Theses and dissertations

This collection includes both ASU Theses and Dissertations, submitted by graduate students, and the Barrett, Honors College theses submitted by undergraduate students. 

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Scalpel Slaves and Surgical Sculptors: Cosmetic surgery, management of the media and the implications of commercialized medicine

Description
Of the over 17 million surgical and minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures performed in the United States in 2016, women accounted for over 90% of patients and nearly 70% of all patients were white. The goal of cosmetic surgery is to surgically restructure a healthy body part to more closely represent the…

Of the over 17 million surgical and minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures performed in the United States in 2016, women accounted for over 90% of patients and nearly 70% of all patients were white. The goal of cosmetic surgery is to surgically restructure a healthy body part to more closely represent the contemporary ideal of what defines a particular gender. For example, femininity being linked to large breasts and small waist-to-hip ratio maintains binary heteronormative standards of what female body should look like. Plastic surgeons rely on advertising to attract patients for their businesses, since insurances do not cover elective cosmetic procedures. The ethical dilemma with this medical profession is with establishing aesthetic criteria for categorizing which bodies are considered normal and which are deviant. To understand the role of the physician in perpetuating cultural standards of beauty and promote surgery through their advertising, a random sample of 5 board-certified plastic surgeons from Scottsdale, AZ 85258 was obtained, focusing primarily on the images and textual content of their web pages. Of the 50 images sampled, nearly 75% of images portrayed white women. Women of color did not present in any of the photos. 52% of the home page images sexualized female clients using seductive posing and lingerie and promoted femininity using makeup and long hair. The language used in these websites criticized the presurgical female body and suggested that only physicians could eradicate their deficiencies, thereby normalizing cosmetic surgery as a means of beauty enhancement and maintaining the cultural superiority of doctors. 60% of websites failed to include adequate description of surgical risk. By choosing cosmetic surgery, women are negotiating their lives and acting as agents, even under circumstances that they cannot control such as the withholding of information, minimizing of risk or the social context and its corresponding pressures. Although the forewarning of surgical risk is rarely effective as a deterrent, it is the responsibility of the physician to provide the patient with all the information to the best of their ability so that they can decide what's best for their present circumstance, although rarely taken under conditions of perfect knowledge or absolute freedom from societal pressures. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons should work in conjunction with the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Review Council to mediate regulatory solutions and increase public assurance in the credibility of advertising, perhaps an initiative similar to that of advertising for the cigarette industry. A pledge from the cosmetic surgery industry in conjunction to the Hippocratic Oath of the American Medical Association, which outlines the physician's responsibility to the patient within the context of advertising and marketing, could strengthen social responsibility and foster stronger, more honest relationships between surgeons and consumers.
ContributorsUchendu, Nneka Nwamaka (Author) / Brian, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Weitz, Rose (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
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The impact of men's labor migration on the sexual and reproductive health of their left-behind wives in Tajikistan

Description
ABSTRACT

The aim of the study is to examine the impact of international male labor migration on the sexual and reproductive health of women who stay back home in Tajikistan. The data for this study was gathered as a result of ethnographic field works conducted on several occasions from 2011 to…

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study is to examine the impact of international male labor migration on the sexual and reproductive health of women who stay back home in Tajikistan. The data for this study was gathered as a result of ethnographic field works conducted on several occasions from 2011 to 2013.

The results of the study suggest that male migration does not have an impact on fertility levels of the left-behind women. Although similarly to previous studies this study shows that wives of migrants are less likely to use contraception, it nevertheless demonstrates changes in contraceptive behaviors of wives of migrants such as seasonal removal and insertion of an intrauterine device (IUD) and shift from long-term to short-term contraception use. However, despite the availability of numerous forms of contraception in the country, the pattern of contraceptive use such as the reliance on IUDs dominant during the Soviet period continues to exist among wives of non-migrants. One of the most important findings of this study is women’s ability to use condoms for a short term with husbands after their return and asking spouses to have an HIV test. This finding challenges the dominant discourses in HIV and migration literature focusing on the inability, impossibility and failure on the part of the wives to negotiate HIV prevention due to various factors impeding the promotion of HIV prevention skills and measures among women.

