Roman Comedy is defined by the tensions between comic convention and humour’s ability to interrogate societal norms. The playwrights, Plautus and Terence, experimented with their generic restrictions to create unique and complexly structured plays that posed questions on personal and collective identity. This study identifies a critical framework of gender manipulation that shows how citizen men of comic plays transgressed traditional norms of masculinity on a relational, physical, and structural level. It is grounded on the idea that gender plays an integral role in constructing the self. Once characters transgress their gender, other aspects of their identity adjust accordingly until they assume a new social and comic role. I divide my analysis into three character studies from Plautus’ Menaechmi, Terence’s Eunuchus, and Plautus’ Casina. I argue that both playwrights follow the same pattern, where a citizen man performs a physical act of gender transgression in response to dissatisfaction with his emasculating relationship with a female counterpart. This act reveals tensions pertaining to cultural dissonance and citizenship, sexuality in the transition to adulthood, and the crisis of old age. It is followed by a structural manipulation that shifts character and narrative tropes to bring the play to some resolution. This study provides a new framework for investigating the relationship between character and narrative, as well as generic convention and comic subversion in Roman Comedy. It diverges from recent scholarship on comic gender roles to reveal the distinct ways that Plautus and Terence experimented with the patriarchal constructions of masculinity and femininity in addition to the binarism of gender. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In the comic plays of 3rd- and 2nd-century BCE Rome, gender played an important role in the way that citizen men interacted with the world around them. This study identifies a pattern tracing how they were motivated to step outside the norms of traditional masculinity and how this performance affected their identities and plotlines. The pattern comprises three stages: emasculation from an overpowering woman, a physical change of clothes or scent in response to that emasculation, and a plot change to bring the play to a conclusion. The gendered instability experienced by these men at each stage exposes underlying tensions in cultural dissonance and citizenship, the role of sexuality in the transition to adulthood, and the crisis of old age. Investigations of the plays through this pattern reveal how the playwrights experimented with their genre and the impact they had in addressing the on-going concerns of their audiences.

My project explores the role of affective bonds of a sexual, romantic, and/or mentoring nature between male warriors in the production and maintenance of warrior identity during Japan's Warring States (1467–1603) period. Employing the notion of queer reading as a guiding principle, I examine the traces of intimate bonds between male warriors left behind in poetry, love oaths, personal correspondence, and other documents. I argue that male-male warrior intimacy played a central role, often undervalued by historians due to the conventional disciplinary emphasis on male-female marriage, in the construction of warrior retainer bands and the establishment of warrior alliances. Ranging from the purely hierarchical to the overtly sexual, relationships between warrior youths and their relatively older lords reproduced and reinforced warrior identity, through their violent oathing rituals, recreational activities, and function as a site for cultivating future trusted retainers. A young subordinate could also take advantage of the attention and trust given to him by making demands of his ostensible superior, disrupting the power asymmetries of the lord/retainer bond, or even by openly plotting a rebellion In considering warrior intimacy, the project occasions a reevaluation of the unification process that marks the Warring States period’s central narrative. I contend that the conventional interpretation, which relies on the trope of the Three Unifiers, minimizes the influence of male-male ties on events that effected significant historical change at the macro level, including the circumstances that enabled the Tokugawa clan’s ultimate victory, their vision of the social order, and the form of their sacred authority. I also explore the legacy of these bonds in the Edo period (1603–1868), repurposed as ideals of warrior masculinity and loyal retainership by both samurai attempting to find new purpose in a time of peace and commoners enjoying their newfound wealth and leisure time. Each chapter focuses on an influential warlord and his younger retainer: Ōuchi Yoshitaka (1507–1551) and Sue Harukata (1521–1555); Takeda Shingen (1521–1573) and Gensuke (dates unknown); and Date Masamune (1567–1636) and Tadano Sakujūrō Katsuyoshi (dates unknown), respectively.

This study investigated (1) how and where queer young adults remembered playing and exploring gender and sexuality in their child and youthhoods, and (2) how those memories influenced their identities as queer young adults. Eight young adults from Southern Vancouver Island were recruited to the study using non-probability and purposive sampling. Each participant took part in a narrative interview and was asked to recreate in a sand tray one or more places where they remembered exploring gender and/or sexuality in their childhood or youthhood. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis through a queer phenomenological lens inspired by Sara Ahmed. It was determined that “queer failure,” as described by Jack Halberstam, was a critical, formative process that contributed to the reorienting of queer children and youth towards queer futures. The way that queer failure was responded to by significant adults appeared to have enduring impacts on participants’ self-esteem and self-regard, with having a supportive caregiver being associated with positive self-regard as a queer adult, and a lack of support associated with long-term poor mental health and lower likelihood of experiencing pride in being queer. Additionally, participants demonstrated how access to the outdoors provided a meaningful locus of self-discovery wherein the limitations and structures of gender were less omnipresent and they felt more external and internal acceptance of their queer identities. / Graduate / 2023-08-10

