This thesis considers the films of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar as postmodern melodramas. The crux of my argument is that melodrama is known for its expressiveness and its attempt to restore a spiritual element to a post-sacred world, and is used by Almodóvar to make clear the problems and contradictions inherent in the destabilized world of postmodernity. This definition of melodrama draws primarily on the work of Peter Brooks, Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams; it is modified to apply to postmodernism as defined by Jean Baudrillard and Frederic Jameson. The conclusion reached is that Almodóvar is deeply ambivalent about postmodernity. Chapter 2 considers the twin issues of representation and sexuality in Almodóvar’s first six films: Pepi, Luci, Born (Pepi, Luci Born y otras chicas del montón, 1980), Labyrinth of Passions (Laberinto de pasiones, 1982), Dark Habits (Entre tinieblas, 1983), What Have I Done To Deserve This? (Qué he hecho yopor merecer esto!, 1984), Matador (1986), and Law ofDesire (Le ley del deseo, 1987); with a special eye to the representation of sexual violence, it establishes how Almodóvar develops his ambivalent melodramatic imagination. Chapter 3 considers fashion as a discourse and argues that Almodóvar’s next four films use clothing to place different versions of femininity in dialogue, and uses this as a springboard to consider Women on the Verge ofa Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios, 1988), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (I Atame!, 1990), High Heels (Tacones lejanos, 1991), and Kika (1993) as postmodern “women’s pictures.” Chapter 4 considers the appearance of the explicitly political along with the symbolism of the image of the map in The Flower of My Secret (Laflor de rni secreto, 1995), Live Flesh (Came trémula, 1997), and All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre, 1999). Chapter 5 uses the metaphor of ghosts to consider the draw of the past in Talk To Her (Hable con ella, 2002), Bad Education (La mala educación, 2004), and Volver (2006), pointing to both the emptiness of the present and the impossibility of returning to that golden past.

In this research I employ a feminist and qualitative approach, challenging the predominant psychological discourse of pornography. I discuss the ways law, history and economics influence how women relate to pornography. A range of theoretical approaches, including psychoanalysis, film theory and cultural studies, are used to explore pornographic texts and women's accounts of their engagement with pornography. Drawing on these different disciplinary frameworks I argue that the meanings of `pornography' are changing and elusive: its insusceptibility to easy definition is a theme of this research, which takes into consideration diverse media, including erotic fiction and women's magazines. Feminist theory and discourse analysis informs the analysis of 34 interview transcripts, and leads to reflection on research-related problems such as questions of ethics, researching the `other', and tensions between feminisms and psychology. Women negotiate the heterosexist and masculine discourse of pornography in unexpected ways, and anti-porn feminism is shown to have shaped participants' views and impacted on their identities. The ways in which individual psychic histories and sociocultural constructions such as `race', `class', and sexual orientation enter into women's viewing of porn are explored. Psychoanalytic and gaze theories are drawn upon to offer insight into the different psychic mechanisms and positions involved in viewing and reading pornography. Pornography is a factor in the social construction of sexuality, but women's accounts (unlike much of the theory) show how their views, experiences and feelings about pornography are variegated, individual and complex. I argue for a Foucauldian perspective on the question of sexual repression and the effect-'of categorisations (such as `paedophile' and `sadomasochist'). The effects of new media and technologies are wide ranging, and include increasing opportunities for sex without physical contact, access to sex educational material, and the creation of multiple meanings of pornography for women. This thesis concludes by su gesting that the proliferation of new sexual discourses, including gay, lesbian and bisexual pornographies, has transgressive, contradictory and complex implications for women's sexualities.

This study examines the literary depiction of the black surrogate mother as she is created according to the author’s race, gender, background, experience, biases and goals. Even though she is one of the most successful and popular characters of fiction, she is also controversial. Her reputation is iconic as well as dichotomous. For example, she is credited for the exemplary upbringing of her white charges, while simultaneously blamed for neglecting her own children. Particularly, this paper looks at three black surrogate mothers who conform to the prototypical, often stereotypical, image of the black surrogate mother: Mammy, Aunt Mammy Jane, and Dilsey. The critique substantiates that Mitchell and Faulkner, respectively, were invested in depicting Mammy and Dilsey as representatives of the real black surrogate mothers of their lives. Although, the character of Mammy Jane mirrors Mammy and Dilsey in her commitment and devotion to her white family, Chesnutt employs her as a cautionary warning to the blacks who refuse to accept change and progress after Emancipation. The other three black surrogate mothers, Sofia, Berenice, and Ondine, are antithetical to the stereotypical black surrogate mother. Sofia, an accidental maid, is representative of Walker’s intense efforts to deconstruct the image of the black surrogate mother that plagued her throughout her lifetime. Unlike most white authors, McCullers crafts Berenice as independent, strong, and autonomous, not just as a black surrogate mother of a white child. Morrison provides Ondine with a husband and daughter to be concerned with so that she cannot be cast as the stereotypically loving, nurturing black mother of white children. The conclusion of this study validates that the literary black surrogate mother is most often a creation based upon her author’s specific and personal biases and goals. In conjunction with the above assertion, the critique also contends that the real life black domestic has been and will continue to be significantly influenced by her fictional representative.

