Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Poststructuralist feminist theory'

While the topic of gender and power in participatory planning has been little researched, it is assuming greater importance both in Australia and overseas. This is occurring as governments seek new community-based solutions to the long-term viability of resources, and planning begins to adopt a more participative, holistic and inclusive perspective based on social justice principles. There are, however, many constraints and barriers to the equitable participation of women in planning. Important factors are male dominance in the underlying theories, ideologies and culture of planning, and gender differences in values, lived experiences and communication practices. Planning and consultation processes have tended to exclude women because they often lack the technical skills, and 'legitimate' knowledge and experience required to contribute equitably. More empowering ways of involving women in planning are seen as essential because of the urgent need to plan and create a more socially just and sustainable future, the fact that women are often most affected by poor planning decisions, take major responsibilities for everyday environmental decisions, and are making significant contributions to creating an ecologically sustainable future. A feminist poststructuralist research framework is developed in this thesis to analyse the constraints on women's participation in planning for sustainable development, and to suggest strategies for change. This framework is interdisciplinary, openly political, and takes a critical, praxis-oriented perspective. Feminist poststructuralism is argued to provide a better framework for understanding the complexity and ambiguity of social and cultural practices, and to be a more effective means of contesting gendered power relations than earlier feminist theories. This study includes a review of a range of relevant feminist theories, a critical analysis of the concepts 'citizenship', 'participation' and 'empowerment', discourse analysis of a consultation policy document and interviews related to the evaluation of a community consultation process, and triangulation of data and theories. The public/private dichotomy is identified as an important means by which women's exclusion from public participation has been maintained. Gilligan's (1982) research into gender differences in ethics and values is considered relevant to the design of participatory processes since it suggests that unless the 'feminine' values of care and connection are used to inform the design of these processes they could be rejected by women or limit their contributions. The concept of communit)r participation is seen as intimately bound to the notion of citizenship and the identity of the citizen within liberal discourse is exposed as masculine. Participation models based on friendship groups and feminist forms of democratic organisation are argued to offer greater solidarity and less hierarchical models, but may impose some negative restrictions. McClure's (1992) notion of political agency in everyday life offers a means of reconceptualising women's activities in community-building as political, thus more highly valued. Foucault's concept of the power/knowledge nexus is used to highlight the role of planning specialists in the production of knowledge and in potentially controlling the process. This validates a critical and empowering approach to community development, but also emphasises the limits to human agency by recognising the relationship between the subject and the social. However, critiques of the concept of empowerment suggests that there are possible contradictions and a hidden paternalism in its usage. Analysis of selected texts concerning the community consultation process demonstrates the gendered hierarchies and exclusions created by the discourses drawn on in these texts, and the disciplinary nature of the participation process. Discourse analysis and deconstruction were found to be powerful methods for exploring the gender and power relations in these texts. The 'ethic of care' discourse women more often access was argued to provide a better model for community decision-making than the 'ethic of judgement' discourse traditionally available to men. Using the 'ethic of care' as a site of resistance was a valuable means of questioning assumptions about power, knowledge, authority, gender and other differences. The effect of the dominance of the 'ethic of judgement' was that scientific knowledge and expertise, rules and procedures, objectivity, efficiency, rationality and rights, associated with 'the masculine', tended to be privileged over the local knowledge and abilities, ethics, subjectivities, community needs, equity considerations, solidarity and connection, associated with 'the feminine'. Several constraints on women's participation in a community consultation process were identified. These included the use of exercises which required 'bureaucratic' knowledge and specialist planning skills rather than local knowledge and experience, and the separation of issues into distinct categories rather than taking a holistic approach. The process worked to construct the participants in gendered ways. For example, it was mainly women who used an 'incompetent participant' discourse. The all-women focus group was considered a more fruitful strategy for exploring these issues compared with the mixed gender focus group. A tentative framework for participation is constructed which is informed by feminist poststructuralism and other feminisms, emancipatory and action-oriented models of education, planning and community development, and the outcomes of the analysis conducted in this study. Strategies for improving community participation processes and enabling the equitable participation of women are suggested. Using a range of creative communication processes and interactive communication technologies which meet women's diverse needs is recommended. A key argument put forward is that alternative concepts, epistemologies and methodologies for designing community participation processes are needed which would make gender differences, and the power relations inherent in gendered relations, central issues of concern. This framework would place greater value onthe 'ethic of care' and the decision-making and knowledge-construction processes which are currently constructed as 'feminine'. The need for such rethinking andredesigning is seen as essential to create a more democratic, socially just, sustainable future. As this study demonstrates, when issues of gender, power, knowledge and difference are ignored, existing inequalities and exclusions are often perpetuated.

