Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This project contributes to the improvement of the healing encounter between physician and patient and broadens the scope of medical ethics via application of a methodology that creatively communicates patient experience. Contemporary medical training and socialization can create emotional distance between patients and physicians, which has both positive and negative effects. A physician’s “detached concern” often renders patients’ ways of knowing irrelevant to their care. This has a negative effect on patient autonomy, trust, and the healing encounter in general. Herwaldt (2008) developed a pedagogical tool of distilling patient interviews in narrative form into “found poems,” in which the patient experience is expressed in verse; Herwaldt contends that the resulting poems hold the possibility of cultivating empathy in medical practitioners. My research extends Herwaldt’s work with a new set of ten patients currently in cancer treatment, translating their stories of illness into verse. The resulting poems have the potential to empower patients by legitimizing their narrative or experiential ways of knowing as complementary to physician perspectives and approaches to treatment. Clinical and feminist ethics are similar in their attention to case context, empathy, and legitimacy of narrative. However, there are aspects of feminist ethical theory that are not thoroughly delineated in clinical ethics—specifically, attention to power imbalances in medical structures and variations in ethical perspectives. When the poems are examined using a feminist bioethical framework, patients are empowered by expanding both the idea of justice and the principlist definition of autonomy to include the feminist conception of relational autonomy.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / Donald A. Saucier / Research has demonstrated that negative perceptions of rape victims may vary based on characteristics such as the victims’ race (e.g., Estrich, 1987; Wyatt, 1992). This study examined rape from feminist (e.g., Collins, 1991; hooks, 2003) and Social Dominance Theory (SDT; e.g., Pratto, 1996; Sidanius, 1993) perspectives to assess the relationship between individuals’ social dominance orientation (SDO) and differences in their attitudes toward rape victims of differing races. After reading newspaper-style vignettes describing the rape of either a White or Black victim, participants (N = 83) completed measures assessing their levels of rape myth acceptance (RMA), gender role beliefs, SDO, racism, and social desirability. Results indicated that participants’ SDO scores significantly predicted their perceptions of the triviality of the rape. Specifically, when participants’ SDO scores were higher, they perceived the rape as less trivial for White victims. However, participants higher in SDO did not perceive the rape of Black victims as being either more or less trivial. Consistent with previous research, this study also found that negative attitudes toward women significantly predicted overall negative perceptions of both the Black and White rape victims (e.g., Hockett, Saucier, Hoffman, Smith, & Craig, in press) and that individuals perceived the Black rape victims as less credible than the White rape victims (Wyatt, 1992). These results contribute to our understanding of the relationships among individuals’ attitudes about power, race, and rape by offering support for feminist theories about the relationship between rape and power, as well as for SDT and feminist theories regarding the structure of dominance.

This thesis examines the history of the cultural heritage site of Eketorp, a prehistoric ring-fort, on the island of Öland, Sweden. The archaeological excavations at Eketorp, which began in 1964, lasted for a decade and soon turned into one of the largest archaeological research projects in Sweden. The scale and the implementation of the excavations, as an interdisciplinary and international research project, fostered a whole generation of archaeologists and resulted in numerous research publications. After the excavations the archaeological site was transformed into a full-scale archaeological reconstruction by the Swedish National Heritage Board. Since the mid-1980s the site has been a popular tourist attraction and open-air museum. The history of the site itself connects to several academic fields, including archaeology, history of archaeology, cultural heritage and museum studies. Through Ludwig Fleck’s concept thought collective and Donna Haraway’s situated knowledge, which are used as analytical tools, the aim of this thesis is to explore how these different fields interacted throughout the history of Eketorp. Further, the analytical tools are used to highlight how these interactions have generated notions of time, space, and gender. The study takes an interdisciplinary approach with the history of Eketorp analysed in three analytical chapters, each of them with different chronological and empirical focus. First, Eketorp is explored as a contemporary museum space through ethnographic fieldwork. Second, archive material is used to analyse how the archaeological excavation and the following archaeological reconstruction were conducted during the 1960s and onwards. Third, scientific texts are used to analyse how interpretations of Eketorp as a prehistoric site has changed. The concluding chapter integrates the results of the three chapters in order to critically examine how notions of time, space and gender interconnect between these fields. Illustrated by a wide chronological and interdisciplinary approach, the central argument of the thesis is thus that the Eketorp thought collective and thought style, intimately connected to hierarchies in academic practice, were created, performed, and maintained through several scientific and heritage institutions.

