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Description
For many adolescents, high school is a critical period of self-awareness, peer-influence, and identity construction. During this volatile period, young people explore how to express themselves in ways that range from conformity to non-conformity and transgression. This is particularly true when it comes to young people's understanding and expression of gender identity. For some youth, their personal form(s) of gender expression align neatly with social expectations; for others, it does not. When gender expression does not align with social expectations, students may be vulnerable to bullying or harassment by peers or adults. Often, youth who are policed and regulated by their classmates through bullying (or harassment, depending upon the relevant or implemented policy) are targeted based on their perceived identity, be that racial, ethnic, citizenship, or, most frequently, gender and sexuality. This project advances the need for research done from a critical youth studies perspective (both methodologically and ethically) and provides new insight into the types of language and practices used by youth to express, perform and "do" gender. Utilizing qualitative methodology, including participant observation, focus group and individual interviews, surveys, and the collection and content analysis of school ephemera, this research investigated how high school students navigate gender identity amidst other intersecting identities. This project examined how youth both "do" and "perform" gender in their everyday lives as high school students. Their gender identity is frequently understood amidst other intersecting identities, particularly sexual orientation, religion and race. These youth also pointed to several important influences in how they understand their own gender, and the gender identity of those around them, including media and peer groups. Because this research took place at two charter art schools, the findings also provided a framework for understanding how these two schools, and charter art schools more generally, provide alternative spaces for young people to experiment and play with their identity construction. Findings indicate that youth are forced to navigate and construct their gender identity amidst many conflicting and contradictory ideologies. Schools, media, and peer groups all heavily influence the way young people understand themselves.
ContributorsPrior, Sarah (Author) / Cavender, Gray (Thesis advisor) / Adelman, Madelaine (Thesis advisor) / Swadener, Beth Blue (Committee member) / Katsulis, Yasmina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This study is based on 31 interviews conducted in 2012 with male, female, and transgender sex workers at the St. James Infirmary, a full-spectrum health clinic run by sex workers for sex workers, located in San Francisco, California. My primary goals were, first, to document the lived realities of a diverse range of sex workers who live and work in the San Francisco Bay Area, and, second, to understand the impact of sex work discourse on the facilitation of stigma toward the sex work community and, finally, how that stigma influences the sex worker group identity and individual identity constructions. My primary findings indicate that although sex work discourse has traditionally been constructed within the dominant public sphere and not by sex workers themselves, this discourse has a profound effect on creating and perpetuating the stigma associated with sex work. In turn, this stigma affects both how the group and how individuals construct their identities, often negatively. Alternatively, a benefit of stigma is that it can induce the production of counterpublics which facilitate the emergence of new discourse. However, for this new discourse to gain acceptance into the public sphere, activist organizations must utilize traditional (and sometimes unintentionally marginalizing) strategies that can impact both the identity construction of the group and of individuals within the group. Understanding these complex relationships is therefore essential to understanding how activist organizations, such as the St. James Infirmary, situate themselves within the larger dominant public sphere, their impact on sex work discourse, and their impact on individual sex worker identity construction.
ContributorsRead, Kathleen (Author) / Adams, Karen L (Thesis advisor) / Katsulis, Yasmina (Thesis advisor) / Adelman, Madelaine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Based on the Foucauldian understanding that sexuality discourse operates as a powerful instrument for the regulation of societies and individuals, this research considers how internalized gender and sexuality discourses affect young women's embodied experiences of masturbation, and more broadly their sexual subjectivity and health. Drawing on interdisciplinary feminist perspectives on gender, sexuality, health, and embodiment, I examine female sexual health within a positive rights framework. That is, I view the rights to both sexual safety and pleasure as essential components of female sexual health, and conceptualize girls and young women as potential sexual agents. By asking young women about their lived experiences of self-pleasure, this research challenges not only the historical legacy of pathologizing female desire and pleasure, but also scholars' tendency to construct female sexuality solely in a heteronormative, partnered context. Based on focus groups, interviews, journals, and questionnaires collected from 109 female college students from diverse ethnic, religious, and sexuality backgrounds in Arizona and Michigan, I employ grounded theory to analyze individual feelings and experiences in the context of larger societal discourses. My findings indicate that when girls internalize negative discourses about masturbation (e.g. as sin or secular stigma), general heteronormative sexuality discourses, and a silence around female self-pleasure, there are severe negative consequences for how they understand and experience masturbation. I argue that they engage in sexual self-surveillance that often results in emotional and physical struggles, as well as the re-inscription of hegemonic cultural discourses on female masturbation, bodies, desire, and pleasure. By illustrating how even the most private and `invisible' behavior of masturbation can become a site for regulating female sexuality, this research provides important evidence of the power of increasingly covert mechanisms to govern gendered bodies and subjectivities through self-surveillance. Alternatively, this research also highlights the potential of normalizing self-pleasure for increasing girls' and young women's capacity for resisting oppressive gender and sexuality discourses and behaviors, developing an agentic sexual subjectivity, and feeling sexually empowered. Thus, this research also has practical implications for conceptualizing sexual health for girls and young women in a way that includes the rights to sexual safety and pleasure.