This feminist poststructuralist study explores discourses of gendered and sexualized subjectivity of South African women who self‐identify as bisexual. The discipline of psychology has typically upheld a monosexual binary, where heterosexuality and homosexuality are positioned as the only legitimate categories of sexual identification. Within such a structure bisexuality is not considered a viable sexual identity. In broader public discourses female bisexuality is generally constructed in delegitimising ways, such as through constructions that necessarily equate bisexuality with promiscuity or describe it as an eroticized male fantasy, as a threat to lesbian politics, or as a strategy to retain heterosexual privilege. Data collection entailed conducting individual interviews with thirteen bisexual women and the transcribed texts were analysed using discourse analysis. The analysis focused on how bisexuality is Constructed in the interview texts, how the various constructions of bisexuality function and how Gendered subjectivity intersects with participants’ identity as bisexual. The analysis identifies a number of discourses that impact on, in varied and contradictory ways, participants’ positioning as bisexual. In a post‐apartheid context, participants regard fixing their Identity along strictly defined lines of difference as oppressive and resist bisexuality as being primary To their identity. Participants challenge the traditional gender binary through unsettling the automatic Linking of sex, gender and sexuality in discourses of sexual desire. However, participants also demonstrate the coercive effects of dominant discourse in the gendered positioning of subjects, with Heterosexuality in particular functioning as a normative sexual category with implications for participants’ gendered subjectivity. It then appears that parallel to its ability to disrupt the gender binary, bisexual discourse also acts in ways to support it. The analysis further indicates that in claiming a bisexual identity, participants risk marginalization in The face of delegitimising discourses that construct them in negative terms of promiscuity, hypersexuality and decadence. Powerful silencing discourses further construct same‐sex attraction As un-African and as sinful. The analysis concludes with a discussion of participants’ strategies to Normalize bisexuality. This study contributes to research accounts that explore diversity in sexual identification and creates Greater visibility of bisexual women in South African discourses of sexuality. It also contributes to theories of female sexual identities and adds to theoretical debates around the challenge to dominant gender and sexuality binaries posed by bisexuality.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Psychology
unrestricted

This PhD thesis, On Fate and Fatalism: Photography and Fatal Theories, is a twopart practice-led enquiry comprising a book of photographs and an exegesis. This exegesis, entitled Photography and Fatal Theories, is my written interpretation and response to two bodies of artwork presented in my book, On Fate and Fatalism, in which I examine the notion of fate and fatalism through a photographic practice. This project proceeds by posing the question: how can notions of fate and fatalism be explored, articulated and interpreted in a photographic practice? In my series, Femme Fatalist: Woman With Taxidermy, which comprises Part One of my book On Fate and Fatalism, I examine the notion of fate with pertinence to postfeminism and argue that the discourse of postfeminism is enclosed in a discourse of how women relate to popular culture and consumption. My femme fatalist is a parody of the postmodern femme fatale trope, and through conceptualizing popular postfeminism as a form of fatalism, I present a critique of conspicuous consumption as being an insufficient form of postfeminist empowerment. I suggest that the notion of the abject offers a perspective on the importance of the fatal to subjectivity in postmodernity, and my interest in the fatal follows through to my series, Body Bags: “I am a Trash Bag”, which comprises Part Two of my book of photographs. In this second series, in which I conceptualize the plastic bag as the quintessential icon of postmodern consumption, I move toward a consideration of waste as a means to explore the notions of fate and fatalism. Through this investigation I find that to be a fatalist, and to believe in fate, has lost much of its meaning in postmodernity, and I suggest that practice-led research offers opportunities for a meaningful reconsideration of fate and fatalism’s relevance to discussions of postmodern subjectivity and discourses of consumption.

