By using critical discourse as a method three discourses have been exposed as active in the advicing articles published on the website of Amelia, a Swedish magazine for women. The three discourses are the neoliberalist, postfeminist and the heteronormative. The research shows, by using the theories of governmentality and the heterosexual matrix, that these discourses collaborate to form the advices that is being given around women’s sexuality and their sexual health on the website of Amelia. The discourses that is being exposed in the research can be described as they are imposing guilt upon women. It also poses women as the solely responsible for the relationship to work and the women are as well expected to conform to their partner, which often is described as a man. This implies that in the advicing articles of Amelia, women and men are not allocated the same position in a relationship. Indicating that it exists an inequal relation in the context, where women are subordinated to men. Finally, the research can contribute to an understanding of the ambiguous expectations existing regarding women´s sexuality.

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South Africa is currently the only country in the continent to fully legally recognise same-sex marriage. While this is a post-apartheid nationalism feat that needs and should be celebrated, those who live openly as gay/lesbian continue to be despised by a large portion of the population (Gouws, 2005). There is an overwhelming body of research in the continent, including South Africa, that focuses on the narratives of homophobia and violence experienced by gay/lesbian individuals (see Mkhize, Bennett, Reddy & Moletsane, 2010; Judge, 2018). Despite the growing visibility of gay/lesbian headed families in the country, little is known about children raised in such families. Existing literature often focuses on the impact homosexuality has on children from the perspective of the gay/lesbian parents while ignoring the importance of giving a voice to children who come from such families. Using a qualitative approach, this study explored narratives of how young men raised in gay/lesbian families navigate heteronormative communities in South Africa. Queer theory and theory on Radical Democracy were adopted as theoretical frameworks while the data was produced through semi-structured interviews conducted in person and virtually with eight men raised in gay/lesbian families. Themes and sub-themes emerged through a narrative thematic analysis, highlighting the intricacies and tensions in how these men navigate heteronormative environments. Constructing narratives about (counter)heteronormative environments, encounters of disclosure, self-identification narratives, and growing up as a boy/man in counter-heteronormative families were the themes that arose from their narratives. Their narratives revealed that there is no such thing as a universal moment of disclosure and that ‘coming out' is a complex family process that sometimes occurs in the context of divorce and parental conflict and that sometimes, ‘coming out' was irrelevant for these men because the narrative of disclosure was not allowed. The men learned to represent a positive alternative masculinity that challenges mainstream sexist ideas of women and girls as objects as a result of growing up in counter-heteronormative families. The research suggests that living ‘the laws of democracy' within intimate family settings is a complex and multidetermined business, demanding both continuous vigilance around wide-spread homophobia and attunement to new modes of masculinity formation in the country.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the constructions of sexuality, which are produced when judgments concerning asylum are made, based on an asylum seeker’s sexual orientation. The question formulations are the following: Which constructions of sexuality are produced when necessary condition, fear of persecution due to sexual orientation, is applied in judgments regarding refugee status? Furthermore, how constructions of sexuality differ in the judgments where the asylum seeker has been consented and rejected is investigated. The empirical material consists of 13 judgments, which were announced between the years 2009-2013 by the Migration court. A critical discourse analysis is applied in order to answer the question formulations. By examining the linguistic representations in these judgments, the aim is to visualize the statements and positions that are made possible within the discourse. The discourse analysis is mainly based on a queer theoretical perspective with selected concepts from Foucault. The concepts that the analysis is based on are the following; object and subject positions, heteronormativity, performativity and the heterosexual matrix. The results show that constructions of sexuality within the legal discourse, are based on heteronormative perceptions around sexuality. In 8 of 13 judgments, the asylum applicant’s sexual orientation is questioned and they are made to prove their homosexuality. Homosexuality is not given legitimacy within the discourse when the asylum seeker has given descriptions of a heterosexual life according to the judge definition, such as when the person has been in relationships with the opposite sex and have children. A bisexual practice is therefore, not given any legitimacy. Homosexuality is given legitimacy only when the asylum seeker is living in a homosexual relationship. In addition, homosexuality is given credibility when the narrative includes descriptions of homosexuality as an insight involving strong emotions. The result also shows how the asylum seeker is requested to hide their homosexuality in cases where the sexual orientation is criminalized in the person’s home country. In the judgments where the asylum seeker has been rejected, there are constructions of sexuality, which accept the prevailing heteronormativity as well as conceal resistance against oppression. In the judgments in which the asylum seeker has been given refugee status, the definition of sexuality is set in a larger context focusing on the social structures prevalent in the asylum seeker’s home country.

In this study we aim to research teacher opinions on sexual education and how it is conducted within schools in Sweden. From their view of the education we want to elucidate the different factors of success and tribulation that the sexual education contains. The teacher opinions, which are collected through semi-structured interviews, reflect many different aspects of the sexual education. Though the informants possess different positions within schools they all seem to have some what the same idea of what successes and tribulations the sexual education contains. Furthermore all of them agree on one thing, the students want more sexual education. Throughout the study we also give a detailed exposition of historical perspectives on sex-education, as well as previous research on the area we have chosen for our study. To strengthen our collected material we also conduct a theoretical exposition, were we lay our focus on descriptions of shame, sexuality, gender and heteronormativity. We then move on to analyze our collected material were we draw parallels to our theoretical starting points. In our analyze we answer our questions of research thoroughly. The results of the study is later discussed form our personal perspective were we involve our thoughts and opinions