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Inqueeries of Space is an artistic research project that explores queering as a practice to create intersectionally inclusive and safer spaces. Queering is both the research object and method. The project examines how spaces can be queered, by means of focusing on public spaces in Kalmar. Experimental practices of queering conducted the research process, like queer city walks, visual alterations of space, or using space in non-normative ways. Queering is investigated as a change agent that dismantles, resists, and disturbs discriminative structures of heteropatriarchy within spaces. Queer aesthetics are being discussed as something non-universal that challenges norms within design, often including transgressiveness and maximalism. The project brings out the need for queer spaces and demonstrates how queering bears the duality of both disturbing norms and celebrating marginalized experiences. The complexity of queerness, inclusion, safety, and visibility is highlighted instead of promoting simplified solutions.

Skolan har ett viktigt demokratiuppdrag i fråga om att arbeta med värderingar och motverka diskriminering i samhället. Skolan arbetar med likabehandlingsplaner som syftar till att skapa en skola där alla behandlas med respekt och på lika villkor. Likabehandlingsarbetet fokuserar mer ofta på faktorer som genus och etnicitet än sexualitet, vilket är en aspekt som ofta förbises. Denna studie har sin utgångspunkt i ett socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv och syftet är att undersöka hur lärare konstruerar sexualitet i aspekten likabehandling och hur detta påverkar deras undervisning. Studien har genomförts genom kvalitativa intervjuer och analyserats med hjälp av perspektiv som socialkonstruktionism, queerteori och diskursanalys. Resultatet visar att lärarna skapar en sexualitet som i första hand handlar om identitet och kärlek. Sexualitet som identitet och kärlek skapar förutsättningar att tala om sexualitet i klassrummet samtidigt som det aktualiserar betydelsen av likabehandling. Likabehandlingen i perspektivet sexualitet handlar om att synliggöra alternativa sätt att leva, älska och vara i förhållande till heteronormen.

Syftet med den här studien har varit att undersöka värdegrunden i Lpfö 98/10, samt hur normer skrivs fram där i. Vi har också velat undersöka huruvida den normkritik som skolverket efterfrågar syns i läroplanen, som kanske är det styrdokument förskollärare använder sig allra mest av. För att kunna besvara våra frågeställningar har vi gjort en kvalitativ innehållsanalys där vi har utgått ifrån litteratur som är relevant för området. Normkritik är ett relativt nytt begrepp som utgår från queer teori, queer teori utgör en bakgrund för normkritiken och är därför viktig att ha i beaktande. Analysen visar att den av skolverket efterfrågade normkritiken saknas i Lpfö 98/10. Istället finns det på många ställen snarare ett toleransperspektiv. Analysen visar också att olika normer fastställs, upprepas samt utelämnas ut läroplanen. Värdegrunden tycks i Lpfö 98/10 vara något som ska överföras från vuxna till barn. Vår slutsats är att det som förskollärare är viktigt att vara medveten om bristerna i Lpfö 98/10 när det kommer till värdegrunden samt normerna, så att inte likabehandlingsarbetet påverkas av dessa brister.

