Claude Cahun, born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, was an author, playwright, surrealist photographer and anti-fascist activist who spent most of their lives in France and the Isle of Jersey from their birth in 1894 to their early death in 1954. Throughout their career they went by various aliases and pennames, settling on Claude Cahun in 1917, a gender-ambiguous name in French. While they considered themselves a writer before a photographer it is their photography that they are probably best known for today, becoming popular for their "modern" content that explores gender identity and its presentation. These self-portraits, along with their personal writings, support the conclusion that Cahun was (or could be considered, as they did not have the language of gender and sexuality in their lifetime) a transgender, nonbinary individual, possibly gender fluid. For this reason, throughout this research I will be using the singular they/them pronouns in reference to Cahun as well as their partner Marcel Moore. This thesis will investigate and analyze the photographic work of Claude Cahun as their own personal exploration of their sexuality and gender identity. I will use both the context of their writings, and those of other contemporaries within a framework of early 20th cenrtury culture to better understand their content.

The current study examined the relationship between the sexualization of women in the media and its effects on women's self-objectification and sexual priming with sociodemographic variables as a mediator. It was hypothesized that (1) exposure to increased sexual content in music videos would positively correlate with increased sexual priming among viewers and (2) increased sexual priming among females would be associated with increased self-objectification and increased objectification of other women. Additionally, the current study aimed to examine sociodemographic factors and if they correlate to the impact of sexual priming on self-objectification and the objectification of other women. The results of the current study indicated that the participants results to sexual priming when exposed to sexual music videos whether censored or not were significantly different than those who were not exposed to any content prior to answering any questionnaires.

Stranger harassment has been a rising issue regarding gender equality globally. Nevertheless, this issue has been rarely explored in Hong Kong. This study aims at discovering its prevalence, the frequency of its occurrences, local women’s reactions toward it and variables that may determine women’s reactions in a local context. Both personal qualities, including gender-related belief, self-objectification and body image, as well as situational qualities, namely perceived situational norms, are examined. 350 self- administered questionnaires were collected from local women aged between 18 and 25, in either pencil-and-paper or online forms. Results showed that more than 80% of respondents reported experiencing stranger harassment at least once in their lifetimes. The frequency of experiencing certain types of harassment decreases as the severity of harassment increases. Unlike the results found by previous studies, active coping strategy has been reported as the most common reaction adopted by local young women, following by passive, self-blaming and lastly benign coping strategy. As for personal qualities that may determine women’s reactions toward stranger harassment, self-objectification has been found to be positively linked to benign and self-blaming coping strategies, whereas benevolent sexism, which was one of the measurements of gender-related belief, is positively linked to self-blaming and passive coping strategies. Situational qualities were also found to be related to women’s reactions toward stranger harassment. Among the three items that measure perceived situational norms, item B – ‘women should expect stranger harassment in that setting’ is positively correlated to all three nonactive coping strategies. Item C – ‘people nearby will help me if I experience stranger harassment in that setting’ was also found to be positively correlated to active coping strategy. Explanations to the relationships between these variables and women’s coping strategies as well as practical implications are discussed. This study contributes towards a greater understanding of stranger harassment and women’s reactions toward it, and fills gap in the literature on stranger harassment in the local context.

Cette thèse porte sur les représentations culturelles dans les romans produits par des écrivaines d'origine vietnamienne qui écrivent en français. Deux écrivaines seront étudiées en particulier: Kim Lefèvre et Anna Moï. L'objectif de cette thèse est d'analyser comment ces écrivaines se représentent en tant que produits des projets coloniaux, et ce que ces représentations nous indiquent au sujet des relations de puissance entre les colonisateurs et les colonisés. Nous voyons qu'en général, les Vietnamiens sont décrits comme des sous habitus, ce qui montre que les représentations fournies par la perspective des colonisateurs dans les textes colonialistes étaient décentrées et assez racistes. Cette thèse va également discuter du rôle des influences coloniales dans l'évolution de la langue et de la littérature vietnamiennes, et de la manière dont le roman vietnamien écrit en français était utilisé comme réponse à la colonisation. / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This study looks at print media projects by and for people with HlV/AIDS. Three types of publications are examined: newsletters; treatment publications; and general interest magazines. Each of these media began as part of political organizing by people with HIV in the context of the community-based response to the AIDS epidemic. The argument is made that those involved in contemporary social movements produce their own media as a means of constructing an alternative public sphere. The significance and function of this public realm is twofold. First, it is a social space for people with HIV/AIDS that is independent of forms of institutional influence and control. Second, it invites not only the articulation of opposition to the dominant social order but an alternative to the status quo. This study demonstrates the role of communication media - forums through which people can share their experiences and knowledge - in the struggle for self representation and survival among people with HIV/AIDs.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The study consisted of a qualitative analysis of female swingers' perceptions, attitudes, and experiences related to their participation in the Lifestyle. Using feminist standpoint theory and pro-sex feminist theory as the theoretical framework, in-depth interviews were conducted via the Internet using instant messaging with sixteen female swingers. The women were asked questions regarding their attitudes and perceptions about swinging as well as their experiences in the Lifestyle. Findings were compared with previous studies from the 1970s as well as with common feminist thoughts and potential misconceptions about the Lifestyle. The results showed that although demographically the female swingers were similar to past studies, much of the previous research data was outdated and incorrect. Furthermore, the study provides evidence to

