Detta arbete undersöker vilken grad av fysisk sexualisering utav kvinnliga spelkaraktärer som föredras av kvinnliga-respektive manliga spelare samt vilka attribut som främst anses bidra till sexualisering/objektifiering. Arbetet tar avstamp från Laura Mulveys teori kring ”den manliga blicken” för att få en förståelse för hur ”casual”-spelare tänker när de omedvetet eller medvetet använder sig av normativa skönhetsideal och stereotyper vid skapandet av kvinnliga spelkaraktärer. 51 deltagare utförde den kvantitativa webbenkäten med tillhörande ”dress up”-spel och 4 informanter deltog i kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuernas syfte var att användas som komplimenterade svar till den kvantitativa webbenkäten. Resultatet uppvisade skillnader mellan män och kvinnors preferenser av sexualiseringsgrad samt att det attribut som ansågs ha en störst sexualiserande/objektifierande effekt var skoalternativen. I framtida arbete vore en korrigering utav artefakten nödvändig, mer data skulle behöva insamlas för ett generaliserbart resultat samt kompletteras med en manlig version utav ”dress up”-spelet för en utförlig jämförelse mellan könen.

Syftet med denna studie har varit att belysa representation av lesbisk åtrå i film. Filmerna jag har tittat på är Carol och Portrait of a Lady on Fire, där jag undersökt huruvida begreppen the male gaze och the female gaze visar sig i filmerna. Detta är gjort genom en filmanalys där jag har utvecklat en tes, delat upp filmen i segment samt antecknat filmtekniker. I min analys har jag utgått från teorier om blick; gaze theory, the male gaze och the female gaze. I båda filmerna representeras åtrå främst genom blicken, men även genom olika symboler, språk och behov. Den skildras inte nödvändigtvis genom nakenhet eller sex – utan kan vara ett grepp på axeln eller en intensiv blick. Genom välarbetat manus, kameravinklar utifrån bådas synpunkter och kostymer som inte förminskar kvinnan tar båda filmerna avstånd från the male gaze. Istället har båda parterna i förhållandet en aktiv roll där kommunikation och samtycke styr, vilket är i linje med the female gaze. / The purpose of this study has been to highlight the representation of lesbian desire in film. The films I have watched are Carol and Portrait of a Lady on Fire, where I investigated whether the concepts of the male gaze and the female gaze appear in the films, and if so, how. I have conducted a filmanalysis where I developed a thesis, segmented the films and took notes of film techniques. I have based my analysis on different theories concerning the gaze; gaze theory, the male gaze and the female gaze. Both films represent desire throughout the gaze, but also through different symbols, languages and needs. It is not necessarily portrayed by nudity or sex – instead by grasping the shoulder or holding an intense gaze. Through well-crafted script, camera angles based on both viewpoints and costumes that do not diminish the woman, both films distance themselves from the male gaze. Instead, both parties in the relationship have an active role where communication and consent govern, which is in line with the female gaze.

“Kvinnor i spel; att ses på eller upp till” är en undersökning över vilken narrativ roll en stereotypt feminin karaktärs rörelsemönster blir tilldelad och hur det kan kopplas med den manliga blicken. Detta med spel-animation som huvudfokus. Bakgrund inom 'Den manliga blickens' ursprung och tidigare teorier kommer även presenteras för att ge nyans och föra en diskussion. Genomförandet består av en kvalitativ undersökning där olika animationsklipp utförs av en kommersiellt attraktiv kvinnlig modell. Rörelserna är baserade på analyser och teorier om den manliga blicken med mål att undersöka hur de påverkar karaktärens narrativa roll. Dessa animationer skapas i olika grader av stereotypa rörelser från överdrivet till neutralt för att undersöka om det ger olika svar. / <p>Det finns övrigt digitalt material (t.ex. film-, bild- eller ljudfiler) eller modeller/artefakter tillhörande examensarbetet som ska skickas till arkivet.</p>

The purpose of this essay is to analyse how medial representations in a specific cultural debate expresses thoughts about gender, power and speech. The debate in question took place in Sweden 2010 and was about an inspection of sexual harassments in the Swedish acting area, made by Sveriges Radio, Ekot. This essay examines the made representations of the debate, with a feministic point of view and concludes that a male gaze shapes the form of speech and gives the debate a discourse sort of reasoning about gender. The special discourse formatted in the examined area contains a certain conception of power and the structure of power, which is also explained by the male gaze and the meaning of post-feminism.

