Ugly and unspeakable : girls, anger, and counterpornography.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Department of English, 2017.This inquiry considers female-authored texts, published from 1976-2013, which detail girls' entrance into the sexual realities of heteronormativity in a manner that refuses to sanitize the uglier, darker aspects of this process or the ugly feelings that are one of its results. By making subversive use of language—both verbal and visual—these works illuminate how girls' agency, particularly their sexual agency, has been obstructed and make visible the violence implicit in this obstruction. In reaction to the emotionality and sexual explicitness of these works, many readers have responded with anger and disgust while also marginalizing these texts by categorizing them as pornographic, an assessment which ultimately leaves the important contributions of these works unconsidered. However, a far more appropriate way to categorize these texts would be as counterpornographic, texts in which female authors willfully expropriate the traditionally male domain of sexually explicit, or obscene, language as a way of countering the phallocentric narrative of erotic life dominant in pornography and society at large. Taking into consideration a number of critics' affective responses and the implicit politics present in such responses, the first counterpornographic work I examine is Andrea Dworkin's Mercy. In this novel, Andrea, the narrator, runs up against a wall of language, language which consistently fails to successfully articulate the anger and painful experiences, sexual and otherwise, of growing up girl. To tell her truth as accurately as possible, Andrea feels she must not only use "true words," i.e. "dirty words," but must also develop a language of her own, which is made "in blood." Hers is a story told in a voice that many find both overwrought and disturbing, one often read as hysterical and excessive. The next set of texts I consider come from the graphic writers Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Phoebe Gloeckner. These authors utilize the obscene and affectively-charged quality of explicit pictorial and written representations of sex to challenge the current gender order. Their texts publicly submit a pointed complaint about girls' subordinate status and the violence that results from the sexualized innocence imposed upon young female bodies. The last counterpornographic text I analyze is Marie Calloway's what purpose did i serve in your life. Calloway mimics pornographic conventions—specifically, the popular pornographic script that eroticizes the innocence and cuteness of young girls—in her narration and in her photographs in order to highlight the more brutal aspects of contemporary heterosexual relations. Like Dworkin's Andrea, Marie's voice has been judged as irritating and self-centered. Rather than seeing this critique as an accurate assessment of her voice, it is crucial to recognize it as one in a long line of standard readings of female voices, readings which have allowed the truths they share to be dismissed

Snacks, beverages, and physical activity during volunteer-led out-of-school-time programs: a cross-sectional analysis

Abstract Background Tens of millions of children regularly participate in out-of-school-time (OST) programs, providing an opportunity for child health promotion. Most research on OST has focused on structured, staff-led after-school programs, as opposed to volunteer-led programs such as enrichment programs and youth sports. The aim of this study was to describe snacks, beverages, and physical activity (PA) practices in volunteer-led OST programs across five organizations in three states. Methods An online survey including the Out-of-School-Time Snacks, Beverages, and Physical Activity Questionnaire was distributed to 1,695 adult leaders of enrichment and youth sports programs serving 5–12 year-old children in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, USA. The response rate was 57.8%, with 980 leaders participating and 698 (136 youth sports, 562 enrichment) remaining after data cleaning procedures. Frequencies were calculated to describe snack, beverage, and PA offerings during typical meetings and whether healthy snack, beverage, and PA criteria were met. Criteria were developed a priori with the intent to capture co-occurring practices that together indicate healthy snack (fruits and vegetables or no snack over salty/sweet snacks); beverage (water over sugar-sweetened beverages); and PA environments (regular opportunities for >15 or 45 min of PA in enrichment and sports programs, respectively). Results About half of enrichment leaders reported that snacks and beverages were provided during typical meetings vs. one-fifth of sports leaders. In 28.4% of enrichment programs, PA was offered at every meeting vs. 98.5% of sports programs. Among enrichment programs, 50.4 and 25.8% met healthy snack and beverage criteria, respectively, and 29.4% met PA criteria, with 27.6% meeting criteria in two or more areas, and 5.0% in all three. Among sports programs, 72.8 and 78.7% met healthy snack and beverage criteria, respectively, and 71.3% met PA criteria. Eighty-two percent met criteria in two or more areas, and 46.3% met criteria in all three. Conclusions Most programs did not meet criteria for healthier snacks and beverages and opportunities for PA during typical meetings, indicating room for improvement in encouraging widespread adoption of these practices. Efforts to improve the healthfulness of snacks and beverages and increase opportunities for PA during volunteer-led OST programs are warranted

Nitrogen Metabolite Repression of Metabolism and Virulence in the Human Fungal Pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans

Proper regulation of metabolism is essential to maximizing fitness of organisms in their chosen environmental niche. Nitrogen metabolite repression is an example of a regulatory mechanism in fungi that enables preferential utilization of easily assimilated nitrogen sources, such as ammonium, to conserve resources. Here we provide genetic, transcriptional, and phenotypic evidence of nitrogen metabolite repression in the human pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. In addition to loss of transcriptional activation of catabolic enzyme-encoding genes of the uric acid and proline assimilation pathways in the presence of ammonium, nitrogen metabolite repression also regulates the production of the virulence determinants capsule and melanin. Since GATA transcription factors are known to play a key role in nitrogen metabolite repression, bioinformatic analyses of the C. neoformans genome were undertaken and seven predicted GATA-type genes were identified. A screen of these deletion mutants revealed GAT1, encoding the only global transcription factor essential for utilization of a wide range of nitrogen sources, including uric acid, urea, and creatinine-three predominant nitrogen constituents found in the C. neoformans ecological niche. In addition to its evolutionarily conserved role in mediating nitrogen metabolite repression and controlling the expression of catabolic enzyme and permease-encoding genes, Gat1 also negatively regulates virulence traits, including infectious basidiospore production, melanin formation, and growth at high body temperature (39 degrees-40 degrees). Conversely, Gat1 positively regulates capsule production. A murine inhalation model of cryptococcosis revealed that the gat1 Delta mutant is slightly more virulent than wild type, indicating that Gat1 plays a complex regulatory role during infection