This study is an exploration of the relationship between polyamory and how polyamorous people communicate about their relationship dynamics. Drawing from six individual interviews and one focus group, the author compares key language that appears in previous research to the language created by the study participants. Utilizing grounded theory for the analysis, results indicate that the language choices of sexual identity, sexual orientation, and/or relationship model are not sufficient for singularly encompassing a poly experience. Findings indicate that individuals who identify under the umbrella of consensual non-monogamy (CNM) may use the term "polyamory" to describe their own relationship dynamic or to generally signify themselves as CNM. Participants defined "polyamory" as an ambiguous, general term that included relationships of ethical consent and romantic interest. Although participants lacked specialized language to describe their respective relationship dynamics, "polyamory" was used as a way of creating language and understanding around each relationship's dynamic.

Danmei, a genre of Chinese online fiction very popular among young Chinese females, refers to narratives of male-on-male romance. Studies of danmei, however, have been limited to the fields of Chinese language and literary studies. The genesis, development, and impact of danmei have not been systematically studied in a broader context. This thesis gives a detailed account of the emergence of Chinese danmei online fiction and its development by introducing studies of Japanese Boys Love culture, the source of danmei, and Western Slash Fiction. I also provide a case study of Beijing Gushi (Beijing Story), one of most influential Chinese danmei narratives and some other online danmei narratives in order to discuss Chinese young Chinese females’ thinking about gender equality, women’s rights, and the family. The rise and popularity of danmei fiction show that, while young Chinese females have already noticed the gender inequality in Chinese society and are eager for change, the patriarchal ideology still controls them. At the same time, danmei offers women a fantasy space to assert their subjectivity.

Searching for Afrekete is a hybrid collection of poems, epistles, a short story, and an essay conveying a search for a queer God. This god is reflected from Audre Lorde’s seminal work ZAMI. Each genre represents a quest to find, lay bare feelings, and be in conversation with the god, trickster, and mother Afrekete who encapsulates these personas according to some seminal scholars in dialogue with ZAMI. This collection is a lament and affirmation of black, queer life and spirituality.

This thesis looks at the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast to examine the way that this tale has been used throughout history to address the concerns of young women, as well as reinforce the culturally accepted gender roles of the time of their publication. The first chapter defines the fairy tale genre and features some of the most common criticism on the genre, it will then define and offer critical perspectives on the monster bridegroom motif which Beauty and the Beast is a part of. The second chapter will look at the first two publications of the text, the 1740 version by Mme de Villeneuve and the 1756 version by Mme de Beaumont. The final chapter will examine the first two books in the ACOTAR series by Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses published in 2015 and A Court of Mist and Fury published in 2016.

Why do we laugh at eight-year-old Butters Stotch when he sings about sodomy in South Park? How does the dominant audience understand Michael Scott to be heterosexual following his announcement that he would have sex with a male employee in the American version of The Office? What are the implications of laughing at Bobby Hill when his father expresses embarrassment over Bobby’s plus size modeling career in King of the Hill? I argue that the above characters are versions of the disruptive male character type common in sitcom satires. The sitcom satire is a hybrid genre that follows the sitcom format and contains satirical content. Using tools from queer theory and cultural studies, this thesis examines how particular examples of disruptive characters function in sitcom satires to reinforce cultural codes regarding gender and sexuality. In the first chapter, I suggest that when the male character disrupts normative gender and sexuality the audience laughs at the surprise and incongruity. I argue that the key feature of this character type is that he consistently disrupts cultural codes in ways that would normally mark him as homosexual yet he is not read as a gay character in the shows examined. I suggest that he is queer insofar as he does not fit neatly into the heterosexual/homosexual binary. Following this, in the second chapter, I explain how techniques used in the narrative; such as other characters' reactions, awkward silences, music selection, and scene changes, provide commentary on the disruption. I argue that characters that disrupt expectations of nonnative gender presentation and heterosexuality create anxiety for a dominant audience; the narrative commentary acknowledges that anxiety. Recognizing a character's disruption of cultural codes allows the dominant audience to relieve the anxiety and to reconcile the character's disruption with his heteronormative identity. Finally, in the third chapter I argue that the disruptive character often displays shame or pride in unexpected circumstances and is represented as ignorant I argue that by comparing normative behavior with disruptive or ignorant behavior, the narratives create the preferred or dominant meaning of the desirability of normative behavior. I conclude that the process of disruption, recuperation, and reinforcement reveals two perspectives. First, if disruptions confirm the desirability of the codes they attempt to subvert, then resisting these codes is difficult. Second. disruptions can reveal the construction of these codes; if these cultural codes were as natural as we are to believe, then our culture would not need to work as diligently to uphold them.

