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Bostock v. Clayton County: The Supreme Court’s Textualist Recognition of LGBTQ+ Employment Rights
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Both Cruel and Unusual: The Fifth Circuit’s Denigration of Transgender Inmate Rights in Gibson v. Collier
Full text link“THIS WOMAN WAS ONCE A PUNK”: The Evolution of Anti-Capitalist Protest Under the Capitalist Machine
Full text linkThe late Dame Vivienne Westwood was a pioneer of the punk movement and she remains known for her commitment to various social justice causes—the most prominent being climate advocacy. However, throughout her career as a designer, Westwood’s work evolved from grass-roots punk designs to a commercialized brand shown on runways from London to Paris. Westwood’s life offers us a glimpse into how we can make decisions as workers, activists, and leaders. Are we able to change corrupt systems from the inside? Was Westwood able to subvert the capitalist machine as a revolutionary, or was punk cultural production eventually embedded into the very institution it was protesting
Protect or Profit: Reasons why the Grand Canyon is not a Designated Preserve
Full text linkDespite environmental protection efforts, the Grand Canyon lacks a nature preserve label, prompting an analysis of the underlying reasons. This research explores the Grand Canyon\u27s management history, questioning its national park status over a nature preserve by examining land-use designations and their impact on wildlife conservation. The paper delves into the funding dynamics of the National Park Service (NPS), revealing a reliance on park fees and corporate donations, often prioritizing economic considerations over environmental concerns. Instances of corporate influence on policies, like the delayed plastic bottle ban, underscore challenges. External factors, such as the local economy\u27s dependence on tourism and the Colorado River\u27s challenges, contribute to the Grand Canyon\u27s status. Potential economic repercussions, like hunting restrictions and event cancellations, are discussed, along with complications from nearby urbanization and dam impacts. Despite challenges, positive developments include recent environmental initiatives, collaborations like the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program, and recognition as a Globally Important Bird Area and Dark-Sky Park. These efforts signal growing awareness of environmental concerns and a commitment to balancing conservation with economic interests. The paper raises critical questions about the trade-off between economic gain and environmental protection at the Grand Canyon. While recognizing its economic importance and role as a natural retreat, the paper encourages ongoing efforts to preserve the Grand Canyon\u27s ecological integrity
Passion or Performance?: Examining Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty”
Full text linkIt is no secret that marketing and advertising have historically been weaponized as tools to define and propagate social norms. This phenomenon has proven particularly true in the beauty industry, a field notorious for manufacturing sexist and harmful messages that reinforce popular perceptions of “attractiveness” and contribute to the continued oppression and sexualization of American women (McCleary, 2014). The scope of the influence of beauty industry marketing was plainly revealed by a global report called “The Real Truth About Beauty” that was commissioned by Dove in 2004 (Millard, 2009). This study, a telephone survey consisting of 3,200 respondents, exposed that only two percent of women around the world identified with the word “beautiful” to describe their looks (Etcoff et al., 2004). It also uncovered that seventy-five percent of women between the ages of eighteen and sixty four “would like to see considerably more diversity in the images of beauty” presented to them, and that seventy-six percent of the same demographic hoped to see the media portray beauty as more than just physical (McCleary, 2014, p. 2).
In response to these findings, Dove launched its “Campaign for Real Beauty”, a series of advertisements free of retouching that depicted women whose appearances deviated from the traditional beauty norm (McCleary, 2014). Each of these women had “flaws” deemed unattractive by general social standards, including grey hair, stretch marks, flat chests, and freckles, amongst other characteristics (McCleary, 2014). The mission of the campaign was threefold: to fund the continuation of the Real Beauty campaign through product sales, to provide self-esteem resources and events for women through the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, and to promote untouched images of people who are not professional models (Millard, 2009). Arguing that Dove’s strategies were unsuccessful is futile - since the campaign’s initial implementation, it has generated significant profit, garnered a number of celebrity endorsements, and been the subject of a great deal of media acclaim and accolades from professional associations and gender scholars (Johnston and Taylor, 2008). However, in this paper I will assert that as an object of feminist consumerism, Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty actually serves to harm women by appropriating feminist discourse with a profit imperative and systematically legitimizing existing beauty ideals. My goal is to justify this position by examining The Dove Movement for Self-Esteem and Dove’s 2007 short film Onslaught. The analysis provided in this work will also be supplemented by studies revealing audience perception and interpretation of Dove’s campaign in addition to comparison of its effectiveness with that of grassroots models of social change. Finally, my stance will be informed by the greater concepts of commodity feminism, postfeminism, and femvertising
Desmosine Content and Passive Mechanics of the Elastic Fiber Deficient Murine Uterus
Full text linkElastic fibers in the extracellular matrix provide compliance and distensibility to soft biological tissues, such as the uterus. The uterus grows and remodels during processes such as gestation and menstruation. Preterm birth may be associated with uterine overdistention, which can be exacerbated in females with underdeveloped elastic fibers. Desmosine crosslinks form between mature elastic fibers and can be used to infer the mature fiber content. Fibulin-5 (Fbln5) is expressed in tissues abundant in elastic fibers, and mice deficient in Fbln5 develop pelvic floor disorders similar to females with genetic disorders that negatively impact elastic fiber formation. Prior work has quantified desmosine content to study elastic fiber turnover in the vagina of Fbln5 deficient mice. However, the presence of mature elastic fibers in uterine tissue with varying Fbln5 expression is unknown. Further, the influence of desmosine content on passive uterine mechanics is unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the role of Fbln5 insufficiency on desmosine content and its effect on passive mechanics of the murine uterus. We hypothesize that Fbln5 haploinsufficient and deficient murine uterine tissue will have lower desmosine content than wildtype tissue. It is further hypothesized that Fbln5 haploinsufficiency or deficiency will decrease the passive compliance and distensibility of the murine uterus. Characterizing the desmosine content and passive distensibility of the murine uterus may provide insight into the influence of elastic fiber deficiency on uterine function, which can be applied to the clinical setting to assess the etiology of pelvic floor disorders in women with disrupted elastic fiber development
