This dissertation analyzes the change in the representation of women in Iranian cinema since the 1990s and investigates the motives behind it by looking at the overall history of Iranian cinema and those active in its production. Iranian cinema, both before and after the Islamic Revolution, has been closely watched by the ruling powers and one way or another has been utilized to relay messages that comply with the dominant order. But this has not completely shut down all the efforts of the filmmakers striving to convey a more meaningful message. The Iranian cinema industry has been the arena of an elite intellectual group of people; only following the 1979 Revolution and the “legitimization of cinema” by the Islamic order did it become a widely accessible industry to the general public, who tended to ignore or oppose it prior to the Islamic Revolution. This thesis pays close attention to the changing roles of women in film production and representation. Although aspects of women’s lives become stricter after the Revolution, it is in this period—from the late 1980s into the 1990s—that women for the first time took a prominent role both behind and in front of the camera. This dissertation argues that such shifts are due to “factionalism” within the Islamic Republic, shifts internal to the film industry and the emergence of a group of highly educated film production teams, in addition to the variety of ways in which women were able to exercise more agency in the film industry. One trope around which this shift occurs is that of the “veil” as a technique and metaphor for social practice in representation. Employing feminist film theory tools, a number of representative female-centric films from this period are analyzed, focusing on their cultural, political, and cinematic contexts. Examining the films with respect to the representation of women, the research relies on textual analysis as its basic methodology. Along with the textual analysis, interviews conducted with filmmakers and people active in the industry also help to map the films in the socio-political context in which they were produced.

The study that has been undertaken sets out to explore students’ representation of gender in their narratives. It therefore aims at describing in what way the students represent gender. The method used was a qualitative text analysis from a feminist perspective. The research was carried out in the south of Sweden, with twelve students in year nine. These students’ narratives represented gender in various ways. The stories included representations of gender with both traditional and unconventional notions. Some of the stories showed a hierarchical relationship between men and women portrayed in the stories, while others, in some cases, depicted gender equality. Male and female characters were more often than not dichotomised and a heteronormative standard seemed to be present. On the other hand, the narratives appeared to contradict the notion of the woman merely belonging to the private sphere since many female characters were ascribed a student’s or a working role. Nevertheless, it seemed as if the narratives were unsuccessful in creating untraditional masculinities, since the male characters were often described as hero, saviour or offender.

Detta examensarbete undersöker representationen av kön och könsroller i engelska läroböcker. Målet är att få en bild av hur kvinnor och män beskrivs i böckerna, och i vilken utsträckning de visar jämställdhet mellan könen. Studien innefattar en undersökning av sex läroböcker, av vilka två publicerades under 1970-talet. För att ge en tydligare bild av vår undersökning är tidigare forskning angående könsrelaterade problem och läromedel integrerad i texten. Resultaten visar att det finns en obalans mellan antalet kvinnliga och manliga protagonister, att manliga författare är överrepresenterade och att de kvinnliga karaktärerna oftast har ett stereotypisk yrke eller inget alls. Detta examensarbete kommer att visa att de utvalda engelska läroböckerna inte lever upp till de kraven som ställs i styrdokumenten. Avslutningsvis innehåller detta examensarbete några praktiska idéer om hur man kan arbeta med könsrelaterade problem i klassrummet. / This dissertation investigates the representation of gender and gender roles in English textbooks. The aim is to see how women and men are described and to what extent the textbooks show equality between the sexes. The study comprises the examination of six textbooks, two of which were published in the 1970s. Previous research concerning gender issues and textbooks is integrated to give a clearer picture of our investigation. The results show that there is an imbalance in the number of female protagonists, an over-representation of male authors and that occupations for female characters are mainly stereotypical or non-existent. This dissertation will show that the textbooks selected do not live up to the requirements in the policy documents. Finally, the dissertation contains some practical ideas on how to work with gender issues in the classroom.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2008. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-122).

This is a linguistic study of the EFL textbooks Wings 6 and Wings 9 which are used in Swedish schools today. It is a partially quantitative and partially qualitative study which sets out to look at the representation of gender in the narrative sections of the two textbooks. The texts are looked at with consideration of four different linguistic aspects, namely female/male visibility, activeness, relational/occupational terms and verbs. A historic and linguistic background is provided through the presentation of previous work within the fields of gender and language, gender and EFL material and discourse analysis. The findings show that since the 1970's, little progress has been made concerning the representation of female and male characters in EFL textbooks. This study also exemplifies the fact that different methods although within the same field of research and applied to same material can produce different and sometimes even contradictory results.

