Human body -- Social aspects

Agency and communion are fundamental dimensions underlying psychological
processes. Although agency and communion are coherent dimensions, their origins,
nature, stability differ across theoretical framework. Common to these frameworks are
gender differences in agency and communion. The present study hypothesized that
because agency and communion relate to gender, they may also relate to digit ratio. The
present study is important because digit ratio may offer clues on the origins and nature of
agency and communion, and their gender differences. Agency and Communion factors
were extracted from implicit linguistic measures obtained by LIWC analysis of selfnarratives.
Exploratory structural equation modeling indicated communion related to digit
ratio in men, and gender differences in communion. Although the results supported the
distal, biological influences of communion argued by evolutionary accounts, the null
finding agency was not related to digit ratio, while not directly interpretable, did not
contradict socialization accounts of agency.

Between 1939 and 1940 the United States Government conducted a study
of the measurements of women’s bodies to establish a standardized system of
garment and pattern sizes. The central theme of my research is to analyze the
female figure in the context of a technology-driven global contemporary society.
My thesis exhibition includes a body of work that echoes the pressures that
Western Society employs by standardizing women’s appearances. The focus of
the work is to confront the viewer with a visual examination, which illustrates the
preconceived notion that Western Society portrays the female body as a
commodity and exports those views to different cultures and societies. This calls
to question: “who makes those standards endorsed by society and why women
follow them?”.
From the standardized measurements conducted by the United States
Government, I generated a 2-D computer model of an outline of the generic
female figure. Based on the 2-D representation, I constructed a series of ten
27”x36” inkjet prints and a 3-Dimensional prototype of the figurative form. The
project consist on the manufacture of 14,698 molds base on the 3-
Dimensional prototype -- 10% reduction of the size of the average female.

This project examines the presence and significance of ecofeminism and pedagogy within contemporary Young Adult literatures, particularly girls’ ecofantasy literatures. Specifically, I examine the role and representations of the female body in nature and any real or perceived connections between them. To accomplish this, I bring the theories of several feminist, ecofeminist, and environmental studies scholars together with my primary texts, Green Angel and Green Witch by Alice Hoffman, to examine the depiction of the female body in nature through interconnectedness and reciprocity between human and non-human nature, green transformations, and the archetype of the witch.