Given feminists’ longstanding concerns about the ideological effects of media images, and prompted by the lack of, but continued need for, feminist activism today, some feminist scholars have become increasingly interested in how popular media shape public understandings of feminism, represent its issues, and define its history. Communication scholars also appreciate that both media texts and social movements are produced and received within particular historical contexts, and that controversies over either are discursive sites in which cultural and political values clash and their meanings are negotiated. During the 1970s, second-wave feminism, especially its radical wing, was a controversial movement which threatened to disrupt basic relations between women and men and, therefore, has been much maligned by men, women, anti-feminists, and a new generation of self-proclaimed feminists. Yet, the second wave is often portrayed inaccurately. This dissertation thus reviews key works, theories, and events associated with radical feminism as well as the debates between it and other schools of feminist thought–liberal, Marxist/socialist, psychoanalytic, cultural, and various ‘new’ feminisms. Then, employing a context-sensitive form of ideological criticism, I examine three films, their promotional strategies, their mainstream critical and scholarly receptions, and how these elements converged with particular feminist discourses within their shared historical contexts. Specifically, I investigate why the horror films Rosemary’s Baby (1968), I Spit on Your Grave (1978), and Snuff (1976)–which each featured an exposed, vulnerable, violated, or ‘monstrous’ female body–became objects of controversy when they tapped into the contemporaneous feminist issues of reproduction, rape, and pornography, respectively, and how the films’ receptions reveal ways in which people have made sense of feminism and its issues. I contend that these controversies, both individually and when viewed as a series, were symptomatic of the hegemonic negotiations of second-wave feminism and its attempts to publicize discourses about sex, violence, and the female body, negotiations which were occurring both inside and outside the women’s movement. Through these controversial cases, then, we can see feminism’s transformation–from an active movement which criticized the structures of women’s oppression to a discursive and primarily academic enterprise focused more on criticizing itself. / text

This paper serves to explore how female subjects are represented in films featuring a woman on the road in ways that can create a female gaze, as an alternative to the male gaze. It looks for answers in four films from the 1970s to 2016, all made by female filmmakers, which are Je, Tu, Il, Elle (1974), Vagabond (Sans Toit Ni Loi) (1978), Wendy and Lucy (2008) and American Honey (2016). All four films share approaches that reject objectification in the depiction of females, but each is distinctive in their filmi strategies. Focusing on each work individually while attempting to make comparisons with others, this paper also aims to connect the shift of strategies in these works to the related discussion in feminist film theories.

Snapped, a documentary style show profiling female killers, is one of Oxygens longest running hit franchises. This thesis analyzes, through both the frames of feminist theory and rhetoric, the way the show perpetuates and plays upon the myth of feminine evil as well as the stereotype of women as weak, hysterical agents in need of control. Snapped showcases women who start out as seemingly normal but then enact horrendous crimes. The use of women that the audience can identify with but then later fear creates a cathartic experience in which female audience members can be vicariously cleansed of any dangerous animosity they may possess. The show portrays the many extreme examples as the norm for lethal female violence, but this disregards the fact that a majority of women killers act in self defense. The show distorts the reality of violence against women and supports a stereotype of inherent female criminality. / by Megan Tomei. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The concept of high and low art have a very close relation to social class. There is a prevailing notion within developed countries that certain forms of art are more legitimate and deserving of respect than others due to their association with the upper class. This social aspect of art leads to the question of how art is used in society and whether it should be used in that way. Marxists’ deep interest in class have made their perspective particularly prominent concerning debate on the subject. Having such a deep interest in class, it is expected they have their own opinions on the role of class in art’s usage. Despite their immense influence on the subject, I find the Marxist perspective concerning class and art lacking. In this work, I will attempt to critique the Marxist position on the relation of art and class and attempt to provide a unique perspective on this subject. I will be examining art and class in terms of two questions. First, what is the relationship between class and art and how is art used by social classes? Second, what should the relationship between art and class be and how should art be treated in society? I will first examine the Marxist position through Theodor Adorno and Hebert Marcuse, present Bourdieu’s sociological findings on the subject, and present thinkers outside of the Marxist position while building my position in contrast to these thinkers.<br>

