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This paper is an in-depth analysis of music artist Beyoncé Knowles's career in relation to female autonomy and sexuality. It delves into the symbolic annihilation of an accurate portrayal of female sexuality in the media and how that translates to young women being misinformed about their own sexual pleasure and satisfaction. This misinformation and its effects on the sexual experiences of college-aged women are demonstrated through a series of original creative short stories.

The proposed thesis is comprised of eleven papers connected by the employment of the evolutionary psychological approach in research on various aspects of human sexuality. The aim of the first monothematic part is to demonstrate the evolutionary-psychological approach to one recent phenomenon in female sexuality - the use of oral contraceptives (OC). OC use has been shown to suppress psychological mechanisms that are considered to be adaptive in the fertile period of the natural menstrual cycle. In particular, OC users' ratings of male stimuli that provide the cues of genetic quality and compatibility are lower in comparison with normally cycling women. Moreover, the increase in sexual desire and in the prevalence of proceptive behaviour observed during mid-cycle in normally cycling women is diminished. However, the impact of this phenomenon on mate-choice and relationship dynamics in an ecological context has not been studied. In the first study, we have analyzed the data of Czech women obtained via representative sampling within the Czech National Survey of Sexual Behavior. Results indicated that normally cycling women had a significantly higher number of one-night stands during the last year in comparison to OC users even when living in a long-term relationship. OC usage was also shown to have...

The thesis focuses on female orgasm and its relation to autoerotic activities and dyadic sexual behavior. The first theoretical part focuses on theories describing the function of female orgasms and factors influencing its occurrence. The second part consists of four articles published in peer-reviewed journals. The first article is a review, focusing on the development of expert opinions over time, with specific regard to female orgasms and the division between clitoral and vaginal orgasm. The second article discusses the role of general relationship and sexual satisfaction with respect to the female orgasm. The third article examined the association between first autoerotic experiences and the occurrence of vaginal orgasm. Finally, the fourth article concerned the frequency of dyadic sexual activity and its relation to vaginal orgasm. The findings within each article indicate that autoerotic and dyadic sexual activities together with general relationship and sexual satisfaction have a positive influence on the occurrence of female orgasms.

Instagram, as one of today’s largest social media platforms, plays a significant part in the maintaining and reproducing of existing stereotypes and role expectations for women. The purpose of the thesis is to study how Instagram interprets violations against its guidelines, and whether decisions to remove certain pictures from the platform are in line with terms of use, or part of human subjectivity. The noticeable pattern among the removed pictures is that they are often norm-breaking. The thesis discusses communication within Instagram to reveal how and why some pictures are removed while others are not, which limits women’s possibilities to express themselves in non-conventional settings. The study applies semiotics to analyse 12 pictures that were banned from the platform without directly violating its guidelines. Role theory and norms are used to supplement semiotics and shed light on the underlying societal structures of female disadvantage. Two major conclusions are presented: 1) Instagram has unclearly communicated its guidelines to women’s disadvantage, and 2) Instagram has therefore been subjective in the decisions to have the pictures removed from the platform, also to women’s disadvantage. Further, the discussion focuses on how Instagram handles issues related to (1) female sexuality, (2) women stereotyping, and (3) female self-representation.

The proposed thesis is comprised of eleven papers connected by the employment of the evolutionary psychological approach in research on various aspects of human sexuality. The aim of the first monothematic part is to demonstrate the evolutionary-psychological approach to one recent phenomenon in female sexuality - the use of oral contraceptives (OC). OC use has been shown to suppress psychological mechanisms that are considered to be adaptive in the fertile period of the natural menstrual cycle. In particular, OC users' ratings of male stimuli that provide the cues of genetic quality and compatibility are lower in comparison with normally cycling women. Moreover, the increase in sexual desire and in the prevalence of proceptive behaviour observed during mid-cycle in normally cycling women is diminished. However, the impact of this phenomenon on mate-choice and relationship dynamics in an ecological context has not been studied. In the first study, we have analyzed the data of Czech women obtained via representative sampling within the Czech National Survey of Sexual Behavior. Results indicated that normally cycling women had a significantly higher number of one-night stands during the last year in comparison to OC users even when living in a long-term relationship. OC usage was also shown to have...

