Den här studien syftar till att genom en kvalitativ metod pröva tillförlitligheten i Geert Hofstedes maskulinitetsdimension (MAS). MAS förklaras ingående i uppsatsens inledande kapitel, men är en del i Hofstedes mer övergripande kulturdimensionsteori, som ämnar att förklara kulturella skillnader mellan olika länder (De Moij & Hofstede, 2010). Kulturdimensionsteorin och MAS har prövats i flertalet tidigare interkulturella jämförelsestudier, där man jämfört medieinnehåll i två eller fler länder. Många av dessa studier har varit av kvantitativt slag, och har genom statistiskt säkerställda resultat kunnat legitimera teorin i flera avseenden (Wiles, Wiles & Tjernlund, 1995; An & Kim, 2007; Stoica, Miller & Ardelea, 2011). I vår studie har vi med hjälp av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys jämfört reklambilder publicerade i livsstilsmagasin i Sverige och USA. Vi har genom att titta på hur genus konstrueras i reklambilder i de båda länderna funnit att reklambilder i svenska livsstilsmagasin innehåller mer icke-stereotypa framställningar av män och kvinnor jämfört med reklambilder funna i amerikanska livsstilsmagasin. Studiens teoretiska grund bygger på ett socialkonstruktionistiskt ramverk, där genusteori och stereotyper utgör en fundamental utgångspunkt för studien. Analysen av materialunderlaget har gjorts med hjälp av bland annat Goffmans (1979) klassifikationer för könsframställning, där även feministisk blickanalys har inkluderats i analysverktyget. Studiens resultat är inte entydiga då det finns många likheter mellan reklambilder publicerade i svenska och amerikanska livsstilsmagasin, men det finns en märkbar skillnad i hur genus konstrueras i reklambilder i de båda länderna, något som går att härleda till den teoretiska grunden i Hofstedes MAS-dimension. / This study aims to – through a qualitative method – examine the reliability of Geert Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions. More specifically, we are interested in Hofstede’s dimension masculinity/femininity (MAS), which for one tries to explain differences regarding the view on sex and gender between different cultures – a more thorough explanation of MAS follows in the initial chapter of this thesis. There have been several prior studies testing the reliability of MAS; using a quantitative method they have compared media content and advertising in two or more countries, and the results have in most cases legitimized MAS and the theory of cultural dimensions (Wiles, Wiles & Tjernlund, 1995; An & Kim, 2007; Stoica, Miller & Ardelea, 2011). In this study we have compared advertising images published in lifestyle magazines in Sweden and the US using a qualitative text/content analysis. Through examining how gender is constructed in advertising images found in magazines from the two countries, we have found that images published in Swedish magazines contain more non-stereotypical portrayals of men and women than those published in American magazines. When we say more, we don’t mean as in a higher frequency, that would take a quantitative method to determine, but there are more unique themes regarding the construction of gender in Swedish advertising images compared to American. Gender theory and stereotypes have been theoretical foundations of this study, and the actual analysis of images has been conducted using feminist gaze analysis together with Goffman’s (1979) classifications of gender portrayal. The results are not unequivocal since we found similarities regarding gender construction in advertising images in the two countries; however, despite the similarities, there is also a noticeable difference in the construction of gender that can be linked to the theoretical foundation in Hofstedes MAS-dimension.

This essay takes a look at which gender norms and stereotypes can be found in high-school history textbooks, and the values that they pass on to the students who read them. By analysing the textbooks from both a text and image perspective, a rounded view of the values and ideals concerning power and gender that the books contain can be seen. The use of gender theory gives the essay a clear theoretical framework through which the material is analysed. The result showed that the history textbooks over all contained an outdated view of gender roles and gender dynamics. There was a clear overrepresentation of men in both the text and the pictures throughout the books, and the language used created a hierarchy between men and women.  This in turn sends outdated messages to students, messages which may not fit the current ideal of gender equality.

