Embodied: The Stanford Undergraduate Journal of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Embodied is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal focusing on themes of feminism, gender, and sexuality. Founded in 2021, Embodied is a student-run initiative dedicated to facilitating discussion, inquiry, and scholarship in this historically overlooked field. The journal publishes original research, as well as academic papers, features, editorials, creative writing, and multimedia pieces. It welcomes submissions from undergraduates and co-terminal students at all academic institutions. Submission is not exclusive to Stanford affiliates.
Throughout the 2012-2014 American fantasy series, The Legend of Korra (TLoK), co-creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko used their platform to portray characters and situations that would cause viewers to challenge their social biases. In their series finale, they tackled the challenge of representing a queer identity in the genre of children’s cartoon that had previously assumed it as too taboo. However, while the network airing the show was accepting of the possibility of the portrayal, they heavily censored how far this representation would extend. They would allow hints into the relationship between Korra and Asami, but an overt romantic gesture would not be allowed on air. Yet despite such discouraging news, DiMartino and Konietzko ultimately decided to work within these boundaries, using thoughtful scrutiny in the writers room during the finale’s creation. In choosing direct parallels to heterosexual romances already present in the Avatar Universe and directly addressing audiences on their animation’s intent, TLoK reclaims its queer representation as something more than a product of censorship. In doing so, the queer representation affirms its subtlety as a virtue beyond the constraints it was born from, ascertaining the subtlety as an artistic choice in portraying a more realistic and accessible representation of a queer identity. Though such accessibility was not understood in the culture of the show’s creation, the show’s later reclamation and the world’s changed cultural view of the LGBTQ+ community now marks a new era of queer media that articulates a more complex identity beyond its queer representation.
Copyright (c) 2026 Embodied: The Stanford Undergraduate Journal of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
This study is a mixed-method content analysis of eight Spider-Man live action movies, looking at six female love interests (including Mary Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy, Liz Allan, and MJ Watson) over the course of the movie franchise. To accomplish this task, all incidents where the love-interest was on screen and all incidents where Spider-Man/Peter Parker was on screen with the love-interest were examined. This study indicated that despite an overall increase in contemporary gender roles, decrease in traditional stereotypes, and subordinate depictions of love interests, dominant depictions did not increase over time. Furthermore, when the love interests exhibited more traditional femininity, it made them more appealing to Spider-Man. Taken as a whole, this means that though depictions of women in superhero media may have progressed to the point where women can take on the characteristics of the ‘contemporary women,’ the media may not have progressed to that same extent for male/female power relationships, with women being equal most of the time, subordinate some of the time, and dominant none of the time. Thus, depictions of women in media still are influenced by patriarchal structures (though lessened) as they have throughout the history of film.
Tawaif, who were all women, were major contributors to poetry, dance, and music in India. However, tawaif today are primarily recognized as a group of women involved in prostitution and sex work, and their contributions to poetry and performance have been largely forgotten. This reductionist view has obscured their vital contributions to the cultural and literary life of South Asia. This article, therefore, revisits the history of the tawaif in pre-colonial and colonial contexts and deconstructs the poetry of Mah Laqa Chanda (d. 1824), a tawaif and a poet, to address the erasure of women’s oral and written voices in Urdu literary traditions. The article employs Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory of sign to understand the interpretation of “tawaif” as both a word and an identity over time. Furthermore, it applies Jacques Derrida’s method of deconstruction to critically analyze Chanda's poetry, arguing that tawaif literature offers a powerful model for understanding how women appropriated dominant cultural forms to subvert patriarchal structures.
This paper analyzes the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning through a blended lens of feminist, disability, and queer theory to explore how the queer ballroom culture depicted in the film demonstrates both a subversion and embracement of queer and trans enfreakment through ballroom culture, removing the voyeuristic, othering gaze of dominant society. I employ the disability studies term “enfreakment,” coined by David Hevey to refer to the process by which difference becomes fashioned as otherness. Through an exploration of the joint history of queerness and disability and of freak show history, I ultimately use Paris is Burning to argue that ballroom culture constitutes a refashioning of the freak show, inverts the “freaky” spectacle and instead putting normality on display.
