Antalet ungdomar och särskilt flickor som slutar med sport i tonåren har ökat senaste decenniet. Eftersom fysisk aktivitet främjar hälsan är det viktigt att vi försöker vända trenden. Studien ämnade skapa ökad förståelse för varför vissa personer slutar tidigare än andra, genom att undersöka hur kön, sporters könskodning samt maskulin och feminin personlighet (MF-poäng) baserat på Big Five Inventory (BFI 44) påverkar deltagande och avslut i sport. Antalet deltagare var 6 139, och tre grupper skapades; de som slutat i sin sport innan 20 års ålder, de som slutat i sin sport efter 19 års ålder och de som fortfarande var aktiva. Två studier genomfördes, först en systematisk översikt av könskodning av sport, som gav värden för 123 sporter på hur maskulin-feminin de har skattats. Analyserna visade att kön predicerar vilken grad av maskulint eller feminint kodad sport man väljer att delta i, där män väljer mer maskulint kodade sporter och vice versa för kvinnor. Maskulina personlighetsegenskaper predicerade att pojkar och aktiva män valde maskulint kodade sporter, och vice versa för flickor och aktiva kvinnor. Pojkar och män var aktiva i sin sport fler år än flickor och kvinnor. Deltagande i en feminint kodad sport predicerade att flickor var aktiva längre. Maskulin och feminin personlighet predicerade inte antalet aktiva år inom sport. Mer kunskap behövs för att behålla så många som möjligt aktiva så länge som möjligt, oavsett typ av sport och kön. / The rate of adolescents, especially girls who are quitting sports has increased in the last decade. Since physical activity is an important factor for good health, it´s important that we try to turn the trend around. The aim of the present study was to understand why some people are quitting sports earlier than others, by examining how sex, sports gendertyping, and masculine and feminine personality (MF-score) based on the Big Five Inventory (BFI 44) affect participation and termination in sport. The sample size was 6 139 and three groups were created, adolescents that stopped doing their sport before age 20, adults that stopped doing their sport after age 19,and adults that were still active. Two studies were conducted, a systematic review of sports gendertyping, which provided values on how masculine-feminine each of 123 sports have been rated. The analyses showed that sex is a significant predictor of sport choice. Males chose more masculine sports, and vice versa for females. Masculine personality predicted choice of masculine coded sports for boys and active males, and vice versa for girls and active females. Boys and men were also active in sports more years than girls and women. Feminine sports predicted more active years among girls. Masculine and feminine personality did not predict how many years participants were active in the sport. Further knowledge is needed to keep as many active as long as possible, regardless of type of sport and sex.

The purpose of this study is to examine how gender is characterized in children's literature in the Swedish preschool. The research question is of great importance to investigate because the Swedish preschool operates as a social institution. The gender debate has exploded in the last decade, which means that preschools need to approach gender pedagogy in education. The Swedish preschool's curriculum also includes requirements on gender-pedagogically based education. It also includes norm-critical and equal values (Skolverket 2018). Since children's books are a big part of the preschool's education, it is of great importance to examine gender patterns in children's literature. The study is based on qualitative and quantitative analyses which highlights gender patterns in children's literature. The credibility of the literature study can be considered as valid because the research is based on two different supplementary gender analyzing schedules. The result that is prominent from the analyzing method is a male-dominant norm in the main and secondary characters of the children's books. The result showed that the characters who performed norm-breaking actions were more often performed by masculine characters. This result may not be considered surprising as the majority of the analyzed children's books have masculine main characters. The feminine characters who performed norm-breaking actions were for that reason not discovered as often as the male equivalent of the same phenomenon.  The conclusion of the study implies higher demands on preschool teachers' awareness when handling children's literature. The consequences of the lack of awareness contain two main grounds that were identified in the study. Firstly, there is a cultural heritage in already existing children's literature that needs to be preserved. Secondly, it may be considered financially unjustifiable to exclusively replace existing literature with new gender awareness books. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur genus karaktäriseras i barnlitteraturen i den svenska förskolan. Forskningsfrågan är av stor vikt att utreda eftersom den svenska förskolan fungerar som en samhällsinstitution. Genusdebatten har exploderat det senaste decenniet, vilket gör att förskolorna behöver närma sig genuspedagogik i utbildningen. I den svenska förskolans läroplan finns även krav på genuspedagogiskt förankrad utbildning. Den omfattar även normkritiska och lika värden (Skolverket 2018). Eftersom barnböcker är en stor del av förskolans utbildning är det av stor vikt att undersöka könsmönster i barnlitteraturen. Studien bygger på kvalitativa och kvantitativa analyser som belyser könsmönster i barnlitteraturen. Litteraturstudiens trovärdighet kan anses giltig eftersom forskningen bygger på två olika kompletterande könsanalysscheman. Resultatet som är framträdande från analysmetoden är en mansdominerande norm hos barnböckernas huvud- och bipersoner. Resultatet visade att karaktärerna som utförde normbrytande handlingar oftare utfördes av maskulina karaktärer. Detta resultat kan inte anses förvånande eftersom majoriteten av de analyserade barnböckerna har maskulina huvudkaraktärer. De feminina karaktärerna som utförde normbrytande handlingar upptäcktes av den anledningen inte lika ofta som den manliga motsvarigheten till samma fenomen. Slutsatsen av studien innebär högre krav på förskollärares medvetenhet vid hantering av barnlitteratur. Konsekvenserna av bristen på medvetenhet innehåller två huvudgrunder som identifierades i studien. För det första finns det ett kulturarv i redan befintlig barnlitteratur som behöver bevaras. För det andra kan det anses ekonomiskt oförsvarligt att uteslutande ersätta befintlig litteratur med nya genusmedvetandeböcker.

