The means that the Swedish State has to legitimize and standardize different perspectives of women and their sexuality is significant. Persecution of gender and sexuality is today something that can grant refugee status according to the Swedish Aliens Act. By studying the documents that forestall the amendment of the laws is it possible to unveil the concept and ideas about women sexuality that the state manifests and reproduces through these laws and official documents.The aim of this essay is to look upon the sexual policy as it occurs in official the documents that deal with lesbian refugees. The study cover and maps present research on this group of women and gives an answer to how norms about women sexuality are expressed in these documents.Throughout the survey of the research field not much previous research was found, therefore even research that only partly covers the field is included and reviewed.As method a detailed reading of the official documents and a discourse analysis with it?s emphasize on theoretical themes like gender and sexuality, Lesbianism and state feminism, was made.

The purpose of this essay is to highlight the conceptions that exist in school towards homosexuality. My overall essay questions are: What rules does the school have to apply concerning homosexuality? What approach do the professors have towards young lesbian women and kind of support is offered to the group? In order to answer these questions I interviewed a professor and a young lesbian female. One of the surveys that has been made, as a normative order, about heterosexuality in the last decade is known as queer theory.One of the theories that in surveys investigates homosexuality as a normative order is known as ?queer theory? and it is the one I decided to use in this essay.Inspired by feminist research, gay and lesbian studies and the poststructuralist theory, the queertheory focuses on some peoples way of organizing sexuality is privileged, sanctioned and is perceived as normal, while others are seen as deviant, abnormal and therefore unwelcome.

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'.

Studies of the information needs of library patrons are necessary in order for the library to serve the community. Alas, studies of non-heterosexual persons are rare in the field of Library and Information Science in Sweden. This study aims at examining the information situation of women in same-sexed parenthood by means of analysing their situation as norm-breaking. The study is done through examining the specific information needs of this group, how they seek and receive information, what barriers they encounter and what function the library has in this information situation. A queer theoretical approach to heteronormativity in combination with McKenzie?s two-dimensional model of information seeking is used to perform a qualitative analysis of the material.

The aim of this study is to analyse the sexual power relations in contemporary urban novels of Swedish female writers.I have identified a discourse in these novels as a heteronormative matrix which power is ruled by norms and assumptions about normality in both the heterosexual and lesbian stories. For this purpose I have related to Ivar B. Neumanns theory that individuals always find a way to confront the discourse by three different strategies. These strategies are used in my study as tools to organise these novels, because it is possible to see that the protagonists find at least one of these strategy?s to her protest.The first strategy I studied was the docile.

The aim of this study is to analyse the sexual power relations in contemporary urban novels of Swedish female writers.I have identified a discourse in these novels as a heteronormative matrix which power is ruled by norms and assumptions about normality in both the heterosexual and lesbian stories. For this purpose I have related to Ivar B. Neumanns theory that individuals always find a way to confront the discourse by three different strategies. These strategies are used in my study as tools to organise these novels, because it is possible to see that the protagonists find at least one of these strategy?s to her protest.The first strategy I studied was the docile.

The thesis examines how sex/gender and sexuality are represented through text and images within the Internet community Sylvia whose primary target group is girls. Through an examination of the aesthetics, the member rules and the choices that constitute the framework for the site, the study observes Sylvia as a cultural context. In relation to this setting, the ten most visited member profiles at the time for the study are more closely examined. These profiles are studied from a constructivist view of sex/gender and are analysed from the perspective of feminist and quee r theory as well as in the light of feministic debates concerning sexuality and erotica. The thesis shows how Internet as a forum and the non-heterosexual context Sylvia open up for a constructivist understanding of sex/gender and also leads to a questioning of "masculinity" and "femininity".

AbstractFokus för denna uppsats är våld i lesbiska parrelationer och hur man teoretiskt kan konceptualisera detta våld. Mitt övergripande syfte har varit att öka förståelsen för denna form av våld och därmed bidra till ett relativt outvecklat forskningsfält. Ett ytterligare syfte har varit att undersöka om den könsmaktsanalys som haft stor betydelse för tolkningen och förståelsen av mäns våld mot kvinnor i heterosexuella relationer även kan förklara våldet i en lesbisk parrelation. Fokus för min analys har dels varit om och i så fall på vilket sätt kön är en faktor som kan förklara det lesbiska relationsvåldet, dels om en förståelse av våldet inom en könsbaserad teori kan innebära en viss problematik. Jag har även undersökt andra faktorer som heterosexism och homofobi och dess betydelse för våldets uppkomst och former samt mer individrelaterade förklaringsmodeller.