Moreover, the study demonstrates that, on the one hand, male migration worsens reproductive health of the left-behind women, but, on the other hand, it improves/increases their access to reproductive health institutions thanks to remittances. Although self-reported symptoms of women show a slight difference in reproductive morbidity, including STIs of wives of migrants and non-migrants, health care providers believe that this difference is significant and wives of migrants are more likely to have complications during pregnancy, delivery and post-delivery periods.

The study also shows that the majority of HIV prevention and family planning programs target only wives of migrants and non-migrants, however it is crucial that migrant men should also be targets of these programs.
ContributorsMiskinzod, Dilofarid (Author) / Agadjanian, Victor (Thesis advisor) / Koblitz, Ann (Committee member) / Weitz, Rose (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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Identity, Scholarship, History: The Evolution of Lesbian as a Category of Analysis Through the Twentieth Century

Description
In this paper, I tackle the question of the validity of lesbian as a category of historical analysis. To do this, I first explore the history of lesbian as a category of identity from the late nineteenth century into the twentieth century, focusing specifically on how it has changed over…

In this paper, I tackle the question of the validity of lesbian as a category of historical analysis. To do this, I first explore the history of lesbian as a category of identity from the late nineteenth century into the twentieth century, focusing specifically on how it has changed over time. This leads into a discussion of lesbian as a category of scholarly analysis by lesbians themselves, with special attention given to Adrienne Rich’s essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” and her concept of the lesbian continuum. I then seek to establish this concept of the lesbian continuum as a valid category of historical analysis that we can use to analyze women and their relationships with other women. Crucially, this analysis is centered on the middle and upper class whose social situations afforded them the privilege of being recorded in history. As a result, much of this paper is unfortunately centered on white women rather than women of color. While the latter half of the twentieth century began to see the inclusion of women of color in lesbian scholarship, there is still much room to expand this paper via research into the lives of lesbian women of color since the Victorian era.
ContributorsCvancara, Alexandra Barolet (Author) / Boyce-Jacino, Katherine (Thesis director) / Weitz, Rose (Committee member) / Department of Management and Entrepreneurship (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
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Ethnic Discrimination, Socioeconomic Status, and Health in India

Description

Significant health inequalities exist between different castes and ethnic communities in India, and identifying the roots of these inequalities is of interest to public health research and policy. Research on caste-based health inequalities in India has historically focused on general, government-defined categories, such as “Scheduled Castes,” “Scheduled Tribes,” and “Other…

Significant health inequalities exist between different castes and ethnic communities in India, and identifying the roots of these inequalities is of interest to public health research and policy. Research on caste-based health inequalities in India has historically focused on general, government-defined categories, such as “Scheduled Castes,” “Scheduled Tribes,” and “Other Backward Classes.” This method obscures the diversity of experiences, indicators of well-being, and health outcomes between castes, tribes, and other communities in the “scheduled” category. This study analyzes data on 699,686 women from 4,260 castes, tribes and communities in the 2015-2016 Demographic and Health Survey of India to: (1) examine the diversity within and overlap between general, government-defined community categories in both wealth, infant mortality, and education, and (2) analyze how infant mortality is related to community category membership and socioeconomic status (measured using highest level of education and household wealth). While there are significant differences between general, government-defined community categories (e.g., scheduled caste, backward class) in both wealth and infant mortality, the vast majority of variation between communities occurs within these categories. Moreover, when other socioeconomic factors like wealth and education are taken into account, the difference between general, government-defined categories reduces or disappears. These findings suggest that focusing on measures of education and wealth at the household level, rather than general caste categories, may more accurately target those individuals and households most at risk for poor health outcomes. Further research is needed to explain the mechanisms by which discrimination affects health in these populations, and to identify sources of resilience, which may inform more effective policies.
ContributorsClauss, Colleen (Author) / Hruschka, Daniel (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2022-05