This dissertation deploys queer theory and temporality to investigate the ways in which American authors were writing about identity at the turn of the twentieth century. I provide a more expansive use of queer theory, and argue that queerness moves beyond sexual and gender identity to have intersectional implications. This is articulated in the phrase "queer textual libido" which connects queer theory with affect and temporal theories. Queerness reveals itself on both narrative and rhetorical levels, and can be used productively to show the complex navigation between individual and national identity formation.

Wendt, I. Good intention but insufficient knowledge. A qualitative interview study on social workers experiences of meeting young transgender people. Degree project in social work 15 högskolepoäng. Malmö University: Faculty of Health and Society, Department of (name of department), Year.The well-being of transgender youth is worse compared with cisgender youth. Transgender youth are exposed to threats, violence and discrimination. This population partly or fully avoid seeking help and support from social services even when needed. Social workers should provide fair treatment, though there is a lack of knowledge concerning transgender youth and the needs and issues specific to transgender youth. This study aims to research the experience of meeting transgender youth from the perspective of social workers, and how they reckon they’ve been prepared to meet this particular population in their academic education but also at their workplace. This study has a qualitative approach and interviews were conducted with four social workers to collect empirical data. The analysis resulted in five main themes: the possessed knowledge pre-study, ideas and prejudices, difference in transgender youth exposure, professional approach and treatment, lack of education and norm-critical work and language. The result of the study indicates acts of courtesy yet lack of knowledge. There was a presence of prejudices and preconceptions regarding what transgender people are and what it means to live as a transgender youth. The academic education of social workers appear lacking in content regarding gender, sexuality, and identity which are important aspects for understanding the experience of transgender youth as well as the inclusion of transgender youth. Societal norms and structures were perceived to have influenced the apprehension of transgender youth, the societal work and the academic education of social workers. The academic education of social workers lacks in knowledge regarding transgender youth. There is a great need for scientific studies regarding transgender youth to successfully develop the societal work and guarantee a fair treatment.

The sustainable development goals emphasise that gender equality within education is animportant problem. Furthermore, gender equality is more than just equal access for boys andgirls, it is important to look at what happens within the classroom. Thus, the aim of this studyis to explore gender within the mathematics classroom in Indonesia. More specifically, toexplore how gender is constructed and to get the pupils’ perspective on gender equality. Theresearch questions examined are:How is gender constructed in Indonesian mathematics classrooms?How do Indonesian pupils experience gender equality within the mathematics classrooms?To answer our research questions, we observed four mathematics classrooms in an Islamicprimary school in Indonesia. Furthermore, we handed out surveys to the pupils in order to gettheir perspective on gender equality. As a foundation for the analysis of these questions, weused the queer theory complemented with an interactionist view. According to the queertheory, gender is something that is constructed and all too often a dichotomy is used whendiscussing equality between the sexes. Thus, the intention of this study is to explore genderequality within mathematics by looking beyond this dichotomy.The results show that gender is being constructed both direct and indirect by the participantsin the mathematics classrooms. Both teachers and pupils act and behave in a way thatreinforces gender stereotypes. Although, when asked, the pupils thought that the teacherstreated the sexes equally and that the mathematics classroom was gender equal. Furthermore,the pupils agree that the girls are best in mathematics. However, girls tended to have lowerself-esteem than boys since they underestimated their knowledge to a greater extent.

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In Sweden, the language of norm critique has gained increasing influence over the past ten years in connection with queer theoretical thinking and norm critical pedagogy becoming part of gender equality work and equality work in the (pre)school system. In this essay I examine, through interviews, how people who use norm-critical language view the normativity in the Swedish language with the main purpose of seeing if it works and how it is achieved. The essay also examines how norm-critical language users try to change the language to become more inclusive and how all this can be understood from the perspective of Butler’s performativity theory and ideas about power and normativity. The results of the survey show that norm-critical language works and contributes to the goal; a world where everyone gets a place and recognition in both language and physical space. We can see how children become subjects and are included in norm-critical language and how the binary perception of gender is set in motion, which leads to greater scope for action and inclusion. Furthermore, it is stated that there is a danger in the goal’s new normativity which leads to the conclusion that norm-critical language is and has to be a constant process and under constant reflection. As it is a small study and a large topic, I urge further research on norm-critical language.

With this thesis, I will utilize both feminist and queer theory to highlight the gendered and bodily tactics used by the women of the 1970s/1980s Provisional Irish Republican Army. I will explore how women can both manipulate gender and use their bodies as a response to gender, ethnic, class, and colonial power relations and conflict discourses, the limitations of these approaches, and how these actions can work to reconfigure political movements, local cultures, and create a space for social change and a future beyond conflict which includes women. My methods will include a feminist content analysis of interviews, written records, narrative/visual texts, material culture, and social interactions. These narratives will relate to the Irish Troubles, violence, nationalism, colonialism, militarization, and subjectivity, with a focus on gender. Following a theoretical approach, I first will provide an historical perspective on the Irish Troubles. I then will discuss those women who joined the ranks of the Provisionals, the discourses surrounding their political action, as well as their manipulation of gender constructions. I also will provide the reader with an historical examination of feminine national images such as Mother-Ireland to which many women found themselves accountable. I also will examine the effects of surveillance and gendered punishment on Republican women, particularly when imprisoned and under the guard of British men and women, as well as the agency asserted by these Republican women. Lastly, I discuss the ways in which constructions of conflict and peace become inscribed with notions of gender, as well as value of Republican women's lives and actions in the development of viable feminist theories, practices, and movements.

The PhD thesis deals with the topic of male homosexuality in the works of Japanese modernist authors; its aim is to discern in what ways homosexuality is portrayed in these works. In the theoretical part, the thesis first provides a wider definition of modernist literature, which encompasses not just the so-called pure literature but also popular literature works from the same period. It then offers an overview of male homosexuality in Japanese history from the Heian period to the 1930s with an emphasis on artistic representation of male homosexuality. Starting from the Tokugawa period, the focus is on individual discourses on male homosexuality - legal, medical and popular. The theoretical part also contains the methodology used for achieving the aim of this thesis, which is based mostly on post-structuralism and queer theory. This methodology is used in form of concrete tools - discourse analysis and deconstruction of binary oppositions underlying the social constructs of gender and sexuality. These approaches are complemented by strategies created by Martin C. Putna and Gregory M. Pflugdelder, who use a combination of topic and textual strategy analysis together with biographical and autobiographical information about the author to find different types of homosexuality representation in literary...

This thesis investigates the way lgbtq-adults are represented within contemporary early children's literature and asks: is their love and their relationships visible? Are lgbtq-adults represented in the way other adults are, or differently? Through a discourse analysis of twelve contemporary Swedish children's picture books and reviews of them on online blogs, this thesis is able to conclude that, as a result of lgbtq-peoples political reality, lgbtq-adults are represented only within a family dicsourse and thereby secluded from the rest of society. The homonormative discourse that rules the way in which lgbtq-adults are represented in picture books has consequences for how pre-school teachers in Sweden perform part of their job; namely the task to transfer democratic values of human rights and equality into children's lives. Since lgbtq-picture books make up a great part of the material which pre-school teachers use when working with lgbtq-equality, the content of these books, as well as pre-school teachers opinions of it informed by the homonormative discourse, shape the way pre-school teachers work.

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