This paper investigates the reproduction of gender bias in voice assistants, a prevalent application of artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly integrated into everyday life. Despite their apparent neutrality, voice assistants often embody and reinforce traditional gender stereotypes, primarily through the widespread use of female voices that exhibit submissive and service-oriented behaviors. Drawing on feminist philosophy of science, this study critiques the assumption of objective and value-free technology by highlighting how socio-cultural power structures influence AI development. Key factors such as biased training data, algorithmic design, and the male-dominated technology sector contribute to the perpetuation of gendered norms in AI systems. Through an analysis of linguistic interaction patterns and technical foundations, the paper demonstrates how these biases manifest and explores their broader societal implications. Furthermore, the study discusses potential strategies for fostering gender-equitable AI, including diversification of training datasets, development of gender-neutral voice models, transparency in algorithms, and incorporation of diverse perspectives in technology design. Ultimately, this work underscores the urgent need for responsible AI development that actively challenges entrenched gender biases and promotes inclusivity in digital technologies.
Unveiling L'objet petit a in Anaïs Nin’s “The Veiled Woman”: A Lacanian Reading of Femininity in Erotica
The similarities between the works of French-born Cuban writer Anaïs Nin and French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan suggest a novel avenue to interpret Erotica as a literary genre. I hypothesize that by reading Nin through Lacan—more specifically by applying the Lacanian gaze as an instance of objet petit a to Nin’s short story “The Veiled Woman”—we subversively perceive Nin’s female characters as the more active and dominant agents, thus reconsidering themes such as power, femininity, and sexuality in Erotica. Analyzing the gaze as a thematic agent in Nin’s erotica can also provide new insight into psychoanalysis that encompasses a wider range of subjects. Possible gaps that this paper hopes to bridge include the overlooked and misunderstood value of psychoanalytic theories in literary criticism as well as Lacan’s own elusive seminars and repeatedly remodeled theories. I attempt to put forth possible explanations for and reconsiderations of Lacan’s gaze as exemplified in “The Veiled Woman.”
Copyright (c) 2025 Embodied: The Stanford Undergraduate Journal of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
A Pornographic Ethnographic Study: The Lives of Online Sex Workers
This ethnographic research examines different experiences of female-bodied performers in the adult film industry. The pornographic industry carries the reputation of being exploitative and seedy. Through analysis of the performer’s lived experiences, it becomes clear that the industry is far more nuanced than most assume. The average daily experience of online sex workers is reviewed and examined, and then the mental, emotional, and social impacts that performers face from their line of work are explored. The unique communities they build and how they find support are discussed as how these intersect with judgment and shame. This paper explores how the roles of stigma, trauma, and embodiment of sexualized characters greatly shape the experiences of online sex workers.
This essay extends Black feminist theorist Hortense Spillers’s (1987) concept of pornotroping to an Asian context, examining how cinematic tropes perpetuate Asian fetishization. Focusing on the hypersexualized portrayals, namely the Lotus Blossom and the Dragon Lady, as manifestations of Asian pornotroping, it explores how these depictions construct abject female Asian subjectivities. Through an analysis of the hypersexualized tropes in Madama Butterfly (1904), Miss Saigon (1989), and The World of Suzie Wong (1960), I argue that Asian pornotroping emerges as a legacy of Woan’s (2008) concept of White sexual imperialism. This legacy not only incites and justifies White Saviorism but also imposes a destitution/sexuality matrix onto Asian subjectivities, signaled through physical features or cultural markers. Ultimately, Asian pornotroping obscures the colonial violence inflicted by the West on the Asia-Pacific in the 20th century, reinforcing a colonial narrative of a progressive, humane Occident contrasted against an underdeveloped, backward Orient.
Reading Trans Resistance and Care in Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen
Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen is the subject of scholarly literature studying domesticity, subjecthood, young adult life, and urban placemaking in contemporary Japan. This paper looks primarily at transgender life making, care, and hybrid resistance and struggle through the character of Eriko. Using the frameworks and critical analysis of transgender Marxist theory, I analyze Eriko’s role in both the domestic sphere and the club where she works, finding that Eriko’s care work makes, shapes, and gives life to queer joy in otherwise bleak capitalist modernity.
