The aim of this study was to examine how authors on Instagram describe masculinity norms. We aimed to further analyse how the authors illustrate the consequences of masculinity norms in relation to social problems. The study is based on 25 posts from authors on Instagram which were analysed by a content analysis method. The theoretical framework in this study consists of Connells (1995, 2008) theory of masculinity. A conception of socialization is also included (Connell 1995, 2009). The results indicated that masculinity norms have a negative impact on men by how they are expected to be, what they are expected to feel, what is allowed for them to talk about, how they should act and what sexual desires they should have. Furthermore, the study showed how masculinity norms lead up to social problems such as reluctance to seek help and using violence against others. The main conclusion of this study was that social problems often are based on the fact that men, due to present masculinity norms, are in need of proving, defending or maintaining their masculinities in different contexts. The man himself along with everyone around him are the one who pays for the consequences of masculinity norms. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur författare på Instagram beskriver maskulinitetsnormer. Syftet var även att undersöka hur författare belyser konsekvenser av maskulinitetsnormer i relation till sociala problem. Studiens empiri byggdes på 25 inlägg från medlemmar på Instagram som analyserades med hjälp av en innehållsanalys. Studiens teoretiska referensram utgjordes av Connells (1995, 2008, 2009) maskulinitetsteori. Referensramen utgjordes även av begreppet socialisation (Connell 1995, 2009). Resultatet visade att maskulinitetsnormer har en negativ inverkan på hur män förväntas vara och vad de förväntas känna, vad som är tillåtet att tala om, hur de ska bete sig och vilka sexuella begär de ska ha. Studiens resultat visade även att maskulinitetsnormer leder till sociala problem såsom en motvilja att söka hjälp och ett våldsutövande gentemot andra. Studiens huvudsakliga slutsats blev att sociala problem många gånger grundar sig i att män på grund av rådande maskulinitetsnormer, i olika sammanhang behöver bevisa, försvara eller upprätthålla sina maskuliniteter. De som får betala priset för negativa konsekvenser av maskulinitetsnormer är mannen själv likt alla andra han har runt omkring.

<p>The aim of this paper is to critically examine and analyze how the informal performance about masculinities and femininity are being expressed and produced by the text and pictures in Huddinge kommuns internal magazine for the staff working within the public administration. The concrete questions are:</p><p>By which patterns constructs the performance of gender in Huddinge kommuns internal magazine for the staff working within the public administration?</p><p>Are the femininity and masculinities being expressed in a static way or have it changed in Huddinge kommuns internal magazine for the staff working within the public administration throw the examined years 1985, 1995 and 2006?</p><p>A quantitative and qualitative method is used. The point of departure is organization theory in a gender perspective. With the gender organization theory we examine the structures, leadership, symbolics and changes through the examined years. Our perspective is a social contructionism.</p><p>Our conclusion is that the patterns about femininity and masculinity changes through the years, but the most significant changes are made by women. That conclusion is in spite of the facts that the quantitative data shows that women have increased by the numbers of pictures.</p><p>The qualitative examination confirms that masculinity is still the norm and therefore women do change more than the man does.</p>

Betyg VG / SIDA

Male parliamentary dominance, rather than the corresponding female parliamentary underrepresentation, is the object of study in this thesis. This shift in focus implies a gendered analysis centered on men and men’s practices. The thesis contributes to our understanding of how male dominance is maintained and reinvented by empirically studying male parliamentary dominance in clientelist settings. Worldwide trends of parliamentary representation are analyzed statistically and constitute the starting-point for a case study of male political networks in Thailand. Clientelism is a strategy used by political actors to increase predictability in politically unpredictable settings. The thesis shows that clientelism is an informal political practice that requires the building and maintenance of large and localized networks to help distribute services, goods and/or money in exchange for political support. Where political parties also use candidate selection procedures that are informal, exclusive and localized, there are ample openings for clientelist practices to translate into political power and ultimately parliamentary seats. This study also coins and develops a new concept: homosocial capital. It shows that clientelist networks are and continue to be male dominated because homosocial capital, a political capital accessible only to men, is needed for electoral success. Homosocial capital has two main components: a perceived pragmatic necessity to build linkages to those with access to important resources in society and a more psychological desire to cooperate with individuals whose behavior can be understood, predicted and trusted.

