Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / Ulwaluko is a Xhosa word that refers to male circumcision, an initiation ritual performed to transform boys into men. The ritual is supposed to instill good moral and social values. Research has demonstrated that, the practice of Ulwaluko has undergone many changes primarily because of urbanization, acculturation and the emergence of back-door circumcision schools amongst other things. This has culminated in instances of moral decline such as criminal activity, drug abuse, risky sexual behaviour and inhumane behaviour among some of the initiates. There has been a recent upsurge in research on Ulwaluko in South Africa. However, lacking in this body of scholarship is a focus on how Ulwaluko constructs masculinities. This served as the motivation for my study. Given the above, my study explored the role of Ulwaluko in the construction of masculinity in men at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1994; Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005) was used as a theoretical framework conceptualizing this study. The study utilised a qualitative framework and data was collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Seven participants aged from 19 to 32, consented to be part of the study. These were recruited using purposive sampling. The ethical considerations of the study adhered to the guidelines stipulated by UWC. Data was transcribed, and analysed using thematic decomposition analysis. The findings of this study indicate that Ulwaluko constructs masculinity in hegemonic ways. Through hegemony it establishes, maintains and retains control over young men, boys and women. It constructs an idealised masculine identity that is morally upright, faced with ritual challenges and burdened by a prescriptive set of masculine role expectations. This study also shows the self-reflexive, critical and imaginative engagement by men as they negotiated Ulwaluko‟s ideal masculinity. Such contestations resulted in the creation of rival masculinities. It also demonstrates how subject position(s) impact understandings and constructions of masculinities. This study provided a richer and more nuanced contextual understanding of the psychosocial realities of men who underwent Ulwaluko

The purpose of this study is to examine gender bias in sports media from the perspective of the sports columnist. The research analyzed 1,082 sports columns written by ten columnists (five male, five female) at newspapers across the United States. The columns were scrutinized to determine if the column subject was male or female. Results found that 84.4% of the sports columns were written about male athletes or men's sports compared to only 9% devoted to female athletes and women's sports. The research also found that female sports columnists write about female sports 12.7% of the time, while male sports columns only dedicate 6% of their columns to female athletes or women's sports. Newspapers with a larger circulation were more likely to have sports columns about female sports than were newspapers with smaller readerships. Six of the columnists were then interviewed to get their opinions on gender issues in sports journalism.

This study identified the types of sexist language that appear in ESL textbooks by Thai authors. The study analyzed the ESL textbooks by Thai authors sold at the Chulalongkorn University bookstore during spring 2007. It was a qualitative case analysis of fifteen ESL textbooks covering the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of ESL instruction. The study used feminist criticism to discover what gender roles are sanctioned as appropriate in ESL textbooks by Thai authors and if the language used supports or challenges patriarchy. The results of this study show that sexist language is present in the textbooks and that the textbooks contain content that promotes sexist assumptions concerning gender roles. As a whole, the language and examples used in ESL textbooks by Thai authors support patriarchy.

League of Legends is one of the most popular video games in the world, and yet it is also infamously known as being filled with harassment and failure. Why do I continue to play? In this project, a critical autoethnography is used to illustrate what it is like to play in this male-dominated space as a woman. Using feminist and queer game studies as my theoretical framework, this project investigates three distinct, but interconnected concepts: hegemonic masculinity, weaponized failure, and subversive play. In chapter one, I use Raewyn Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity to analyze League of Legends. I argue that gameplay elements such as champion selection, communication, and role-play make it difficult to challenge hegemonic masculinity in League of Legends. However, I do acknowledge that it is possible to challenge through playing the role of support properly – by concentrating on teamwork and sacrifice. In chapter two, I use queer video game studies, including key texts by Bonnie Ruberg and Jesper Juul, to consider failure in League of Legends. While queer failure can be fun in single-player video games, I argue that failure in League of Legends can be used as a weapon to intentionally hurt your teammates. Finally, in chapter three I consider my own subversive playstyle. While some academics have argued that woman who play masculine video games using male-coded skills cannot challenge the patriarchy, I argue that embracing my femininity in League of Legends allows me to persevere and push against the patriarchy. I argue that my feminine visibility in the form of my gamertag, SJW Queen, my communication style that emphasizes positivity and mediation, and how I play League of Legends are all examples of subversive gameplay. I bring my femininity into League of Legends uncompromised and I embrace it, rather than try to escape from it.

