Initially, my developing body of work aimed to redesign the traditions of representational painting, specifically the female nude, to depict the contemporary notions of lesbianism and femininity in an honest and empowering manner as a form of identity and not as vehicle for voyeurism. As an artist who paints the female nude and identifies as a woman and a lesbian, I examine the preexisting notions of the male gaze and the effect of socialization as it pertains to my work. The act of looking from the point of view of a woman, which is not synonymous with a "female gaze", or from the point of view of a lesbian, is not a birthright, but a conscious effort to constantly question the way we see and produce pictures and realizing that the male gaze permeates most images of female nudes. By the nature of my sexuality and my exposure to existing male-produced images, do I see the female nude through the male gaze or is there a gaze that is essentially female? Does it matter either way if the image is aesthetically compelling? My paintings neither attempt to conform to the male gaze or debunk it, nor do I attempt to prove the existence of a female gaze. Like Edgar Degas, I wish to look through a keyhole-a form of voyeurism-to see people outside of their public facade.

No description available.

This thesis explores how racialized and gendered power dynamics are reflected in public discourse on digital replicas and the personal narratives of models. Using the lenses of digital capital and objectification theory, it examines how these power relations impact models' agency and ownership over their images and digital bodies. Employing a combination of critical discourse analysis and autoethnography, the research provides macro and micro perspectives on power relations in the fashion industry. The findings highlight how digital capital impacts who gets to shape the narrative on digital replicas and who reaps the benefits of these technologies. It sheds light on how racialized and gendered power relations intersect with objectification and digital capital, impacting who can benefit from digital replicas. The study highlights models' significant challenges in maintaining autonomy and control over their careers and public image. It suggests that new technologies, such as digital replicas, can further exacerbate existing inequalities. The findings also highlight how power dynamics on both a societal and interpersonal level shape the potential for digital replicas to enhance agents' control over models and intensify their experiences of commodification. By aligning with previous research on models' marginalization and research on how new technologies can intensify existing inequalities, this thesis contributes to the broader conversation on how existing power relations, labor, and technological developments shape one another.

In this thesis, Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman and Michel Faber’s Under the Skin are analysed from the perspective of feminist-vegetarian critical theory. Both texts deal with the idea of feeling like or being meat, but approach this idea from different angles. In The Edible Woman, the connection to feeling like meat is metaphorical and rooted in gender relations, while in Under the Skin, it is literal, related to the idea of being animal. What becomes clear through an analysis of these two texts is that they both deal with the interlocking oppressions of women and animals. In The Edible Woman, protagonist Marian loses her subjectivity and stops eating meat when, as a result of the dynamics of her relationship with her boyfriend (later fiancé), she starts identifying with animals that are hunted or eaten. In Under the Skin, the alien protagonist Isserley, as female, non-human and in her natural form looking like a kind of mammal, represents both women and animals in her objectifying returned gaze on human men. Examining these two texts together highlights the interlocking nature of patriarchy and speciesism, and shows how these oppressions are better understood in relation to each other.

Throughout history, sex and sexuality has been a subject for many debates. It has been regulated through both authorities and social norms. Female sexuality has been seen both as a symbol for motherhood and as a sin. Women have also been judged both for their virginity and their lack of it. This matter appears regularly in the media, whereas women still are objectified and judged for how they choose to exert their sexuality. Therefor, we have chosen to study how this appears in teenage movies in modern times, through a case study of the movies Easy A, Juno and The first time. We want to examine which kind of messages that are transmitted to youths about women and their sexuality. We have used the variables informal sexual education, slut shaming, victim blaming, the madonna/whore complex and objectification. Our results shows that women’s sexuality still is criticized and regulated by society and its values.

This thesis concerns how murdered women and their bodies are represented through written and visual language in tabloid crime journalism. Two Swedish high profile murders were chosen through a purposeful sampling, and 436 articles from Sweden's two largest tabloid newspapers, Aftonbladet and Expressen, were thematized through Thematic Analysis. After that, a smaller sample was analyzed in depth through Critical Discourse Analysis and Multimodal Visual Analysis. The results show that murdered women and their bodies are represented as both subjects, objects and abject. However, when constructed as a social subject through personal traits and agency, the personalities of the murdered women were also used to establish a normative objectification of how women ought and ought not to behave. Furthermore, the material body as an object was visually absent from the material but made visible through detailed and repetitive descriptions of violence and interdiscursive connections to popular culture. Consequently, the abject body produced fear within society, but also provided an arena for a shared identity and the restoration of social order, through extensive portrayals of public grief and thorough media coverage of the legal process.             These results contribute both new knowledge and the suggestion of a suitable theoretical framework for further academic research. Hopefully, these findings will also result in an academic, as well as a professional, discussion regarding the current mediated discourse within crime journalism.

