This essay examines the sadomasochistic relationship between the main characters of the Twilight Saga from a psychoanalytic perspective, and looks at the family and gender roles in the Saga from a post-feministic view. Aspects also considered are the portrayal of female sexuality as something dangerous and negative, recreational sex as something perverted, and the pro-marriage and anti-abortion propaganda in the last two novels. The purpose of the essay is to reveal how the author’s personal, and to some extent religious, beliefs and values are validated through the storyline; how the relationship between the main characters, as well as their personal psychological and physical health, change after matrimony and parenthood.

This thesis analyzes the teen-targeted website gURL.com, which is committed to providing safe space for young girls to explore different aspects of girlhood. I primarily focus on girls’ comments and conversations posted on the message boards in order to trace how teens mediate and extend the borders of the popular conceptualizations of contemporary girlhood. I interpret young women's online activities within the discursive framework of the complex relation between Girl Culture and feminism. Without overvaluing the freedom of online environments, I assume that the relatively unregulated space of the Internet enables girls to step outside the dominant stereotypes and discover alternative modes of doing feminist activism. I argue that these new venues of political engagement are adequate ways of resistance within the specific era of postmodern global capitalism.

"Performing 21st-Century Girlhood: Girls, Postfeminist Discourse, and the Disney Star Machine," explores the economic and discursive functions of contemporary girlhood within Disney Channel's talent-driven transmedia franchises. Ideological, discursive, and narrative textual analyses of Disney Channel programs and paratexts are augmented by examination of the corporate motives and dominant discourses reproduced by Disney personnel in annual reports and in popular and trade publications referencing Disney's stars and girl-driven franchises. This exploration of girls' visibility as Disney performers, media producers, and public citizens brings several disciplines into conversation with one another, addressing issues in girls' cultural studies, media industries scholarship, celebrity studies, and theories of postfeminism. I take an intersectional feminist and critical cultural studies approach to media texts and meaning-making, with particular attention to power relations and cultural contexts. The political and economic aspects of this research demand that I also work to illuminate the significance of media industry logics within the production and distribution of media for girl audiences. I argue that the Walt Disney Company has a vested interest in reproducing certain postfeminist and subjectifying discourses of girlhood, which have become integral to its success in an ever-expanding web of media and consumer markets. While Disney Channel's girl-driven franchises constitute the case studies, my analysis reaches beyond the clear focus on gender and age to theorize girls' increasing visibility in the context of contemporary consumer culture and issues of postracism, citizenship, subjectification, and agency--issues that require continued interrogation as Disney distributes and expands its franchise properties globally. / text

Syftet med uppsatsen var att undersöka hur de populära unga bloggskrivarna Kenza, Kissie och Blondinbella ramats in i Aftonbladet och DN (under 2012) och vilka tolkningar av fenomenet läsaren därmed inspirerades till. De teoretiska perspektiv uppsatsen utgår från är konstruktionismen och inramningsteori, framförallt med utgångspunkt från Van Gorp och van der Goots studier. Andra teorier och perspektiv som legat till grund för arbetet handlar om det postmoderna samhället, postfeministisk mediekultur, populärkultur och ungdomskultur. Inramningsteorin ligger till grund för den metod som använts. Analysarbetet har bestått i att identifiera och dekonstruera inramningarna, de s.k. rampaketen, varefter ramarna namngivits och resultatet sammanfattats och utvecklats i en matris där rampaketens ”funktion” redovisas, d.v.s. vilka problemdefinitioner, orsaksförklaringar och problemlösningar som inramningarna har kapacitet att gynna. De fem inramningar som identifierats i texterna är ”Blondinbellahögerns framgångskult”, ”Den odrägliga (Blondinbella-generationen)”,”Entreprenörer, stekare, överklass, mediekändis”, ”De onaturliga (Kissie-)klonerna”, och ”Den naturliga, nakna kvinnokroppen”. Studien kom fram till att de tolkningar som ramarna leder till inte i första hand handlade om bloggkultur eller ungdomskultur utan rör sig inom andra områden. Bloggskrivarna framställdes framförallt som ”typer” med tillhörande attityder och deras roll i texterna handlade inte sällan om att personifiera ämnen eller händelser. De fem ramarna delar vissa manifesta element och ofta förekommer flera ramar i samma text, så tolkningens roll för resultatet är inte obetydlig.

