<p>This study focuses on single peoples construction of their lifes in relation to normative heterosexual coupledom. It is based on five interviews made with single women and men at the age of 24 to 51 who live by themselves. The queer theory which puts the heteronormativity in question is used as a theoretical framework. Discourse psychology functions as an analytic approach. It focuses on the use of language in the construction of reality in a world of determinant discourses. The thesis shows how the life of singles is made understandable where the interviewee´s constructs their reality by either creating their own life's as possible ways of living and distance themselves from coupledom or by striving for the twosome way of living. This is done by a construction of gender and age performance as different in the single and the twosome life. It also shows paradoxes where discourses of advantage independence meet discourses that construct twosome relationships as the only place for the development of real masculinity or of a special form of preferable femininity. The construction of gender and age as performed different in the single and the couple life provides an understanding of the interviewee's creation of self-image in relation to normative heterosexual coupledom.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:liu-12413 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Åström, Jennie |
| Publisher | Linköping University, Department of Social and Welfare Studies |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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