Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion have no problem destroying the male gaze to empower women through the female gaze within the WAP music video. They both empower women by creating a whorehouse for women by women as Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion both play the role as the entertainer and the entertained therefore forcing the viewer into a trance. Feeding into the Jezebel trope, Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion play with the idea of stereotypes, by embellishing some aspects of the stereotype such as animalistic and negating others attributes of the stereotype such as slut shaming. Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion deny respectability politics and create a discussion about ratchet respectability including anti-respectability as they are both icons in discussions about these socio-political subjects. Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion empower women by unapologetically exploring their own sexuality and promoting sex positivity throughout various rooms of the whorehouse from the aspect of the viewer and the viewed. Confusion and trickery are employed through a trance which can be witnessed from a visual perspective throughout the whorehouse as Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion rap their lyrics.Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion both create power dynamics of dominance and submission within their dynamic together and with the viewer and the viewed based on the camera angle, time, and space created. Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion create a trance as the viewer is sucked into a dystopian/utopian setting warping a sense of time and space. While the lyrics paint a picture of emasculating men, the visuals completely leave men out of the picture and focus only on the women through the female gaze. The aim of the analysis of this music video is to critically examine how WAP empowers women to explore their sexual identity in relation to other women by denying the male gaze. Furthermore, this paper will illustrate how this music video acts as a political tool for social justice advocacy and equality within Hip-Hop feminism and trap feminism and overall patriarchal Hip-Hop culture. For research purposes, the WAP music video makes for a unique case study to visually analyze through Hip-Hop feminist theory and the female gaze, from an intersectional perspective.

The study starts with a historical overview of the notion of gender and sexual identity and belonging in the German Christian church as seen from a queer and intersectional gender studies perspective. The following study moves to explore three individual experiences and encounters with the Christian church. The experiences are contemporary and have been made by queer Christians inside the church and during the creation of a personal faith that is suitable for their needs. With the analytical help of the feminist standpoint theory and queer theory, the researcher examines a limited empirical corpus based on three interviews. The study centers on the experiences of these participants and asks fundamental questions about how to unite two significant belongings that seem to be contradictory. These sample stories include individuals who openly belong to the queer community. They have worked in and for the church or study theology. The stories of such double belonging have been investigated through semi-structured interviews. The discussion and analysis outline similar experiences made by the participants. The main findings include the lack of language and role models that lead to experiences of loneliness and exclusion. How they construe their sense of faith varies as faith is individual. Nevertheless, and as highlighted, is the immense significance of being religious, the importance of spirituality and faith for the inquired members of the LGBTQIA+ community, but not necessarily church as an institution.

Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion have no issues telling men how they can satisfy women. While WAP is considered vulgar and crude by some, the overall message is about outspoken intersectional feminism based on sex positivity and empowerment. Unapologetic of women’s sexuality, Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion promote women’s right to sexuality and pleasure through power. They reject the male gaze and reverse the societal narrative by describing their standards for men’s sexual performance and stature. While the over-sexualization and objectification of women is societally acceptable in the patriarchy, Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion’s rap in WAP aims to encourage the audience to critically think of how to combat and dismantle the power imbalance between genders in the current societal structure. Presenting women being assertive and demanding as a positive thing, as well as empowering women to own their sexuality places them in a dominant position which is uncommon in popular culture, especially in Hip-Hop. It can be debated that the over-sexualization and objectification of men is just as inhumane as it is for women, but is that not how sympathy is created? By putting oneself in another’s shoes? This tactic has been criticized in the media. Within the patriarchy, it is socially acceptable for men to be open about having their sexual needs met by women. The promotion of women owning their sexuality and therefore, advocating for themselves and their desires so that they can be satisfied by their partner, is actively discouraged. What Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion are aiming to portray in WAP is the double standards enforced by men within the patriarchy which frames power as a positive in men and a negative in women, and make a point of this by extensively critiquing this in their song. While men are comfortable objectifying women and holding power over them, women making men feel uncomfortable when their power is stolen, is a means by which men can be compelled to increase their emotional intelligence and social awareness. There is no shame in taking power from men when it comes to the lyrics in WAP, and for research purposes, this makes an interesting and unique dynamic to thematically analyze through sexual script theory.

This research aims to deconstruct the discretionary character of outdoor recreation, in view of the hegemonic nature of intersectional oppression. Once deconstructed, it also questions how outdoor recreation, inspired the Scandinavian concept of friluftsliv, can become a feminist space for resistance against this oppression. The Feminist Hiking Collective is presented as case-study.

