League of Legends is one of the most popular video games in the world, and yet it is also infamously known as being filled with harassment and failure. Why do I continue to play? In this project, a critical autoethnography is used to illustrate what it is like to play in this male-dominated space as a woman. Using feminist and queer game studies as my theoretical framework, this project investigates three distinct, but interconnected concepts: hegemonic masculinity, weaponized failure, and subversive play. In chapter one, I use Raewyn Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity to analyze League of Legends. I argue that gameplay elements such as champion selection, communication, and role-play make it difficult to challenge hegemonic masculinity in League of Legends. However, I do acknowledge that it is possible to challenge through playing the role of support properly – by concentrating on teamwork and sacrifice. In chapter two, I use queer video game studies, including key texts by Bonnie Ruberg and Jesper Juul, to consider failure in League of Legends. While queer failure can be fun in single-player video games, I argue that failure in League of Legends can be used as a weapon to intentionally hurt your teammates. Finally, in chapter three I consider my own subversive playstyle. While some academics have argued that woman who play masculine video games using male-coded skills cannot challenge the patriarchy, I argue that embracing my femininity in League of Legends allows me to persevere and push against the patriarchy. I argue that my feminine visibility in the form of my gamertag, SJW Queen, my communication style that emphasizes positivity and mediation, and how I play League of Legends are all examples of subversive gameplay. I bring my femininity into League of Legends uncompromised and I embrace it, rather than try to escape from it.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om och i så fall på vilket sätt könsstereotypa föreställningar kan påverka arbetet inom biståndshandläggning. För att undersöka detta genomfördes kvalitativa intervjuer med sju biståndshandläggare i en gemensam nämnd. Intervjumaterialet analyserades utifrån feministisk teori samt intersektionellt förhållningssätt. Resultatet för studien visar att biståndshandläggare inte själva anser att könsstereotypa föreställningar generellt påverkar handläggningsförfarandet. Majoriteten av respondenterna menade dock att ett genusperspektiv är viktigt att ha med sig inom arbetet för biståndshandläggning och att det kan komma att bli mer aktuellt i framtiden. På arbetsplatsen talar man däremot inte om genus, stereotyper och dess praktiska inverkan vilket ändå enligt feministisk teori kan ses som en bidragande faktor till att dessa stereotyper bibehålls. Samtliga respondenter menade dock att de har en god kommunikation samt arbetar för individens bästa med behoven i fokus vilket kan ses som en god grund för att föra en mer öppen diskussion kring genus i framtiden. / The purpose of this study is to investigate if and if so in which way gender stereotyped conceptions can influence assessment work. To investigate this, qualitative interviews with seven assessment workers were conducted. The content of the interviews were analyzed based on feminist theory and intersectionality. The result of the study shows that assessment workers do not consider that gender stereotypes generally influence their work. The majority of the respondents, however, mentioned that a gender perspective is important to include in their practice. In the workplace, on the other hand, there is no mention of gender, stereotypes and their practical impact, which according to feminist theory nevertheless can be seen as a contributing factor in maintaining these stereotypes. However, all respondents believed that they have good communication and that they are focusing on the individual's needs, which we believe provides a good basis for having a more open discussion about gender in the future.

In this study, I use critical discourse analysis to analyze how queer women are represented in 34 English-language children’s picture books distributed in contemporary U.S. markets. I consider how these books include and exclude particular types of queer women characters and incorporate or omit specific queer women experiences. I argue that, in children's picture books, many queer women identities are “othered” through the binary oppositions of (i) lesbianism and motherhood and (ii) lesbianism and being a woman of color. In addition, (invisible) lesbianism in these picture books is still presented as an “issue.” The binary opposition of lesbianism and motherhood is created by making lesbianism invisible in children’s picture books by emphasizing mothering through the prominence of caregiving activities, limiting queer physical intimacy, limiting queer verbal intimacy, utilizing naming practices based on motherhood labels, and directing homophobia disproportionately at queer characters without children. The binary opposition of lesbianism and being a WOC is created by primarily featuring white queer characters. (Invisible) Lesbianism is still presented as an issue by the representation of two-mom families/queer relationships as “incomplete,” “unnatural,” “special,” “just the same as non-queer families and relationships,” and homonormativity. Informed by these results, I offer (i) a toolkit to evaluate the representation of queer women characters in picture books and (ii) a creative response to the queer women representation gaps in children’s literature.