Syftet med studien var att få en ökad kunskap om 15-åringars uppfattningar om kränkningar och trakassering på internet och vad de menar kan ha en motverkande effekt på att problemet uppstår. Datainsamling blev genomförd genom fyra fokusgruppintervjuer med 15-åringar från en skola i Sydsverige. Grounded theory användes för analys av intervjuerna. Resultaten teoretiserades ut i från ett genusperspektiv. Resultaten visade att Internet är en given del av ungdomarnas vardag och att kränkningar är vanliga. Både sändaren och mottagaren av en kommentar måste uppfatta den som illa menad för att det skulle vara en kränkning. Det pågår en normaliseringsprocess i synen på kränkningar på Internet och det identifierades ett grupptryck. Traditionella könsroller och stereotypa uppfattningar i synen på kvinnor och män lever vidare på internet. Tjejer utsätts i högre grad än pojkar för kränkningar rörande deras utseende. Strategier mot kränkningar på Internet måste föras på olika nivåer, dock identifierades föräldrar som nyckelpersoner. Studiens resultat ger betydelsefull kunskap om ungdomars uppfattningar av kränkningar på Internet men konkluderar med att ytterligare forskning är nödvändigt för att förstå hur kränkningar på Internet påverkar ungdomar. / The aim of the study was to gain knowledge about fifteen-year-olds’ opinion of violations and harassment on the Internet and what preventive measures can be taken to avoid such occurrences. Data was collected from interviews with four focus groups comprising of fifteen-year-olds from a school in southern Sweden. Grounded Theory was used for analyzing the interviews. The results were treated from a gender perspective. The results showed that Internet was a part of everyday life of the participants and that violations were common. Both the sender and receiver had to perceive the comments as harmful to consider it a violation. Perception of violations on the Internet, as identified by peer pressure, was undergoing a process of normalization. Traditional gender roles and stereotypical ideas of women and men still exist on the Internet. Girls were more exposed to violations aimed at their appearance. Preventive strategies against violations on the Internet must be undertaken at different levels, but parents were identified as key persons. The result of the study gave important information of the youths perception of violations on the Internet but conclude that further studies are necessary to understand how violations on the Internet affect the youth.

The object of this essay is the Swedish author Agnes von Krusenstjerna's novels Ninas dagbok (The diary of Nina) and Helenas första kärlek (Helena's first love) as well as the cycle novel Fröknarna von Pahlen (The misses von Pahlen). The purpose is to explore her use of the discourse of girls' fiction, which I analyse by the depiciton of women's sexual awakening, and her depiction of sadomasochism. The theories of Elaine Showalter, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Judith Butler are used. Women's sexual awakening is depicted similarly in the novels but more explicitly in Fröknarna von Pahlen. In Ninas dagbok and Helenas första kärlek there is an eroticization of dominance and submission, which is not explicitly sadomasochistic. In Fröknarna von Pahlen, sadomasochism is explicitly described as a "perverted" sexuality and reveals the inequality in the violent sexuality, which is described as "normal". The sexuality that is included in Fröknarna von Pahlen's ending utopia is a female same-sex sexuality, which is a further development of the intimate friendships that are often depicted through the discourse of girls' fiction. Accordingly, Fröknarna von Pahlen and its ending utopia can be interpreted as a "city of girls", that is a further developement of subjects such as female same-sex sexuality and sadomasochism that can only be implied within the discourse of girls' fiction.

