This is an investigation into the history of masculinity in spaceflight during some of the tensest years of the Cold War era. This dissertation asks why the U.S. did not counter the Soviet launch of the first woman into space. Scholars have pieced together the story of American women’s fight for spaceflight. The dissertation adds another layer to this narrative by analyzing the construction of the astronaut image from 1958 to 1972, a period characterized by a widespread masculinity crisis. Scholars of Cold War America suggest that Americans saw communism, conformity, feminism, homosexuality, bureaucracy, corporations, male consumerism, leisure, automation, and the dreaded “organization man” as a threat to masculinity. The astronaut was not only a way for Americans to display their superiority over the Soviets; he also represented a widespread domestic reaction against the threat of automation. I build on the scholarship of the Cold War masculinity crisis by focusing on how the crisis played out within the public discourse of the astronaut image. I begin with a narrative of the Cold War masculinity crisis. Using print media, congressional records, and astronaut accounts, I explore how the masculinization of spaceflight created a public image of the astronaut that mirrored the Cold War masculinity crisis. As the average American man struggled for individuality and control in his own life, the astronaut struggled to exert and maintain individual control over the space capsule. Continuing through the Apollo program, the discourse surrounding the astronaut shifted away from depictions of him as a rugged individual exerting control in space toward an emphasis on the astronaut as a team player who shared control of the capsule with computers, the scientist-astronauts, and Mission Command. In the end, the astronaut struggled to represent a superior masculinity as he increasingly became the corporate organization man, symbolizing the masculinity crisis. The struggle to resolve the masculinity crisis continued as teamwork replaced individualism, hyphenated scientist-astronauts flew into space, and NASA commissioned the first passenger space shuttles.

The following study examines the experiences of non-binary people living in a society that emphasizes a gender binary, along with how being non-binary affects participants' views of the world and themselves. The study also looked to establish a working definition of "non-binary." I interviewed 17 participants who self-identified as non-binary regarding their lived experiences as non-binary people. Narratives were used to establish codes and themes. Adopting a narrative approach to the data, the study puts forth working definitions of non-binary and related terms, such as gender non-conforming, androgyny, and genderfluid. The study found that most participants saw themselves as breaking the norms by being non-binary and in other ways, including their sexuality and religion. Participants placed an emphasis on visibility, asserting that by being visible as non-binary they help society move away from strict binary constructs. Participants also described many adverse experiences associated with being non-binary, including being misgendered and safety concerns, which can impact non-binary people's mental health. This study forms a basis for further research into non-binary experiences, both in relation to lived day-to-day experiences and in terms of associated mental health outcomes.

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My dissertation project maps three characters, Lucy, Evie, and the Fur Queen in three contemporary Canadian novels Not Wanted on the Voyage (1984), Salt Fish Girl (2002), and Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998), respectively, whose embodiments and genders do not conform to norms and who are also the only characters able to imagine a different kind of world. These novels, which I read as magical realist dystopias each maps out a process by which normatively gendered characters can begin to imagine a different social order than the one they have inherited. What is significant about these novels, though, is that this imagining would not be possible without the work of the gender non-conforming characters. My dissertation argues that when a major identity category, like gender, is unsettled, possibilities arise for other major social structures, such as the nation, to be questioned. These novels, each arising out of different racialized and cultural backgrounds, all settle on gender and embodied non-normativity as a site of possibility for imagining a different kind of world. Using education and collaboration, these characters are revolutionary figures who, instead of tearing down dominant geo-political structures in ways that risk replicating dominant geo-political structures or reforming existing ones, argue for a slow revolution in which spaces are built without reference to dominant structures. These spaces are decentralized insofar as the novels suggest that they will need to leave room for revision and change, rather than advocating for a static idea of what utopia is, and they will be built collaboratively, so that there is no one authority. These novels do not suggest that building a different world will be easy, but they show that fast solutions will not work and instead map out the difficult process of learning that is necessary in order for it to happen. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / My dissertation project maps three characters, Lucy, Evie, and the Fur Queen in three contemporary Canadian novels Not Wanted on the Voyage (1984), Salt Fish Girl (2002), and Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998), respectively, whose embodiments and genders do not conform to norms and who are also the only characters able to imagine a different kind of world. These novels, which I read as magical realist dystopias each maps out a process by which normatively gendered characters can begin to imagine a different social order than the one they have inherited. What is significant about these novels, though, is that this imagining would not be possible without the work of the gender non-conforming characters. My dissertation argues that when a major identity category, like gender, is unsettled, possibilities arise for other major social structures, such as the nation, to be questioned. These novels, each arising out of different racialized and cultural backgrounds, all settle on gender and embodied non-normativity as a site of possibility for imagining a different kind of world. Using education and collaboration, these characters are revolutionary figures who, instead of tearing down dominant geo-political structures in ways that risk replicating dominant geo-political structures or reforming existing ones, argue for a slow revolution in which spaces are built without reference to dominant structures. These spaces are decentralized insofar as the novels suggest that they will need to leave room for revision and change, rather than advocating for a static idea of what utopia is, and they will be built collaboratively, so that there is no one authority. These novels do not suggest that building a different world will be easy, but they show that fast solutions will not work and instead map out the difficult process of learning that is necessary in order for it to happen.

