight Saga from a psychoanalytic perspective, and looks at the family and gender roles in the Saga from a post-feministic view. Aspects also considered are the portrayal of female sexuality as something dangerous and negative, recreational sex as something perverted, and the pro-marriage and anti-abortion propaganda in the last two novels. The purpose of the essay is to reveal how the author’s personal, and to some extent religious, beliefs and values are validated through the storyline; how the relationship between the main characters, as well as their personal psychological and physical health, change after matrimony and parenthood.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1999. Graduate Programme in Women's Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 430-455). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ39282.

Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 award-winning musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was produced during a time of great political and economic uncertainty in New York City. Although not overtly political, the themes of urban crisis and class inequality that birthed the original legend of Sweeney Todd in Industrial Revolution London continued to play a large role within the modern musical, reflecting leftist political concerns at large. The main political argument within the work is the critique of class hierarchies created by capitalism and how the upper classes abuse the lower classes, ie. how Judge Turpin uses his power to abuse Sweeney Todd and the grave consequences of such actions. Less obvious, however, are the importance of gender hierarchy and the objectification of women within this anti-capitalist critique. This paper focuses on the character of Johanna and the three songs sung about her by the three main male leads. These songs provide a case study of how gendered objectification and commodification play a significant role in the overall Marxist critique intrinsic to the musical and the Sweeney Todd legend overall. The work’s rootedness in the anti-capitalist critique of the New Left in the 1970s and the concurrent rise of Marxist and socialist feminism provide clues to understanding the context and meaning behind the violent treatment of women within the musical as an extension of the anti-capitalist critique that is fundamental to the work. / text

When Amy comes to work at the Festival on the Grand, she enters a world in which feminism has disappeared. Without a way to access feminism, the Festival staff: Judith, Poppy, James, Lisa, and Amy endure the patriarchal rule of Artistic Director, Nick Noble. Tempo captures the Festival in the week leading up to its prestigious 40th anniversary opening night: the Berlioz Requiem and concludes by asking the audience to consider our current treatment of feminism. The afterword that accompanies the script is part personal reflection, part critical analysis. The reflection includes the process of developing, writing, and workshopping the script as well as how the play conveys feminism in form, content, and inspiration. The analysis considers the notion of post-feminism and the dangers of blindly embracing it. This project aims to encourage an audience to be critical of post-feminism and revive feminism in creative and useful ways.

I am writing a feminist theology of music. Feminist musicologists, by studying music's relation to human sexuality (a connection which theologians have neglected, suppressed, or simply ignored), contend that music has always functioned as a metaphor for sexual relations. As such, music constitutes a site where personal and social formation is negotiated and contested. Via repertoires of musical conventions, much like those in film and literature, composers arouse, manipulate, and channel our desires, thereby reinforcing (and sometimes transgressing) cultural norms of sexuality and gender construction. Their compositions become "fabrications of sexuality." (McClary) / Historically, theologians and church authorities vilified music's preeminent worth as an erotic medium, promoting instead its exemplary embodiment of ontic harmony and order. To do so, they clothed their polemic against "illicit" musical practices with the rhetoric of effeminacy, thus veiling male ambivalence toward women and the body in a politics of transcendence. After a critique of these masculinist models, and an exposition of music as a gendered, en-gendering discourse, I will redefine music theologically as abject, fleshly imitatio. To construct a feminist musico-theological model, I shall synthesise a lost trope from the tradition with insights which I have gained from the musical activities of four women musician-composers: Hildegard of Bingen, Bolognese nun Lucrezia Vizzani (and her consoeurs), Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Diamanda Galas. Through this recuperative synthesis, music's theological significance will shift from its incarnation of harmony and order---divine, cosmic, or human to its ineradicable promiscuity, its dis-integrative powers. / My original contribution to the field is fourfold: (1) I document the rhetoric of effeminacy and virility which has influenced and shaped traditional theologies of music, and thereby undermine the latter's privileged status as musico-theological resources; (2) I portray the music of the above women composers as musical imitations of Christ; (3) I enrich revisionist accounts of women in the Christian tradition by giving greater prominence to women's musical activity, the latter previously neglected in, for example, theological studies of mediaeval women, this despite music's centrality to their daily lives; (4) I initiate mutually enriching dialogue between feminist musicology and theology. To date, a feminist theology of music has not been written.

