The American planter has mostly been presented as the epitome of the romantic cavalier legend that could be found in the fiction of John Pendleton Kennedy to Thomas Nelson Page: a man of chivalric manners and good breeding; a man of good social position; a man of wealth and leisure (Concise Oxford Dictionary). A closer scrutiny of the cavalier and genteel ethos of the time, however, reveals the inherent ideological inconsistencies with the idea of the gentleman itself, as the ideal came to be more and more perceived as an illusion and as challenges to traditional gender stereotypes came to redefine the nature and role of the Southern Gentleman. This study hopes to complicate the traditional delineation of hegemonic manhood with the aim to better understand how precisely the Old South’s masculine ideals were constructed and maintained over time, especially in times of crisis, and how southern elite males (re)defined, enacted, and/or maintained a distinctive Southern model of masculinity while others resisted, modified, or flouted those ideals. The work undertaken by this dissertation can thus be situated within the broad rubric of masculinity studies and its central axiom—the interrogation of the structures of power, domination, and hierarchy. Enriching masculinity studies of the Old South, this critical study of Southern American fiction attempts to respond to the invitation of historians like Stephen Berry or Craig Thompson Friend in striking a commendable balance between conceptualizing larger historical questions and narrating the intimacies and complexities of Southern men’s individual lives. Taken collectively, these novels continue to explore this fertile field by moving outside the “confines and confidences of elites” (Peel 1). Because it complicates any simple equation between honor, mastery, and manliness, and because it seeks to revisit traditional conceptualisations of gender, I hope that this study will open new ways of thinking about the privileges and wounds of a masculinity that has been considered by most as the normative, invisible, and unquestioned referent from which to measure marginalized others—foreigners, women, or non-whites.

Föreliggande uppsats utgår från tidigare forskning som hävdar att jämställdhetsdiskursen i Sverige bygger på ett vitt, heterosexuellt, medelklassideal som underordnar andra maskuliniteter. Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka huruvida jämställdhetsdiskursens ovan nämnda exkluderingar samt maskulinitetsdiskurser som till exempel ”den nye mannen” kan spåras i mäns artikuleringar av diskurser kring maskulinitet och jämställdhet och hur olika subjektspositioner samt hierarkier begripliggörs och (re)produceras i denna process. Det teoretiska ramverket utgörs av poststrukturalistisk teori kring diskurser, subjektspositioner och ”görandet” av genus och andra sociala kategorier. Dessa kategorier ses ur ett intersektionellt perspektiv som sammanvävda. Uppsatsen försöker vidare förena denna poststrukturalistiska ansats med Connells teori om hegemonisk maskulinitet. Det empiriska materialet består av enskilda intervjuer samt fokusgruppintervjuer utförda i tre olika empiriska kontexter där individer i olika sexuella, etniska och klassmässiga subjektspositioner med olika grader av privilegiering i relation till jämställdhetsdiskursen befinner sig. Resultatet visar att den maskulinitetsdiskurs som artikulerades i samtliga kontexter låg nära diskursen kring ”den nye mannen”; ett mer jämställt, eller i alla fall barnorienterat, maskulinitetsideal. Jämställdhet artikulerades även någorlunda lika över kontexterna som en konsensusbaserad särartsdiskurs.  Det som däremot skilde kontexterna och intervjupersonerna åt var deras etniska, klassmässiga och sexuella subjektspositioner som relaterade till de hegemoniska diskurserna kring jämställdhet och maskulinitet på o(jäm)lika sätt. Personerna i de muslimska och homosexuella subjektspositionerna gjorde på olika sätt motstånd mot den underordning som de placerades i genom dessa subjektspositioners underordade relation till ”den nye mannen”. De förhöll sig därmed något mer distanserat till denna diskurs samt jämställdhetsdiskursen. I kontexten där intervjupersonernas subjektspositioner i större utsträckning sammanföll med ”den nye mannen” artikulerades denna diskurs tydligare. Exempelvis artikulerade man barnorientering, snarare än ett intresse för jämställdhet i sig. I samtliga kontexter uppmärksammade eller problematiserade man sällan sina egna privilegier, men det skedde på olika sätt ett skillnadsskapande gentemot ”andra män” och kvinnor. / This master thesis takes its departure in previous research which argues that the Swedish discourse of gender equality and its gender equal masculine subject “the new man” is built upon a white, heterosexual, middle class norm that excludes and subordinates other masculinities. The thesis aims at investigating whether the above mentioned exclusions in the Swedish discourse of gender equality and masculinity discourses such as “the new man” are traceable in men´s articulations of discourses regarding gender equality and masculinity, and how different subject positions and hierarchies are negotiated and reproduced in this process. The theoretical framework is a post-structural theory inspired by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffes theory of discourses, subject positions and the “doing” of gender and other social categories such as class and ethnicity, categories that from an intersectional perspective are viewed as analytically inseparable. The thesis also seeks to combine the post-structural perspective with R.W. Connells theory of hegemonic masculinity. The empirical material consists of single and focus groups interviews generated in three different contexts in which individuals located in different sexual and ethnic subject positions with different degrees of privilege in relation to the discourse of gender equality. The results show that the masculinity discourse that was articulated in all three contexts was the discourse of “the new man”; a more gender equal, or at least children-oriented, masculine ideal. The articulations of gender equality were also similar in the different contexts; a consensus based discourse of gender equality in which men and women were viewed as different but complementary. What distinguished the contexts was the interview person’s sexual and ethnic subject positions which related to the hegemonic discourses of gender equality and masculinity in different, unequal ways. The interview person´s in the Muslim and homosexual subject positions resisted the subordination these positions meant in relation to the discourse of “the new (gender equal) man”. This also meant that these persons had a more distanced relationship to this discourse and the discourse of gender equality. In the context where the interview person’s subject positions to a greater extent coincided with “the new man”, this discourse was also articulated in a less problematic way. An orientation towards taking care of children was for example more common than an interest in gender equality for its own sake. In all three context one´s own privileges were seldom acknowledged, and there were different processes of creating difference and hierarchies towards both women and “other men”.