Advertising is increasingly, and has become one of the most powerful forms of global communication. It is one of the most influential tools in spreading ideas about gender, ethnicity and sexuality that create perceptions. Advertising has becoming increasingly global due to the globalization of the Western society and culture. This creates a need for intersectional awareness in advertising in order to avoid communicating inequalities. This bachelor thesis examines and analyze how femininities are articulated in advertising that exists within the contemporary context of popular feminism. Specifically, it offers an analysis of how postfeminism as a contemporary formation of feminism informs these advertising campaigns. The study examines two visual commercials, one from Adidas Originals and one from H&M. A multimodal semiotic analysis was used to analyze the empirical material in order to find out its meanings. The result indicates that the two advertising campaigns from H&M and Adidas Originals presents various and diverse forms of femininities by showcasing women with different looks, bodies and ethnicities. H&M’s commercial showcase women who are seen as empowered, confident and who acts out in different environments. Adidas Originals rather puts emphasis on showcasing women and men who speaks about issues concerning gender, body image and ethnicity. Both campaigns, it is argued, articulate and negotiate a discourse of postfeminism.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the Instagram vs. reality trend and its meaning. The study aims to contribute to an understanding of whether the trend can be viewed from a postfeminist perspective, as well as if body ideals are reproduced or if the trend works as an opposition against the societal body standards. Earlier research indicates that particularly young women are affected negatively when being exposed to manipulated and filtered photos on Instagram. Other social media trends with a body positive focus have shown positive impacts on these issues, making young women gain more confidence regarding their body image. The theoretical framework applied consists of theories of postfeminism as well as Susan Bordo’s​ Reading the slender body. Semiotic analysis is used to analyze six images that explicitly represent the trend. The results conclude that Instagram vs. reality is consistent with the postfeminist ideology since the examined images aim to increase women’s self-esteem through empowerment and individualistic choices, demonstrating the reality behind the often ideal Instagram posts. Another result that emerges is that the trend on one hand contradicts the normative body ideal by showing flaws that are usually hidden on social media. On the other hand, the trend's impact might differ depending on who is viewing the images. Even though flaws are shown in what ought to be ​reality​, the slender ideal is still visible in the chosen images. This paper contributes to the ongoing problematics of social media’s impact on young women’s body image.

Syfte och problemformulering: Syftet med studie är att undersöka hur normer om kvinnor och kvinnokroppen (re)konstrueras i kvinnliga influencers självpresentation i bild på Instagram. Studien undersöker detta utifrån fallet Bianca Ingrosso och Angelica Blick. Att normer om kvinnor och kvinnokroppen rekonstrueras genom de representationer av kvinnor som tillhandahålls i bilder i media är känt sedan tidigare. Forskning har visat att dessa representationer i sin tur påverkar sociala hierarkier i samhället, såsom att kvinnor tenderar representeras på ett sätt som gör att de underordnas män. Innan sociala mediers framfart under 2010-talet hade de traditionella medierna en unik position när det kommer till vilka representationer vi människor fick ta del av och inte. Idag är individuell bildpublicering, där vem som helst kan dela med sig av sina egna bilder, likväl en källa till representationen av kvinnor i bild. Inte minst via Instagram som kommit att bli ett av Sveriges mest populära socialamedium för just bildpublicering, samt en vital kommunikationskanal för influencers. Metod och material: I studien användes den kvalitativa metoden semiotisk bildanalys för att undersöka 12 Instagrambilder, 6 bilder på Bianca Ingrosso och 6 bilder på Angelica Blick. Samtliga bilder är bilder de publicerat på sig själv på sitt respektive Instagramkonto. Huvudresultat: Studien visar att influencernas självpresentation i bild rekonstruerar normer om kvinnan som sexig och något som ska betraktas. En ytterligare slutsats är att självsexualiseringen och självobjektifieringen som förekommer självpresentationerna kan upplevas mer eller mindre explicit, men ändå finnas där.