The purpose of this essay is to describe and analyze how three leisure centers in Örebro county are working with gender issues. Our research questions are: What is Machofabriken? How do leisure centers in Örebro county work with equal treatment? In which way do leisure centers in Örebro county work with Machofabriken’s material? How come the recreation centers in Örebro don’t use Machofabriken’s material to any greater extent? We have focused on masculinity oriented gender projects at three leisure centers. We did semi-structured interviews with three recreation leaders who have all been educated in Machofabriken. The interviews were analyzed based on terms that are central in gender equality and masculinity research. The result demonstrates how they work with gender equality, how they use Machofabriken’s material and their thoughts and opinions about the material. / Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva och analysera hur tre fritidsgårdar i Örebro kommun arbetar med jämställdhet. Våra frågeställningar är: Vad är Machofabriken? Hur ser jämställdhetsarbetet ut på fritidsgårdar i Örebro kommun? På vilket sätt arbetar fritidsgårdar med Machofabrikens material? Varför används inte Machofabrikens material i någon större utsträckning på fritidsgårdarna i Örebro? Vi har fokuserat på tre fritidsgårdars jämställdhetsarbete, framförallt det riktat mot unga män. Vi har utgått från semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre fritidsledare som alla har gått en utbildning i Machofabriken. Intervjuerna är analyserade utifrån begrepp som är centrala inom jämställdhets- och maskulinitetsforskning. Resultatet visar hur de arbetar med jämställdhet, hur de använder Machofabrikens material och deras tankar och åsikter om materialet.

Children's literature affects the child's socialisation process, including the shaping the gender roles. But despite this, up to now children have featured less in gender scholarship. Against this backround, this paper seeks to critically interrogate the physical, social, economic and political manifestations of masculinities in selected Kiswahili children\'s books from Kenya. By analysing these works, we hope to demonstrate that power and ideological aspects of masculinites are rooted at childhood. Since special attention will be paid to the ideological and power basis of the masculinities, the analysis of the selected works is done in the encompassing prism of Critical Discourse Analysis revealing hegemonic masculinities.

The number of men within the academia who analyze patriarchy, masculinities and gender inequality seem to be increasing in Turkey especially for the last couple of years. This can be considered as an evidence for the influence of feminism over men. Although more men today are interested in those fields of feminism to criticize men&rsquo / s hegemony, it is rather important to know that how much extent they are open to change their relation with patriarchy in order to confront it. This study attempts to provide a critical evaluation of men who are academically interested in struggling against patriarchy. For this aim, in-depth interviews were made with thirteen men in the academia in order to comprehend their standpoint and thoughts about men&rsquo / s engagement with feminism. It is seen that most men in the research group are willing to cooperate with feminists to confront patriarchy. However, it is also found out that it is arduous for men to change their relation with patriarchy because patriarchy provides men with institutionalized privileges. In this respect, this study argues that male contribution to feminism would be beneficial as much as problematic. Moreover, instead of answering it directly as &lsquo / yes&rsquo / or &lsquo / no&rsquo / , this study suggests to respond the main question that whether men would be true allies of feminism by following the change in men in terms of their attitudes towards patriarchy.

