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.

Personal histories are deeply rooted into my way of existence, far before my brain became ready to challenge such notions. While Americans have been witnesses to the splintering effects of colonialism and patriarchy on socialization, I ask two questions: (1) Where to stand within a society that promotes the marginalization of both women and brown bodies? And (2) how to combat these harsh realities and protect those most affected?

Being both Black and woman, I decided to embark upon a quest of self-actualization in this document. “Ain’t She Sweet: A Critical Choreographic Study of Identity & Intersectionality,” tracks the creative process and concept design behind my applied project for the Master of Fine Arts in Dance. Developed in extensive rehearsals, community engagement, journaling processes, and lived experiences, the physical product, “Ain’t She Sweet,” explored concepts such as identity, socialization, oppression, decolonization, sexuality, and civil rights. The chapters within this document illustrate the depth of the research conducted to form the evening-length production and an analysis of the completed work.

This study explores the topic of the birth control use of college women, and the factors that influence their decision of whether or not to use contraception consistently. A literature review was performed on Academic Search Premier, SocIndex, Women's Studies International, Pubmed, CINAHL, and ICRW. Interviews were conducted with 7 participants recruited through convenience sampling. The results suggest that low perception of risk, lack of access, and alcohol use are all major influences on women's decisions regarding birth control. A review of current policy was also completed, and potential policy changes are suggested in order to improve college women's consistent contraceptive use.

The goal of the International Rescue Committee (IRC, created by Albert Einstein in 1933) is to serve those “whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future,” (6), by providing victims of humanitarian crises with health care, education, and counseling. The IRC of Phoenix branch holds this same mission through the services it provides to the refugees of the Phoenix area. One important need that is not currently met by the IRC of Phoenix is the special health care needs of pregnant refugee women. The IRC of Phoenix is seeking funds to initiate a new “Prenatal Care Program” to meet the needs of the 40 or so pregnant refugees who come to our area each year.
This new program will build upon the existing programs currently provided by the IRC of Phoenix, including support in areas of resettlement, finance, community integration, and health. The objectives of this new prenatal-focused program are to serve the needs of pregnant refugee women by providing the physical and emotional support they need through partnerships with hospitals (such as Saint Joseph’s Hospital) and organizations (such as the Refugee Women’s Health Clinic of Phoenix).
The target audience includes women who seek refuge in the Phoenix area in the midst of a pregnancy, or with the intention to become pregnant and who are receiving other services from the IRC of Phoenix. This grant will fund a prenatal care caseworker position for as long as there are incoming funds and pregnant refugee women in Phoenix. The prenatal care caseworker’s duties include:
● Monitoring the overall health of pregnant refugee women assisted by the IRC of Phoenix
● Expanding access to prenatal care for pregnant refugee women
● Connecting pregnant refugee women with necessary information on healthy pregnancies and introducing them to childcare programs that the IRC of Phoenix currently provides
● Creating and maintaining strong relationships with hospitals and health care facilities
● Accompanying pregnant refugee women to medical appointments as needed
● Participating in all other duties necessary to ensure the safe pregnancy of refugee women under the care of the IRC of Phoenix
To evaluate the success of the program, the IRC of Phoenix will monitor the number of pregnant refugee women seeking help and monitor health to see how the women are being served and the number of these women who are fully served based on the above objectives. The required grant money needed each year amounts to $40,000. A multi-year commitment of at least five years is expected. This funding represents the annual salary of the newly hired caseworker, and the IRC of Phoenix will be covering administration costs, supplies, and equipment.

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.

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.

This study investigates how health care provider interactions with female LGB patients are related to the health disparities affecting LGB women. The study uses a combination of a rigorous literature review and interviews with LGB women (and one genderqueer individual) between the ages of 18-22. Issues related to heterosexism were found to be a particularly prevalent cause in the creation of tension or mistrust in LGB women's relationships with providers. Relationships with providers that were negatively affected by heterosexist norms were found to have a detrimental effect on how LGB women utilize healthcare services.

Abstract Knit Together: Craft, Community, and Victims of Domestic Violence Allison Miller Domestic violence shelters play a major role in victim's pathway to survivorship. Through an account of what constitutes domestic violence, who experiences domestic violence, data accumulated on domestic violence, and overview of domestic violence shelters and programs, and a snapshot view of a local domestic violence shelter in Phoenix, Arizona, this paper seeks to define and address the gaps in research involving victim's roads to survivorship, specifically as they involve community building, empowerment, and avenues for stress release. Finally, the project records the researcher's experiences and observations of a knitting and crochet group established in the local shelter.

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.

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.