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GenderWatch

Contains 40,000 articles from more than 100 journals, magazines, newsletters, special reports, unpublished papers and conference proceedings devoted to gender and women's issues. Holdings: The database contains a large body of archival material, in some cases, as far back as 1970.

Engendering America : a documentary history, 1865 to the present / [edited by] Sonya Michel, Robyn Muncy ; with Ruth Fairbanks and Elisa Miller.

Call#: Van Pelt Library HQ1410 .E54 1999

Report: Most Men (18-34) Don't Mind Online Ads

Brandweek, 12/15/2008, 49(44), 8.

Web advertising: gender differences in beliefs, attitudes and behavior

Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy 13(5), 375-385.

Lori D. Wolin and Pradeep Korgaonkar, (2003).

This article explores the differences between male and female internet advertising beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. The authors hypothesized that males would have in general more positive beliefs about internet advertising, stronger positive attitudes about internet advertising, and more internet consumption behavior. A survey was conducted with 420 respondents. Six dimensions of belief were tested: enjoyability, offensiveness, informative, deceptiveness, annoyingness, and usefulness. Regarding attitudes, respondents were asked how good or bad they found internet advertising, how much they liked it, and how essential it was in general and to them. Behavior was measured by whether respondents had purchased something over the internet in the past year, and how often they visited 22 different websites. Results mostly supported the hypotheses. In particular, men held more positive beliefs about internet advertising, and had slightly stronger positive feelings about internet advertising. Interestingly, these positive beliefs and attitudes converted into behavior as well. Men reported more frequent internet purchases.

Wolin and Korgaonkar's study provides specific information on the effect the consumer characteristics of gender have on attitudes about internet advertising. It indicates that, while other articles assume the ineffectiveness of internet advertising because of low click-through rates, some groups, particularly males, may not feel as negatively about internet ads as would be expected. Other studies, such as the one reported in "Report: Most Men (18-34) Don't Mind Online Ads" (Brandweek, 49(44), 8; not included in this project), have found similar trends. Wolin and Korgaonkar's study also reveals an unusual trend: females tend to have more negative attitudes and beliefs about internet ads and, as predicted, less purchase behavior on the internet, but reportedly prefer shopping sites more then men. Wolin and Korgaonkar note that belief, attitude, and behavior do not necessarily have the hierarchical, causal relationship often expected, as this is an example of. Rather, one or two of the dimensions may align with each other while another may be completely opposite. Lastly, this article also details ways that advertising may be better targeted to the respective genders. Particularly they should target women through ads in traditional media and offering tangible rewards when utilizing the internet.

GenderWatch

Destined for equality : the inevitable rise of women's status / Robert Max Jackson.

Jackson, Robert Max. . Destined for equality : the inevitable rise of women's status / Robert Max Jackson. 067405511X (alk. paper) series Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1998.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HQ1236 .J33 1998

Odd girls and twilight lovers : a history of lesbian life in twentieth-century America / Lillian Faderman.

Faderman, Lillian. . Odd girls and twilight lovers : a history of lesbian life in twentieth-century America / Lillian Faderman. 0231074883 (CL) series New York : Columbia University Press, c1991.
Call#: Van Pelt Library HQ75.6.U5 F33 1991

The Color of Sex: Whiteness ... - Google Book Search

JSTOR: DiacriticsVol. 24, No. 2/3 (Summer - Autumn, 1994), pp. 43-57

Smith, Valerie. “Reading the Intersection of Race and Gender in Narratives of Passing.” Diacritics Vol. 24, No. 2/3 (Summer - Autumn, 1994): pp. 43-57. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/465163>.

Valerie Smith shows Imitation of Life’s attempt at creating a hierarchy of gender and race as a way to manipulate spectatorial allegiances. However, focusing on the resistant spectator, or black female viewer, the author states that this spectator would refuse the film’s attempt at disaggregating class and race from gender identity. She argues that an oppositional viewer would rearticulate these connections, thus disrupting, at least partially, the overdetermined logic of the film. This viewer would question the premise of the film, that the black woman should remain in her place. Likewise, such a spectator would also challenge the film’s logic. She would also notice the film’s attempt at glossing over the racial differences between the two women’s circumstances in order to establish People’s story as a metaphor for Bea’s.

Very much in line with bell hooks, Valerie Smith argues that the resistant spectator (her term for the black female spectator) would pose questions and delve further into the text while watching Imitation of Life as a way to gain pleasure through the deconstruction of myths and stereotypes within the film. Smith contends that the oppositional viewer would refuse Imitation’s attempt at downplaying racism so as to propagate more so the notion of sexism to its viewers and make her own judgments based on personal examination.

