Disney has been releasing Disney Princess films since 1937. They started out with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and just now, a thirteenth film has been added to the list: Moana. A distinct...Show moreDisney has been releasing Disney Princess films since 1937. They started out with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and just now, a thirteenth film has been added to the list: Moana. A distinct change in character is noticeable when looking at the princesses. The princesses from the first generation (1937-1959) have passive characters, they are submissive, enjoy domestic chores and play no active role in their own tales. They simply wait to be swept off their feet by a prince. In fact, they represented what people considered to be the perfect woman in those days. However, nowadays, that is not what we consider the perfect woman to be. The second generation princesses (1989-1998) introduced a change. They were rebellious, took agency and instead of falling for any man, they wanted the right one. However, these films still focus on finding love, as if that is all that a woman's life should be about. The most recent princesses (from 2010 onwards) are increasingly more independent and active. They do not rely on men to save them, take matters into their own hands and determine their own fate. They are progressive princesses and continue to increasingly become more proactive and independent. These new princesses provide the twenty-first-century audience with role models they can actually learn from. Disney is not there yet, but they are slowly but surely letting go of the Disney formula.Show less
The Islamic pilgrimage, the Hajj, is known as one of the biggest movement of people in the world. This annual event has long become the meeting point of Muslims from various places. In the late...Show moreThe Islamic pilgrimage, the Hajj, is known as one of the biggest movement of people in the world. This annual event has long become the meeting point of Muslims from various places. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the face of hajj changed significantly due to the advance in technology, opening of transportation routes and involvement of colonial government in conducting the hajj. The number of hajj participants from the Dutch East Indies, which were also known as the haji jawa increased greatly, including the female pilgrims, which made up 20-30% of the total pilgrims from the region. This thesis puts gender and colonial perspective together to study the female pilgrims and hajjah from the Dutch East Indies in comparison to the male counterparts. This thesis addresses the issue of how the Dutch colonial government perceived the female pilgrims and hajjah from the Dutch East Indies, such as what kind of themes appeared in the depiction of female pilgrims in the archives, where and when the female pilgrims were mentioned or not mentioned and why, and how it eventually relates to the production of knowledge about it. Contrary to the popular beliefs that the pilgrims were all male, there were many female pilgrims and many of them stayed in Mecca as moekimers. Women were mainly depicted as wife and companion, and victim of violence and slavery. They were underplayed in the archives and had never been under the spotlight in comparison to male pilgrims which were regarded as very important due to the possibility of being subversive and rebellious. The downplayed depiction of female pilgrims in the archives is continued until today in the historiography of hajj.Show less
This thesis studies the current differences in lexical choice in male and female speech in Dutch in order to find out which Dutch language features are indicative of the gender of a speaker and...Show moreThis thesis studies the current differences in lexical choice in male and female speech in Dutch in order to find out which Dutch language features are indicative of the gender of a speaker and which Dutch language features laypersons associate with a certain gender. While the field of language variation due to gender has increased in popularity, there is still little research available about the differences between male and female speech in languages other than English. This thesis was written in order to add to this currently underrepresented subject within the field of language variation due to gender. Furthermore, this thesis also focuses on the subject of lexicality, which is a subject that is often overlooked in favour of other parts of language variation, such as the variation in the use of certain language acts, the variation in voice and the frequency of interruptions. Social indexicality and previous studies about the differences between male and female speech are discussed in this thesis, before the methodology is explained. The data used in this thesis consist of fifty transcribed conversations from Dutch television programmes such as Van de Kaart, and these data were scrutinized for the presence of various gendered language features, such as the use of negation or locatives. Furthermore, twenty-five participants were asked to read three transcriptions and to indicate what they thought the gender of the speaker was. While the data showed that all analysed language features are used by both men and women, there is often a difference in the frequency of use, which means the feature is either feminine or masculine. For example, the use of negation is more frequent in female speech, while men use more quantities. Laypersons, on the other hand, determined the gender of speakers both through contextual clues and the lexical choices made by the speakers.Show less
Gothic Literature forms an important piece of the foundation of feminism and gender-equality movements that are existent today; throughout the centuries literature has been a vehicle for commentary...Show moreGothic Literature forms an important piece of the foundation of feminism and gender-equality movements that are existent today; throughout the centuries literature has been a vehicle for commentary (even in times when outright protest could be dangerous), and the Gothic is no exception. As such, Gothic Literature forms a representation of the society that formed its’ base, and a study of the gender roles as portrayed within the novels allows for an understanding of the gender roles within Gothic society- even more importantly, the novels of the time contain the bases of the changes that marked the period. The writers of the Gothic commented on the old patriarchy through their prevalently male adversaries warring against young heroines, and called for a new form of patriarchy that would rid women of the sometimes violent oppressions they suffered under outdated notions of gender roles. The heroines of the Gothic as such become the embodiment of a new generation of women that treaded outside their traditional sphere, demanding education and rights, even if remaining under the protection of their fathers and husbands. This commentary on patriarchy, and the representation of proto-feminism in Gothic Literature will form the core of my research, and this thesis.Show less