ContributorsFrank, Elena (Author) / Weitz, Rose (Thesis advisor) / Katsulis, Yasmina (Committee member) / Fahs, Breanne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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
Description
This thesis intends to identify various alternatives to current prostitution policy in the United States. Specifically, this paper focuses on the proposals of abolition, legalization, and decriminalization, as they are interpreted through feminist perspectives. Additionally, the effectiveness of each proposal is based on how well they would reduce the threat and perpetuation of violence, decrease the spread of venereal disease, and lower the rate of drug use amongst sex workers in the U.S. Each method is analyzed through the success and failure rates in the societies in which they have already been implemented. Ultimately, the conclusion is met that legalization would be the most effective and logical policy reform to ensure the safety of American sex workers.
ContributorsDykema, Kendi Montana (Author) / Weitz, Rose (Thesis director) / Katsulis, Yasmina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
When communist leader Ceaușescu was overthrown in the Romanian revolution of 1989, Romania reinstated reproductive freedoms that had been denied under communist policy. This study looks at reproductive health in Romania in 2013, examining the progress in reproductive healthcare made since 1989 while looking at lingering barriers to resources and education. Thirty-five pharmacists were surveyed to collect information on pricing and accessibility of contraceptives in pharmacies. In addition, interviews were conducted with the director of Societatea de Educatie Contraceptiva si Sexuala (SECS), a reproductive clinic healthcare provider, a professor of philosophy and feminism at Babeș-Bolyai University, and four young Romanian women.
ContributorsZack, Lauren (Author) / Katsulis, Yasmina (Thesis director) / Orlich, Ileana (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / College of Public Programs (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The intent of this thesis was to explore current literature to further understand the work environments of medical fields and the obstacles that are unique to women pursuing medical careers. It is acknowledged that a significant glass ceiling exists for women in medical fields, specifically areas such as academia and surgery. Thus, the research is focused on determining explanations for a lack of women in said medical specialties, as well as understanding the source of the obstacles women face in medicine. This study was designed to obtain a general background from a literature review and then, to compare and supplement the findings with in-depth interviews of females in a variety of medical careers. From the literature review and the interviews, it was confirmed that the largest area of inequality women in medical fields faced was struggling to balance work and personal life, specifically motherhood. Furthermore, the knowledge gained from the literature review and interviews provided a framework for suggesting possible solutions to help women successfully balance a professional medical career and a personal life.
ContributorsHaugen, Kelsey Blair (Author) / Fonow, Mary Margaret (Thesis director) / Scheiner, Georganne (Committee member) / McGibbney, Michelle (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Ample research proves the American criminal justice system to be a mechanism for the unjust incarceration of hundreds of thousands of non-violent offenders. Less studied is the fact that thousands of these prisoners die agonizing and ugly deaths in custody each year at the discretion of government officials and public awareness is noticeably lacking. American government is complicit in the expedited premature death of thousands of federal and state inmates thanks to general prisoner anonymity, sociocultural constructs that invite condescension between individuals, and a morally repressive political system. The following analysis regarding the negligent mood underpinning inmate mortality issues attempts to draw connections between American sociological constructs along economic, political, and cultural lines. The priority of this thesis is to detail how such a stunning trend of maleficence has been able to go unchecked for decades, and what this says about American moral and political culture. Social construction theory will be used as a foundation to understanding how subscription to the ideals of American social hierarchies dictates political coercion and consent, and the manner in which this allowed for the emergence of mass incarceration. Further, political alignment and corresponding criminal justice positions will be scrutinized for moral authenticity and juxtaposed to traditional moral interpretations of the U.S. Constitution for ideological consistency. By doing so, I explore how moral and political hypocrisy has led to American moral atrophy, in turn facilitating the ongoing inmate health care crisis, through the sublimation of political values to financial priorities. I also discuss the resolutions for the inmate health crisis through a retroactive, legislative draw-down of incarcerated populations in order to free up budgets and reduce health care provider backlogs. In order to promote the utilitarian benefit of America's perception as a global beacon of freedom and personal liberty, the release of non-violent prisoners is advocated for under the pretense of mending the deep divides along class and racial lines that permeate American society. Finally, I will argue for the reinterpretation of penal philosophy to retreat from methods of incarceration and deterrence. I will attempt to persuade corrections officials to go further than simple rehabilitation and aim for complete redemption of inmates in the eyes of society, in part through the use of biblical overtones. The intended result will entail the eventual bowing of the arc of the moral universe back towards justice and even beyond towards redemption.