This feminist poststructuralist study explores discourses of gendered and sexualized subjectivity of South African women who self‐identify as bisexual. The discipline of psychology has typically upheld a monosexual binary, where heterosexuality and homosexuality are positioned as the only legitimate categories of sexual identification. Within such a structure bisexuality is not considered a viable sexual identity. In broader public discourses female bisexuality is generally constructed in delegitimising ways, such as through constructions that necessarily equate bisexuality with promiscuity or describe it as an eroticized male fantasy, as a threat to lesbian politics, or as a strategy to retain heterosexual privilege. Data collection entailed conducting individual interviews with thirteen bisexual women and the transcribed texts were analysed using discourse analysis. The analysis focused on how bisexuality is Constructed in the interview texts, how the various constructions of bisexuality function and how Gendered subjectivity intersects with participants’ identity as bisexual. The analysis identifies a number of discourses that impact on, in varied and contradictory ways, participants’ positioning as bisexual. In a post‐apartheid context, participants regard fixing their Identity along strictly defined lines of difference as oppressive and resist bisexuality as being primary To their identity. Participants challenge the traditional gender binary through unsettling the automatic Linking of sex, gender and sexuality in discourses of sexual desire. However, participants also demonstrate the coercive effects of dominant discourse in the gendered positioning of subjects, with Heterosexuality in particular functioning as a normative sexual category with implications for participants’ gendered subjectivity. It then appears that parallel to its ability to disrupt the gender binary, bisexual discourse also acts in ways to support it. The analysis further indicates that in claiming a bisexual identity, participants risk marginalization in The face of delegitimising discourses that construct them in negative terms of promiscuity, hypersexuality and decadence. Powerful silencing discourses further construct same‐sex attraction As un-African and as sinful. The analysis concludes with a discussion of participants’ strategies to Normalize bisexuality. This study contributes to research accounts that explore diversity in sexual identification and creates Greater visibility of bisexual women in South African discourses of sexuality. It also contributes to theories of female sexual identities and adds to theoretical debates around the challenge to dominant gender and sexuality binaries posed by bisexuality. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Psychology / unrestricted

Cyberspace offers many opportunities but is also a very hostile place for women. Studies claim that women are disproportionally affected by certain cybercrimes and suffer frequent rights violations in cyberspace. The aim of cybersecurity policies is, among others, to protect citizens from different cyberthreats and the EU has a vital role in designing such policies. This involves portraying what issues are seen as cyberthreats and in extension, which issues are prioritized over others. Therefore, it is important to problematize what key EU bodies depict as cybersecurity threats and how they incorporate gender in their cybersecurity policy and strategy. This study uses post-structural feminist theory to analyze the EU cybersecurity discourse and its implications for women’s rights. This is because the theory emphasizes the deconstruction of discourse to showcase hidden gendered power dimensions. It is a qualitative case study that uses the framing method to identify the discursive construction of threats, priorities, and key issues, and McPhail’s feminist policy analysis framework to investigate how gender is incorporated in the discourse. The findings confirm previous research, which states that cybersecurity is mainly state-centric and securitized and gender is silenced in the overall discourse. Among the five distinct frames that I identified in the discourse on cybersecurity, none includes a gendered perspective. No official EU document adopts or argues for a gender-sensitive approach to cybersecurity. Gender is only mentioned with regard to empowering women in the STEM sector, although the European Parliament stresses the need to target cyberviolence against women. The study concludes that a gender-neutral approach to cybersecurity has negative implications for women’s rights, as cybercrimes and violates women endure are overlooked and deprioritized in comparison to a gendered approach. This is because it is more likely that political measures can be taken if the policies and actors acknowledge the gendered issues, which then have positive implications for the protection of women’s rights in cyberspace.

No description available.

This essay analyzes the Austrian author Ingeborg Bachmann’s novel Malina (1971) from two theoretical perspectives: Freudian trauma theory and poststructuralist feminism, as formulated by Julia Kristeva in Revolution in Poetic Language (1974). Both of these standpoints manages to explain one of the main issues in Malina, that is, how to give voice to that which escapes language. By arguing that the nameless narrator, Ich (I), has been traumatized by patriarchal structures, I show how these perspectives complement rather than exclude each other. Together they manage to give a new and more complete picture of the struggle for language depicted in the novel. / <p>Godkänt datum 2021-06-01</p>

Scholars have studied incarceration among women in the United States of America for more than a decade, but few studies have explored the influence of repeated incarcerations among African American women and their family relationships. The research question for this study examined how African American women describe the effects of multiple incarcerations on family trust relationships and their ability to reintegrate into the family system and society. This multiple case study was conducted in Chicago, Illinois, and drew a sample of 4 African American women released from prison with histories of multiple incarcerations. The study explored their perspectives through a series of semistructured, in-depth interviews. Data consisted of narrative interview transcripts and artifacts collected and analyzed using a framework of feminist theory and critical criminology. Findings from the analysis indicated these African American women experienced profound and long-term devastation to relationships with family and friends following periods of multiple incarcerations. Repeated periods of imprisonment negatively altered their perceptions of themselves and reduced their social engagement with others. Results of repeated incarcerations included (a) broken trust with loved ones; (b) resentment, anger, and blame; and (c) permanent damage to social and family networks. This study contributes to social change by increasing understanding of the repercussions and effects of multiple incarcerations on African American women and family continuity, and the study offers insight into guiding program development to help families rebuild and stabilize.

No description available.

No description available.