ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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Description
This dissertation considers how adolescent identity is constructed and represented in commercial musical theatre for youth (e.g. Broadway and Disney Theatrical Group) by examining two commercial productions with adolescents in lead roles--Spring Awakening and Disney's High School Musical. My theoretical framework is intersectionality which creates a foundation for my research within the field of childhood studies, gender studies, and performance studies to illuminate current US American trends in youth oriented art and research. My framework extends into a case study methodology exploring the world of childhood and youth sexuality through a close read of the popular Broadway musical adaptation, Spring Awakening. In addition, a second investigation chronicles the world of Disney's High School Musical through my own intersectional tool, the Disney Industrial Complex. I claim that adolescence, as a constructed identity, exists as a multi-faceted intersectional category composed of multiple and conflicting intersections such as gender, race, sex, ethnicity, and so on. These intersections develop over the course of the period known as "adolescence" and "youth." The goal of this dissertation is to serve as a reference for other theatre educators and their work with young people creating art.
ContributorsBliznik, Sean J (Author) / Etheridge-Woodson, Stephani (Thesis advisor) / Saldana, Johnny (Committee member) / Adelman, Madelaine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
ABSTRACT
This interdisciplinary study examines the linguistic strategies that determine perception of female representation in Peruvian feminist narrative during the late XIX century. It uses as reference narratives that are considered representatives of the literary tendencies of Latin América feminine trajectory. The feminine subject was studied in two novels of Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera: Los amores de Hortensia (1886) and Blanca Sol (1889). The novels were selected with the aim of capturing the evolution and the development of the female characters as self-realizing subjects.
The theoretical framework is led by the speech act philosophy of John Austin, John Searle, and Victoria Escandell Vidal. The feminist literary theory is guided by the feminist principle of Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva that relates to the development of female subjectivity; by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, and Virginia Woolf that reveals the dynamics of women’s creativity.
Through a close analysis of the speech acts, the research demonstrates that the female characters used their tactics to complain and request on their attempts to uproot the hegemonic normative social structures. The speech acts are presented as key instrument for a better understanding of the complex mechanisms of language, through which the feminist ideology of the nineteenth century is transmitted and reproduced. Within feminist theory the purpose is to show how the performative nature of language can be applied to the concept of power as subversive resistance. While the evolution of the female protagonists through the different spaces they move were traced, the investigation’s central idea that envisions the feminine subject as a process, was also examined.
After comparing and contrasting the portrayal of the protagonists, a thematic analysis was performed to capture the intricacies of meaning within the discourse. The analysis suggests that female representation in literature can be reexamined through historical, political, and socio-economic contexts, as well as through verbal expression.
Mainly, the comventional norms that limited women to some social places and that oblige them to maintain proper conducts did not silence them entirely, as we can observe in the petitions and complaints that became transcendent acts of defiance.
ABSTRACTO
Este trabajo de investigación interdisciplinario examina las estrategias lingüísticas que condicionan la percepción de la representación femenina y feminista en la narrativa peruana de finales del siglo XIX. El sujeto femenino se ha estudiado en dos novelas de Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera Los amores de Hortensia (1886) y Blanca Sol (1889), éstas se seleccionaron con el objetivo de entender la evolución de los personajes femeninos como sujetos que se auto-realizan.
El marco teórico para este estudio es guiado por la filosofía hermeneútica de John Austin, John Searle y Victoria Escandell que se basan en la naturaleza performativa de las expresiones lingüísticas. El análisis de género se basa en la teoría de Judith Butler Luce Irigaray y Julia Kristeva que se relacionan con el desarrollo de la subjetividad femenina; en la ideología de Sandra Gilbert y Susan Gubar y Virginia Woolf que exponen las dinámicas de creatividad de la escritora.