Basement Heart is a collection of short stories with a goal of documenting the manifestations of rage and how it evolves throughout a woman’s life. In these stories, femininity is explored through the aesthetics of the grotesque. Female protagonists seek to inhabit new definitions of female sexuality that combat tired expectations made by society’s misogynistic and objectifying culture. Often, their feelings of unprovoked grief manifest themselves as pursuits of the flesh, which becomes the underlying heartbeat of each story; themes revolve around sex and obsession and explore what happens when sexual fantasies are realized and lived out in the real world. When characters inhabit their bodies in ways that American culture tells women not to, they become viscerally self-aware and better their understanding of what they want. And doing what they want is all these women care about. The characters in Basement Heart are angry, restless, and at times driven mad by their own lust for control.

This thesis aims to explore the influences and references, with a particular focus from occultism and western esotericism, found in the film trilogy of The Three Mothers directed by Dario Argento. The trilogy composed of Suspiria, Inferno and The Mother of Tears was produced in a timeframe of thirty years from 1977 to 2007, so it embeds three decades, it also reflects the willingness from the director to disconnect himself from the usual representation of supernatural and horror films of witches and power. The three films Suspiria, Inferno and The Mother of Tears, present an innovative point of view, first of all, the representation of power in the context of horror and secondly, for the nature of references distributed throughout the trilogy. This thesis presents a film analysis of Suspiria, Inferno and The Mother of Tears investigating the semiotics behind the symbols, storytelling, characters, and technical aspects of film production. This work concludes that the deep desk research conducted by Argento on occultism and western esotericism before engaging into the production has deeply influenced it. The references to occultism, western esoteric schools, Steiner and alchemic influences are several, Christianity is also present in the trilogy with a dystopic lent. There is also a gender aspect analysed in the trilogy connected with the representation of feminine power, as the mothers in the trilogy represent witches, a supreme independent source of truth and power disconnected from any Christian and/or masculine representation. Suspiria, Inferno and The Mother of Tears can be then interpreted as a way to challenge the patriarchate power. This thesis is opening with the relevance of references from occultism to be found in several expressions of popular culture in our contemporary society. However, this aspect has not been investigated further than that. It has been utilized to serve the purpose of highlighting the elements in common between Argento’s trilogy and those expressions of popular culture (i.e. horror and supernatural TV series). If this research will be one day extended, the next step would be to find, in other expressions of popular culture (films, manga, graphic novels…), references in line with the ones traced in the trilogy. This would lead to investigate further the way occultism has influenced expressions of art and culture. Another point that is kept for a potential future research, would be to investigate which other examples of horror and supernatural films will be produced (or had been produced), where power and feminine representation breaks the traditional tendency of connecting power either with a Christian notion of evil or with a patriarchal form of power. In this regard, I am sure expressions from Artificial intelligence will come to play a role, but this is due maybe for the future, and maybe for another research to connect these dots.