<p>Politike predstavljanja ženskih identiteta u<br />javnom i medijskom diskursu mogu se<br />posmatrati kao izraz odnosa moći u određenom<br />dru&scaron;tvu i istorijskom razdoblju, i da je u tom<br />smislu pozicija &laquo;ženskog&raquo; konstruisana i<br />označena kao figura &laquo;drugog&raquo;, kao figura u<br />kojoj se ogledaju dominantni dru&scaron;tveni odnosi.<br />Žena je ovdje kategorija, dakle, riječ je o tome<br />da je ono &scaron;to se pripisuje ovoj kategoriji<br />odnosno ženskom principu drugo,<br />drugorazredno, nepoželjno, manje vrednovano u<br />vladajućim ideologijama i njima svojstvenim<br />medijskim praksama. Jedan od problema kojima<br />se bavim u ovom radu je istraživanje da li nove<br />medijske tehnologije i novi oblici komunikacija<br />i preno&scaron;enja medijskog sadržaja, kao i<br />formiranje dinamičnog su/odnosa medijskog<br />teksta i medijskih publika doprinose promjeni<br />reprezentacije i konstruisanja ženskih identiteta<br />u medijskim diskursima ili naprosto ponavljaju<br />patrijarhalne diskriminatorne obrasce u novom<br />medijskom okruženju.<br />Cilj istraživanja je da pokaže kako se konstrui&scaron;u<br />različiti identiteti žena u reprezentacijskim<br />praksama online (onlajn) izdanja &scaron;tampanih<br />medija, kao da li su na dijelu, i ako jesu na koji<br />način djeluju, strategije isključivanja žena u<br />medijskoj praksi kroz konstrukcije stvarnosti,<br />getoizacije i stereotipizacije žena u medijima.<br />Metodolo&scaron;ki okvir istraživanja &rdquo;Rodna analiza<br />onlajn &scaron;tampanih medija u Srbiji&rdquo; predstavlja<br />kombinaciju kvantitativnih i kvalitativnih<br />pristupa u procesu dokazivanja postavljenih<br />hipoteza, jedne op&scaron;te i tri specifične, proiza&scaron;le<br />iz nje.<br />Op&scaron;ta hipoteza<br />Ženski identitet nezavisno od globalne<br />transformacije medijskih žanrova i načina<br />komunikacije u savremenom tranzicionom<br />dru&scaron;tva u Srbiji je uvijek reprezentovan kroz<br />figuru &bdquo;drugog&rdquo; i &bdquo;drugosti&rdquo;, i to bez obzira na<br />identitetsku poziciju koju zauzima u dru&scaron;tvenoj<br />raspodjeli moći.<br />Hipoteza 1<br />Različita distribucija moći i vidljivosti u odnosu<br />na različite ženske identitete je prisutna u<br />medijskom diskursu (žene iz javne sfere<br />naspram marginalizovanih).<br />Hipoteza 2<br />Medijski tekst prepoznaje temu nasilja nad<br />ženama kao ključnu koja se odnosi na živote<br />žena, odnosno kada su u pitanju medijske<br />reprezentacije žena u dru&scaron;tvenom kontekstu,<br />one su u najvećem broju predstavljene kao<br />žrtve.<br />Hipoteza 3<br />Žene iz manjinskih i marginalizovanih grupa su<br />nevidljive u medijskom diskursu onlajn izdanja<br />&scaron;tampanih medija.<br />Provjera hipoteza se realizuje kroz istraživanje<br />koje uključuje monitoring onlajn izdanja<br />&scaron;tampanih medija (tekstova i komentara čitalaca<br />i čitateljki): četiri nacionalna: Blic, Politika,<br />Kurir, Danas i jednog lokalnog ‒ novosadski<br />Dnevnik. Istraživački ciklus je obuhvatio period<br />od 5 mjeseci (od novembra 2013. do marta<br />2014.). Selektovani su tekstovi o ženama koji su<br />na web stranicama: www.blic.rs; ww.politika.rs;<br />www.kurir-info.rs; www.danas.rs;<br />www.dnevnik.rs u sljedećim danima:<br />07.11.2013.; 25.11.2013.; 10.12.2013.;<br />18.12.2013.; 27.01.2014.; 31.01.2014.;<br />14.02.2014.; 28.02.2014.; 08.03.2014.;<br />13.03.2014.<br />Ukupan broj pregledanih tekstova je 184, dok<br />broj pregledanih komentara iznosi 980.<br />Onlajn sadržaj &scaron;tampanih medija proizvodi<br />istovjetne strategije isključivanja žena i njihovu<br />getoizaciju, kako u samom tekstu tako i u<br />komentarima nove interaktivne publike, koja<br />postaje ko-autor/ka u procesu promocije i<br />legitimizacije mizoginije kao javnog govora.<br />Ovaj rad je pokazao da informacijskokomunikacijske<br />tehnologije same po sebi ne<br />mjenjaju nejednakosti i da je neophodno<br />uspostaviti nove modele upotrebe savremenih<br />tehnologija, koje će žene i druge<br />marginalizovane grupe koristiti za socijalno<br />pozicioniranje na internetu, ali i obrazovanje<br />koje implicira novo oblikovanje rodnih uloga i<br />praktičan rad (programiranje, veb-dizajn) kako<br />bi stvorile orodnjeni i pravedniji sajber prostor<br />(gendered syber space).