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In a world driven by social media, the portrayal of femininity is often curated, shaping societal gender norms and individual self-perception. This timely study investigates the use and impact of boudoir photography on the self-perception of Slovak adult women and their sharing practices, exploring how they negotiate gender expectations through this medium employing gender theory and uses and gratifications theory. By exploring this intersection, I provide insights into contemporary feminist movements, linking this discourse to boudoir photography and sharing practices on social media networks as an act of feminism. The research reveals the complexities and tensions inherent in this process as participants navigate gender pressures and societal expectations of femininity. Despite boudoir photography's empowering potential for self-expression, women struggle with ingrained heteronormative ideals, on the journey toward self-perception within visual culture. By bridging theoretical frameworks with empirical findings, this study underscores the significance of boudoir photography within the realm of feminist discourse, offering insights into the dynamic interplay between gender norms, agency, and visual representation in online spaces.

[pt] Esta dissertação realiza uma leitura do conceito de feminilidade na teoria freudiana à luz de uma perspectiva feminista. Compreende-se que este conceito -considerando sua complexidade e relação com o corpo teórico da psicanálise - carrega importantes aspectos do pensamento freudiano sobre a mulher. Esta incursão é feita abrangendo tanto aspectos inovadores como aspectos conservadores da teoria. Investiga-se tais constructos através de uma discussão entre psicanálise e feminismo, cujo objetivo é questionar a misoginia presente no campo do conhecimento e abrir espaço para o olhar a partir da epistemologia feminista. Inicialmente, analisa-se a forma como a psicanálise se situou quanto às políticas feministas de sua época, as rupturas e convergências da psicanálise em relação ao seu contexto histórico e cultural de origem. Conjuntamente, apresenta-se os marcos da história da opressão das mulheres desde seu surgimento ao século XIX, e sua influência na produção de conhecimento. Parte-se da noção de que pensar o local e momento da construção de uma ciência, bem como interpretações múltiplas, é o que permite uma análise crítica mais rigorosa. Posteriormente à contextualização histórica, aprofunda-se a discussão conceitual desde os estudos sobre a histeria e os escritos freudianos sobre cultura e sexualidade - antecedentes importantes para a construção do conceito de feminilidade. Por fim, apresenta-se a noção de feminilidade a partir da teoria feminista, situando as mulheres enquanto sujeitos desta discussão, introduzindo o patriarcado como um componente político necessário a ser considerado para o debate acerca da subjetividade feminina. / [en] This dissertation performs a reading of the concept of femininity in Freudian theory in the light of a feminist perspective. We understand that this concept – considering its complexity and relation with the theoretic body of psychoanalysis – carries important aspects of Freudian thought on women. This incursion is done taking into account innovative as well as conservative aspects of that theory. We investigate such constructs through a discussion between psychoanalysis and feminism, whose aim is to question the misogyny present in that field of knowledge and to open space for a perspective oriented by feminist epistemology. Initially, we analyze how psychoanalysis has placed itself with regards to feminist policies of its time, the breaches and convergencies of psychoanalysis in relation to its historical and cultural context of origin. Additionally, we present the hallmarks of the history of the oppression of women since its rise in the 19th century, and its influence in the production of knowledge. We start from the notion that to think about the place and time of the development of a science, as well as its multiple interpretations, is what allows a more rigorous critical analysis. After this historic contextualization, we deepen the conceptual discussion by mobilizing studies on hysteria and Freudian writings on culture and sexuality – important antecedents to the construction of the concept of femininity. Lastly, we present the notion of femininity in feminist theory, placing women as subjects of this discussion, and introducing patriarchy as a political component that needs to be accounted for in the debate regarding feminine subjectivity.

No / Occupational discrimination and segregation along gendered lines continue to be seen as problematic throughout the UK and the USA. Women continue to be attracted to occupations that are considered to be women's work, such as clerical, secretarial and personal service work, and inequalities persist even when women enter traditional male domains such as management Work psychology's chief, though indirect, contribution to this field has been through personnel selection research, where methods aimed at helping organizations to make more fair and unbiased selection decisions have been carefully examined. Our aim in this paper is to argue that, on their own, such methods can make very little difference to the position of women (and other minorities) in work organizations. The processes that are fundamental to organizational attraction and adjustment cannot, we contend, be understood adequately through reductionist approaches that treat organizational and individual characteristics as context independent realities. Drawing on critical management research and using the specific example of police work, we argue that work roles and work identities can be more fruitfully understood as social constructions that, when deconstructed, illuminate more powerfully how processes that lead to the relative subordination of women (and other groups) are both reproduced and challenged.

