Browsing by Subject "Feminist theory"
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Item Autobiography, adaptation, and agency: interpreting women's performance and writing strategies through a feminist lens(2004) Lee-Brown, Elizabeth; Miller, Lynn, 1951-This dissertation is an investigation of interpretive strategies of twentieth century women adapter/playwrights. Several are also performers: Wakako Yamauchi, Elizabeth Wong, Sheri Bailey, Anne Sexton, Pam Christian, Terry Galloway and Donna Nudd. The life experiences of these artists encompass a diversity of economic, social, ethnic, cultural and political backgrounds; their artistic work responds to and challenges a wide variety of cultural and psychological identity constructions that continue to prevail in our culture. In an effort to determine how their artistic processes impact their writing and performance practices, Lee-Brown investigates the ways in which these artists read and respond to their own art. In this study, Lee-Brown maps out a relationship among feminist theorizations of autobiography, adaptation, audience and agency. Autobiography is defined as the synthesis of lived and imagined experience, and adaptation is configured as an evolving process in which meanings are interpreted, reinterpreted, invented and re/membered. In this way, adaptation functions as a lens for viewing performance and performance texts as an unending exchange of meanings. Identifying re/membering as an act of reclamation, Lee-Brown argues that re/membering functions as an inherently political and feminist strategy by linking the personal and the collective. She explores the ways in which the personal histories of these artists resonate with broader cultural and social histories, creating a dynamic and often antagonistic relationship between personal and private experience and cultural and historical meaning systems. Feminist agency is configured in relation to individuality and collectivity. LeeBrown locates the political impetus of the artists in this study around a search for affinity among women, rather than around a desire to group women according to a single, unified identity or struggle. Theorizations of difference, particularly theorizations by women of color, play an important role in defining the temporary yet critical role of these alliances. Situating the experiences and feminist theorizations of white women in conjunction with those of women of color, difference is articulated as a strategy not only for finding possible connections among women, but also as a method for critiquing the ways in which cultural and historical formulations of whiteness impact these alliances. In an effort to tease out the relationships among autobiography, adaptation, and agency, Lee-Brown considers the ways in which these artists configure their relationships with readers/audiences. She asks the question: what responses do these playwrights and performers intend to evoke from their audience members? Using feminist theorizations of agency as a lens for interpreting their artistic intentions, Lee-Brown identifies a number of strategies and tactics that are used by these artists and the common motifs that connect them. She argues that through their work as playwrights and performers, these artists generate political agency by promoting identity constructions that foster autonomy, self-reflexivity and political consciousness.Item Exclusionary acts: Gender, race, and epidemiology in literary spaces(2005-05) Wisecup, Kelly E.; Purinton, Marjean D.; Silva, Cristobal; Shu, YuanClearly, there is something about the phenomenon of an epidemic that makes it not merely an isolated scientific occurrence, but one with social and discursive ramifications. The tendency of both popular and authoritative treatments of disease to collapse the language and considerations of science, politics, and ideology demonstrates how disease and its discourse have permeated language and culture. The language of epidemics and quarantine are central to cultural and literary definitions of exclusion and identity, so integral, in fact, that they have failed to be examined by both consumer and critical audiences.Item Exclusionary acts: gender, race, and epidemiology in literary spaces(Texas Tech University, 2005-05) Wisecup, Kelly E.; Purinton, Marjean D.; Silva, Cristobal; Shu, YuanNot available.Item Exit Experiences of Female Superintendents in Northwest Texas: A Case Study(2011-05) Monroe, Tanya; Mendez-Morse, Sylvia; Klinker, JoAnn F.; Skrla, LindaThe public school superintendency has customarily been a professional field that is vastly dominated by men. Although the number of women who have attained the superintendency is increasing, their progress has been modest. Issues that characterize and define women’s experiences in the public school superintendency need to be studied in order to explain the shortage of female superintendents that continues to be pervasive in our society. This case study explored the exit experiences of three female superintendents in Northwest Texas. The purpose of this study was to describe their experiences in the superintendency, to establish reasons they left the superintendency, and to determine if those reasons were gender related. The study used a qualitative methodology, employed a case study approach, and utilized the framework of Shakeshaft’s Six Stages of Research on Women in Administration to examine this phenomenon. The data was collected through interviews, a focus group interview, and archival data. The results were interpreted utilizing a feminist theory lens. Three women who exited the superintendency were purposefully selected to participate in the study. Results showed that the experiences and reasons for exiting of the three former female superintendents were similar to the experiences and reasons for exiting of men superintendents: school board relations, public criticism, time/stress management, political and financial worries, moving to a better position, and retirement. However, their experiences in the superintendency and reasons for exiting were at times compounded by gender issues such as gender discrimination in the workplace. This study increases the knowledge base concerning the lack of