The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how six fantasynovels reflects or breaks the heteronormativity in society bylooking at how gender roles and sexuality are described.The theoretical framework is based on Judith Butler's theoryabout the heterosexual matrix which requires two separategenders and a compulsory heterosexuality and YvonneHirdman's two principles about dichotomy and hierarchy.The method used was idea analysis where dimensions basedon the theoretical framework were constructed. Thesedimensions were: behaviour, tasks, relationships and roles.The result shows that all of the books both breaks andreflects the society's values on gender and sexuality. Thereare some stereotypes present, for example that intuition isassociated with femininity and physical strength withmasculinity. However, the books also offer characters ofboth sexes that break the gender stereotypes, such asstrong women and emotional men.

Detta är en studie vars syfte är att undersöka vilka attityder ett urval aerobicstränande kvinnor har till sin egen träning samt att utforska vilken femininitet de konstruerar genom och i sin träning. Studien har sin grund i sex kvalitativa intervjuer med frekvent aerobicstränande kvinnor. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna har utgått ifrån de starkast lysande teman som framgått i kvinnornas berättelser, vilka är femininitet, normalitet och disciplinering. Teoretiker som används är Judith Butler, Michel Foucault och Beverly Skeggs. Studiens analys visar att det finns en överbyggande disciplineringsgrund när det kommer till syn på kropp och träning.

AbstractThe author Selma Lagerlöf was born in 1858 at Mårbacka, in Värmland and died in 1940. Fifty years after Selma´s death were her correspondence released and ten thousand of letters were found in the collection. But it was just the correspondence between Selma and Sofie Elkan who interested people because they wanted to know if Selma and Sofie have had a sexual relationship. Later, in time for Christmas 2008 the Swedish Television shows a film about Selma. "Selma Lagerlöf Society" was critical to the movie and thougt that the movie focused too much on Selma`s sexual orientation.

Analysis of the piece Pygmalion in set at the Gothenburg City Theatrefrom a gender perspective with the purpose to investigate which genders that arepresented and how the piece relates to the heterosexual norm. The method consists inthe analysis and discussion of how the pieces portrays females and males (with focuson feminine and masculine coded expression and presentation of desire) and whatconsequences it brings. This based on various method books of norm-breaking designwork for Aesthetic staff, and a theory based on Judith Butler's research. Primarymaterial consists in a piece analysis of Pygmalion, from a spectator's perspective.Main Results: The designing is consciously working with a set of norm-breakinggender expression, particularly female genders. The set translates socially criticalviews against patriarchal hierarchies.

Uppsatsen Män med män handlar om hur par bestående av män bildas i två svenska romaner, Jonas Gardells Präriehundarna (1987) och Bengt Martins Sodomsäpplet (1968). Det som studeras är gestaltningen av hur förhållandet mellan männen påverkas av heteronormen och hur heterosexuella förhållanden står som en motpol för parbildandet. Identitet och maskulinitet är andra ämnen som behandlas i uppsatsen som tittar på hur romanpersonernas identitetssökande gestaltas. Uppsatsen finner hur paret i Präriehundarna gestaltas att de starkt är påverkade av den heteronormativa och väljer att använda detta som ett sätt att utgå ifrån och ta avstånd från detta, men samtidigt har paret svårt att finna sig själva och vara bekväma i sin maskulinitet i en samkönad relation. I Sodomsäpplet finner uppsatsen tydliga bevis på att den kulturella kontexten påverkar stort i identifikation hos huvudpersonen och att Martins gestaltning är grundad i den samma.

Detta arbete undersöker hur homosexuella killar skildras i ungdomslitteraturen. Syftet problematiserar dikotomin maskulint/feminint och män/kvinnor. Målet är att införa ett icke heteronormativt perspektiv i ungdomslitteraturforskningen kring genus och queer. Detta görs utifrån teorier av Judith Butler, Tiina Rosenberg och R. W.

Uppsatsen Den performativa uppväxten syftar till att studera den heterosexuella matrisens verkan i tre svenska skolskildringar. Som teoretisk grund för undersökningen används såväl Yvonne Hirdmans teori om hur genussystemet bärs upp av de logiska fundamenten isärhållning och könshierarki, som Judith Butlers queerfeministiskt filosofiska dekonstruktion av kön som kategori. De skönlitterära verk som analyseras är Agnes von Krusenstjernas Tony växer upp och Tonys läroår, Jan Guillous Ondskan och Jonas Gardells trilogi En komikers uppväxt, Ett ufo gör entré och Jenny. Genom ett textanalytiskt tillvägagångssätt med komparativa inslag undersöks hur genusstereotyper reproduceras och stabiliserar heterosexualiteten som obligatorisk norm, vidare hur dessa processer gestaltar ungdomars identitetstillblivelse i den skönlitterära skolmiljön. De tre skolskildringarna statuerar exempel som belyser hur grupptryck och okritisk medvetenhet resulterar i kollektiv könsseparerad performativitet.

