This study focuses on single peoples construction of their lifes in relation to normative heterosexual coupledom. It is based on five interviews made with single women and men at the age of 24 to 51 who live by themselves. The queer theory which puts the heteronormativity in question is used as a theoretical framework. Discourse psychology functions as an analytic approach. It focuses on the use of language in the construction of reality in a world of determinant discourses. The thesis shows how the life of singles is made understandable where the interviewee´s constructs their reality by either creating their own life's as possible ways of living and distance themselves from coupledom or by striving for the twosome way of living. This is done by a construction of gender and age performance as different in the single and the twosome life. It also shows paradoxes where discourses of advantage independence meet discourses that construct twosome relationships as the only place for the development of real masculinity or of a special form of preferable femininity. The construction of gender and age as performed different in the single and the couple life provides an understanding of the interviewee's creation of self-image in relation to normative heterosexual coupledom.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att kritiskt granska leksaksreklam riktad till barn. Genom att använda oss av reklamklipp från det sociala mediet YouTube vill vi undersöka hur manligt respektive kvinnligt samt heteronormativitet konstrueras i dessa. För att finna mönster som vi kan koppla till vårt syfte tittar vi ur ett genusperspektiv genom textanalys närmare på reklamklippen. Genom vår analys fann vi att leksaksreklam riktad till barn är påtaglig könsstereotyp och skapar förväntningar på barn hur de ska se ut samt vilka egenskaper de förväntas inneha. Vi fann också att reklamklippen reproducerar heterosexualiteten som den hegemoniska sexualiteten. Detta gör att heteronormativiteten blir stark i reklamklipen då samtliga reklamklipp riktade till flickor vi tittat på är byggda på en parrelation mellan en man och en kvinna. Nyckelord: Genus, heteronormativitet, maskulinitet, könsroller, leksaker, den inre och yttre sfären, arbetsdelningen, passiv och aktiv, rosa. / English title: Boys are strong, girls are pink - a study of toy advertising to children. The purpose of this study was to critically examine the toy advertising to children. Through the use of commercials from the social media YouTube, we wanted to examine how male or female and heteronormativity were socially constructed in them. Through text analysis, we looked closer at the commercials with a gender perspective in order to find patterns that we could connect to our purpose. Through our analysis we found that toy advertising to children is reproducing gender stereotypes creating expectations for children how they should look and what features they expected to hold. We also found that the commercials reproduce heterosexuality as the hegemonic sexuality, as all commercials aimed at girls we looked at reproduces the partnership between two individuals as a relationship between a man and a woman. Keywords: gender, heteronormativity, masculinity, gender roles, toys, the inner and outer sphere of labor, passive and active, pink.

The aim of this study was to examine the perceptions within social services regarding men who are victims of domestic violence based on how gender, sexuality, masculinity and victimhood was constructed in the social workers' statements. Eight qualitative interviews were conducted with nine social workers who work within the social services and meet people who are victims of domestic violence. A social constructionist scientific approach has permeated the study and theories of gender, heteronormativity, masculinity and the ideal victim has served as the study’s theoretical views. The results of the study showed that some of the social workers ascribed men specific characteristics such as strength and fearlessness. This showed how gender and masculinity was constructed in the social workers' statements. Furthermore, the results showed that their statements often based on a heterosexual norm and on the assumption that the woman was the victim and the man the perpetrator of domestic violence. Thus, sexuality and victimization were constructed in relation to gender. This showed that the social workers had certain perceptions regarding vulnerable men, meaning that men often were made ​​invisible as victims of domestic violence in the social workers' statements. At the same time, this may be because of the fact that the social workers mostly or exclusively have met women who are exposed to violence by their male partner. In addition to this, all social workers expressed an openness and awareness that even men are victims of domestic violence in same-sex and different-sex relationships. / Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka vilka föreställningar som finns inom socialtjänsten om män som utsätts för våld i nära relation utifrån hur kön, sexualitet, maskulinitet och offerskap konstrueras i socialarbetares uttalanden. Åtta kvalitativa intervjuer har genomförts med nio socialarbetare som är verksamma inom socialtjänsten och möter personer som utsätts för våld i nära relation. Ett socialkonstruktionistiskt vetenskapligt synsätt har genomsyrat studien och teorier om genus, heteronormativitet, maskulinitet och det idealiska offret har tjänat som studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter. Studiens resultat visade att en del av socialarbetarna tillskrev män specifika egenskaper, såsom styrka och orädsla. På så sätt konstruerades kön och maskulinitet i socialarbetarnas uttalanden. Vidare visade resultatet att socialarbetarna ofta talade utifrån heteronormen och utifrån kvinnan som offer och mannen som förövare av relationsvåld. Detta visade hur sexualitet och offerskap konstruerades kopplat till kön. Socialarbetarna hade således vissa föreställningar om utsatta män, innebärande att män ofta osynliggjordes som offer för relationsvåld i socialarbetarnas uttalanden. Detta kan tänkas bero på att socialarbetarna mestadels eller uteslutande hade mött kvinnor som utsätts för våld av sin manliga partner. Samtliga socialarbetare gav dessutom uttryck för en öppenhet och medvetenhet om att även män utsätts för relationsvåld i samkönade och olikkönade relationer.