Personliga tränare (PT) har en nyckelfunktion på gymmet, i och med sin uppgift att guida klienter till en bättre fysik och hälsa. Många gymutövare har PT som förebild både vad gäller hälsa och kroppsligt utseende. På gymmet finns dock en problematik med förekomst och reproducering av genuskodade kroppsideal, vilket bland annat kan bidra till ohälsosamma kost- och träningsbeteenden. Syftet med studien är att utforska vilka kroppar och kroppsideal i gymkontext som synliggörs i personliga tränares diskussioner. Vidare är syftet att belysa om och i så fall på vilket sätt maskuliniteter och femininiteter framträder i personliga tränares diskussioner om kroppar och kroppsideal. Totalt medverkade 19 PT i sju fokusgruppsintervjuer, som analyserades genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med en abduktiv ansats. Connells teoretiska begrepp hegemonisk maskulinitet och betonad femininitet samt Bauman och Mays perspektiv kring kropp användes under analysprocessen. Resultatet visade att PT talar om den perfekta kroppen, den överdrivna fitnesskroppen, den extremt magra kvinnokroppen och den feta kroppen. I PTs diskussioner går att utläsa hur den perfekta kroppen värderades högre än de andra kropparna, genom deras beskrivningar av övriga kroppar i negativa och nedlåtande ordalag. De övriga kropparna ansågs avvikande både vad gäller utseende och hälsa. Den perfekta kroppen kan därför tolkas stå för den hegemoniska maskuliniteten och betonade femininiteten, genom sin överordnade position på gymmet. Konsekvensen av denna kroppshierarki kan bli att klienter som inte har kroppar som anses ideala, kan uppleva sig exkluderade från gymarenan.

This study analyzes the evolution of how the male gender is portrayed in five Academy Award winning animated films, starting in the year 2002 when the category was created. Because there have been seventeen award winning films in the animated film category, and there is a limitation regarding the scope for this paper, the winner from every fourth year have been analyzed; resulting in five films. These films are: Shrek (2001), Wallace and Gromit (2005), Up (2009), Frozen (2013) and Coco (2017). The films selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the Animated Feature film category tend to be both critically and financially successful, and watched by children, young adults, and adults worldwide. How male heroes are portrayed are generally believed to affect not only young boys who are forming their identities (especially ages 6-14), but also views on gender behavioral expectations in girls.