Might for Right: Martial Arts for Youth Development and Women’s Empowerment
Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) is a growing tool, implemented in part to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), two of which include youth development and women’s empowerment. Martial arts programs present a unique opportunity to further these development goals as they have been proven to increase physical and mental strength, teach life skills, provide mentorship opportunities, and allow women and girls to challenge restrictive gender norms. However, despite the proven benefits of martial arts programs, a framework for successfully establishing martial arts SDP programs is lacking. The following research examines demographic data and interviews with students, parents, and instructors from two Jhoon Rhee Tae Kwon Do schools in Virginia to determine aspects of this program that have contributed to its successes. Based on this data, I present the Snakes and Ladders framework for martial arts programs to effectively achieve SDGs.
“Skinned” is a lyrical essay I wrote for a Creative Nonfiction course at the University of California, Santa Barbara. It was inspired by a childhood photo of my older sister and I which encapsulates my admiration of and dependency on her when we were younger. Weaving together the boundaries between dysphoria, body dysmorphia, and a medicalized approach to womanhood and beauty through a therapy questionnaire, the essay explores the difficulty of becoming a woman after a girlhood spent as another’s shadow.
Having a Voice, Behind Heard: Lessons on Gender Dynamics in Policy Conversations
In this narrative-style report, the nuanced challenges women face in asserting their voices within male-dominated policy spaces are brought to light through interviews with thirteen women across lobbying, policymaking, and academia. We examine persistent barriers such as interruptions, microaggressions, and societal double standards that undermine women’s contributions, particularly in male-dominated fields like financial services. We also explore how women navigate these dynamics, employing strategies like confidence-building, direct communication, and fostering support networks to amplify their voices. Despite generational progress and increased representation in leadership, inequities in conversational dynamics persist, shaping whose voices are heard and valued. By celebrating women’s resilience, ingenuity, and the power of mentorship, we underscore their growing influence in reshaping leadership and policy discourse while highlighting the ongoing work needed to achieve true equity.
The Sociolinguistic Benefits of Multilingualism for the LGBTQ Community
It is well elucidated in the field of sociolinguistics that language is a key determinant in the way individuals interact with themselves and others, and that multilingualism thus has implications in deepening personal expression. However, there is very sparse research done in the domain of how this linguistic fixture interacts specifically with LGBTQ expression, an oddity considering that much of contemporary queer pride is conveyed through linguistic expression, fostering a fortified sense of belonging and assurance within one’s own identity.. My research examines not only how language itself can change queer expression, but also how LGBTQ multilinguals have a unique set of tools to shape their social interactions and promote community. In addition to consulting linguistics and queer historical/sociological research, I interviewed three multilingual queer undergraduates at Stanford University with a series of semi-structured, narrative questions. When combined, my investigation allows for this paper to focus extensively on the mechanistic particularities of multilingualism that beget sociolinguistic benefits for queer individuals. Namely, linguistic adaptation, cultural navigation, and socioemotional connection are key themes that presented themselves in the journeys of queer multilinguals. These findings underscore the possibility of linguistic diversity as a means to nourish greater inclusivity and understanding, and have crucial ramifications for the amelioration and amplification of community, identity, and belonging.
The Dark Side to Delivery: Illuminating the US Black Maternal Health Crisis
In the United States, pregnant and postpartum women are dying at the highest rate among developed countries. This crisis disproportionately impacts Black women, who are three times more likely to die during childbirth than white women (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020). A plethora of factors contribute to this disparity. Black women are more likely to experience lower quality healthcare or be unnecessarily recommended riskier surgeries such as cesarean sections even in low-risk births. Additionally, they have lower access to affordable healthcare plans that administer maternal care (Martin et al., 2019). The CDC reports that 60 percent of maternal deaths are preventable, highlighting the urgent need to improve maternal health quality and accessibility in the United States. This paper argues that poor Black maternal health and Black maternal mortality constitute a public health crisis in the United States. While existing research highlights socioeconomic barriers as key contributors to health inequities, this paper identifies implicit bias as the underlying driver of these disparities. Drawing on the lived experiences of Black women and systemic racial bias in healthcare, it provides a nuanced understanding of Black maternal mortality. During the recent Biden-Harris administration initiatives demonstrating an interest in Black maternal health, they advocate for holistic solutions, including eliminating racial biases, ensuring equitable and patient-centered care, and improving maternal healthcare quality.
