Abstract not available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how the emotional wellbeing of female adolescents is influenced by constructions of femininity in a single-sex high school environment. From one single-sex high school, four young women aged 17 and 18 years of age and two teachers were asked to be a part of this study. A qualitative approach was used in this study to elicit thick description of participants’ constructions of femininity and emotional wellbeing. Underpinning this research is an interpretivist and social-constructivist methodology, whereby social-constructivist researchers attempt to build understanding of phenomena by accessing the meaning that participants assign to themselves through the experiences they have with the world around them. Qualitative data tools were therefore used, including semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups. Analysis of the data involved a qualitative strategy called thematic analysis. This enabled categories and themes to be taken from the data as they emerged. Key themes from this study demonstrated that the school curriculum, teachers, religious expectations, family experiences and peer group pressures directly influenced student feminine gender constructions. Alongside this, peer pressures to be feminine, negative perceptions of self body image, confusion of self and gender-identity, inadequate school health education and negative stigma surrounding mental and emotional health negatively affected student emotional wellbeing. From these results, various implications have emerged. First, single-sex schools and its teachers should work to eliminate gendered stereotypes that restrict young women’s interests and opportunities. Second, teachers and schools need to be aware of female peer dynamics and seek ways to facilitate healthy relationships and identity development of its students. Further, health education personnel should factor in female peer group dynamics when implementing emotional wellbeing programmes, curriculum and policy initiatives aimed at female adolescents. Finally, students need realistic and relevant health education that supports understandings and coping strategies for self-esteem, identity confusion and perceptions of body image. Health education also needs to promote a positive view of mental and emotional health and encourage the use of the school’s mental health service.

During the spring of 2014, I have investigated the visual culture of Lolita as practiced in Sweden and Japan. My focus has been on the performative aspect of Lolita. By looking and participating in this colorful subculture, I have met people who are living the Lolita lifestyle on a daily basis as well as former Lolita practitioners. My main concern has been how does one use Lolita. I’ve tried to investigate if it is possible to look at Lolita as being more than just a clothing style. Can it be seen as an everyday performance? Can it be seen as a kind of subversive counterpart to the images of femininity that we are being fed everyday from media and via tradition? In my text I argue for the opportunity to consider the Lolita movement as a post-structuralist version of the female masquerade. By enhancing many of the attributes that are traditionally linked to femininity in the West, the Lolita style highlights the conflicting aspects of the female gender role. With her doll-like silhouette the Lolita crosses, breaks down and defies everyday boundaries.   I have organized Lolita workshops in Stockholm and Tokyo. At these gatherings I and other participants have discussed the topic of Lolita while dressed in Lolita clothes. The participants have answered a survey, and the whole arrangement has been concluded with a tea party performance. I have recorded these sessions on film and with photography and written down my impressions afterwards. I have also met with people who are former Lolita practitioners in Sweden and Tokyo and interviewed them.   The visual portrayal of my work is a short film where I present the making and use of Lolita as a dreamlike vision; PERFORMING LOLITA, which was exhibited at the Konstfacks Spring exhibition 2014. In the movie I change the settings from Tokyo to Stockholm and back by using slow motion clips connected by transitions. The original soundtrack is made by Linus Hansson.

As with other women`s garments, the kanga has always been closely linked with the perceptions and attitudes that the society has about women themselves. These perceptions and attitudes continue to shape and determine the place of women in their socio-cultural context. Just as women`s clothes are often taken to define, if partially, the beings that occupy them, similarly, in characteristically wearing certain garments and not others, women then assign to those garments what is perceived to be their `feminineness`. In Tanzania, the kanga indexes this `femininity` in a strong way, in spite of the fact that men also wear it.

