Women are generally underrepresented in media and have historically been degraded to stereotypical roles in media content. Sweden is a country that has actively worked with equality between the genders since the 1970s. The country's progress in equality piqued the scientists interest in the extent of gender stereotypes in Swedish media content. This study examines whether there is a gender based variation in the framing of individuals in said content. The aim is to map the extent to which these gender stereotypes shape the communication in the images of 238 Swedish companies on their “about us”-pages. The images are analyzed to determine how individuals are portrayed based on their perceived gender. The study has a theoretical foundation in gender theory, representation theory, Roland Barthes mythologies and framing theory. These 4 theories form the basis for both the quantitative and the qualitative analyses in the paper. The content analysis applies mixed methods, consisting of a quantitative and qualitative component. The census method formed the basis for the quantitative part, whereas the study’s criteria limited a list of companies with an annual revenue of over 500 million SEK. The sampling method for the qualitative part is a systematic random sampling. The analytical tools that are used for the qualitative analysis includes theories about colors and non-verbal communication, along with semiotic concepts such as connotation, denotation and anchoring. Despite Sweden actively addressing gender equality issues, the study’s results indicated that Swedish company websites to some extent depict women and men differently, even though the numerical representation is equal. Some companies seem to reinforce gender stereotypes while others challenge them. Companies’ visual communication generally portrayed women as more accommodating, affirming the camera with a smile. Men, on the other hand, were generally depicted as more distant and reserved, with a more averted gaze than the women. The findings suggest that people’s perception of gender stereotypes and gender can be influenced by the websites they consume, potentially impacting how gender stereotypes are reinforced or challenged in society.

Computer and videogames has increased rapidly over the past few decades and today a majority of the Swedish population enjoys them on a daily basis. When there are many users, it becomes important how the media chooses to portray the medium because it can affect how the society judges and looks at computer- and videogames. The purpose of this essay is to look at how the portrayal of computer- and videogames has changed in Swedish Newspapers during the period 1994-2014. How the player is being portrayed is also relevant. The method was the discourse analysis founded by Laclau and Mouffe and the material was chosen from the two biggest newspapers in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet. Theories that were used in the analysis were mainly framing, cultural studies, moral panics and theories based on gender. The result shows that there has been different kinds of portrayals of computer- and videogames from the beginning, though it was mostly negative in 1994 and 2004. When games are talked about in negative contexts the main focus is the health of children and that the games power can take players into another world. The portrayal was a lot more positive in 2014 with a focus on the beneficial parts of the games as a culture. The player was from the beginning portrayed as the stereotypic male. In 2014 women is portrayed as players, though is experiencing harassments because of their gender.

Uppsatsen är en motivstudie av hur den skrivande kvinnan skildras i romanerna Ingen manskvinna (1919) av Ulla Bjerne, Kärlek i Europa (1981) av Birgitta Stenberg och Grand final i Skojarbranschen (2011) av Kerstin Ekman. Motivet av den skrivande kvinnan och hur hon förhåller sig till sitt skapande utifrån könsnormativa förväntningar, analyseras utifrån ett genusteoretiskt perspektiv med Beverly Skeggs respektabilitetsteori som ramverk. Jag använder även ett intersektionellt perspektiv som analysverktyg. Uppsatsen använder sig också av genreteori utifrån konstnärsromanen och dess konventioner, som behandlas och undersöks i förhållande till de valda romanerna. / The paper is a study of how the female writer is portrayed in the Swedish novels Ingen manskvinna [No man’s women] (1919) by Ulla Bjerne, Kärlek i Europa [Love in Europa] (1981) by Birgitta Stenberg and Grand final i skojarbranschen [Grande finale in the humbug game] (2011) by Kerstin Ekman. The analysis of the novels portrayed female writer and how her writing interacts with society’s gender roles, are based on a gender theory, with Beverly Skeggs theory of respectability as the theoretic framework. I also make use of an intersectional theory as an analytic tool. The purpose of the paper is also to apply genre studies and investigate the form and conventions of the artist novel and how the selected novels relate to the genre.

The purpose of this study is to show the discourses that we can see in the texts from RFSU (2015) and “Rädda Barnen” (2013) about children's sexuality, we connect this empiricism to the preschool curriculum. Furthermore, we highlight the gaps that we can see are the different discourses in the texts and how present or absent physical factuality is. We also want to examine what it could mean for our didactic work with body factuality. Generally, there are a lot of texts about the importance of playfulness and many expressions that leave room for interpretation to the reader. We believe that concepts like playful, positive, equality, security, develop a responsible sexuality, private body parts, intimately, and so forth leaves subjective to interpretation of each individual preschool teacher. Children are described exploring their sexuality through play, were the body are in focus, but are often described limited as children's sexuality. Children's bodily feelings and sexuality described indistinct and confused resulting in that the body is made invisible. The discourses make themselves prominent in our discourse analysis is sexuality discourse, disquieting and fear discourse, discourse of norms, materialistic corporal discourse and the invisible discourse.