This study examines the pornographic images of black women from Sara Baartman, the “Venus Hottentot,” to the Middle Passage, the Auction Block, Plantation Life, Harlem Renaissance, Blaxpomploitation movies, mainstream contemporary cinema, and pornography. It is based on the premise that throughout history black women’s images have been pornographic. The researcher found that the pornographic images present in today’s visual media are outgrowths of the debilitating, racialized and sexualized images of black women historically. The conclusion drawn from the findings suggests that black women’s images in cinema continue to subjugate and objectify black women on and off screen.

Sexual violence is an unfortunate everyday occurrence in South Africa. The rising statistics in relation to the rape of children and infants is a strong indication of the desperate need for the counselling mechanisms, counselling and ultimately the prevention in this field. The occurrence of sexual dysfunction in women that were molested as children is as a result very high and within marriages there is often a very high price to be paid. The research question that was applicable in this study is the following: What pastoral guidelines can be offered for the guidance of the molested woman, that is experiencing problems with sexual adjustment within her marriage, to guide her towards a normal sexual relationship within the marriage. The following research procedures were followed in order to answer this question: Chapter 2 investigates the basic concepts of the self esteem of the molested as well as God's plan concerning sexuality and body image. Excerpts of a number of relevant Scriptures were made and the appropriate principles identified. Chapter 3 covers a number of valuable contributions made by some of the supportive sciences in this field of study. A historical overview of the manner in which the church handles the molested woman gives valuable insight. There is a focus placed upon the emotional and physical characteristics of the so-called rape syndrome, typical defence mechanisms and reactions of the victim, aggression, self esteem as well as the body image of the molested person. An in depth look is taken at the emotional and physical characteristics of the so-called rape syndrome, covering issues such as aggression. Chapter 4 is an empirical investigation based on an extensive questionnaire and interviews with a number of respondents. The content of the questions was particularly concentrated on the role of the church, when the molestation took place, memories and/or memory lapses regarding the molestation, functioning within the marriage, sexual dysfunction, where help was sought and found as well as the person's experience of God. From the responses it was deduced that there is much room for improvement in the counselling that the Church offers to the molested iv woman or child. From the information in the preceding chapters certain practice theoretical guidelines, which can be applied when counselling the molested woman or child, could be formulated in Chapter 5. These guidelines can be very useful when counselling the individual as well as when counselling a married couple. In this regard much emphasis is placed on aspects such as guilt, forgiveness, the healing process as well as the powerful medium of prayer as part of the therapeutic process. Inner healing of emotions and memories was also identified as absolutely crucial for such a person to ultimately achieve sexual wellbeing and normal functionality within her marriage / Thesis (M.A. (Pastoral))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

This thesis considers the films of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar as postmodern melodramas. The crux of my argument is that melodrama is known for its expressiveness and its attempt to restore a spiritual element to a post-sacred world, and is used by Almodóvar to make clear the problems and contradictions inherent in the destabilized world of postmodernity. This definition of melodrama draws primarily on the work of Peter Brooks, Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams; it is modified to apply to postmodernism as defined by Jean Baudrillard and Frederic Jameson. The conclusion reached is that Almodóvar is deeply ambivalent about postmodernity. Chapter 2 considers the twin issues of representation and sexuality in Almodóvar’s first six films: Pepi, Luci, Born (Pepi, Luci Born y otras chicas del montón, 1980), Labyrinth of Passions (Laberinto de pasiones, 1982), Dark Habits (Entre tinieblas, 1983), What Have I Done To Deserve This? (Qué he hecho yopor merecer esto!, 1984), Matador (1986), and Law ofDesire (Le ley del deseo, 1987); with a special eye to the representation of sexual violence, it establishes how Almodóvar develops his ambivalent melodramatic imagination. Chapter 3 considers fashion as a discourse and argues that Almodóvar’s next four films use clothing to place different versions of femininity in dialogue, and uses this as a springboard to consider Women on the Verge ofa Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios, 1988), Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (I Atame!, 1990), High Heels (Tacones lejanos, 1991), and Kika (1993) as postmodern “women’s pictures.” Chapter 4 considers the appearance of the explicitly political along with the symbolism of the image of the map in The Flower of My Secret (Laflor de rni secreto, 1995), Live Flesh (Came trémula, 1997), and All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre, 1999). Chapter 5 uses the metaphor of ghosts to consider the draw of the past in Talk To Her (Hable con ella, 2002), Bad Education (La mala educación, 2004), and Volver (2006), pointing to both the emptiness of the present and the impossibility of returning to that golden past.

