http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/4069 2013-06-19T03:55:49Z http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/104833 Lady Liberty: Intertextual Performances of Gender and Nation Joyce, Parisa This study explores how a variety of artistic representations of the Statue of Liberty have worked over the past half-century to reflect aspects of nation through the gendered performances of a particular set of American women as ideal constructs, objects for commodification and consumption. The first inquiry explores the play entitled Miss Liberty, written by Robert E. Sherwood, with lyrics and music by Irving Berlin, and first produced in 1949. Although conceived as an historical play loosely based on fact, the play provides a unique perspective on women's roles in society during the late 1940s. On the one hand the play forces nostalgic ideas of nationalism and outmoded views of women, while on the other, exposes a mid-twentieth century response to rising feminist thought and behavior. The second exploration discusses construction of the feminine ideal as presented through the popular film Miss Congeniality and the ritual of the national beauty pageant. As the bodies of the contestants conflate with those codes established by/for Lady Liberty in the film, they drive a more complex impulse that refashions women as adornments for a national concern. Consequently, this film works to strengthen our relationship with our most revered national icon, formalizing further our collective gender-driven national mythologies, and ultimately memorializing limiting conditions of feminine performance, agency, and ideals of American womanhood. The final chapter brings the themes investigated in the previous two chapters together in an original solo performance that both explicates and further parodies what I see as a national phenomenon. My scripted performance of Liberty Now builds upon our national construction of women as nation through the blending of "Miss Liberty" images with live performance. Designed to first perform the narrative currently in play and then to pull the audience into a complicit forum to deconstruct our national narrative, the satirical play of resistance within Liberty Now anticipates a utopian-like place (or point of imaginative speculation). To do so allows for the possibility of innovative and tangible, but most profoundly, equitable future narratives for women. 2009-04-09T23:34:27Z http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/104831 Holding Out For A Female Hero: The Visual And Narrative Representation Of The Female FBI Agent In Hollywood Psychological Thrillers From 1991-2008 Lafferty, Sarah This thesis analyzes the visual and narrative representation of female FBI agents and male serial killers in the Hollywood films, 'Silence of the Lambs' (1991), 'Hannibal' (2001), 'Taking Lives' (2004), and 'Untraceable' (2008). It explores how character roles and narrative functions related to the hero character type change over time. The films are analyzed through a textual analysis using Proppian formalism, structural, narratology, genre, and gender theories. 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'Hannibal' offer the groundwork of the female FBI agent in the rookie figure of Clarice Starling. 'Taking Lives', the first example in a thriller genre post-Clarice Starling, offers an agent, Illeana Scott, who is depicted as the next step, the young career woman with more agency than Starling. Jennifer Marsh, in 'Untraceable', provides a character encompassing a combination of the more positive qualities, and is an established female hero. Beginning with 'Silence of the Lambs' and ending with 'Untraceable', narrative functions and positioning moves the female FBI agents into the role of the female hero. The definition of hero, as the author defined it, is based in narrative structure with a focus on the importance of the ultimate self-rescue. It is stripped of the character's moral standings and decisions, as the author looked at the function of the character type and not the overall personality and psychological makeup of the figure. Due to this definition, while there is a female hero figure, most prominently in Jennifer Marsh, there are also heroes found in places typically not associated with common conceptions of the term “hero.” Labeling the female FBI agent as the hero figure is significant because it is acceptable that women in the current time period and political climate realistically hold these positions and hold them well. Women are active in the FBI, as well as many other federal and state agencies and the military, unlike in decades before. Therefore it is only natural, as genre and film are social mirrors, that these women are represented within fictional narratives as powerful, independent heroes. 2009-04-09T23:34:15Z http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/104829 Female Duality and Petrarchan Ideals in Titian's Sacred And Profane Love Kaercher, Julianne C. Painted around 1514 in Venice, Titian's Sacred and Profane Love has long been the subject of debate in Art History. Building on previous scholarship, including work from Charles Hope, Walter Friedläender, and Rona Goffen, this essay looks into the triangulated relationship created between the two women and the viewer through real and implied gazes, and how this relationship addresses a specific patron's desire to self-fashion an identity that would be projected for a specific audience. Where previous scholars have argued that Niccolò Aurelio commissioned this painting as a wedding gift, this paper suggests a new reading of the commissioning in light of the female patron, Laura Bagarotto, and her desire to self-fashion an identity not only to her new husband, but also to the society in which she newly found herself a part. In addition to the discussion on patronage, this paper will use Petrarch's writings and influence as a frame for the examination of Titian's Sacred and Profane Love by exploring Petrarchan conceptions of the ideal woman and connecting the double figuration in the painting to Laura Bagarotto's dual roles as bride and widow. In so doing, this essay provides a new interpretation of the idealized renaissance female by drawing attention to the inherent duality of women, identified by Petrarch, as conflicting yet necessary female characteristics. Approaching this painting multi-dimensionally” looking at the influence of Petrarch, the social circumstances surrounding the commissioning, and examining other artistic representations of idealized women” it will be possible to question the assumed male patronage of the piece. 2009-04-09T23:34:03Z http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/104828 Vitamin D Status of American Adults Age 18 Years and Older: National Health And Nutrition Examination Survey 2001-2002 and 2003-2004 Scherf, Kayla K. Americans are not reaching sufficient levels of serum 25-Hydroxy Vitamin D3 (25(OH)D3), and some groups are at a higher risk of developing vitamin D deficiency. Having a sufficient level of 25(OH)D3 can help prevent diseases like osteoporosis, certain types of cancers, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. The data of 7479 American participants 18 years of age and older were derived from the NHANES 2001-2002 and NHANES 2003-2004 surveys. These participants were then analyzed to assess serum 25(OH)D3 levels. The variables used were age, gender, ethnicity, Body Mass Index (BMI), and smoking status. The statistical software, SUDDAN was used to control the weights of the samples, and least square means were calculated to control the confounding factors. The mean serum 25(OH)D3 levels (ng/ml) for Mexican males, Black males, White males and Mexican females, Black females and White females were 22.0 +/-0.6, 15.7 +/-0.5, 26.4+/- 0.5 and 19.0+/-0.4, 14.7+/-0.3, 26.5+/-0.4. The percent of Mexican males, Black males, White males and Mexican females, Black females and White females falling into the deficient category were 37.6%, 72.7%, 19.5% and 55.4%, 80.6%, 23.7%. Overall, the percent of males falling into the deficient category was 27.2% and for the females 33.9%. The mean serum 25(OH)D3 level for individuals greater than 70 years of age was the lowest overall, with the males' mean serum 25(OH)D3 level at 23.6+/-0.4 and the females' mean serum 25(OH)D3 level at 22.7+/-0.5. The mean serum 25(OH)D3 level for the obese BMI group was the lowest overall, with the males' mean serum 25(OH)D3 level at 23.2+/-0.5 and the females' mean serum 25(OH)D3 level at 21.0+/-0.5. The mean serum 25(OH)D3 level for the smokers was the lowest overall, with the male mean serum 25(OH)D3 level at 24.6+/-0.5 and the female mean serum 25(OH)D3 level at 23.2+/-0.6. In conclusion, the mean serum 25(OH)D3 level of Americans fell below the sufficient cut-off level of greater than 30 ng/ml, with only a small percentage of the population reaching this level. 2009-04-09T23:33:51Z