female superintendents in Northwest Texas, describes experiences of female superintendents in Northwest Texas in the superintendency, and deepens the understanding of the factors that influenced their reasons to exit the superintendency. The study also contributed information for women who are considering or who are entering the superintendency position as well as for those who are preparing women to enter the superintendency position. Future research recommendations include a need for additional qualitative studies of female superintendents in geographical areas which have historically hired or retained few women. Future research could also be conducted to explore the selection process for prospective female superintendents in Texas. Furthermore, additional study could be initiated to discover the extent and reasons for the imbalance of the concentration of female superintendents in Texas. Why does there appear to be more women superintendents along the I-35 corridor than in regions located in the Panhandle and West Texas? Recommendations for superintendent preparation programs include more fully preparing women for the experiences that females face in the superintendency. The findings also indicate implications for professional development of school boards. Similar professional development for superintendent search firm “headhunters” would also be beneficial.Item Feminism and the media backlash: bridging the gap between sociological and cultural studies approaches(Texas Tech University, 2004-08) Kuhn, Christy LynnNot availableItem The horror of feminism : understanding the second wave through the reception of controversial films(2010-08) Fulfs, Patricia Ann; Cloud, Dana L.; Staiger, JanetGiven feminists’ longstanding concerns about the ideological effects of media images, and prompted by the lack of, but continued need for, feminist activism today, some feminist scholars have become increasingly interested in how popular media shape public understandings of feminism, represent its issues, and define its history. Communication scholars also appreciate that both media texts and social movements are produced and received within particular historical contexts, and that controversies over either are discursive sites in which cultural and political values clash and their meanings are negotiated. During the 1970s, second-wave feminism, especially its radical wing, was a controversial movement which threatened to disrupt basic relations between women and men and, therefore, has been much maligned by men, women, anti-feminists, and a new generation of self-proclaimed feminists. Yet, the second wave is often portrayed inaccurately. This dissertation thus reviews key works, theories, and events associated with radical feminism as well as the debates between it and other schools of feminist thought–liberal, Marxist/socialist, psychoanalytic, cultural, and various ‘new’ feminisms. Then, employing a context-sensitive form of ideological criticism, I examine three films, their promotional strategies, their mainstream critical and scholarly receptions, and how these elements converged with particular feminist discourses within their shared historical contexts. Specifically, I investigate why the horror films Rosemary’s Baby (1968), I Spit on Your Grave (1978), and Snuff (1976)–which each featured an exposed, vulnerable, violated, or ‘monstrous’ female body–became objects of controversy when they tapped into the contemporaneous feminist issues of reproduction, rape, and pornography, respectively, and how the films’ receptions reveal ways in which people have made sense of feminism and its issues. I contend that these controversies, both individually and when viewed as a series, were symptomatic of the hegemonic negotiations of second-wave feminism and its attempts to publicize discourses about sex, violence, and the female body, negotiations which were occurring both inside and outside the women’s movement. Through these controversial cases, then, we can see feminism’s transformation–from an active movement which criticized the structures of women’s oppression to a discursive and primarily academic enterprise focused more on criticizing itself.Item Monstrous Silhouette: The Development of the Female Monster in British Literature(2017-07-11) Woodworth, Savannah J.; Courtney, LeeIn this thesis, I analyze the effects of social, political, and economic change and the historical effects of said change on the literary representations of female monsters as portrayed by male authors in medieval and Victorian literature. To contextualize the literature selected, each chapter involves extensive research which I argue influenced the presentation of the characters selected. Each chapter also includes extensive textual analysis to show direct examples in the text relating to the historical context, followed by a section tying the ideology of the thesis with the context provided in the historical and textual analysis sections. The purpose of this analysis is to demonstrate the repercussions of social change on the social standings of women and the manifestation of those changes within literature as a form of expression for the conflicting representations of the nature of femininity and the anxieties of the male writers in these moments of upheaval. At the beginning of this analysis, there was some expectation for a direct correlation between masculine anxieties and increases in female independence resulting in wholly negative portrayals of women, resulting on monstrous images; however, each character, despite their clearly monstrous traits, was nuanced in a way that was frequently empathetic, particularly when placed within the historical context of social change.Item Paradoxical passivity: an analysis of the intersection of rhetorical, narrative, reader-response, and feminist theory in contemporary British and American novels(Texas Tech University, 1995-08) Christian, Diane ThomasReaders of contemporary British and American narrative often consider certain novels to be authentic and realistic, in spite of seemingly implausible behavior by female protagonists who are faced with abuse or aggression. Through the use of a conductive and evaluative methodology, the dissertation