The field of rhetorical aesthetics has a long and rich history. Despite that history, however, aesthetic artifacts have yet to be considered with the same weight that conventional rhetorical artifacts are. My project is to consider the rhetorical effectiveness of aesthetic artifacts, making a case for more inclusion of these types of artifacts in rhetorical theory. I will demonstrate the effectiveness of the aesthetic by performing a comparative analysis of both an aesthetic and conventional reaction to the 2019 fires at Notre Dame de Paris. By considering the constitutive power of the aesthetic, I will argue that the depth of analysis that the aesthetic allows makes it, in some cases, a more effective space for rhetorical analysis than conventional artifacts.

The purpose of this study is to see how present the heteronormative is perceived to be within Christian contexts in Sweden today. I have conducted an interview study with priests, pastors, and deacons who either belong to the Swedish Church or the Equmenia Church to get an insight into what their experiences are about norms connected to gender identity and sexuality. I have also included a perspective on the culture of silence that has been shown to be present in previous research to see if it is something the informants have noticed in their workplaces. The interviews have been of a qualitative nature and carried out semi-structured. The material on which the analysis is based is the experiences of the informants. The study's theoretical framework is based on Judith Butler's gender theory of heteronormative and what consequences this can have for those who do not fit into the template for how the norm says a person should be. The results show that heteronormativity is present in the Swedish Christian contexts today, but that there are many people who want to work so that everyone can feel welcome. All informants believe that silence arises in some way related to LGBTQI, even if not all mention a pronounced culture of silence. There is still much to do so that the church can be a safe place for all people, but there are people who want to work for a church that affirms the identities of all people.

One way that children explore concepts of gender is through make-believe and performative play. One of the most prevalent presentations of gender that is packaged for children's play is the Disney Princess brand. In 2007 the Walt Disney Princess campaign profited over four billion dollars and expanded to include over 25,000 items for sale. Princess paraphernalia reflects a change in the way that young girls (ages 3-5) engage in imaginary play by creating a whole new paradigm of thought. As these girls project themselves into the role of a certain Princess, typical play transforms into a consumer based theatrical experience. Girls not only identify with the ideas of playing princess, but of being a Princess as well. Judith Butler examines gender as consisting of performative “acts” that are stylized, repeated, and public. Gender identity usually includes aligning one's self with socially accepted definitions of male or female. Using Butler's idea's about gender performance, this thesis looks closely at the Disney Princess brand and how it contributes to the idea of a gender identity through films, live performances at Disneyland, and merchandise designed for enhancing play. As media and consumerism plays an increasingly large role in children's lives, careful attention must be made to the influence of such brands, especially as the Princesses become defining models of the word female.

Published in 1977, Wendell Berry's book The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture gained widespread popularity. More than half a century later, many of the notions of the body and the earth presented in its seventh chapter, "The Body and the Earth," remain relevant and important for environmental discourse today. Berry's discussion of the body and the earth examines their mutuality and codependence from an ontological, theological, agricultural, and even biological perspective. The coupling of this text with Judith Butler's, Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? contemporizes his argument through its more socio-political and philosophical claims regarding life and the body. Through the discussion of societal frames that often prescribe the value of life and bodies, Butler introduces the concept of precarity, or the imposition of violence and its resultant instability of the body. Driven by the external forces of society, precarity weakens, commodifies, and exploits the body, creating unsustainable social systems. As we learn from Berry, this bodily precarity parallels the violence and mistreatment of the earth. The body, and its ecological and anthropological interconnectedness, establishes both material and immaterial ties to the earth, suggesting that any damage done to the body affects not just itself, but the entire system. In bringing together Butler and Berry through an ecocritical dialogue, a new ethic regarding the formation and meaning of a life emerges, prompting revision of the current societal parameters that establish the definitions of the body and the earth. Berry's resurgent relevance comes from his admonitions to repair the relationships of all bodies and the networks of which they are a part. Thus, the connection between an individual and their body, other bodies, and the earth must be restored for an environmental ethic to both persist and establish productive environmental change.

