(More Than) Grrrl Power! Girls Studies at UCF

Heteronormativity is a strange, but powerful thing. When a little girl and little boy play together, adults will project these odd notions onto them, making jokes about a future romance between the children. However, when two girls play together, it isn’t likely the same remarks will be made about their relationship. In Susan Shaw and Janet Lee's chapter on Sex and Intimacy, they detail that sexual scripts “provide frameworks and guidelines for sexual feelings and behaviors in a particular community at a particular time” and marks a crucial note that “foundational in these scripts is the oppositional binary of heterosexuality and homosexuality that constructs normative sexuality and shapes sexual feelings and expression” (281). This social construction, of course, manages to ooze into our media, specifically in its representation of female friendship. As a bisexual woman with many gay friends, a frequent topic of conversation is the almost obligatory heterosexuality among female fr...

     From the cloud of romanticism and mystic figures in art history, the idea of the “muse” emerged and manifested itself in many ways in different modes of art. From the groupies of the 70s who inspired classic rock-and-roll songs, all the way back to the ancient characters of Greek mythology who demonstrate contemporary life lessons, it is often women who are relegated to the role of “muse,” a label that feminists have begun to deconstruct and ratify. I want to explore how one film, in particular, does just this and its incredible consequences.       What first introduced me to the concept of the muse was the 2019 film Portrait of a Lady on Fire . A love story between two women in 18th century France, a painter named Marianne, and her “client” Héloïse. In the film, Marianne is asked by Héloïse’s mother to paint her daughter in secret, so her portrait can be sent to a potential husband, a decision Héloïse does not support. Through this conflict, writ...

       Whether one is actively pursuing someone, pursued, or not participating in dating overall, one can say they have heard something along the lines of “Dating is hard”. Regardless of whether you agree, gender roles society have established has not helped the pressure of being the one predominantly responsible for courtship, “a virtue to piety, submissiveness, and domesticity” (WSKG) as a woman or man. But wait, this is not the 1950s ... Right? This mentality is rooted in part from the 1950s; even as far back as the days of slavery, it still prevails today. I will be explaining how gender roles when it comes to dating has progressed historically within Western culture among Caucasians, and people of color such as African Americans and Hispanics.   In the article titled From The Front Porch To the Back Seat: A History of A Date, the term ‘date’ was previously used in the middle working class to refer to prostitution.      ...