This thesis deals with slash fanfiction and yaoi manga, disparate yet similar phenomena of fan culture. Yaoi manga as genre of Japanese comics created by women and dedicated to women , and slash fanfiction as women's reaction to pop culture generally made by male authors, are both genres dealing with a romantic relationship between two men characters. This relationship is portrayed as an innocent romantic story as well as a hardcore pornography. The autor aims to describe the terms and inctroduce some of the most influential approaches to research of the topic. Author is interested in the issue in the way of cultural and gender approach. Cultural perspective provides a summary of approaches of Frankfurt and Birmingham schools, clarifys point of view of Abercrombie and Longhurst and other authors on the current and future trends in development of audiences. Mapping the internet, important space for the fan communitiy, is also a part of this paper. Gender perspective provides a description of the points of view on the women's status in popular culture, explains the motivation of the readers/authors related to the issue of homosexuality, and describes opinions of different feminisms about pornography. Research among fangirls and fanboys or authors of slash fanfiction and yaoi manga is included.

Kvinnlig ejakulation har på olika sätt skildrats sedan början av vår tideräkning och beskrivningar av den och av kvinnans sexualitet har varierat beroende på historisk kontext. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilken roll forskning kan spela i att definiera den kvinnliga sexualiteten, med debatten om den kvinnliga ejakulationen mellan 1978-2018 som exempel. För att kontextualisera debatten har även feministiska skildringar under samma period inkluderats. Materialet har bestått av vetenskapliga artiklar, annan litteratur samt olika typer av internetkällor som berör den kvinnliga ejakulationen. Materialet har analyserats med hjälp av en foucauldiansk genealogisk diskursanalys, med socialkonstruktivism som grund. Debatten kan delas upp i tre diskursiva spår som följer varandra kronologiskt. Det första diskursiva spåret fokuserar på det forskningsfält som växte fram under 1980-talet där huvudsyftet var att normalisera och ge vetenskapligt underlag för den kvinnliga ejakulationen. Det andra diskursiva spåret skildrar hur företrädare för den sexpositiva feminismen anammade kvinnlig ejakulation som en symbol för makt över den egna kroppen och sexualiteten. Det tredje diskursiva spåret skildrar hur fenomenet återupptäcktes med hjälp av andra forskningsmetoder men också hur kvinnlig ejakulation beskrevs som en dysfunktion, vilket väckt starka motreaktioner utanför forskningsfältet. Trots att fenomenet är känt sedan lång tid tillbaka går uppfattningarna fortfarande isär och bilden av den kvinnliga ejakulationen varierar beroende på vilken sorts kunskap som har legitimitet. Förståelsen av kvinnlig ejakulation är starkt beroende av forskningens definition av den. Detta synliggörs när den kvinnliga ejakulationen går från att beskrivas som ett sexuellt fenomen till ett sjukligt till följd av att urinmarkörer uppmärksammats i den utsöndrade vätskan. Forskares agerande kan förstås som en patologisering av den kvinnliga sexualiteten. / Female ejaculation has been portrayed in various ways since the beginning of our era and descriptions of it and of women’s sexuality have varied depending on historical context. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible role of scientific research in defining female sexuality, with the debate on female ejaculation between 1978-2018 as an example. In order to contextualize the debate, the feminist portrayal during the same period has also been included. The material has consisted of scientific literature, other literature and various types of internet sources that refers to the female ejaculation. We analyzed the material using a Foucauldian genealogical discourse analysis, with social constructivism at the core. The debate can be divided into three discursive tracks that follow each other chronologically. The first discursive track focuses on the research field that emerged during the 1980s, in which the main intention was to normalize and provide scientific evidence for the female ejaculation. The second discursive track describes how representatives of sex-positive feminism embraced female ejaculation as a symbol of power over one’s own body and sexuality. The third discursive track portrays how the phenomenon was rediscovered using other research methods, but also how female ejaculation was described as a dysfunction, which caused strong counter-reactions outside of the scientific research field. Although this phenomenon has been known for a long time, perceptions still differ and the image of it varies depending on what kind of knowledge that is legitimate at a certain point in time. The understanding of female ejaculation is strongly dependent on definition of it in scientific research. This is made visible when the female ejaculation changes from being described as a sexual phenomenon to a diseased one due to the fact that urinary markers have been detected in the emission fluid. Scientists' actions can be understood as a pathologization of female sexuality.

