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Marlon Knopf Brown
THE DEPROGRAMMING CONTROVERSY: A STRUGGLE FOR IMAGE

Deprogramming: A Struggle for Image examines in narrative fashion the conflict in America over the controversial procedure of deprogramming. This thesis proves that both sides of this conflict attempted to win public support for their positions by projecting positive images of themselves through the mass media. This thesis also proves that the media was directly influenced by both sides. By closely analyzing the entirety of prime time network television programs which dealt with deprogramming as a theme from fall 1977 to spring 1979, this thesis shows that the media was overwhelmingly sympathetic to the influence of the anti-cult movement's message. This thesis proves that Jonestown was not the initiator of anti-cult sentiment among the American public, but the culmination of a seven year campaign by the pro-family anti-cult movement to win public sympathy and support for their battle against cults.

The counter-culture of the 1960's, the Women's Liberation Movement and the "sexual revolution" of the 1970's created an atmosphere of confrontation and change in American culture in which the institution of marriage faced increasing challenge. This study evaluates the viability of American marriage from 1959 to 1979.
The research applies Thomas Kuhn's model of scientific revolution to the institution of marriage and the usage of Kuhn's model in regard to social change is discussed in chapter one. The second chapter presents American marriage in a historical perspective. Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique is used as a primary source in this study and is the topic of chapter three, defining the American marital paradigm in the 1950's.
The evaluation is based on qualitative content analyses of short fiction in Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and McCall's magazines, 1959-1979, and of five major college-legel marriage textbooks in the same period, discussed at length in chapters four and five. In concluding the research, I found the American marital paradigm to be in a severe state of crisis yet unable to begin the process of revolution because of the attitudinal restraints of a larger cultural paradigm.

There are two distinctive methods of mate selection: arranged marriage and love match. In the United States, where culture encourages people to be independent and autonomous, love match prevails as a method of mate selection. In modern Japan, where traditional collectivism predominates and strong patriarchal authority still exists, arranged marriage is still commonly practiced, though love match has become popular nowadays under the influences of Western culture.
To investigate the methods of mate selection as a cultural norm and female attitudes toward mate selection and marriage in both Japan and the United States, I administered a questionnaire to approximately a hundred college females each at Osaka City University in Japan and at California State University, Fullerton. I analyze the data obtained and reveal both similar and different attitudes toward mate selection and marriage between the two groups, with emphasis upon how much both cultures influence women and their marriage.

The romantic ideal of the artist is a set of motivations and rewards that inspires behavior and defines the role of the artist in American culture. This ideal developed from the romantic sensibilities of the nineteenth century and, despite the corrupting influence of succeeding art styles, it has been able to preserve values well over a hundred years old. In the recorded music industry, the romantic ideal is a potent force in setting standards because both the record company and the rock press support it, albeit in different ways and for different reasons. Their combined support enables the romantic ideal to continue to be disseminated to rock musicians as well as the audience at large. For the artist, however, the romantic ideal provides values that run counter to his working experiences. This leads to a conflict between the real and the ideal, a conflict that characterizes the art world in today's American culture.

In the decade of the eighties it is important to the American feminine image to be athletic and physically fit. Girls and women are active participants in sports whether it be dancing in an aerobics class or running a marathon. Such athletic activity was not always part of the accepted feminine image. Using Thomas Kuhn's model of changing paradigms described in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, this thesis presents an older paradigm of femininity in sports which narrowly defined the female role and led to the exclusion of females from most sports activities. Also described are the forces straining this paradigm -- the anomalies, debate and competing paradigm which eventually led to the downfall of the traditional paradigm as it applies to sports. The new paradigm is then described and evidence is presented which supports its position as the dominant paradigm of femininity in sports.

This thesis will examine nineteen twenties American expatriation to Paris from the perspective of participants who have been, until recently, virtually ignored. While the male-dominated community of Hemingway, Pound, and Fitzgerald has been studied extensively, another community abroad has remained obscure: the lesbian group of expatriates. Writers like Gertrude Stein and Djuna Barnes belonged to this community as did publishers Margaret Anderson and Sylvia Beach.
This study explores such questions as: How did these expatriate women see themselves? Did they identify themselves as assertive lesbians, or, liberated women artists, or simply Americans abroad? Were their motions, situation abroad, attitudes and values toward their life and work different from their male contemporaries? Their published work--including novels, memoirs, articles, autobiographies, and interviews--form the basis for understanding the expatriate lesbian community abroad. Through the act of expatriation itself, these women won a measure of independence from societal "prejudice." They set themselves apart in a community where they could safely express their interests in art, politics, sexuality and the self. This thesis explores the individual and culture meanings of their dual act of expatriation and lesbianism.