This thesis analyses discourses about the roles and barriers to access for women to decision-making positions in Israeli sport organisations. In particular it focuses on the exploration of discourses of masculinity and femininity that underpin the relatively recent construction of Israel society and the institutions of sport within it. It is observed that for the most part, Israeli sport organisations are governed by men and have served the interests of forms of hegemonic masculinity. In order to understand and explore the social construction of these gendered discourses in Israeli sport, two innovative and significant policy initiatives toward gender equity in sport were explored through the perceptions and discourses of key actors. These include the establishment of a Volleyball Academy for Young Talented Girls (VAYTG) and the creation of the National Project for Women and Sport (NPWS). The theoretical framework for this thesis is informed by poststructuralist feminism, which provided an alternative way to understand and analyse voices of the (predominantly female) 'other' and thus to explore the historical contextual construction of current discourses of masculinity within Israeli sport organisations and society as a whole. The process of narrative revisions and production of gendered knowledge revealed how discourses produce and reinforce gender inequities in Israeli society, such as the discourse of militarisation or the unique political affiliation system in the sporting arena which continue to implicitly exclude women (and some men) from gaining access to leadership positions in sport organisations. Within this theoretical frame, Critical Discourse Analysis was employed as a methodological approach to analyse how female and male interviewees, all considered to be 'insiders' within their organisations, explained the process of the construction of gendered roles and barriers. Included in the interview data was also the auto-ethnographical accounts of the author, who was a primary actor in the process of developing policy in the two case study initiatives addressed. Dominant discourses of femininity (such as the discourse of sisterhood and of the processes of mentoring), and of masculinity (and how these promote uniformity) were identified as mechanisms for reproducing the gendered reality of sport leadership in Israel. The implication of a critical theoretical approach is that it should be emancipatory in its ambitions and impact, and the study is intended to contribute to enhancing the understanding of how discourse not only reflects but also creates barriers and opportunities so that the construction of such barriers can be challenged in progressive policy discourses.

As entertainment reflects a culture's ideology, it is important for researchers to study its messages and subsequently its potential meanings. Entertainment has the power to inform and persuade, creating models for behavior with which the public interacts. The entertainment texts for the purpose of this study are the Castle television series and the Nikki Heat novels. Together, they create a unique multi-layer fictional world. By using postmodern, feminist, communication, and entertainment theories, the results of this study provide a tightly focused lens which views a narrow aspect of entertainment media. Each text was thoroughly examined using textual analysis, Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis, and conversation analysis. Contrary to expectations, the results indicated that the Castle and Nikki Heat texts support hegemonic ideology, particularly through the use of exaggerated stereotypes, strict gender roles, imagery, and narrative choices that help perpetuate rape culture. The discussion outlines how these results can be interpreted through the dominant messages presented in the texts. This research is intended to serve as a foundation for future research regarding entertainment media.

