Folklore Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Folklore Theses and Dissertations by Author "Bayless, Martha"

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    Envisioning the Goddess: Modern Pagan Iconography of the Feminine Divine
    (University of Oregon, 2021-04-27) Snyder, Christal; Bayless, Martha
    This thesis investigates the iconography used by specific groups of modern Pagan women in the contemporary United States to represent the feminine divine, the meanings attributed to them by women and by broader communities, and the values these images and meanings reinforce. Through a collection of goddess iconography, interviews with female practitioners, and participant observations in Neopagan events, the personal and communal values of this spiritual movement are explored. This thesis will follow a multi-disciplinary approach, which combines folklore, anthropology, and gender studies. Subcultural scholarship will help to establish whether or not goddess spirituality falls under such a distinction as well as to illuminate the ways in which the images might be subverting the dominant Western culture.
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    Monsters, the Feminine, and the Diabolical in Medieval Culture
    (University of Oregon, 2021-11-23) Steiner, Rachel; Bayless, Martha
    In the Middle Ages, it was believed that women were inferior to men intellectually, spiritually, and physically to the point where they were seen as a dangerous threat to men. Texts such as De Secretis Mulierum, the Decretum of Burchard of Worms, the legend of the fairy bride Mélusine, and the Malleus Maleficarum illustrate this point, showing that women were viewed as potential monsters. Through this study, I will show how these texts illustrate medieval anxieties about women that painted them as monstrous and inhuman, an attitude that helped create the late medieval and Early Modern witchcraft moral panic. By comparing the accusations made in these texts to female monsters of the Middle Ages, I will show how medieval popular culture thought of women as a monstrous group that was threatening to men.