Ce mémoire de maîtrise porte sur une poétique de l’excès dans Orlando de Virginia Woolf et Nightwood de Djuna Barnes comme une stratégie combattant la tendance qu’a le modernisme à dévaloriser l’écriture des femmes comme étant trop ornementale. J’expose comment Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, et Wyndham Lewis tentent de récupérer la notion du détail afin d’affirmer une poétique masculin. Je fais appel également aux oeuvres de l’architecte autrichien Adolf Loos qui souligne sa dénonciation de l’ornement comme régressif. Dans Orlando et Nightwood, je considère l’excès associé au corps. Je soutiens que, dans ces textes, les corps dépassent les limites de la représentation moderniste. Je considère aussi comment Orlando et Nightwood font apparaître la narration comme ornement et écrivent excessivement l’histoire et le temps. Pour conclure, je propose une façon de lire l’excès afin de reconceptualiser le potentiel de production de la signification dans des textes modernistes. / My thesis explores a poetics of excess in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood as a strategy through which the authors combat modernism’s devaluation of women’s writing for being overly ornamental, detailed, and/or artificial. I examine how the critical writings of Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and Wyndham Lewis attempt to reclaim the notion of detail for a masculine-oriented poetic project, and I look at how Austrian architect Adolf Loos’s work condemns ornament as backward and regressive. In treating Orlando and Nightwood directly, I consider the novels’ excessive and ornamental construction of bodies and how these bodies exceed the limits of existing modernist paradigms for representation. I also discuss narration as ornamentation in Orlando and Nightwood and how these novels excessively inscribe history and time. My conclusion proposes a practice of reading excess that rethinks this concept and its potential for producing meaning in modernist texts.

Syftet med studien är att genom en semiotiskt bildanalys och genusvetenskaplig ansats undersöka hur det kroppspositivistiska bikiniföretaget Elsa and Rose Swimwear framställer kvinnan i sin marknadsföring på Instagram. Då tidigare forskning kring kvinnlig framställning i reklam till stor del fokuserat på endast kroppsstorlek och attraktivitet har vi valt att inkludera analysverktyg som pose, gaze, samt etnicitet och hud. Detta för att bidra med ny kunskap om kvinnlig framställning inom reklam och sociala medier. Genom att studera sju bilder, som alla publicerades under 2018, på Elsa and Rose Swimwears Instagram-konto har vi undersökt hur kvinnan framställs, samt om och hur denna framställning av kvinnan skiljer sig från den normativa kvinnan som vanligtvis syns i media. Studiens resultat visar att ingen av de sju bilder som ingick i analysen demonstrerar “den perfekta kvinnan”, som vanligtvis syns i medier och reklamsammanhang. Ingen av kvinnorna i bilderna innehar alltså alla normativa attribut, som till exempel både en extremt smal kropp och perfekt hud. Bildernas huvudsakliga syfte är således inte att marknadsföra sina produkter med hjälp av normativa kvinnokroppar, utan att genom sin marknadsföring även sprida budskap om att alla kroppar är värda att synas i media, oavsett storlek, hudton och utseendemässiga attribut. Slutligen sänder kvinnorna huvudsakligen signaler av självsäkerhet och kontroll genom sina blickar och poseringar, vilket demonstrerar deras medvetenhet om åskådaren. Resultatet i den här studien visar således att det kroppspositivistiska bikiniföretaget Elsa and Rose Swimwears huvudsakliga framställning av kvinnan skiljer sig från den traditionella och normativa kvinnan som vanligtvis syns i media. / The purpose of the study is to, through semiotic analysis and gender theory, investigate in which way the body-positive bikini company Elsa and Rose Swimwear is representing women in their Instagram marketing. Since earlier research on female representation in advertising is largely focused on body size and attractiveness, we have in this study chosen to include analysis tools such as pose, gaze, as well as ethnicity and skin. This will contribute to new knowledge on female representation in commercials and on social media. By studying seven images, all posted in 2018, on Elsa and Rose Swimwear's Instagram account, we have investigated how women are represented as well as whether and how this representation differs from the normative female image usually seen in media. The result of the study shows that none of the seven images included in the analysis display "the perfect woman" that is usually seen in media and advertising. None of the women in the pictures possess all the normative attributes, such as both an extremely thin body and perfect skin. We find that the main purpose of the images is not to for the company to market their products with normative women's bodies, but rather market their products while spreading a message saying that all bodies are worth being seen in media, regardless of size, skin tone and appearance. Finally, the women in the pictures communicate self-confidence and control through their gazes and poses, and therefore demonstrating their consciousness of the observer. The result of the study shows that the body-positive bikini company Elsa and Rose Swimwear's main representation of women differs from the traditional and normative female image.