A través del análisis de los actos de habla, la investigación sugiere que los personajes femeninos usan estrategias de quejas y de pedidos con el intento de eliminar las estructuras sociales hegemónicas. Los actos de habla se presentan como un instrumento necesario para un mejor entendimiento de los mecanismos del lenguaje, por medio de los cuales se transmite la idea feminista del siglo XIX. La teoría feminista tiene como objetivo, explicar cómo la naturaleza performativa del lenguaje se puede adaptar al concepto de poder como resistencia subversiva. Se investiga la idea central de nuestra pesquisa que percibe al sujeto femenino como un sujeto en proceso. Después de comparar y contrastar el perfil de los personajes protagónicos, se lleva a cabo el análisis temático para captar las complejidades del sentido en el discurso. Esta investigación propone que la representación femenina puede ser reevaluada por medio de contextos históricos, políticos y socio-económicos y de expresiones verbales.¬
En general, las normas convencionales del siglo XIX que limitaron a la mujer a ciertas esferas sociales y que requerían de ésta una conducta discreta, no las silenciaron totalmente como se puedo apreciar en los pedidos y quejas que resultaron ser medios trascendentes de actos de desafío.
This interdisciplinary study examines the linguistic strategies that determine perception of female representation in Peruvian feminist narrative during the late XIX century. It uses as reference narratives that are considered representatives of the literary tendencies of Latin América feminine trajectory. The feminine subject was studied in two novels of Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera: Los amores de Hortensia (1886) and Blanca Sol (1889). The novels were selected with the aim of capturing the evolution and the development of the female characters as self-realizing subjects.
The theoretical framework is led by the speech act philosophy of John Austin, John Searle, and Victoria Escandell Vidal. The feminist literary theory is guided by the feminist principle of Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva that relates to the development of female subjectivity; by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, and Virginia Woolf that reveals the dynamics of women’s creativity.
Through a close analysis of the speech acts, the research demonstrates that the female characters used their tactics to complain and request on their attempts to uproot the hegemonic normative social structures. The speech acts are presented as key instrument for a better understanding of the complex mechanisms of language, through which the feminist ideology of the nineteenth century is transmitted and reproduced. Within feminist theory the purpose is to show how the performative nature of language can be applied to the concept of power as subversive resistance. While the evolution of the female protagonists through the different spaces they move were traced, the investigation’s central idea that envisions the feminine subject as a process, was also examined.
After comparing and contrasting the portrayal of the protagonists, a thematic analysis was performed to capture the intricacies of meaning within the discourse. The analysis suggests that female representation in literature can be reexamined through historical, political, and socio-economic contexts, as well as through verbal expression.
Mainly, the comventional norms that limited women to some social places and that oblige them to maintain proper conducts did not silence them entirely, as we can observe in the petitions and complaints that became transcendent acts of defiance.
ABSTRACTO
Este trabajo de investigación interdisciplinario examina las estrategias lingüísticas que condicionan la percepción de la representación femenina y feminista en la narrativa peruana de finales del siglo XIX. El sujeto femenino se ha estudiado en dos novelas de Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera Los amores de Hortensia (1886) y Blanca Sol (1889), éstas se seleccionaron con el objetivo de entender la evolución de los personajes femeninos como sujetos que se auto-realizan.
El marco teórico para este estudio es guiado por la filosofía hermeneútica de John Austin, John Searle y Victoria Escandell que se basan en la naturaleza performativa de las expresiones lingüísticas. El análisis de género se basa en la teoría de Judith Butler Luce Irigaray y Julia Kristeva que se relacionan con el desarrollo de la subjetividad femenina; en la ideología de Sandra Gilbert y Susan Gubar y Virginia Woolf que exponen las dinámicas de creatividad de la escritora.
A través del análisis de los actos de habla, la investigación sugiere que los personajes femeninos usan estrategias de quejas y de pedidos con el intento de eliminar las estructuras sociales hegemónicas. Los actos de habla se presentan como un instrumento necesario para un mejor entendimiento de los mecanismos del lenguaje, por medio de los cuales se transmite la idea feminista del siglo XIX. La teoría feminista tiene como objetivo, explicar cómo la naturaleza performativa del lenguaje se puede adaptar al concepto de poder como resistencia subversiva. Se investiga la idea central de nuestra pesquisa que percibe al sujeto femenino como un sujeto en proceso. Después de comparar y contrastar el perfil de los personajes protagónicos, se lleva a cabo el análisis temático para captar las complejidades del sentido en el discurso. Esta investigación propone que la representación femenina puede ser reevaluada por medio de contextos históricos, políticos y socio-económicos y de expresiones verbales.¬
En general, las normas convencionales del siglo XIX que limitaron a la mujer a ciertas esferas sociales y que requerían de ésta una conducta discreta, no las silenciaron totalmente como se puedo apreciar en los pedidos y quejas que resultaron ser medios trascendentes de actos de desafío.