Feminist scholars have focused on the Gothic as a medium for expressing the horrors of female experience in a patriarchal society. This study examines Gothic awareness in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic.The first part of the study focuses on Gothic awareness in relation to female sexuality and the threat of sexual violence from a feminist and psychoanalytic point of view.The second part of the analysis focuses on Gothic awareness in relation to domestic entrapment from a feminist point of view. In the third and final part of the study, Gothic awareness is analysed in relation to class and ethnicity from a Marxist and a postcolonial perspective. It is concluded that in Northanger Abbey, Catherine's lack of Gothic awareness stops her from becoming a victim, but also stops her from recognising the Gothic dangers surrounding her, whereas in Mexican Gothic, Noemí’s growing Gothic awareness enables her to take action against the Gothic dangers she faces. In both works, Gothic genre conventions are appropriated in order to convey the dangers faced by women in the worlds of the novels, but also subverted in order to show that women are more than passive victims.

Sverige har under en längre period utgjort de OECD-land med ett av de högsta antal förlossningsskador. Historiskt har förlossningsvården varit en sfär för kvinnor. Medicinvetenskapen intog emellertid en allt mer betydande roll under 1800-talet och läkarkåren utgjordes av män. Den gravida kvinnan blev en patologisk kropp. Följden har lett till att kvinnor föder i gynställning och bristningar är standard. Syftet med studien har utgjorts av att, genom Foucaults teori om biomakt undersöka hur en svensk, samhällelig och medicinsk normalisering av förlossningsskador kan förstås som en följd av medikalisering av kvinnlig sexualitet och reproduktion. Med ett konstruktivistiskt angreppssätt baserat på upplevelser och definitionsprocesser har kvinnors subjektiva erfarenheter av sina skador studerats genom strukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet skildrar en statlig inverkan i reproduktionsfrågor och dess disciplinerande kontrollorgan, inte minst inom mödra- och barnahälsovården. Känslor av skam, skuld, litenhet och förminskande är upplevelser bemötandet i vården orsakat. Samhället är aktiva i att upprätthålla realiteten för kvinnorna och förmedlas diskursivt, då kvinnan som gör anspråk på den egna kroppen kategoriseras som avvikande. Det saknas ett psykosocialt inriktat stöd i vårdkedjan. / For a long period of time Sweden has been an OECD-country with one of the highest quantity of obstetric injuries. Childbirth has mainly been a sphere for women historically. Medical science however took an increasingly significant role during the 19th century and the profession mainly contained men. The pregnant woman became a pathological body. The consequence has led to women giving birth in lithotomy position and obstetric trauma is standard. The aim of this study has been, through Foucaults theory of bio power, analyse how a Swedish, social and medical normalization of obstetric injuries can be understood as a result of medicalization of the female sexuality and reproductivity. With a constructivist approach, the subjective experiences of their obstetric injuries has been analysed via structured interviews with women. The result shows a public impact in questions regarding female reproductivity and sexuality from the institute administrators. Emotional states of shame, guilt, pity and diminishing occur by the encounter with the institutes. Societies maintain the reality for women and mediate it discursively, since women who claim their bodies as their own are abnormal. Psychosocial support lacks in the care chain.