Syftet med denna studie var att bidra med kunskap om hur maskulina representationer i utvalda skönlitterära böcker framställdes och att studera svensklärares utsagor kring arbetet med dessa manliga representationer på gymnasiet samt hur svensklärares arbete med de maskulina representationerna kunde verka meningsskapande i klassrummet.      Våldet ökar bland unga män och det är färre pojkar än flickor som når kunskapskraven i alla ämnen i årskurs nio. Genom studier framträder skolan som en starkt normgivande arena där det existerar få möjligheter för unga människor att bryta mot etablerade stereotypa normer. Unga män blir offer för en maskulin stereotyp som förväntas hålla tillbaka känslor och bruka våld. I skönlitteraturen beskrivs människor och representationer som läsaren själv kan känna igen sig i eller som läsaren kanske önskar att hen själv var. Med denna studie ville jag öka medvetenheten kring vilka maskulina representationer svensklärare introducerade till sina elever via skönlitteratur.      En kvalitativ metod valdes. Fyra kvinnliga legitimerade och verksamma svensklärare på gymnasiet intervjuades om deras arbete med maskulin representation i fyra olika skönlitterära böcker som de arbetade med under våren 2020. Lärarnas utsagor förväntades ge svar på vilket potentiellt meningsskapande eleverna erbjöds i behandlandet av skönlitteraturen. De fyra skönlitterära böckerna analyserades utifrån maskulinitetsteori och feministisk teori i syfte att identifiera dess maskulina representationer.      Resultatet visade att de fyra skönlitterära böckerna innehöll en mångfald av maskulina representationer. Männen var unga och gamla, heterosexuella och homosexuella, omtänksamma och dominanta, svaga och starka och så vidare. Den mångfald som presenterades i böckerna ger läsaren möjligheten att bredda sin syn på vad maskulinitet kan vara. Lärarna uppgav att de behandlade framträdande maskulina representationer och deras specifika drag i böckerna vilket innebär att eleverna potentiellt sett fick chans att skapa mening ur det lästa och med olika representationer i fokus. / The overall aim of the study was to contribute with knowledge about how representation of masculinity was composed in fiction and to study L1 teachers´ statements about their work with these representations of masculinity in upper secondary school and how L1 teachers´ work with the representations of masculinity could become meaningful in the classroom.       Violence increases among young men and less boys than girls are reaching knowledge requirements in all subjects in grade nine. Through studies school appear to be a normative arena where few opportunities are given for young people to trespass established norms and stereotypes. Young men become victims of a masculine stereotype which is supposed to maintain his feelings and be violent. Fiction describes people and representations that readers can recognize themselves in, or that the reader may wish to be. With this study I wanted to increase the awareness of which representations of masculinity L1 teachers introduced through fiction to their students.      A qualitative method was chosen for this study. Four female L1 teachers, active and legitimate at upper secondary school, were interviewed about their work with representation of masculinity in four different fiction books which they worked with during spring 2020. Teachers´ statements were expected to give answers to what potential meaning making the pupils were given when working with the fiction. The four fiction books were analyzed through masculine theory and feminist theory with the purpose to identify their representations of masculinity.      The result revealed that the four fiction books contained a diversity of masculine representation. The men were young and old, heterosexual and homosexual, thoughtful and dominant, weak and strong and so forth. The diversity presented in the books gives the reader an opportunity to increase their image of what masculinity can be. L1 teachers´ statements showed that they treated prominent representations of masculinity and their specific traits in the books which entails that students were given the opportunity to create meaning out of the text and with different representations in focus.

The dissertation connects areas of critical-animal studies and feminist studies over the question of picturing bodies of animals and women including visual violence. In particular it addresses the use of mentioned picturing methods by an animal rights movement. I understand women and animals to be marginalised groups in patriarchal society on which is represented the power of hegemonic masculinity by denigrating, violent and sexual representation, even though each group has its specifics. The method of representation serves as means of confirmation and embedding of hegemonic masculinity, anthropocentric system built on binary oppositions man/woman, human/animal, and with them related discourse of difference. The aim of the dissertation is to point out common characteristics of denigrating representation including violence (with sexual meaning) on animals and women who are reduced to objects, on which visualisation of violence is socially accepted. The initial point comes from feminist theories of Carol J. Adams and her concept of absent referent. Further it works with concept of intersectionality and fluid identity according to Rosi Braidotti, which enables consideration of assigning a claim of personal identity also to animals. From the methodological position, the dissertation is based on...