American dominant culture's interpretation of food and it's effects on the human body is directly related to the evolution of the consumer culture in the twentieth century. Food consumption is part of a cultural double bind and is bound by contradictory expectations and values. One half of this food dualism requires the achievement of cultural ideals through food consumption. Eating becomes a way through which one experiences the "Good Life," the health, happiness, and success American expect. The other half of the food dualism perceives overweight as a condensed symbol of entire overconsuming lifestyle, a stigma revealing obvious character flaws and defects. This thesis explores this food dualism as revealed by the Ladies Home Journal from the 1890's through the 1980's, tracing many of the common cultural and historical issues that have been used to substantiate the reality of both sides of the dichotomous expectation.

A society experiencing change in its structure feels anxiety about its psycho-social identity. Cultural values lose their meaning, forcing society to adjust its world-view to accord with new structural realities. Through a process called boundary maintenance--in which a symbolic person or idea is used to designate the limits of acceptable behavior--society strengthens its threatened identity by readjusting its value system.
Victorian America was a society undergoing significant change in its structure. Victorians were unsure about the traditional values girding their identity. They used boundary maintenance devices to readjust their values and reaffirm their identity. Symbolic villains were one such boundary maintenance device; Aaron Burr was a prominent Victorian villain. Burr, the third American vice-president, was an unusually popular subject in Victorian magazines, schoolbooks, and novels. An analysis of Burr's images in these media, therefore, illustrates how boundary maintenance helps a society align traditional values with new structural realities.

The cultural notions of beauty and physical attractiveness are important variables in life. "Good looks" shape self-esteem, preserve happiness, and determine the way people will be treated by others. Beauty matters because it affects how well individuals do in love, at work, and in life. One place in modern society where Americans create and share their culture's definition of beauty is within retail cosmetic departments. This ethnography of a suburban cosmetic department analyzes the ritual aspect of cosmetic use as women buy and sell American culture's image of beauty and femininity. Cultural forms find articulation with the "consciousness" of individuals as they transact their daily business. Cosmetic departments arbitrate male and female role definitions with society. The beauty rituals they sell regulate human interaction and communicate intense sentiments and senses of identity. Most importantly, American beauty practices create a dual persona in women. The "adorned" face is valued and deemed worthwhile; the "unadorned" face is worthless and socially unacceptable.

"Defending the Errand in the Nuclear Age: The American Civil Religion Under Stress" is a study of the dramatic transaction that took place between the American people and their leaders during three events: the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the Mayaguez incident in 1975, and the Korean Airliner incident in 1983. Historical background for the study is provided in the first three chapters, which draw on secondary sources. Chapter One traces the historical development of the American civil religion; Chapter Two explores the myth of violence in defense of the national errand; Chapter Three addresses the role the civil religion plays in creating consensus in a diverse society. Primary sources for Chapters Four through Six are The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. The study provides evidence that in the nuclear age Americans act out the myth of violence in defense of the errand only in symbolic terms and that there is a significant movement in the culture to unlink the errand from violence.

This study interprets Elvis Presley as a powerful public symbol of American culture in general and of American life in the fifties in particular, using some of the theoretical and methodological principles of symbolic anthropology. The analysis of Elvis' symbolic role in American culture is based upon the examination of youth history, the social history of the fifties, Elvis' personality, life, and career, Elvis as myth, and publicly expressed Elvis images, perceptions, and interpretations. The study concludes that Elvis stands essentially as: (1) a symbol of youth, since he gave shape, direction, and power to a formerly fragmented and socially insignificant youth culture; (2) a symbol of communitas, since he had the power to instill in others new perceptions of alternative ways of interpreting life; and (3) a historical cultural symbol because he portrayed the American dominant cultural ethos in his person, life, and music.

The Bolsa Chica Wetlands of Huntington Beach have been molded and shaped as a cultural artifact by successive generations of human existence on that site. Using the "sequent occupance" approach, this thesis explores the cultural attitudes towards nature, land use, and wetlands, in particular of the Gabrieleno Indians (500 A.D.-1768), the Spanish and Mexican cultures (1768- 1850), the "Yankee" intrusion from the eastern U.S. (1829-1878), the "Great Revival" evangelical movement of the late 1800s, the Agricultural period (1870-1920), the Oil Boom (1920-1940), Urbanization and the Awakening of Environmental Consciousness (1960-1985), and the most recent changes in environmental thought during the late 1980s. It also examines the economic and political meaning of land to each particular culture and the criteria that deem a piece of land either "valuable" or "useless." Finally, it establishes how important it is for our society to culturally mold our landscapes to accommodate nature and the larger ecosystem, as well as the human community.

