Browsing by Subject "Sexuality"
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Item A study of sexual and mental health among baby boomers in the United States(2023-07-24) Aguilar, Rodolfo Antonio; Rew, Lynn; Waite, Linda J; Acton, Gayle; Kwak, Jung; Phillips, CarolynBaby boomers, the epicenter of revolutionizing sex during their coming-of-age years, carry their revolution onto older adulthood. Regardless of their expected physiological, physical, mental, and sexual age-related changes, when it comes to their sexuality, baby boomers demand respect, choice, and dignity. Therefore, nurses trained to use an integrative approach to care are uniquely qualified to catalyze necessary changes in care to meet and complement the needs of aging baby boomers, particularly those who live in nursing homes. To inform necessary changes, this dissertation presents a cross-sectional analysis of the prevalence of sexual activity, behaviors, and problems among baby boomers. The work is based on the secondary cross-sectional analysis of the third round of data collection of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), which aggregates data from 2,742 representative baby boomers born between 1945 and 1964 (1,228 males and 1,514 females). I also describe the association of sexual activity, behaviors, and problems with age and mental health status. Additionally, I identified associations between sexual health factors and mental health outcomes. I also explored how sexual health factors impact mental health outcomes differently for men and women, including mediating and moderating relationships. My analysis establishes that sexual health factors influence mental health outcomes uniquely and differently in women than men. While future research will always be necessary to keep up with changing health demands in patient-centered care, this dissertation is essential in guiding pertinent changes in healthcare practice, system, and policy. I propose additions and modifications to nursing education curricula and devise appropriate interventions to advocate for sexual rights and sexual health in nursing home residents. My work's detailed findings, proposals, and advisories can serve as an empirical foundation for developing sustainable policies in nursing homes regarding residents' sexuality and sexual expression. If implemented, the revised policies will better prepare nursing care, and healthcare in general, by integrating personal views, needs, and rights of prospective nursing home residents, the baby boomer generation.Item American male fantasies and the articulation of Slavic women’s bodies and sexualities in American popular culture : a study of feature and gonzo pornography(2018-12) Switala, Rebekah Lucille; Campbell, Craig, Ph. D.; Heinzelman, Susan SageThis thesis examines representations and perceptions of Slavic women and sexuality in American popular culture from the nineteenth century to the present, including contemporary feature and gonzo pornography. I argue that since the late 18th century, the U.S. has racialized and sexualized Slavic women’s bodies, specifically marking the Slavic body as ‘off-white’ with a ‘deviant’ sexuality, rather than as ‘fully white’ with a ‘pure’ sexuality. In both feature and gonzo pornography, which I argue to be distinct styles of pornography, this is articulated through emphasis being placed on the economic and cultural privilege and sexual prowess of white, Western, heteromasculine identity over Slavic women. However, gonzo pornography’s technical uses of the camera and reliance on improvisation create a participatory rather than strictly voyeuristic gaze for the spectator, opening some possibilities for Slavic women to reclaim and rearticulate both American and Soviet stereotypes and silences about their bodies and sexualitiesItem Breaking the grass ceiling : race, gender, and sexuality in the U.S. legal cannabis industry(2017-12-08) Rogers, Katherine Ann; González-López, Gloria, 1960-; Carrington, Ben H.This study examines the experiences of women who work in legal cannabis to understand how what it means to use or distribute cannabis is changing in the transition from prohibition to legalization. Drawing on 17 in-depth interviews, I argue that women’s claims that they are engaged in professional, ethical, legitimate labor constitute a moral enterprise that contests definitions of their work as deviant and criminal. Although these claims are ostensibly color- and gender-blind, I suggest that they actually confer racialized and gendered meanings on cannabis that shore up the hegemony of white patriarchy in the industry. First, I show that my participants talk about customers and products in ways that redefine cannabis as socially acceptable for use by women and by people who are white and middle- and upper-class. Next, I suggest that individuals whose embodiments align with