provides an analysis of the intersection of the reader's fixed beliefs with the norms within given texts. Several paradigms are suggested for examining the incongruity and double standards in the reader's expectations for male characters and the previously unquestioned acceptance of female characters who respond passively to aggression. Readers generally dismiss or disregard any male protagonist who abdicates the right of self-defense. Paradoxically, the female protagonists who respond to acts of abuse or aggression with passivity or in other ways that seem contrary to the laws of self-preservation are generally viewed by readers as behaving "normally." The issue of a reader's belief, disbelief, and the norms governing the typical suspension of disbelief are addressed in the context of the psychopathological actions and reactions of the abused and the abuser, the captive and the captor.Item Poststructural subjects and feminist concerns : an examination of identity, agency and politics in the works of Foucault, Butler and Kristeva(2004-05) Cooklin, Katherine Lowery, 1967-; Solomon, Robert C.; Oliver, Kelly, 1958-I address the question of whether poststructuralist theories of subjectivity can accommodate emancipatory politics. I examine the models of subjectivity offered by Michel Foucault, Judith Butler and Julia Kristeva, and I evaluate these models in terms of their ability to provide an ethical and political framework that does not perpetuate oppression, and in particular that should be adopted by feminists. In chapter 1, I argue that Foucault reduces the subject to a placeholder within a discursive system and forecloses the possibility of meaningful agency and emanicpatory politics. Because nothing escapes the discursive system, Foucault eliminates the subject’s capacity for critical reflection, agency and intervention on the systems of oppression. Given Foucault’s description of power and of subjugated knowledge, the only promise that Foucault holds is for total contestation and constant transgression. I examine the utility of Foucault’s work for feminist politics and conclude that a better alternative should be sought. In chapter 2, I examine the utility of Foucault’s work for feminist politics, and offer a critique of some feminist appropriations of Foucault. In chapter 3, I examine Judith Butler’s theory of subjectivity. I argue that, like Foucault, Butler reduces subjects to placeholders within an inherently oppressive system and forecloses the possibility of a subject’s capacity for critical reflection on that system. Throughout this chapter I address problems for feminist politics. Chapter 4 is a critique of attempts to find a meaningful account of agency in Butler’s work by recasting her as an existentialist. In chapter 5, I turn to Kristeva’s theory of signification and subjectivity. I argue that Kristeva does not reduce the subject to the discursive system, and that her theory allows for meaningful agency. I argue that Kristeva’s theory can be used to diagnose social oppression. I show how Kristeva’s theory can be used to diagnose fascist movements and sexism. I argue that her theory holds promise for a remedy to oppression.Item "Se hace puentes al andar" : PODER and the Young Scholars for Justice(2011-05) Villalobos, Rocío Del Rosario; De Lissovoy, Noah, 1968-; Foley, Douglas E.Youth of color are routinely dehumanized and treated as objects both in schools and in society. The “banking method” approach to teaching and stringent zero tolerance policies that are prevalent in low-income schools predominantly populated by youth of color serve to push youth out of school and pull them into the school-to-prison pipeline. When students do not meet their school’s standards, the institutional gaze is fixed disapprovingly on the child and the family. The history of segregation and institutionalized oppression that led to a legacy of inadequate and culturally irrelevant schooling and a poor quality of life for communities of color is erased. For the children who grow up in such environments, a historical silence makes it difficult if not impossible to make sense of their present-day conditions and the changes they are witnessing in their communities. People Organized in the Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER) is an organization that focuses on issues of environmental, economic, and social justice, and strives to facilitate youth empowerment through their Young Scholars for Justice (YSJ) summer program. The youth of color in the program are positioned as knowledgeable researchers and historical actors in their community. The Chicana feminist epistemology of PODER’s staff members creates a nurturing and family-like environment for the youth, which has a significant impact on the females, and enables youth to utilize personal experiences to develop a structural analysis of oppression. As youth acquire a historical conocimiento of East Austin, they also learn about organized resistance to oppression vis-à-vis environmental justice campaigns. In doing so, a spiritual activism blossoms in the youth that is born from their wounds of oppression and rooted in a cultural and historical awareness of their community. The youth engage in a cycle of praxis as their spiritual activism mobilizes them against injustices and ushers in their transformation into subjects. Through participant observation and interviews, I weave together a critical case study of the YSJ program that is informed by the metamorphosis I experienced after participating in the program.Item Social design as violence(2015-05) Nasadowski, Rebecca Shannon; Gorman, Carma; Lee, Gloria; Gunn, JoshuaFaculty in art schools, colleges, and universities have increasingly begun institutionalizing and professionalizing "design for good" in their curricula. Students are currently being taught that social design is good--or at least preferable to working for large corporations--but are not being urged to question this feel-good assertion. When the trendy phrase "design for good" is used, for whom is it good? Though social design can result in powerful, laudable work, it often escapes critical scrutiny--particularly in educational settings--for two reasons: 1) by default, many consider