ContributorsAtencia-Oliden, Elizabeth Miriam (Author) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Thesis advisor) / Cerron-Palomino, Alvaro (Committee member) / Rosales, Jesus (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
How gender typicality moderates the relation between preadolescents' empathy and acceptance by peers
Description
Previous research has shown that highly empathic children are generally more emotionally positive, sociable, and altruistic compared to their less empathic peers (Miller & Jansen op de Haar, 1997). These traits and behaviors linked with empathy have been associated with positive outcomes such as popularity in the peer group (Decovic & Gerris, 1994). However, a negative relation between these constructs has been found when studied in the context of preadolescence for boys (Oberle, Schonert-Reichl, & Thomson, 2010), suggesting a potential moderating effect of gender typicality since empathy is classified as a communal and therefore stereotypically feminine trait. The current study examines the relation between the constructs of gender, empathy, gender typicality, and peer acceptance in a preadolescent sample, and mixed findings suggest differential effects of empathy on peer acceptance for preadolescent boys and girls. Future research should continue examining these differential effects for boys and girls throughout childhood and adolescence.
ContributorsPetersen, Shawna Michelle (Author) / Fabes, Richard A. (Thesis advisor) / Martin, Carol L (Committee member) / Miller, Cindy F (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The term “friend zone” has been used in various areas of social media and pop culture to define a situation where one individual covets a relationship with a close friend that never evolves; typically the situation includes a male seeking a potential romantic partner with a female. Although friendship is often viewed in a positive format and sometimes the foundation of a healthy relationship, this term has been stigmatized as an unfortunate situation and counterproductive to obtaining a fulfilling relationship.
To approach the multi-faceted concern of friend zone phenomena and the many areas damaging messages that occur, my thesis starts with the history of friend zone phenomena, establishing a definition of friend zone phenomena for future scholars. Next literature on friendship and love, and Galician’s work used for both the methodology and theoretical framework is introduced leading to the analysis. The methodology and theoretical framework for the analysis uses Mary-Lou Galician’s 7-Step-Reality-Check-Up, twelve Myths social media promoted as the preferred reading and the Twelve Prescriptions (Rxs) for Getting Real About Romance. Resources on the discourses of gender performativity, psychology, and sociology are also included in the theoretical framework.
I start with an introduction to retrograde misogyny, The Manosphere (including The Red Pill [TRP]), the Elliot Rodger case and rape culture. This initial segment is analyzed differently from the other texts to describe the crux of social justice issues within friend zone phenomena. I then analyze 10 online memes related to friend zone phenomena. Lastly, I analyze Jet and Star’s new book, How to Get out of the Friend Zone –their book is a textual version of the advice they give on their YouTube channel.
Throughout all the texts Myths 5 (Physical Attraction), 6 (Man = Stronger), and 13 (No Cross-Sexual Friends) were all proposed as the preferred reading. Myth 14 (Men Want Sex/Women Want Money) was prevalent across the memes and TRP/Rational Male. All four myths are laden with gender performativity with damaging perceptions of healthy and respectful relationships. Additional research on friend zone phenomena in the form of interviews and surveys is recommended as research is still sparse.
To approach the multi-faceted concern of friend zone phenomena and the many areas damaging messages that occur, my thesis starts with the history of friend zone phenomena, establishing a definition of friend zone phenomena for future scholars. Next literature on friendship and love, and Galician’s work used for both the methodology and theoretical framework is introduced leading to the analysis. The methodology and theoretical framework for the analysis uses Mary-Lou Galician’s 7-Step-Reality-Check-Up, twelve Myths social media promoted as the preferred reading and the Twelve Prescriptions (Rxs) for Getting Real About Romance. Resources on the discourses of gender performativity, psychology, and sociology are also included in the theoretical framework.