racialized and gendered ideals of professionalism can more easily enter the industry without experiencing shame, guilt, or stigma. Finally, I show that some white women describe sexual harassment in the industry by implicitly drawing on tropes of black and brown men as sexually deviant. Considering how race, gender, and sexuality constitute definitions of deviance and normality is important when answering the question of how an illicit labor market is reconfigured during legalization. This study also adds to the literature on work and organizations by investigating how an organization that is historically associated with black and brown masculinity is reconfigured and comes to be associated with white femininity.Item Cartographies of engagement : the parallels and intersections of Latin American and South Asian literature in the twentieth century(2015-05-20) Kantor, Roanne L.; Salgado, César Augusto; Richmond-Garza, Elizabeth; Snell, Rupert; Hyder, Syed Akbar; Domínguez-Ruvalcaba, Héctor“Cartographies of Engagement: The Parallels and Intersections of Latin American and South Asian Authors,” establishes comparisons between Latin American authors who lived in South Asia and their South Asian contemporaries from 1906 to the present. Working in South Asian literatures in English, Hindi and Urdu, and Latin American literature in Spanish, this project recovers a century-long literary exchange between two previously unassociated regions and suggests a shared trajectory of professionalization for authors in the Global South. In the first half of the twentieth century, authors from both regions traveled abroad as a means of supporting themselves – whether through cultural exchanges, diplomatic postings, or in visiting positions with foreign universities. I suggest that their growing commitment to transnational solidarity was not a precondition for these travels, but the product of them. In the second half of the century, authors from both regions experienced a radical shift as their writing gained cache in the global north. I therefore conclude by demonstrating the connections between the emergence of Latin American Boom literature and its translation into English in the 1960s, its influence on the subsequent generation of South Asian Anglophone writers, and their own emergence as a global phenomenon beginning in the 1980s with Midnight’s Children. In bringing together two world areas that are rarely associated, it reveals a paradox in contemporary methods of comparative literary scholarship: even as disciplines expand to accommodate an ever greater diversity of language traditions, the frameworks for comparing those traditions remain remarkably narrow. In mapping the circulation of authors and texts around the globe, literary scholars have typically relied on just two different types of what I call “literary cartographies.” First, “cartographies of domination,” describe historical relations of power, as elaborated in postcolonial and decolonial theories. Second, “cartographies of contiguity,” describe relations based on physical proximity and historical routes of exchange, such as area studies designations or the more recent “oceanic turn.” By contrast, this project carves out methodological space for “cartographies of engagement,” which highlight the routes of authors and texts that contravene larger patterns of political domination and economic exchange.Item Chasing Afrodite : performing blackness and "excess flesh" in film(2012-08) Scott, Tynisha Shavon; Richardson, Matt, 1969-; Williams, Christine L.How do you address the continued prevalence of black women’s sexuality as commodifiable, censured, and coveted in mass culture? Chasing Afrodite offers one answer to this question through examining explicit cinematic performances of black women’s sexuality in mass media. This project deploys Nicole R. Fleetwood’s performative of “excess flesh” within one of the most visceral mediums proffering authentic renderings of black women’s sexuality: film. Through an analysis of two distinct films featuring non-simulated sexual performances by black women—Afrodite Superstar (dir. Abiola Abrams, 2007) and Ashley and Kisha: Finding the Right Fit (dir. Tony Comstock, 2007)—Chasing Afrodite explores the contradictions and contentions that still make public enactments of sex by black bodies so problematic. Though the directors and participants in both films eschew the label of pornography in favor of erotica or other less pejorative terms, their larger reception places them in a precarious place amongst other films with explicit sexual content. The women in these films refuse to unhinge hypersexuality from blackness and refract the dominant gaze by displaying their desires for a viewing audience. In doing so, their labor in these films intervenes in common discussions in black, feminist, and film studies that assume these images are