This poststructuralist research into managerial subjectivity follows ten senior managers’ experience, during significant organizational restructuring in the National Health Service. Located in the North of England the managers were interviewed three times during an eighteen-month period. An autoethnographic component is integral to the study; this recognises the researcher was a practising manager undergoing the same organizational change, whilst researching the field. Judith Butler’s theories provide the principle theoretical framework for the study. Whilst the managers narrated a fantasy of having a ‘true’ and coherent self, the research illustrated how fragile, fleeting and temporary each managerial self is and how passionately attached to their managerial subjectivity (despite how painful) they were. Emotion is presented as inextricably tied up with gender performativity and managerial subjectivity; despite best efforts the emotional ‘dirt’ of organizations cannot be ordered away; there is a constant seepage and spillage of emotion – as illustrated in the vignettes and profiled in the Butlerian deconstruction. During organizational change there was a fear of a social (organizational) death and even the most senior of managers were profoundly vulnerable. This fear and vulnerability heightened in contact with others perceived as more powerful (in critical conversations and interviews). Failure to receive the desired recognition and the risk of being organizationally unintelligible compounded this vulnerability and triggered recurrent, unpredictable patterns of loss, ek-stasis and unravelling of the managerial self. This acute vulnerability during restructuring anticipates and therefore (re) enacts a Machiavellian discourse, one that excuses unethical behaviour and relations as a ‘necessary evil’.

In this essay I examine how conceptions of gender can expand the emancipatory ability of feminism. To achieve this the essay analyzes and discusses two conceptions of gender. The first can be found in Virginia Held’s “The Ethics of Care”, while the second can be found in Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s “Feminism without Borders”. By comparing these the essay examines the limits of a stricter conception of gender, in comparison to a more complex conception of gender. These are in turn compared to Judith Butler’s “Gender Trouble” and Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex”.  Through the analysis and discussion, it is shown that stricter conceptions of gender give a more simplified view of the real lives of women in different parts of the world. These conceptions may include ideas about contextuality and social factors such as race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality, but these are added to an already established idea of “the woman”. Through complex conceptions of gender these social factors are instead viewed as intersected with gender. Gender is thus seen as a social construct, contextually differentiated by different conceptions of both sexuality and gender expression, as well as other social factors. These social factors are seen as both constructed and used by systems and power structures to oppress women. Complex conceptions of gender can thus expand the emancipatory ability of feminism by bringing both an intersectional and materialistic perspective into view. This perspective shows how gender can both be constructed in problematic ways through discursive representations and feminist theories, but also shows how gender is constructed through social practices and are used to affect women in a material way.

This paper examines in what way the heterosexual matrix is challenged by Stephenie Meyer in Breaking dawn (Så länge vi båda andas). By doing a thematic study on the various family constellations appearing in the novel, I search for the queer elements in it. I discuss incest, family building and motherhood, and find that there are numerous queer elements associated with the themes I have chosen. I conclude that the Cullen family challenges the heterosexual matrix, despite not being typical queer vampire characters. I also find that building a successful family is not based on gender or constellation otherwise, but is instead dependant on democracy and equality. Bella has a desire to taste the blood of both her daughter and her father, interpreted as an incestuous desire. I find similarities between Bella’s extreme motherhood behaviors and how drag show artists parody gender. / Denna uppsats undersöker på vilka sätt Stephenie Meyer utmanar den heterosexuella matrisen i Så länge vi båda andas. Genom att göra en queerteoretisk temastudie utifrån temat familj undersöker jag de queera elementen i texten. Jag behandlar incest, familjebildning och moderskap och kommer fram till att det finns många queera inslag i mina valda teman. I min analys drar jag slutsatsen att familjen Cullen, trots att de inte är klassiska queera vampyrkaraktärer ändå utmanar den heterosexuella matrisen. Jag kommer även fram till att framgången i en familjebildning inte ligger i kön, eller konstruktion, utan i demokrati och jämställdhet. När Bella åtrår sin faders och dotterns blod tolkar jag detta i sin kontext som ett incestuöst begär. Jag jämför extremismen i Bellas moderskap med hur dragshowartisten parodierar genus.

In this essay, I employ Judith Butlers theories of gender performativity to examine the construction of the monstrosity in Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s two works The Outsider and The Thing on the Doorstep. Focusing on the character’s monstrous attributes, how they are seen by themselves, by others and not least by the reader, I examine how their monstrosity is created and strengthened by dehumanizing processes. I argue that Lovecraft through his narrative technique complicates the relation between monstrosity and humanity in his characters, the result of which is a reader left to determine how monstrous, or human, the creature really is. I claim that the beings, themselves remaining uncertain about their own human and monstrous sides throughout Lovecraft’s stories, are not in fact monsters for the reader until the very moment that they themselves acquiescein their own exclusion.