Abstract The great detective Sherlock Holmes casts a long shadow on the previous research on the short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, where Mr. Holmes has been given the main attention. On the periphery, however, a woman named Irene Adler is recognizable. Adler makes her single entrance in the Sherlock Universe in “A Scandal in Bohemia” from 1891 when she outsmarts Mr. Holmes and makes him reconsider the entire female sex as a consequence. In the BBC adaptation Sherlock, the case is however different for the early feminist icon Adler. The portrayal of Adler in the episode “A Scandal in Belgravia” from 2012 is mainly focusing on her sexuality, nudity and seductive personality when meeting Holmes, which has resulted in this essay that aims to study the transformation of Adler from text to screen from a gender perspective. By conducting a comparative study based on gender theory and adaptation theory, the essay finds that there has been a sexualisation and diminishing of independence on behalf of Adler, which relates to common stereotypes in the portrayal of women in film. Through a successive degradation of the female character, it is possible to detect a form of reversed emancipation where the hundred year older predecessor shows greater feminist characteristics than the modern adaptation. / Sammanfattning Mästerdetektiven Sherlock Holmes kastar en lång skugga efter sig och har stått i centrum för majoriteten av forskningen om Sir Arthur Conan Doyles noveller. I periferin återfinns emellertid en kvinna vid namn Irene Adler som i ”A Scandal in Bohemia” från 1891 överlistar Holmes och får honom att omdefiniera hela sin syn på det kvinnliga könet på grund av Adlers intelligens och agens. I BBC:s filmatisering av den berömde detektiven i serien Sherlock har dock stora förändringar skett i transformationen av den feministiska förgrundsgestalten Adler. Porträtteringen av Adler i avsnittet ”A Scandal in Belgravia” från 2012 fokuserar till stor del på hennes sexualitet, avkläddhet och förföriska person i mötet med Holmes, vilket också föranlett denna uppsats vars syfte är att studera porträtteringen av Adler från text till filmduk ur ett genusperspektiv. Genom en komparativ metod grundad i genusteori och adaptionsteori finner uppsatsen att det skett en sexualisering och ett osjälvständiggörande av Adler som överensstämmer väl med många av de vanligt förekommande stereotypiska porträtteringarna av kvinnor på filmduken. Genom en successiv nedbrytning av den kvinnliga karaktären kan ett slags omvänd emancipation skönjas, där den hundra år äldre förlagan visar starkare feministiska förtecken än den moderna adaptionen.

Syftet med undersökningen är att studera hur grammatiska konstruktioner av Katniss, Gale, Prim, Cinna, Rue, Peeta, och Haymitch i Suzanne Collins ungdomsroman Hungerspelen (2012) kan bidra till karaktärernas görande av manligt eller kvinnligt genus. Frågeställningen som ska besvaras är på vilket sätt framställs Katniss och de sex andra utvalda karaktärerna grammatiskt utifrån den systemisk-funktionella grammatikens transitivitetssystem processer och deltagare? Och på vilket sätt kan framställningen tolkas ur ett genusperspektiv? Genom att analysera sex utvalda delar ur boken med systemisk-funktionell grammatiks transitivitetssystem och se till processer och deltagare gjordes en grammatisk analys. Analysen tolkades sedan utifrån ett genusperspektiv gällande vilka föreställningar det finns kring manligt och kvinnligt beteende. Resultaten visar att de grammatiska konstruktionerna av Katniss och Peeta kan tolkas som görande av både manligt och kvinnligt genus, Gales och Haymitchs konstruktioner som görande av manligt genus och Cinnas, Rues och Prims grammatiska realiserande som görande av kvinnligt genus. Tillsammans visar resultaten på att karaktärernas grammatiska konstruktioner bidrar till görandet av manligt eller kvinnligt genus som inte behöver avspegla deras ”naturliga kön”. / The aim of this thesis is to study how grammatical constructions of the characters Katniss, Gale, Prim, Cinna, Rue, Peeta and Haytmich, from Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games (2012), contribute to their doing of gender. The thesis set to explore this using two research questions: How is Katniss and the six other characters presented grammatically and accordingly to systemic functional grammars transitivity system’s processes and participants? And, how can the grammatical analysis be interpreted from a gender perspective? By analysing six selected excerpts from the book with systemic functional grammars transitivity system’s processes and participants a grammatical analysis was done. The grammatical analysis was then interpreted from a gender perspective regarding the conceptions of what is considered as a doing of male or female gender behaviour. The result show that the grammatical constructions of Katniss and Peeta can be understood as a doing of both male and female gender. Futhermore, Gale’s and Haymitch’s constructions can be understood as a doing of male gender and Cinna’s, Rue’s and Prim’s constructions as a doing of female gender. Together these results show that the grammatical constructions in The Hunger Games (2012) affect the characters’ doing of gender and that their doing of gender does not have to reflect their sex.