inherently degrading.Item The Complexity of Identity: The Art and Life of Nahum B. Zenil(2021) Tijerina, Olivia; Flaherty, GeorgeIn this thesis, I analyze various artworks by queer Mexican artist Nahum B. Zenil (1947-) in relation to concepts such as identity, sexuality, and religion. In order to do so, I first must explore the events of the late 1960s in Mexico, particularly the student movement of 1968. This movement fought against the injustices of the Mexican government, advocating for change that benefited instead of hurting the people of Mexico. Their popularity began to worry the government and because of this, they decided they needed to stop their momentum. On October 2, 1968 the government opened fire during a protest in Tlatelolco Square. Although they deny it, their actions resulted in the killing of over 300 innocent students, civilians, and protesters. The aftermath of this tragedy led to the revitalization of practically all cultural, social, and political aspects in Mexican society. In the 1970s, the LGBT movement began. Those who identified themselves with these sexualities as well as allies came together in order to fight for gay rights within Mexico. Week-long celebrations of individuality and sexual expression, similar to present day Pride, were also established during this time. Not only were there political events happening during the week, there were also cultural events. The National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Muse del Chopo showcased work created by LGBT members and allies. Works displayed were centered around four different themes that often overlapped: “the secular iconography of mexicanidad, the religious iconography of mexicanidad, the violence of homophobia and AIDs, and alternative or liberatory representations of gender and sexuality” (McCaughan 2015, 93). Nahum B. Zenil not only helped to establish this artistic exhibition, he was also creating introspective and intrinsic works of art, channeling emotions of: guilt, love, loss, and humor. I focus on seven pieces by Zenil: En el zócalo frente a palacio nacional (1992), Soy Puro Mexicano (2001), San Miguel Arcángel (1989), Cristo (1998), En la región de los volcanes I (2005), De mi diario 2015. “Abrazo” (2017), and El jugador. The visual analyses will be discussed in relation to the following concepts: national and personal identity, the secularization of religious iconography, masculinity in Mexican culture, and the dynamic between being gay and being a man in Mexico. I will argue that through these works, Zenil’s art transcends the normal relationship between the art and viewer, allowing for relatability or even scrutiny. Not only this, but his imagery and narrative create completely different personas of himself all aimed towards representing the internal turmoil the artist faced as a marginalized individual within his own country.Item Delicacy or shame : Christopher Isherwood’s obscured sexuality in Lions and shadows(2013-05) Stevenson, Katharine A.; Carter, MiaChristopher Isherwood’s 1938 autobiographical novel Lions and Shadows is often read in light of its subtitle as the story of “an education in the ‘twenties.” Yet Isherwood’s early work is more than a simple interwar bildungsroman. Lions and Shadows is a narratively complicated account of a privileged, queer youth in interwar England and an exposition of the effects of the Great War on an entire generation. The autobiographical novel provides veiled descriptions of the queer cultures of Cambridge and London in the 1920s, and records the early artistic development of several members of what has come to be called “The Auden Generation,” including Edward Upward, W.H. Auden, and Stephen Spender. In this project, I explore how and why Christopher Isherwood obscures his sexuality in Lions and Shadows, looking in particular at his friendships with Edward Upward and W.H. Auden and at the fictional work that the former friendship produced, The Mortmere Stories. Chapter 1 provides background information on homosexuality in England during Isherwood’s lifetime, focusing on how class and privilege affect the experience and expression of homosexuality. Chapter 2 analyzes the obsession with the Great War that pervades Lions and Shadows, concentrating on how the Great War affected ideas of masculinity and male sexuality. Finally, Chapter 3 explores the relationship between Isherwood’s social and sexual discomfort and the production and content of The Mortmere Stories, which tend to poke fun at sexual foibles and the proclivities of the upper classes.Item Developing a hauntology of Latinidad(2018-05) Albarrán, Lario José; Gonzalez, Rachel ValentinaIn this thesis I utilize theories of phenomenology and performance to develop a hauntology of Latinidad. By following the specter of Latinidad, I interrogate imaginative sites constructed through the historical, social, and