Medierna är en oerhört viktig del i den rådande sociala och kulturella miljön. De framhäver att det är verkligheten de avspeglar, vilket gör att hur kvinnor framställs i medierna bidrar till föreställningar om hur man bör vara och se ut för att bli en del av den verklighet som värderas som så viktig att den får utrymme i medierna. De kan därmed verka som ett ideologiskt verktyg, då dessa föreställningar bidrar till bibehållandet av sådana könsroller, stereotyper och ideal som samhället ännu inte lyckats frigöra sig från. Det mediala genus som alltså både skapas och upprätthålls här, fann vi högaktuellt och intressant att studera närmare. Vi valde att fokusera på tre kvinnodominerande program, inom den strida ström av reality-TV som produceras och idag ockuperar tablåerna. Vårt syfte med studien har varit att, utifrån en genusteoretisk och socialkonstruktivistisk ansats, semiotiskt analysera och jämföra de könsroller, stereotyper och ideal som vi uppfattade fanns inom svensk respektive amerikansk reality-TV. Vi ämnade, med hjälp av två underliggande teman, undersöka hur ‘kvinnligt genus’ representerades och konstruerades i tal och bild, och även vilka konventioner och stereotypiska motbilder som fanns i skildringen av detta. Med utgångspunkt i dessa analyser, kopplat till vår teoretiska ram, har vi under vår diskussion kommit fram till att det finns både likheter och skillnader mellan svensk respektive amerikansk reality-TV. I båda fallen har kvinnorna samma uppfattning av den kvinnliga idealbilden, och dess tillhörande kropps- och skönhetsideal. Det finns dock skillnader i svensk och amerikansk media och deras sätt att porträttera kvinnan. I amerikansk media främställs kvinnan som enormt mångskicklig då hon bär ansvar för både karriär och familj, medan den svenska kvinnan i amerikanska förhållanden anses obenägen att både arbeta och ansvara för hushållet. Vi har under våra analyser varit medvetna om den påverkan socialkonstruktivismen har på de fördomar vi växt upp med, och alltså de fördomar och stereotyper vi har upptäckt i programavsnitten. / The media plays an extremely important role in the prevailing social and cultural environment. They emphasise that it is the reality they reflect, which converts the medial representation of women into notions of how they should be and look to be a part of the reality that is deemed important enough to appear in the media. They thus act as an ideological tool, as these notions contribute to the maintenance of the gender roles, stereotypes and ideals that society has still to shed. We found the creation and maintenance of this ‘mediagender’ highly topical and interesting for further studying. We chose to focus on three womendominating programs, out of the steady stream of reality-TV that is produced and that occupies today’s TV- listings. Our purpose of this study was to, through a gendertheoretical and socialconstructionistic approach, semiotically analyse and compare the gender roles, stereotypes and ideals that we thought existed in Swedish and American reality-TV. We intended to, with the help of two underlying themes, examine how ‘feminine gender’ was represented and constructed in speech and image, and also conventions and stereotypical counter images that may exist in the depiction of this. Based on our analysis, combined with our theoretical framework, it has in our discussion been revealed that there are both similarities and differences between Swedish and American reality-TV. In both cases, women have the same opinion in regards to the female ideal image, and its associated body and beauty ideals. However, there are differences in Swedish and American media and the way which they portray women. American media showed its women as highly multitalented as she bears responsibility for both career and family, while the Swedish woman in American conditions considered uninclined to both work and be responsible for the household. We have in our analysis been aware of the impact that social constructionism has had on the prejudices we have grown up with, and thus the prejudices and stereotypes we have discovered in our chosen programs.