Denna uppsats har sin utgångspunkt i genus- och gestaltningsteori och målet var att redogöra för de eventuella skillnader som existerar i Aftonbladets rapportering om svenska herrlandslaget i fotboll och svenska damlandslaget i fotboll. Detta genomfördes med en kvalitativ textanalys av totalt 8 artiklar som skrevs och publicerades om de respektive landslagen inför herrarnas VM 2018 och damernas VM 2019. Resultatet från studien kom att bekräfta vår tes om att skillnader faktiskt förekommer. Resultatet från studien som genomfördes påvisar tydliga skillnader vad gäller såväl artiklarnas huvudsubjekt, samt från vems eller vilkas perspektiv som artiklarna är skrivna utifrån. En tydlig indikator på den (icke)rådande balansen i rapporteringen var rollen som Svenska Fotbollförbundet (SvFF) iklädde sig i samband med de båda mästerskapen. SvFF och dess representanter figurerade ofta i samband med rapporteringen om herrlandslaget men betydligt mer sällan i samband med rapporteringen om damlandslaget ett år senare. Strukturen i rapporteringen om herrlandslaget framstår mer omfattande och gedigen jämfört med den om damlandslaget, något som inger känslan av att det är förstnämnda är skrivet på grund av att det existerar ett läsintresse och det sistnämnda på grund av att det behöver skrivas. Flera identifierade faktorer i studien understryker och förstärker det faktum att manligt fotbollsspelande betraktas som norm och kvinnligt fotbollsspelande som något avvikande. / The aim of this study was to find and reveal the differences in the reports about the Swedish men’s national football team and the Swedish women’s national football team in one of Sweden’s biggest newspaper - Aftonbladet. The theories applied in the study were gender theory and Gestalt theory. A qualitative text analysis was used while we examined 8 articles written and published during the days before each national team played their first game in the FIFA World Cup 2018 and the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019. The result based upon the study points towards differences in how (and who) Aftonbladet use as the main subject of the articles, and also obvious differences in regards of the perspective presented in the articles. A clear indicator of the non-existing balance in the World Cup-coverage was the role of Swedish Football Federation (SvFF). SvFF and its representatives figured mainly in the coverage about the Swedish men’s national team while barely nothing at all in the coverage about the Swedish women’s national team during their World Cup one year later. The overall structure of the coverage about the men’s national team appears more solid and extensive compared to the coverage on the women’s national team. Several identified factors in the study emphasizes and strengthens the fact that men’s football is seen as normative while women’s football is seen as something deviant.

In this essay, I analyze and compare the representation of social actors in six different author presentations from the teaching aid Svenska Impulser 2, (2012). More specifically, I investigate similarities and differences in the representation of men and women and, thus, what meanings are ascribed to these gender categories. Consequently, these presentations belong to three different literary epochs or -isms: the enlightenment (Jean-Jaques Rousseau and Anna Maria Lenngren); romanticism (Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley), and modernism (James Joyce and Virginia Woolf). The analysis is further grounded on Judith Butler’s theory on performative gender and systemic functional grammar as developed and defined by Michael Halliday. The method of analysis is critical discourse analysis (CDA) where I quantify and analyze different types of representational strategies and process and participant functions (transitivity). In addition, these two sections of quantifications are each followed by a qualitative analysis with a certain focus on different epiteths, attributes, general descriptions, and agency. My findings show that the presentations of women are more populated and, that they are portrayed as dependent on men, whereas men are portrayed as independent explorers, innovators, influencers, rebels or radical political debaters and thinkers. While some of these qualities are implied, however more or less muted, in the presentations of women, they are explicated or, by other means, more evident in the presentations of men. Moreover, my analysis shows that the women’s gender identity is marked and thus emphasized in their presentations to a significantly greater degree than the men’s gender identity is in their presentations.