performative facets of colonialism’s impact in the United States. I do this to theorize notions of Latinidad in order to argue that the multi-faceted relationship between Latinidad and colonialism has summoned a specter that manifest historically, performatively, visually, and phenomenally as Latinidad. As a result, the specter of Latinidad positions marginalized individuals that identify with Latinidad in the United States as bodies “haunted” by their own biological and phenotypical disposition to Latinidad. Placing the theory of Jacques Derrida and Kashif Powell in conversation with scholars such as Avery Gordon, Judith Butler, Gloria Anzaldúa, Juana Rodriguez, and others, I evoke the language and metaphor of haunting to consider the profound effect the relationship between marginalized bodies and the lingering specter of Latinidad.Item Diversity and evolution of reproductive systems in Mycocepurus fungus-growing ants(2010-05) Rabeling, Christian; Mueller, Ulrich G.; Hillis, David M.; Bolnick, Daniel I.; Schultz, Theodore R.; Singer, Michael C.The general prevalence of sexual reproduction over asexual reproduction among metazoans testifies to the evolutionary, long-term benefits of genetic recombination. Despite the benefits of genetic recombination under sexual reproduction, asexual organisms sporadically occur throughout the tree of life, and a few asexual lineages persisted over significant evolutionary time without apparent recombination. The study of asexual organisms therefore may provide clues to answer why almost all eukaryotes reproduce via meiosis and syngamy and why asexual eukaryotes are almost always evolutionarily short-lived. Towards understanding the evolution of asexual lineages in the Hymenoptera, I first review the diversity of reproductive systems in the Hymenoptera, introduce the study organism, the fungus-gardening ant Mycocepurus smithii, and discuss my research objectives. Second, I integrate information from reproductive physiology, reproductive morphology, natural history and behavior, to document that that queens of M. smithii are capable of thelytokous parthenogenesis, workers are sterile, and males are absent from the surveyed population. These results suggest that M. smithii might be obligately asexual. To place the origin and maintenance of asexual reproduction in M. smithii in an evolutionary context, I use molecular phylogenetic and population-genetic methods to (i) test if M. smithii reproduces asexually throughout its distribution range; (ii) infer if asexuality evolved once or multiple times; (iii) date the origin of asexual reproduction in M. smithii; and (iv) elucidate the cytogenetic mechanism of thelytokous parthenogenesis. During field collecting for these studies throughout the Neotropics, I discovered a new species of obligate social parasite in the genus Mycocepurus. Social parasites are of great interest to evolutionary biology in order to elucidate mechanisms demonstrating how parasites gained reproductive isolation from their host species in sympatry. I describe this new parasite species, characterize its morphological and behavioral adaptations to the parasitic lifestyle, and discuss the parasite’s life history evolution in the context of social parasitism in fungus-growing ants. The dissertation research integrates population-genetic, phylogenetic, physiological and morphological approaches to advance our understanding of the evolution of reproductive systems and diversity of life-history traits in animals.Item Doing (trans)gender with words(2017-05) Crabtree, Zoë Rose Linder; Gutiérrez, Laura G., 1968-The strategic employment of language in small, sexually intimate communities of practice -what transgender studies scholar C. Jacob Hale terms “cultures of two” -can serve as a practice of resistance against dominant biologically deterministic ideologies and a source of support within hegemonic constructions of public and private that silence and invisiblize non-normative identities. Following this assertion and exploring the ways that transgender people speak and write about trans bodies on their own terms, this thesis draws upon J.L. Austin’s theory of performative language, Charles Taylor’s idea that language is constitutive, and Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity to argue that the language that transgender people use for their bodies and sexual practices is both performative and constitutive of gender. In order to emphasize multiple transgender people’s voices across media, this thesis uses performance analysis to examine discursive and embodied representations of gender both in in-depth interviews that the author conducted and selections from Tristan Taormino’s anthology of trans and genderqueer erotica titled Take Me There. In Chapter Two, I draw upon José Esteban Muñoz’s concept of a “queer utopia” and Avery Gordon’s idea of “haunting,” to consider how both the interviewees and the anthology represent language as something that can affirm, but which also puts people in a place of vulnerability or exposes them to potential trauma. Then, using Stuart Hall’s writing on representation and audience and Michael Warner’s theories of publics and counterpublics, I analyze how the intended audiences for both the interviews and Take Me There affect their portrayals of intimate conversations about sex. Finally, I employ Don Kulick’s idea that gendered language is a resource available to everyone as a frame for my interviewee’s thoughts on language’s potential for affirmation. Chapter Three considers how language can facilitate the recognition of transgender identities as real. First, I articulate how my understanding of recognition has been shaped by Althusser, Butler, and Hale. Then, I consider how the audience of a transgender person’s “gender performance” affects their feeling that they have been recognized: How does “seeing” and “being seen” work in what Hale terms “cultures of two”? How does it work in more public interactions? Finally, I argue that language is doing more than performing and constituting gender identity for those who engage with it: it is also creating and pointing to people who care about how the language that they use affects those they use it with. Following Taylor and Austin’s theories of constitutive and performative language, and emerging into the theoretical gap that Kulick illuminates, my thesis considers the ways in which language can be employed to either restrict or expand transgender people’s abilities to author their own gender identities within, alongside, and in opposition to the binary sex/gender system. In the United States, a country that insistently and brutally enforces discrimination and violence against transgender people, based in an ideology that presumes them to be either ill, deranged, or mistaken, it is vital that transgender people’s own conceptions of self, especially as they manifest relationally in intimate (read vulnerable) sexual situations, be considered with respect.Item Educating the unique child : gender, sexuality, and homeschooling(2016-05) Averett, Kathleen Henley; Williams, Christine L., 1959-; Umberson, Debra; Crosnoe, Robert; Gonzalez-Lopez, Gloria; Merabet, SofianHomeschooling in the United States has typically been portrayed as the province of fundamentalist Christians, who opt out of public schooling in order to protect their children from the influence of a secular, sexually permissive culture. Recently, however, homeschooling has also found its way into the discourse of those who argue the opposite: that American public schools, influenced by conservative Christian morality, are intolerant of, and inhospitable to, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and gender non-conforming youth. Why is homeschooling a proposed “solution” to two seemingly opposing problems? In this dissertation, I seek to explain this paradox by examining shifting and contested understandings of childhood within the homeschooling community in Texas, which has some of the least restrictive laws regarding homeschooling in the United States. I use survey data from 676 homeschooling parents, in-depth interviews with 46 of these parents, and ethnographic observation at homeschooling conferences to ask: What are the dominant stereotypes and discourses of homeschooling, and where do these originate? How has homeschooling arisen as a solution to two seemingly very different problems? How accurately do these discourses represent the political and religious views of homeschoolers in Texas? And finally, what motivates individual parents to homeschool? How do parents’ motivations compare to the dominant homeschooling discourses? I focus specifically on three important areas: 1) homeschooling parents’ conceptions of childhood, especially childhood gender and sexuality, 2) how these parents understand the role of government in education, and 3) how dominant expectations for mothering in the United States influence these parents’ homeschooling experiences. I argue that a study of homeschooling reveals a great deal not only about contested understandings of childhood, but about the shifting roles of parents, schools, and government in American children’s lives today.Item Eurosodom : examining weaponized sexuality and gender-based narratives in Russian and pro-Russian disinformation(2020-08-14) Cushman, Ellery Grace; Neuburger, Mary, 1966-; Redei, LorincThe Kremlin, under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, has sponsored a resurgence of political warfare against Western targets. This analysis will focus on a particular aspect of Kremlin-sponsored political warfare: sexuality and gender-based narratives in Russian and pro-Russian sponsored disinformation campaigns targeting EU and aspiring members