Mental health problems among young people, girls and young women in particular, are a serious public health problem. Gendered patterns of mental illness are seen in conjunction with stress-related problems such as anxiety, depression, and psychosomatic complaints. Intervention models tailored to the health care situation are therefore in need of development and evaluation. The overall aim of this thesis is to develop knowledge and understanding for young women’s mental health, stress-related, and bodily problems from a psychosomatic and gender theory perspective, and to evaluate a gender sensitive physiotherapeutic intervention model consisting of a stress management course for young women with stress-related problems. The thesis consists of four studies. The overall research design combines qualitative and quantitative methods in which questionnaires and interviews were used to explore participant experiences and symptoms linked to perceived stress before and after the intervention. Data consisted of a cumulative sample of 65 young women, 16 to 25 years of age, who attended the youth-friendly health center because of stress-related problems. In paper I, multiple symptom areas of mental health and somatic problems, self-image and aspects of body perception were measured before the course. Participants were 47 of the young women. The results were compared with published normative and clinical reference groups. In paper II, the young women’s experiences of living stressful femininity were analysed with a qualitative content analysis using gender theoretical and phenomenological perspectives as an interpretative frame. The study was based on interviews with 25 of the women. In paper III, follow-up interviews were done with 32 of the women after completion of the course. Data was using qualitative content analysis to illuminate experiences of participating in the course. In paper IV, the course was evaluated by measuring changes in multiple symptom areas using the Adult Self Report (ASR), Social Analysis of Social Behaviour (SASB), and Body Perception Questionnaire (BPQ). Participants were 54 of the women who completed measurements finishing the course. Young women present complex symptomatology of stress-related problems. The total burden of symptoms plus the narrated experiences highlight how renegotiations of gender constructions and handling of normative and stressful femininity constrain access to bodily resources. After the stress management course, their measured and narrated experiences show positive changes and release of mental health and stress problems, including a more positive self-image and sense of enhanced confidence in their bodies. Experiences of the course as a safe and explorative space for gendered collective understanding and embodied empowerment indicate the need to develop gender-sensitive interventions. The thesis contributes to youth and gender theoretical perspectives with integration of psychosomatic and psychiatric physiotherapy. A broader awareness of how gender constructions and sociocultural aspects are significant in the understanding of psychosomatic expressions of mental ill health and young femininity is valuable in development of theory and interventions in physiotherapy, as well as into other fields.

The purpose of this study is to, with a phenomenological approach, investigate how men and women who have committed crimes are being treated by relevant authorities. Four qualitative interviews were conducted and analyzed. The results of these interviews showed that the informants perceived that they were being treated on the basis of stereotyped beliefs, that these beliefs differed depending on whether they were men or women and that this led to negative consequences for the informants. The result was then analyzed by gender theory and stigmatization. This gave an increased understanding of how gender is being constructed in the treatment and how the informants were stigmatized in interaction with authorities and discriminated because of the stereotypical beliefs that the authorities have about them as a person. Based on this, the result showed that the male informants were stigmatized as criminals and discriminated to a greater extent than the female informants, which was based on authorities' stereotyped beliefs about men linked to crime. / Syftet med denna studie är att, med en fenomenologisk ansats, undersöka hur män och kvinnor som har begått brott bemöts av berörda myndigheter. För att ta reda på detta genomfördes fyra kvalitativa intervjuer. Resultatet av dessa intervjuer visade att informanterna upplevde att de blev bemötta utifrån stereotypa föreställningar, att dessa föreställningar skilde sig åt beroende på om de var män eller kvinnor samt att detta ledde till negativa konsekvenser för informanterna. Resultatet analyserades sedan med hjälp av genusteori och stigmatisering. Detta gav en ökad förståelse för hur genus konstrueras i bemötandet samt hur informanterna stigmatiserades i interaktionen med myndigheter och diskriminerades på grund av de stereotypa föreställningar som myndigheterna har om dem som person. Utifrån detta visade resultatet att de manliga informanterna blev stigmatiserade som brottslingar och diskriminerade i större utsträckning än de kvinnliga informanterna, vilket grundade sig i myndigheters stereotypa föreställningar om män kopplat till brottslighet.