Bakgrund: Bröstcancer är den vanligaste cancersjukdomen bland kvinnor i Sverige. Den initiala behandlingen är huvudsakligen kirurgisk med bröstbevarande kirurgi eller mastektomi. Internationell forskning visar att kvinnor som behandlats med bröstbevarande kirurgi har bättre kroppsuppfattning och sexuell aktivitet i jämförelse med kvinnor som behandlats med mastektomi. Få studier är gjorda i Sverige rörande sexualitet och kroppsuppfattning med ett tidsperspektiv inom det första året efter ingrepp. Syfte: Studien avsåg att undersöka skillnader av kroppsuppfattning och sexualitet över tid bland kvinnor som genomgått bröstbevarande kirurgi i jämförelse med kvinnor som behandlats med mastektomi. Metod: En kvantitativ studiedesign med en longitudinell utformning användes. Undersökningsgruppen var kvinnor diagnostiserade med bröstcancer som behandlats med bröstbevarande kirurgi eller mastektomi på tre sjukhus i mellersta Sverige. Studien var en del av en interventionsstudie med inriktning på livskvalitet. Resultat: Den sexuella aktiviteten förbättrades 12 månader efter ingrepp bland kvinnor som genomgått bröstbevarande kirurgi. Kvinnor som genomgått bröstbevarande kirurgi hade bättre kroppsuppfattning vid inklusion samt 12 månader efter ingrepp i jämförelse med kvinnor som behandlats med mastektomi. Det fanns samband av bättre kroppsuppfattning vid högre ålder vid inklusion samt 12 månader efter ingrepp. Det fanns även samband av bättre sexuell aktivitet vid lägre ålder under samma tidsperiod. Slutsats: Den sexuella aktiviteten förbättras 12 månader efter behandling med bröstbevarande kirurgi. Kvinnor opererade med bröstbevarande kirurgi har bättre kroppsuppfattning strax efter ingrepp samt 12 månader efter ingrepp i jämförelse med kvinnor som genomgått mastektomi. Ålder har inverkan på kroppsuppfattning och sexuell aktivitet bland kvinnor som genomgått bröstbevarande kirurgi eller mastektomi. / Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer disease among women in Sweden. The initial treatment is mainly surgical with breast conserving therapy or mastectomy. International research shows that women who have been treated with breast conserving therapy have a better body image and sexual activity compared to women who have been treated with mastectomy. Few studies have been done in Sweden regarding sexuality and body image with a time perspective over the first year after surgery. Objective: The study aim at investigating differences of sexuality and body image over time between women who had undergone breast conserving therapy compared to women who had been treated with mastectomy. Methods: A quantitative study design with a longitudinal design was used. The participants were women diagnosed with breast cancer who were treated with breast conserving therapy or mastectomy at three hospitals in the middle of Sweden. The study was part of an intervention study with focus on quality of life. Results: The sexual activity improved 12 months after surgery among women who had undergone breast conserving therapy. Women who had undergone breast conserving therapy had a better body image at inclusion and 12 months after surgery compared to women who had been treated with mastectomy. There were correlations of a better body image at higher age at inclusion and 12 months after surgery. There were also correlations of a better sexual activity at lower age over the same period of time. Conclusion: Sexual activity improves 12 months after treatment with breast conserving therapy. Women operated with breast conserving therapy have a better body image shortly after surgery and 12 months after surgery in comparison to women who have undergone mastectomy. Age has an impact in body image and sexual activity among women who have been treated with breast conserving therapy or mastectomy.

This essay is about the act of wearing contemporary jewellery has as a way of communication between human beings. I investigate the act of decorating the body as an important and basic human need.  This essay investigates the relationship between gender, feminine culture, and decoration within the Western world, thinking of jewellery as a socialisation method and not as a consequence of natural differences between sexes. This investigation presents a brief historical review of the role that jewellery has been playing in the relations between the genders and the changes it has undergone in terms of cultural process over the last centuries. I introduce to the reader the idea of performing jewellery with the aim of to highlight the relevance that decoration on the body has as a way to construct our identity.  The post-structuralist theories about gender and identity made by the feminist philosopher Judith Butler (Gender Trouble 1990, Undoing Gender 2004), and some philosophical perspectives on material culture, are used to support my investigation, to postulate that jewellery pieces can be viewed or understood  us as ‘queer apparatus’… As a way to explore and experience  jewellery as a ‘queer apparatus’, I have chosen few examples of contemporary jewellery.

This thesis is a phenomenological study that has been carried out via two semi-structured interviews with an -  in conventional ways of categorising - 22 years old white, heterosexual, and middleclass Swedish woman, referred to as “Andrea”. The thesis aims to explore the becomings of Andrea in connection with cosmetic body modifications and her experiences in relation to this of fitting and misfitting, which are related to the dis/ability system. The aim of this thesis has also been to situate her as an embodied female subject in an intersectional context, in addition to her own experiences, as multiple social categorizations intra-act in the creation of dis/ability. The thesis takes its point of departure in Rosi Braidotti’s theorization of nomadic subjectivity and employs her notion of subjectivity as a negotiation between desire and power, with the goal of analysing the affirmative potential of cosmetic body modifications, as well as being critical towards them and their effects. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s concepts of fitting/misfitting are used in order to analyse the intra-actions between body and environment as well as how cosmetic body modifications affect the fit and/or misfit of Andrea.  Sara Ahmed’s notion of orientation has been employed in relation to this, with the aim of showing how beauty, whiteness, femininity, and economic wealth are produced and sustained. In the thesis it is analysed how Andrea, in complex ways desires molarity at the same time as she actively resists “fixed” positionings of her. Andrea contributes to a deconstruction of the fixity of molar identity as her resistance disrupts the flow of expected behaviors - something which creates moments of imperceptibility. The thesis furthermore argues that Andrea uses cosmetic body modifications as an affirmative deconstruction of power in addition to it being a force that drives her towards the desired molarity.