from 2014-2020. The potency of these narratives arises from the emotional and cognitive load that they elicit. Their significance is often overlooked in security, intelligence, and communication studies. In order to alleviate this gap, this thesis consists of a mixed-methods analysis in order to analyze the role and function of these narratives within the larger body of Russian disinformation and the intended effects of targeted demographics’ consumption of these narratives. This research shows that sexuality and gender-based disinformation narratives are designed to target basic human emotions, such as fear, anger, hostility, confusion, and disgust by exploiting existing cognitive biases within the targeted population. These narratives are a useful and effective political and propaganda tool meant to elicit support for a specific brand of traditional values that furthers the Kremlin’s geopolitical aim of creating an alternative to Western liberal hegemony. These metanarratives designate the West as a bastion of moral and material decadence and deviance, and Russia as the savior of traditional Christendom because of its adherence to traditionality and rejection of liberal multiculturalismItem Family socialization of sexuality : parents' awareness of physical sexuality development during early childhood and adolescence(2017-08-10) Orozco-Lapray, Diana Lucellan; Kim, Su Yeong; Cance, Jessica Duncan; Gleason, Marci; Russell, StephenDespite other assumptions, sexuality is a multifaceted concept important to many aspects of one’s being that develops as early as infancy. Socially, however, sexuality is not an acknowledge part of early childhood, rather something that emerges as part of puberty, during adolescence. Parents’ ability to recognize physical sexuality development milestones and interpret their meaning and place within development is crucial to promoting positive, healthy sexuality development. In this dissertation, I propose a theoretical framework for children’s sexuality development, and family socialization of sexuality, from birth to adulthood. Empirically, I examine parents’ observations and responses to physical milestones related to sexuality development during early childhood and during adolescence. Two studies juxtapose the periods of early childhood, ages 1-4 years old, and adolescence, ages 12 – 15, to examine parents’ observations, and aspects of parent-child communication at two distinct periods. In the first study, I interviewed 20 parents of young children, and found four themes that summarized parents’ awareness of sexuality development: 1) Parents rely on their own experiences to form interpretations of their child’s behaviors, 2) Parents observed, but are uncertain about sexuality development in early childhood, 3) Communication between parents about sexuality is limited or implied, and 4) Sexuality does not yet apply to their child. In the second study, I quantitatively examine whether mothers’ observations of children’s pubertal development and puberty knowledge are associated with their inclination for and initiation of puberty-related communication. Analyses of 133 mother-reports, showed mixed significant and non-significant findings. Together, these studies showcase parents’ observations of sexuality and physical development, the need for parents and researchers to reconsider the age of occurrence for sexuality and pubertal milestones, and provide empirical support to the proposed theoretical framework for children’s sexuality development within the family.Item Furtive Blackness : on being in and outside of law(2021-05-05) Wilson, Tabias Olajuawon; Marshall, Stephen H.; Thompson, Shirley; Perry, Imani; Livermon, Xavier; Arroyo-Martinez, JossiannaThis dissertation is comprised of three chapters; Furtive Blackness: On Blackness and Being (“Furtive Blackness”), The Strict Scrutiny of Black and BlaQueer Life (“Strict Scrutiny”) and Sexual Profiling: BlaQueer Furtivity. It takes a fresh approach to both criminal law and constitutional law; particularly as they apply to African descended peoples in the United States. This is an intervention as to the description of the terms of Blackness in light of the social order but, also, an exposure of the failures and gaps of law. This is why the categories as we have them are inefficient to account for Black life. The way legal scholars have encountered and understood the language of law has been wholly insufficient to understand how law encounters human life. This work is about the hermeneutics of law. While I center case history and Black letter law, I am also arguing explicitly that the law has a dynamic life beyond the courtroom, a life of constructing and dissembling Black life. Together, these essays and exercises in legal philosophy are pointing toward a new method of thinking about law, a method that makes central the material reality of the Black—and BlaQueer—in black letter law.Item Gay by any other name?