<p dir="ltr">The need for affirming relational therapy is important for clients who identify as transgender and gender nonconforming - particularly during the process of their transition. Because of the conceptual overlap between the two approaches, the Satir Model of experiential therapy can be effectively applied to existing frameworks for affirming couple therapy. The study reflects the efficacy of this proposed model of therapy through a phenomenological case study. The results, their implications, and the application of the model are discussed.</p>

The following essay applies an intersectional lens to the character analysis of Jade, the main character in Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart Is a Chainsaw (2021), as it aims to introduce EFL students to the principles of the intersectional theory framework. As Jade, as a way of dealing with her reality as an abused and marginalized young part-Native American adolescent, obsessively frames her real-life experiences in a slasher movie context, the novel explores the themes of identity, marginalization, empowerment through the way Jade sees herself in relation to the Final Girl: the archetypal female protagonist featured in slasher movies. By analyzing the contrasting relationship between Jade and the concept of the Final Girl, students engage with the intersectional premise that it is the complex and dynamic interplay between Jade’s gender, race, class, and circumstances that dictates Jade’s subjectivity and inability to identify with the agentic and empowered Final Girl. As Jade ultimately transforms into her own version of a Final Girl, the essay argues that her transformation represents how a marginalized character claims her identity and becomes the protagonist of her own narrative.

While both localisation and gender were major topics at the World Humanitarian Summit of 2016, they have largely been considered in isolation. Yet, the underlying issue in both cases are power inequalities, which this research seeks to highlight through an intersectional feminist perspective. Based on a qualitative case study on Oxfam Canada, this research thus aims to understand how social locations based on gender and their intersections with other social locations are integrated into Oxfam Canada’s discussions around a feminist approach to localisation. Based on a thematic analysis, this paper evaluates the main proposition that Oxfam Canada’s feminist approach to localisation is largely based on a conceptualisation of gender as a binary and as an isolated category. This was largely confirmed by the empirical findings that revealed that Oxfam Canada’s focus clearly lies on “local” (presumably cis-gender heterosexual) women. Nevertheless, the empirical analysis also showed burgeoning aspects of intersectional feminist perspectives such as the focus on power analyses that at times span across different levels (i.e. household, community, societal, and global), their emphasis on the importance of acknowledging their own positionality, as well as their commitments to coherence between their objectives and ways of working.

An extensive body of knowledge points to the intersection of violence against women and HIV as it is well-established that violence is ubiquitous in the lives of women living with HIV. Experiences of violence exist within a socio-legal context that criminalizes HIV non-disclosure. In Canada, the federal law requires people living with HIV to disclose their HIV positive status before a sexual encounter with a partner that may pose, according to the Supreme Court of Canada, a “realistic possibility of transmission.” The criminalization of HIV non-disclosure carries particularly negative consequences for women living with HIV. This thesis includes an analysis of data from the Women, ART, and the Criminalization of HIV (WATCH) Study, a qualitative, arts-based research study on the impact of the HIV non-disclosure law on women living with HIV in Canada. Grounded in an intersectional feminist framework, this thesis presents findings from the narrative and visual data collected from the three Ontario workshops in the WATCH study. This thesis explores how women living with HIV visually and narratively express and describe their experiences of violence in the context of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. The stories and artwork shared by participants demonstrate how the law used to criminalize HIV non-disclosure creates and exacerbates experiences of interpersonal and structural violence and surveillance in the lives of women living with HIV. This thesis offers important insights for reconceptualising violence against women living with HIV from a structural lens. This project demonstrates how violence stems from legal institutions that do not respond to the needs of women, and instead, further exacerbate marginalization, violence, and surveillance in the lives of women living with HIV. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

This study examines The Guardian’s portrayal of intersectional feminism, with a focus on gender and race, analysing how social movements, particularly Black Lives Matter, influence its political coverage. Arising from Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality, which recognizes the interconnected nature of various forms of oppression and privilege, the research employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse 647 political articles. Quantitative methods, including topic modeling and keyword frequency analysis, provide the structural framework of the thesis. Topic modeling reveals twenty topics, and keyword frequency analysis emphasizes in nine keywords related to intersectional feminism and their prevalence. Qualitative methods, such as collocation analysis and close reading, examine particularly “gender” and “race”. Close reading is used for a deeper examination at every step of the analysis. Despite theme variations, certain subjects like the gender gap and gender identity consistently underscore their enduring significance. Discussions related to Black Lives Matter show spikes in coverage post – 2020, indicating an increased emphasis on diversity and racial justice themes. However, the infrequent use of the term “intersectionality” suggests a potential disparity between the conceptual framework and its direct representation in The Guardian’s political articles.

This thesis explores how racialized and gendered power dynamics are reflected in public discourse on digital replicas and the personal narratives of models. Using the lenses of digital capital and objectification theory, it examines how these power relations impact models' agency and ownership over their images and digital bodies. Employing a combination of critical discourse analysis and autoethnography, the research provides macro and micro perspectives on power relations in the fashion industry. The findings highlight how digital capital impacts who gets to shape the narrative on digital replicas and who reaps the benefits of these technologies. It sheds light on how racialized and gendered power relations intersect with objectification and digital capital, impacting who can benefit from digital replicas. The study highlights models' significant challenges in maintaining autonomy and control over their careers and public image. It suggests that new technologies, such as digital replicas, can further exacerbate existing inequalities. The findings also highlight how power dynamics on both a societal and interpersonal level shape the potential for digital replicas to enhance agents' control over models and intensify their experiences of commodification. By aligning with previous research on models' marginalization and research on how new technologies can intensify existing inequalities, this thesis contributes to the broader conversation on how existing power relations, labor, and technological developments shape one another.