Discussions of rape inevitability tum to the actions of the victim. This thesis documents some of the ways that American law tends to blame rape victims for the crimes against them, rather than blame the perpetrators of rape. This study contends that such an anti-victim reaction arises because patriarchal anthropology, the philosophy of living which grows out of patriarchal theology, proclaims that women are not only sinful but the very cause of sin. The central focus of this thesis is American case law pertaining to rape, critiqued through the lens of patriarchal anthropology. The cultural bias against the victim extends into the heart of the American legal system. This study seeks to demonstrate that patriarchal anthropology and the normalization of rape culture has created a justice system in which blaming the victim is acceptable, and in which the state of mind, previous actions, or appearance of the victim are inappropriately considered when deciding the innocence or guilt of an alleged rapist.

Gender discrimination is an ongoing topic, including discrimination that occurs in higher education. Previous studies have shown female faculty experience a variety of workplace discrimination including sexual harassment/bullying, salary disparities, and lack of worklife balance. This dissertation aimed to analyze equity issues for female faculty at a private university. The researcher utilized a narrative inquiry methodology, conducting interviews with five full-time female faculty. The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the participants’ everyday stories and lived experiences. The researcher utilized critical feminist theory and leadership theory to examine the notion of equity at this campus. The findings, shown through narrative profiles, demonstrate the five women have experienced equity issues at the institution including workplace bullying and lack of work-life balance. It also found the women utilize a self-silencing voice, struggling between challenging equity issues while maintaining their positions at the university. In addition, gender issues experienced prior to working at the university were discussed, demonstrating larger societal issues in relation to gender equity. This dissertation adds to the current studies on equity issues in higher education by focusing on the participants’ stories rather than quantitative or coded data. In addition, it bridged two seemingly disparate frameworks, critical feminist theory and leadership theory, to demonstrate how these concepts can work toward alleviating equity issues in organizations.

Despite his own conservative values, D.H. Lawrence writes sexually liberated female characters. The most subversive female characters in Lawrence’s oeuvre are the Brangwens of The Rainbow. The Brangwens are prototypical models of a form of femininity that connects women to Nature while distancing them from society; his women are cast as monsters, but are strengthened from their link with Nature. They represent what I am calling the Lawrentian-Woman. The Lawrentian-Woman has proven influential for contemporary British authors. I examine the Lawrentian-Woman’s adoption by later writers and her evolution from modernist frame to postmodern appropriation. First, I look at the Brangwens. They establish the tropes of the Lawrentian-Woman and provide the base from which to compare the model’s subsequent mutations. Next, I examine modern British writers and their appropriation of the Lawrentian-Woman. The Lawrentian-Woman’s attributes remain intact, but are deconstructed in ways that explore women’s continued liminality in patriarchal society.

Cauldron Calling is a compilation of poems ranging in poetic forms from the sonnet to free verse to lyric prose that incorporates a number of processes including: hypnopompic texting, hypnagogic automatic writing, and direct observation. The purpose of this myriad of poetic forms is to peer through the psychic shells we create and examine the workings of the mind so as to give form to the nebulousness found within while most closely recreating physical experiences of pain. In the collection, domestic spaces, particularly kitchens, serve as filters and lenses through which to process anxiety and pain. Conversely, domestic spaces are viewed as areas of both liberation and confinement and the voices of the various speakers throughout the manuscript struggle with this duality/plurality and whether there is a choice to participate in the intergenerational recycling and handing down of these beliefs and behaviors or not. Through sound sense, enjambment, deep image, and the elevation of the mundane, these poems are meant to give insight into the feminine experience as it relates to ritualistic acts of release as opposed to product-driven enterprises for mass consumption.

This thesis contextualizes Appalachian murder ballads of the 19th- and early 20th-centuries through a close reading of the lyric texts. Using a research frame that draws from the musicological and feminist concepts of Diana Russell, Susan McClary, Norm Cohen, and Christopher Small, I reveal 19th-century Appalachia as a patriarchal, modern, and highly codified society despite its popularized image as a culturally isolated and “backward” place. I use the ballads to demonstrate how music serves the greater cultural purpose of preserving and perpetuating social ideologies. Specifically, the murder ballads reveal layers of meaning regarding hegemonic masculinities prevalent in 19th-century and turn-of-the-20th-century Appalachian culture. This work also explores the biases and agendas of the early folksong projects in the United States. Examining the arguments of early scholars, I consider the American tradition in juxtaposition to the earlier British forms of music. Rejecting earlier scholarship that argues for the relatedness of British and American balladry, I find that ballads associated with, and circulating in, the United States instead reflect a new cultural idiom grounded in the beliefs of those who sought a conservative Christian aesthetic and way of life in the southern Appalachian mountains. The murder ballads witness that Appalachia, specifically in the 19th-century period of industrial change, was defined by essential tensions between cultural traditions of the past and emerging notions of American modernism. This tension is met in the songs with responses of violence against women whose life situations—marked by sexual freedom—are the very depiction of a new cultural modernism that threatens the hegemony of the past.