non-commercial (broadly defined) work de facto virtuous and thus assume that any and all partnerships with non-profit organizations, for example, must be ethically commendable; and 2) many consider good intentions sufficient and do not inquire about actual effects and consequences. My thesis work proposes that social design is just as ethically fraught as other kinds of design, if not more so, as any unintended harmful consequences of projects lie unnoticed and unchallenged under the guise of "doing good." Social designers' analyses of sociopolitical dynamics and histories of conflict are often thin. In some instances, their projects may actually enact violence, maintaining imbalances of power and perpetuating the oppression of the very individuals and communities they try to serve. I argue that insights regarding power, state control, and privileges afforded by race, class, and gender should form a critical foundation for designers seeking to work in this field. If designers and design educators are serious about design providing a "social good," it is essential that they broaden their scope of analysis and critique to include the insights and strategies that activists and academics in other fields can offer.Item The relations among feminism, gender role orientation, and psychological well-being in women(Texas Tech University, 2002-08) Saunders, Kendra JeanMany feminists suggest empowerment and equality between the sexes will lead to better conditions for women (Harlan, 1998). Furthermore, feminist therapists suggest that awareness regarding the impact of our patriarchal culture can lead women to differentiate what is in their best interest from socially ingrained behavior, and that this differentiation can empower women to have personal freedom and a willingness to consider other life alternatives (Prochaska & Norcross, 1999). Consequently, this awareness may give women the power to influence their personal lives and society so that both may better meet the needs of women and lead to improved mental health. Consistent with this view connecting feminism and mental health, feminist therapists propose a connection between feminism and well-being (Wilkinson & Kitzinger, 1994). A limited amount of research supports this assertion; however, this research has been criticized as being mostly conceptual, anecdotal, or based on clinical case studies (Markson, 1984; Wemer-Wilson, Zimmerman, Daniels, & Bowling, 1999). Furthermore, research on this topic has neglected the impact of gender role orientation on both feminism and well-being. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relations between feminism, gender role orientation, and psychological well-being among women. It was expected that women with a more developed level of feminist orientation would exhibit a greater sense of psychological well-being than women who were less feminist. In addition, it was anticipated that women who were higher in feminism would exhibit greater levels of stereotypic masculinity than women who are less feminist, and that women who were more androgynous or stereotypically masculine would exhibit greater levels of psychological well-being than women who were stereotypically feminine or undifferentiated (Taylor &; Hall, 1982; Bassoff & Glass, 1982). Finally, this research explored whether feminism and gender role orientation interact in predicting well-being. The results suggested that having a stereotypical masculine or androgynous gender role orientation was predictive of a greater sense of psychological well-being. In addition, and contrary to prediction, women with a more advanced level of feminism were no more likely to be stereotypically masculine than women who were less feminist. The results regarding the relationship between feminism and well-being were mixed, but generally suggested that a greater degree of feminism was related to a heightened sense of psychological well-being. Finally, level of feminism and gender role orientation did not interact in predicting well-being. The implications of these findings are discussed, as well as limitations and possible future directions.Item Toward a theory on gender and emotional management in electoral politics : a comparative study of media discourses in Chile and the United States(2011-05) Bachmann Cáceres, Ingrid; Harp, Dustin, 1968-; Coleman, Renita; Jarvis, Sharon; Poindexter, Paula M.; Stroud, Natalie J.The role of a political leader often is associated with the emotional attributes of a man, and there is empirical evidence that media coverage reinforces culture-specific emotion display rules for politicians. Feminist communication scholarship also has shown the gendered assumptions manifest in mediated discourses. This dissertation explores the relationship between gender, culture and candidates’ emotionality by examining and comparing news media coverage of the emotional management of Chile’s Michelle Bachelet and the United States’ Hillary Clinton, two female candidates with a viable bid for the presidency in their respective countries. Using a discourse analysis of 1,676 items from national newspapers, news magazines and television newscasts, this study found that cultural differences influence the discursive constructions of these women candidates’ emotionality. In the case of Bachelet, she was deemed as a soft, empathic and ultimately “feminine” candidate who needed to toughen up to convey authority and convince voters that she had the skills, in addition to the charm, to lead a country. In the case of Clinton, she was described mainly as a cold and unsympathetic contender, an unwomanly woman with too much ambition to be likable, and who was portrayed either as fake or frail when being more emotionally open. These mediated discourses suggest the media favored determined understandings for a woman’s place and role, reinforcing socially-shared and culturally-bound meanings about gendered identities. Informed by a feminist theoretical framework, the discussion addresses how these mediated discourses on Bachelet and Clinton illustrate the power of culturally-sanctioned sexism in Chile and the United States to make of gender a restrictive force that keeps women out of the realms of politics and policy.