I start with an introduction to retrograde misogyny, The Manosphere (including The Red Pill [TRP]), the Elliot Rodger case and rape culture. This initial segment is analyzed differently from the other texts to describe the crux of social justice issues within friend zone phenomena. I then analyze 10 online memes related to friend zone phenomena. Lastly, I analyze Jet and Star’s new book, How to Get out of the Friend Zone –their book is a textual version of the advice they give on their YouTube channel.
Throughout all the texts Myths 5 (Physical Attraction), 6 (Man = Stronger), and 13 (No Cross-Sexual Friends) were all proposed as the preferred reading. Myth 14 (Men Want Sex/Women Want Money) was prevalent across the memes and TRP/Rational Male. All four myths are laden with gender performativity with damaging perceptions of healthy and respectful relationships. Additional research on friend zone phenomena in the form of interviews and surveys is recommended as research is still sparse.
ContributorsMichael, Cherish Krista (Author) / Elenes, C. Alejandra (Thesis advisor) / Hall, Deborah (Committee member) / Murphy-Erfani, Julie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This phenomenological study explores the question: What are the lived experiences of Arizonans who identify their gender identities as ‘non-binary’? (‘non-binary’ defined here as anyone who identifies their gender as something other than ‘always and exclusively male or always and exclusively female’). The study explores the lived realities of four non-binary identified transgender people living in Arizona. Each participant took a short survey and conducted a 45-minute in-person interview, conducted through phenomenological questioning to evoke deep descriptions of experience. After analyzing the results through feminist hermeneutic phenomenology, this study suggests that the experience of non-binary gender identity presents an essential pattern of cultivating self-realization. The essential themes of internal recognition, external presentation, and movement toward wellness fell into this pattern. The United States has conceptualized transgender identity in many ways, from pathologizing to politicizing, to medically affirming views. Although the literature on this topic is quite small, there is no doubt that non-binary transgender people exist in U.S. public life. Ultimately, if non-binary people are to find affirming paths toward self-realization, they must be heard from their own experiences in their own voices.
ContributorsSkinner, Ashton (Author) / Sandlin, Jennifer (Thesis advisor) / Nakagawa, Kathryn (Committee member) / Santos, Carlos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
In this study, I explore to what extent an erotic orientation toward others’ spiritual characteristics, specifically with regard to “clean” souls, was strongly idealized in at least two medieval English locales, the central Midlands and the North Riding of Yorkshire. Where a hetero-genital orientation was pervasively considered proper with regard to erotic attraction then as today, I propose that, additionally, a desire to associate on a spiritual level with not only those of the same religion but also of like spiritual purity governed desire. As I will argue, this orientation to a spiritual sameness stemmed from a meme of preferred association in life with other Christians with clean souls. I refer to this desire for association with Christian sameness as a homo-spiritual orientation. As I will argue, this homospirituality was the primary basis of erotic desire portrayed and prescribed in the evidence considered in this study. In sum, I argue that fifteenth-century English ways of knowing and feeling desire, reflected in models of desire in romance poetry in these two locales, evidences an erotic orientation based on homospiritual lines of attraction. Moreover, in each area, the models of lay homospiritual erotics were preceded by and coincided with religious writings on the subject that contributed to an overall intellectual current.
ContributorsAmbler, B. Joy (Author) / Sturges, Robert S. (Thesis advisor) / Newhauser, Richard G. (Committee member) / Fessenden, Tracy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
This dissertation examines gender differences in career advancement outcomes among academic science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) scientists. In particular, this research examines effects of gender, PhD advisors and postdoctoral supervisors mentoring resources and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads on the career advancement outcomes at early career stages.
Female academic scientists have disadvantages in the career progress in the academic STEM. They tend to fall behind throughout their career paths and to leave the field compared to their male colleagues. Researchers have found that gender differences in the career advancement are shaped by gender-biased evaluations derived from gender stereotypes. Other studies demonstrate the positive impacts of mentoring and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads. To add greater insights to the current findings of female academic scientists’ career disadvantages, this dissertation investigates comprehensive effects of gender, mentoring, and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads on female scientists’ career advancement outcomes in academic science.