Orange County has experienced phenomenal growth in recent decades. This is reflected in factual studies as well as in fiction. This study examines scientist-writer Gregory Benford as a cultural critic. It compares Benford's novels with the novels of six other Orange County science fiction authors and sets them all within the larger context of science fiction history. It is based upon a close reading of numerous novels as well as oral history interviews. It uses these materials to explore fictional themes that reflect social concerns. These science fiction novels transform issues of the day into plot, metaphor and imagery. They address themes such as fear of change, nature versus civilization, family and community, challenges to authority, and the definition of humanity. By analyzing the works of Benford and other authors, this study explores the larger social meanings found in Orange County science fiction writing.

The language of films has often been the language of the stereotype. The repeated use of physical characteristics or personality traits provides clues to the audience and simplifies character development. However, the recognition of those stereotypes depends on shared cultural values and experiences. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the impact of those values on the depiction of public school teachers in American films, particularly those films released between 1968 and 1983, years in which public opinion regarding the educational system took a dramatic negative turn. The literary origins of earlier film stereotypes are examined and a comparison is made between those images and the real conditions of teachers during the period studied. Nine hundred forty-two films of the period were surveyed and fifty-five films depicting teachers were studied in depth. Although the image of teachers during this period generally became more positive, many negative portrayals of women remained. The main factors involved in these changes were the sex of the teacher depicted, the year the film was made, and the intended audience of the film.

Complaints from women concerning their role in the American Christmas tradition led to an investigation of the origins of the customs which have become so dear to most Americans and to the causes of a growing discontent regarding the celebration of the nation's most popular holiday. An examination of Christmas issues of women's magazines over the past one hundred and fifty years, along with in-depth interviews with contemporary women concerning their thoughts about Christmas, reveals that the customs which were nurtured by Victorian homemakers one hundred years ago to maintain and strengthen a holiday ritual favorable to family centrality have not been appreciably altered, in spite of significant changes in the fabric of American society. The dissonance caused from attempting to apply traditional values to the reality of the modern social structure will inevitably bring about change to the treasured American Christmas tradition.

Since research indicates that Americans often develop their "world view" at least in part from information gleaned from television, the fictional characterization of women on television is a significant source of potential role models in contemporary America. This thesis evaluates the central female characters of four situation comedies across a thirty year span: Sally Rogers of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Ann Marie of That Girl, Mary Richards of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Murphy Brown of Murphy Brown. The qualitative analysis and interpretation of the implicit and explicit behaviors, expressed attitudes and character discourse of these characters and programs revealed a consistent pattern of reinforcement of traditional female sex roles. While highlighting that even programs touted as "progressive" are not as innovative as claimed, this study further indicates that traditional sex role definitions remain powerful even as the demographics of women's experience has become increasingly divergent.

This thesis analyzes the complex geographical and social history of the Santa Ana Canyon in Orange County, California. The many gaps that exist in the record of Native American and Hispanic contributions to the region are uncovered in contrast to the nostalgic view commonly portrayed in California history. Such canyon communities as Yorba, Peralta, Olive, and Atwood are examined as social entities hidden by urban development and the influx of Anglo-American culture. Using the "sequent occupance" approach, this study reveals how a natural river valley became an extensive cattle range, then turned into a vast citrus orchard. After World War II, people inundated the canyon, transforming its agricultural identity into an urban one. The little- documented history of Native American and Hispanic community members was uncovered through census records, interviews, historic buildings, and cemetery records. This study stresses the importance of recovering a lost sense of place.

Given the commodified nature of popular culture, it should follow that the consumer has a certain degree of agency over the material created by society's producers. Looking at the comic book superhero Batman, this thesis traces the character's change over time and examines the influence the reader/consumer has over the creative process. Letters written to the editor, which appear in a letter column within every issue of Batman comics, supply overwhelming evidence supporting the notion of the hero's popular construction. The correlation between the material in the columns and the shifts in character portrayal is remarkable. Every major change in Batman that has met with reader satisfaction, was requested by a large segment of correspondents in the years leading up to the shift. The few times DC Comics attempted to adjust Batman's depiction without reader promotion were met with significant disapproval, and the publishers were forced to revert to his previous style.

