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Title: Liberation of women: Sexual repression and the family.
Creator: Limpus, Laurel
Date Issued: 196-?
Identifier: 1927394, CFDT1927394, ucf:4825
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FCLA/DT/1927394

Title: #BECAUSE I SHAVE MY ARMPITS...": A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF #WOMENAGAINSTFEMINISM ON TWITTER.
Creator: Brandman, Marina, Donley, Amy, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Because of the speed and convenience of Twitter, it has become one of the most widely utilized platforms for breaking news and is often used to raise awareness of current social issues, political happenings, and social injustices. As more women use Twitter and other social media to embrace the feminist label online, an array of criticism has come to surface. A new movement, #WomenAgainstFeminism, has become popular with Twitter users who reject feminism ideals and the feminism label. Research...
Show moreBecause of the speed and convenience of Twitter, it has become one of the most widely utilized platforms for breaking news and is often used to raise awareness of current social issues, political happenings, and social injustices. As more women use Twitter and other social media to embrace the feminist label online, an array of criticism has come to surface. A new movement, #WomenAgainstFeminism, has become popular with Twitter users who reject feminism ideals and the feminism label. Research has been done examining the presence of online feminism, "hashtag feminism," and online activism in general. Currently, there is no research analyzing the online reaction to feminism, #WomenAgainstFeminism. The purpose of this study is to analyze tweets containing #WomenAgainstFeminism to identify the salient reasons for rejecting feminism, stereotypes associated with feminism, and characteristics associated with feminists. This study broadens the current literature that analyzes attitudes towards feminism, stereotypes of feminists, and feminist identification. This study also adds to the growing body of literature that appreciates the impact Twitter and other social media networks have on members of society and social movements. This study differs from previous research because it focuses on the common stereotypes and characteristics associated with feminism that are prevalent in a social media campaign created to refute feminism.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFH0004828, ucf:45475
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004828

Title: I Have Questions.
Creator: Matejowsky, Lorena, Thaxton, Terry, Stap, Donald, Uttich, Laurie, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The poems in this thesis explore mid-life feminism, family, mental illness via anxiety and panic, identities of southern girlhood/womanhood, and the challenges of a social media saturated life. Mothering plays a large part in many of these poems, both embracing it and confronting gendered expectations about it. Telling the truth is explored through poems about white women's complicity in racist systems in the southern United States and how being quiet about it benefits us. Fear and the myriad...
Show moreThe poems in this thesis explore mid-life feminism, family, mental illness via anxiety and panic, identities of southern girlhood/womanhood, and the challenges of a social media saturated life. Mothering plays a large part in many of these poems, both embracing it and confronting gendered expectations about it. Telling the truth is explored through poems about white women's complicity in racist systems in the southern United States and how being quiet about it benefits us. Fear and the myriad ways it has manifested in my life is a common thread in this work, especially the fears that accompanied white girls growing up in the Southern U.S. during a time of shifting societal roles and cultural values. The speaker in these poems both deny and celebrate the cultural, political, and environmental influences that shaped her early years. As a feminist poet in mid-life with a teenaged daughter and a teen and pre-teen son, I have a tenuous relationship with the influence of mass media. Controlling screen-time for my children and monitoring my own intake of news, braggadocio and ex-boyfriends on social media is a constant, anxiety laden burden. I am more comfortable in a world that does not always revisit itself. I have spent years trying to erase the effects of Texas big hair, provocative clothing, alcohol, and sexually explicit music, video and advertising on my life. Other times I yearn for an escape back. Poetry challenges me to look backward with bravery. These poems reflect the forces of memory and modernism that both limit and liberate modern women. In Trump's America where women are demeaned and silenced through populist rhetoric and legislation, it is more important than ever to magnify female, truth-telling voices and this collection is intended to contribute to positive change.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFE0007499, ucf:52652
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007499