ContributorsMiller, Scott Matthew (Author) / Gomez, Alan (Thesis director) / Katsulis, Yasmina (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
In the current political moment, sex trafficking is an issues that has gained increased political and media attention. This thesis first analyzes the stories that are told about sex trafficking in policy and the media. Analyzing these stories help us make sense of whose voices, experiences, and needs we listen to, and in relief, whose we do not. Through a case study that evaluates the research, policy work, and advocacy being conducted through the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research at ASU, I first explore how they are dominating the conversation about sex trafficking in Arizona. I offer four critiques on STIR's approach to sex trafficking. First, I critique the language that STIR uses, and the implications of explaining this social issue as sex trafficking instead of survival sex. I then critique the policy and responses around the experiences of LGBTQ youth, and how the theory of dynamic nominalism informs the way we should represent LGBTQ youth in research. Through analyzing specific responses to sex trafficking prevention that STIR offers, such as calling 911, I will explore the need for intersectionality to protect the wellbeing of youth of color. Lastly, through theoretical critiques of neoliberalism, I will explore the ways in which STIR's research, advocacy, and trainings neglect to explore the systems youth must navigate and exist in, and how those systems fail. Through each of these unique critiques, we notice different silences and important considerations that are missing from the work that is dominating the discussion of sex trafficking in the US. Ultimately, this thesis does not argue that we should not care about sex trafficking, but instead argues we need to care more. It explores the ways that acknowledging the complexity and nuance of this great social problem can provide the ability to create meaningful solutions that care for and listen to youth.
ContributorsCossette, Anastasia Grace (Author) / Brian, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Katsulis, Yasmina (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Parenting magazines within the U.S. have long been a source of comfort and information for parents. As evidenced by subscription numbers in the millions, parents’ desire for ‘expert’ advice on all aspects of child rearing make them prime consumers for the magazine industry. One study found that when parents seek advice, parenting magazines were second only to friends as a resource, and were consulted more often than professional resources such as doctors or health organizations (Koepke & Williams, 1989). Ultimately, the images and concepts parents retain from their exposure to parenting magazines are conveyed (explicitly or implicitly) to their children. At its very core, gender scripts serve as an institutionalized form of social control, or as Bem believes, “a basic organizing principle for every human culture” (1981). Further, researchers have elaborated, “gender inequalities and sex stereotypes hurt the majority of individuals by limiting their range of experiences, and thus their growth” (Spees & Zimmerman, 2002). This provides an absolute disservice to individuals and to our communities two fold, as gendered messages in parenting magazines can shape (or indeed limit) the experiences and perceptions of both parents and their children. The intention of this study is to examine the ways in which editorial content in Parents magazine has the potential to influence parents’ perception of gender in relation to their children and child rearing practices. It also seeks to explore how these gender messages have changed over the last ten years, as well as what these messages may be communicating to parents about their children. I aim to frame this discussion within a condensed review of literature that supports the importance and influence of parenting magazines in recent history. I will also consider how early on children display an understanding of gender and a few of the many ways gender typing may affect them in childhood and beyond. In this thesis, I approach this issue through the theory of socialization, in which I argue the magazine’s gender messages are communicated to parents, who then convey these messages to their children during childhood. However, this study acknowledges the importance of observing an issue from multiple standpoints and I believe that further research on this topic should be done from both a socialization and a social construction viewpoint. I will then critically analyze, through a feminist theoretical framework, gender implications found among the images and some of the accompanying text in Parents magazine in 2002 and 2012. Through this thesis, I argue that Parents magazine, through its editorial content, provides some unique spaces in which gender equality can be furthered, while it has also become more stereotyped and restricted within other areas in the last ten years.
ContributorsSheldon, Jessica (Author) / Scheiner, Georganne (Thesis director) / McGibbney, Michelle (Committee member) / Katsulis, Yasmina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2012-12