Études féministes et de genre - Mémoires // Feminist and Gender Studies – Research Papers

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10393/25487

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The Importance of Creative Methodologies: Exploring the Pedagogical Possibilities of Creative Methodologies within Settler-Colonial Education Systems.
(2022) Ervin, Vanessa; Magnet, Shoshana
My Major Research Paper (MRP) explores the pedagogical possibilities of creative methodologies within settler-colonial education systems. Driven by my own experiences and backed up by extensive research, I explore the reasons why creativity, creative pathways, and creative methodologies need to be included within settler-colonial education systems. I conduct my research by drawing on theories of intersectionality, feminist postmodernism, and affect theory. To get my results, I explore topics such as inclusivity, accessibility, racial inequalities, healing, pedagogy, and art history. My research also draws on a variety of examples of creative methodologies, such as music, poems, craft, graffiti, paintings, scrapbooks, comics, visual memoirs, sculptures, and more. At the forefront of many of my examples are Indigenous, BIPOC, and other non-Eurocentric creative knowledge productions. To further explore the pedagogical possibilities of creative methodologies, I use a creative methodological framework for the scope of my paper. I accompany my MRP with three feminist artworks that I created: What Were They Wearing?, Table Talk, and More Than Numbers. By including these artworks, my goal is to provide a firsthand exploration of creative methodologies, how they can be used, and how they can be effective pedagogy. I passionately explore the many pedagogical possibilities that creative methodologies have as I am driven to have them welcomed, honoured, and accepted within settler-colonial education systems.
‘Turning On The Lights’ & Disrupting Inspirational Weight Loss Narratives: Analyzing Systemic Fatphobia & Neoliberal Constructs of Health
(2017-04-01) Meaney, Meaghen-Danielle; Orsini, Michael
Why is the weight loss narrative so pervasive? How or why has western diet culture become increasingly culturally insidious? Systemically, fatphobia flourishes in western society due to “cultural fantasies of thin supremacy” (Mollow, 2015, p. 204). Women, in particular, have been continuously bombarded with hegemonic beauty and body size standards over the decades. Mainstream mass media representations have constantly “glamoriz[ed]” thinness (Bordo 1993, p.103). This has regulated visual ‘standards’ for women who are coerced into ‘believing’ these standards of beauty and body size are natural and hierarchically more valuable than bodies deemed ‘other,’ such as the ‘fat ’ body. In doing so, the diet and fitness industries profit from fatphobic beauty standards, and this makes women predominant recipients of sexualizing and objectifying gazes. Before I discuss the main case study undergirding this research paper, it is important to briefly situate myself in the context of this work, and discuss motivations for writing this research paper on this topic. I am a cisgender, white-passing, ‘fat’ woman, who identifies with critical feminist fat studies work on ‘fat’ embodiments and identities. I initially wanted to pursue a research project about the aestheticization of curviness in plus size modelling, but found myself wanting to do more research on what has affected me on epistemological levels, that is, how fatphobia has affected my views on my own body (as well as ‘others’), beauty, and health, as well as the conflations between thinness and healthiness. It is important to critically reflect upon constructs of fatness precisely because it affects ‘fat’ people, as well as the general population who may or may not share ‘popular’ opinions about the ‘fat’ body as a moral failure. Although this research paper will be unable to address the consequences of fat shaming, Fikkan & Rothblum (2012) argue, like many fat activists and writers have, that ‘fat’ people face higher amounts of weight-based discrimination concerning their access to health services, the medical system, and employment. When limited representation is given to ‘fat’ bodies in mainstream media, it reaffirms thin supremacist preferences for bodies that conform to hegemonic ideals of beauty and body size. By doing so, discourses of ‘fatness’ are controlled by dominant conceptualizations: ‘fat’ bodies are seen as lazy, as ‘disgusting,’ and as lacking ‘control.’ This research paper seeks to demonstrate, by analyzing two case studies of Weight Watchers advertisements, that ‘fat’ issues are feminist issues. This research paper will discuss how exploiting and reaffirming fatphobia through discourses of healthism and responsibilization reduce individuals to their body size. Companies like Weight Watchers exploit the alarming amount of fat hatred in western society, and commercialize on the benefits of ‘losing weight,’ time and again. Even though Weight Watchers does advertise their program for ‘all’ people, they spend a significant amount of time highlighting women’s experiences with their program, and often feature women in advertisements (that will later be discussed in the case studies section of this research paper) that reinforce negative stereotypes about ‘fatness.’ Furthermore, since this research paper is a critical response to two particular Weight Watchers commercials that each exemplify a growing exploitation of ‘empowerment’ discourses embedded in inspirational weight loss narratives, I will briefly address the reasons why I chose these two advertisements. The two Weight Watchers commercials that will be analyzed are the following: ‘See Yourself In A New Light’ and ‘Awaken Your Incredible.’ These commercials are uniquely ‘different’ from weight loss commercials that explicitly create desirable ‘after,’ images of weight loss, while at the same time highlighting the negative attributes given to being ‘fat.’ The ‘fat’ person before weight loss is often displayed after the fact of having gone through some major transformation period, and one can see their ‘progress,’ to ‘slimming’ down to a happier and healthier self (Morgan 2011; Brown 2014). While Weight Watchers sensationalizes and emphasizes an individual’s capacity for change, it is careful not to depict ‘fat’ bodies necessarily as a moral failure. Yet these commercials reinforce a restrictive diet culture, and mark the attainment of health as a natural preoccupation. I am interested in critiquing the sexist and sizeist body and beauty standards embedded in covert fat shaming tactics by Weight Watchers, especially in consideration of the gendering nature of ‘fatness.’ Before I outline what is included in this research paper, it is important to briefly situate and contextualize Weight Watchers, and its company ‘values.’ Weight Watchers was founded in the “early 1960s,” with a “how best to lose weight” mentality (‘How We Started,’ 2017). Weight Watchers states that they have helped “millions” of people to “lose weight” and lead “healthier lives” over the decades (Ibid). They publicly pride themselves on having a “50 year” history of not only “helping people lose weight” but also base their programs on “science” and not “trends” (Ibid). People ‘interested’ in Weight Watchers can sign up for programs depending on their ‘needs.’ Individuals can attend (unlimited) meetings and have access to personal coaches; they can also follow a plan online and have 24/7 access chat support (‘Weight Watchers,’ 2017). They have more ‘choices,’ for individuals, and each person has the right to ‘choose’ what will ‘work’ for them (Ibid). They emphasize the ‘freedom’ to “enjoy foods” in a way that “support [the] goals” of the client (Ibid), and offer constant “support” along the way because, as they argue, “weight loss can be tricky” (Ibid). Although Weight Watchers has advertised their programs and company values differently throughout the years they have been in business, this major research paper will be focusing on the advertisements mentioned, which intend to disseminate information about their ‘empowering’ brand. Each commercial will be analyzed (through a media analysis) to explore the ways in which messages of responsibilization and alleged ‘empowerment,’ reinforce fatphobic and healthist attitudes towards body size. I complement the use of a critical fat feminist studies approach with an analysis of neoliberalism as a form of governmentality through which individual citizens are expected to take care of their health. A critical fat feminist perspective allows us to analyze how ‘fatness,’ is dominantly represented in western media, and in particular, how weight loss narratives reinforce fatphobia and healthism, and how ‘fat’ bodies are governed by diet industry’s interest in exploiting western cultural preferences for thinness and institutionalized norms about health. In the literature review section I will firstly address how neoliberal forms of governmentality not only promote self-governance, but “governing at a distance” structures of control (Bell & Green, 2016, p.240). The literature review also addresses academic scholarship in critical fat studies (as well as interdisciplinary fields which address issues relating to the ‘fat’ body). Critically examining media representations can help us to theorize about the gendering of ‘fat(ness).’ This theoretical framework incorporates insights from fat studies and the critical study of healthism and neoliberalism to study Weight Watchers advertisements. An interlocking analysis of critical feminist studies with a feminist media analysis (in order to conceptualize, question, and challenge representations of the ‘fat’ body), will assist in understanding how particular forms of representation (when repeated) or reiterated, present messages which reinforce fatphobia and healthism. After these sections, the case studies will be introduced. The ‘See Yourself In A New Light’ commercial at Weight Watchers, as well as the ‘Awaken Your Incredible’ commercial introduce Weight Watchers as a program for explicit ‘weight loss’ to potential clients. This research paper will then conclude with final remarks.