But I’m a Cheerleader; a Camp Critique of Heteronormativity
The essay critically analyzes Jamie Babbit's 1999 film But I'm a Cheerleader as a subversive critique of heteronormativity through the lens of Camp. The film, set in a conversion therapy camp, uses humor and exaggerated gender roles to challenge societal expectations of gender and sexual orientation. By employing Camp, the movie undermines the seriousness of the conversion therapy process and highlights the absurdity of gender norms when taken to their most literal sense. The analysis draws on theories of gender performativity by Judith Butler and concepts of heteronormative discourse by Gayle Rubin, alongside various scholarly interpretations of Camp. This essay argues that the film reclaims Camp as a queer mode of expression, using it to ridicule dominant culture while validating queer identities and relationships. The film’s excessive use of gendered symbolism, such as color-coding and gender-specific tasks, serves to expose the artificiality of these norms, ultimately positioning queer love as authentic and society’s rigid expectations as flawed.
Puzzle Box: Chiasmus, Queering, and Subjective Finitude in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser
This essay, an analysis of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, enters into the conversation of queer negativity by utilizing a Foucauldian framework for understanding subjectivity and limits. This framework is expanded by Eve Sedgewick and Susan Sontag’s analyses of camp, in order to attend to the experience of the horror viewer. In addition to queer-focused philosophy, the essay takes inspiration from Eugenie Brinkema’s book Life Destroying Diagrams (2022) in which she employs a formalist approach to reading film. Finally, formalist literary studies shape this thesis through their investigation of the chiasmus: a rhetorical device which makes legible the crossings that queer the subject within horror. At the core of this essay lies the queer subject-other positionality of the Cenobites in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser. The Cenobites’ freedom, and their queerness, is found in their continued sadomasochistic illegibility. Though they are trapped at one’s fingertips, always summonable through the iconic puzzle box, they are ephemeral: specters discernible only in discrete collisions with the mortals who summon them. By illuminating the intertwined relationship between perceived interior (the home) and exterior (the sadistic hellscape of the Cenobites), the essay rejects the premise of an outside and presents alterity as a disruption within the Foucauldian grid. Hellraiser’s Frank Cotton becomes the site of such a disruption through his summoning of the Cenobites, but his refusal to relinquish subjectivity bars him from becoming queered in the way that they are. Frank thus finds himself dragged between forces as the film unfolds—agonized by continued visibility, yet trapped within the grid he sought to transcend.
Deceptive Sexualities, Nonconformity, and Racial Binaries: An Examination of ‘Appearances’ in America during World War II
World War II brought issues of gender, sexuality, disability, and race into the spotlight of American civic life. The war effort united Americans under the guise of defeating Nazism in Europe, while also highlighting existing fractures among racial and gender demographics. While thorough, the historiography of this phenomenon has largely undervalued the fundamental through-line: the importance of appearances. To control undesirable identities while maintaining the war effort and perceptions of a strong, united, heteronormative America, the U.S. military attempted, and ultimately failed, to manipulate appearances of sexuality, disability, and race. This paper examines the existing historiography on attempts to control, categorize, and subjugate sexuality, disabilities, race and gender during World War II in order to unveil the underlying and connecting theme of appearances across diverse texts.
Copyright (c) 2024 Embodied: The Stanford Undergraduate Journal of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
The Evolution of New Queer Cinema and Lesbian Representation in Indie Film
Films like Desert Hearts (Deitch, 1985) and The Watermelon Woman (Dunye, 1996)– produced a decade apart but both labeled as essential New Queer films– take notably different approaches in terms of aesthetics, strategy, and concern, but each contain key traces of pastiche, appropriation, and social constructionism. Desert Hearts has the look of a mainstream film and plays off of various “traditional” romance tropes, while The Watermelon Woman is more stylistically complex with its utilization of intertextuality and its reflexive, realist aesthetic. Despite these differences, however, both of these films engage in striking reworkings of history. In Desert Hearts, Deitch literally creates a new piece of history (with the film being a period piece, taking place in 1959), reminding viewers that queer stories have always existed– they just haven’t always been seen or told. Similarly, The Watermelon Woman is all about responding to queer erasure and constructing a new history by posing questions about storytelling, memory, and archives. Accordingly, although New Queer films like Desert Hearts and The Watermelon Woman do take notably different stylistic and narrative approaches, they each provide necessary reworkings of history that subvert heterosexual traditions in both film and society, and present nuanced portrayals of queer female stories and intimacy without the sense of objectification, triviality, or disapproval that is often found in filmic representations of WLW relationships.
