The URCAD Selfie Contest winner for Best Selfie with a Presentation: The presenters from the Women's Center: Ash Acuña, Tanzila Malik, Carrington Cline, Abby Claytor. They will receive a gift card to the UMBC Bookstore.

Even after the poster session ended, you could find these folx holding up their poster in the UC lobby and doing an impromptu presentation for people who missed it... now that's dedication to the feminist cause of analyzing Barbie!

White, Pink, and Pretty: How Barbie’s Feminism Fails its Viewers

Carrington Cline, Tanzila Malik, Abby Claytor, Nati Acuña, Media and Communications Studies
Lauren Allen, Women's Center; Amelia Meman, Women's Center

The 2023 film Barbie (Gerwig, 2023) is the highest-grossing live-action comedy film of all time; it has been lauded as a feminist film that cunningly subverts gender roles and thoughtfully addresses issues of diversity that are fraught in most Hollywood films. Barbie is an easily digestible media that portrays basic feminist principles for the general public. But if Barbie is a feminist film, is it also intersectional? This study examines the limitations of the Barbie movie’s portrayal of feminism and its failings in regard to intersectionality. We aim to inspire critical thinking around media and intersectionality and shed light on the prevalence of White feminism in popular media. Using content analysis informed by intersectional feminist theory, we analyzed instances in the film that demonstrated (pseudo-)feminist principles and themes in order to determine how intersectional Barbie’s brand of feminism is. We also explored avenues by which Barbie could better depict intersectionality and contemporary feminist thought.

The URCAD Selfie Contest Winner for Best Overall Selfie is Olivia Hutchinson! Olivia will receive a $100 gift card to the UMBC Bookstore.

Olivia took this selfie before the start of the poster session and sent it to her mom, who asked, "Are you nervous?" Her reply: "I don't know, do I look nervous??" Olivia, you were great, but we love your sense of humor!

Effects of Child Abuse and Acute Stress on the Experience of Emotion in People with Schizophrenia

Olivia Hutchinson, Psychology, Jacob Nudelman1, Eric Neutzling, Gabrielle Pakravan², Adriann Lai¹, Elie Holzel^1
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, ²University of Maryland, College Park
Raimi Quiton, Psychology; James Waltz, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Early-life adversity and psychosis can alter sensitivity to stimuli. We used images from the International Affective Pictures Set (IAPS) to examine how diagnosis and abuse history influence picture ratings under stress. We hypothesized that stress would heighten reactivity to unpleasant stimuli and reduce reactivity to pleasant ones.

52 people with schizophrenia (PSZ) and 32 healthy volunteers (HVs) performed the Emotional Experience Task (EET) – requiring subjects to view and rate the “positivity” and “negativity” of emotions evoked by pictures twice – once after experiencing an acute stressor and once after a neutral event. We assess abuse history with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire.

PSZ exhibited reduced rating range, relative to HVs. PSZ rated positive pictures as less positive (t = 1.958; p = 0.05) and negative pictures as less negative (t = 2.711; p = 0.008) than HVs. Physical abuse (PA) scores correlated with aversive image ratings (r = 0.309; p = 0.035) and the acute stressor’s impact on positive (r = 0.333; p = 0.022) and neutral stimuli (r = 0.300; p = 0.040). Higher PA was associated with greater stressor impact on IAPS ratings.

Diagnosis and abuse history impacted affective picture ratings. These factors did not interact in influencing picture ratings.

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For more details, check the attachments below or email gsa@umbc.edu

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https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/careers/posts/140578