No description available.

No description available.

Though still well used in Swedish schools, textbooks are no longer under any governmental control or inspection. It is now responsibilities of the teacher, thus, knowledge is considered crucial. Therefore, the aim of this study was firstly to investigate if and how four biology/natural science textbooks, produced 1957-2008 for primary school years (3) 4-6, expressed any sex, gender and/or sexuality norms. Moreover, due to thoughts of queer theoretic Judith Butler, the study also investigated if and how these three norms interacted. By examining what the textbooks mediated, the purpose was finally to find out if and how the norms differed or not. Furthermore, the theoretical perspective was queer theoretic; the adopted method for analyzing the textbooks; critical discourse analysis – both linked by understanding norms as discursive constructions of language. The results showed that sex, gender and sexuality norms were present; sex and gender norms were expressed by the separation of male and female as genuinely different. Sex norms did not change; gender norms altered only somewhat. By then often portraying male sex with both dynamic qualities and an active sexuality, the conclusion was that sex, gender and sexuality norms were linked in the textbooks. Sexuality norms were mostly expressed by a heteronormative exclusion of everything but the twosome, reproductive heterosexuality. In summary, this normative heterosexuality also was interpreted to be entwined with sex and gender; the division of male and female, hence to its basic foundation – the attraction of opposites.

<p>This study focuses on single peoples construction of their lifes in relation to normative heterosexual coupledom. It is based on five interviews made with single women and men at the age of 24 to 51 who live by themselves. The queer theory which puts the heteronormativity in question is used as a theoretical framework. Discourse psychology functions as an analytic approach. It focuses on the use of language in the construction of reality in a world of determinant discourses. The thesis shows how the life of singles is made understandable where the interviewee´s constructs their reality by either creating their own life's as possible ways of living and distance themselves from coupledom or by striving for the twosome way of living. This is done by a construction of gender and age performance as different in the single and the twosome life. It also shows paradoxes where discourses of advantage independence meet discourses that construct twosome relationships as the only place for the development of real masculinity or of a special form of preferable femininity. The construction of gender and age as performed different in the single and the couple life provides an understanding of the interviewee's creation of self-image in relation to normative heterosexual coupledom.</p>

There is an awareness of the importance of gender equality in most western societies, both at the political level and in everyday life. In academia, for instance, gender is nowadays a scientific field which indicates that there is a lot of knowledge about the subject. What we do not have much knowledge about is whether gender knowledge leads to changes in gender relations in practice. The aim of this study is to explore how gender scholars relate to using – practicing – gender knowledge. Key issues in this study are how gender scholars construct gender, how they practice gender theoretical knowledge, and their reflections of gender boundaries.             Theoretically, this study is mainly based on Sara Ahmed’s perspective on gender. The main finding of the study is that despite gender knowledge gender scholars tend to reproduce traditional gender orders. By identifying concepts such as reflected and unreflected masculinity/femininity, different ideals of masculinity/femininity are made visible. There seems to be an ideal among gender scholars to practice their gender knowledge. This ideal is practiced among “gender scholar women” by doing reflected masculinity and reflected femininity. Among “gender scholar men”, however, the ideal to practice gender knowledge by doing unreflected masculinity and reflected femininity seems to be a taboo at the same time. For men, it seems important to mark a distance to a certain type of femininity and to maintain the heterosexual – straight – line. For women, it seems desirable both to distance themselves from a certain type of masculinity and femininity and thereby follow alternative – queer – lines. / Stereotypa föreställningar om kön lever vidare i dagens samhälle, trots att det finns en medvetenhet om vikten av jämställdhet på politisk nivå och i vardagslivet. Det bedrivs även forskning om genusfrågor inom akademin. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur genusvetare förhåller sig till att använda – praktisera – genuskunskap. Centrala frågeställningar i uppsatsen är hur genusvetare ser på kön, hur de praktiserar genusteoretisk kunskap och vilka begränsningar och möjligheter som kommer till uttryck i intervjuerna.           Teoretiskt utgår uppsatsen huvudsakligen från Sara Ahmeds perspektiv på kön. Uppsatsens viktigaste resultat är att även genusvetare som har gedigen teoretisk kunskap tenderar att reproducera maktordningar om genus. Genom att identifiera begrepp som reflekterad och oreflekterad manlighet/kvinnlighet synliggörs olika ideal för manlighet och kvinnlighet. Det framstår vara ett ideal för genusvetarna att praktisera genuskunskap. För ”genusvetarkvinnorna” praktiseras idealet genom att använda reflekterad manlighet och reflekterad kvinnlighet. För ”genusvetarmännen” är idealet att praktisera oreflekterad manlighet och reflekterad kvinnlighet samtidigt tabu. För männens del verkar det viktigt att markera avstånd till en viss typ av kvinnlighet och upprätthålla den heterosexuella – straighta – linjen. För kvinnorna framstår det eftersträvansvärt att både ta avstånd från en viss typ av manlighet respektive kvinnlighet och följa alternativa – queera – linjer.