(2014-12) Stone, Lala Suzanne; Dahlby, Tracy; Jensen, Robert, 1958-It has long been a tool of the LGBTQ rights movement to loudly proclaim and own one’s sexual orientation label. However, there is a new generation of young sexual minorities who feel a label is no longer necessary. Are these no-labelers headed in the right direction? Or are they hurting the fight for LGBTQ equality?Item “The gay Facebook” : friendship, desirability, and HIV in the lives of the gay Internet generation(2013-12) Robinson, Brandon Andrew; González-López, Gloria, 1960-Why are men seeking other men online? And how does the Internet influence these men and their sexuality? These are the two underlying questions driving this thesis. To answer these general questions, I conducted a qualitative study, which used in-depth individual interviews with 15 men who have sex with other men who self-identified as gay, queer, or homosexual. Through employing a theoretical framework that is inspired in queer theory, I uncovered three main topics in these men’s lives that are intimately shaped by their use of the Internet: friendship, racial and bodily desire, and HIV. First, I show the creative ways gay men are using the Internet, and specifically a sexualized space, in order to build relations with other gay men, despite the larger obstacles a heteronormative society puts in these men’s way to forge these friendships. In using their gay identity to try to establish relationalities with other gay identified men, the informants in this study challenge the impersonable traits associated with modernity, while seeking to build new alliances that could potentially radically disrupt heteronormative society. Secondly, I highlight how the social exclusionary practices toward people of color and non-normal bodies on Adam4Adam.com reifies whiteness and masculinity, which in turn, reifies heteronormativity. Here, I unmask how the structure of Adam4Adam.com, especially its filtering system, normalizes these discriminatory practices in users’ lives. Thirdly, I examine the role and meaning of HIV and sexual health in the lives of my informants. I incorporate the term “doing sexual responsibility” to show how my gay informants manage their anxiety-ridden lives when navigating their sexuality and sexual health. I also show how the gay men in this study engage in online foreplay as a pleasurable way to manage this anxiety and how trust and hegemonic masculinity are unintended consequences of this danger discourse on sexuality. As these men’s narratives and this thesis illustrate, society is still structured through heteronormative standards, but the Internet provides a new space for gay men to navigate their marginalized status in society.Item Gender dynamics in the parental household and their effects on the sexual behavior of Mexican youth(2010-05) Martinez Canizales, Georgina; Potter, Joseph E.; Hummer, Robert; Cavanagh, Shannon; Regnerus, Mark; Stolp, ChandlerGender norms shape our sexual experiences because they provide us with information about the appropriate behavior for men and women in social interactions (Allgeier and McCormick, 1983). Family is one of the places where we first learn about gender norms. Research on youth sexuality shows the importance of family on the sexuality of individuals through paths such as parent-child communication, parents‟ gender attitudes, parental surveillance, etc. However, less is known about other practices in the family, such as gender dynamics, or gender role practices, that could also affect the sexuality of young individuals. The aim of this dissertation is to analyze whether the sexual division of decision-making power and labor (gender dynamics) in which vii youngsters were raised, have any effect on their age at sexual debut, and their use of condoms as a contraceptive method. The source of information is the National Survey of Youth 2000 for Mexico. A discrete time hazard model is used in the analysis of age at sexual debut and a logistic regression was performed to analyze condom use. Results show that egalitarian gender dynamics have effects that differ by socioeconomic status and gender. The most remarkable findings are that shared decision-making power decreases the likelihood of an early sexual debut among girls with low socioeconomic status, and increases the likelihood of condom use among girls with high socioeconomic status.Item Genital power : female sexuality in West African literature and film(2011-05) Diabate, Naminata; Moore, Lisa L. (Lisa Lynne); Hoad, Neville Wallace, 1966-This dissertation calls attention to three important contemporary texts from West Africa that resist the tacit cultural taboo around questions of sexuality to imagine empowering images of female sexuality. Using postcolonial feminist approaches, queer theory, and