Germany's Weimar republic has been understood as a time in which gays and lesbians asserted their demands for social tolerance and protection under the law. Many historians of this period have so far treated the complicated relationship between sex and gender variance and the scientific community. Yet the creation of the "homosexual" in the late nineteenth century as a kind of person also opened up the possibility for the discussion of a specifically sex variant soul. At the same time, the relative freedom of expression that occurred during Germany's Weimar period allowed for sex and gender variants to engage with existing ideas to articulate their own formulations. One journal, Die Freundschaft was a mouthpiece for a particularly vast array of opinions regarding same-sex love. Influenced by the works of Plato, as well as German romanticism, Die Freundschaft's authors saw their desires as being guided by Eros, a non-human and sacred force. Moreover, they fused Magnus Hirschfeld's notion of a "third sex" with the theosophical principle of reincarnation, arguing that part of the karmic path was the eventual incarnation of a soul into a body of opposing gender. Finally, the sentiment commonly espoused during Weimar Germany, that one could discover one's soul in nature, made nature a place in which sex and gender variants could discover their unique souls, and come to terms with their desires. Examining the ways in which sex and gender variants chose to describe themselves and their experiences in the language of the sacred reveals the extent to which they were able put forward an articulation of same-sex love that subverted scientific prescription, describing a constellation of desires and embodiments that were hallowed as well as natural.

Current studies on the topic of sexuality in the ancient Greek world tend to favour the active/passive paradigm of understanding sexual relations which was originally proposed in Kenneth Dover's Greek Homosexuality (1978) and Michel Foucault's three volume History of Sexuality (1978, 1985, and 1986). In Dover and Foucault, the sexual behaviour of the classical Athenian male takes primacy, so much so that the reader of either scholar can be left with the impression that the role of the active partner was available only to adult citizen males. Alciphron's Letters of Courtesans (Book 4 of his works) depict a group of desiring female subjects who demonstrate that sexual agency, the assumption of the active role in a sexual relationship, need not be the exclusively masculine phenomenon that Dover and Foucault describe. Letters of Courtesans prove that female sexuality can be portrayed as active and therefore that women in literature can be sexual agents. Additionally, these letters demonstrate the limits of the approaches of Dover and Foucault, that sexuality need not be defined as exclusively active or exclusively passive. By approaching Letters of Courtesans from this perspective, we are able to see that ancient Greek literature includes depictions of active female sexuality that Dover and Foucault overlooked. Letters of Courtesans are therefore a way to challenge and develop the work on ancient sexuality that has followed from these two landmark studies. Because of their fictional nature and their epistolary format, Letters of Courtesans lay bare the process of Alciphron's construction of sexuality and gender. I shall therefore show that Alciphron's Letters of Courtesans are an ideal locus for a discussion of these topics. This study will establish that Letters of Courtesans ought to occupy a place of importance in any discussion of ancient ideas of sexuality and gender.

Much scientific and media attention has been devoted to the growing body of research into the genetic correlates of human phenomena. However, many of the resulting reports lead to a deterministic interpretation of the role of genes, and involve fundamental misunderstandings of genetics and heredity. Hence, questions arise regarding the ways in which people make sense of the behavioural genetics research they encounter in everyday life. Furthermore, essentialist accounts are often embedded within popular understanding of politically sensitive topics, such as eugenics, race, and sex, and therefore it is important to examine how people comprehend genetic influences on behaviour. In this dissertation, I review current findings regarding the effects of genetic attributions on beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours in the context of the social world. Particular attention is paid to such effects in the context of gender issues. Specifically, in three studies I examine the effects of exposure to scientific theories concerning human sexuality on attitudes towards and evaluations of men’s dubious sexual behaviors. The results indicate that among men exposure to evolutionary psychology arguments leads to more lenient evaluations and judgments of an array of dubious sexual behaviors, compared with exposure to social constructivist arguments. It also seems that men implicitly hold nativist perceptions with regards to male sexuality and promiscuity. The findings were less conclusive among women, with some indication that women are less affected by such exposure as well as less likely to naturally hold a nativist perspective in the context of human sexuality. This empirical research has direct implications for previously suggested intervention programs and adds to the incurrent resurgence of interest in the effects of genetic theories. Finally, I identify areas where further exploration is needed, suggest potential solutions for specific problems, and evaluate related individual and social implications.

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