The Gay Blood Ban And The Marginalization Of The Sexual Citizen
(2014-01-10) Pires, Tanya Samantha
Les crimes au nom de l'honneur. Un état des lieux du phénomène et des motifs permettant d’expliquer la persistance des crimes au nom de l’honneur dans nos sociétés
(2014) Younes, Mila; Cardinal, Linda
What's Missing? Anti-Racist Sex Education!
(2011) Whitten, Amanda; Sethna, Christabelle
Contemporary sexual health curricula in Canada include information about sexual diversity and queer identities, but what remains missing is an explicit discussion of anti-racist sex education. Although there is official federal and provincial support for multicilturalism and anti-racism in schools, contemporary Canadian sex education omits crucial anti-racist work and foundational anti-racist education frameworks are silent on sex curriculum. Although anti-racism should be infused into all school curricula, sex education represents an especially vital subject for anti-racist education, for sex and sexuality have been racialized in a variety of ways. As sexual health topics are increasingly added into health and physical education curricula across Canada, it is vital to appraise their contents critically. This lack of attention paid to race, racism and racialization leads to the appearance of a raceless sex education and this ''racelessness'' -a reinforcing of whiteness and white bodies as the standard -is what I am investigating in Ontario and Canada sex education government documents. In order to show the ways that racism and racialization work to produce a raceless sex education, I employ a content analysis based on a key word search of Ontario public secondary school health provincial curricula and the federal sex education policy. Public School curricula were selected based on their sexual health content. English language curricula were selected from Ontario and Canada to maximize the congruency of politics and country of origin. All documents examined were created within the same nine-year range (1999-2008) to maximize similarity in social climate surrounding the documents. Two health and physical education curricula from Ontario were selected as a sample of public school curricula, one of the Grade 9/10 curricula and one of the Grade 11/12 curricula. One set of federal sexual health guidelines, the most recent version of the Canadian Guidelines for Sexual Health Education (2008), was selected as a sample of government policy devoted to sex education. This content analysis provides the basis for anti-racist sex education policy recommendations organized around three vital objectives to be infused into existing Ontario public school sex education curriculum. As anti-racism critically examines the education institution and sexual health curricula are an increasingly politicized example of potentially transformative education, anti-racism must be incorporated into sex education.
Unlikely Bedfellows: The Harper Government and Homonationalism
(2011) Troster, Ariel; Magnet, Shoshana
Doing it Ourselves: Alternative pornography as activist prefiguration
(2011) Lawrance, Sarah; Mason, Dominique
Discrimination raciale au sein des femmes immigrantes sur le marché du travail: le cas des minorités visibles et des minorités non-visibles de Montréal
(2012) Imboua, Ginette; Denis, Ann
Ce travail se veut une étude exploratoire visant à faire des liens entre la race, le lieu de naissance et le niveau d'éducation, afin d'analyser les inégalités qui affetent l'accès à l'emploi des femmes immigrantes, mais plus particulièrement celles issues de minorités visibles. Ce sujet de mémoire puise son importance sur les diverses causes de la discrimination systémique avec un intérêt particulier sur le volet raciale non négligeable qui met l'accent sur le lieu de naissance ainsi que la couleur de la peau comme facteur possiblement déterminant sure le marché du travail à Montréal. À l'aide du recensement de 2006, nous voulons vérifier l'hypothèse selon laquelle, les immigrantes issues de minorités visibles ont un certain désavantage à accéder au marché de l'emploi et à avoir des occupations en haut de l'échelle par rapport aux immigrantes blanches. Notre travail vise à savoir si les immigrantes ont un désavantage par rapport aux femmes nées au Canada mais surtout à savoir si les immigrantes issues de minorités visibles ont un désavantage sur le marché du travail. Ce désavantage serait dû au fait qu'elles ne soient pas nées au Canada d'une part et d'autre part qu'elles ne soient pas blanches.
