James Marion Sims (1813-1883) is known as the ‘godfather of gynaecology.’ This American doctor had a career spanning Alabama, New York City and even undertook a European tour. He founded the United...Show moreJames Marion Sims (1813-1883) is known as the ‘godfather of gynaecology.’ This American doctor had a career spanning Alabama, New York City and even undertook a European tour. He founded the United States’ first Woman’s Hospital, but one of his first major contributions to medicine was finding a cure for vesico-vaginal fistula: the tearing of the vaginal wall due to trauma. This launched his career in medicine. However, he found this cure by performing medical experiments on enslaved Black women in his private clinic. In the Woman’s Hospital his patients were predominantly Irish immigrant women from the working classes of the city. This research explores what made it possible for a White man such as Sims to perform these unethical experiments on these women, who were racialised as Black. Through Foucault’s concept of the medical gaze and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s intersectional feminist critique, this thesis explores the professionalisation of medicine in the nineteenth century, scientific racism, the genesis of gynaecology, racial formation, medical experimentation and how Sims fits into these structures. The focus is the identity formation of Sims himself and his patients, who were intersectionally marginalised. Considering their race, class, ability and gender, one can reconstruct how they fit into the fabric of American society, and why exactly Sims and his colleagues were allowed to experiment on enslaved, working class, ill women when they never considered treating more privileged women (or men) in such a manner.Show less
The author Agatha Christie wrote more than sixty detective novels between 1916 and 1973. Christie wrote her detective stories during a time in which English society also experienced the first and...Show moreThe author Agatha Christie wrote more than sixty detective novels between 1916 and 1973. Christie wrote her detective stories during a time in which English society also experienced the first and second wave of feminism. This thesis will investigate to what extent the first and second wave of feminism influenced Christie’s depiction of her well-known female detective Miss Marple and her views on women’s roles and identities in British society. This analysis will focus on the following three Miss Marple novels: The Murder at the Vicarage (1930), A Murder is Announced (1950), and Nemesis (1971). Eventually, this thesis will show that the feminist thought and activism key to the first and second wave of feminism have had a significant influence on Christie’s depiction of Miss Marple. Throughout these years, Christie has gradually increased Miss Marple’s agency, prominence and engagement with feminist thought expressed in her time. Even so, the exploration of feminist thought concerning same-sex relationships presents to be a boundary for Christie.Show less
Representative of the new and daring generation, Matsui Fuyuko experiments with traditional Japanese art and infuses it with grotesque motifs that respond to contemporary interests and anxieties....Show moreRepresentative of the new and daring generation, Matsui Fuyuko experiments with traditional Japanese art and infuses it with grotesque motifs that respond to contemporary interests and anxieties. She discusses the delicate topics of female suffering and self-expression, which broaches unavoidably the salience of religious influence on the historical formation of gender roles in the Japanese society. In this thesis, I will analyze this subject through the dichotomy of purity versus impurity, as it is instrumental in organizing space in the lives of ordinary Japanese. In varied contexts, purity is used to contrast the sacred and the abominable, the clean and the polluted, or the male and the female body. By placing the paintings of Matsui Fuyuko in the syncretic religious context unique to Japan, it is possible to establish a connection between Buddhist meditation practices and Shinto rituals. In this sense, the aesthetic collation of the pure feminine and the shock-inducing realism of the rotting female corpse in Matsui's paintings can be seen as a form of social protest against pernicious gender biases. She challenges the traditional expectations towards women to display humility, self-restraint and to embrace their role as mothers and caretakers by instead painting them in defiant and provocative poses. The main question to be tackled in this research is how the painter modifies the concept of purity to communicate her feelings and ideas to the viewer through artistic means. I will disclose why the art of Matsui Fuyuko can be seen as an emotional purification of the artist, a meditative tool for the audience, as well as how it defies traditional views on the female body.Show less
Master thesis | European Politics and Society: Vaclav Havel Joint Master Programme
open access
