Examensarbetets syfte är att undersöka hur chick ick representerar skönhet och fulhet. Vi har undersökt och identierat semiotiska tecken och myter i lmerna, samt hur målgruppen upplever att deras självbild inverkas av representationen.  Våra valda metoder för examensarbetet består av semiotiska textanalyser på lmerna The Devil Wears Prada, The Princess Diaries, Clueless, She’s All That och Mean Girls. Vi har även utfört tre intervjuer i fokusgrupper.  Genom vår undersökning och analys kom vi fram till att det nns etablerade tecken som representerar antingen skönhet eller fulhet, och att myter existerar för att understryka ramverk som medföljer ett vackert eller fult utseende. Med hjälp av fokusgrupperna fann vi att även om målgruppen inte upplever att deras självbild direkt inverkas av dessa myter och tecken existerar de som en underliggande tanke när målgruppen reekterar över sitt eget utseende. / This thesis aims to discover how chick icks represent beauty and ugliness. We have examined and identied semiotics signs and mythologies in the movies, and whether the target audience believes their self images have been impacted by the representation.  Our chosen methods for the thesis consists of semiotic analyses of the lms The Devil Wears Prada, The Princess Diaries, Clueless, She’s All That and Mean Girls. Furthermore we have carried out three interviews in focus groups.  Through our discoveries and analysis we concluded that there are established signs representing either beauty or ugliness, and that mythologies exist in order to underline guidelines that follow a beautiful or ugly appearance. With the help of focus groups we found that although the target audience does not believe their self image is directly impacted by these mythologies and signs they often nd themselves keeping them as a constant underlying thought when reecting on their own appearance.

Dans la sphère publique, la nudité est toujours porteuse de signes. Symbolisant la vulnérabilité dans certains contextes, elle peut représenter la folie, la liberté, le désir de choquer, un appel ardent à être écouté. C’est pourquoi les militantes Femen, mouvement féministe activiste, utilisent leur corps comme principale arme de revendication politique, se mettant en scène les seins nus dans leurs manifestations. Malgré leur visibilité qui s’étend maintenant à l’échelle internationale, leurs méthodes de revendications restent très controversées et suscitent de nombreuses critiques. Mais au-delà de ces critiques, de quoi nous « parle » le mouvement Femen? Que nous dit-il sur notre société d’aujourd’hui, sur ses paradoxes, ses tensions et ses rapports de force? Ce mémoire a pour objectif de répondre à ces questions. Il est structuré comme suit : une première partie porte sur l’historique du mouvement et ses orientations ainsi que sur les principales critiques qui lui sont adressées. Cette section présente également le cadre conceptuel du mémoire qui s’articule autour de cinq grands points : la nudité comme outil de contestation politique, la société de l’image, le corps, l’apparence et la beauté, la «résistance urbaine spectaculaire» et enfin, l’engagement et le désengagement militants. La deuxième partie présente la méthodologie, une démarche de type ethnographique comprenant des entretiens semi-dirigés avec des militantes Femen et avec la fondatrice de la branche québécoise ainsi que de l’observation participante lors d’entrainements et de réunions formelles et informelles du groupe. Finalement, la dernière section présente les résultats du terrain. Ceux-ci mettent en évidence les nombreux paradoxes et contradictions inhérents au mouvement, lesquels nous apparaissent comme un condensé de grandes contradictions de notre société. Une société de l’image et du spectacle, où le corps, celui des femmes en particulier, a acquis une centralité particulière et paradoxale. Une société d’individus « libres » mais adhérant à des standards de beauté stéréotypés. Une société où les « causes », celles de la gauche et du féminisme notamment, ont du mal à s’exprimer de façon cohérente, entre autres parce qu’elles sont traversées de tensions internes où l’individu l’emporte trop souvent sur le collectif. Une société, enfin, où le religieux est imbriqué plus que jamais au politique, venant brouiller davantage les lignes de contestation. / In the public scene, nudity always carried signs. Being a symbol of vulnerability in some contexts, it may also represent the madness, freedom, the desire to shock or even an ardent appeal to be heard in some cases. This is actually the reason why activist feminist Femen movement militants are using their bodies as the main weapon of political demands by featuring themselves breast naked in their events. Despite of the visibility of the movement that now extends internationally; their methods of claims remain highly controversial and are the source of several critical. But beyond all these criticisms, what is the Femen movement telling us? What is it telling us about today’s society, on its paradoxes, its tensions and power struggles? This thesis aims to answer these questions. It is structured as follows: A first part focuses on the history of the movement, its directions and the main criticisms addressed to it. This first part is also presenting the conceptual framework of the thesis that is built around five major points: nudity as political protest tool, the image society, the body, appearance and beauty, the “spectacular urban resistance” and finally, engagement and disengagement activist. The second part presents the methodology; an ethnographic approach including semi-structured interviews with Femen activist and founder of the Quebec branch as well as the participant observation during formal and informal trainings and meetings of the group. Finally, the last section presents the results of the field. These highlight the many paradoxes and contradictions inherent in the movement, which we appear as an overview of some of the big contradictions of our society. A society of image and show. Where body, especially women’s body has gained a particular and paradoxical centrality. A society of ‘’free’’ individuals who adhere to stereotypical standards. A society in which "causes", those on the left and feminism in particular, are struggling to speak coherently, in part because of internal tensions crossings where the individual prevails too often on the collective. A society where religion is nested more than ever, blurring once again the protest lines.

The thesis explores the impact that dominating Swedish aesthetic norms and beauty standards have on the subjective experiences of Afro-Swedes and their hair. Also, it examines why Afro-Swedes who previously have been straightening their hair have chosen a natural hair style. Moreover, the thesis also discusses which influence Youtube has in encouraging women to 'go natural'. The research is based on semi-structured interviews of seven women. The study is located at the theoretical meeting-point between hair, ethnicity, and the social and agentic body, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, digital anthropology. It explores the social dimension of hair and how hair, as a part of the body, has the capacity to participate in the creation of social meaning and also, enables agency in the social world. It shows that hair practices and styling strategies can be symbolic, social and agentic and that hair can manifest social and cultural order. Also, it opens up for further questions regarding Afro-Swedes and their hair in relation to beauty standards, normativity and representation, on the societal level as well as the individual.

This thesis examines the embodiment of the sexed body and the struggle of fitting into the narrow frames of what a woman is supposed to behave and look like in Japanese cinema. Using the medium of film, I, therefore, seek to produce knowledge regarding the internalized gaze of the oppressor, and self-objectification, caused by the capitalist heteropatriarchy. Thus, I am drawing from cyborg feminism, and the second wave of sexual difference theory’s concept of becoming, expanded upon by the Italian-Australian philosopher Rosi Braidotti. I further use the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of masculine domination and the American philosopher Gayle Rubin’s charmed circle, in creating a theoretical framework, and using the methods of cultural and feminist film analysis to contextualize the films and locate the subjectification of the women. The movies that I will be analyzing are the Japanese director and poet Sion Sono’s Antiporno (アンチポルノ, 2016) and the Japanese director and photographer Mika Ninagawa’s Helter Skelter (ヘルタースケルター, 2012), which both center around two women and their struggle in becoming-cyborg, in relation to power, trauma, sexuality, technology, and beauty ideals in ‘modernized’ Japan. In that sense, I will study the phenomenon of operating outside the lines of social norms of femininity and desire.