This thesis argues that in North America since the late 1980s, young women's interest in feminism has been expressed through participation in feminist music subcultures. The project provides an overview of the studies of culture, musical subculture, and gender and music making, as well as an historical context of feminism and a discussion of the relationship between second and third wave feminism. / The first case study explores Riot Grrrl's roots in the DIY activism of DC hardcore punk, its links to the female-oriented indie music scene of Olympia, Washington, and the subculture's use of alternative media. The second study examines efforts to integrate queer politics into third wave feminism through lesbian punk rock music subculture. The final study of electronic feminist punk rock examines how young feminists use alternative media such as zines, internet message boards, web sites, music making, and performance to educate young women about sexual abuse and homophobia. / Analysis of the Riot Grrrl, lesbian punk rock, and electronic feminist punk rock subcultures demonstrates how young women claim spaces for their own feminist politics, even if they have gone relatively undetected by the mainstream culture.

Feminism in the early 1980's in the United States revolved much around social and cultural matters such as sexual liberation, self- definition and self- realization for women. Derived from these ideas within feminism comes Alice Walker's Womanism, that is the writer's own definition of the strong and independent woman of color. This paper investigates the character Shug Avery, in The ColorPurple (1983), in relation to feminism and Womanism. It is argued that she is an empowered female because of the characteristics and attributes that come along with being a Womanist, despite moral,cultural and societal conditions that indicate marginalization for Shug and all women.

Bakgrund: Endometrios är en kronisk gynekologisk sjukdom med okänd etiologi som drabbar 10 % av kvinnor i fertil ålder och som har en djupgående påverkan på samtliga delar av kvinnors välmående. Dessa kvinnor blir ofta misstrodda och avfärdade av vårdpersonal när de söker vård för sjukdomen och deras smärtproblematik anses vara ”normal”. Feminism kan användas som ett verktyg för att undersöka denna företeelse. Syfte: Att beskriva hur kvinnor med endometrios upplever mötet med vårdpersonal. Metod: En kvalitativ innehållsanalys gjordes av sex stycken bloggar skrivna av kvinnor med endometrios för att ta del av deras upplevelser och erfarenheter. Resultat: Totalt återfanns tre teman; att bli experten, det dynamiska mötet och det statiska mötet. Under dessa återfanns totalt fem subteman som återger olika aspekter av mötet mellan kvinnorna och vårdpersonalen. Slutsats: Den omfattande misstro kvinnor med endometrios upplever inom vården kan förklaras av den underordnade position kvinnor har i samhället. En konsekvens av detta blir att dessa kvinnor möts i gemenskaper och formar ett systraskap. Klinisk betydelse: Sjuksköterskor kommer ofta i kontakt med dessa kvinnor oavsett klinisk placering. Genom ökad kunskap om sjukdomen såväl som strukturella faktorer skapas möjligheter för att hjälpa denna patientgrupp få den vård de har rätt till. / Background: Endometriosis is a chronic gynecological disease with unknown aetiology which affects 10 % of fertile women and it has a profound effect on each part of women’s wellbeing. These women are often subjected to misbelief and dismission from healthcare personnel when they seek help for their pain related symptoms which are often considered “normal”. Feminism can be used as a tool to investigate these problematic issues. Aim: To investigate how women with endometriosis experience the encounter with healthcare personnel. Method: A qualitative content analysis based on six blogs was carried out with the intention to describe womens’ experiences. Result: A total of three themes were found; becoming the expert, the dynamic encounter and the static encounter. Related to these themes, a total of five subthemes were found that described different aspects of the encounter between the women and healthcare personnel. Conclusion: The widespread mistrust that women with endometriosis experience within the healthcare system can be explained by the subordinated position of women in society. This results in the gathering of women in communities as a type of sisterhood. Clinical implication: Nurses frequently come in contact with these women regardless of clinical placement. By improving their knowledge about the disease as well as structural factors, nurses are in position to help these patients receive the healthcare they are entitled to.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2627. Author's first name misspelled on cover as "Jaquline." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-251).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2002. / Also available online.