Increasingly since the 1990s those of us who are interested in gender issues in education have heard the question: What about the boys? A discourse has emerged in New Zealand, as in other countries including Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, that attention spent on addressing issues related to the educational needs of girls has resulted in the neglect of boys and problems related to their schooling. Positioned within this discourse, boys are depicted as disadvantaged, victims of feminism, underachieving or failing within the alienating feminised schooling environment and their struggles at school are seen as a symptom of a wider ‘crisis of masculinity'. This anxiety about boys has generated much debate and a number of explanations for the school performance of boys. One concern, that has remained largely unexamined in the Aotearoa New Zealand context, is that the dominant discourse of masculinity is characterised by a restless physicality, anti-intellectualism, misbehaviour and opposition to authority all of which are construed as antithetical to success at school. This thesis explores how masculinities are played out in the schooling experiences of a small group of 5, 6 and 7 year old boys in two New Zealand primary schools as they construct, embody and enact their gendered subjectivities both as boys and as pupils. This study of how the lived realities of schooling for these boys are discursively constituted is informed by feminist poststructuralism, aspects of queer theory and, in particular, draws on the works of Michel Foucault. The research design involved employing an innovative mix of data generating strategies. The discursive analysis of the data generated in focus group discussions, classroom and playground observations, children’s drawings and video and audio recording of the normal classroom literacy programmes is initially organised around these sites of learning in order to explore how gender is produced discursively, embodied and enacted as children go about their work and their play. The research shows that although considerable diversity was apparent as the boys fashioned their masculinities in these different sites, ‘doing boy’ is not inimical to ‘doing schoolboy’ as all the boys, when required to, were able to constitute themselves as ‘intelligible’ pupils (Youdell, 2006). The research findings challenge the notion of school as a feminised and alienating environment for them. In particular, instances of some of the boys disrupting the established classroom norms, as recorded by feminist researchers more than two decades ago, are documented. Concerns then, that “classroom practices reinforced a notion of male importance and superiority while diminishing the interests and status of girls” (Allen, 2009, p. 124) appear to still be relevant, and the postfeminist discourse “that gender equity has now been achieved for girls and women in education” (Ringrose, 2013, p. 1) is called into question. Amid the greater emphasis on measuring easily quantifiable aspects of pupils’ educational achievement, what this analysis does is to recognize the processes of schooling as highly complex and to offer a more nuanced response to the question of boys and their schooling than that offered by, for example, men’s rights advocates. It suggests that if we are committed to improving education for all children, the question needs to be re/framed so as not to lose sight of educational issues related to girls and needs to ask just which particular groups of boys and which particular groups of girls are currently being disadvantaged in our schools.

The academic study of comic books - especially superhero comic books - has predominantly focused on the analysis of these books as texts, as teaching and learning resources, or on children as comic book readers. Very little has been written about adult superhero comic fans and their responses to superhero comics. This thesis explores how adult comic book readers in New Zealand engage with superhero comics. Individual interviews and group conversations, both online and face-to-face, provide insights into their responses to the comics and the characters as well as the relationships among fans. Analysis of fans’ talk about superhero comics includes their reflections on how masculinities are represented in these comics and the complex ways in which they identify with superheroes, including their alter egos. The thesis examines how superhero comic book readers present themselves in their interactions with other readers. Comics ‘geekdom’, fans’ interactions with one another and their negotiation of gendered norms of masculinity are discussed. The contrast between the fan body and the superhero body is an important theme. Readers’ discursive constitution and management of superheroes’ bodies, and their engagement with representations of superheroes are related to analyses of multiplicity in individual identities and current theories of audience reception and identification.

Asthma is a chronic condition affecting approximately 235 million people worldwide, yet international studies have identified that most adolescents with asthma have poor self-management skills. Asthma is common in adolescent males however only a few studies have specifically investigated the asthma experiences of this population group. The aim of this study was to explore how male adolescents understand and manage their asthma symptoms. A qualitative descriptive study design was selected to investigate the experiences of male adolescents, focusing on their perceptions of societal and masculine influences on their asthma management. Individual semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 15 male adolescents to capture data about their perceptions of masculinity, asthma management, interpersonal relationships, and their physical wellbeing. Findings support previous research illustrating that asthma restricts adolescent male’s lives, both at school and recreationally. This study established that these restrictions could unpredictably affect perceived masculine ideals and their ability to be independent, strong, muscular, and competitive. Consequently, the majority of participants felt their masculinity was challenged and described feeling different, isolated, and/or marginalised from their non-asthmatic peers. To counteract these feelings, maintain control, and seek normality in front of peers, most participants reported downplaying their asthma symptoms and/or did not adhere to their prescribed treatment regimes. In addition, hegemonic representations of males as ‘tough’ and ‘self-reliant’ influenced most participants to describe re-active, non-help seeking behaviours, and minimisation of their asthma symptoms. However not all participants described adverse outcomes, with a minority resisting hegemonic ideals by taking care of their health and asthma management. Findings illustrate how a variety of masculine ideals influenced young men’s health and asthma management. Further research is required to investigate the ways differential masculine ideals may be protective or detrimental to asthma medication.