Title: Women, Work, and Time: Food work politics of self defined healthy men.
Creator: Barredo, Juan, Carter, Shannon, Anthony, Amanda, Grauerholz, Liz, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This study examined the way gender operates in relation to time within the food work spectrum discussed in 19 narratives. The 19 narratives came from individual open ended face-to-face interviews with self-defined healthy men who shop at healthy food stores. This study's examination of how gender operates in the narratives was based on how the men constructed their experiences with women and work in relation to time through the food work spectrum. Women mentioned in the sampled narratives...
Show moreThis study examined the way gender operates in relation to time within the food work spectrum discussed in 19 narratives. The 19 narratives came from individual open ended face-to-face interviews with self-defined healthy men who shop at healthy food stores. This study's examination of how gender operates in the narratives was based on how the men constructed their experiences with women and work in relation to time through the food work spectrum. Women mentioned in the sampled narratives taught the men how to shop and eat in a healthy manner but women still did the cooking. Work wise the findings split the men into two groups, the majority were the men who did not eat at work and the minority were the ones who did. Both of these sets of findings illuminate that how the men constructed their experiences of the food work spectrum depended on gendered relations of power.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005922, ucf:50834
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005922

Title: THE EFFECTS OF EXPOSURE TO FEMINIST IDEOLOGY ON WOMEN'S BODY IMAGE.
Creator: Peterson, Rachel, Dunn, Stacey, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Body image disturbance has become an increasing problem among women (Cash & Henry, 1995). Thus researchers have begun to focus on methods of prevention and intervention. Programs utilizing psychoeducation and Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, for example, have been found to reduce body image dissatisfaction and related symptomatology. The information provided and potential impact are limited, however, because the interventions do not offer women an adaptive method of interpreting the...
Show moreBody image disturbance has become an increasing problem among women (Cash & Henry, 1995). Thus researchers have begun to focus on methods of prevention and intervention. Programs utilizing psychoeducation and Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, for example, have been found to reduce body image dissatisfaction and related symptomatology. The information provided and potential impact are limited, however, because the interventions do not offer women an adaptive method of interpreting the many appearance-related messages they experience. This study sought to determine if exposure to feminist theory of body image may act as a buffer – a filter through which cultural messages about thinness and beauty are challenged. This feminist schema may provide an alternative interpretation of cultural messages, thereby increasing body image satisfaction. Participants were exposed to one of three interventions (feminist, psychoeducational, control). Exposure to the feminist condition resulted in increased physical appearance satisfaction and likelihood to self-identify as a feminist when compared with the control group. While findings were not extensive, they are nonetheless promising due to the brevity of the intervention.
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Date Issued: 2005
Identifier: CFE0000467, ucf:46374
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000467

Title: Gender Performance in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
Creator: Lee, Amanda, Listengarten, Julia, Snyder, Tara, Ingram, Kate, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Cross-dressing is a recurrent theme in Shakespeare's comedies, and the theatrical trend of gender bending casting has added an extra layer of complexity to performing his work. How does the gender of the actor affect the performance of a role in Shakespeare? How does it affect the perception of the role, and how can an actor utilize that perception to connect more fully with the audience? How does the female perspective illuminate hitherto unexplored elements of Shakespeare's text and...
Show moreCross-dressing is a recurrent theme in Shakespeare's comedies, and the theatrical trend of gender bending casting has added an extra layer of complexity to performing his work. How does the gender of the actor affect the performance of a role in Shakespeare? How does it affect the perception of the role, and how can an actor utilize that perception to connect more fully with the audience? How does the female perspective illuminate hitherto unexplored elements of Shakespeare's text and characters? I was inspired by Orlando Shakes' all male production of Twelfth Night to research gender theory in relation to classical texts. I was largely inspired by Judith Butler's theories of gender performance, and herein use feminist and gender theory as a lens to view Shakespeare's work. I put on my own production of an All-Female Twelfth Night in which I played Viola. This thesis is an exploration of my process as a scholar, actor, and activist in the context of that production. It follows the journey from page to praxis, as I attempt to apply academic theories to live theatre. It is my intent that this will serve as a possible roadmap for future gender bending in Shakespeare productions, and to empower female theatre makers in that process.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFE0007484, ucf:52660
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007484