Community-based Eco-tourism (CBET) has been promoted as a model that can reconcile sustainable development and environmental conservation, and ultimately empower local populations. However, how...Show moreCommunity-based Eco-tourism (CBET) has been promoted as a model that can reconcile sustainable development and environmental conservation, and ultimately empower local populations. However, how this empowerment is achieved in particular among women is still largely debated given the gender norms in which these models are embedded. By focusing on Costa Rica as a case study, and drawing on an array of empirical evidence collated through desk research, this dissertation examines the role and participation of women in CBET initiatives; seeking to understand how women have been empowered through such models, and what the underlying factors that can promote or inhibit this. This study highlights that while the participation of women in CBET has been largely confined to the domestic spheres and underpinned by gender-defined activities, such opportunities are important in kick-starting and fomenting an initial process of empowerment that can be positively attributed to these schemes. Such changes are an initial stage of empowerment that can certainly ripple to other spheres and ultimately empower women.Show less
This thesis investigates mixed nominal constructions, both complex (with an adjective) and simplex. Such constructions create potential conflict sites in Spanish-English code-switching. Spanish and...Show moreThis thesis investigates mixed nominal constructions, both complex (with an adjective) and simplex. Such constructions create potential conflict sites in Spanish-English code-switching. Spanish and English differ for (1) adjective-noun order: Spanish typically has post-nominal adjectives, whereas English has pre-nominal adjectives, and (2) grammatical gender: Spanish has a binary gender system, while English does not. A multi-task method was conducted in the Spanish-English bilingual community in Puerto Rico. The tasks comprised of an elicitation task (cf. director-matcher task, Gullberg, Indefrey, and Muysken 2008) and an auditory grammaticality judgment task. The predictions from the Matrix Language Framework (MLF, Myers-Scotton 2002) and a minimalist analysis from Cantone and MacSwan (2009) are tested against the collected data. The results from both tasks tend to indicate that the Matrix Language approach provides better predictions than the minimalist approach in every respect except for adjective-noun order constructions in the judgment task. This slight preference, however, is not significant. Toy task results for gender assignment in Spanish determiners indicate that there is a preference for the assignment of default gender, i.e. masculine in Spanish, rather than gender that is analogue to the translation equivalent of the noun. This preference is confirmed by judgment task results that include simple nominal constructions, but not by judgment task results for complex nominal constructions. I assume that adjectival presence in complex nominal constructions may have to do with this. Implications of my results for the theories and the methodologies are discussed.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
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This thesis investigates three films by pre-revolutionary Russian director Yevgeni Bauer, in which men obsessed with portraits of dead women enter into relationships with female stage performers,...Show moreThis thesis investigates three films by pre-revolutionary Russian director Yevgeni Bauer, in which men obsessed with portraits of dead women enter into relationships with female stage performers, who die as a result of this relationship. I argue that the stasis and death invoked by the portraiture these men obsess over clashes with the kinetic nature of these women, which is indicated in part by their self-expression on the stage, in such a way as to introduce the necessity of female death into the relationships. Further, I argue that the construction of the films indicates a critical view of the male position in these relationships.Show less
This thesis will examine changing gender roles and the ideal of equality in marriage during the Middle Ages using two medieval tales: The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell and Chaucer’s Wife...Show moreThis thesis will examine changing gender roles and the ideal of equality in marriage during the Middle Ages using two medieval tales: The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell and Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale. In both tales, the figure of the loathly lady is an important character who overthrows traditional gender roles and embodies a new kind of ideal woman. She defies the gender binary by not conforming to her expected gender role and by conveying the message that women want sovereignty over their husbands. The ultimate goal, however, is not for a woman to be superior to a man, but for both to live as equals in marriage. In this thesis I will apply medieval gender theories to both The Wedding if Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle and The Wife of Bath’s Tale in order to show the inferior position that women were expected to take, especially in marriage, and how the loathly lady proposes a new ideal of equality by claiming that what women actually want is to have power themselves.Show less
In this thesis I will research how young Indonesians express their identities or how they create new identities in the period from the 1990s until today and I will examine this through forms of...Show moreIn this thesis I will research how young Indonesians express their identities or how they create new identities in the period from the 1990s until today and I will examine this through forms of Indonesian popular music. Popular music is an important site of cultural struggle and can reveal much about class, gender and other social divisions. That is why I want to zoom in on these social divisions by dividing them in class, religion and gender, to see how each of them relates to popular music and identity formation. I choose to focus on class, religion and gender because these have undergone drastic and interesting transformations during the period I want to examine, allowing people to reconsider their place or someone else’s in the social ladder, as a religious person or as a woman or man in society. Popular music and the way people consume it can reveal a lot about people’s thoughts and conceptions on class, religion and gender in contemporary Indonesia. The period from the 1990s until the present knew for example a remarkable growth of the Indonesian middle class who adopted a consumerist lifestyle and wanted to set themselves apart from the lower class, using popular music among other things. Concerning religion, I will focus on the developments of Islam in Indonesia, the religion of roughly 90% of the country's population. The fall of Suharto has been a significant turning-point for religious expression, because for much of the New Order, Islam was marginalized especially