<p>I vår undersökning vill vi synliggöra hur ungdomar tänker kring homosexualitet. Forskning kring ämnet homosexualitet bland ungdomar är viktigt för att visa alla de fördomar som finns i skolan och övriga samhället som i sin tur leder till att ungdomar med avvikande sexualitet mår psykiskt dåligt. Ämnet homosexualitet är ett brett forskningsområde. I vår undersökning har vi valt att behandla kunskapsbakgrunden med både avhandlingar, vetenskapliga artiklar, rapporter och organisationers information för att få en heltäckande bakgrund av vårt ämnesval. Vi har gjort en kvalitativ undersökning där vi delat ut enkäter till tre olika gymnasieklasser. Genom vårt resultat, som vi tolkade utifrån psykosociala teorier och forskning, kunde vi se att tjejer överlag har en mer positiv inställning till homosexualitet än killar samt att de ungdomar som hade någon form av relation till en homosexuell person hade en större acceptans till ämnet.</p> / <p>In this study we want to illustrate how youth thinks and feels about homosexuality. Studying just this has been shown to be very important, to show youth and society how prejudice and bad attitudes against the subject can produce psychological problems among youth with deviating sexualities. Homosexuality is a very large area of study. We have chosen to focus our study on the knowledge-background, dissertations, scientific articles, reports, and different organisation’s information to try and completely cover the subject we have chosen. We made a qualitative questionnaire, which we then handed out to tree different classes in the upper secondary school for answering. Through our results, which we concluded based on the psychosocial theories and scientific studies earlier made in this area, we could see that females in general had a more positive approach to homosexuality than males. It also showed that males/females who could relate to, or knew a homosexual individual had a bigger understanding and where more tolerating to it.</p>

I vår undersökning vill vi synliggöra hur ungdomar tänker kring homosexualitet. Forskning kring ämnet homosexualitet bland ungdomar är viktigt för att visa alla de fördomar som finns i skolan och övriga samhället som i sin tur leder till att ungdomar med avvikande sexualitet mår psykiskt dåligt. Ämnet homosexualitet är ett brett forskningsområde. I vår undersökning har vi valt att behandla kunskapsbakgrunden med både avhandlingar, vetenskapliga artiklar, rapporter och organisationers information för att få en heltäckande bakgrund av vårt ämnesval. Vi har gjort en kvalitativ undersökning där vi delat ut enkäter till tre olika gymnasieklasser. Genom vårt resultat, som vi tolkade utifrån psykosociala teorier och forskning, kunde vi se att tjejer överlag har en mer positiv inställning till homosexualitet än killar samt att de ungdomar som hade någon form av relation till en homosexuell person hade en större acceptans till ämnet. / In this study we want to illustrate how youth thinks and feels about homosexuality. Studying just this has been shown to be very important, to show youth and society how prejudice and bad attitudes against the subject can produce psychological problems among youth with deviating sexualities. Homosexuality is a very large area of study. We have chosen to focus our study on the knowledge-background, dissertations, scientific articles, reports, and different organisation’s information to try and completely cover the subject we have chosen. We made a qualitative questionnaire, which we then handed out to tree different classes in the upper secondary school for answering. Through our results, which we concluded based on the psychosocial theories and scientific studies earlier made in this area, we could see that females in general had a more positive approach to homosexuality than males. It also showed that males/females who could relate to, or knew a homosexual individual had a bigger understanding and where more tolerating to it.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / Jeong Hee Kim / Sexual orientation is only one facet of diversity (Banks et al., 2005), but teacher preparation may not adequately address sexual prejudice (Lamb, 2013). Sexual prejudice arises when heterosexuality is assumed to be the default for all students. School environments reinforce heteronormativity (Dean, 2010; Foucault, 1990; Himmelstein & Bruckner, 2011) such that when hate speech or physical violence occur against the non-hetersexual or the transgender student, teachers may not be prepared to respond appropriately. Prejudice toward gender or sexually variant students may not be adequately addressed in teacher preparation to challenge the reproduction of heteronormativity in school environments. A mixed method approach was followed to address the beliefs and attitudes of pre-service (undergraduate) and in-service (graduate) teachers toward sexual minorities through an online survey and face-to-face interviews. Group means of the PREJUDICE scale for each independent variable were analyzed for statistical significance. The total variance of the PREJUDICE scale was accounted for by personal characteristics only (political, 38%; religious, 9%; non-heterosexual friends, 18%; and family members, 5%; participant sexual orientation, 8%; and finishing the survey, 6%). Neither demographic nor educational characteristics accounted for statistically significant differences in group means of the PREJUDICE scale. College-level coursework completed in multicultural education did not significantly account for any of the total variance in PREJUDICE scores. Significantly lower levels of sexual prejudice were associated with having non-heterosexual friends and family members or being non-heterosexual, and there were no significant effects from educational interventions. However, one-on-one interviews provided stories of direct experience with sexual minority youth in K-12 classrooms. A majority of qualitative participants had questioned their conservative backgrounds and the familial/societal messages they had received regarding gender and sexual variance. Their questioning was strengthened by having non-heterosexual friends and family members. In addition, several participants had worked directly with sexual minority youth in their own school buildings and classrooms. Had this study been limited to a survey, the lived experiences of these pre-service and in-service teachers would have been lost. Having friends and family members who are non-heterosexual transcended their socialization and facilitated their development as social justice allies.