Title: At the Intersection of Feminism and Fast Capitalism: A Study of Women's Literacies During a Time of Change.
Creator: Gauss, Melanie, Rounsaville, Angela, Roozen, Kevin, Hall, Mark, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: ABSTRACTResearch in socio-historical studies of literacy have focused on the social and historical aspects of literacy. While these prior studies have illuminated how we think about the social and historical context surrounding literacy, we have not studied women's literacies in relation to the economy as much. In response, this study focuses particularly on women's literacies during a specific time period, that of the 1960s to the 1990s, which ushered in second wave feminism's fight for...
Show moreABSTRACTResearch in socio-historical studies of literacy have focused on the social and historical aspects of literacy. While these prior studies have illuminated how we think about the social and historical context surrounding literacy, we have not studied women's literacies in relation to the economy as much. In response, this study focuses particularly on women's literacies during a specific time period, that of the 1960s to the 1990s, which ushered in second wave feminism's fight for equality in the workplace and the change from traditional capitalism to (")fast(") or (")new(") capitalism. To develop this inquiry, and find out about women's literacies during this historic intersection, I drew from Brandt and Berteaux's life history interview method paired with Charmaz's grounded theory to conduct literacy history interviews with seven women of varying occupations. All the participants started their working lives between 1960 and 1966 and continued to work at least through the 1990s. Findings show that women used their literacies to document in our society, which demanded increasing documentation, in order to get and keep positions of authority. Some women used a keen sense of audience awareness and ethos to gain the authority to write their own work beyond documentation. These women are the boundary breakers who succeeded in occupations previously dominated by men. The participants' literacies are complicated, however, and it was interesting to find that their education levels did not always match their economic levels. Two of the participants achieved upper echelon positions and earned more than most of the others despite not having degrees. Graff's, (")The Literacy Myth("), helps explain this paradox, but my research adds an additional contour to his theory by looking at how women used literacies gathered from various sources to gain authority in a documentary workplace. While researchers like Brandt and Graff have done global literacy studies, this study hones in on the complications and particularities of women's literacies during the convergence of two socio-historic trends, feminism and fast capitalism. This study highlights how women used their literacies in a documentary society to gain authority in the workplace. This research also sheds light on the part literacy played in women's ability to succeed in professions previously dominated by men. Understanding the results of this study could help us better understand the paradoxes of women's literacies and work as well as how women have managed these paradoxes when possible. Most importantly, this research sheds light on literacies in our fast capitalist, documentary society, which is a defining feature of our contemporary moment.
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Date Issued: 2016
Identifier: CFE0006308, ucf:51583
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006308

Title: Millennials Making Meanings: Social Constructions of Sexual Harassment regarding Gender and Power by Generation Y.
Creator: Stark, Nicole, Grauerholz, Liz, Carter, Shannon, Anthony, Amanda, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The term sexual harassment was brought to light by legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon during the second wave feminist movement in the 1970s, and has since changed in its meaning over the past four decades, influencing policy, legal action, and the way we, as a society, treat this social problem. Millennials, or those born between 1980 and 2000, will be the next generation of working adults that will influence the way sexual harassment is understood and defined both legally and socially. The...
Show moreThe term sexual harassment was brought to light by legal scholar Catharine MacKinnon during the second wave feminist movement in the 1970s, and has since changed in its meaning over the past four decades, influencing policy, legal action, and the way we, as a society, treat this social problem. Millennials, or those born between 1980 and 2000, will be the next generation of working adults that will influence the way sexual harassment is understood and defined both legally and socially. The Millennial generation is typically considered liberal and socially conscious, prompting the research question of (")How do Millennials socially construct sexual harassment in terms of gender and power?(") Eighteen semi-structured interviews with adult Millennials up to age 33 were conducted. Analysis was informed by feminist theory, social constructionism, and critical race theory. Results showed while Millennials are quick to speak about inclusion of men as targets of sexual harassment, they did so at the cost of frankly discussing that women are targeted more often than men. Combined with the ability to discuss individual causes of sexual harassment compared to the structural, this led to my findings of(")gender-blind(") sexual harassment attitudes describing postfeminist beliefs among Millennials.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005719, ucf:50139
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005719

