The Erotic Hunt: Gender and Space in Early-Ninth-Century Carolingian Verse

This essay analyzes descriptions of royal and imperial Carolingian women on hunts in both the Paderborn Epic and Ermold’s Carmen in honorem Hludowici Caesaris. It compares these early ninth-century verses to their main classical model, Virgil’s Aeneid, and considers how the latter’s ambiguous depictions of Dido and Venus might have inflected the Carolingian’s poems’ depictions of women. Recognizing that the poets’ panegyrical intentions appear at odds with these ambiguous Virgilian exempla, the article investigates the royal hunt as a poetic stage, considering how the chase offered a public space in which to present positive depictions of women. The essay ultimately argues that these poems, rather than straightforward praise of women or of female leadership, confine their acclaim to particular women leading in specified ways and in specified spaces and construct the hunt as an ideal space for such exercise of power

My Ladys Soul : The Successes of Elizabeth Siddal & Jane Morris, & the Rise of the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood

This thesis demonstrates that Elizabeth Siddal and Jane Morris, two muses of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, used their creative talent, writing, and direct and indirect actions to combat the Victorian notions held by the Brotherhood and inspire other female artists. The Brotherhood was begun in England in 1848, with aspiring artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman-Hunt, John Everett Millais, and four others redirecting their output against the teachings of the British Royal Academy. Rather than upholding the High Renaissance artist Raphael as the ultimate painter and role model, Rossetti and his cohorts set out to prove the Academy wrong, basing their art on what came before Raphael, using ballads, poems, murals, and more as a source of inspiration. Despite receiving praise for paintings like Ophelia (1852) and Bocca Baciata (1859), the men conformed to the patriarchal society of their day, presenting beautiful faces that were impassive and in need of rescue. This same dynamic came to life within the Brotherhood’s studios, with their models being considered damsels in distress while the male artists donned the role of knight in shining armor. Initially models to Rossetti, Holman-Hunt, and Millais, Siddal and Morris took it upon themselves to break out of the mold of Victorian muse through paint, pen, and needle. This thesis contends that Siddal and Morris demonstrated their own agency through their art and words, recruiting other women within their community to create the PreRaphaelite Sisterhood. In drawings like The Lady of Shalott (1853) and poems like “True Love,” Siddal would insert a female-driven narrative into the Pre-Raphaelite sphere while Morris, in presenting embroideries like The Homestead and the Forest quilt (1890) and private letters, would circumvent the idea that only the Brotherhood could be artistically successful. Overall, both women redefined themselves and what it meant to be a Pre-Raphaelite

Menstrual Poverty and Stigma in the United States

Menstrual poverty is a rarely researched in the United States, but it affects the lives of many individuals. Menstrual poverty is when women and individuals who menstruate are unable to afford products for their menstruation. My research highlights the ways in which students at the University of Iowa have experienced menstrual poverty and stigma, and the ways in which the secrecy of this topic prohibit change. An online survey was conducted with 185 students from the University of Iowa who have experienced menstruation. Interviews were conducted with four of these students, as well as two menstrual poverty nonprofit employees. Through using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this research was able to show the scope of the problem, and the many barriers impacting possible solutions. Improved access to menstrual products is vital to the health and success of women and individuals who menstruate and must become a well-known issue that deserves to be addressed on a national level

Universalizing Adaptive Preferences

This honors thesis attempts to reconcile adaptive preferences (APs) with the autonomy of the oppressed. I thus investigate APs closely, a term used in the feminist philosophical literature to communicate a distinct feature of marginalized and oppressed people–the undue influence of systems of oppression on their preferences, decisions, and overall autonomy. I have aimed to situate this concept within a broader discussion of autonomy theory to get at the heart of this project: constructing an account that universalizes APs, one that asserts it as a phenomenon affecting people of all social locations. To better illustrate social positioning, I assert that all people are variously situated within any given dominant social imaginary; in this way, our agentive capacities are inherently tied to that social imaginary. My account thus puts forth necessary normative questioning to alleviate failures by theories to appropriately understand the oppressed person’s actions, preferences, and even compliance with oppressive norms. Simultaneously challenging the current application of APs, while also acknowledging the concept’s marked influence on the field of feminist ethics and autonomy theory, my account makes room for identities which shift, an intersectional perspective, a critique of the privileged who by way of their social locations often help maintain oppressive structures, and social resistance. The final portion of this project looks at competing accounts to answer a question of resistance and outlines specific examples of adaptive preferences held by the privileged person that one might learn to resist