Based on the Status Characteristics Theory, the concept of mentoring, Social Capital Theory, and Ingroup Bias Theory, causal path models are developed to test direct and indirect effects of gender, mentoring resources, and gender homophily on STEM faculty’s career advancement. The research models were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with data collected from a national survey, funded by the National Science Foundation, completed in 2011 by tenured and tenure-track academic STEM faculty from higher education institutions in the United States. Findings suggest that there is no gender difference in career advancement controlling for mentoring resources and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads and other factors including research productivity and domestic caregiving responsibilities. Findings also show that the positive relationship between gender homophily in mentoring dyads and the reception of the mentoring resources, especially regarding providing help on career development and research collaboration, lead to enhanced early stage career advancement. Insights from the findings contribute both to theoretical understandings of the overall effects of gender, mentoring, and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads on female academic scientists’ career advancement at early career stages and to provide evidence of positive effects of same-gender mentoring dyads to universities.
Female academic scientists have disadvantages in the career progress in the academic STEM. They tend to fall behind throughout their career paths and to leave the field compared to their male colleagues. Researchers have found that gender differences in the career advancement are shaped by gender-biased evaluations derived from gender stereotypes. Other studies demonstrate the positive impacts of mentoring and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads. To add greater insights to the current findings of female academic scientists’ career disadvantages, this dissertation investigates comprehensive effects of gender, mentoring, and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads on female scientists’ career advancement outcomes in academic science.
Based on the Status Characteristics Theory, the concept of mentoring, Social Capital Theory, and Ingroup Bias Theory, causal path models are developed to test direct and indirect effects of gender, mentoring resources, and gender homophily on STEM faculty’s career advancement. The research models were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with data collected from a national survey, funded by the National Science Foundation, completed in 2011 by tenured and tenure-track academic STEM faculty from higher education institutions in the United States. Findings suggest that there is no gender difference in career advancement controlling for mentoring resources and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads and other factors including research productivity and domestic caregiving responsibilities. Findings also show that the positive relationship between gender homophily in mentoring dyads and the reception of the mentoring resources, especially regarding providing help on career development and research collaboration, lead to enhanced early stage career advancement. Insights from the findings contribute both to theoretical understandings of the overall effects of gender, mentoring, and gender homophily in the mentoring dyads on female academic scientists’ career advancement at early career stages and to provide evidence of positive effects of same-gender mentoring dyads to universities.
ContributorsLee, Sang Eun (Author) / Welch, Eric W (Thesis advisor) / Feeney, Mary K. (Committee member) / Corley, Elizabeth A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The 2016 election brought to light a political climate change in the United States and showed that questions scholars and pundits alike thought were answered perhaps had not been completely addressed. For some, the main question left unanswered was what would it take for a woman to become President of the United States? For others, the question of fear politics and the effects of social media were raised. Perhaps, the most intriguing was exactly who has influence over US elections? While these, and other, questions were asked in the context of the presidential election, they are also applicable to all political races. This dissertation examines how voter perceptions based on stereotypes and racial threat can affect Latina candidates’ prospects for election. Using an online experiment with 660 subjects and two elite interviews to test four hypotheses in order to determine whether or not racial resentment and stereotypes play a role in voter perceptions of Latina political candidates. The results show that racial resent and gender stereotypes play a role in voter perception of Latina political candidates. The results have theoretical and practical implications.
ContributorsHernandez, Samantha L. (Author) / Herrera, Richard (Thesis advisor) / Navarro, Sharon (Committee member) / Magaña, Lisa (Committee member) / Hoekstra, Valerie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This project analyzes contemporary U.S. mental health discourse as an assemblage that constantly renegotiates the normative subject through the production and regulation of intersectional mentally ill subjects. It uses feminist disability and biopolitical theoretical frameworks to explore how media discourses of mental illness reveal the regulation of mentally ill subjects in relationship to intersections of gender, sexuality, and race. These discourses constitute a biopolitical technology that genders, racializes, and regulates mental illness. This regulation not only reveals the cultural boundaries around who is designated as “mentally ill” (and how they are designated as such), but it also demonstrates how mental illness is normalized when attached to certain bodies in specific contexts, yet perceived as a threat to the social body when attached to other bodies in other contexts.
