This paper describes a qualitative study of preschool teachers' beliefs about heteronormativity and its role in preschool. The purpose of this study was to examine preschool teachers' ideas and beliefs about heteronormativity and the ways in which it manifests itself in preschool, and to investigate how they perceive the possibility and the need to work on issues related to heteronormativity in preschool. The study is qualitative and is conducted through interviews with preschool teachers, and analysis of information letters from preschools sent to parents. The analysis of the letters was intended to critically examine how words and language could be linked to the heteronormative and also to determine which subjects was conveyed in these everyday texts. The study is based on queer theory and social constructivism.

This paper was aimed to investigate how a sexual education website, UMO.se, with an explicit norm-critical approach to their work achieved its goal to be norm-critical and inclusive in terms of gender, gender identity and sexual orientation. The investigation was focused on a section of the website, "Ask UMO" where the website visitors could submit questions, which were answered by a midwife, a nurse, a counselor, a psychologist, a nutritionist or a doctor. The questions focused on examining how well the "Ask UMO" lived up to UMOs target norm criticism and if there was any differences between the different professions in how norm-critical and inclusive they were. This was examined by a discourse analysis inspired by Foucault and based on Judith Butler's theory of the heterosexual matrix. The study found that "Ask UMO" in 350 of the sections 425 questions reached UMOs goal to be the norm-critical and inclusive.

I have used a discourse analysis as a method and queertheori for the theoretical. In this paper I have analyzed how different wedding magazines write about partnerships, gender-neutral marriage and wedding between homosexuals. I have for some time been interested in the beliefs wedding magazines have about homosexuality and how newspapers maintain heteronormativity implicitly and explicitly. Bridal magazines are anxious to have the marriage as a design and standard when they write about partnership. When they write about the two different forms of marriage, they glorify the religious marriage and pay no attention to civil marriage.

The aim of this Masters thesis is, partly, to examine the information needs of lesbians: what discernable information needs they have, how they seek information and which information sources they use. The purpose is also to examine what part fiction plays regarding the information needs mentioned above and how fiction indexing could improve retrieval. The study is conducted through ten qualitative interviews with lesbians as well as through textual analysis. The theoretical framework includes queer theory and theory concerning information needs and uses. The results indicate that lesbians have evident information needs that mostly concern identity.

The purpose of this study is to identify and make attitudes among social workers towards homosexual and bisexual people visible, examine how these attitudes relate to their actions in their professional role and how these attitudes and actions can be understood by theories of heteronormativity and power. The study is a cross-sectional quantitative survey in the form of a questionnaire completed by social workers. The result shows that there are two groups among the social workers. One larger group that reproduces a norm of acceptance toward homosexual and bisexual people and one smaller that reproduces a heterosexual norm. This reproduction of heteronormativity increases the risk for homosexual and bisexual people to be made invisible and treated more negatively in contact with social workers, which in turn can lead to worse health among the clients..

Uppsatsen berör fältet med självhjälpsböcker om dejting och vilken verkan dessa kan ha på bilden av hur man och kvinna ska vara i samhället. Syftet med uppsatsen begränsar sig till att, genom en topikanalys utifrån Ciceros och Janne Lindqvist Grindes persontopiker, göra en jämförelse av könsrollernas framställning i Henrik Fexeus dejtingbok Alla får Ligga - Strategier i förförelsekonst för den moderna gentlemannen och kvinnan, och Sara Starkströms dejtingbok Game Girl. Det görs genom att genus läggs på dessa topiker som funnits intressanta. I analysen används Yvonne Hirdmans genusteori om genussystem och genuskontrakt för detta ändamål.Tidigare studier i ämnet som är intressanta för studien är bl.a. Panteá Farvid & Virginia Brauns artikel ?The ?Sassy? Woman and the ?Performing? Man: Heterosexual Casual Sex Advice and the (re)constitution of Gendered Subjectivities?, och Leto DeFrancisco och Penny O?Conners intressanta inlägg ?A feminist critique of self-help books on heterosexual romance: Read ?Em and Weep?.