Mundialmente multiplicam-se os contextos institucionais em que representantes indígenas são instados a produzirem discursos sobre suas próprias culturas. No Brasil, em particular, emergem, de forma sui generis, os contextos formais de escolarização indígena que se estruturaram ao longo dos anos 90, e se tornaram locus produtivos de enunciados culturais. Essa tese analisa como se deu a constituição da proposta de educação diferenciada como um direito dos grupos indígenas no Brasil. Investiga como se constituiu uma política pública de educação escolar indígena e os percalços pelos quais ela vem passando na medida em que a instituição escolar dissemina-se pelas terras indígenas, Brasil afora. Tomando a formação de professores indígenas como central para a viabilização da propagada educação diferenciada, problematiza os discursos indígenas sobre cultura proferidos a partir da escola indígena. / All over the world, institutional venues giving voice to indigenous representatives have multiplied, compelling them to produce speeches on their own culture. Throughout the 90s, a distinct formal indigenous educational system has emerged, particularly in Brazil, and it serves as a productive locus to enunciate cultural statements. This thesis analyzes the proposal of distinguished education as a right of the indigenous peoples in Brazil. It investigates how a public policy specific for indigenous school education has been structured and the mishaps coming from the spread of the school institution throughout the indigenous lands in Brazil. Taking into account the coaching of indigenous teachers as central for the fulfilment of the disseminated distinguished education, it puts in question the indigenous statements on culture voiced from the indigenous school.

<p>Martina Haag’s method of self-mockery used in her chronicles is characterized by her wish to live up to various ideals. This essay brings out the subversive power of self-deprecatory hu-mor expressed in her book Hemma hos Martina. The author’s strategies and kinds of humor are being studied, leading up to what this humor accomplishes. General theories on humor, by Mary Ann Rishel, Maria Ohlsson, Henri Bergson, Joannne R. Gilbert and Simon Critchley are being applied to find the essence of her craftsmanship in writing comedy. The analysis also goes more closely into the style and language, to give a deeper understanding of how she creates jokes, and also how she relates to her ideals through language. The main thrust of the analysis, though, builds on theories on self-deprecatory humor. Haag is included into Joanne R. Gilbert’s theory on self-deprecation and The Whiner within the field of stand-up comedy.</p><p>Some American feminist critics have rejected self-deprecatory humor as being anti-feminist, stating that women applying this particular kind of humor merely reinforce stereoty-pes, and put themselves down. This paper objects to those critics, leaning on Haag’s book. I wish to show that Haag is not demeaning towards herself, but towards the cultural norms and expectations in our present society. In this context, I show how Haag manages to demystify and criticize ideal representations of women, by lampooning them and revolting against them. In this way, her book turns into a satirical critique of cultural values. My essay illustrates how Haag objectifies herself, making regular use of stereotypes. This is necessary, since these two elements are essential to most humor. Haag confirms stereotypes to make people laugh. This laughter brings about awareness in the reader, making Haag’s work a social critique of current values and norms concerning women.</p>

Martina Haag’s method of self-mockery used in her chronicles is characterized by her wish to live up to various ideals. This essay brings out the subversive power of self-deprecatory hu-mor expressed in her book Hemma hos Martina. The author’s strategies and kinds of humor are being studied, leading up to what this humor accomplishes. General theories on humor, by Mary Ann Rishel, Maria Ohlsson, Henri Bergson, Joannne R. Gilbert and Simon Critchley are being applied to find the essence of her craftsmanship in writing comedy. The analysis also goes more closely into the style and language, to give a deeper understanding of how she creates jokes, and also how she relates to her ideals through language. The main thrust of the analysis, though, builds on theories on self-deprecatory humor. Haag is included into Joanne R. Gilbert’s theory on self-deprecation and The Whiner within the field of stand-up comedy. Some American feminist critics have rejected self-deprecatory humor as being anti-feminist, stating that women applying this particular kind of humor merely reinforce stereoty-pes, and put themselves down. This paper objects to those critics, leaning on Haag’s book. I wish to show that Haag is not demeaning towards herself, but towards the cultural norms and expectations in our present society. In this context, I show how Haag manages to demystify and criticize ideal representations of women, by lampooning them and revolting against them. In this way, her book turns into a satirical critique of cultural values. My essay illustrates how Haag objectifies herself, making regular use of stereotypes. This is necessary, since these two elements are essential to most humor. Haag confirms stereotypes to make people laugh. This laughter brings about awareness in the reader, making Haag’s work a social critique of current values and norms concerning women.

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.