Title: CRITICAL WHITE FEMINISM: INTERROGATING PRIVILEGE, WHITENESS, AND ANTIRACISM IN FEMINIST THEORY.
Creator: McFadden, Caroline, Vest, Jennifer, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: It is vital that feminist theory and critical white studies be combined in order to form what I call critical white feminism. Both critical white studies and feminist studies are often limited in their ability to adequately address the complex interconnectivity of racial and gender privilege and oppression. In general, feminist scholarship produced by white feminists excludes and oppresses women of color and is therefore inadequate. I refer to this problem as white feminist racism and argue...
Show moreIt is vital that feminist theory and critical white studies be combined in order to form what I call critical white feminism. Both critical white studies and feminist studies are often limited in their ability to adequately address the complex interconnectivity of racial and gender privilege and oppression. In general, feminist scholarship produced by white feminists excludes and oppresses women of color and is therefore inadequate. I refer to this problem as white feminist racism and argue that white feminists are ignorant of the ways in which whiteness and privilege facilitate problematic theorizing. Unlike white feminist theories, the emerging field of critical white studies provides a foundation for exploring whiteness in a racist society. However, critical white theories often examine racism and whiteness without attention to gender, and are therefore inadequate, as well. Consequently, another approach is necessary for the development of liberatory theories that sufficiently conceptualize social change. As a solution to the limitations of both feminist studies and critical white studies, I propose critical white feminism, which encourages white feminists to interrogate whiteness and privilege. The purpose of critical white feminism is to a) conceptualize an inclusive and transformative antiracist feminist framework and agenda, b) challenge white feminist racism and white feminist hegemony, c) encourage open and honest communication between feminists across differences, and d) facilitate feminist solidarity and mobilization.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFH0003864, ucf:44708
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0003864

Title: BLACK FEMINIST ARTICULATIONS OF RACE AND GENDER WITHIN THE HORROR FILM GENRE.
Creator: Ortiz, Katherine M, Danker, Elizabeth, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The intent of this paper is to explore a black feminist perspective within the film horror genre. A black feminist perspective investigates how black women are portrayed within cinematic horror. It serves as a method to further articulate the particularities of race and gender within cinema. If we leave the cinematic space without a structural model of intervention, then we are left with film that remains unchallenged for ostracizing black women. The paper argues that black women become...
Show moreThe intent of this paper is to explore a black feminist perspective within the film horror genre. A black feminist perspective investigates how black women are portrayed within cinematic horror. It serves as a method to further articulate the particularities of race and gender within cinema. If we leave the cinematic space without a structural model of intervention, then we are left with film that remains unchallenged for ostracizing black women. The paper argues that black women become articulated through themes of motherhood, death, and sexuality.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFH2000505, ucf:45682
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000505

Title: WOMEN AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN.
Creator: Nabut, Hanady, Sadri, Houman, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The idea of women's economic empowerment in the developing world has been growing in momentum throughout the past decades. Today, it is a force that is dramatically redefining the concept of economic development and transforming the economic and political landscape of the Middle East. Women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are finding innovative ways to participate in the labor market. As a result, they are becoming agents of change in their political, economic, and social...
Show moreThe idea of women's economic empowerment in the developing world has been growing in momentum throughout the past decades. Today, it is a force that is dramatically redefining the concept of economic development and transforming the economic and political landscape of the Middle East. Women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are finding innovative ways to participate in the labor market. As a result, they are becoming agents of change in their political, economic, and social environments. However, despite the tremendous amount of growth that has realized throughout the years, women in MENA face significant hurdles to realize their potential. This study will highlight the social, political, and economic developments that have taken place within the last decade, and describe how they have improved, or worsened economic conditions for women in the region. It will also describe the issues associated with previous developments, and their missing dimensions. The analysis will provide case studies to compare levels of women's empowerment in Jordan and Palestine. The concept of women's economic empowerment will be analyzed through a multidisciplinary lens in which factors such as religion, ideology, culture, politics, and economics are merged to understand the foundation of the problems facing women in MENA. The study will emphasize the importance of a sociocultural base in the analysis of women's labor force participation rates. These factors will also be analyzed from various levels of analysis: individual, state, and global.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFH0004683, ucf:45242
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004683