This thesis examines how the concept of romantic love has affected attitudes toward death in American and Vietnamese-American cultures. Beginning in the eighteenth and culminating in the twentieth century, American views of love, marriage, and family, and of death, dying, and bereavement have been increasingly affected by the rise of romantic love. The European base of American attitudes toward death are analyzed through secondary sources.
Vietnamese cultural patterns are analyzed through ethnographies, oral histories, and questionnaires, with an emphasis on generational change in the Vietnamese community in Southern California. Changes in family structure and the acceptance of romantic love in both cultures accelerated the fear of the loss of the mate, thus increasing the fear of death in American and Vietnamese-American cultures.

This thesis uses the life of Aimee Semple McPherson, a well-known American evangelist of the 1920s, to understand the larger implications of religious fervency in American culture. Beginning with an examination of women as viewed in Christian tradition and American religious history, this thesis elaborates upon the changing trends in mass media and the rise of Pentecostalism of which McPherson could take advantage. Looking at her audience, this thesis evaluates what McPherson meant to the public of her era--her secular admirers, her followers, and her critics. The subsequent cost of becoming such an icon to so many people was the toll on what was left of her private life, losing some intimate relationships through criticism and controversy. Throughout the events of her life, her sustaining influence was her strong self-concept, something seen in her early life as a missionary and reinforced under the glare of public observation.

The primary theme of this thesis is the deconstruction of cigarette advertisements in print media from 1936- 1996. The largest source of ads came from the pages of LIFE, Cosmopolitan, and Sports Illustrated. The first chapter is a historical overview from colonial times to the present. Next, cigarette ad sampling covers a thirty- six year period from 1936-1972; themes and trends are discussed along with analysis of the ads. The polemic of advertising as an influence on consumers and two 1991 papers which concluded that Marlboro and Camel ads influenced adolescents to smoke are examined in the third chapter. Current Marlboro and Camel ads are decoded and corroborate that research. The fourth chapter analyzes a five-year ad sampling between 1978- 1982 in gender-specific magazines with an adolescent readership. Of interest is the rise in smoking among female adolescents. The concluding chapter examines the political climate in 1996, its effect on smoking and advertising, and its correlation to conclusions of this thesis's sixty year cigarette advertising study.

This thesis will explore the popular reception of journalist, children's author, and television heroine Laura Ingalls Wilder. In the 1910s, Wilder was an advice journalist for a country weekly, the Missouri Ruralist. Twenty years later, Wilder became more prominently known for her Little House series of books, stories about the pioneering experience in the 1870s and 1880s, which have been popular since their first publication in the 1930s and 1940s. Sales soared as a result of Michael Landon's television rendition of her stories in the 1970s. And, numerous historical "Little House" sites have been established throughout the Midwest and elsewhere. Overall, this thesis will explore what Wilder has come to represent in American culture that would cause such popularity and interest, not only in America, but all over the world.

In the twentieth century the coyote (Canis latrans Say) has increased in number and has expanded its range the from the Plains states to most of the North American continent, bringing it into increasing contact with people. At the same time, a dearth of biological evidence, coupled with a wealth of anecdotal and mythological treatments, has shaped the coyote into a cultural icon. An examination of the forces that shaped the coyote as icon reveal that there has never been a definitive coyote. It is as adaptable mythologically as it is biologically. Examining literature, art, urban attitudes, and the failure of a government extirpation campaign, we find an animal imbued with human characteristics that often preclude biology. The coyote has come to reflect our sense of ourselves--it is indeed the American character. This work furthers our understanding of this animal as an animal and as a part of our culture, so that we may live together successfully in our shared habitat.

The image of Icarus as an emblem in American popular representations of pilots suggests the tensions inherent in the image of the pilot as a heroic figure. Early images of pilots are seen as expressions of the tension between traditional ideals of chivalry and the modern emphasis on individual autonomy. With the technological change and mass mobilization of World War II, the pilot represents the conflicting impulses towards both individual technological mastery and cooperative action. The postwar image of the pilot reflects the tensions of heroic masculinity "domesticated" by dominant middle-class culture. Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff is examined as an important popular re-evaluation of the pilot as a modern American hero. Female pilots, and African-American pilots are also considered as heroic images representing ideals particularly important to those subcultures. Examples are taken from popular fiction and nonfiction, magazine articles and feature films produced between 1927 and 1997.

This thesis investigates how gay Asian men found, interacted with, and related to each other and other gay men in Los Angeles during the seventies and early eighties. It also documents the founding of Asian/Pacific Lesbians and Gays (A/PLG) in 1980, the first Asian Pacific organization in Southern California, and how that changed the dynamics of that interaction. Specifically, it examines the social, political, and cultural factors that reinforced an ideology of racialized desire that discouraged most gay Asian men from recognizing each other as sexual and/or romantic partners and that impeded the formation of a panethnic identity until A/PLG. Using the methods of both oral history and cultural studies, the thesis describes the contradictions that gay men needed to confront and reconcile in order to fashion a community based on both their race and sexuality.