Syftet med studien är att skapa en djupare förståelse för hur manliga- och kvinnliga mördare porträtteras i nyhetsmedia samt de eventuella skillnader som finns i porträtteringen. Fokus ligger på att se om det finns ett tydligt mönster för hur dessa fyra mördare porträtteras i media samt skillnader mellan en manlig mördare och en kvinnlig mördare som har begått snarlika brott. Tidigare forskning har visat på att det finns skillnader i porträtteringen när det kommer till manliga förövare och kvinnliga förövare. Man har kunnat se att kvinnliga förövare smutskastas mer av media än manliga förövare. För att undersöka porträtteringen av mördare i media utgår denna studie utifrån en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Materialet i studien består av 40 svenska nyhetsartiklar varav 10 artiklar på vardera mördaren från olika svenska tidningar. Detta material har sedan analyserats med hjälp en innehållsanalys. Resultatet från analysen visar att kvinnliga mördare porträtteras i media utefter det brott de har begått samt deras normbrytande beteende. När det kommer till de manliga mördarna så porträtteras dessa endast utefter det brott som de har begått. Slutsatsen som kan dras av studien är att det finns ett mönster hur man porträtterar manliga mördare mot hur man porträtterar kvinnliga mördare. Kvinnliga mördares beteenden och karaktär anses vara mer avvikande vid denna typ av brott än manliga mördares. Vilket gör att man kan dra likheter från tidigare forskning och därav se ett mönster i porträtteringen i media. Svenska nyhetstidningar har en tendens att beskriva kvinnliga mördare på ett komplext sätt genom att porträttera deras brott samt normbrytande beteende vilket leder till ett större fokus och mer skriverier kring kvinnliga mördare i nyhetsmedia än manliga mördare. / The aim of this study is to create a deeper understanding about how male- and female murderers are depicted in the news and to see if there is any difference in the depiction. The focus is to see if there is a pattern between four murderers, two female and two males, and how they are depicted in the media. We also want to see if there is a difference between male and female murderers who committed similar crimes. Previous research shows that there is a difference in how the depiction of male and female murderers. Female offenders are more often befouled then their male counterpart. To examine how the media depict the murderers this study originates from a qualitative content analysis. The material that we base our study on is 40 Swedish articles from different media, ten articles on each murderer from different newspapers. The results we found were that the female murderers are portrayed by media by their crime and norm-breaking behavior. The male murderers are portrayed only after their crime. The conclusion is that we can see a pattern in how media depict male and female murderers and that there is a differs in-between male and female murderers. Swedish newspapers tend to describe female murderers in a more complex way by depicting their crimes and norm braking behavior which leads to a bigger focus and more articles revolving female murderers in the news then male murderers.

Despite the vast research regarding non-conformative bodies, there is little material on the gay bear representation in fashion modeling. This thesis investigates the bear embodiment in the runway shows of Walter Van Beirendonck, respectively W&LT Autumn/Winter 1995–1996 Paradise Pleasure Productions, W&LT Autumn/Winter 1996-1997 Wonderland, Walter Van Beirendonck Spring/Summer 2010 Wonder, and Walter Van Beirendonck Spring/Summer 2011 Read My Skin. Critical visual analysis follows the gay bear symbolism in the video recordings of the runways, revealing how it challenges the fashion industry’s body standards and, in a broader frame, the dictates of hegemonic masculinity. The concepts of gender performativity and biopower provide the theoretical frame of the study, while Madison Moore’s theory of ‘fabulousness’ and José Esteban Muñoz’s understanding of ‘utopia’ lead to the articulation of performances both masculine and queer.  The findings lead to the discovery of non-dual and body-inclusive gay bear embodiments that challenge the relationship between body and dress and can extend beyond the limits of the runway.

In this paper, Ursula K Le Guin’s 1968 fantasy novel, A Wizard of Earthsea will be investigated in two ways. First, through a thematic analysis of the primary antagonist through a deconstructive close-reading technique. Second, through a pedagogic analysis of the depiction of hegemonic masculinity in the novel. The thematic analysis reveals that Le Guin departs from the typical expectations of the fantasy genre to highlight the themes of accepting personal responsibility and acknowledging the consequences of one’s actions, values which are reflected in the Swedish national curriculum. The pedagogic analysis of Le Guin’s treatment of hegemonic masculinity in school culture has the further potential to be used in an EFL classroom setting as part of a teaching unit problematizing the performance of hegemonic masculinity in modern school culture. This is also reflected in the central content for the English Syllabus. / <p>Due to Covid-19 restrictions/precautions, the final presentation seminar took place over Zoom.</p>

The institution of sport has an extensive history of heterosexism, and homophobia, making sport a problematic and unsafe space for gay-identified males. The lack of representation of gay athletes in professional sports highlights the risks associated with openly identifying one’s sexual identity within athletic settings, as gay-identified players often are faced with discrimination and harassment. As a result, gay-identified athletes may choose not to be open about their sexual identity or leave sports altogether as a way to avoid being subjected to discrimination and marginalization within athletics. Grounded in queer theory, and engaging in phenomenology and arts-informed inquiry, this study seeks to explore the ways in which gay-identified males involved in sport negotiate their identies and masculinities. After each participant was interviewed, he wrote a letter to his past self as a way to share what he had come to learn about his process of coming into his own identity and negotiating masculinity. The study interrogates how gay males experience team-based competitive sports differently than individually-based sports and personal fitness activities. Additionally, it explores the personal process of defining and embracing masculinity. Deconstructing the definition of hegemonic masculinity, this study explores how masculinity can be understood in multiple ways. Changing the heterosexist and homophobic discourse that informs the organization of sport on multiple levels creates more opportunities for gay-identified athletes to be welcomed into the arena of sport and safely access the benefits associated with competitive sports and healthy active living activities. This study brings light to the emotional and psychosocial consequences that stem from homophobia and heterosexism’s dominance in our society. The perpetual discrimination and marginalization faced by those who identify as gay males highlights the need for social work’s involvement in justice-oriented research and practice as a way to bring greater equality and equity into our communities. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)