Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies - Theses, Dissertations, and other Required Graduate Degree Essays

The identity “gay Asian male” (GAM) is proposed and contested in online personal ads, where ethnicity and other visible traits are used to describe individuals as attractive suitors and request or refuse potential partners. This paper explores the relationship between identity and desire, focusing on representations of GAM in craigslist ads, a site where men seek men for sexual encounters. In particular, it considers GAM as constructed by cultural meanings derived from characteristics set by HIV/AIDS prevention literature. Existing historical geographies of gay communities in North America, including local media representations of Vancouver’s gay community, follow an identity politics metanarrative of gay liberation and subculture formation. This paper challenges this metanarrative, reframing Vancouver’s gay community’s formation by considering real estate events, key community relationships—highlighted in 1981, and nostalgic memory. The interaction of these components contributes to the maintenance of the community’s political visibility and concentration along Vancouver’s Davie Street.

In March 2004, Canadian obstetrician Mary Hannah published a controversial article about elective caesarean sections in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Hannah argues that “a growing number of women are requesting delivery by elective caesarean section without an accepted ‘medical indication’” and suggests that physicians should support women’s requests (2004: 813- 814). Despite a paucity of research surrounding elective caesarean sections, many print media journalists and authors throughout Canada accept Hannah’s claim, and allege that “too posh to push” women are responsible for high rates of caesarean sections and birthing interventions. I situate media representations of elective caesarean sections in the context of Canada’s evolving maternity system, and explore how media reporters manage birthing “uncertainties” through the construction of “truths” about women’s birthing choices. Media authors’ insistence on blaming mothers in media representations of elective caesarean sections obscures the broader cultural, social and economic contexts in which women give birth.