Intégration des femmes en politique au Burundi: quand le nombre n'est pas synonyme d'influence
(2011) Minani, Pascasie; Tremblay, Manon
Ce mémoire de maîtrise porte sur l'intégration des femmes en politique au Burundi. De manière plus précise, il analyse certains des obstacles qui limitent la représentation descriptive et substantielle des femmes en politique au Burundi. Les femmes sont de plus en plus impliquées dans la gouverne de ce pays depuis le début des années 1990. Ce nouveau phénomène dans la société burundaise a attiré mon attention et j'ai voulu savoir si l'augmentation du nombre des femmes dans la gouverne contribue à améliorer les conditions de vie des femmes dans cette société. Ainsi, à travers la revue de la littérature de sources scientifiques et non scientifiques, j'ai pu étudier le progrès remarquable de la rerpésentation des femmes, en nombre, en politique au Burundi. L'analyse de contenu de textes de seconde main m'a permis de décrire les conditions de vie des femmes dans la société burundaise. Ces conditions de vie laissent à penser qu'il existe un écart entre le nombre de politiciennes et l'influence qu'elles ont sur l'amélioration des conditions de vie des femmes. En d'autres mots, bien qu'il y ait un progrès en ce qui concerne la représentation descriptive des femmes en politique au Burundi, un décalage se manifeste toujours entre leur nombre et leur influence. Cette tension est causée, d'un côté, par des obstacles interliés et complémentaires de nature socio-culturelle et, de l'autre côté, par des obstacles politico-ethniques.
Rehabilitation at Rockwood: Women, Mental Illness and Asylums, Kingston, Ontario 1878-1906
(2012) Terbenche, Danielle; McLean, Lorna
First Nations Women's Evacuation during Pregnancy from Rural and Remote Reserves
(2011) Lawford, Karen; Giles, Audrey R.
Pregnant First Nations women who live on reserves in rural and remote regions of Canada are routinely evacuated to urban cities to await labour and birth; this is commonly referred to as Health Canada's evacuation policy. I produced two stand alone papers to investigate this policy. In the fisrt, I investigated the development and implementation of the Canadian government's evacuation policy. Archival research showed that the evacuation policy began to take shape in 1892 and was founded on Canada's goals to assimilate and civilize First Nations. My second paper employed First Nations feminist theory to understand why the evacuation policy does not result in good health, especially for the First Nations women. Because the evacuation policy is incongruent with First Nations' epistemologies, it compromises First Nations' health. I offer policy recommendations to promote First Nations health in a way that is consistent with Firsy Nations' espitemologies and goals towards self-determination and self-governance.
Not A Sob Story: Transitioning Out of Sex Work
(2011) Law, Tuulia; Smith, Lisa
Although it has been argued that indoor workers in fact make up the majority of the sex industry, most of the literature on the transition out of sex work has looked at street-based workers. This interview-based qualicative research project aims to fill that gap. As such, this thesis examines the trajectories, challenges ans strategies of women who transitioned or are in the process of transitioning from criminalized indoor sex work (escorting, erotic massage and domination) to the mainstream labour market. Using Ebaugh's role exit theory and Goffman's conceptualization of stigma, intersectional feminist analysis and labour theory, I position the transition as a re-negotiation of self, involving conflicts in identity and class location. My findings suggest that the transition out of sex work is charactized by multiple, parallel work trajectories, wherein the women were successfully able to transfer skills they had acquired in sex work to the mainstream labour market.