During the end of the 19th century there was a shift in the perception of femininity in England. The Victorian ideal of the Angel in the House was challenged by the idea of the New Woman. This essay attempts to answer the question how Mina Harker (née Murray) and Lucy Westenra compare to these ideas of womanhood. Lucy Westenra displays the traits of the Angel in the House, adhering closely to the Victorian norms of femininity. Mina Harker is a more complicated case, displaying traits of both the Angel in the House and the New Woman. Furthermore, Mina’s New Woman traits play an integral part of the plot, leading to Count Dracula’s defeat.

溫特森最新的實驗小說《魔力書》，以網際空間為喻，探討性自由與權力之間的關係；是一本因應千禧年而誕生的作品。故事中的主人翁阿里(Ali)，藉由答覆網上不知名的筆友，為讀者揭示女性主體及性慾自主的議題；作者巧妙地將自己擅長的詩意散文、新奇敘事體，融入哲學思維，與網際網路天馬行空的力量相結合。本論文旨在以宏觀哲學的角度分析女性各個不同時期的處境，並指出《魔力書》除了充溢智慧、想像、力量之外，是一本關切女性處境及主體的小說。 本論文以西蒙•波娃有關女性主體論述為主要理論架構。論文主體可分三部分。第一部分旨在分析權力關係的影響，並以書中網路外遇事件為例，彰顯出已婚女性受傳統意識型態箝制，失去性自主的契機。第二部分從敘事者的角度，以女性特有言說方式，持續探討女性情慾自主的議題。最後一部分處理敘事者不同形式的存在模式，並以宏觀角度分析，不同時期(神話、奇想、網際空間)女性主體的變化性。 對照四十年前的女性處境，處於科技時代的摩登女性仍然受制於傳統女性特質的制約，或是受到強勢意識型態所掌控。面對此情境，女性應藉由參與社會或政治活動，承擔起改變世界的責任，來確保個人主體性的完整；女性應對自我有更多的期許及要求。溫特森在《魔力書》中藉由答覆網路筆友的要求─「自由，給我一晚的自由」─其實真正探討的是確立女性主體性的重要概念。 / Winterson’s latest novel The PowerBook (2000) is an experimental work of fiction that uses the metaphor of cyberspace to portray the issue of sexual freedom and power, a book that greets the challenge of the new millennium in Winterson’s design. By answering to an unknown on-line correspondent’s need, the narrator and e-mail writer Ali explores the very issue on women’s subjectivity and the autonomy of femininity, adroitly connecting the power of the Internet (the imaginary and the virtual) with her poetic prose and inventive narrative in conjunction with philosophical significance. My thesis aims to start a complicated analysis of women’s different situations from a philosophical perspective. I think The PowerBook, invested with wisdom, imagination and power, is a book that concentrates on women’s situation and subjectivity. Simone de Beauvoir’s concept on women’s subjectivity constitutes the most important theoretical framework of my thesis. The main body of the thesis can be grouped into three parts. Firstly, I will probe the effect of power relations on a virtual forbidden love affair, manifesting that the married woman is manipulated by the patriarchal ideology so that she ultimately fails to fulfill her autonomy of femininity. Secondly, I will discuss, mainly in terms of a feminist discourse theory, the issue on the autonomy of femininity revealed in Ali’s narrative. Thirdly, the last section of the main body will not only deal with Ali’s various modes of existence, but also aim at exploring women’s selfhood in respect of myth, fantasy and cyberspace. By contrasting women’s situation at present with that almost forty years ago, I will show that modern women in the technological age are still either bound by the myth of femininity, or conditioned by dominant ideologies. Finally, I will conclude that modern women should not only act as independent subjects, but also demand more and expect more for themselves. By participating in social and political activities, they are able to take the responsibilities for improving the world. It can be interpreted that to answer to the correspondent’s need—“Freedom, just for one night”—is actually to examine the main subject on women’s existence in Winterson’s intention.

The purpose of this study was to examine the structures of female crime in the media. The main issues were the constructions made by the media regarding female crime and how these structures can be understood from a gender perspective. Thesis empirical material consists of a selection of ten articles from the newspaper Dagens Nyheter from the period September to November 2015. The study can not be said to give an overall picture of the Swedish media, instead it is the researcher's interpretation outlined, which is one of the interpretations can be made. Thesis theoretical approach has been from a social gender perspective meaning that gender can be seen as something socially constructed and that the notion of female crime is attributed to a certain meaning. While theories about media and its power to construct female crime is also used as a theoretical basis. Overall, the paper deals with two different areas; constructions of women as criminal and constructions of women as victims. The results showed that there is a construction of female crime in the media. This design is very fragmented, that means that female crime is produced from a stereotypical image or antisocial image. The results have shown that the construction is done by the woman's crime in the media that is the basis of the media who has the power to choose what to publish and how it is described with words and phrases.

