The intention of this study is to find out how the female celebrity is portrayed in women’s magazines directed at women of different age groups. The magazines that I have chosen to analyse are Frida, Veckorevyn and Damernas Värld. My aim is to find out what kind of celebrity appears in the magazines in terms of occupation and topics in the articles. Furthermore, the aim is also to determine whether the celebrity is portrayed in a different or similar way depending on the target group. This thesis is done from a gender perspective in order to elucidate what distinguishes the celebrity in the context of the celebrity being female. The frameworks of theories are the following: culture theory, ideology, stereotypes, homo-sociality and connotation and denotation. The methods used to analyse the texts were content analysis and qualitative discourse analysis. Since images of the female celebrities have also been of importance, I have used the method of semiotics for picture analysis. I discovered that there are both differences and similarities in how the female celebrity is portrayed, in relation to different age categories. It appears there are more types of women celebrities in Damernas Värld in-comparison to Frida and Veckorevyn, as not only do the celebrities in Damernas Värld have more varied occupations, they also engage in more topics in their interviews. I found that the celebrity woman is not always portrayed in exactly the same light. However, I could identify the average woman which appears most frequently in all the magazines. The portrayal of the celebrity woman is usually built on contrasts and stereotypes. The occupation is typically an actress or a singer; she is usually white, heterosexual and rich. Her traits are typically being tough and independent, yet in conjunction considerate and friendly. She is also glamorous but ordinary, sexy but sweet. The underlying preconceptions of femininity are never challenged by the journalist’s way of portraying the celebrities.

Bakgrund: Bröstcancer är den vanligaste cancerformen bland kvinnor i Sverige. Varje år drabbas cirka 7000 kvinnor. Det är därför viktigt att sjuksköterskan har kunskap om dessa kvinnors upplevelser. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva kvinnors upplevelser av att drabbas av bröstcancer, från diagnos till behandling. Metod: En allmän litteraturstudie med induktiv innehållsanalys genomfördes. Resultat: Kvinnorna chockades av diagnosbeskedet och reagerade starkt känslomässigt. Bröstoperation och cellgiftsbehandling gav kvinnorna en känsla av att förlora sin kvinnlighet. Kvinnorna fick en ny syn på livet med nya prioriteringar. Stöd från närstående och sjukvårdspersonal var betydelsefullt och brist på detta upplevdes som en extra börda. Diskussion: Varje individ ser världen utifrån sitt eget perspektiv, så kallad livsvärld. Livsvärlden påverkade kvinnornas upplevelser av sjukdomen. Bristande stöd från personal kan bero på oförmåga att möta kvinnorna i deras livsvärld. Upplevelsen av förlusten av kvinnlighet kan bero på kvinnornas egna uppfattningar om kvinnlighet. Slutsats: Omvårdnaden bör fokusera på kvinnornas sjukdomsupplevelse. Detta kan uppnås genom att sjuksköterskan försöker möta kvinnorna i deras livsvärld. Sjuksköterskan bör också hjälpa kvinnorna att återigen uppnå en känsla av kvinnlighet. / Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Sweden. Every year approximately 7000 women receive the diagnosis. Therefore it is im-portant that the nurse has knowledge of these women's experiences. Purpose: The purpose was to describe women's experiences of being diagnosed with breast cancer, from diagnosis to treatment. Method: A general literature review with inductive analysis was conducted. Results: Women were shocked by the diagnosis and reacted emotionally. Breast surgery and chemotherapy gave the women a sense of losing their femininity. They had new perspectives on life with new priorities. Support from relatives and professionals played an important role, lack of support became an extra burden. Discussion: Every individual sees the world from their own perspective, so-called lifeworld. The lifeworld affected the women's experiences of the disease. Lack of support from professionals may be due to the inability to meet the women in their lifeworlds. The feeling of lost femininity may depend on the women´s own perceptions of femininity. Conclusion: The nursing should focus on the women's experiences of illness. This might be achieved by nurses meeting the women in their lifeworlds. Nurses should also try to assist the women to re-establish a sense of femininity.

The purpose of this study was to find out whether young women´s conceptions on femininity are based on school culture or other possible factors. The theory chosen for this study is the sociological perspective. A theory where sociologists such as Emile Drukheim, Talcott Parsons and Pierre Bourdieu are all prominent. The discussion links to Habitus and their theories on social, cultural and collective groups. A qualitative method has been used. Ten young women have bee interviewed and their answers have been compared and analyzed for results. The women has been divided into two segments. One consisting of the ethnically Swedish young women and one out of non-ethnically Swedish young women. In conclusion, the ethnically Swedish group of young women are all involved in building up the norm at the particular school examined. Furthermore, the non-ethnically Swedish young women are followers of this norm. Conceptions on the current heterosexual norm that exists within the school culture are built based upon the different social groups.

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. Even more so, the messages that appear on the kanga are viewed as a uniquely female form of communication, and women in Zanzibar, the area covered by this study, have been making increasing use of them as an additional strategy which allows them to make strong statements about their concems, while at the same time avoiding any direct conflict which may arise fiom their individual actions.