In the communities of the Cape Flats, it is expected that all women will bear children and become mothers. Motherhood serves as a social and cultural indicator of femininity and enables women to access social and economic networks that knit them into community. The social and cultural valorization of motherhood in these communities has informed the powerful stigmatization of infertility ( or the involuntary nonconformance to motherhood). The stigma associated with infertility affects women in particular, because the inability to bear children is commonly perceived to be a woman's problem. This study explores the cultural constructions of infertility. It examines in particular, the diverse cultural meanings and the stigma associated with infertility. The examination of these cultural meanings challenges the notion that infertility should only be examined in the biomedical realm. My research was conducted over a seven month period with six infertile women and with women who have borne children from different areas on the Cape Flats. The infertile women were the primary informants. Other informants included the mothers with whom the focus group was conducted and specialist informants who were healthcare professionals. The participants were recruited through the primary health care clinic in Manenberg, the network of community newspapers, The Daily Voice and through my own social network. Qualitative research methods were used. The study also used participatory research methods involved because the participants played an active role in the construction of the research process and interview schedules. The primary information used was obtained from in-depth interviews and journals kept by the infertile women. For comparative purposes, a focus group was conducted with a group of mothers. The study illustrates that on the Cape Flats, infertility is constructed as a major cultural and social problem for women. The stigma attached to infertility draws its power from the social and cultural meanings associated with inability of infertile women to live up to the expectation that every adult woman will become a mother. The effects of the social stigma of infertility are especially profound. As I show, bio-medicine does offer some solution, but only to the few who can afford it.

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Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur skönhetsideal, kroppsligheter och makt porträtteras i dokumentärserien Dokument inifrån: Priset vi betalar. En multimodal kritisk diskursanalys samt ett ramverk sammansatt av teoretiska förklaringar av makt, disciplinering, diskurs, performativitet, skönhetsideal och blickar har använts i syfte att studera hur dokumentärens språkliga och visuella element formar porträtteringen av skönhetsideal, kroppsligheter och makt. En av målsättningarna med metoden MCDA är att finna dolda budskap i text och bild för att vidare finna underliggande maktstrukturer. Inledande i analysen har även en tematisk analys använts som metod för avgränsning till specifika teman. De teman som valts ut fångar det viktiga med datan i förhållande till forskningsfrågan, samt identifierar mönster inom den givna datan.  Som analysen föreslår porträtteras de medverkande influencernas relation till sina kroppar som problematisk, deras kroppar är ständigt utsatta för disciplinering i form av förändring med hjälp av skönhetsingrepp- och operationer. Denna disciplinering är en effekt av en internalisering av ett socialt konstruerat skönhetsideal, en utomstående blick samt falska konstruktioner av verkligheten på sociala medier. Dokumentärserien porträtterar influencers som makthavare, men en motdiskurs kan utläsas då det även framgår att följarna styr och legitimerar deras karriär.

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