The idea of the human as a rational man is deeply engrained into the thinking and the construction of the human culture within industrialized societies. It enables the domination and commodification of nonhuman species and the natural world (the Other). This has led to the creation of a highly technologized, industrialized and environmentally destructive food system. Such system centers around the production and consumption of meat whereas meat symbolizes the dominant culture. It stands for hegemonic masculinity, rationalism and the subordination of the Other. In the 1970s, the ethical vegetarian movement arose, tackling the environmental destruction from a non-anthropocentric angle. Although the movement has not achieved the value shift it asks for, it identified the commodification of the Other as majorly problematic.Today, human induced climate change puts increasing pressure on humanity. Without inherent social change and restructuring, global warming may cause the extinction of the human and many other species.That is why, a new generation of activists has arisen. They use the environmental vegetarian argument to abolish commodification. It is an anthropocentric argumentation that aims to replace the exploitative, violent rationalist and industrialized society with the creation of a compassionate society that lives temperate lives. Environmental vegetarianism becomes powerful because it threatens the dominant culture daily. It challenges hegemonic masculinity because it embraces feminine virtues which build the basis for an ethics of care that centers around compassion. The argument’s power is reinforced by the natural scientific argument the confirms the reduction of meat consumption as important for the counteraction of climate change.

Författare: David Fogelström Handledare: Kutte Jönsson Examinator: Tomas Peterson Nyckelord: Styrkelyft, kvinnors upplevelser, hegemoni, hegemonisk maskulinitet, heteronormativitet   Syfte: Syftet med det här arbetet är att genom semistrukturerade intervjuer undersöka och förstå kvinnliga styrkelyftares upplevelser av att utöva en traditionellt mansdominerad sport och hur dessa upplevelser kan förstås i relation till hegemonisk maskulinitet.   Metod: Genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med kvinnor som tävlar i styrkelyft har jag samlat in och analyserat data för att med denna kunna besvara frågeställningarna.   Teori: Den teoretiska utgångspunkten för arbetet är hegemonisk maskulinitetsteori.   Resultat och slutsatser: Studien visar att det finns såväl likheter som skillnader mellan styrkelyft och andra mansdominerade sporter i hur kvinnor ser på att utöva en traditionellt mansdominerad sport och deras upplevelser av detta. Exempel på likheter är positiva effekter på självförtroende, viljan att vara förebild och bryta mot könsnormer samtidigt som kvinnor upplevde att de blev ifrågasatta och inte tagna på allvar i samma utsträckning som män. Skillnader var upplevelsen av att inom styrkelyft kunna utmana sig själva och hur tävlandet inom styrkelyft var en stark motivationsfaktor. / Author: David Fogelström Supervisor: Kutte Jönsson  Examiner: Tomas Peterson Keywords: Powerlifting, women’s experiences, hegemony, hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity   Aim: The purpose of this study is to explore and understand, through semi-structured interviews, female powerlifters experiences of practicing a traditionally male-dominated sport and how these experiences can be understood in relation to hegemonic masculinity.   Method: Through semi-structured interviews with women who compete in powerlifting, I have collected and analysed data to be able to answer the questions.   Theory: The theoretical framework of this study is Hegemonic Masculinity Theory.   Results and Conclusions: The study shows that there are similarities as well as differences between powerlifting and other male-dominated sports in how women experience practicing a traditionally male-dominated sport. Examples of similarities are positive effects on self-confidence, the desire to be a role model and break gender norms while women felt that they were questioned and not taken seriously to the same extent as men. Differences were the experience of being able to challenge themselves in powerlifting and how the competition in powerlifting was a strong motivating factor.