This study focuses on three young women in their final year of school using data gathered during a year-long process of individual conversational interviews, the contents of which were largely determined by their interests. Three themes arise from critical incidents during this year - the debutante ball, teenage pregnancy and dieting. These themes are used to focus wide ranging explorations of what it is to be a young woman at this particular time. The broader cultural production of discursive positions available to, and developed by, these young women as part of their identity formation is discussed. Methodological issues concerning power relationships between research participants are also the focus of critical attention. It is considered that young women's bodies and bodily practices are central to understanding the processes involved in their identity formation. It is in this context that the focus turns to bodies that matter. In contemporary Western cultures 'adolescent bodies' could be said to matter 'too much' in the sense that they are increasingly the focus for disciplinary practices in institutions such as schooling, the church, the family, health care, health promotion and the media. This disciplining is legitimised because adolescence is socially constructed as a 'becoming'. In this case it is a matter of 'becoming woman'; a sort of apprenticeship which allows for knowledgeable others to provide not only guidance and nurturance, but discipline. Using insights gained from feminist poststructuralist theory and cultural feminism this thesis argues that the discourses and practices generated within and across institutions, which are normalised by their institutional base, are gender differentiated. The focus is on young women's embodied subjectivity and how the discourses and practices they engage with and in work to construct an ideal feminine body-subject. The discursive production of a gendered identity has a considerable impact on young women's health and their health-related behaviours. This is explored specifically in the thesis in relation to sexuality and the cultural production of the 'ideal' female body. It is argued that health education and health promotion strategies which are designed to influence young women's health related behaviours, need to consider the forms of power, knowledge and desire produced through young women's active engagement with institutionalised discourses of identity if they are to have an ongoing impact

The institution of schooling is one of the most formative spaces in which young people learn about gender norms and expectations. Rather than being a biological given, gender identity is achieved through gender practices and gender achievements (Butler, 1990/1999; Nayak & Kehily, 2008). This study was a year-long ethnography during which I observed an all girls’ after-school club. The club included 15 girls who were in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. The majority of the club’s participants were African American girls. This ethnography utilized participant observation and interviews. Club documents were also analyzed during data analysis. My primary research question was: How was girlness conceptualized, perpetuated, and performed in an after-school club for middle school girls? Using critical theory and feminist poststructuralism, I investigated the work that goes into creating and maintaining current binary gender formations, and how this is related to race, class, and sexuality.

The present thesis explores how masculinity is constructed and negotiated in relation to race, class and sexuality in hip hop in Sweden. Theoretically, the study contributes to the increasing use of contemporary feminist theory in men and masculinity research. In so doing, it brings into dialogue poststructuralist feminism, feminist phenomenology, intersectionality and queer theory. These theoretical perspectives are put to use in a discourse analysis of rap lyrics by 38 rap artists in Sweden from the period 1991-2011. The thesis is based on the following four articles: Sticky masculinity: Post-structuralism, phenomenology and subjectivity in critical studies on men explores how poststructuralist feminism and feminist phenomenology can advance the understanding of subjectivity within men and masculinity research. Drawing on Sara Ahmed, and offering re-readings of John Stoltenberg and Victor Seidler, the article develops the notion of “sticky masculinity”. Degrees of intersectionality: Male rap artists in Sweden negotiating class, race and gender analyzes how class, race, gender, and to some extent sexuality, intersect in rap lyrics by male artists. It shows how critiques of class and race inequalities in these lyrics intersect with normative notions of gender and sexuality. Drawing on this empirical analysis, the article suggests that the notion of “degrees of intersectionality” can be helpful in thinking about masculinity from an intersectional perspective. ‘No homo’: Straight inoculations and the queering of masculinity in Swedish hip hop explores the boundary work performed by male artists regarding sexuality categories. In particular, it analyzes how heterosexuality is sustained, given the affection expressed among male peers. To this end, the article develops the notion of “straight inoculations” to account for the rhetorical means by which heterosexual identities are sustained in a contested terrain. Hip hop feminism in Sweden: Intersectionality, feminist critique and female masculinity investigates lyrics by female artists in the male-dominated hip hop genre. The analysis shows how critique of gender inequality is a central theme in these lyrics, ranging from the hip hop scene to politics and men’s violence against women. The article also analyzes how female rappers both critique and perform masculinity.