In order to explore this assemblage, this project is organized around four foundational questions: How is mental illness produced, surveilled, and differentially regulated as a social formation within medicine and policy? How does media reproduce and renegotiate these medical and political mental health discourses? How do these mental health discourses intersect with gender, race, and sexuality? How does our assemblage of cultural, medical, and political discourse produce, observe, and regulate intersectional mentally ill subjects in relationship to shifting ideals of normative subjecthood?
This project answers these questions over the course of several case studies, each of which explores a set of thematically linked texts as a window into understanding how mental illness operates intersectionally and biopolitically in cultural discourses and social institutions. The first section establishes a broad theoretical framework for articulating how discourses of gender and sexuality are central to the production of mental illness in the United States today. The second section explores how this intersection of gender, sexuality, and mental illness is observed and regulated through social institutions like the workplace, the nation-state, and the carceral system. The final section explores emergent discourses of mental illness that move us away from centering individual mentally healthy subjects as idealized entities and toward understanding mental and emotional well-being as a collective social enterprise.
In order to explore this assemblage, this project is organized around four foundational questions: How is mental illness produced, surveilled, and differentially regulated as a social formation within medicine and policy? How does media reproduce and renegotiate these medical and political mental health discourses? How do these mental health discourses intersect with gender, race, and sexuality? How does our assemblage of cultural, medical, and political discourse produce, observe, and regulate intersectional mentally ill subjects in relationship to shifting ideals of normative subjecthood?
This project answers these questions over the course of several case studies, each of which explores a set of thematically linked texts as a window into understanding how mental illness operates intersectionally and biopolitically in cultural discourses and social institutions. The first section establishes a broad theoretical framework for articulating how discourses of gender and sexuality are central to the production of mental illness in the United States today. The second section explores how this intersection of gender, sexuality, and mental illness is observed and regulated through social institutions like the workplace, the nation-state, and the carceral system. The final section explores emergent discourses of mental illness that move us away from centering individual mentally healthy subjects as idealized entities and toward understanding mental and emotional well-being as a collective social enterprise.
ContributorsHerson, Kellie (Author) / Leong, Karen J (Thesis advisor) / Mallot, J. Edward (Committee member) / Kuo, Karen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This study explored the perspectives and experiences of eight women active within a particular location of the collective social media landscape. One aspect of the research centered around critiquing mainstream media diets for encouraging fat stigma and deepening the negative effects of stereotyping larger bodies. The research questions centered around transgressive media diets, specifically those that were body positive, and focused on if they could help to eradicate fat stigma and educate the masses on false stereotypes. To examine this, eight plus-size fashion bloggers and/or plus-size models were interviewed following a semi-structured format. These women, as bloggers and Instagrammers with a strong presence in the plus-size fashion industry, were both content producers as well as consumers, and their personal narratives enabled the study to better understand the complex interconnections between production and consumption, self-expression and the politics of self-representation, the cooptation of these self-representations by profit-oriented media interest, and how commodification shapes the transgressive potential of these representations. The research also found that many content creators came to transgressive media diets because they saw a lack of representation and decided that they must make that representation for themselves. The study also examined what community building meant within the porous landscape of social media platforms and the relationship between identity building and community building as social processes. Many of the participants brought up examples of fat discrimination yet many defined themselves as "confident" or "badass", thus finding ways to empower themselves despite the pressure of societal norms. Some of this empowerment came from finding a community online. Finally, these plus-size models and fashion bloggers moved through a thin ideal industry by demanding and being examples of diversity.
ContributorsValentine, Erin (Author) / Katsulis, Yasmina (Thesis advisor) / Himberg, Julia (Committee member) / McGibbney, Michelle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018