The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror

Freeland, Cynthia A. The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000.

In Chapter 4 of The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror, Freeland offers a feminist interpretation of Stoker’s novel, Dracula, and three of its film incarnations, including Browning’s Dracula (1931). She focuses on the sexual transformation of Dracula and the changing nature of his evil through his incarnations in these works.

This section of the book is ordered chronologically and charters the evolution of Dracula through Stoker’s original novel Dracula (1897), Browning’s Dracula (1931), Badham’s Dracula (1979), and Coppola’s Dracula (1992). In the novel, as in Nosferatu, Dracula is unremittingly evil, symbolized by his ugly, disgusting appearance, hairy palms and nostrils, and bad breath. He is an abomination of nature, a thing that causes revulsion and disgust. Freeland asserts that, for this Dracula, “the threat of gender transgression lurks amid scenes of erotic abnormality and rape.” She compares this Dracula to Browning’s, noting Dracula’s transformation into a “sex icon with continental flair.” Perhaps this sort of Dracula was more appealing to contemporary audiences. The nature of this Dracula’s evil was primarily that of a sexual threat and male predator, not that of the intrinsically foul. Freeland goes on to analyze more recent films, in which Dracula is increasingly portrayed in a sympathetic light and with a greater depth of character.

Gendering Mobility: Women, Work and Automobility in the United States

Gendering Mobility: Women, Work and
Automobility in the United States
MARGARET WALSH

History
Volume 93 Issue 311, Pages 376 - 395
Published Online: 28 Jun 2008

ABSTRACT

This article examines women's relationship with car driving in the United States. The growth of American 'automobility' increased throughout the twentieth century, but most historians have ignored its relationship with women. They have assumed that the motor car was a masculine vehicle in terms of both its technology and use. Even those who recognized the motor car as a machine for changing lifestyles and interpersonal relationships considered that the male head of household had authority over choosing and driving the family vehicle. Some women, however, always drove. Though their numbers were relatively small in the years before the Second World War, they quickly seized the opportunity to get behind the wheel in succeeding years as more and more cars were produced in the United States and imported vehicles became popular. Women needed to drive to manage their unpaid work in the home efficiently and, when they entered the paid labour force in increasing numbers, they needed to run their households and to travel to their paid work. By the end of the twentieth century American women were as likely to drive as their male counterparts, though their patterns of driving were different. In the process, the automobile had become a sex neutral vehicle.

Peace Between the Sexes: Law and Gender in Kramer vs. Kramer

Papke, David Ray. “Peace Between the Sexes: Law and Gender in Kramer vs. Kramer.”
University of San Francisco Law Review 30.4 (1996) 1199-1208. (available at http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/usf/papke30.htm)

“Peace Between the Sexes: Law and Gender in Kramer vs. Kramer,” Papke focuses on the legal intricacies of divorce in America from colonization to the time of Kramer vs. Kramer. He identifies the criteria used to determine child custody by American courts and how this criteria has changed dramatically several times over the past few hundred years. Contemporary to the release of Kramer vs. Kramer, child custody laws were being radically overhauled. In 1979, New York changed it criteria for child custody, moving away from maternal preference to accounting for which situation would be in the “best interest” of the child. Papke identifies the dramatic inaccuracy of Kramer vs. Kramer’s depiction of standard legal proceedings in a child custody case. He demonstrates, however, how these inaccuracies are purposeful and meant to underline the important of gender and gender roles in the movie. An example of this lies in the depiction of a lackadaisical judge who allows Joanna’s attorney to slander him in court without factual basis. Although inaccurate, such actions are derived from common divorce attorney stereotypes and do serve the purpose of eliciting sympathy for Ted Kramer. These mistakes also demonstrate the public resentment towards many figures involved with child custody judicial processes. Papke also discusses the appearance of the “male gaze” in the movie as it relates to the movie’s plot and feminist theory.
This article is very relevant due to the number of unique views on Kramer vs. Kramer. The article gives a history of the judicial processes handling divorce and child custody, but in addition discusses general public opinion regarding these events and how these attitudes surface in Kramer vs. Kramer. In addition, the article incorporates a prominent idea in feminist cinematic theory, that of the “male gaze,” and it discusses how this element presents bias as truth.

Xala

For this project, I have chosen to investigate Ousmane Sembene's 1975 film Xala. The film raises a multitude of issues pertaining to post-colonial African government and culture. Sembene largely criticizes the incompetence of the new governments, using the sexual impotence of the film's main character as a metaphor. For the research portion of the project, I sought to answer the following closely-related questions: How have post-colonial African peoples navigated the dichotomy between tradition and modernity in the realms of gender, sex and women