This essay analyzes the Austrian author Ingeborg Bachmann’s novel Malina (1971) from two theoretical perspectives: Freudian trauma theory and poststructuralist feminism, as formulated by Julia Kristeva in Revolution in Poetic Language (1974). Both of these standpoints manages to explain one of the main issues in Malina, that is, how to give voice to that which escapes language. By arguing that the nameless narrator, Ich (I), has been traumatized by patriarchal structures, I show how these perspectives complement rather than exclude each other. Together they manage to give a new and more complete picture of the struggle for language depicted in the novel.

Godkänt datum 2021-06-01

Increasingly since the 1990s those of us who are interested in gender issues in education have heard the question: What about the boys? A discourse has emerged in New Zealand, as in other countries including Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, that attention spent on addressing issues related to the educational needs of girls has resulted in the neglect of boys and problems related to their schooling. Positioned within this discourse, boys are depicted as disadvantaged, victims of feminism, underachieving or failing within the alienating feminised schooling environment and their struggles at school are seen as a symptom of a wider ‘crisis of masculinity'. This anxiety about boys has generated much debate and a number of explanations for the school performance of boys. One concern, that has remained largely unexamined in the Aotearoa New Zealand context, is that the dominant discourse of masculinity is characterised by a restless physicality, anti-intellectualism, misbehaviour and opposition to authority all of which are construed as antithetical to success at school. This thesis explores how masculinities are played out in the schooling experiences of a small group of 5, 6 and 7 year old boys in two New Zealand primary schools as they construct, embody and enact their gendered subjectivities both as boys and as pupils. This study of how the lived realities of schooling for these boys are discursively constituted is informed by feminist poststructuralism, aspects of queer theory and, in particular, draws on the works of Michel Foucault. The research design involved employing an innovative mix of data generating strategies. The discursive analysis of the data generated in focus group discussions, classroom and playground observations, children’s drawings and video and audio recording of the normal classroom literacy programmes is initially organised around these sites of learning in order to explore how gender is produced discursively, embodied and enacted as children go about their work and their play. The research shows that although considerable diversity was apparent as the boys fashioned their masculinities in these different sites, ‘doing boy’ is not inimical to ‘doing schoolboy’ as all the boys, when required to, were able to constitute themselves as ‘intelligible’ pupils (Youdell, 2006). The research findings challenge the notion of school as a feminised and alienating environment for them. In particular, instances of some of the boys disrupting the established classroom norms, as recorded by feminist researchers more than two decades ago, are documented. Concerns then, that “classroom practices reinforced a notion of male importance and superiority while diminishing the interests and status of girls” (Allen, 2009, p. 124) appear to still be relevant, and the postfeminist discourse “that gender equity has now been achieved for girls and women in education” (Ringrose, 2013, p. 1) is called into question. Amid the greater emphasis on measuring easily quantifiable aspects of pupils’ educational achievement, what this analysis does is to recognize the processes of schooling as highly complex and to offer a more nuanced response to the question of boys and their schooling than that offered by, for example, men’s rights advocates. It suggests that if we are committed to improving education for all children, the question needs to be re/framed so as not to lose sight of educational issues related to girls and needs to ask just which particular groups of boys and which particular groups of girls are currently being disadvantaged in our schools.

Postkoloniale Theorie bezeichnet ein breites Spektrum theoretischer Zugänge zu und kritischer Auseinandersetzungen mit historischen und gegenwärtigen Machtverhältnissen, die im Zusammenhang mit dem europäischen Kolonialismus und seinen bis heute währenden Fortschreibungen stehen. Als Gründungsdokument postkolonialer Theorie gilt Edward Saids Studie „Orientalism“ (1978). Postkoloniale feministische Theorie fokussiert auf die Situation von Frauen bzw. auf vergeschlechtlichte Identitäten in (neo-)kolonialen Settings. Neben der Konstruktion von Gender und Geschlechterrollen sind Sexualität und Begehren wichtige Topoi postkolonialer Theorie. Ein weiteres Themenfeld stellt die Dekonstruktion eurozentrischen / westlichen Wissens dar.

