Gender Theory

Just Because I'm a "Real" Woman: Renegotiating Place and Past in Country Music's Autobiographical Narratives.

by Alex Morrison

Le retour de la Mère-Folle: Une politique festive et genrer

by Philip Whalen

Durant l’entre-deux-guerres, les dirigeants politiques français cherchèrent de nouvelles façons de combiner les... more Durant l’entre-deux-guerres, les dirigeants politiques français cherchèrent de nouvelles façons de combiner les efforts de modernisation avec les traditions culturelles régionales existantes. Ainsi, les traditions folkloriques et les festivals vinrent au secours d’une histoire nationale dénigrée. En Bourgogne en particulier, les dirigeants surent tirer profit des pratiques et des motifs de carnaval afin d’obtenir une large participation à un projet de modernisation régionale approuvé. À Dijon, même si le carnaval de la Mère-Folle fut organisés par des intérêts politiques, sociaux, commerciaux et culturels visiblement opposés, ils atteignirent un même but : créer un esprit de fierté et d’unité municipale tout en écartant la possibilité de l’émancipation les femmes.

Sex Differences in Cooperation: A Meta-analytic Review of Social Dilemmas

by Daniel Balliet

Balliet, D., Li, N. P., Macfarlan, S. J., & Van Vugt, M. (in press). Sex differences in cooperation: A meta-analysis of social dilemmas. Psychological Bulletin.

Although it is commonly believed that women are kinder and more cooperative than men, there is conflicting evidence... more Although it is commonly believed that women are kinder and more cooperative than men, there is conflicting evidence for this assertion. Current theories of sex differences in social behavior suggest that it may be useful to examine in what situations men and women are likely to differ in cooperation. Here we derive predictions from both sociocultural and evolutionary perspectives on context-specific sex differences in cooperation and conduct a unique meta-analytic study of 272 effect sizes -- sampled across 50 years of research -- on social dilemmas to examine several potential moderators. The overall average effect size is not statistically different from zero (d = -.05), suggesting that men and women do not differ in their overall amounts of cooperation. However, the association between sex and cooperation is moderated by several key features of the social context: Male-male interactions are more cooperative than female-female interactions (d = .16) yet women cooperate more than men in mixed-sex interactions (d = -.22). In repeated interactions men are more cooperative than women. Women were more cooperative than men in larger groups and in more recent studies, but these differences dissappeared after statistically controlling for several study characteristics. We discuss these results in the context of both sociocultural and evolutionary theories of sex differences, stress the need for an integrated biosocial approach, and outline directions for future research.

Ambivalences of art: Nuance, contradiction, and duality in the words and works of women in contemporary ceramics

by Courtney Weida

2008 dissertation at Columbia University Teachers College.

In this dissertation I examine gendered experiences and artistic identities of 21 women who are contemporary ceramic... more In this dissertation I examine gendered experiences and artistic identities of 21 women who are contemporary ceramic artists. Literature reviewed for this study addresses the history of female ceramic artists in the U.S., gender studies and art history, and a range of related subjects within cultural studies and ceramic archaeology. This study utilizes an interpretive lens of ambivalence. By definition, the concept of ambivalence characterizes the nuance, contradiction, tension, and duality associated with women’s works and women’s lives. This dissertation, then, analyzes ambivalence within contemporary artistic experiences of gender (e.g. being treated in a particular way as a woman artist) as well as artistic responses relating to gender (e.g. creating artwork in response to or dialogue with gender issues) via interviews with research subjects.
This study is qualitative, involving two stages of interviews with research subjects and analysis of their artworks. This study is influenced by a range of feminist research methodology, and utilizes portraiture methodology, an arts research method emphasizing careful documentation in research and co-construction of the research text in collaboration with subjects. This study identifies ambivalence within artistic, literary and verbal documents of contemporary women ceramic artists. The depth of artistic experience and identity illuminated by this research has rich implications for gender studies and art education. Some relevant findings to be taken into account within the teaching of ceramics and the study of its history include subtle and unexpected persistence of gendered associations with technology, gendered symbols and traditions of ceramics, and a diversity of gendered learning experiences. This research prioritizes women’s work in ceramics as a neglected set of views, and argues that an ambivalent view of art allows us to move beyond the dualities of maleness and femaleness to multiplicities within a continuum of gendered experiences and practices in ceramics.

Queering the Family: fantasy and the performance of sexuality and gay relations in French cinema 1995-2000

by Kate Ince

This paper looks in detail at the representation of sexuality in the family in three films of the mid to late 1990s,... more This paper looks in detail at the representation of sexuality in the family in three films of the mid to late 1990s, Balasko’s Gazon maudit, Berliner’s Ma Vie en rose, and Giusti’s Pourquoi pas moi? Its double focus is the changing structure of the French family at the end of the twentieth century, considered against key political developments such as the pacte civil de solidarité (PaCS) of November 1999, and the cinematic fantasies in which these structural changes are envisioned. Fable, fantasy or anti-realism mark the endings of Gazon maudit and Pourquoi pas moi?, while sequences of childhood fantasy punctuate the entire length of Ma Vie en rose. No particular theoretical approach to fantasy is preferred, but the conclusion of the paper is that cinema may be a privileged cultural vehicle for politically enabling fantasy, and that the three films discussed demonstrate this where the French family is concerned.

Geoffrey Chaucer: Feminist Or Not?

by Michael Carosone

Another Side of Clare Savage’s Identity Crisis: A Queer Theoretical Analysis of Michelle Cliff’s Abeng

by Michael Carosone

Camping with the Stars: Queer Perfomativity, Pop Intertextuality, and Camp in the Pop Art of Lady Gaga

by Katrin Horn

'Sainted Ladies and Wicked Harlots': Perceptions of Gender in Medieval Cyprus

by Ioanna Christoforaki

published in Diane R. Bolger & Nancy J. Serwint (eds.), Engendering Aphrodite: Women and Society in Ancient Cyprus. Proceedings of an International Conference held at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, Nicosia, March 19-23, 1998 (CAARI Monographs 3— American Schools of Oriental Research Archaeological Reports 7, Boston, M.A., 2002), 157-168.

Longing For Recognition: Reading the Economies of Masculinity and Mourning in Sahar Khalifeh's Wild Thorns

by Nancy Van Styvendale

In Masculinity in Middle Eastern Literature and Film. Ed. Lahoucine Ouzgane. New York & London: Routledge, 2008. 59-85.