'She Shoots, She Scares''! Online Reader Responses and the Backlash Agaisnt the 2010 Canadian Olympic Women's Hockey Team on Ice Celebration
(2011) Fortier-Brynaert, Emily; Sethna, Christabelle
Gender double standards continue to affect women's participation in sports. This major research paper investigates the online newspaper coverage of the Canadian Olympic Women's hockey team on ice celebration that took place after the players won a gold medal during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Winter Games. I consider two significant online articles published in the Ottawa Citizenand the online reader responses that appeared as a reply to those articles. Readers expressed concern over these hockey players drinking alcohol, smoking cigars and celebrating on a public ice surface. The readers' unease appears to be indicative of an underlying historically and culturally entrenched opposition to the disruption of white, middle-class norms of feminity. The sentiments expressed by the online reader responses concerning failed role models, public disgrace and classlessness are linked to historical assumptions of female frailty, reproduction, and lesbianism in the context of women's sporting activities today. Three categories of women athletes emerge: the Heterosexy Athlete, the Good Mother and the Failed Woman.
'Forgive Me Ana, For I Have Sinned'': Pro-Ana as Contemporary Asceticism
(2010) Parr, Tarlyn; Anderson, Emma
What Is Liberatory in Feminist Theory Might Be Limiting When Administered On Paper: An Intersectional and Interlocking Antiracist Postcolonial Feminist Discourse Analysis Of the Ministry of Education's First Draft of Ontario's New Secondary 'Gender Studies' Course
(2011) Azevedo, Jessica; Ng-A-Fook, Nicholas
The 2009 draft of the Ontario Ministry of Education's secondary level 'Gender Studies' course is currently undergoing review. Consequently, this study facilitates a (re)reading of this draft with and against the Miss G___ Project's’course objectives' and 'suggested topics of study' put forth on their respective website. To do so, I use an intersectional and interlocking antiracist postcolonial feminist theoretical framework to analyse both the strenghts and limitations of this first draft in relation to the feminist tenets proposed by the Miss G___ Project. In turn, I employ this theoretical framework to critically deconstruct the ways in which this draft of the policy document represents various social issues. Within a standardized Euro-Colonial white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchal framework, the Miss G___ Project envisions this course to challenge oppression in and through the school curricula. Thus, I utilize this study to examine how 'discourses of domination' circulating within a framework can foster the institutional appropriation of Miss G__'s feminist politics as an alternative discourse throughout this particular course draft.
Race, Gender and the Billboard Top 40 Charts between 1997 and 2007
(2011) Durr, Jean; Burns, Lori
In a preceding study, Lafrance, Worcester and Burns (2011) examine gender-related trends on the Billboard Top 40 music charts between 1997 and 2007. Taking frequency and success score distributions as indicators, they determine that the Top 40 charts are characterized by gender inequality, with women charting considerably less often than men. When women do chart, however, these hit songs rapidly approach the number one rank. As a follow-up to their research, this paper combines the gender variable with that of race. Attempts are made to answer the following research question: What is the nature of race-based trends among Black, White and Other artists as they manifest on the Billboard music charts; and, to what extent does the gender variable factor into these findings? By describing frequency distributions, I conclude that race-based trends do exist; as well, they are consistent across both sales and airplay charts. As established in the original paper, gender does prove to be a noteworthy factor in these findings. Key to this study, however, is the finding that signifiers of race equality on the Billboard music charts do not translate into a meaningful indicator of race equality in society at large.
Temporary Labour Importation or a Pathway to Immigration? A Comparative Look at Canada's Live-In Caregiver and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Programs
(2011) Febria, Monina Maria; Spitzer, Denise
Bump Watch' and the Surveillance of Women's Bodies
(2011) Guenette, Tara Lynn; Trevenen, Kathryn
Women and Food Sovereignty: An Ecofeminist Polanyian Perspective
(2011) Bernard, Nadine; Massicotte, Marie-Josée
Preserving Records, Creating Memories, Shaping Research: Inside the Canadian Women’s Movement Archives
(2006) Loyer, Stacey; Gaffield, Chad

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