By using critical discourse as a method three discourses have been exposed as active in the advicing articles published on the website of Amelia, a Swedish magazine for women. The three discourses are the neoliberalist, postfeminist and the heteronormative. The research shows, by using the theories of governmentality and the heterosexual matrix, that these discourses collaborate to form the advices that is being given around women’s sexuality and their sexual health on the website of Amelia. The discourses that is being exposed in the research can be described as they are imposing guilt upon women. It also poses women as the solely responsible for the relationship to work and the women are as well expected to conform to their partner, which often is described as a man. This implies that in the advicing articles of Amelia, women and men are not allocated the same position in a relationship. Indicating that it exists an inequal relation in the context, where women are subordinated to men. Finally, the research can contribute to an understanding of the ambiguous expectations existing regarding women´s sexuality.

The lack of women in historical writing has long been discussed in Sweden and could be understood as an expression of a bigger discourse of Swedish gender equality. With two existing women’s history museums and media debates about women’s representation in history books, it seems to be part of both a Swedish and a feminist discourse. With a starting point that feminism exist within a popular feminist discourse, this essay asks the question what happens when feminist history is made to be popular. By analysing the two tv-shows ‘Den fantastiska historien med Berg & Meltzer’ and ‘Drottningarna’ as well as debates about them, this thesis examines how feminism, and the female subject is created within Swedish historical media. By using a poststructuralist discourse analysis and the theories popularfeminism, postfeminism and fantasy echo, this study analyses how the media as a cultural product creates feminist values, and how ideas about the feminine and the masculine affects the way we understand history. This study shows how the fantasy of a static female identity creates the historical female subject as someone ‘we’ can identify with. Further it shows how feminist historical writing within a popular science discourse seems to leave out important critique about gender roles and structures. The study also argues how a medial feminist history tends to rely on postfeminist and neoliberal assumptions of individual success in order to become more palatable for a broader audience.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur objektifiering och postfeministisk diskurs visar sig i musikvideor av två sverigebaserade inflytelserika kvinnliga popartister: Veronica Maggio och Miriam Bryant. Materialet som analyserats är en musikvideo av vardera kvinnlig artist. Det teoretiska ramverket består av objektifieringsteori, postfeministisk teori och populär feminism. De valda teorierna har bidragit med förståelse till hur fenomenen visar sig i musikvideorna. Studien utgick från en komparativt kvalitativ metod tillsammans med den multimodala kritiska diskursanalysen (MCDA). MCDA:s verktyg har identifierat de visuella och lexikala valen som gjorts. Valen visade på hur artisterna och musikvideorna förhöll sig till objektifiering och postfeministisk diskurs och om de upprätthöll dessa fenomen. Resultatet visade att både Bryant och Maggios låttexter hade en avsaknad av sexuellt innehåll, men trots det återfanns det anspelning på sex i det visuella innehållet. Postfeministiska inslag förekom och artisterna vill framstå som starka och självständiga och inneha kontroll över sina egna kroppar, samtidigt som det framkom att det inte alltid är fallet. Deras musikvideor upprätthöll objektifiering och sexuell objektifiering av kvinnor. Slutsatsen av studien var att Maggio och Bryant agerade utefter det som beskrivs av postfeminism och populärfeminism som problematiskt, då kvinnors kontroll över sig själva baseras på deras kropp och utseende tillsammans med deras agerande. Vidare forskning som lades fram som förslag var att studera svenska kvinnliga artister på den internationella marknaden för att se om det finns någon skillnad där i objektifiering och hur den postfeministiska diskursen uttrycker sig.