Title: WOMEN, WORK AND WELFARE: A CASE STUDY OF GERMANY, THE UK, AND SWEDEN.
Creator: Legg, Meredith, Hamann, Kerstin, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This thesis examines how different welfare state regimes affect gender relations by examining variations in welfare regimes and outcomes for women between Western European countries. The research seeks to understand how the diverse systems of social provision affect women: particularly with regard to their position in the labor market and in their ability to balance occupational and domestic work. Using a comparative, qualitative approach, I compare three Western European welfare states ...
Show moreThis thesis examines how different welfare state regimes affect gender relations by examining variations in welfare regimes and outcomes for women between Western European countries. The research seeks to understand how the diverse systems of social provision affect women: particularly with regard to their position in the labor market and in their ability to balance occupational and domestic work. Using a comparative, qualitative approach, I compare three Western European welfare states (Germany, the United Kingdom, and Sweden) to evaluate gender-relevant welfare policy with female employment rates, unemployment rates, and wage differentials. Welfare states and labor market policies affect outcomes for women because these policies influence and structure womenÃ‚Â's ability to enter paid labor and at the same time perform the majority of household labor and care work. To study the effect of welfare state variations upon women, I argue that a gender-focused model of welfare states is necessary. I borrow from Diane SainsburyÃ‚Â's (1996) framework establishing two contrasting ideal-types and combine this with Pascal and LewisÃ‚Â' (2004) gender equality model. Using this framework, I will assess whether my case studies vary around specific gender dimensions of variation including bases of entitlement, maternal and parental leave, pension, and the organization of care work. Preliminary findings align Germany and the United Kingdom with a male breadwinner gender model and Sweden with a dual-earner dual-carer model, although recent policy reforms in Germany and the United Kingdom oriented toward a Scandinavian welfare model may affect future gender outcomes. My research question hopes to uncover how welfare regimes and specific gender-relevant policies support or ignore womenÃ‚Â's labor force participation by reconciling work and home for women through an evaluation of gender-relevant outcomes for women. Systematically looking at the structure of welfare state provision and outcomes through a gender-relevant framework enhances our knowledge of the ways in which the varieties of gender regimes accommodate or perpetuate womenÃ‚Â's inequality in democracies.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0002974, ucf:47946
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002974

Title: Reproductive Rights and Justice Advocacy in Central Florida: Who is Represented?.
Creator: Hager, Mary, Mishtal, Joanna, Harris, Shana, Reyes-Foster, Beatriz, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This thesis examines the racial understanding and social relationships of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida staff and volunteers. As well, this research explores how Planned Parenthood supporters organize and promote diverse advocacy work to promote reproductive justice in social media and volunteer education. Planned Parenthood has been at the forefront of reproductive rights campaigns for over a century, and their work has often tied into contemporary feminist and...
Show moreThis thesis examines the racial understanding and social relationships of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida staff and volunteers. As well, this research explores how Planned Parenthood supporters organize and promote diverse advocacy work to promote reproductive justice in social media and volunteer education. Planned Parenthood has been at the forefront of reproductive rights campaigns for over a century, and their work has often tied into contemporary feminist and political issues. Of note, feminists of color have called for a shift from advocacy for (")reproductive choice(") to (")reproductive justice(") as a way to identify the needs and predicaments of a wider range of women and to promote advocacy that is more representative of the population it aims to serve. Yet, how key non-governmental organizations such as Planned Parenthood engage with intersectional issues of ethnicity, race, sex, gender, and socioeconomic class in their advocacy work has been understudied. Using ethnographic methods of participant observation and semi-structured interviews, this research examines how volunteers and staff apply their understandings of racial disparities and inclusive advocacy efforts to better aid Central Florida's marginalized communities and communities of color. This project contributes to the greater call for policy and organizational analysis through applied anthropology and feminist studies in the United States and addresses how organizations balance the desires of their funders against the diverse needs of their patients.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: CFE0007011, ucf:52048
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007011

Title: FEMINIST, LINGUISTIC, AND RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE REFORM.
Creator: Dorner, William, Young, Beth, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: As people become aware that society treats women unfairly, they also perceive related shortcomings in the way that Modern English references women. For example, many have objected to the so-called generic he, the third-person masculine pronoun employed to refer to a person of unknown gender, and provided several alternatives, few of which have been widely adopted. Nonetheless, change is evident in the case of they becoming an increasingly common solution to refer to a person of unidentified...
Show moreAs people become aware that society treats women unfairly, they also perceive related shortcomings in the way that Modern English references women. For example, many have objected to the so-called generic he, the third-person masculine pronoun employed to refer to a person of unknown gender, and provided several alternatives, few of which have been widely adopted. Nonetheless, change is evident in the case of they becoming an increasingly common solution to refer to a person of unidentified gender. The intentional reform of the Modern English language, both in the past and present, has been a result of peopleÃ‚Â's reactions to what is often perceived as a bias or a deficiency with what is possible to say given the words at their disposal. The rhetorical significance of reform is profound, and scholars continually broach the subject from the perspective of different disciplines. Explored here are the approaches of three of those fields, feminism, linguistics, and rhetoric; how each reacts to and even influences reform is an important part of the study. What is evident is that, regardless of the particular field, reform remains a force of change, even while it may not be broadly recognized. Further, traditional grammatical rules provide an insufficient means for tackling inequalities in Modern English, and are in part responsible for such imbalance. As such, writers must be aware of the present expectations of their audience and the situation of particular words.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0003007, ucf:48363
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003007

