Browsing by Subject "Feminism"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    As professional sports come back, members of the US women’s soccer team are still paid less than the men’s
    (The Conversation US, Inc., 2020-06-29) Magid, Julie Manning; Kelley School of Business - Indianapolis
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    Feminine, Like
    (2019) Pierce, Tiffany; Petranek, Stefan
    To help better understand the world around us, we develop shared assumptions about our experiences. These assumptions, or social constructs, are useful because they create order through the use of categorization. Categorization helps us quickly define, organize, and comprehend experiences. The effect of social constructs and their byproducts of categorization should be considered, as they often influence significant facets of our lives. Specifically, our idea and understanding of gender constructs is a fundamental concern because gender impacts many of these important facets. My multimedia thesis work examines the social construction of gender, and the coinciding expectations that are created. The work aims to question the validity of the stereotypes associated with gender in order to explore their limitations. The work utilizes self-portraiture and symbols, often pulled from popular culture, as well as performance to exemplify and exaggerate gender ideals. My recreations of social constructs examine how assumptions can limit our perceptions or potentially restrict our behavior.
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    Infinite regress: the problem of womanhood in Edith Wharton's lesser-read works
    (2015-05-01) Smith, Alex; Schultz, Jane E.; Goldfarb, Nancy D.; Johnson, Karen Ramsay
    Wharton’s heroines are ordinary women who fight to secure material comfort and create selves that satisfy their emotional and sexual needs. These women often find that the two goals are mutually exclusive, since society strictly dictates appropriate behavior. This code of behavior stems from their relation to men: as objects to be won, as wives, and as mothers. In many instances, women are not even aware of their prescriptive roles and confuse their search for self with a search for security. Material comfort does not nurture Wharton’s heroines’ inner selves and they feel a metaphysical dissatisfaction, often seeking to find contentment through divorce or affairs. What they find in either case is that the cure to their ennui is not material, but mental. Wharton’s women seek a transcendent self—a self that is not dependent upon popular notions of respectability; a spiritual state that is independent from any attachment to social imperatives.
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    Informing practice and sabotaging membership growth: an ideological rhetorical analysis of discursive materials from Kiwanis International
    (2015-08) Stokes, Tonja LaFaye; Dobris, Catherine A.; Parrish-Sprowl, John; Goering, Elizabeth M.
    This study utilizes an ideological rhetorical analysis, applying Marxist and Feminist lenses, to artifacts from Kiwanis International, a prominent global service organization. These artifacts are: "The Permanent Objects of Kiwanis," guiding principles that were codified in 1924; "The Man Who Was God": a brief story about transforming from Kiwanis member to "Kiwanian," published in 1935 and 1985, respectively; and the 2012 "Join the Club" Membership Brochure. The rhetoric of discursive materials is one of the most salient representations of group ideology. In turn, ideology, particularly when it reflects and perpetuates social hegemony, has a normalizing effect on itself. Ideology shapes identity; identity shapes strategies to set process norms that create social cohesion. Norms of social cohesion become culture; culture reinforces ideology. When these components mirror social hegemony and replicate hegemonic power, they create institutions, like service organizations; these institutions then legitimate and normalize positions of social privilege. Ultimately, ideology and social hegemony reveal themselves through organizational and member practices and organizationally-produced discursive material. The purpose of this study is to analyze the historical, socio-political, and socio-cultural roots of Kiwanis International in order to draw logical conclusions about the organization's ideology for the purposes of understanding how that ideology contributes to, justifies, and perpetuates an unconscious, neo-colonial view of philanthropy. Kiwanis International, on an organizational (macro) level and at the club/member (micro) level, is structured around positions of racial, ethnic, socio-economic, linguistic, gender, and religious privilege, and so mimics the hegemonic power centers and dominant ideologies of society at large. In turn, the products and practices of the organization reflect these positions of privilege and inhibits the organization's ability to attract traditionally excluded, disenfranchised, or under-represented groups. Understanding that it is a contentious and futile to simply point where power relations exist and assert themselves, this study emphasizes where "othering" occurs in hopes of mitigating relations of domination and oppression between Kiwanis members and perspective members, and of moving forward the interests of those who have not traditionally been counted among Kiwanis' members but whose presence could save the organization.
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    Learning to Be: An Arts-Based Hermeneutic Understanding of My Heroine's Journey
    (2019) Birch, Elise; Leigh, Heather; Misluk, Eileen
    This research explored the question of what can I learn about my life experiences through a feminist lens by integrating art, poetry, and stream of consciousness text into a hermeneutic circle process that explores The Heroine’s Journey. The expected result was that I would have more insight about my own experiences while integrating my own heroine’s journey into daily living. I used a 6 step, 3 round, hermeneutic circle approach that incorporated poetry, art in the form of an altered book, and stream of consciousness writings. I, the author/researcher, am a student in my second and final year of a master of art therapy program who was also the sole participant in this study. The results of this study showed that integrating arts-based layers to the hermeneutic circle led to increased self-awareness and deep insight into the feminine and masculine natures within myself. Through the experience of this project, I have created the framework of an approach that encourages self-exploration, societal struggles, and an on-going process of finding and making meaning.
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    Pregnant Thoughts
    (2018) VanderHorck, Ruth; Baker, Lesley
    My thesis work explores pregnancy as a lived experience with deep cultural connotations. It looks at aspects of how pregnancy feels and is experienced differently depending on circumstances and perspective. This research uses the pregnant female body to explore issues of difference. The work seeks to create a dialogue with the viewer on issues that are central to resolving inequality in society. Pregnancy, childbirth, childcare, and the necessary cultural support are the focus of the fourth wave of the women’s movement and its continuing push for equity and justice.
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    “Since When Do We Celebrate Not Having Talent?”: Common Tropes and Counterstory in Tradwife TikTok
    (2024-09) Cooper, Savannah; Brooks Gillies, Marilee; Buchenot, Andy; Musgrave, Megan
    My thesis examines common “tropes” that appear in Tradwife content on TikTok. Tradwife content reaffirms and platforms harmful cultural norms and stereotypes regarding gender roles and is often connected to other forms of online extremism. In this thesis, I examine three common tropes I’ve identified in Tradwife content—religion, othering, and aesthetic comfort content. Tradwife content creators state religion to be a main driver behind their lifestyle and often produce content that presents an othering, “us-vs.-them” dynamic between themselves and their detractors. The toxic nature of their message is made more palpable via what I refer to as “aesthetic comfort content,” where their visually pleasing multimodal content presents their lifestyle as idyllic. I also expound on how some commenters are using elements of counterstory and disidentification in the Tradwife creators’ comment sections to fight back against these same stereotypes. The comment section becomes a site of debate and discourse where commenters can engage in acts of micro-activism by using their own experiences to complicate and critique the Tradwives’ messaging.