Interrogating the 'Exceptional': The Rhetoric and Reality of Sexual Violence and Stanford Greek Life
Greek life is often cited as contributing significantly to the epidemic of campus sexual violence. Simultaneously, Stanford students and affiliates subscribe to the notion of Stanford exceptionalism: an understanding of Stanford Greek life as less sexually violent and problematic than Greek life at other institutions. Through my research, I seek to explore the extent to which this idea is true and the impact that the belief in Stanford exceptionalism has on the reality of sexual violence within Stanford Greek life. Based on interviews with Stanford students and affiliates, I conclude that Greek life’s sexual violence problem is a result of the system’s features, which exist regardless of the school or its individuals. My research reveals a strong belief among students in Stanford exceptionalism along with the dangerous consequences of this false image. Further, my research demonstrates that there are features unique to Stanford’s context that serve to exacerbate the relationship between Stanford Greek life and sexual violence, rather than remedy it.
Colored and Constrained Hues: Exploring the Depiction of Gender-Based Violence in South Asian News Media
This paper critically examines the representation of gender-based violence (GBV) in Pakistani, Indian, and Bangladeshi news media through the lenses of sensationalism and victim-blaming. Using the vivid metaphor of a color spectrum, this analysis delves into how media frames, language, and imagery contribute to the perpetuation of gender stereotypes, rape myths, and the stigmatization of survivors. The narrative is anchored by personal reflections of the author, who navigates the patriarchal landscape of Karachi, Pakistan. Drawing attention to a tragic incident involving Noor Mukaddam, the paper dissects how media sensationalism transforms real-life tragedies into spectacles, overshadowing the gravity of the crimes. Examining specific cases and headlines, the study reveals the sensationalist tactics of attention-grabbing language, vivid imagery, and the creation of a spectacle around certain types of GBV. Simultaneously, the victim-blaming frame is scrutinized for its role in shifting responsibility onto survivors, discouraging them from reporting, and fostering a culture of shame. Victim-blaming language is exposed through strategic details being deleted, euphemisms, and the 'good girl–bad girl dichotomy,' which perpetuates stereotypes and diverts attention from the true root of the social problem. The paper concludes with a call for transformative narratives in South Asian media, emphasizing the need for thematic framing, intersectional analyses, and a shift away from sensationalist and victim-blaming practices. Ultimately, the paper envisions a reimagined color wheel where empowering narratives replace debilitating hues, fostering justice and institutional change.
Boy dancers and men on horses: Post-colonial identity and gender policy in modern Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
This paper addresses the interactions between the process of constructing national identity in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and contemporary gender policy in both states. Despite trying to establish unique post-Soviet and anti-colonial national identities, modern politicians are forced to use the borders, identities, and narratives manufactured by the Soviet Union, creating historical dis/continuities and blurring the line between pre-colonial, Soviet, and post-Soviet in each of the republics. Both countries have turned to their history of Islam to make up a central part of their self-image, and modern discourses around LGBTQ rights often use a dichotomy between “Western” and “Muslim” to justify their positions. However, strategies for ignoring queerness and social “deviance” in Central Asian cultural heritage have more similarities to Soviet practice rather than wholly religious influence. For these Central Asian republics, identity construction cannot truly rely on a true idea of a “pre-Soviet” Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan. In their attempts to build independent, unified national identities in the void left by the fall of the Soviet Union, politicians and civilians find themselves (intentionally or unintentionally) unable to create an image of their pre-colonial history without relying on the definitions generated by the Soviet colonial project — and LGBTQ individuals and communities in both countries are taking the hit.
K-pop has experienced a surge in global popularity, largely attributed to the globalization strategies implemented by the entertainment industry, including the establishment of a star system. Within this system, female idols have been theorized as sexualized pretty dolls by their companies. The aim of this study is to examine how the presentation of female idols has altered over time. Through the lenses of gender display and objectification frameworks, and employing content analysis as the research method, the study analyzes the music videos from different generations in K-pop. From the coding results, the study concludes with the inherent inequality faced by female idols within the industry and explores the complexities of popular feminist themes in the current generation, which can simultaneously empower and constrain them.