Title: The Branding, Creation, and Promotion of a Solo Comedienne.
Creator: McCorison, Anna, Snyder, Tara, Ingram, Kate, Niess, Christopher, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Comedy exists as a stronghold in American culture as a coping mechanism throughout history, but is often limited to the male headliner. From Charlie Chaplin to Jackie Gleason and Bill Cosby to Will Ferrell, men have kept us laughing from stages to screen throughout the last century. Thus, I inquire: who are the prominent women who rose to the top of this male-dominated industry and how did they create a brand for themselves that was distinguishable and celebrated? What is it about being a...
Show moreComedy exists as a stronghold in American culture as a coping mechanism throughout history, but is often limited to the male headliner. From Charlie Chaplin to Jackie Gleason and Bill Cosby to Will Ferrell, men have kept us laughing from stages to screen throughout the last century. Thus, I inquire: who are the prominent women who rose to the top of this male-dominated industry and how did they create a brand for themselves that was distinguishable and celebrated? What is it about being a woman in the last century that made making a name in comedic entertainment more cumbersome, and has this feat of female branding changed at all with the evolution of entertainment and social trends? With this graduate thesis, I wish to explore the comparative timeline between socio-economic history, feminism, and the growth of entertainment trends. Considering this history, I will examine five major comediennes: Carol Burnett, Lily Tomlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Chelsea Handler, and Colleen Ballinger and their journeys to create prominent female entertainment brands. From this contributing research I will create and perform a one-woman show entitled An Evening with Aunt Nona. Through the exploration of personal branding and marketing of my solo voice, I seek to provide an inspirational framework for the creation and branding of future solo comediennes.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005661, ucf:50181
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005661

Title: THE EDGE OF THINGS.
Creator: Koman, Robin, Hubbard, Susan, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: ABSTRACT The Edge of Things is what I like to call a love song to the dispossessed. Each of the eight stories in the collection is an examination of the lives of women who are exiled from modern American consumer culture, whether by circumstance or by choice. This separation brings them heartache, risk, and sometimes even hope. The collection is fueled by the landscape of Florida, observed at its most beautiful and most corrupted, from highways, landfills, and trailer parks to housing...
Show moreABSTRACT The Edge of Things is what I like to call a love song to the dispossessed. Each of the eight stories in the collection is an examination of the lives of women who are exiled from modern American consumer culture, whether by circumstance or by choice. This separation brings them heartache, risk, and sometimes even hope. The collection is fueled by the landscape of Florida, observed at its most beautiful and most corrupted, from highways, landfills, and trailer parks to housing developments, gardens, and secret forests. Setting is a constant source of revelation, the external landscape offering insight into the internal struggles of the characters. Regardless of age, race, or sexual orientation, the women of The Edge of Things find themselves moving toward, or just past, incredible changes in their lives. In "Seed of the Golden Mango", "Raising the Dead", and "The Girl Who Loved Bugs", young women deal with the loss of loved ones. The women of "Zyczenie", "It Cannot Hold", and "Wasp Honey" must deal with old losses in order to survive the realities of the outside world that they have long ignored. "The Edge of Things" and "The Secret Letters" both deal with love, and the consequences of an inability to communicate. In each of these tales I hope to present unforgettable characters, women whose journeys will haunt, reminding readers that on some level, the love song of the dispossessed calls to us all.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: CFE0002024, ucf:47615
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002024