Female political representation differs significantly between countries. Patriarchal structures and gender biases that hinder women's representation are pervasive and can be identified in seemingly...Show moreFemale political representation differs significantly between countries. Patriarchal structures and gender biases that hinder women's representation are pervasive and can be identified in seemingly progressive governments, challenging claims of increased gender equality in the global North. This thesis explores the differences in female political representation in parliament between two popularly deemed progressive European countries: the Netherlands and Finland. It does so by adopting a novel approach and engaging with the top-down personal perspective of politicians within parliament. Using semi-structured elite interviews, this thesis focuses on the causes for the gap in female political representation between these countries while also discussing what the interviewees envision as possible improvements. The parliamentarians provided unique insights into how gender stereotypes, gatekeeping, and unpaid care work determine the level of women's political representation. The results indicate that female parliamentarians, next to having more role models, centred childcare and parental leave at the core of the policies to address the disparity in female representation between the Netherlands and Finland and increase female political representation overall. This thesis thus contributes to gender and political studies.Show less
This thesis examines how Greta Gerwig’s film adaptation Little Women (2019) retains Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 eponymous novel’s progressive ideas about gender roles, marriage and women’s ambitions...Show moreThis thesis examines how Greta Gerwig’s film adaptation Little Women (2019) retains Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 eponymous novel’s progressive ideas about gender roles, marriage and women’s ambitions for its present-day audience. The theoretical foundation of this research is based on the adaptation studies written by Julie Sanders and Linda Hutcheon.Show less
An analysis of how female character's are portrayed in the late '90s and early '00s adaptations 10 Things I Hate About You, She's the Man, and Never Been Kissed of the Shakespeare plays: Taming of...Show moreAn analysis of how female character's are portrayed in the late '90s and early '00s adaptations 10 Things I Hate About You, She's the Man, and Never Been Kissed of the Shakespeare plays: Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It.Show less
This thesis aims to explore whether the song WAP (2020) by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, exemplifies a paradigm shift in feminism. WAP caused much outcry and grew rapidly in fame because of its...Show moreThis thesis aims to explore whether the song WAP (2020) by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, exemplifies a paradigm shift in feminism. WAP caused much outcry and grew rapidly in fame because of its sexually provocative imagery and lyrics, unlike other similar songs. The question arises: If Cardi and Megan’s song is so unique that it might be the start of a feminist paradigm shift, or whether it follows an already established trend? First, the song is looked at scene by scene, scouting for reoccurring elements. Then, general representational tactics of women in media are analyzed, which help evaluate the elements in WAP further, determining feminist or non-feminist tactics. Lastly, the music of other female artists like Madonna, Lil Kim and Christina Aguilera are studied in order to determine whether WAP is following a trend or stands on its own. After exploring these different aspects, it is possible to see that WAP is a starting point for a feminist paradigm shift in media, of which there are likely more artists or songs to follow.Show less
This thesis analyzes the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and the first three seasons of the HULU series in their historical contexts, and relates them to feminist activism in both eras...Show moreThis thesis analyzes the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and the first three seasons of the HULU series in their historical contexts, and relates them to feminist activism in both eras. The thesis investigates how relevant literary representations of injustice and oppression are within the broader discourse of human rights, equality and freedom. By juxtaposing the Feminist views of the writer, producers and its political climate in the 1980s during Ronald Reagan's administration and during the 2010s Trump administration the radicalisation of its activism and the change in current political protests are shown.Show less
This thesis aims to address the question: “How does the representation of Kurdish cultural resistance in visual art made by the Kurdish-Dutch diaspora fit within the Kurdish political discourse?”...Show moreThis thesis aims to address the question: “How does the representation of Kurdish cultural resistance in visual art made by the Kurdish-Dutch diaspora fit within the Kurdish political discourse?” To answer this question, films by Beri Shalmashi and Reber Dosky were analyzed by means of Visual Discourse Analysis on the basis of themes and symbols that fit within Kurdish political discourse. Unlike traditional International Relations (IR), this thesis takes an aesthetic turn and presents a more expressive and critical view from a diasporic narrative of the Kurdish question, which will deepen the knowledge concerning this conflict through visual discourse analysis. The themes and symbols discussed are cultural memory and collective trauma, the geo-linguistic homeland, autonomy, feminism, and the Kurdish mountains. These themes and symbols are all linked to Kurdish nationalism and cultural resistance and play an important role in the creation of a Kurdish identity among the Kurds living in diaspora. Moreover, this thesis demonstrates how the Kurdish diasporic community represents itself and how politicized Kurdish culture is.Show less