The image of Northern Sweden has long been subjected to stereotyping, and the stereo­typed image of the Northerner is widely spread in various media contexts within Sweden. Historically, Norrland has been regarded as a wide wilderness, and the Norr­landic literature in turn has typically been studied in terms of the pastoral genre, the romanti­cism of the wilderness, or from an eco-critical perspective. The study of masculin­ity within modern Norrlandic literature, however, is largely overlooked, de­spite the undeniable stereotyping of Norrlandic males within other forms of media. This the­sis aims to solve this anomaly by providing insights into the creation processes of masculinity in three contemporary Norrlandic novels. In the novels Smekmånader [Honeymoons, 2017] by Mikael Berglund, Solidärer [Solidarians, 2017] by Anna Jörgensdotter, and Silvervägen [The Silver Road, 2018] by Stina Jackson, the construct of Norrlandic masculinity is examined through close-reading. The questions of how Norrlandic masculinity is constructed is examined through a theoretical framework combining the hegemonic masculinity of R. W. Connell, the gender performativity and queer studies of Judith Butler, the frontstage and backstage perspective of Erving Goffman, and the creation of emotions of Sara Ahmed, in the reading of three contemporary novels following male protagonists—each seeing their identity challenged while on a journey far away from home. Viktor of Honeymoons is constructed as a brave cry-baby or a highly sensitive person whose self is disintegrated in the absence of his wife Maija. He is furthermore constructed as a person offering emotional comfort, despite being deeply void of such comfort himself. Ingemar of Solidarians is constructed as a mummy’s boy or a dreamer who ends up as a martyr, who always requires the presence of a woman—his mother Eivor, Klara whom he is wooing, or Conxa whom he meets in the war in Spain—in order to advance from a mere lust to an actual event of action. His emotions are slightly supressed. Lelle of The Silver Road is constructed as an emotionally blunted vigilant or a nervous wreck, who readily succumbs to aggression and violence towards other men, in his lack of emotional cathexis to a physical person. He is struggling with his perceived failure in his role as a father, and is furthermore driven to action by his need of reconciling with his past. Nonetheless, none of the male protagonists exhibits a lasting hegemonic masculinity. The study concludes that the analysed novels contribute to a new form of Norrlandic literature which challenges the traditional and stereotypical ideas of rural masculinity.

This dissertation deals with various gender aspects of playing computer games. It describes how gender stereotypes are connected with the level of production, content, and with the players themselves. In this sense, it shows that games are still created mainly by homogeneous male teams, in order to attract male players, they contain mainly male characters, while the female ones are created to be attractive to these ideal male players. However, the primary goal of this dissertation is to describe the different ways and intensities of the relationship with the avatar, the playable character in the game. The analytical part consists of two illustrative case studies, one concerning female heterosexual players, the other male heterosexual players. The basic premise is the fact that the player "plays gender" - that is, performs it similarly to social reality. However, this performance is not just a reconstruction and confirmation of hypothetically stable gender identities, but on the contrary their deconstruction ("playing with gender"). In this sense, the work pays particular attention to situations where the player and the avatar have different genders and the heterosexual player, therefore, identifies with the avatar but also objectifies him/her. This dissertation aims to emphasize the uniqueness of...

This thesis is concerned with expressions of toxic masculinity in television acting, illustrated on the case study of the television show The Big Bang Theory. This work sets the term toxic masculinity in the context of masculinity studies and draws on the theory of hegemonic masculinity formulated by the Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell. Her theory assumes the existence of multiple, hierarchically ordered masculinities, with hegemonic masculinity - considered by some authors tobe synonymous with toxic masculinity - on top. This work also surveys the history of the representation of the male hero from the early days of American cinema up to the present, as the empirical section deals primarily with an American television show. Special emphasis is put on the "nerd" character, who represents non- hegemonic masculinity and thus does not tend to be associated with expressions of toxic masculinity, although he is also guilty of this behavior. The aim of this thesis was to use qualitative content analysis to identify manifestations of toxic masculine behavior by the nerd characters of the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory and to determine how this behavior differs from that of the "jock" character, an embodiment of hegemonic masculinity. This research reached the conclusion that each of these two...

This thesis examines the reproduction of gender norms and the resistance against them in the Swedish reality TV show Paradise Hotel, using Raewyn Connell's theories Hegemonic Masculinity and Gender Hierarchy together with the method multimodal critical discourse analysis. Previous research has shown a reproduction of traditional gender norms in Reality-TV, along with the presence of a power imbalance between the contestants and the production itself, where the production holds the power. Despite discourses of feminist character taking a greater place in western society after the #MeToo movement, Paradise Hotel is yet today a subject of discussion in Swedish media, accused of presenting a sexist discourse. Discourses of hegemonic gender norms and resistance against them has been the subject of study in eight episodes from season 11 of Paradise Hotel. Through the usage of a theoretical framework focusing on gender, culture making and representation, the results show that typical gender norms can be spotted through the contestants' practices of stereotypical traits connected to the traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity. The study also shows resistance against these norms, primarily by the female contestants and through their practice of typical masculine traits. The maintenance of the stereotypical gender norms is dominant by the production amplifying the contestant’s actions of resistance as comedy through special effects, reducing women to sexual objects intended for male pleasure and reinforcing the image of the man as the omnipotent gender role.