The thought behind this bachelor essay regarding gender and rhetorical feminist criticism developed years ago out of the fact that I read just a little too many dirty chick lit-pockets as a teen. Those chick lit-pockets were my first introduction to sex, to gender roles, to how men and women react and are supposed to react to each other and, in some sense, even to feminism. Those chick lit-pockets, later turning into hardcore Harlequin-books, became my benchmark when I started to contemplate the fact that this is a man’s world, produced and reproduced by a male gaze which influences everything from sex, porn, advertising, gender roles, jobs and payment to dirty pockets for teenage girls. The essays aims to show how the male gaze-phenomenon could be to use for the rhetoric discipline: first combined with other rhetorical theories as a way to analyze and understand gender and objectification. The main question asked; How to put the male gaze on a rhetorical leash? This bachelor essay consists of a qualitative literature study focusing on four articles and one book in which five different male gaze-perspective appears. Every article presented will be followed by an explicative chapter in which the articles, specific male gaze- perspective will be combined with relevant rhetorical theories and applied to pop cultural example cases in order to demonstrate its academic potential. The conclusion of this essay establishes that the rhetorical discipline indeed could have great use of the male gaze-perspective while analyzing different kinds of artifacts, if combined with different kinds of methods. It confirms that it is possible to put the male gaze on a rhetorical leash and explains five specific ways to do so.

Forskning visar på en lång historia av sexualisering och objektifiering av kvinnor i reklam. Vad forskning inte fokuserat på är sexualiserat våld i reklambilder. Den här studien är en sammanfogning av forskningsfälten genus och våld i reklam. Vad studien vill ta reda på är om sexualiserat våld används vid framställningen av kvinnor i reklambilderna samt den manliga blickens perspektiv. Studien använder sig av kvalitativ semiotisk analys för att undersöka om sexualiserat våld existerar i sex stycken reklambilder från tre stora modeföretag. Reklambilderna är från Calvin Klein, Diesel och Tom Ford 2016 och 2017. Det teoretiska ramverk för analysen är Hirdmans, med fleras, genusteori, Ekman och Mulveys den manliga blicken samt semiotik i form av Barthes fyra nyckelpunkter för konnotation och Goffmans kategorier om framställning av genus i reklam. Analysen visar slutsatser på att kvinnor objektifieras och sexualiseras i reklambilder och framställs som sexobjekt. Denna sexualisering och objektifiering mynnar ut i tecken på att sexualiserat våld normaliseras i samhället. / Research shows a long history of sexualization and objectification of women in advertising. What research has not focused on is sexualized violence in commercials. This study is a merger of the research fields gender and violence in advertising. The study wants to find out if sexualized violence is used in the portrayal of women in the advertising and the male gaze perspective. The study uses qualitative semiotic analysis to investigate if sexualized violence occurs in six commercials from three major fashion companies. The commercials are from Calvin Klein, Diesel and Tom Ford 2016 and 2017. The theoretical framework for the analysis is Hirdman’s, among others, gender theory, Ekman and Mulvey’s the male gaze and semiotics in the form of Barthes’ four key points for connotation and Goffman’s categories for gender advertisement. The analysis shows that women are objectified and sexualized in commercials and are illustrated as sex objects. This sexualization and objectification results in signs that sexualized violence is normalized in society.

The purpose of this study was to examine which kind of expressions of the woman that were present in the selected advertising images and how they could affect how women are represented. A qualitative content analysis was conducted. The six most liked CAIA Cosmetics Instagram posts from their lipstick campaign in 2019 were chosen and analysed. The study used a denotative and connotative analysis of the pictures. In conclusion this study showed that the analysed pictures contained a sexualised, objectified, and stereotypic way of portraying women. We found expressions that showed that looks were more important than skills and that the woman’s place was at home being good-looking. We also found the expression of that the pictures sold the feeling of desire. The desire was built on a narcissistic notion of selfimprovement and an illusion of that acquiring a product will make you beautiful, sexy, successful, and thereby desirable.

Denna kvalitativa studie undersöker porträtteringen av den normativa kvinnokroppen på plattformen Instagram till följd av trenden kroppspositivism. Syftet med vår studie är att genom en semiotisk bildanalys, undersöka huruvida två klädföretag följer trenden kroppspositivism i sina samarbeten med influencers på Instagram. Studien ämnar även till att undersöka huruvida de två företagen följer sina slagord om att bryta ny mark och vara tillgängliga för alla kvinnliga kroppsformer. Studiematerialet är hämtat från Instagram och influencerna som är valda för studiens analys är hämtade från Na-kd och Boohoos hemsidor. Analysen utförs med hjälp av semiotik, vilket både är en teori och metod där verktygen denotation och konnotation har använts. Med hjälp av en forskningsöversikt om olika kroppsideal och teoretiska ramverk som social jämförelse och The Male Gaze har analysen delats in i tre teman; kroppstyp, posering och digital redigering av kvinnokroppen. Studiens resultat påvisar ett smalhetsideal där de influencers som undersökts i analysen ingår i normen. Kvinnokropparna kunde till viss del skilja sig åt men kvinnorna gestaltade fortfarande ett smalhetsideal, vilket tyder på att varken företaget Na-kd eller Boohoo har anammat kroppspositivismen utifrån sina val av influencers på Instagram. Resultatet visade även att klädföretagen inte följde sina slagord om att vara normbrytande och tillgängliga för alla kvinnor. / This qualitative study examines the portrayal of the normative woman’s body on Instagram and how the trend of body positivism is followed on that platform. The purpose of our study is, through semiotic image analysis, to investigate whether two fashion companies’ follow the trend of body positivism in their collaborations with influencers on Instagram. The study also intends to investigate how the two companies follow their slogans of being norm-breaking and accessible for all female body types. The study material is collected from Instagram and the influencers selected for this study are selected from Na-kd and Boohoo’s websites. The analysis is performed using semiology, which is both a theory and a method where the tools denotation and connotation have been used. With the help of a research overview on different body ideals and theoretical frameworks such as social comparison and The Male Gaze, the analysis has been divided into three themes; body type, posing and digital editing of the female body.  The study’s results show a narrow ideal where the investigated influencers of the analysis are included in the norm. The women’s bodies could differ to some extent, but they all embodied a narrow-minded ideal, which indicates that neither Na-kd nor Boohoo has embraced body positivism based on their choice of influencers on Instagram. The results also showed that none of the fashion companies followed their slogans about being norm-breaking and accessible to all women.