Städer är präglade av värderingar och politiska ideal, och genom sin utformning bidrar de till befästande och upprätthållande av normer. Offentliga miljöer uppmuntrar, likt staden som helhet, till ett för samhället önskvärt beteende hos stadens användare. Men där finns också grupper som har andra förutsättningar än vad normen förutsätter och som då får det svårare att tillfredsställa sina preferenser. Bland dessa grupper finns personer som identifierar sig som queer, det vill säga att inte vara heterosexuell och/eller ej tillhöra den binära könsuppdelningen. För personer inom denna minoritet, så som andra minoriteter, upplevs stadens gemensamma rum inte alltid som lika välkomnande. Detta då de i högre grad än personer som identifierar sig inom stadens normer, såsom Heteronormen, utsätts för trakasserier och våld i dessa rum. Men eftersom stadens form sätter ramarna för och påverkar användarnas beteenden kan det också vara ett redskap för att skapa förändring. Rapporten syftar till att undersöka vad en mer queer stad och stadsplanering kan innebära. Detta genom att granska rumspraktik med uttalat queert perspektiv i sökandet på insikter om strategier, vilka skulle kunna inspirera och informera stadsplanering som önskar skapa mer inkluderande offentliga rum. I kandidatarbetet har ett queerteoretiskt perspektiv använts vid analysen av konst- och arkitektkollektivet MYCKET:s rumsliga praktik inom fallet Clubscenen, ett projekt inom vilket deras uttalade mål var att utforska möjligheter att skapa mer inkluderande rum. Den övergripande strategin som användes var att synliggöra samtida och dåtida queera personer och deras perspektiv. Mer specifikt använde sig MYCKET av strategierna återberättande av queer aktivism och livsstil, iscensättande av queera miljöer och fysisk manifestation av queera uttryck. Dessa tre strategier används både separat, tillsammans och överlappande. Avslutningsvis diskuteras hur de strategier som MYCKET använde sig av skulle kunna inspirera och informera stadsplaneringen. Rapporten föreslår att stadsplaneringen arbetar med riktade medborgardialoger vilka etablerar trygga rum för minoriteter, såsom personer som definierar sig som queer, för att säkerställa att även deras perspektiv inkluderas i och tas hänsyn till vid stadsutveckling. Vidare bör ett mer normkritiskt perspektiv utvecklas och implementeras i stadsplaneringspraktiken, ett perspektiv som granskar och vid behov ifrågasätter underliggande värderingar som influerar stadsplaneringen. Rapporten föreslår också att införa minnesmonument till minne av queer aktivism i de redan byggda delarna av staden, samt att enstaka offentliga rum tillskapas utifrån den queera minoritetens önskemål och preferenser vid den fortsatta utvecklingen av staden. / Cities are characterized by values and political ideals, and by their design they contribute to the consolidation and maintenance of norms. Public spaces, like the city, encourage a behaviour that society deem desirable among its users. But in the city, there are groups that have needs different from the norm, and because of that have a much harder time satisfying their preferences. Among these groups are persons who identify themselves as queer, that is not being heterosexual and/or not belonging to the binary gender norms. People within this minority, like many other minorities, may find the city’s public space not as welcoming as the majority might find it. This is because of the harassment and violence they might be subject to in these places, to a greater extent than people who identify with the norms of the cities, like heteronormativity. But since the shape of the city sets the framework for the user’s behaviour as well as affect if, it can also be a tool for creating change. This report aims to investigate what a queerer city and queerer urban planning can be. This by examining spatial practice with a pronounced queer perspective, in search of insights on strategies that could inspire and inform urban planning that aims to create more inclusive public spaces. In this report, a queer theoretical perspective has been used in the analysis of MYCKET’s, an art and architectural collective, spatial practice in their project ”The Club Scene”, a project in which their stated goal was to explore means to create more inclusive spaces. The overall strategy used was to put queer people and their perspective in the spotlight. For that, MYCKET used the strategies of retelling queer activism and lifestyle, staging queer spaces, and physical manifestation of queer expressions. These three strategies are used both separately, together and overlap each other. In the final part of the report, the strategies that MYCKET used are discussed for how they could inspire and inform the urban planning. The report proposes that urban planning should work with directed citizen dialogues, which establish secure rooms for minorities, such as people who define themselves as queer, to ensure that their perspectives are included and taken into account in urban development. Furthermore, a more norm-critical perspective should be developed and implemented in urban planning practice, a perspective that examines and, if necessary, questions underlying values that influence urban planning. The report also suggests introducing memorials in memory of queer activism in the already built parts of the city, and that some public spaces are created in favour of the queer minority and their preferences when developing the city.

Stories I Told Myself: A Memoir explores the experience of growing up gay in the 1980s. It is one boy's journey toward self-acceptance set against the conservative backdrop of a rural community on California's central coast. The story illuminates the hunger for a life different than the one being lived, and the ever-present sense of being different exacerbated by bullying and unrequited love. It is a narrative of evolving identity, and includes cultural insights and societal context of the time period. The author poses a fundamental question, "How did I make it out of the 80's alive?" and he explores the answer with poignant humor and self-examination. Mr. Crimmins shows that, beyond the constraints of time and place, the process of coming out remains an important and consistent element of the queer experience.

This is a discourse analysis of three WebPages which topic is sexual information. Our purpose is to examine the WebPages RFSL (The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights), RFSU (The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education) and UMO (Reception for young people) from a queer theoretical perspective and illustrate how they discuss the subjects’ gender, sexual preference and sexual limits. Our questions are; what information about gender, sexual preference and sexual limits are presented on the WebPages RFSU, RFSL and UMO, and what similarities and differences can be identified and how can these be analyzed from a queer perspective? Our material was collected from the three WebPages and categorized according to three topics of interest; gender, sexual preference and sexual limits. Our analyses are based on queer theory and former research in the field. We found a number of topics and interesting information which were categorized under new headlines. Our conclusion is that the topics mentioned on the WebPages are in most of the cases homogenous. On the theme gender we found that the categories man and woman were prominent. In the discussion about gender we found that all three WebPages only wrote about hetero-, homo- and bisexuality. None of the WebPages write about subjects whom concern the theme sexual limits. All WebPages write about hetero norms and are questioning them.