Annette M. Bagley
RURAL LESSONS IN MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF A SMALL TOWN'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS

This thesis explores the role of multicultural education within a majority-white community in the rural northwest. It uses ethnographic methods to examine three public schools in an agricultural valley in the state of Washington from the spring of 1996 to the spring of 1997. Interviews with teachers and administrators explore the ways that this school district understands the meaning of culture. This study found that although the district has made special accommodations for its small number of minority students, notably those of American Indian and Hispanic descent, the broader implications of culture and diversity remain largely unexplored. The lessons learned from this study of a rural school system suggest that developing a positive cultural identity is a necessary foundation for all students, both white and non-white.

Amy Lefkowitz
PACKAGING RELIGION: EXPLORING THE BOUNDARIES OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY IN CONTEMPORARY POPULAR MEDIA

In the contemporary United States, religion and spirituality are big business.  Themes of religion and spirituality are found in most popular media—print journalism, radio, television, and film.  At the same time, the U.S. has also become a more religiously diverse nation. As a result, religion and spirituality are continually being packaged and repackaged in ways that are designed to attract the widest possible audiences.  Producers of popular materials face many cultural boundaries in dealing with religion and spirituality, from the federal constitution's religion clauses to the debates over the meaning of civil religion to the problems surrounding political correctness.  Ultimately, however, materials that entertain without offending are what usually sells.  This thesis explores these changing cultural boundaries by focusing on the ways that religion and spirituality have been packaged in contemporary popular materials, including advertisements, radio and television programs, and films.

Donald Langford
GOOD VIBRATIONS, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SURF CULTURE

The study of Southern California surf culture: including the history of surfing’s development, the meaning of being a surfer, the importance of gender in surfing, and symbols and values associated with surfing.  Surfing originated in Hawaii, but found the greatest amount of cultural development in Southern California.  The cross-pollination of Hawaii's traveling surfers, who introduced the sport to California in the late 19th century, and the migration to Hawaii of California surfers from the 1930s through the 1950s heavily influenced the surf culture that developed in Southern California.

Surf culture is unique in that it has developed on the beach; an area that lies between civilization and the wilderness.  Surfers are influenced by the mass culture found upon land and the untamed nature that they paddle out upon, the sea.  The beach has acted as a buffer between these two worlds and has allowed surfers to develop a rich culture with values grounded in play and masculinity.  The value of play was in direct conflict with the Protestant work ethic, because surfers have traditionally been willing to drop everything to enjoy a good day of surfing.  Surfing has allowed men to prove their masculinity in the challenging and dangerous surf, creating a conflict with women participating in the same activity.

The majority of the research for this project comes from surfing magazines and surfing books that include various autobiographies and historical studies.  A few secondary sources were used, but were not heavily relied upon because surfing has not been explored extensively on the scholarly level.  Fourteen years of personal experience in surfing was also used in the project to reflect upon an activity that has dominated my life.

This thesis examines presentations of surfing in popular genres, analyzing change over time as well as form and content.  The introduction provides a brief history of surfing in California; the study proper examines surf narratives in film, music, literature, journalism, built environments, and fashion.  Specific attention is accorded Gidget and Point Break in film; Kem Nunn’s The Dogs of Winter in literature; Surfer’s Journal in journalism; Huntington Beach as a built environment; and the rise of the surfwear industry and the commodification of surfing.  The conclusion argues that in subtext surf narratives draw from various undercurrents of American thought—tapping into areas of topical social concern as well as historical ideologies.  These include the cult of leisure, eco-spirituality, the frontier/wilderness experience, and the California Dream.

Trista O'Connell
SEDUCTRESS, WHITE SLAVE, OR NEW WOMAN: COMPETING IMAGES OF PROSTITUTION AND WOMANHOOD IN AMERICAN ILLUSTRATIONS AND PAINTINGS, 1830-1920

As increasing numbers of young, single women migrated to America’s cities throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, traditional definitions of female sexuality and true womanhood became questioned, challenged, and redefined. The presence of these “women adrift:” wage-earners and consumers who were devoid of familial constraints concerned many. Several groups responded to the social, cultural, and economic changes that were brought about through modernization by shifting their focus to prostitution in their literary and visual representations. This thesis explores the visual traditions of depicting prostitutes by sensationalists, reformers, cultural radicals, and political activists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the competing ideologies of female sexuality and womanhood that they in turn reflect. In examining these various depictions of prostitutes, we may see that they were rendered as a response to and a reflection of the emerging New Woman of the modern era, who asserted her economic, sexual, and social autonomy.

Brenda Yecke
IN AND OUT OF BOUNDS: THE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, 1954-1999

The goal of this study was to identify and discuss the major patterns regarding the American cultural view of women’s involvement in sports from the 1950s through the 1990s. Discussion centers on the cultural images, myths and beliefs about women in sports, and how those views may or may not have changed over a span of five decades.

Sports Illustrated covers featuring females were selected for evaluation. Data was gathered on cover photos and the corresponding feature articles or photo layouts. The length and content of each article was recorded with specific note made of descriptive language, references to looks, marital status, motherhood or femininity. Photos and captions were coded for size, activity level, and context. Statistics revealed the patterns of change and consistency over time. These topics provide the heart of the discussion.

I found that while women’s appearances on the covers of Sports Illustrated declined after the 1950s, competitive action photos have increased. Individual and Olympic sports were most frequently featured while team sports were excluded from the covers until recently. The Cold War had a significant impact on both the sports featured, and behavioral expectations of female athletes. Sports Illustrated has been an advocate of women’s sports, but the constant tension between accommodation of, and resistance to, women’s participation in an activity historically defined as masculine is clearly evidenced. This cultural strain is still being dealt with in infinite and complex way.

Cynthia Bruns
INTO THE WILDERNESS: THE RISE AND DECLINE OF BACKPACKING IN AMERICA, 1965-1977

Backpacking was an obscure and eccentric activity until a surge of interest from 1965 until about 1977. The rapid popularization of backpacking in America was the result of cultural trends such as the Environmental Movement and counter cultural beliefs of the 1960s. These movements promoted the view of wilderness as a source of beauty and personal renewal. Environmental organizations, environmentalists, national environmental concerns, and the Back to Nature Movement encouraged people to explore backpacking. Inexpensive military surplus equipment and the World War II induced development of nylon and lightweight waterproofing contributed to the ability of people to backpack in comfort. Participation in the sport leveled off by the middle to late 1970s because of overcrowded conditions, the resulting regulation of wilderness activities, and shifting popular interest. By this time, backpacking was established within the culture as an accepted choice of vacations supported by a profitable industry.

Bradley Parsons
THE STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES: POSTMODERN NARRATIVES IN POPULAR CULTURE

This thesis examines popular cultural texts of the 1990s as expression and reflection of contemporary American life. Various methodological approaches are utilized in successive evidentiary chapters that analyze science fiction film, alternative rock music, and best-selling self-help literature. While each chapter employs textual analysis, the chapter of alternative rock music includes an ethnography of high school students, an examination of school shooters, and a discussion of the wider cultural debate surrounding violent themes in music. The self-help chapter utilizes an 80-year historiography to ground my interpretation of 1990s texts. This thesis argues that these texts express and reflect a contemporary America where individuals experience a lack of depth, a feeling of inauthenticity, an absence of a grounding narrative, and a lack of autonomous identity within consumer capitalism—what is identified as the postmodern condition. The final chapter explores the expressed strategies offered to overcome this condition across these texts.

Jeff Auer
Glitter Rock: Sex, Drugs, and Gender in American Youth During the 1970's

This thesis examines the effect of 1970’s Glitter Rock movement on American youth. Various methodological approaches are utilized in successive evidentiary chapters that analyze album covers, songs, lyrics, magazines, books and newspapers. This thesis argues that that Glitter Rock provided a subculture in which American youth were allowed to play out sexual and gender issues. The first chapter will define Glitter Rock and the moment in time in which it emerged. The artists examined will be: Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Iggy and the Stooges, the New York Dolls, Jobriath, and Suzi Quatro. Chapter four deals with Max’s Kansas City and Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco.

Akane Shinohara
The World of Urban Native Americans: People, Community, and Challenges for Cultural Survival in Contemporary Southern California

This thesis explores the "invisibiity" of the nation's largest Native American urban population, a population that now lives in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It attempts to increase awareness of this community's unique experiences and rich culture. This is an ethnographic study based on my personal contacts and attendance at cultural events, focusing in particular on the experience of the Native American Inter-tribal Powwow. I first analyze the socio-economic characteristics of this population through census records and secondary scholarship. Content analysis of Holywood films is also employed to untangle the stereotypical "Indian" imagery in American popular culture. I then describe and interpret my observations of the urban Native American community and their activities, while being conscious of my "non-Native American, non-American" Japanese self. The conclusion identifies Native American people as contemporary city dwellers whose traditional values are beautifully maintained in their urban life.

Lydia Ann Cristea
Romanians and the American Dream: Myth and Reality in Contemporary Immigrant Experience

This thesis explores the “American Dream,” as understood in belief and practice among Romanian immigrants to America.  For many immigrants, life in America is equated with a “dream” life of freedom in the land of opportunities, and it is this “American Dream” which causes immigrants from all over the world to choose America as their adoptive country.  This thesis is a critical analysis of the narratives of first and second generation Romanian immigrants, revealing their beliefs in and about the American Dream. In the course of my research, I used oral history as an ethnographic method, talking with a total of twenty-eight Romanian immigrants, now living in Southern California.  I asked open-ended questions and I analyzed their responses as answered in their own words.  I maintain that the American Dream is an attainable dream of relative definition that can be accomplished by immigrants coming to the United States.

Phillip Scott
THE FORD MUSTANG AND THE CHEVROLET CORVETTE: ICONS IN AMERICAN CULTURE

This thesis examines why the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Corvette became American cultural icons.  Chapter one explores the technological development responsible for the creation of muscle cars in the middle of the 20^th century, particularly during the post-World War II years of the 1950’s.  Chapter two explores the roots of the muscle car era, beginning with the influence of auto racing in America in the late 19^th century; the production histories of the Mustang and Corvette are also examined.  Chapter three examines the strategies Ford and Chevrolet used to sell the Mustang and Corvette in print advertisements to prospective buyers of each car.  The cultural impact of the Mustang and Corvette in American motion pictures and television shows is discussed in chapter four; in chapter five, I use an ethnographic study to examine the impact organized Mustang and Corvette car clubs have had on each model’s lasting popularity in American culture.  Finally, the concluding chapter reinforces the findings from the previous chapters and contemplates the future of Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Corvette as icons in American culture.

Kristin Hargrove
SUNPIST: EXPLORING THE ALIENATION RESULTING FROM ORANGE COUNTY'S POST-WORLD WAR II DEVELOPMENT

Orange County, California, occupies an eminent place on America’s contemporary cultural map. The area’s historically high standard of living has traditionally made Orange County the “happiest [real] place on earth.” There exists, however, a sense of alienation that contradicts Orange County’s utopian claims, an alienation that within recent years has become more pronounced in the wake of the county’s massive landscape transformation, its hyperreal development, and its relationship with affluenza, or the drive for overtly conspicuous consumption. The cultural artifacts of the music group No Doubt, science fiction writings of Kim Stanley Robinson, the county’s endeavors with Transportation Art and the depiction of Orange County in various films, such as Life as a House, Better Luck Tomorrow, and Orange County, and television programs such as The O.C., Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, and Arrested Development, register and publicly project the psychological dislocations that living in this simulated utopia causes.

Stephanie Kolberg
MARKETING THE MIDDLE LANDSCAPE IN IRVINE , CALIFORNIA : THE IMAGE OF A MASTER-PLANNED COMMUNITY AND THE PURSUIT OF THE SUBURBAN IDEAL, 1959-2005

The master-planned City of Irvine , California embodies evolving notions of community and the suburban ideal in American society. By examining media representations of Irvine through Irvine Company advertisements and marketing materials, as well as through printed critiques, this study investigates the ways a master-planned city develops an identity through its projected and assigned image. Beginning with the influence of Ebenezer Howard's Garden City model of 1898, this research traces an American ideal enamored with greenery and small-scale community. Partly a reaction to the suburban critique of the 1950s, this continued search for the perfect “middle landscape” culminates in the development and depiction of the master-planned communities of the 1960s up through today. What results is a portrait of the master-planned city as a tightly-regulated, though nicely landscaped, enclave. This suburbanization of urban life raises issues of “otherness” and the aesthetics of control in contemporary American society.

Brenda Yosseti Beza
EL MUNDO DE LOTERíA: TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITY IN PLAY

Lotería is a Mexican folk game that has been in existence since the Mexican Revolution. For more than a century, Lotería has acted as a source of cultural remembrance to immigrants who left their homeland in search of a promising future in the United States and has also served as a source of cultural identification and preservation for those of broader Latino backgrounds. My thesis, El mundo de lotería: Transnational Identity in Play addresses the cultural world(s) that Lotería invokes and the ways in which Lotería elucidates transnational identity in “play” as people negotiate their identities in the United States.

Images from traditional Lotería cards are both iconic and omnipresent in American society—appearing on household items sold in upscale stores and in Latino communities, presented as focal points of politically charged art, and the subject of musings in Mexican, Chicano, and Central American literature. Lotería’s images are cultural mimes that challenge us to finish their stories. My study focuses on artists and writers who have utilized Lotería caricatures to voice their social, cultural, and political identities. Based on interviews with Lotería artists and in-depth analyses of representations of Lotería imagery in literary texts, I argue that Lotería is a vernacular border art born out of binational and transnational crossings and geographies. Even as Lotería and its vibrant images are seen as rather ordinary taken-for-granted objects, I find that the iconography
of Lotería is able to conjure a myriad of folk narratives from various global locations that would otherwise go untold.

Danielle Marie DiPirro
FROM BITING THE APPLE TO BREAKING THE SPELL:
ANALYZING LOVE IN THE DISNEY PRINCESS COLLECTION

Dominating such a large portion of today’s youth market, the Disney Princess Collection (DPC) plays an important role in American popular culture by exposing children to important mainstream American beliefs about gender, romance, and love. Images displayed through this collection of eight films—including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Mulan—are part of an extensive marketing scheme that has the potential to significantly impact viewers. In this thesis, I will examine how the Walt Disney Company, one of the largest distributors of media to children, portrays romance, love, and happily-ever-after endings in this popular collection of animated films. Though Disney films have been previously analyzed in terms of gender, never before has the DPC been scrutinized as a whole. In this thesis, I will inspect DPC films exclusively in relation to love and romantic rituals. Though some scholars have touched on the issue of love in Disney films, none have analyzed DPC films independently from other Disney films or conducted a lengthy investigation of romance in Disney films. Though others may have investigated Disney films, none have assessed Disney sequels (and, in particular, DPC sequels) and how these films tie in with the entire Disney franchise. My thesis will shed a new light on Disney films and assess a very influential aspect of the Walt Disney Company that is often criticized but rarely analyzed.

Sarah Gillen
HIP HOP ACCORDING TO THE ADOLESCENTS OF THE INLAND EMPIRE

This thesis examines hip hop culture among adolescents in the Inland Empire and seeks to understand the perceptions of hip hop music and culture in this region.  In an ethnographic analysis, one high school was selected as representative of adolescents in the Inland Empire to survey the students.  In addition to the data collected from the survey results, various forms of hip hop media and hip hop cultural critics were used for supplementary information.  By examining how the students define hip hop music and culture, I trace the evolution that hip hop has made from its origin to the present. The first chapter includes a brief history of hip hop and moves in to the analysis of the data collected from the ethnographic research.  Chapter Two discusses how the students define hip hop music, while Chapter Three explores hip hop culture in the Inland Empire.  Chapter Four includes a personal account from having experienced hip hop in the Inland Empire as an adolescent, and Chapter Five aims to connect the information gathered with the current state and future of hip hop.

Matthew A. Knowlton
MILITARY CRACKDOWN: POLICING THE BOUNDARIES OF RACE, GENDER, AND SAME-SEX RELATIONS IN OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 1974-1976

This thesis is part of a much larger research project that investigates the causes and effects of the anti-crime campaign conducted by the City of Oceanside, California with the collaboration of the United States Marine Corps from 1974-1976.  It is a case study of this alliance, its exercise in power, and the organized resistance of the alleged criminals.  I ask, who was blamed for the crime problem and why?  How did the accused respond to the allegations?  In answering these questions, I examine newspaper reports, legal documents, institutional records, personal correspondences, and oral histories.  I use these sources to construct a descriptive narrative and interpretation of the events that occurred prior to, during, and in the wake of the war on crime. The evidence suggests a classic case of scapegoating. The narrative reveals the changing and elusive face of a suspected criminal: from unruly marine, to villainous black civilian, to the black marine, and finally, to the homosexual male, marked by the alliance as a predatory sexual pervert.

This thesis addresses experiences of rural women as farmers during the farm crisis of the 1980s. The farm crisis of the 1980s and previous times of agricultural distress were times that enabled farmwomen to acquire more recognition for their active participation in agriculture; they made their voices heard through protests and attempted to change the perception of rural women. During the 1980s farm crisis, many grassroots movements emerged in an attempt to gain parity for the farmers and farming women began to join this movement to gain recognition for themselves as well. Generally speaking, women have not been viewed as farmers themselves but rather in terms of their assumedly complementary or secondary roles as mothers, wives, and daughters of the male farmer. Nor have they had the same rights as their male counterparts. Utilizing primary source material from these grassroots organizations as well as oral histories from farming women, I examine what role they played within the farm movement. I also look at how rural women were viewed in popular media and society during the time of the farm crisis, looking at the way they were portrayed in films at the time.