Divine Drag: Unveiling Ascetic Afflictions through Hierarchy, Race, and Queerness
Inspired by Dr. Mike Chin's innovative essay collection, where he invited ancient historians to explore the workings of a chosen concept in the ancient world through a single word, this paper applies a similar approach to investigate early Christian asceticism. Focused on the theme of "representation," the study examines hagiographies, rule books, and encounters with demons to uncover how ascetics externalized inner struggles related to sexuality, power dynamics, and spiritual excellence. It explores how these struggles manifested as representations of hierarchies, queerness, and race within the ascetic landscape. Furthermore, the paper explores the impact of representation on communal dynamics, reputation management, and the negotiation of statuses within ascetic hierarchical communities. In adopting this approach, the study aims to shed light on the intricate and diverse nature of representation within the context of early Christian asceticism.
Edinburgh as a Machine: Reclamation, Resistance, and the Formative Fiction
This essay first identifies Edinburgh by Alexander Chee as a formative fiction, as defined by Stanford professor Joshua Landy. It then explores the stakes of creating a formative fiction in the literary age of suspicion in which we exist, as well as within the context of the multiplistic expectations that readers place upon Asian American writers. This essay ultimately positions Edinburgh as a reclamation of the novel for Alexander Chee, who faced unique expectations with the externally attached title of the “first gay Korean American novelist.”
The following art exhibition was displayed in Green Library last spring and in the Stanford Art Gallery last fall. The composition of the piece mirrors the the experience of sexual assault on college campuses, which is hardly a clean-cut or well-defined phenomenon. It's rarely ever the boogey-man that we hear about growing up who snatches you out of the night and then leaves without a trace — it's almost always someone you know or at the very least someone with some extent of social ties to your community. In college you have autonomy, you decide where you go and who you associate with, so you feel especially responsible for your experience. Sexual assault can often be an unsuspecting trap which you later wonder how you got yourself into, and the implicit gaslighting within this dynamic is precisely what I wanted to explore and explain with my piece. If you've had an experience like this one, you'll likely always remember the distinct sensation, and can immediately empathize with anyone else in that situation. But if you haven't, it's incredibly ambiguous how it comes about and what makes it so hard to prevent (the "why didn't you fight back / scream out / leave?" line of questioning) which of course only compound the gaslighting / silencing effects. The interactive nature of the piece was intentionally curated to simulate the experience for people who might not know "how it feels" (in the least traumatizing way possible), in order to build empathy within one another. I asked students to share times they felt uncomfortable, and received hundreds of stories describing the same sensation: realizing you want to get out of a situation you had anticipated feeling more comfortable in, and not immediately knowing how to do so gracefully. A sensation that might best be understood by sitting in a beanbag. It’s an inviting chair which sweeps you off your feet; accommodating your body as if it was made just for you. At first, it’s comforting to be held so securely. But it sinks under your attempts to readjust- it doesn’t want you to get up. The discomfort is subtle and ambiguous until you start to feel trapped. Your body is immobilized by cultural expectations to enjoy the sensation of being held. You hadn’t anticipated the way your body would be grabbed underneath the surface, or how your heaviest parts would sink the deepest. You could flail your arms or cry for help, but you wouldn’t, because that would imply your failure to handle yourself in circumstances that “you got yourself into.” You sat down, after all. You feel surrounded in a way that only emphasizes how alone you are, and you internalize your discomfort out of shame. You feel foolish, realizing how much easier it was to sit down than it is to stand back up. You stay for longer than you wanted to, knowing the only trace of your struggle will be the depression you leave in your wake. In order to understand how it feels, please sit down. This interactive sculpture aims to build empathy amongst one another, because while discomfort can feel isolating, you are never alone. The text is all upside down to the outsider because you can only understand how it feels by physically sitting down (in doing so, your perspective inherently switches and the text becomes right-side up). You feel the gravity weigh over you, keeping you in place. You feel yourself struggle to remain composed / not to look awkward when you try to rise. You may have seen / (and hopefully experienced) the physical beanbag in Green Library spring of 23 or in the Stanford Art Gallery this past fall, and hopefully it will keep making the rounds.