Postkoloniale Theorie bezeichnet ein breites Spektrum theoretischer Zugänge zu und kritischer Auseinandersetzungen mit historischen und gegenwärtigen Machtverhältnissen, die im Zusammenhang mit dem europäischen Kolonialismus und seinen bis heute währenden Fortschreibungen stehen. Als Gründungsdokument postkolonialer Theorie gilt Edward Saids Studie „Orientalism“ (1978). Postkoloniale feministische Theorie fokussiert auf die Situation von Frauen bzw. auf vergeschlechtlichte Identitäten in (neo-)kolonialen Settings. Neben der Konstruktion von Gender und Geschlechterrollen sind Sexualität und Begehren wichtige Topoi postkolonialer Theorie. Ein weiteres Themenfeld stellt die Dekonstruktion eurozentrischen / westlichen Wissens dar.

Depuis les années 80, le développement rapide des nouvelles technologies microélectroniques a donné naissance à une nouvelle génération d’oeuvres d’art musicales. Souvent, ces oeuvres profitent d’une approche analytique provenant de la théorie des médias. En même temps, de nouveaux courants dans la philosophie ainsi que dans les études culturelles ont engendré une nouvelle notion de genre (anglais : gender), qui vient s’établir dans la musicologie anglo-américaine et, de manière plus conscrite, dans la musicologie allemande ; jusqu’ici, elle ne s’établit guère dans la musicologie française. Cette thèse entreprend une investigation théorique d’oeuvres d’art électroniques, tout en utilisant la notion de gender : gender + electronic = gendertronics. Pour cette investigation, des notions sont employées dérivant de la lecture féminine : une approche pluridisciplinaire associée à l’écriture féminine d’Hélène Cixous (* 1937), écrivain et théoricienne poststructuraliste. Puisque ni la lecture féminine ni la théorie des médias ne prend en compte des éléments musicaux, cette investigation incorpore également des aspects de l’analyse musicale. Trois artistes sont considérées : Gerhard Stäbler (*1943), Terre Thaemlitz (*1968) et Miss Kittin (*1973). L’investigation trace le développement des notions de « sujet » et de « matériau musical » depuis la théorie poststructuraliste et la musique contemporaine jusqu’à des notions philosophiques émergentes du « corps ». Une considération particulière est le genre musical electronica, repérant ses antécédents dans la musique électronique expérimentale en Europe du vingtième siècle et dans les musiques populaires de danse aux Etats-Unis dans les années 80 et 90. L’investigation cherche à joindre les recherches récentes dans ces domaines. Elle ouvre de nouvelles pistes et propose des nouveaux outils pour explorer plus profondément le domaine émergent des gendertronics
Since the 1980s, rapid development of new micro-electronic technologies has spawned a new generation of musical art works employing electronic means. These artworks are often theoretically approached using media theory. Contemporaneously, new developments in philosophy and in cultural studies have given rise to the new notion of gender, which has since found its way into Anglo-American musicological and, to a more limited degree, into German musicology, though not at all into French. The present work undertakes a gendered theoretical investigation of electronic art works – gender + electronics = ‘gendertronics’. For the investigation, notions stemming from lecture féminine are employed, a pluralistic reading approach associated with écriture féminine of the poststructuralist theorist/writer Hélène Cixous (born 1937). Since neither lecture féminine nor abovementioned media theory takes musical elements into account, this investigation also draws on music analysis. Aspects of the works of three artists are considered: Gerhard Stäbler (born 1943), Terre Thaemlitz (born 1968), and DJ Miss Kittin (born 1973). The investigation traces the development of the topics ‘Subject’ and ‘musical material’ from poststructuralist and New Music theory of the 20th century to emerging new philosophical notions of the body. Particular attention is given to the development of the musical genre ‘electronica’, tracing its antecedents from European experimental electronic music of the 20th century and from American popular dance music of the 80s and 90s; subgenres treated include rave, glitch, clicks-and-cuts, electroclash, techno, electro, ambient, and house. The investigation complements recent research addressing lacunae in these areas and offers new paths and tools for future investigation in the emerging area of gendertronics