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the dilemmas that pedagogues’ reflect about in gender equality work at preschool. The target group is active pedagogues in pre-school. A qualitative survey has been realized to achieve the purpose. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with eight pedagogues. They are working in three different preschools in a medium-sized city in Sweden. The dilemmas that emerge in the study are analyzed from a gender theoretical perspective. Hirdmans gender system (1988) reveals how pedagogues' statements can be related to three different levels in a gender contract. The result shows that pedagogues' experience the level of society and preschool norms and values ​​as the biggest challenge with the gender equality mission. The pedagogues show awareness of that traditional gender patterns and gender roles are largely conveyed to children through the border maintain level in social practice at preschool. In turn to the two levels affect the cross-border level, in which the individual is in focus. The results shows that the focus of pedagogues is on a social level, while inequality is realized through border maintain. I have come to the conclusion that knowledge is the tool for an equal preschool, focusing on its own activities. / Studiens syfte är att undersöka dilemman som pedagoger reflekterar kring i jämställdhetsarbetet på förskolan. Målgruppen är verksamma pedagoger inom förskolan. En kvalitativ undersökning har realiserats för att uppnå syftet. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med åtta pedagoger som är verksamma på tre olika förskolor i en mellanstor stad i Sverige. Dilemman som framkommer i studien analyseras ur ett genusteoretiskt perspektiv. Hirdmans genussystem (1988) synliggör hur pedagogernas utsagor kan relateras till tre olika nivåer i ett genuskontrakt. Resultatet visar att pedagoger upplever nivån med samhället och förskolans normer och värderingar som största utmaningen med jämställdhetsuppdraget. Pedagoger- na visar en medvetenhet kring att traditionella könsmönster och könsroller till största del förmedlas till barn genom gränsupprätthållande nivån i den sociala praktiken på förskolan. De två nivåerna påverkar i sin tur den gränsöverskri- dande nivån där individen är i fokus. Resultatet visar att pedagogernas fokus ligger på en samhällelig nivå medan ojämställdhet förverkligas genom gränsupprätthållande. En slutsats har framkommit om att kunskap är redskap- et för en jämställd förskola, där fokus hamnar på den egna verksamheten.

In december 2017 Sweden’s public service operation Sveriges television launched the series Köttets lustar. The series is about the Swedish comedian Henrik Schyffert when he explores the Swedish meat industry. During the series, two piglets named after the Swedish princesses Viktoria and Madeleine moves in to his flat in Stockholm, as a result of a bet he has with his son Limpan. Limpan, who loves animals and thinks that Schyffert eats too much meat wants Schyffert to get to know an animal from the meat industry, and decide whether he could kill an animal he has gotten to know or not. If he lets the pigs live in the end of the series, then he must eat vegetarian food for the rest of his life and if he decides to kill them, then he can continue to consume meat. During the series, and before Schyffert decides whether the pigs should live or die, he examines whether he should eat vegetarian food or meat, and what consequences vegetarian food has for his masculinity. The aim with this analysis was to examine the series Köttets lustar and how it depicts men’s relationship to meat consumption and the consequences it entails, seen from a animal rights perspective.  During this analysis I used the Norman Fairclough critical discourse analysis with its three dimensions: texts, discourse practice and the sociocultural practice. My analysis showed that meat consumption is an important part of the masculinity and in Schyfferts case he wasn’t ready to give up meat because of a fear that a life as a vegetarian could deprive him of his masculinity. The series also showed meats impact on the climate and the fact that animals in the meat industry also have feelings and are intelligent. The main conclusion of the analysis was that meat in relation to animal rights is very complex because meat’s importance for the masculinity. Because of the society where the man is norm and animals, like women, are defined as the other, the man’s need for meat has a bigger importance than whenever the animals is abused or not, which is something that shows in the series.

