9 spend our entire lives in practice where we literally hold each others’ lives in our hands.” Silliness and teasing prevail in conditioning, the weight room and during formal practice, and while the atmosphere is structured, organized, and scheduled, friendships and chemistry are evident. When gathered as a group, members work to make each other laugh, yelling things like “Beach Season!” as motivation in conditioning. Furthermore, the Exec Board includes a Social Chair who facilitates social activities for the group outside practice, for instance, their upcoming trip to the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games. This level of camaraderie is surprising as survey results demonstrate 24 different majors, widely varying previous experience, and family backgrounds. “I think it’s because we’re doers,” says Brianna. “Other people plan, circus people do. We’re all pretty carefree and willing to do something crazy too.” Dedication Circus performance requires extreme time and bodily commitment. Performers are required to attend three four-hour long practices per week, train several times a week in the weight room and make frequent appearances at the open gyms. Courses, homework, jobs, and social lives all must be negotiated around circus.

Before each practice, I wrote a list of goals to accomplish and questions to address, converted my preliminary field notes into layout form, and printed several photos which I brought and discussed with my contacts.

After initial introduction of my project, I asked some basic prepared questioned about participants’ background and involvement in Gamma Phi. Then, I began asking more specific questions framed to identify the major themes and nature of the group so I could understand the club holistically.

I assumed that as a college circus, Gamma Phi would perform only basic tumbling and balancing skills, and perform mainly for other students. I expected to see professional trainers and coaches with each act enforcing safety regulations, and tired students who were doing the bare minimum of physical work.

I chose to focus my research on Gamma Phi because they represent a strikingly visual and dynamic performance tradition.

“Disney perpetuated a male myth through his fairy-tale films,” argues Jack Zipes (1995, p. 37). He writes that Walt Disney framed “women’s lives through a male discourse

Similar sentiments are expressed in Lady and the Tramp (1955)

Disney’s women are not merely damsels in distress; rather, they use their positions of weakness to exploit empathy and affection--and the men keep falling for it. Whether they want to or not, the men eventually come to terms with the shift of power--though not without resistance

a fear in George of his wife’s activism: he understands the threat she poses to his authority, and his only way to control it is to dominate her and to ridicule her activities.

Some masculine attributes are: assertiveness, dominance, aggression, ambition, self-reliance, and independence. The feminine traits he lists are polar opposites to the masculine: yielding, gullible, gentle, shy, modest, and domestic (p. 17). These traits are clearly demonstrated in the characters in Lady and the Tramp, as well as in most Disney films. This polarization causes great conflict between the masculine and the feminine.

In Disney’s first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Snow White uses her female influence to domesticate the dwarves. Upon reaching their cottage, she immediately takes note of how dirty it is.

Edward Schiappa (2008) argues that there are three “gender lenses” embedded in our culture, and explains that they work to reproduce male power.