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This thesis is focusing on a visual culture within Instagram where women display traditional western femininity through aesthetically pleasing images of homes and interiors. When observing this culture from a critical perspective, questions on normativity, gender and home representation together with the complexity of personal narratives comes up. In an attempt to begin understanding the mechanisms and pleasures behind the use of Instagram this way, a small number of user interviews were made and analyzed towards representation, identity and feminist theory, and ideas around roles of photography, femininity, digital communities and material culture. As a result of the study it could be claimed that images of interiors and homes are used as frameworks for a feminine culture where participants are creating a safe space in relation to other social network cultures. The space is used for remembering moments, being creative, developing skills and engaging in undisturbed social practice. Photography, interior design and the materiality of the home can also be seen as visual tools used to reflect on and create identities, at the same time as they are used for social positioning. Though faced with contradicting feelings, frustration about superficiality and concerns around privacy, it can be concluded that this refined practice of taking and sharing images, engaging socially and being creative is pleasurable enough for the users not to stop participating.

The portrayal of women in commercials is intertwined with patriarchal structures and power hierarchies found in Western contemporary society, which stem from the Judeo-Christian binary of a ‘clean/messy’ body as introduced by St. Augustine (354 – 430 CE). This portrayal of women and its effect on their self-esteem, as well as consumerism, have considerable implications for the gender dynamics in modern Western societies. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to explore the interdependent relationship between feminine hygiene product commercials, feminist movements and women’s self-esteem.The goal of this thesis is twofold. First, a multimodal discourse analysis of four advertisements from Always and Venus will be performed to uncover to what extent feminine hygiene product commercials are adjusting their portrayal of the female body according to feminist movements. Secondly, four qualitative semi-structured interviews will be conducted to examine how the portrayal of women in these commercials affect women’s self-esteem. This thesis’ research draws from feminist theories, Representation Theory, Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), and the Hierarchy of Effects Theory (HET).The findings of the analysis imply that the companies have made some adjustments in the way they are portraying women in accordance with the feminist movements. However, both the analysis of the commercials and the interviews imply that more improvements are necessary. The thesis comes to the conclusion that feminine hygiene product commercials can affect the self-esteem of women by creating (unrealistic) norms about how a female body should look and function. / <p>B</p>

The purpose of this dissertation is to produce a critical edition of Álvaro de Luna's 15th century manuscript, Libro de las claras e virtuosas mugeres. This Castilian text is a compilation of biographies of good and virtuous women similar to that of the widely studied De claris mulieribus by Giovanni Boccaccio. Scholars however, have neglected Luna's version for various reasons that are discussed within this dissertation. Libro de las claras e virtuosas mugeres is a significant work because it complements other texts within the genre of defense literature and provides a good argument against the misogynistic texts in the debate on women in the Middle Ages. Within this dissertation, the Introduction serves to orient the reader through the debate on women in 15th century Castile and to contextualize the Libro de las claras e virtuosas mugeres within it. Through the discussion of the debate on women in medieval Iberia, we will show how Luna's work is a necessary, but forgotten element. Also pertinent is the notorious past of don Álvaro, and how this has negatively impacted the reception of his work. This dissertation also compiles all critical studies and editions currently in print and discusses their merits. Finally in the Introduction, we explain how we took into account Bernard Cerquiglini's concept of variance and John Dagenais' theory that in order to come close to the medieval reading of the text, it is necessary to replicate the manuscripts, not to modernize them. Thus, we produced transcriptions that were as close to the original texts as possible, rather than attempting to correct or modernize them. In order to produce the critical edition necessary for a proper study of the Libro de las claras e virtuosas mugeres, this dissertation contains two transcriptions of the two oldest extant manuscripts: ms. B (2654) and ms. S (207). Within ms. B we also provide a critical apparatus, which shows the lexical and orthographical differences between the two. Additionally for the benefit of the reader, we provide four Appendices: the missing chapter of the Queen of Sheba (not included in ms. B), a list of all the women Luna included in his work, and facsimilar samples of both manuscripts. It is our desire to promote a renewed interest in this forgotten, yet extremely important 15th century Castilian manuscript. / Spanish