In a moment when visibility and representations of LGBTTQAI+ people are proliferating in North American society, it is important to think critically about how visibility and representations function and to interrogate their meanings and a/effects. This thesis uses data produced from five semi-structured interviews conducted with lesbian identified participants living in non-urban spaces in Ontario to demonstrate the importance of a continued lesbian specificity, to draw attention to heteronormativity and heterosexism in Ontarian society, to challenge femme invisibility and complicate the notion of femme privilege, and to move beyond the urban/rural binary as a way of making sense of sexuality. The methodological framework guiding this thesis draws on interpretive phenomenological analysis as well as feminist and queer methodologies, which facilitated a responsive and reflexive research process. This thesis is grounded in ongoing debates around identity politics and representation, drawing on literature from lesbian theories, lesbian-feminist histories, queer theories, heterosexism, heteronormativity and homonormativity, lesbian-feminist histories, white privilege studies, queer and feminist geography, and LGBTTQAI+ rural studies.

The purpose of this degree project is to examine to what extent certain groups in society are represented in the teaching material in upper secondary schools in Sweden. Through the scrutinizing of a selected number of English textbooks, the intention is to analyse texts and images to see whether representation of individuals on the basis of ethnicity, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation occur in the material. Another aspect of the essay is to identify possible stereotypes regarding the mentioned categories. The analyses draw on a number of theories: postcolonial, feminist and gender, as well as queer theories, in order to relate possible non-representation in the teaching material to the key concept of otherness. Furthermore, the concepts of hegemony and heteronormativity serve an important role in the analyses of the material as they expose dominant structures in society which tend to give certain groups authority over others.

Depuis la fin du XIXe siècle, on assiste en France à un retour en force du mythe des Amazones dans les textes littéraires et les arts visuels. À chaque époque qui la voit ressurgir, la communauté de guerrières affranchies des lois des hommes suscite autant la fascination que l’effroi. Figures dissidentes qui apparaissent, entre 1870 et aujourd’hui, sous les traits de sportives, d’écuyères, de femmes de carrière (auteures, enseignantes, médecins, avocates…), de militantes féministes, de lesbiennes révolutionnaires et de guerrières futuristes, les Amazones se distinguent par la manière dont elles échappent à une vision hétéronormative du « féminin » et du « masculin ». Le réinvestissement du mythe des Amazones depuis la Belle Époque traduit un désir d’affranchissement par rapport à un système de société basé sur une pensée antagoniste entre force et faiblesse, corps et esprit, individu et communauté, masculin et féminin. Les guerrières myth(olog)iques semblent cristalliser diverses tentatives d’opposer aux lieux communs d’un féminin conventionnel des figures d’identification en rupture avec les normes et les attentes sociales. Toutefois, en perpétuelle posture de résistance aux catégories genrées, les Amazones et leurs avatars choisissent de n’endosser ni le féminin ni le masculin, optant pour une identité équivoque, se présentant comme un sujet queer dont la mission est d’exposer la pseudo-nature de la conception binaire des genres. À travers leur combat pour le décloisonnement des espaces identitaires, ces figures modernes de la résistance tentent, tant bien que mal, de constituer une communauté ouverte aux différences et de tirer un sentiment de puissance de cette union sororale. L’opposition et les difficultés rencontrées sur le chemin de la conquête, marqué par des actes sacrificiels, les obligent à réinventer leurs armes de lutte et les conduisent parfois à remettre en question l’héritage des troublantes et fascinantes guerrières de l’Antiquité. / Since the end of the 19th century, we have witnessed the strong comeback of the myth of the Amazons in French literature and visual arts. In every era that sees its resurgence, the emancipated female warriors’ community arouses as much fascination as terror. Dissident figures appearing, between 1870 and today, as athletes, horse riders, career women (authors, teachers, doctors, lawyers…), feminist activists, revolutionary lesbians, and futuristic warriors, the Amazons are distinguished by the way they fend off a heteronormative vision of femininity and masculinity. The reinvestment of the Amazonian myth since the Belle Époque translates a desire for freedom from a social system based on an antagonistic thinking of strength and weakness, body and mind, individual and community, male and female. The myth(olog)ical warriors seem to crystallize various attempts to oppose the commonplaces of conventional femininity to identification figures who break with norms and social expectations. However, in perpetual resistance to gender categorization, the Amazons and their avatars choose not to endorse either the feminine or the masculine, opting for an equivocal identity, presenting themselves as a queer subject whose mission is to expose the pseudo-nature of the binary conception of gender. Through their fight for the dissolving of identity boundaries, these resistance figures try, and sometimes fail, to build a community open to differences and to be empowered by this sororal union. The opposition and the difficulties encountered on the path of conquest, marked by sacrificial acts, force the modern Amazons to reinvent their weapons and sometimes lead them to question the legacy of the troubling and fascinating ancient female warriors.