Title: BEYOND POSTMODERN MARGINS: THEORIZING POSTFEMINIST CONSEQUENCES THROUGH POPULAR FEMALE REPRESENTATION.
Creator: Mosher, Victoria, Campbell, James, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: In 1988, Linda Nicholson and Nancy Fraser published an article entitled "Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter Between Feminism and Postmodernism," arguing that this essay would provide a jumping point for discussion between feminisms and postmodernisms within academia. Within this essay, Nicholson and Fraser largely disavow a number of second wave feminist theories due to their essentialist and foundationalist underpinnings in favor of a set of postmodernist frameworks that might...
Show moreIn 1988, Linda Nicholson and Nancy Fraser published an article entitled "Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter Between Feminism and Postmodernism," arguing that this essay would provide a jumping point for discussion between feminisms and postmodernisms within academia. Within this essay, Nicholson and Fraser largely disavow a number of second wave feminist theories due to their essentialist and foundationalist underpinnings in favor of a set of postmodernist frameworks that might help feminist theorists overcome these epistemological impediments. A "postmodern feminism," Nicholson and Fraser claim, would become "the theoretical counterpart of a broader, richer, more complex, and multilayered solidarity, the sort of solidarity which is essential for overcoming the oppression of women" (35). Interpreting "Social Criticism" through a feminist cultural studies model in which texts are understood to be simultaneously constituted by and reflective of their own sociopolitical spaces, I argue that the construction of Nicholson and Fraser's "postmodern feminism" is, first and foremost, neither a postmodernist critique nor a means of overcoming the pitfalls of essentialism and foundationalism. Instead, the construction of this theoretical paradigm can be shown to be complicit with postfeminist discourses, wherein an implicitly patriarchal discourse of postmodernism is called upon to repair the deficiencies of feminisms, deficiencies that postmodernisms, in some ways, helped to bring into view. To provide a conceptual backing for these claims, I move toward an examination of mass culture, surveying the similarities between "Social Criticism" and the film What Women Want. Such a comparison, I suggest, facilitates a better understanding of how "Social Criticism" can be shown to be imbedded in a postfeminist narrative structure in which feminisms are relegated to a discursively subordinate gendered position in relation to postmodernisms. Finally, in what I find to be the most important aspect of this thesis' inquiry, I ask what it means to build a "broader, richer, more complex, and multilayered solidarity" by disavowing second wave feminisms in favor of postmodernisms. I conclude that, in using postmodernisms as a panacea for feminist theories, Nicholson and Fraser curtail what might have been a rigorous interrogation of and direct engagement with second wave feminist theories that would also attend to the phallogocentric underpinnings of postmodern theories. To underline the potential consequences, I turn to a set of televisual and filmic texts including Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, and The Devil Wears Prada to gauge what their "postmodern feminism" might represent in practice rather than what it entails as philosophy. This juxtaposition of these two differently defined and yet overwhelmingly similar postmodern feminisms, I propose, underscores the potential that Nicholson and Fraser may have instituted a postmodern feminist methodology in which it is possible that feminisms might emerge not as discourses essential for "overcoming the oppression of women" but rather as discourses that can be critiqued into oblivion.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: CFE0002141, ucf:47518
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002141

Title: REFLECTIONS: A THEATRICAL JOURNEY INTO THE LIVES OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS.
Creator: Page, Leah, Boyd, Belinda, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Adolescence is a difficult time for young women. Their bodies are changing and they are being asked to conform to a new set of feminine standards if they are to be accepted (Pipher 39). Studies have found that girls experience a decrease in self-esteem during this time. They are less likely to speak their minds openly and honestly, which can lead to depression and a feeling of falseness. As young women attempt to comprehend this turbulent time in their lives, they often find strength through...
Show moreAdolescence is a difficult time for young women. Their bodies are changing and they are being asked to conform to a new set of feminine standards if they are to be accepted (Pipher 39). Studies have found that girls experience a decrease in self-esteem during this time. They are less likely to speak their minds openly and honestly, which can lead to depression and a feeling of falseness. As young women attempt to comprehend this turbulent time in their lives, they often find strength through positive relationships with others as well as from their own knowledge and self-awareness. Reflections is a one-woman show that investigates the current challenges associated with adolescence. The play uses short monologues as well as songs from musical theatre repertoire to tell the story of three separate and unique women. The protagonist of Reflections is an eleven-year-old girl whose personality and sense of self changes drastically during the course of the show. At the beginning of the show, she speaks her mind freely and openly and is unafraid to express her true feelings. When she discovers there are consequences to acting this way, she immediately alters her behavior to ensure her peers accept her. When she witnesses her sister's strength and becomes aware of her mother's intelligence, she realizes she no longer wants to act in ways that do not reflect her true feelings. Her sixteen-year-old sister wants so badly to be accepted that she has begun altering her appearance in dangerous ways in order to fit in. Their mother is struggling to comprehend how to raise two daughters in a culture that does little to support and nurture adolescent girls. Reflections: A Theatrical Look at the Lives of Adolescent Girls outlines each characters distinct journey, using research and analysis to support their stories. In the end it offers advice on how to prevent young women from losing their sense of self during adolescence. This part of the document will present a companion piece to the production in the form of a theatre workshop. This workshop will give young women the opportunity to explore important issues in a safe space. Participants will be able to express their thoughts and feelings without fear of retribution and can begin to investigate ways to challenge social forces that oppress them.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001746, ucf:47295
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001746

