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Candidate:
Sandra Ellen Schroer
Degree
of: Doctor of Philosophy
Department: Sociology
Title: Amorous Liberty: A critical discourse analysis of gendered situations in Free Love in the mid 1800s
Date: Thursday, May 20, 2004 2:00-4:00 p.m.
2520 Sangren
Committee:
Dr. Paula Stewart Brush, Chair
Dr. Thomas VanValey
Dr. Gwen Raaberg
Dr. Gerald Markle
Abstract:
Through a qualitative critical discourse analysis of Free Love publications that originated from utopian communities between the years 1850 and 1900, this research compares the standpoints of women and men who contributed articles to free love publications. The purpose of this research is to examine the situated knowledge of women and men who participated in the Free Love movement and contributed to it's exposure by writing and publishing their ideas, arguments and concerns. By analyzing the words of participants this research describes the concept of Free Love in its historical context and exposes the sex and gender power differentials within the movement and external to it. The research reveals the Fee Love movement was a complex form of political resistance against institutionalized gender inequality. The importance of this work lies in its potential to inform current political resistance of the inequality inherent in legislation that restricts sexual freedom in the United States.
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