The overall purpose of this study is to elucidate Wilhelm Peterson-Berger’s perception of gender and how it is manifested in his philosophy of art. His perception of gender also incorporates conceptions of history, music and nationality. The research question is analysed primarily by reviewing Peterson-Berger’s writings from 1896 to 1913. The research is intended to shed new light on a previously overlooked area of research, using gender theory and discourse analysis. Peterson-Berger and his work have not been examined previously from a gender theory perspective.  The research shows that Peterson-Berger was influenced in large measure by the prevailing ideals of his time, although he was in some ways more innovative than many of his contemporaries. Around the turn of the 20th century there was a great deal of focus on biology, with  a clear distinction drawn between femininity and masculinity[1] . Masculinity was held up as an ideal, in contrast to femininity and effeminacy. Peterson-Berger advocated this distinction, and emphasized the biological  distinction between [2] masculinity and femininity. However, a man need not always have all the characteristics that were considered typically masculine for his time, nor was it necessary for a woman to possess all the feminine characteristics typical of the female gender. According to Peterson-Berger, a woman could have a masculine soul, and vice versa. And although he often took a negative view of women, he granted musical recognition to singers who realized music in what was, to him, a masculine way. Moreover, the majority of Peterson-Berger’s close friends were women, and he dedicated many of his works to women. Theories of race and human evolution were circulating at the turn of the century, and clearly influenced Peterson-Berger. This study has shown that he pursued the writings of [3]  Chamberlain[4]  and Nietzsche. Incorporating elements of old Gothicist theories with ideas from the two aforementioned thinkers, Peterson-Berger constructed his own racial theory. He asserted that all peoples originated from the Nordic region, which he believed to be the birthplace of the entire human race. According to his theory, southern peoples were inferior[5] , with one exception, the Greeks, towards whom he was very positively disposed. This had to do with the ancient music drama, which Peterson-Berger believed had been created by inhabitants from the north who had migrated to Greece. Peterson-Berger’s notions about peoples from the north versus peoples from the south were interwoven with theories of sexuality. He believed that Germanic peoples were more sexually abstemious than southern Europeans, and that peoples who lived in the south were sexually dissolute. To indulge one’s sexuality was, in his view, a character flaw. Conversely, Peterson-Berger viewed asexuality as a masculine ideal, and believed it to be more common in the north.  A number of contradictions have emerged in his perceptions of race and sexuality. A number of his perceptions with respect to gender roles, sexuality, nationalism and philosophy[6]  are portrayed in his opera Arnljot, as are the contradictions inherent in them. For instance, the character Arnljot has many of the typical masculine characteristics held up as ideal, but nevertheless exhibits both weaknesses and deficiencies. This is reflected in both the music and the opera libretto. / Wilhelm Peterson-Berger var en av de mest framstående tonsättarna kring sekelskiftet 1900. Han var inte bara kompositör utan även aktiv skribent i daglighetspressen. Många av hans uppfattningar om kön, nationalitet, filosofi och konst återspelglas i hans skriftställeri men kan även tydas i de musikaliska verken. Peterson-Berger var till stor del påverkad av dåtidens rådande ideal, men på vissa sätt var han mer nydanande än många andra i sin samtid. Omkring sekelskiftet sattes mycket fokus på biologi och en tydlig uppdelning gjordes mellan kvinnligt och manligt. Manlighet ställdes upp som ett ideal i kontrast till kvinnlighet och omanlighet. Peterson-Berger förespråkar en sådan uppdelning och gör skillnad mellan biologisk manlighet och kvinnlighet. Dock behöver inte alltid en man förfoga över egenskaper som ansågs tidstypiskt manliga eller en kvinna inneha endast de tidstypiska kvinnliga egenskaperna. Enligt honom kunde en kvinna vara innehavare av en manlig själ och vice versa. Peterson-Berger tangerade således en modern syn på kön som pekar fram mot dagens genus teorier. I Peterson-Bergers opera Arnljot konkretiseras flera av hans uppfattningar av både könsroller, sexualitet och filosofi – liksom de motsägelser som fanns. Karaktären Arnljot förfogar exempelvis över flera av de idealtypiska manliga egenskaperna men uppvisar trots det både svagheter och brister. Det återspeglas såväl i text som i musik. Peterson-Bergers egen sexualitet har upprepade gånger varit omdiskuterad. Knyter vi an till hans musikaliska verk och skriftställeri kommer vi närmare ett svar på hur det kan ha förhållit sig.