Title: POSTMODERN FEMINISM, HYPERTEXT, AND THE RHETORIC OF COOKING WEBSITES.
Creator: McGrane, Heather, Applen, J.D., University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This study explores the ways cookbooks and their rhetorical dimensions have been re-imagined using hypertext and Web technology. Using the tenets of postmodern feminist rhetoric and Web design theory, the study considers how commercial cooking hypertexts construct users' identities. Although hypertext is a potentially empowering technology, democratizing rhetoric and knowledge making practices, commercial hypertext often circumscribes agency formation and prohibits participation....
Show moreThis study explores the ways cookbooks and their rhetorical dimensions have been re-imagined using hypertext and Web technology. Using the tenets of postmodern feminist rhetoric and Web design theory, the study considers how commercial cooking hypertexts construct users' identities. Although hypertext is a potentially empowering technology, democratizing rhetoric and knowledge making practices, commercial hypertext often circumscribes agency formation and prohibits participation. Participatory, constructive hypertexts are difficult to design and costly to maintain. Of the three sites studied, Epicurious.com, BettyCrocker.com, and FoodNetwork.com, only Epicurious.com encourages meaningful communication between users and between users and designers. In many ways, Epicurious.com conceives of its users as active agents. Most of its content celebrates many knowledge making practices traditionally considered feminine and embodied. In contrast, BettyCrocker.com and FoodNetwork.com rely on closed, proprietary systems designs to maintain their authority. Users have little opportunity to participate as active agents. In small ways, however, users can begin to deconstruct the hypertexts, to resist the standards and strictures of expertly created recipes by reporting variations and opinions. The features that most reflect the tenets of a constructive feminist hypertext make possible some small movements toward agency.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001855, ucf:47369
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001855

Title: ESTHER REED'S POLITICAL SENTIMENTS AND RHETORIC DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
Creator: Harkins, Kennedy, Kamrath, Mark, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: In 1780, during the final leg of the American Revolutionary War, Esther Reed penned the broadside "Sentiments of an American Woman." It circulated in Philadelphia, persuading citizens to turn over their last dollars to the cause. Reed's broadside called to action the women of Philadelphia; they knocked on doors, campaigned with words, and stepped firmly into the "man's world" of politics and revolution. Reed's words were so effective that women in cities across the colonies took to raising...
Show moreIn 1780, during the final leg of the American Revolutionary War, Esther Reed penned the broadside "Sentiments of an American Woman." It circulated in Philadelphia, persuading citizens to turn over their last dollars to the cause. Reed's broadside called to action the women of Philadelphia; they knocked on doors, campaigned with words, and stepped firmly into the "man's world" of politics and revolution. Reed's words were so effective that women in cities across the colonies took to raising money as well. Using New Historicist and feminist reading strategies, this study compares and contrasts Reed's rhetoric to Thomas Paine's Common Sense, another revolutionary propaganda piece of the era. I argue that the two pieces differ in key aspects due to Paine's existence in the public sphere and Reed's in the private. From her position in the private sphere, Reed was able to produce a provocative piece of rhetoric that stands out against other female literature at the time.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: CFH2000323, ucf:45712
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000323

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