This thesis takes as its point of departure the question "is there a connection between ordinary Swedish Christianity and the extreme forms of various examples?". As a way of concidering possible connections, a "normal" spiritual context in the Swedish setting is studied: the Christian magazine "Pilgrim. A magazine for spiritual guidance". The book presents an investigation of the magazine and its notion of spirituality over a period of twelve years (1994-2006). Questions that guide the investigation are: Which are the fundamental notions of spirituality in the magazine? How can someone be spiritual due to the magazine? Which are the bodily norms which are assumed when it comes to gender, sexuality, ethnicity and class? Which connections between the normal and the extreme in contemporary Swedish spirituality can an investigation of Pilgrim as an example of "ordinary" spirituality reveal? The work is carried out as a discursive reading of Pilgrim with the help of Michel Foucault and his notion of "discourse". Furthermore some of the insights from the feminist discussion on so called "intersectionality" are used to widen the methodological scope. More specifically, the magazine is approached as a single textual surface. After qualification of the rules of the discourse, they are applied to identify the discursive formation of Pilgrim. By analyzing the strategies which constitute spiritual guidance, the forms of spirituality (subject positions) that the magazine constructs are revealed. The way that social categories - gender, sexuality, ethinicity, class - are characterized in the magazine reinforce heteronormativity, orientalism and a class-structure. Through the magazine social categories function together with other vital categories in a way that the outcome is one and only construction of the ordinary subject: i.e. the western rich man as a spiritual subject. In conclusion this study suggest that ideas about spiritual growth that flourish in an ordinary Christian cultural and intellectual environment (exemplified by the magazine Pilgrim), like ideas of resistance against the postmodern world and society's superficiality, might have a structure that can be found also in more extreme Christian contexts, and, more importantly, as a part of the problematic of these extreme examples. The extreme resides in the ordinary, and the ordinary resides in the extreme. There seems to be an order of notions, of subjects and of bodies: the Order of Spirituality.

Det här examensarbetet tar avstamp i metaforen ”att komma ut ur garderoben” och som blivande lärare intresserar jag mig för hur verksamma lärare som inte är heterosexuella väljer att agera i frågan om öppenhet. Syftet är att synliggöra ickeheterosexuella lärare genom att analysera och tolka tre lärares berättelser om sin yrkesvardag samt att diskutera resultatet ur ett didaktiskt perspektiv. Min empiri bestod av cirka 7 timmar videodokumenterade intervjuer med tre lärare från grundskola, gymnasium och vuxenutbildning. Som en del av intervjun tittade vi på min film, Garderoben, där jag undersökt garderobsmetaforen med min kropp. Filmen är även en del i min konstnärliga gestaltning. I uppsatsen finns också bilder från när jag använder min konstnärliga undersökningsmetod i ett klassrum med en garderob. Det här examensarbetet befinner sig i fältet för livsberättelseforskning och har en socialkonstruktionistisk ansats, samtidigt som jag menar att språket inte kan skiljas från det materiella, det kroppsliga. Min metod har varit temabaserade intervjuer. I uppsatsen presenteras delar av intervjuerna som poetiska narrativ, dels som en kollektiv biografi och dels som korta enskilda berättelser. Jag analyserar dessa med hjälp av queerteori och sexual difference-teori. Studiens resultat går i stort i linje med tidigare svensk forskning inom området, det vill säga att det inte är lätt att vara öppen med en ickenormativ sexualitet i svensk skola. Men min studie fördjupar och breddar fältet. Jag diskuterar även didaktiska konsekvenser. Avslutningsvis diskuterar jag vad som bör göras och sammanfattningsvis föreslår jag att detta är ett område som bör utforskas mer. Diskussionen om skolans normering genom läraren bör väcka större pedagogiskt intresse. / This thesis begins with the metaphor "to come out of the closet". As a future teacher I am interested in how practicing teachers who are not heterosexual choose to act on the issue of openness. The purpose is to highlight non-heterosexual teachers by analyzing and interpreting three teachers' stories about their everyday professional life and discuss the results from a didactic perspective. My empirical data consisted of about seven hours of video documented interviews with three teachers from primary, secondary and adult education. As part of the interview we looked at my movie Garderoben (The Closet), where I examined the ”coming out of the closet”-metaphor bodily. The film is part of my artistic figuration. The thesis includes pictures which show how I test my artistic method of examination in a classroom with a wardrobe. This thesis belongs to the field of life story research and has a social constructionist approach, but I mean that language cannot be separated from the material. My method has been theme-based interviews and I presented parts of the interviews in form of poetic narratives – one collective biography and six individual short stories – which I analyzed using queer theory and sexual difference theory. My overall result is in line with previous Swedish research, namely that it is not easy to be open with a norm breaking sexuality in a school in Sweden. But my study deepens and stretches the field. I also discuss didactic consequences. In the final discussion, I discuss what should be done and come to the conclusion that this is an area that should be more explored. The discussion of the school's norms through the teacher should bring greater educational interest.