This thesis aims to examine if and how gender is framed, presented and problematized in contemporary art exhibitions. To achieve this, exhibitions and the curatorial function at the museums Bildmuseet in Umeå and MAN (Museum Anna Nordlander) in Skellefteå are investigated through interviews and analyses. These were made from a gender theoretical perspective, guided by Judith Butler's poststructural approach, focusing especially on perfomativity and queer. The thesis describes how contemporary art exhibitions can be curated in a gender aware manner. The areas identified as important when it comes to gender aware curation are: including and problematizing gender, educating in gender issues and gender awareness during internal as well as external collaborations. All of the analysed exhibitions contain gender aspects that ​are examined deeper, even though the curators did not intend all of the exhibitions to highlight and problematize gender. In the thesis, it is also discussed what role the curator has in the gender aware work and how gender/sex are represented in the examined exhibitions. It also problematizes the lack of non-binary artist in previous exhibitions of the museums and how this, through different strategies, can be counteracted in order to create a more democratic and inclusive museum.

The purpose of this dissertation was to provide knowledge of how issues of social work policy and practice are being raised in the responses to the Scottish Government’s public consultation ‘Review of the Gender Recognition Act 2004’ from 2017. Further, the purpose was to understand how sex and gender were described in the responses, and how these descriptions may relate to concepts of power and discourse in regards to social work practice. The dissertation is based on the 32 opposing organisational responses to the public consultation. The material was processed through a qualitative content analysis, generating ten categories that this dissertation labels as (1) sex as a biological reality, (2) on the post-structuralist view of gender, (3) gender mainstreaming, (4) the magnitude of the decision and regret,(5) diagnosis criteria as a quality assurer for trans care, (6) trans people without gender affirming surgery, (7) the challenge for professionals, (8) biological males, single-sex spaces and the risk for exploitation, (9) cis women’s rights and (10) cis women’s vulnerability. The categories were later condensed into three themes labelled as (1) understanding gender identities and self-declaration, (2) the shift towards self-declaration and (3) the threat to cis women. The themes and categories were analysed through the theoretical framework of Judith Butler’s queer theory. The analysis was followed by a discussion that integrated the theoretical framework with previous research, aiming to enhance the applicability of the findings to the dissertation's purpose and the future of social work research. The findings of the dissertations show that the opposing organisation’s often described sex and gender using biological essentialist discourse, perceiving sex and gender as an innate biological feature that cannot be changed. Further, the findings show little mention of issues of social work in the organisation's responses to the public consultation. Drawing from previous research, the dissertation critiques this by arguing that civil society organisations should pay attention to discourse around legal gender recognition and its implications for the shaping of social work since they are key stakeholders for the development of social work policy and practice. / Syftet med denna uppsats var att bidra till kunskap om hur frågor kring socialt arbete lyfts fram i remissvaren till den skotska regeringens remiss ‘Review of the Gender Recognition Act 2004’ från 2017. Syftet var vidare att förstå hur begreppen kön och genus beskrivs i remissvaren, samt hur dessa beskrivningar relaterar till begreppen diskurs och makt i förhållande till socialt arbete. Uppsatsen baseras på 32 remissvar från de organisationer som motsatte sig den skotska regeringens syn på juridisk könstillhörighet. Materialet bearbetades genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys vilket genererade tio kategorier som i denna uppsats benämns (1) kön som en biologisk verklighet, (2) om den poststrukturalistiska synen på genus, (3) genus-mainstreaming, (4) beslutets magnitud och ånger, (5) diagnoskriterier som kvalitetsgaranti för transvård, (6) transpersoner utan könsbekräftande kirurgi, (7) utmaningen för yrkesverksamma, (8) biologiska män, separatistiska utrymmen och risken för exploatering, (9) ciskvinnors rättigheter och (10) ciskvinnors sårbarhet. Kategorierna kondenserades sedan till tre teman som i denna uppsats benämns (1) förståelsen av könsidentiteter ochsjälvbestämmande, (2) övergången till självbestämmande och (3) fara för ciskvinnor. Temana och kategorierna analyserades med hjälp av Judith Butlers queerteori. Analysen följdes av en diskussion som integrerade det teoretiska ramverket med tidigare forskning, med avsikten att öka tillämpbarheten av resultaten för uppsatsens syfte och den framtida forskningen inom socialt arbete. Uppsatsens resultat visar att organisationerna ofta beskrev kön och genus med hjälp av en könsdeterministisk diskurs, som förstår kön och genus som inneboende biologiska egenskaper som inte kan förändras. Resultatet visar vidare att frågor kring socialt arbete lyfts fram i låg utsträckning i organisationernas remissvar. Uppsatsen kritiserar detta genom att argumentera för att civilsamhällesorganisationer bör uppmärksamma remissen simplikationer för utformningen av socialt arbete i relation till frågan om juridisk könstillhörighet eftersom civilsamhällesorganisationer är viktiga aktörer för utvecklingen av socialt arbete.