La novela El beso de la mujer araña del escritor argentino Manuel Puig es una novela que trata dedos presos en una cárcel bonaerense durante la dictadura militar argentina. Esta tesina se centrará enla identidad femenina de Molina. El objetivo de esta tesina es examinar la celebración de lafemineidad de Molina, y su construcción de una identidad femenina. Esta identidad se conectarácon la idea de la identidad femenina como socialmente construida, opuesto a la noción de génerocomo algo innato. Es decir, la identidad femenina de Molina y sus ideas de lo femeninocorresponden a la idea de la identidad femenina como socialmente construida. Apoyándonos enteoría feminista y teoría queer, estableceremos la conexión que existe entre la identidad femeninacomo la ve Molina, y la identidad femenina como construcción social. / The kiss of the spider woman, novel written by Argentinian novelist Manuel Puig, is the story oftwo prisoners in a prison in Buenos Aires during the military dictatorship. This thesis will focus onthe feminine identity of protagonist Molina, a homosexual man who choses to regard himself as awoman. The aim of this thesis is to examine his construction of the feminine identity, and connectthat construction with feminist and queer theories of gender as socially constructed, opposed toinnate or given by biological gender.

Margaret Atwood’s novel Surfacing has received considerable critical attention on the issue of “a positive female identity” in a patriarchal society. However, given Atwood’s own stress on the fact that the novel is about the ways both genders work in relation to each other, this criticism has lacked in scrutiny of the novel’s male characters. With a relational approach to the female and male characters, this thesis argues that while creating a positive identity for its female protagonist, the novel effectively creates a rather negative one for its male characters. In order to examine certain sets of relations and the qualities which represent the most honored way of being a man in the novel, I apply the concept of “hegemonic masculinity,” which can be understood as the pattern of practices that explain male domination over women. It is indeed this hegemonic masculinity that the Surfacer rejects in her quest for emancipation. By looking at the hegemonic masculinity in Surfacing, I argue that the novel depicts very typically patriarchal characters in Joe and David and that the society is typically patriarchal. The thesis is divided into three main sections, each examining the most important sets of relations concerning Atwood’s female emancipation. First, I analyze hegemonic structures in the world of the protagonist, including the issues of power, emancipation, and complicity. Then I look into the sexual division of labor to show that the characters assume their default roles without much reflection. Finally, I scrutinize the characters’ relation to the Symbolic and how it affects their sense of identity. In each section, the analyses show that the male characters are reduced to tropes who only serve one function: to be stereotypically oppressive, patriarchal figures in order to facilitate the protagonist’s positive change and empowerment. I argue that Atwood’s failure to imagine male emancipation somewhat taints the development of female identity because the female emancipation becomes arrested.

In this thesis I aim to investigate the Swedish preschool teacher interested in change and her work, here conceptualised as gender pedagogy. I will take my departure in sexual difference theory to contrast some of the assumptions behind preschool work, gender pedagogy and gender equality. I am also reflecting upon the concepts of normalisation, freedom and change and their relevance for preschool work. To help me with this endeavour I have interviewed five preschool teachers about their work and their interest for change. The thesis is divided into three chapters mirroring the themes of the interviews. In the first chapter I reflect upon normalisation as a process inherent to preschool work, both historically and in the present, connected to notions of class, cognitive ability and sexual difference. Through the statements of my informants and theoretical discussion the concept of normalisation is nuanced and understood as a process inherent to the whole of society as well as the preschool but also as a practice that might not be possible to abolish in its entirety. In the second chapter I move my focus towards gender pedagogy. An outline of different strands of, and discussions on, gender pedagogy is given as well as a critical discussion on the aim to go beyond gender in gender pedagogy and feminist theory. As an alternative and additional approach I suggest sexual difference theory as a possible source of inspiration for gender pedagogy. In the second part of this chapter the preschool teachers express their views on, and their work with gender pedagogy. This allows for a more entangled and process oriented understanding of gender pedagogy and its different strands. I conclude this chapter by stating that gender pedagogy could be understood in terms of normalisation and even as reinforcing the masculine norm, however the process oriented understanding of change as highlighted by my informants, as well as the use of multiple strategies, theories and methods, might allow for a practice where difference instead of likeness serves as a condition for the gender pedagogical work. In the last chapter I turn to the preschool teacher as such and her history entangled with notions of femininity, motherhood and gender equality. Employing the strategy of “working through” as described by Braidotti I lay bare how the position of the preschool teacher  and her work has been represented as stereotyped woman’s work and thus connected to less worth, but simultaneously how the actual work of the preschool teachers strongly denounce this view of  woman’s work, as well as motherhood and femininity. I also show how the work of preschool teachers put into question such prominent binary pairs as mind/body, emotion/intellect, practice/theory and adult/child. I conclude that the misrepresentation of woman’s work also has material consequences in terms of working conditions for preschool teachers. To conclude the whole thesis I emphasise how the view of the female preschool teacher and the view of the child cannot be radically separated and therefore the importance of considering both adults and children in the gender pedagogy work. I also conclude that what gender equality or gender pedagogy is, is not settled ones and for all, but rather the importance to fill these concepts with a positive view of difference.