The everyday practices of maternity and beauty are important for the enactment of femininity. This dissertation deals with femininities created in the context of changing ideas about “normality” in Soviet Russia during the mid 1930s-1960s and explores a diversity of norms, discourses and rituals. The main sources are women’s magazines, advice books, and interviews with women living now in three different cities of the Russian Federation – Moscow, Saratov (Volga region) and Ufa (capital of Bashkortostan Republic). The results of the research suggest that some parts of the Soviet discourses on maternity and beauty turn out to be similar to those that were characteristic for other European countries of the same historical period. At the same time the interviews show that the modern practices of medical and welfare institutions, the consumption of clothes as well as advice about appearance and childcare were situated in the context of shortages of goods, women’s work outside of home, rhetorics of the “naturalness” of maternity for every woman as well as that of a woman’s particular need to care about looking nice. Together with the home reproduction of many rural/patriarchal rituals of maternity and beauty it led to a contradictory everyday performance of femininity. Fluctuating categories of social status, ethnical belonging, geographical location and generation also contributed to a diversity of femininity constructions. Common sense normativities concerning practices of becoming a mother, caring for a baby and making oneself beautiful suggest that Soviet discourses on maternity and beauty were only partly accepted and reproduced by women. They were also partly rejected and subverted in everyday practices. The analysis of maternity and beauty practices shows that performative femininities were utterly complex. / <p>Boken innehåller en sammanfattning på ryska.</p>

A picture says more than thousand words - an analysis of GQ Magazine´s cover images and ninth grade student´s views of them is an essay in media and communication studies covering 15 hp. This essay examines how men and women are depicted on the cover of GQ Magazine and how ninth grade students perceive these images. Our research questions are: How is gender presented in cover images? How do the students interpret these images? What possible differencies or similarities are there? Our theoretical framework is based on gender theory. Methods used are a survey conducted at Tegs Central school and a semiotic analysis of the cover images. We have to keep in mind that the cover images already have a stereotypical representation of the women and men, and that will automaticly affect the students answers. The essay shows that the semiotic studie describes profound thaughts on connotation terms. The survey studie shows that the students have the ability to analyse GQ Magazine´s cover images in a denotation level. Since the social problem is about what images says and what possible affect they have on the viewer. It is therefore important to have a critical mind when it comes to analyse images and be aware of these general representations of gender.

Several cases of single repeat offenders in urban space have raised public concern in Sweden during recent decades. Few studies have been conducted on consequences of the kind of ‘hostage situations’ that emerge when one individual offender causes fear and affects a larger group of people in a specific place. The concern of this thesis is to examine consequences of the Haga Man phenomenon: the case of a serial rapist operating between 1998 and 2006 in Umeå, a medium-sized Swedish city. This thesis explores some of the ways not only women but also men in Umeå responded to this specific situation, the threat from a single repeat offender, and how fear of crime and changing public crime discourses influenced gendered power relations. The thesis examines different aspects of fear and safety in public space, such as the views of those who are fearful; of those who are feared; perceptions of both women’s and men’s bodies; their emotions and experiences in relation to fear of violence in public spaces; and the significance of space and place for our understanding of fear. The empirical data of this thesis consist of in-depth interviews with a total of 47 women and men in Umeå. The thesis is based on four empirical studies. The first (Paper I) sought to identify similarities and differences across narratives in terms of the major components of young people’s talk about fear.  In their stories women positioned themselves as fearful and in need of protection, while men in their stories positioned themselves as fearless protectors. Men and women reproduced ways of speaking considered appropriate to their gender, thus performing masculinity and femininity through their talk. Paper II, examines consequences of the Haga Man phenomenon on constructions of white masculinities. Three masculine positions; the dangerous stranger, the suspect and the protector were identified. These three constructions of masculinity were not clear-cut or ‘belonging’ to specific men – several of the interviewees articulated various forms of masculinities but stressed them in different ways depending on, for instance, age and/or ethnicity/race. Paper III, focuses on changing perceptions and representations of female and male bodies, and illustrates how a change took place; from a focus on how women should conduct themselves to be safe, towards men’s bodily behaviour in order to present themselves in non-threatening ways. In Paper IV, women’s fear of violence is discussed in relation to Swedish gender equality discourses and contextual constructions of femininity. The results show the difficulties of claiming the official position of a gender-equal femininity. Several female respondents expressed an ambivalent attitude about their own fear; they felt afraid, but also felt that as (equal) women they should be able to do what they wanted, whenever they wanted.  Result from this thesis shows that this situation produced a shared approach to fear for women of different ages, classes and ethnicities in Umeå. The similarity in the women’s responses to the threat from the Haga Man is as an expression of a normative femininity. The male respondents did on the other hand express complex emotional positions as they talked about their own fears, women’s fear of unknown men and how they felt they were under suspicion and compared to the perpetrator. As this thesis provides an understanding of how men and women responded and reacted to the threat from the Haga man, it contributes to a better understanding of how fear of violence affects people in their everyday lives.