Syftet med föreliggande alster var att undersöka huruvida utvecklingen av hur kvinnor exponeras i kommersiella sammanhang går hand i hand med postfeminism eller inte, och om det i sådana fall bidrar till att det fortfarande skapas kommersiellt innehåll utifrån den manliga blicken. Materialet som låg till grund för detta arbete var en av flera bilder från Bianca Ingrossos företag, CAIA Cosmetics, läppstifts reklamkampanj från år 2019. Metoden utgjordes, i grunden, av en semiotisk bildanalys, men med en sociosemiotisk dito som spets. Båda metoderna har likheter och har komponenter som går in i varandra, varpå båda, med utgångspunkt i en kvalitativ analys, spelade roller för mitt resultat. Analysen utfördes med följande forskningsfråga som grund: Hur förhåller sig postfeministisk teori och kommodifierad feminism till aktuell bild ur ett sociosemiotiskt perspektiv? Genom detta arbetes huvudteorier postfeminism, kommodifierad feminism och the male gaze – den manliga blicken – analyserades det valda materialet med kopplingar till pornografiskt bildspråk. Utfallet blev dubbeltydigt då kvinnan i bilden, utifrån applicering utav presenterad teori, både kunde ses som ett passivt objekt men även som ett aktivt subjekt. Makten i vald bild kunde alltså ses både som en kraft utifrån den postfeministiska individualismen samtidigt som det också kan tolkas som ännu ett fall av objektifiering av kvinnor i reklam. / The purpose with this essay was to examine whether or not the development of the exposure of women in commercial contexts correlates with postfeminism, and in such case, whether it contributes to the ongoing production of commercial content based on the theory of the male gaze. The fundamental material of this work was one of several images from Bianca Ingrosso's company, CAIA Cosmetics, lipstick advertising campaign from 2019. The method was, basically, a semiotic image analysis, but with an extending, socio-semiotic ditto as a complement. Both methods have similarities and have components that go into each other, which made both of them, based on a qualitative analysis, play important roles for the final results. The analysis was carried out based on the following research question: How does postfeministic theory and commodified feminism relate to the chosen image from a socio-semiotic perspective? Through the main theories of postfeminism, commodified feminism and the theory of the male gaze, the chosen material was analyzed with links to, and in comparison, with, pornographic imagery. The outcome was ambiguous as the woman in the image, based on the application of presented theories, could be seen both as a passive object but also as an active subject. The power in the chosen image could thus be seen both as a feminin force based on postfeminist individualism, while it, at the same time, also can be interpreted as yet another case of objectification of women in commercial advertising.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze the portrayal of gender and sexuality within fashion photography through a representational study of men and women in select Gucci fashion campaigns, Fall/Winter 1996 and Spring/Summer 2003. In doing so we also find specifics as to how artistic expression can manifest itself in the form of sexist advertising, this being through the sexualisation of fashion photography. The study commences with an introduction, explanation of its purpose, and a descriptive background of the Gucci fashion house and it’s then creative director Tom Ford, the material used and the public criticism it has received as sexist portrayal of women. The frame of the study takes form  through the theoretical approaches of gender theory and postfeminism focusing on the structural order of gender, gender roles and the use of feminine pleasure within advertising. Moreover we base our study on the concept of previous research on male pleasure alongside its female counterpart as well as the male concept of power. The analysis is performed through the methodical approach of Roland Barthes semiotic analysis including the use of denotation, connotation and myth as well as a multimodal analysis with a chosen set of semiotic resources; these are primarily focused on terms such as gaze, actions, positioning and camera angles. The material in question is divided into three pictures from each fashion house, totaling a set of six pictures each analyzed individually and ultimately discussed as a whole. Our findings result in a significantly more diverse interpretation than the single result expressed by public, governmental and editorial outcry; implying that the campaigns analysed can, through the use of semiotic and multimodal analysis carry significantly different meaning depending on what pictures are being analyzed as well how it is analyzed and interpreted. As such our results imply significantly less sexist and more conceptually diverse campaigns than what they, and Gucci under Tom Ford, have been known for. Moreover we found that the portrayal of fashion photography can be used as a tool for masking sexual violations through the pretext of artistic expression.