This thesis examines the differences of experiences in working-class and middleclass women's lives due to childhood gender-role socialization and current situations in their lives. The purpose of the study is to examine how past and present experiences influenced four groups of women in making career decisions: 1) owners of nontraditional (male-type) businesses, 2) owners of traditional (female-type) businesses, 3) non-owners of nontraditional (male-type) businesses, and 4) non-owners of traditional (female-type) businesses. Both social and cognitive processes were examined for clues. In-depth interviews were conducted with a total of twenty women to examine their Childhood and current experiences of gender socialization. The women were chosen on the basis of their current occupation. Questions were designed to elicit descriptions of respondents' experiences regarding: 1) common interactions with siblings, friends, parents, and teachers (significant others); 2) messages about careers and educational options from significant others; 3) messages about motherhood from significant others; 4) gender stereotyped actions from significant others; 5) role models; 6) parental education and occupational training; 7) current social networks; 8) how the respondent became interested in her career; 9) respondents' work experiences and educational levels; and 10) major influences on respondents' occupational choices. The socialization approach was used to analyze and explain how these women's experiences affected their career choices. In addition symbolic interactionism and a middle-range theory called habitus and field by Pierre Bourdieu were used. It was found that women who are from the working class experience a cumulative disadvantage due to an internalized scheme through which their values are filtered. In addition, the opportunity structure is not as developed for working-class women as it is for women who are considered middle class (based on their occupation). Business owners were found to have many shared experiences which were not common to the other category of women. The first is that most business owners turned out to have been raised by parents with liberal gender-role attitudes. As a result, most reported that motherhood was not an assumed fact for their lives. When motherhood is not assumed, girls feel less pressure to prioritize marriage and family above a career. In addition, eight out of ten business owners had parents who actively encouraged Achievement values. All ten business owners learned to set long-term goals as children, and most had nontraditional hobbies. Nine out of ten business owners, as opposed to four out of ten non-business owners, had parents who actively supported their hobbies. Also, the majority of business owners, as children, had known and admired at least one person who had an interesting career. The non-business owners and the women who are in traditional occupations are cumulatively disadvantaged as regards their ability to make a completely free choice regarding a career. During childhood they received more messages that might have led them to assume that motherhood must take priority over career plans; they experienced fewer nontraditional hobbies and less parental support regarding long-term goals; they had less exposure to women in nontraditional careers or to women who were business owners; they had less assistance planning a career; and their parents provided fewer achievement-oriented activities and were less likely to interact with them on a regular basis. Thus far during adulthood they have experienced less support for their career goals; they experience less autonomy, flexibility, and creativity on the job, and they are likely to feel less confident about financial planning and their own leadership ability: Over all, they have lower self-confidence than business owners and women in nontraditional careers.

Attributions for success and failure have been the topic of much research. One area of focus is that of gender differences. Research has produced highly inconsistent results, but many believe that differences exist in the way men and women attribute success and failure. The present study was designed to identify differences in the ways college men and women make attributions for success and failure and to determine whether there are gender differences in attributions for success and failure in ego-involved areas. Three hundred and ninety undergraduate students completed the Collegiate Attributions Scale. Results showed that (a) college students are more likely to make internal/stable attributions for success in a class of their major than in a class outside their major, (b) females are as likely as males to attribute success to internal/ stable factors and failure to external/unstable factors, (c) both males and females tend to attribute academic failure to lack of effort and course difficulty, (d) females are more likely than males to make internal/stable attributions for success in gender role consistent classes and for failure in gender role inconsistent classes, and (e) females are more likely than males to attribute both academic success and failure to effort. These results suggest that female attributions undergo some changes from high school to college, but male attributions remain fairly constant.

The primary purpose of this research was to examine a sample of sixteen lesbian women regarding the barriers to lesbian health-care. From this information several interpretive findings regarding lesbian health-care are made. Data were gathered via indepth interviews with each individual lesbian. The data suggest that most lesbian women do not reveal their sexual orientation to their primary-care physician for fear of reprisal. Most of the women interviewed do feel they receive adequate health-care from their physician. The women who participated in this project did so confidentially and were assigned pseudonyms. They were asked questions on a variety of topics, which included demographics, physical health-care, mental health-care, general health, dental care, social and political issues, and homophobia. It was assumed that participants from smaller, more rural areas would face more barriers to health-care than participants from larger cities. The data gathered indicate that only three of the participants had, in fact, informed their primary-care physicians of their sexual orientation. Erving Goffman's stigma and social identity theory, feminist standpoint theory, lesbian feminist theory, and feminist theory provided the theoretical framework utilized in the analysis of barriers to lesbian health care. Combining these three theories allows a discussion of how stigma and homophobia combine to make lesbians invisible in the medical community. Health-care systems, like other major institutions, are structured to support traditional society.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Guidelines on Sexual Harassment identify six factors that are relevant in determinations of sexual harassment. This study attempted to determine if three of these factors (i.e., frequency of harassment, number of victims and number of perpetrators) drive perceptions of what constitutes sexual harassment. Participants role-playing jurors on an hostile environment sexual harassment case demonstrated no differences in perceptions as a function of number of victims or number of perpetrators. The significant effect for frequency of harassment was not in the hypothesized direction, with less frequent harassment being perceived as more likely to constitute sexual harassment. The well-documented gender difference in perceptions of sexual harassment was observed in this study. However, analyses indicated that women are more likely to perceive a situation as sexually harassing because they are more feminine, not simply because of their gender.