The increasing psychologisation of domestic violence in the past 25 years is an example of what Rose (1985) terms the 'psychological-complex'. The psy-complex rests on a particular understanding of the subject of psychology. The subject is the unitary, rational and psychological being. This understanding of subjectivity is gendered as it identifies women as responsible for the transferal of the psy-complex to the family. The psy-complex is analysed as a form of power resting on this gendered subjectivity. It is also analysed as a form of power that has escaped feminist scrutiny due to the feminist assumptions. that power is repressive and prohibitive.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

Drawing on a collection of interviews with Canadian feminists, this thesis explores the emergence of a ‘second wave’ of feminist organizing in Canada from 1965 to 1975. Using insights from poststructural feminism and critical race theory, I deconstruct the notion of ‘hegemonic feminism’ and examine how certain women came to inhabit a position of hegemony during the movement’s early years. I focus on key events in feminist organizing during the 1960s-1970s: The Royal Commission on the Status of Women and the founding of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. Drawing on oral history interviews and a close reading of the report on the RCSW, I suggest that more nuanced approaches are needed to move beyond the binary thinking that inflects accounts of Canadian feminist history. I conclude with a series of feminist narratives which aim to complicate linear histories and offer an alternative reading of this movement.

Women in the Theological Anthropology of the Afrikaans Reformed Tradition This dissertation examines women in the theological anthropology of the Afrikaans Reformed Churches. The study is set out as follows: In Chapter 1, a survey of methodology is presented. The exposition of the question about the theological anthropology is done against a poststructural background. Both structuralism and poststructuralism largely put aside existentialism as an inadequate methodology. Chapter 2 aims to give an overview of the contribution of Michel Foucault. The chapter begins with a discussion of structuralism. This brief overview is then followed by a classification and investigation of the basic aspects of Foucault's approach. The chapter highlights Foucault's rootedness in poststructuralism. Chapter 3 attempts to explain silence of women in the theological anthropology of Dutch Reformed Church. The central aim of Chapter 3 is to demonstrate, against the development of the women ministries and the discourse about the ordination of women, that the Dutch Reformed Church theological anthropology is deeply influenced by the discursive practices developed during 1928-1932. Chapter 4 gives an overview of the developments in the theological anthropology of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church, Dutch Reformed Church of Africa and the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa that took place from 1924 until 2002. Different approaches to the women question developed in the course of time. At the heart of the discourse is the shift in the reading process. The developments in the feminist standpoint theory as such led to this displacement. In Chapter 5 the deconstruction of the theological anthropology are being discussed. Preference is given in this chapter to the concept partnership or transformative relations. In the concluding chapter [Chapter 6], a poststructural feminist discourse is presented. Selected guidelines that the church may wish to take into account in the deconstructing of the theological anthropology are suggested. In the future, the frame of reference to the women question would likely be poststructural.
Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics
D. Th. (Systematic Theology)