in the political sphere and Islamic organizations were restricted. After 1998, Indonesian Muslims could express themselves more freely, leading to an amplified process of Islamization which includes the creation of new Islamic political parties, the rise of radical Islam and the expression of religious identities in public that could not be expressed before, particularly extremist ones. Moreover, in the 21st century Muslim pop culture has flourished immensely and popular music has helped in the process of articulating religious identity. Finally, issues of gender, including for example femininity, masculinity and the role of women in the family have become a more prominent subject of discussions and debates in the past two decades. Women's rights groups and opinions about feminism have more political support than before, but so has (conservative) Islam. This leads to diverse opinions about popular female artists who are regarded as a role model to some and an actor of immorality to others. Popular music is a strong medium to spur debates about gender and to introduce new images of how young men and women can, or should, dress and behave. Consequently, this makes young Indonesians rethink and possibly reshape their gender identities.Show less
This thesis sets out to explore workplace communication of a multinational organization, through electronically transmitted messages (emails) involving employees in three power distance...Show moreThis thesis sets out to explore workplace communication of a multinational organization, through electronically transmitted messages (emails) involving employees in three power distance relationships, namely superiors to subordinates, subordinates to superiors and equals to equals. To carry out this study a corpus of 107 primary, work-related internal emails, written in English as a lingua franca by twelve participants, was gathered. Importantly, the participants belong to different nations, thus they have different linguistic backgrounds. This study aimed to examine the language use in the informants’ email and to shed more light on how people of various levels within a company, communicate in different ways. Therefore, intercultural communication is used as the principal analytical framework, so as to describe the communication between different employees, from various ethnicities and with various cultural backgrounds while performing a discursive and socio-pragmatic study using speech act and politeness theories. In this study, speech act theory, in an adapted version, is used for allocating the email messages gathered based on their communicative functions. Further, in order to investigate important pragmatic aspects of language use the theory of Brown and Levinson (1987) concerning universal politeness strategies is employed. The study further considered significant factors, which may influence the linguistic choices people make when communicating through email in the workplace, namely ethnicity, social distance and gender. The findings revealed that hierarchy played the most significant role in the composition of email messages, amongst the three power distance relationships. Likewise, social distance and cultural background were influential factors, however, the study found that gender differences did not play a crucial role in the politeness level displayed in workplace email communication. Interestingly, the study provided evidence that workplace culture plays a critical role and can affect the language use in email communication amongst employees at all hierarchical levels.Show less
This thesis researches the famous late Ming writer and compiler Feng Menglong who played a pivotal role in establishing vernacular fiction and in elevating the image of women in his literary works....Show moreThis thesis researches the famous late Ming writer and compiler Feng Menglong who played a pivotal role in establishing vernacular fiction and in elevating the image of women in his literary works. My thesis addresses the question of how Feng Menglong challenged the culturally constructed notions of gender in the Sanyan, his most celebrated anthology of vernacular short stories. I argue that Feng Menglong challenged the yin-yang hierarchical gender structure that permeated Chinese society where men were valorised and women were marginalised. His literary works are recognised for their extraordinary and profound psychological portrayal and moral comprehension of gender relations. His Sanyan stories are also noted for the sympathetic treatment towards women. I have analysed three Sanyan stories that illustrate his positive portrayal of women, for he portrayed his female characters as morally superior in regard to their male counterpart. He often portrayed women with agency and assertiveness in pursuing their personal happiness, which challenged the gender stereotypes in Chinese society and was unconventional for his literary time period.Show less
China’s exceptional growth, since the early 1980s, has been accompanied by a startling rise in gender-wage inequality. Gendered occupational segregation is identified as a primary cause, and has...Show moreChina’s exceptional growth, since the early 1980s, has been accompanied by a startling rise in gender-wage inequality. Gendered occupational segregation is identified as a primary cause, and has been a prominent feature of China’s economic transition and integration into the global economy. The channeling of women into low-skill, low-wage occupations is an often neglected factor in the story of China’s export-led economic growth and the development of its growing service industries. The purpose of this thesis is to establish how the revival of traditional gender norms in China has contributed to high levels of occupational gender-segregation and rising wage inequality. In particular this thesis focuses on changing constructions of gender as advanced by the state, through social policy and labour regulations, and in state media.Show less
This thesis explores gender roles in contemporary South Korean society through their representation in television melodrama. The thesis argues that the opinions held by the society are not apparent...Show moreThis thesis explores gender roles in contemporary South Korean society through their representation in television melodrama. The thesis argues that the opinions held by the society are not apparent in the conservative societal practices. This is explored through survey data collected by Statistics Korea. It also argues that popular media such as television melodrama should represent rather the held opinions than the held practices in order to further the adoption of less conservative practices. The study of Wang’s Family shows that this is not the case. Concentrating on the gendered division of labor, the textual analysis of Wang’s Family shows that it represents the practices not the opinions. This shows that there is still work to be done in closing the gap between opinions and practices in the society regarding the gendered division of labor. Wang’s Family also represents other forms of gender roles that still persist in the society.Show less
