Denna studie utgår från en poststrukturalistisk teori med feministisk perspektiv och har som syfte att förstå och se olika kontexts betydelse för subjektets skapande för läraren i grundskoleämnet hem- och konsumentkunskap (förkortning HK) Genom reflexiva intervjuer med verksamma HK-lärare och med en poststrukturalistisk analys studeras hur lärarnas upplevelser och erfarenheter kan relateras dels till schablonbilden och dels till hur den genom samtida och historiska texter kan förstås. Studien behandlar en existerande bild eller en schablon om hur läraren i hem och konsumentkunskap, förväntas vara och agera. En bild som beskriver en präktig, lite gnällig och petig kvinna, en praktisk person som lägger sig i det mesta och dessutom är något fyrkantig. I studien framkom att HK-läraren känner till schablonens existens men känner varken igen sig eller kollegor genom den. Med en poststrukturalistisk teori om subjektivisering, identitetsskapande och individuella förhållningssätt diskuteras i studien i vilka olika kontext HK-läraren lär sig att vara. Med andra ord diskuteras i studien på vilka olika historiska och samtida sociala arenor som HK-lärarens subjektivitet är konstruerad.

Undersökningen tar avstamp i den dominerande radikalfeministiska pornografianalysen och normer kring kvinnors sexualitet. Dess syfte är att undersöka hur feministiska porrkonsumerande kvinnor förhåller sig till pornografi. Undersökningsmaterialet har skapats genom fem samtalsintervjuer som fokuserar på feminism i relation till pornografi, normer kring kön och sexualitet samt pornografin, med inriktning på bransch, innehåll och konsekvenser. Utgångspunkten är teorier om heteronormativitet, feminism och en förståelse av porr som tal kring sex. Slutsatserna jag drar utifrån informanternas utsagor är de använder sig av olika feministiska förståelser i talet om pornografi. De förhåller sig aktivt, kritiskt och feministiskt till pornografi i sin konsumtion och genom tal och handling utmanar de normativa föreställningar om kön och sexualitet.

Ever since it was published in 1982, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple has been celebrated for giving African-American women a voice and for challenging patriarchal structures in society, but it has also been criticised for being stereo-typical in its portrayal of African-American men and women. In this essay I claim that the novel in fact supports patriarchal American society. I discuss this by first looking at the parts of the novel that can be seen as challenging towards patriarchal structures, moving on to a more critical standpoint showing that the resistance towards patriarchal structures in the novel is not at all as strong as it may seem at first.

The earlier studies of how gender is visually constructed in lifestyle magazines have mainly been done on photographs. But, photographs are only one part of the entire magazine Therefor3, we saw the importance in examining one of the other big parts, typography. We have been studying if gender can be constructed in lifestyle magazines through the shape and color of typography and the color context. It is important to point out that we have not been studying the written word but only the shape and color of the typography. The study has been conducted through a qualitative content analysis with a comparative process of the selected magazines. The analysis began with a semiotic analysis of selected parts of the magazines. The result was then analyzed with a feminist theoretical approach. The result of the study shows that gender can be constructed through typography in a number of different ways. This depends on what feminist approach it is looked upon. In one way gender is constructed in a traditional perspective where the boundaries of masculinity and femininity is constrained to stereotypes. In another way it is constructed through a modern perspective where the boundaries of gender is no longer fixed.

Brenda Ueland is a writer whose most noted work is a book which explains her theory about how to write. She also published an autobiography and a co11ection of essays as well as achieving some notoriety as a magazine writer to the twenties and thirties. Ueland's writing theory is based on the premise that all people have a natural desire to express themselves in writing. In her book about writing she explains her belief that all people have the potential to write as an expression of their natural, creative instincts. Ueland's theory identifies her as an Expressionist in terms of contemporary rhetorical theories. Considered eccentric by her family and friends, Ueland chose to live a life that demonstrated a desire for independence and equal treatment as a woman in a male-dominated society. Ueland's attitudes and ideas about choosing a lifestyle not within the bonds of the conventional expectations of marriage identified her with feminist ideals. Although feminism as a recognized movement was to come later, Ueland felt that equal work required equal pay, and, therefore, she objected to the inequalities in salaries based on gender. Ueland also tried to define herself in terms of her own accomplishments and not through her husband's career. In her published works Ueland not only teaches about writing as a form of self-expression, she also shares her search to discover her personal beliefs and values as an inspiration to other people who want to write. / Graduation date: 1992

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This research project examines the personal and political experiences of five men engaged in pro-feminist organizing. Their experiences are explored in the context of the emergence of anti- feminist groups, and an increasingly volatile funding environment whereby women’s rights organizations are seeing their financial resources threatened. Using a critical and sociological approach to masculinities, significant challenges at the personal level for these pro-feminist men are examined and are shown to compound engagement with women feminists, and the potential of cross gender partnerships. A people-oriented qualitative approach is employed to capture men’s personal journeys and how they self- identify with the feminist movement. This research adds to the prevalent “Man Question”, contesting men’s engagement in the feminist movement. Ultimately, however, the thesis concludes that men’s engagement in the feminist movement needs to be clearly positioned as a political project with an explicit commitment to building alliances with women’s rights networks.

This research project examines the personal and political experiences of five men engaged in pro-feminist organizing. Their experiences are explored in the context of the emergence of anti- feminist groups, and an increasingly volatile funding environment whereby women’s rights organizations are seeing their financial resources threatened. Using a critical and sociological approach to masculinities, significant challenges at the personal level for these pro-feminist men are examined and are shown to compound engagement with women feminists, and the potential of cross gender partnerships. A people-oriented qualitative approach is employed to capture men’s personal journeys and how they self- identify with the feminist movement. This research adds to the prevalent “Man Question”, contesting men’s engagement in the feminist movement. Ultimately, however, the thesis concludes that men’s engagement in the feminist movement needs to be clearly positioned as a political project with an explicit commitment to building alliances with women’s rights networks.

By looking at the hijab in context in the political, social, and domestic spheres of Tunisia, one gains a clearer understanding of the hijab’s complexity and a clearer understanding of each of those spheres. Politically, the condemnation of the hijab reveals the tension between the dominant, secular party and the Islamist movement, and the political oppression still prevalent in Tunisia. Socially, the wearing of the hijab reveals the tension between Orientalist perceptions of the hijab and the desire of Muslim feminists to create an authentically Islamic meaning of the hijab compatible with feminist ideas. Domestically, the hijab reveals the tension that remains between localized structures of patriarchy and individual women’s pursuit of liberation beyond emancipation and secularization. Despite the reforms established in the Personal Status Code and the secularization campaign by the government, they are not enough to completely alter negative domestic perceptions of women.

Suniti Namjoshis short work St. Suniti and the Dragon, found in the authors fabulist collection of the same name, is a formally amorphous text that alternates among allusion and alteration of Western canonical myth. The story, in which the journey of the aspiring hero St. Suniti is detailed, alludes primarily to Beowulf and the legend of St. George and the Dragon in a manner similar to, but expansive upon, the feminist revisionist project of the last few decades. While Namjoshi navigates feminist politics, she also examines the postmodern impulse to consider identity as subjective experience. In so doing, she deconstructs notions of canonical character archetypes while suggesting that identity politics must involve a multiplicity of archetypes that is, the self is seldom archetypal in the singular, but rather an amorphous and discontinuous series of mythic archetypes. Thus, the form of Namjoshis text generically ambiguous and varied mimics the authors suggestion for the composition of identity. The result is a story that transgresses prescribed social conventions and archetypes while simultaneously invoking their mythic sources as means of argumentation.