¡@¡@With the concern of corporate social responsibility, companies acting as a good citizen has become an important issue. Cause-related marketing (CRM) refers to a company¡¦s aliance with a non-profit organization (NPO): when customers buy the company¡¦s products, the company donates a portion of their profits to the NPO. Through CRM, corporates can effectively enhance their images and customer evaluations. NPOs can increase their visiablity and incomes as well. Customers are able to help NPOs through produce purchase. Therefore, how to enhance the effectiveness of CRM has become a very important issue for both researchers and practitioners. ¡@¡@Based on the previous research in CRM, consumer behavior, and cross-cultural psychology literature, the present study develops a theoretical framework and hypotheses. By using the 2*2*2 experimental design with a cross-cultural sample, the present study examines whether impacts of type of NPO (help-self versus help-others) and national cultures (masculinity versus femininity) interact with two types of advertising appeals (self-focuses versus other-focused) in adverstising persuasion (purchase intentions and corporate image evaluation). The data were collected from 82 Taiwan respondents and 62 Germany respondents, with 15 to 20 respondents for each condition. Multivariate analysis of covariance was performed to test the proposed hypotheses. ¡@¡@The results showed that type of NPO interacts with advertising appeals in advertising persuasion: When consumers perceive a NPO¡¦s nature as help-self, self-focused appeal leads to higher purchase intentions and more favorable corporate image evaluation. In addition, the three-way interaction among type of NPO, national culture and advertising appeals is also significant. The effects of self-focused appeal on advertising persuation are strengthened when a NPO wih help-self orientation is chosen as a cause in a country with masculine culture. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.

Until recently Alice Cary's works have gone largely unnoticed by the literary community, and those critics who have examined her writings have recognized her primarily as a regionalist sketch writer. However, studying Cary's total body of fiction, including her novels and children's fiction as well as her sketches, and examining the influence of Christian Universalism upon her work reveals that Cary is a much more complex and nuanced writer than she has been previously understood to be. This dissertation explores the way that Cary questions stereotypes of accepted behavior specifically as they pertain to the identities of men, women, and children and offers a more flexible and inclusive religious identity rooted in Universalist ideals. In her depictions of women, Cary uses tropes from gothic stories, fairy tales, and sentimental fiction to criticize evangelical faith, Transcendentalism, and separate spheres-based stereotypes of women's behavior, and she undermines these stereotypes and replaces them with a Universalist emphasis on communal service and identity. Similarly, Cary's depictions of manhood are influenced by her desire to dissect preconceived notions of masculinity like that of the Self-Made Man and his earlier counterparts the Genteel Patriarch and the Heroic Artisan and replace these stereotypes with a Universalist model that embraces gender fluidity and sacrifice of self interest for the larger community. Cary's treatment of children continues her critique of nineteenth century stereotypes. Cary, unlike most early nineteenth century writers, exposes the dangers of romanticized visions of middle class children, which physically isolated children from their families and endangered working class children by increasing the demand for child labor; thus Cary's Universalism leads her to depict all children, not just the wealthy ones, as God's children and worthy of protection. Cary also uses children metaphorically to represent minorities and tentatively question the treatment of African Americans and Native Americans. Cary stands as a prime example of an author who has been overlooked and whose obscurity has hindered the construction of literary history, particularly in regard to the antebellum roots of realism and the influence of liberal religious belief on realistic fiction.

The major problems that this study addressed were the identification of group differences on masculinity, femininity, monthly frequency of sexual fantasy, monthly frequency of masturbation, and marital satisfaction, as well as the investigation of which predictor variables account for a significant proportion of the criterion variables monthly frequency of sexual fantasy, monthly frequency of masturbation, and marital satisfaction. BEM Sex Roles Inventory-Short Form (BSRI-SF), Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), , and Demographic Information Form were administered 200 married individuals. To test the hypotheses of the study, ANOVA and Stepwise Multiple Regression Analyses were conducted. Results revealed that, gender differentiated the groups on masculinity, femininity, monthly frequency of sexual fantasy, and monthly frequency of masturbation. However, no difference was found for marital satisfaction. Apart from that, gender, frequency of sexual intercourse, and age found to be the predictors of monthly frequency of sexual fantasy. Another finding was that, gender, the belief that masturbation is not socially accepted, marital satisfaction, and femininity significantly predicted monthly frequency of masturbation. Lastly, results revealed that monthly frequency of sexual intercourse and monthly frequency of masturbation contributed to the prediction of marital satisfaction. The findings were discussed in the light of the relevant literature.

Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-113).

The aim of the dissertation is to describe and analyze the practice and meaning of Middle Eastern dance through the study of a number of performers in Stockholm. In particular, this study emphasises the ways in which the performers seek, create and defend values such as femininity, authenticity, empowerment and respectability in and through their dancing. Data for this study consists of field notes from participant observation in dance classes, festivals and gatherings; in-depth interviews and written material, such as leaflets and Internet material. Field notes from a trip to Lebanon with a group of Swedish dancers are also included. The performance of Middle Eastern dance in Stockholm may be seen as a way for Swedish women to find new femininities. They strive to combine a glamorous hyper-femininity with strength and respectability. This is a difficult task. The dancers constantly have to maintain a balance. While enjoying the hyper-femininity of oriental dance they must avoid being too sexy and thereby running the risk of being reduced to the position of sexual objects. To avoid losing control of the situation performing in public the dancers use different tactics. Many try to make the performance a clearly bounded event and make distinctions between themselves as individuals and the personas they embody on stage. This gives the performers a chance to playfully embody hyper-femininity. Other dancers have changed the dance itself, removing all movements and costumes that could be perceived as sexually inviting or aiming to please.

Reality shows that feature people going about their presumed daily lives are not base entertainment. Internet message boards about reality programs are sites where moral work happens. Viewers write about the appearance and actions of show characters and construct moral lessons. Through naturally occurring data produced by fans of these shows, I find that viewers generally express a traditional heteronormative morality around class and gender through stating moral lessons, explaining what is wrong with the characters, or through ridicule and praise.