In this thesis I address the following questions: (1) How do dykes take up space in public in contemporary cities? (2) How does the ‘marching dyke’ emerge as a subject and what kind of subject is it? (3) How, in turn, do marching dykes affect space? In order to examine these questions I focus on the Toronto Dyke March to ask how it emerged in this particular time and place. The answer to each of these questions is paradoxical. I argue that the Dyke March is a complex, complicated and contradictory site of politics, protest and identity. Investigating ‘marching dykes’ reveals how the subject of the Dyke March is imagined in multiple and conflicting ways. The Toronto Dyke March is an event which brings together thousands of queer women annually who march together in the streets of Toronto on the Saturday afternoon of Pride weekend. My research examines how the March emerged out of a history of activism and organizing and considers how the March has been made meaningful for queer women’s communities, identities, histories and spaces. My analysis draws together queer and feminist poststructuralism, cultural geography literature on sexuality and space, and the history of sexuality in Canada. I combine a Foucaultian genealogy with visual ethnography, interviews and archival research. I argue that the Dyke March is an event which is intentionally meaningful in its claims to particular spaces and subjectivities. This research draws connections across various bodies of scholarship and offers an interdisciplinary contribution to the literature, contributing to discussions of queer women’s visibility and representation. Although my analysis is focused on Toronto as a particular site, it offers insight into broader queer women’s activist organizing efforts and queer activism in Canada.

While sorting through my experiences as a student teacher, my research question has shifted from “How can teacher education be improved?” to “How is teacher education represented?” I am interested in the juxtaposition of these two inquiries, and use them not to suggest pedagogical rules, but to draw attention to the kinds of spaces such a juxtaposition opens up. The shift in my research question is influenced by the discursive turn—the movement from social justice theories to poststructuralist theories, from theories based on experience to theories based on discourse. Questions of representation are the focus not only of poststructuralist theories but also of psychoanalytic theories, or theories of the unconscious, and both theories acknowledge that representations of reality are excessive: they contain more and less than that which they represent (Orner et al., 2005). The concept of excess enables me to make sense of moments in my teacher education program that could not be contained by dominant educational discourses of knowledge, reflection, and inclusion. The excessiveness of a teaching strategy called the Six Thinking Hats troubles the theory/practice binary in discourses of knowledge. The excessiveness of an assignment about philosophies of teaching, and a class discussion in response to the film Submission trouble the enlightenment/ignorance binary in discourses of reflection. And, the excessiveness of my attempt to question curricular content troubles the normal/exceptional binary in discourses of inclusion. I use excessive moments from my teacher education program to question existing discourses, and to suggest that we need to change the stories we tell ourselves about education (King, 2003). Our current educational discourses perpetuate histories of violence that we have inherited, and I suggest that social justice, poststructuralist, and psychoanalytic theories will enable us to more effectively heal from these inherited histories.
Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2007-12-04 16:19:40.676
This work was funded in part by a Canadian Graduate Scholarship granted by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (766-2006-0775).

This study explores how heavily tattooed women with a history of childhood sexual abuse give meaning to their tattooing practices in view of the recent appropriation of tattooing by the mainstream. Embodied feminist poststructuralist theory revealed the ways that dominant discourses on gender, beauty, painful body modifications, and childhood sexual abuse intersect and interact in attempts to shape the identities of the participants. These intersections also reveal the participants’ resistance strategies and the process of identity transformation they engage in as they get tattoos. The constitution of identities through discourses offers alternative ways of seeing this population, challenging dominant discourses regarding female survivors of childhood sexual abuse tattooing practices. The research methodology used was a qualitative approach based on ‘interpretive interactionism.’ This approach makes visible and accessible to the reader, the problematic lived experiences of the participants through their narratives. The research methods involved several in-depth interviews with three heavily tattooed women who were survivors of childhood sexual abuse. The analysis involved interpreting the meanings participants gave to their tattooing practices in relation to how they construct their identities as they negotiate gender ideology, the tattoo renaissance, self-injury practices as related to tattooing, healing from childhood sexual abuse and oppressive beauty ideals. This study unearthed alternative ways of conceptualizing painful practices, female aesthetics, tattooing, women’s body reclamation projects, emotional trauma release, embodied domination, and bodily learning. It also offered insights into how the participants fragment their subjectivities and actively take over the authorship of their identities as they also try to positively influence their environments, challenge beauty norms and seek healing outside of traditional therapeutic environments.