</p> / <p>Policies of representation of female identities in<br />public and media discourse can be seen as the<br />expression of the relations of power in a certain<br />society and historical period. In that sense, the<br />position of &bdquo;feminine&ldquo; is constructed and<br />labeled as &bdquo;the other&ldquo;, the figure reflecting<br />prevailing social relations. Thus, woman is a<br />category and things attributed to this category,<br />i.e. to the feminine principle, are other, secondrated,<br />unwelcome, less worth within the<br />dominant ideologies and media practices typical<br />for them. One of the issues I deal with in this<br />work is the research on whether the new media<br />technologies and new forms of communication<br />and conveying media content, as well as the<br />dynamic relationship between media contents<br />and media audiences, contribute to the change<br />of representing and constructing feminine<br />identities in media discourses, or they just<br />repeat the patriarchal discriminatory patterns in<br />a new media setting.<br />Aim of the research is to show how different<br />identities of women are being constructed in the<br />representation practices of the online editions<br />of the printed media, as well as to determine if<br />these media practices include the strategies of<br />excluding women through certain constructions<br />of reality, ghettoization and stereotyping of<br />women in the media, and if they do, to examine<br />how these strategies work.<br />Methodological framework of the research<br />&bdquo;Gender Analysis of the Online Editions of<br />Printed Media in Serbia&ldquo; includes combination<br />of quantitative and qualitative approaches to the<br />process of proving hypotheses &ndash; one general<br />and three specific hypotheses derived from the<br />general one.<br />General Hypothesis<br />Unrelated to the global transformation of media<br />genres and ways of communication, female<br />identity in the contemporary transitional society<br />of Serbia is always represented as &bdquo;the other&ldquo;<br />and through &bdquo;otherness&ldquo;, regardless of the<br />position an identity has in the social distribution<br />of power.<br />Hypothesis 1<br />In the media discourse there is uneven<br />distribution of power and visibility of different<br />female identities (women from the public sphere<br />vs. marginalized women).<br />Hypothesis 2<br />Media texts recognize the subject of violence<br />against women as the crucial subject of the lives<br />of women, i.e. it is crucial in the media<br />representations of women in the social context &ndash;<br />and the majority of women are presented as<br />victims.<br />Hypothesis 3<br />Women from minority and marginalized groups<br />are invisible in the media discourse of the online<br />editions of printed media.<br />Hypotheses were tested through the research<br />based on monitoring online editions of the<br />printed media (texts and comments of readers):<br />four national &ndash; Blic, Politikа, Kurir, Dаnаs, and<br />one local &ndash; Dnevnik from Novi Sad. Research<br />cycle covered 5 months (from November 2013<br />to March 2014). I selected texts about women<br />published at web pages www.blic.rs;<br />www.politika.rs; www.kurir-info.rs;<br />www.danas.rs; www.dnevnik.rs on the<br />following dates: 07.11.2013.; 25.11.2013.;<br />10.12.2013.; 18.12.2013.; 27.01.2014.;<br />31.01.2014.; 14.02.2014.; 28.02.2014.;<br />08.03.2014.; 13.03.2014.<br />Total number of examined texts was 184, while<br />the total number of examined comments was<br />980.<br />Online content of the printed media produces<br />the identical strategies of excluding and<br />ghettoizing women, both in the texts and in the<br />comments of the new interactive audience that<br />becomes the co-author of the promotion and<br />legitimization of misogyny in the public<br />discourse.<br />This work showed that informationalcommunicational<br />technologies by themselves do<br />not change inequalities, and that it would be<br />necessary to establish new models of use of<br />contemporary technologies, so that women and<br />other marginalized groups could use them for<br />social positioning on the Internet, but also for<br />the education that would imply reshaping of<br />gender roles and practical work (programming,<br />web-design) for the purpose of creating more<br />gendered and equitable cyber space.</p>