Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection

My thesis, titled Female Agency in the Canterbury Tales and Telling Tales, compares Geoffrey Chaucer’s fourteenth century work and Patience Agbabi’s modern adaptation in regards to their portrayal of female agency. While each work contained a whole selection of tales, I focus on four tales, which were The Miller’s Tale, The Clerk’s Tale, The Physician’s Tale, and The Wife of Bath’s Tale. I also include relevant historical information to support and assist in the analysis of the literary texts, and secondary sources were also used supplementarily to enhance the analysis. I argue that female agency is irrationally believed to be dangerous, and the consequent attempts at protection manifest as limitations, which are themselves damaging. The paper is divided into two main sections, which are themselves separated into three smaller categories. The first of the two main sections concerns what actions and options are available to women influenced by a distinction of gender; this section is divided into female gender ideals, marriage, and occupation. The second of the two main sections addresses the entities or individuals enacting the limitations upon female agency, and its three subsections are society, men, and women. I ultimately conclude that not only is it irrational to believe that female agency is dangerous, but also that making gender-based judgment on the capacity of a group of people or an individual is inherently flawed.

The Women’s National Basketball Association was founded 27 years ago. Since its inception, the WNBA has played the same game as the NBA with only slightly different rules: a slightly smaller basketball, shorter quarters, and a slightly closer three-point line. However, it has not seen the growth and support the NBA received 25 years into its founding. Studies have proven that the WNBA, and women's basketball in general, is undersold and undervalued. Not only this, but a growing body of research has shown that women in sport receive far more harassment than male athletes do. The studies all trace these discrepancies back to deep-rooted patriarchal and misogynistic ideas baked into society, and often seen most explicitly in sport. However, the patriarchy and misogyny that women basketball players receive is varied due to the complex intersection of gender, race, and sexuality. Therefore, previous studies on women’s basketball have examined only one or a few ways that players are hurt or hindered by patriarchy and misogyny. Patriarchy is a system of social structures and practices, in which men govern, oppress, and exploit women. Misogyny is defined as hatred towards women. This paper instead synthesizes previous studies, research, and experiences by women’s basketball players to give an overview of the complex web of prejudice and sexism women basketball players face. For instance, this paper pulls from a study on football fandom in the United Kingdom as well the Kaplan Hecker and Fink Gender Equity Review in order to highlight how abundant misogynistic tropes are across all sports. However, this paper will not give a detailed and comprehensive view into every aspect of this web. Instead, it will provide a general overview of how societal norms, rooted in patriarchy and misogyny, influence people’s views and treatment of women in sport. Specifically, the paper will pull from previous studies and articles to detail how women basketball player’s media coverage, salaries, physical health, mental well-being, race, sexuality, and participation in sports are all interconnected and harmed by oppressive gender norms that are reinforced by society. The sweeping effect has been to stifle and stymy the potential growth and embrace of women's sports.