Precarious Manhood: Adolescence and Group Rape in Late Medieval Europe

Sexual assault, through coercion or violence, was omnipresent at every level of medieval society and perpetrated by males from all socio-economic backgrounds. This article argues that a specific type of sexual violence—group rape—committed by two or more individuals, was a phase of men’s social development. It explores the connection between adolescence and sexual aggression to show that collective rape was a feature of male youth culture used a form of recreation to gain sexual experience, forge bonds with peers, and publicly prove masculinity as adolescents transitioned from childhood to adulthood. Many young males first learned to rape in groups before committing lone rape. Thus, as a form of sport that perpetuated a rape culture, sexual violence became a significant mode of interaction with women. This article proposes that group rape was not only an expression of manliness due to the precariousness of masculine identity but also functioned to redirect male homoerotic desire onto the bodies of women

Islamic Rule and Iranian Women in the Films of Hatef Alimardani

This article reconsiders some Western textual and visual (mis)representations of Muslim women as mentally imprisoned by Islamic rules and patriarchy through analyzing three prominent films by the Iranian screenwriter and director, Hatef Alimardani (b. 1976). It begins by a brief discussion of the portrayals of women in Islamic societies promulgated by Anglo-American media. Then, by examining For Pooneh’s Sake (Beh Khāter-e Pooneh, 2013), The Nameless Alley (Kucheh-ye Binām, 2015), and Ābā Jān (2017), box-office hits offering sociocultural critiques through realistic cinematic depictions of contemporary Iranian society, it demonstrates how Alimardani’s films dismantle stereotypical and essentialist portrayals of Muslim women by Western media and scholarly works, and thus, help us better understand the lived experience of women in Islamic countries

Thin endometrial lining during frozen embryo cycles: a case-control study of risk factors and natural history

Objective: To identify predictors of thin endometrial lining in the first frozen embryo transfer cycles and to characterize the natural history of this condition over subsequent cycles. Design: Retrospective case-control study Conclusions: This study shows that prognosis after a diagnosis of thin endometrial lining is favorable. Lower weight and thinner fresh cycle lining are predictors of thin endometrial lining in FET cycles. Most importantly, women with a diagnosis of thin endometrial lining have similar live birth rates as those with adequate endometrial lining, although their time to achieve live birth is slightly longer

Effect of dexamethasone on reducing pain and gastrointestinal symptoms associated with cesarean section: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Dexamethasone has analgesic and antiemetic actions that have been documented in the literature. Therefore, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate its overall effectiveness in reducing a variety of negative outcomes after cesarean section. Objectives: To investigate the efficacy and safety of dexamethasone for reducing pain associated with cesarean section, nausea, vomiting, pruritus, postoperative need for analgesia, postoperative antiemetic requests and headache. Methods: We searched PubMed, Cochrane CENTRAL, SCOPUS, and Web of Science for relevant clinical trials. We then performed a systematic review and meta-analysis, including only randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials. Our main population target was women undergoing elective cesarean delivery. The intervention under consideration was dexamethasone administered both by intravenous (IV) or subcutaneous (SC) over a variety of doses. The comparator was a placebo. Our main outcomes included: (1) perceptions as indicated by pain scores, (2) occurrence of nausea and (3) occurrence of vomiting. Secondary outcomes included: (4) occurrence of pruritus, (5) need for postoperative analgesia, (6) need for postoperative antiemetic drugs and (7) occurrence of headache. We assessed the quality of included studies using the risk of bias tool described in Cochrane\u27s handbook for systematic reviews of interventions. Results: We found that dexamethasone seemed to significantly reduce scores for pain at rest (p\u3c0.001), as well as occurrence of nausea (p\u3c0.001) and vomiting (p\u3c0.001). The drug also showed significant reduction of negative symptoms in other secondary outcomes, including need for postoperative analgesia (p\u3c0.001) and postoperative antiemetic drugs (p\u3c0.001). However, the drug showed no significant effect in reducing headache and pruritus or in improving pain at movement scores. Conclusion: Dexamethasone appears to decrease perception of pain at rest and protects against nausea and vomiting. However, it does not seem effective against headaches or pruritus