This thesis aims at examining factors that influence women?s choice of clothing. Focus lies on what women want to communicate with their clothes, how consumption is used as a means of expression, women?s attitude towards the clothing and the body image that media has created. Is there an underlying idea in a women?s choice of clothing and is she trying to express something specific? Why do women buy the clothes they do? The aim with this thesis is to identify if there is a difference between people from an urban area and those from a small town, as well what role the geographic difference plays in how fashion conscious you are or how you choose your clothes.

Given the possibility that the world, as we know it, is a consequence of human interaction and verbal communication our understanding of the world can be seen as contingent rather than essentially given. Conceptions such as "entrepreneur", "woman" and "man" can then be understood as socially constructed subjects. Departing from poststructural and social constructionist perspectives I will examine medial representation of women and men as entrepreneurs. My main purpose is to examine how the entrepreneur is constructed as a discursive subject in the journal Eget Företag. Drawing upon Ernesto Laclau´s and Chantal Mouffe´s Discourse Theory and the poststructuralist feminist theoretical perspective of Judith Butler I will discuss both the construction of the entrepreneur as well as the more explicit question; is gender significant for the construction of the entrepreneur and entrepreneurship in Eget Företag? In this study I come to the conclusion that the discourse of entrepreneurship, as well as the journalistic discourse, draws upon discourses of femininity and masculinity but also upon discourses of ethnicity.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how gender and sexuality are made in the videogames Prince of Persia and Fable II, and more specifically to look at possibilities and limitations for the construction of gender and sexuality in these games. I understand videogames as an interactive media form that differs from other types of media like film and literature. It is a media form that depends on a player to be played. At the same time it is constituted by rules of how it can be played. I have analyzed my material by a method called close-playing.

AbstractThe author Selma Lagerlöf was born in 1858 at Mårbacka, in Värmland and died in 1940. Fifty years after Selma´s death were her correspondence released and ten thousand of letters were found in the collection. But it was just the correspondence between Selma and Sofie Elkan who interested people because they wanted to know if Selma and Sofie have had a sexual relationship. Later, in time for Christmas 2008 the Swedish Television shows a film about Selma. "Selma Lagerlöf Society" was critical to the movie and thougt that the movie focused too much on Selma`s sexual orientation.

Föreliggande uppsats syftar till att undersöka heterosexuella arbetarklassmäns föreställningar om och attityder gentemot homosexuella mäns och kvinnors genusöverskridande. Eventuella föreställningar och negativa attityder kring detta innefattas i begreppet homofobi som titeln antyder att uppsatsen handlar om. Dessa aspekter av homofobi kopplas i sin tur till maskulinitetsskapandet inom en specifik klassmässig kontext. Empirin består av intervjuer med fem män inom denna klassmässiga kontext. Materialet har analyserats med hjälp av Faircloughs version av den kritiska diskursanalysen och tolkats utifrån teorier om genus, sexualitet, maskulinitet och klass från bland andra Yvonne Hirdman, Judith Butler, Michael Kimmel, R.W Connell, och Pierre Bourdieu.

After recognizing a lack of children?s voices in the debate about the children?s book Kivi och monsterhund and the gender-neutral pronoun hen that occurred in the beginning of the year of 2012, I decided to interview pre-school children about the same book. My purpose with the study was, using semi-structured group interviews, to examine how 6-year olds talked about the main character Kivi. With the help of Judith Butler?s theory of performativity, I have studied how the children constructed Kivi?s gender in their speech.

The purpose of the essay is to examine the views on sexuality that guide the Swedish Migration board and court?s judgments and decisions in asylum cases. The essay investigates seven cases from the Swedish Migration court regarding asylum seekers from seven different countries seeking protection in Sweden due to their sexuality and/or gender identity. By applying discourse analysis, along with the theoretical perspectives of Judith Butler and the postcolonial critique of Chandra Talpade Mohanty, the essay discuss what kind of criteria and/or practice is demanded of the asylum seekers to be rendered as trustworthy. The essay concludes that the asylum seekers are considered untrustworthy by the migration authorities when not acting according to a (hetero)normative sexuality.

The aim of this thesis is a comparative study of Djuna Barnes' 1928 book Ladies Almanack and turn of the century sexological texts focusing on Havelock Ellis' studies of 'sexual inversion in women'. The study is based on queer theory concepts from Judith Butler and Fanny Ambjörnson as well as Michel Foucault's studies of the history of sexuality. After a presentation of the theoretical concepts and a short introduction of earlier research on Barnes' works my reading and conclusions are presented in five chapters focusing on different theoretical and thematic aspects of the studied texts. A recapitulation and discussion ends the thesis.In short, my conclusions are that Ladies Almanack contrary to earlier research can be read as a queer text, and a form of counter-discourse to the general one regarding lesbianism in the early 1900's. The text also reveals itself as a pointed critique and a satire of Havelock Ellis' writings on 'sexual inversion in women'.