Tag: Gender Power & Change

Bridget Jones as the New New Woman: What She Reads and What She Wants; a Postfeminist Literary Criticism

Presenter: Alexandra Fus, English, Clark Honors College

Panel: Gender, Power & Change

Mentor: Jennifer Levin, Clark Honors College

AM Session Panels

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm

Location: Century D

“Chick lit” is not nearly so familiar a term as “chick flick,” but since the phenomenal success of Helen Fielding’s novel, Bridget Jones’s Diary, this popular women’s fiction genre has become the subject of serious debate among even high literary critics. As the ur-text for chick lit, Bridget Jones’s Diary’s protagonist offers a postmodern, postfeminist revision of the New Woman– a cultural and literary female archetype who has been continually re-modified since her emergence at the turn of the nineteenth century. As a symbol for what it means to be modern, liberated, and female, Bridget Jones has been condemned by critics as antifeminist, while writers and fans insist that she personifies empowering possibilities for feminism and popular women’s fiction. Using textual analysis, I argue instead that Bridget Jones’s role as the newest New Woman merits consideration free from either fans’ pride or critics’ prejudice, for its simultaneous rejection and engagement with all the New Women that came before, Bridget Jones’s Diary presents an individualistic reimagining of postmodernist postfeminism. Indeed, Bridget’s alternately anxious and empowering expression of a multiplicity of female identities suggests that women of the twenty-first century have become so modern and liberated that they can now choose not to be contained within any New Woman archetype.

Power and Control in the lives of Female Victims and Perpetrators of Domestic Violence: An Empirical Investigation

Presenter: Nicole Snyder, International Studies: Focus on Gender and Power

Panel: Gender, Power & Change

Mentor: Deborah Baumgold, Political Science

AM Session Panels

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm

Location: Century D

The discourse of domestic violence typically defines domestic violence in terms of physical assault. This project critically examines this assumption using the insights of Steven Lukes’ theory of power. He theorizes that power is wielded in three dimensions. The first dimension is overt conflict. The second dimension is having the power to control the conversation. The third dimension is power over another. Each dimension builds and reinforces the next, resulting in powerlessness. It brings to bear as evidence the oral stories of ten women concerning their personal domestic violence experience. It demonstrates that, as experienced by these women, there is more to domestic violence than domestic assault. Rather, the design and purpose of domestic violence is to reduce and eventually remove agency. Victims are survivors of a process that erodes their sense of self, stifles their liberty and obstructs access to rights.

Femininity and Athleticism: Title IX at the University of Oregon

Presenter: Lauren Goss, History

Panel: Gender, Power & Change

Mentor: Ellen Herman, History

AM Session Panels

Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm

Location: Century D

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 addressed the discrimination of students at any educational institution that received federal funding. Intended to focus on unfair admission practices, Title IX is best known for improving the treatment of female intercollegiate athletes. However, the intricacies of reconciling the federal standards of equality presented substantial challenges, and each institution confronted the ideological intersection of femininity and athleticism in various ways. The University of Oregon administration remedied cases of overt discrimination, most notably in facility access, but acute examples persisted. Becky Sisley, the first and only women’s athletic director for the University of Oregon, served as the driving force for changing athletic policies for women athletes. In extensive interviews, former female athletes corroborate this struggle for recognition. Archival evidence shows the University of Oregon administration presented concerns about increased funding for women’s athletics during the 1970’s. However, the Women’s Intercollegiate Association survived on a meager budget and remained autonomous until the Athletic Department combined men’s and women’s athletics in 1977. The merger, and Sisley’s resignation shortly thereafter, hindered any further attempts for reaching true equality. Discrimination against female athletes persists at the University of Oregon and there is just cause to explore gender equality in all aspects of higher education.