cultural studies, I analyze two novels and a film by T. Obinkaram Echewa, Frieda Ekotto, and film director Jean Pierre Bekolo to retrieve moments in which women characters turn the tables on denigrating views of their sexuality and marshal its power in the service of resistance. I show how in these texts, women bare their nether parts, wield menstrual cloths, enjoy same-sex erotic acts, sit on men's faces, and engage in many other stigmatized practices in a display of what I call "genital powers." These powers are both traditional to the cultures analyzed here and called into new forms by the pressures of decolonization and globalization. Through more complex representations of female sexuality, these texts chart a tradition in which stale binaries of victims and oppressors, the body as an exclusive site of female subjugation or as a site of eternal female power are blurred, allowing a deeper understanding of women's lived experiences and what it means to be a resisting subject in the postcolonial space. By broadly recovering women's powers and subjectivities, centering on sexuality and the body, I also examine the ways in which this mode of female subjectivity has thus far escaped comprehensive theorization. In this way, my project responds to Gayatri Spivak's call to postcolonial intellectuals to unlearn privileged forms of resistance in the recognition of subjectivity, and to develop tools that would allow us to "listen" to the voices of disenfranchised women - those removed from the channels of knowledge production. However, my study cautions that the recognition of genital powers should not be conflated with the romanticized celebration of female bodies and sexuality, since West African women continue to struggle against cultural, political, existential, and physical assaults.Item Girls' voices and social policy : an examination of the effect of social policy on girls' sexuality(2007-08) Niskala, Judith A.; Kearney, MaryThis thesis analyzes the effect social policy has on girls' sexuality, examining three policies in-depth that target adolescent sexuality: age-of-consent laws, parental notification and/or consent laws and sexual education policies. The analysis focuses on what affect these policies have on the adolescent female as she attempts to develop a healthy notion of her sexuality and gender. In order to determine how these policies construct sexuality and girlhood and how girls' react to these policies, this thesis includes an in-depth policy analysis looking at the history of the policy and the current language and effect. Discussion boards on which girls discuss sexuality and/or social policy are used throughout the analysis as a way to integrate the girls' reactions to sex-based social policies that are designed to "protect" them. Overall the research reveals that these particular policies promote normative gender stereotypes that influence the development of girls' sexuality. Further, girls express frustration with these types of social policies that define and control their sexuality differently than girls identify their own sexuality.Item "Hazme un guagüis" : the politics of relajo, humor, gender and sexuality in teatro de revista, teatro de carpa, and cabaret político in Mexico City(2016-05) Sotelo-Miller, Sandra Edith; Domínguez-Ruvalcaba, Héctor, 1962-; Borge, Jason; Gutiérrez, Laura G.; Lindstrom, Naomi; Moore, LorraineThis dissertation focuses on how teatro de revista, teatro de carpa, and later cabaret político provide an outlet where humor and the politics of class, gender, and sexuality intersect, creating powerful, cultural sites of resistance in past and present day Mexico. More specifically, this study argues that teatro de revista and teatro de carpa, two theater genres developed in the first three decades of the twentieth century in Mexico City, created the foundation and tools for political and social criticism which were later appropriated and redefined by political cabaret theater artists in the 1980s and 1990s. Through close-readings and analysis of various performances and the work of Tito Vasconcelos and Jesusa Rodriguez, this study explores a festive dissidence that emerged in Mexico City where the stage became a space in which collective spheres of irreverence and criticism were and continue to be created. By exploring the performance styles and tools developed in these theatrical genres a window is opened into the critical nature of frivolous theater that has also opened avenues for resistance and defiance through irreverence. In a country where political criticism has often been violently punished, especially during periods of political and social crisis, critical sites like those created in teatro de revista, teatro de carpa, and political cabaret theater play a key role in building collective spaces of dissidence.
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