The Siren Song of the Desert:Feminized Desert, Nature, and Water as Cultural Critique in Mary Austin’s The Land of Little Rain
In her 1903 book, The Land of Little Rain, Mary Austin’s descriptions of the desert are informed by a feminist perspective as she characterizes the desert landscape as feminine, capturing its power over the male mind. Austin argues that the desert landscape is rendered subordinate to the ways of man—much like how women, Native Americans, and Mexican residents were oppressed in the American West. Austin’s feminization of the desert landscape reveals how water reflects the cultural values and issues of the American West. By infusing her realism with the feminine, the magical, and the spiritual, Austin challenged the predominantly male literature about the landscape and nature of the American West to expand its cultural critiques and understand the complexities of natural resources and how we use them as agricultural, survival, and spiritual resources. This magical, feminine aspect is lost, however, in men’s interpretations of her writing, which flatten Austin’s writing into a simplistic nature narrative of the American West.
With the rate of sexual assault on campus, I often think about how womxn are born into and raised to be scared of the world around us. That we are always on the defense with the war on our bodies. Even with similar dangers that men can face, we are sheltered and protected without choice while men have far more freedom to do what they want. For example, cishet men tend to feel more safe walking around at night and do not need help o be on-guard at parties. Rather than addressing the root of the problem in how our bodies should be respected, society places the burden on us, and we have to bring this trauma or acknowledge risks in every space we enter. It’s suffocating. A burden is placed onto womxn the second we enter this world, screaming and crying, and we carry it with us into adulthood. Every generation before has sustained this burden, so much so this protective nature toward daughters is instilled in parenting. Ultimately, this poem delves into how growing up in fear stunted my growth and required extra attention to embark on new experiences.
Deeply Rooted: An Analysis of How College-Aged Women View Body Hair and Body Hair Removal
This study seeks to explore the ways in which college-aged women view body hair and body hair removal. Drawing from interviews with ten undergraduate women at Vanderbilt University, between the ages of 19 and 21, this essay suggests that there appears to be a cognitive dissonance when it comes to young women's views on body hair removal. Throughout this study, participants acknowledged the burdens of body hair removal, whether those be financial, physical, or social. They also understood how the ideas around body hair removal are inherently tied to racism, misogyny, and classism. And yet, they report that they feel bound to continue removing their body hair in order to fit in and conform to societal standards. A lack of body hair is linked to feelings of confidence, desirability, and greater sexual function. Participants expressed how having little to no body hair is often an expectation while engaging in sexual activities, although these expectations may fluctuate depending on the nature of the sexual relationship. Although this study is no way statistically significant, these ten interviews revealed important findings about how young, college-educated women understand and engage with body hair removal. These findings speak to how far we as a society have come with body hair removal, and how much farther we need to go.
Evaluating Hookup Culture on Campus: A Lesbian Separatist Perspective
Hookup culture on the college campus simultaneously offers young women a venue for sexual liberation, while reproducing gender inequities observed throughout much of society. Thus, women are subjected to power imbalances, sexual dissatisfaction, and restrictions in their own bodily autonomy in the pursuit of casual sex. Given this bind, I set out to evaluate hookup culture from the framework expressed through lesbian separatist practice. Specifically, I analyze The Furies Collective, a lesbian separatist group operating in Washington D.C. from the years 1970-1972. In these two years, the Furies developed a self-titled newspaper, educational networks, and a compelling set of feminist principles to guide their activism. In this project, I draw insight from both a personal interview with Furies Collective founder Charlotte Bunch, as well as primary and academic sources. This research finds that while hookup culture does reflect various societal and physical inequities for women, it also provides opportunities for homosocial bonding, as demonstrated in lesbian separatism, that work to make this culture more satisfactory for women. Therefore, in order to benefit from the liberating aspects of hookup culture, women can capitalize on the separatist spaces associated with the hookup environment, like the sorority and pre-game, to fortify connections with one another as a means of protection in hookup spaces.
Although images of nude women dominate art history, it is not until the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s to 1980s that depictions of pregnant women are popularized in Western art. Subversive to the idea of the female nude and the male gaze, Niki de Saint Phalle, Alice Neel, and Judy Chicago explore the dark underside to pregnancy and nudity.
Copyright (c) 2023 Embodied: The Stanford Undergraduate Journal of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies