Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Pluralistic ignorance on the norm of ideal thinness for women, third-person perceptions about the influence of thin idealized images in mass media, and the relationship between pluralistic ignorance and the third-person perception were examined. Both women and men overestimated thinness preferred by other women and men. Men in dating relationships overestimated thinness preferred by their female dating partners, while women in dating relationships had accurate estimations of their male dating partners’ norms of ideal thinness. Both women and men also overestimated the influence of the thin ideal on other women and men. However, third-person perceptions were not found in dating relationships. When the third-person perceptions about the media effect were tested, along with people’s own norms of ideal thinness, the two variables accounted for a significant amount of variance in biased perceptions about the norm of ideal thinness.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: While estimating ideal points in recent congresses is non-problematic (Poole 2005), determining support along specific issue dimensions can be difficult when only a limited number of votes are available. This is the case with votes on lesbian and gay rights in Congress. Cosponsorship data provides another manifestation of support in a policy area and early support for legislation implies greater support along a policy dimension. I merge the date a member of Congress cosponsors legislation into a standard Bayesian MCMC item response model (Clinton, Jackman, and Rivers 2004) to obtain improved policy support scores for members of Congress and compare these to the Human Rights Campaign Scorecard traditionally used as measure of support for lesbian and gay rights. The scores show a sharp consolidation of the Republican Party at an anti-gay pole after the 1992 Republican Convention and the election of a Republican congress in 1994. This suggests that Republicans used their agenda setting powers to display a unified front against gay rights in order to appeal to anti-gay religious activists.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The popularization of plastic surgery, continual issues of low self-esteem with women, and a variety of inadequately defined terms for the ideal image is reason to complete this study. In addition, the ideal image is now a commodity within the US and its capitalist society. A literature review was conducted to analyze the role of ideal image and the variety of terms used in similar ways. Ideal image is conceptually important as its definition extends beyond an ideal of beauty to encompass many dimensions, such as behavior. In this re-conceptualization, the term is examined through its creation, production, and commoditization in the American society. Establishing ideal image as the concept for the differing terms, recognizing the dimensions within the concept, and understanding the impact of ideal image upon a consumer society will advance communication and feminist literature in providing a common understanding between scholars and consumers alike.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the perspective from which we should select moral principles to guide states as they decide whether or not to engage in humanitarian intervention. I distinguish between first person and legislative perspectives. In the former, agents select principles as the best for them to interpret and apply; in the latter, they select principle for themselves as well as others. I argue that, given the non-ideal world in which we live, a legislative perspective is superior. I suggest how the legislative point of view sheds light on three different "non-ideal facts" about the world (the bias and fallibility of human agents, the lack of correlation between justice and power, and the unpredictable contingency of political outcomes) as they relate to the problem of humanitarian intervention. The legislative point of view can account for the main arguments about how a principle of humanitarian intervention should be articulated. The legislative point of view will generally direct us toward a more cautious principle of intervention.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper uses survey and focus group data to explore conceptions of citizenship held by the public in the United States and Great Britain. It shows how liberal and cultural pluralist understandings are impeded by communitarian thinking in both nations.