Between 1939 and 1940 the United States Government conducted a study of the measurements of women’s bodies to establish a standardized system of garment and pattern sizes. The central theme of my research is to analyze the female figure in the context of a technology-driven global contemporary society. My thesis exhibition includes a body of work that echoes the pressures that Western Society employs by standardizing women’s appearances. The focus of the work is to confront the viewer with a visual examination, which illustrates the preconceived notion that Western Society portrays the female body as a commodity and exports those views to different cultures and societies. This calls to question: “who makes those standards endorsed by society and why women follow them?”. From the standardized measurements conducted by the United States Government, I generated a 2-D computer model of an outline of the generic female figure. Based on the 2-D representation, I constructed a series of ten 27”x36” inkjet prints and a 3-Dimensional prototype of the figurative form. The project consist on the manufacture of 14,698 molds base on the 3- Dimensional prototype -- 10% reduction of the size of the average female. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014.. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

During the Renaissance and the Baroque periods, both in the Old and the New World, the patriarchal social structure had created a set of fixed gender rules based on gender roles to control female sexuality, female voices, and their social freedom because it was considered a threat to male superiority. The Venetian Veronica Franco and the Mexican Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz are two extraordinary women from different places and a hundred years apart who, with their elaborated writing and body-related techniques, escape the gender patriarchal constrains and give voice to their new authorial persona in a female liminal environment. Veronica Franco and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz represent the two facets of the same coin that symbolizes the phallocentric patriarchal structure in which these two women happened to live, struggle, and write. These women were pushed to the margins of society, confined in convents, brothels/patrician houses, or the streets, to silence their personae and reinforce their inferiority and, at times, inexistence. There are no works that focus on the comparison between the well-known Mexican nun and the forgotten Venetian courtesan. Therefore, this dissertation aims to analyze the writings of Veronica Franco and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz through the lens of feminist theory (Cixous, Irigaray etc.) and the concept of the body as an instrument of subversion and female liberation. In their respective time and marginal places of confinement (the patrician house and the convent), both women were able to create a liminal space that allowed them to go beyond the rigidity of gender binaries and explore different venues of freedom. In this liminal space both Veronica Franco and Sor Juana stopped “performing” the fixed gender roles imposed by the patriarchal social order and created new female creatures at the margins of patriarchal society; a new type of woman who could, through her body and writing, destabilize the patriarchal gender identities and go from a passive silence object to an active writing subject. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Many single working mothers are challenged with the task of balancing work and home demands. Prolonged exposure to stress can threaten individuals' physical and emotional health and well-being. Listening to music is one commonly used positive coping mechanism for stress management and relief. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of single working mothers who regularly listen to New Age music for stress relief. Participants were single working mothers, 30-45 years old, with self-reported stress, who were employed at least part time and who had at least 1 child under 18 years of age in the home. Participants were interviewed on their experiences with home and work-related stress, motherhood, and listening to New Age music for stress relief. This inquiry was guided by feminist theory, and data was analyzed using Moustakas' modification of Van Kaam's method of data analysis. The responses from these interviews identified the stress factors experienced by these single working mothers, which included finances, workplace stress, childcare, transportation, and working mother stereotypes. Participants also described the calming effects of New Age music on self-reported symptoms of physical and emotional stress. These reported effects include the promotion of mental focus and an immediate physical and emotional release from stress. The results of this study may contribute to positive social change by highlighting the benefits of listening to New Age music as an alternate means of stress management and relief; this implication could indirectly save employers considerable expense in stress-related health care and missed work. These findings may serve as a basis for future quantitative research into the use of music for stress relief.