The portrayals of women in lifestyle magazines has been a continuous subject in genderresearch, but have mainly been focused on research about heterosexual women. However, how women are being portrayed through editorial content in an LGBT magazines have shown to be a gap in gender research.The purpose of this study was to find out how female identities were portrayed in theeditorial content in the LGBT magazine QX ? Sweden?s largest magazine aimed atmembers of the LGBT community in Sweden.The analysis of the material was conducted through a semiotic and a narrative analysis. Patterns and reoccurring themes were selected, and furthermore were analysed againstfeminist theories and views such as queer theory, radical feminism and post-modernfeminism.Four different gender archetypes derived from the result of the study: The strongfemale, The passive female, The stereotypical female, and The intimate female. Thestudy did show that women featured in QX magazine were portrayed throughheteronormative patterns, although the magazine represents a larger alternative group..

The purpose of this study was to do a narrative survey of the discussion about violence in partner relationships that is held in research literature. The question at issue was: How do research literature discuss violence in partner relationships, with focus on heterosexual relationships? The eight primary documents that have been chosen are written by researchers, professional therapists, National Counsil for Women's protection (Nationellt Råd för Kvinnofrid, NRK) and Swedish Government Official Report (Statens Offentliga Utredningar, SOU). To investigate the theories, discover the similarities and differences between them and how they can complement each other, the documents statements has been analyzed with a dialectic-hermeneutic approach and social constructionism and discourse theory.The research findings showed that the gender perspective theory, the psychodynamic theory and the social psychology theory have a few things in common, but that they on the whole are different and contradict each other. The gender perspective theory dominates the discussion but needs to be combined with the other theories to give a more all-embracing understanding.

The purpose of this study was to find out whether young women´s conceptions on femininity are based on school culture or other possible factors. The theory chosen for this study is the sociological perspective. A theory where sociologists such as Emile Drukheim, Talcott Parsons and Pierre Bourdieu are all prominent. The discussion links to Habitus and their theories on social, cultural and collective groups. A qualitative method has been used.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how homosexuals and homosexuality were represented in the press during the trials against the Pentecostal pastor Åke Green, and to what kind of social representations and narratives these representations can be related.Using critical discourse analysis and theories about the differentiation between in- and outgroups I try to unveil implicit meanings and attitudes towards gay people mainly at the local text level. The material consists of articles in Ölandsbladet and Dagens Nyheter that were produced before, during and after the trials.The analysis suggests that homosexuals are construed as a deviant outgroup and that the majority, the ingroup, is presented as an essentially heterosexual, tolerant community. Homosexuality is wrong and heterosexuality is the right way of living. Homosexuals, in terms of group lobbyism, are construed as an enemy, a threat, against Western ideals such as family values and freedom of speech. They indirectly become a threat to Swedish democracy.

The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine the information needs of gay, lesbian and bisexual adolescents? when they are coming out. I also examine what kind of information they seek and where they might find this information. The purpose is also to examine what role the public or school library plays. The study is conducted through qualitative interviews with gay, lesbian and bisexual adolescents?.

LGBT people, in Uganda, have since the colonial time been in a vulnerable situation. When the President signed the ?Anti-Homosexuality Act? into law 2014 all forms of same-sex relationships became criminalized. The time after the law passed have been characterized by an increased homophobia and further violence against LGBT people. These are seen as deviants since they do not live according to the social norms, that the right thing to be is heterosexual.

This essay analyses two swedish magazines about marriage, called "giftermålstidningar", from 1914 and 1924. With ideology as theoretical basis the subject matter is to find words and expressions of ideological influence in the source material. These influences is assumed to come from contemporary marriage laws, which expressed certain views about heterosexual relationships. In addition to the state's laws, the writers in the magazines is presumed to be influenced by other contemporary ideas. Either an older, christian tradition from brittish baptist Frederick Brotherton Meyer, or the swedish economist Knut Wicksell, who represents the Neo-Malthusian world view.

The purpose of this essay was to examine young people's view of how intoxication influences the communication and responsibility in sexual situations between two heterosexual adolescents, and to explore how young people define rape.The main questions were to examine how young people describe the communication of "yes" and "no" in sexual meetings, and who is responsible for that communication. Other questions included examining how the interviewees viewed a situation where a girl shows and/or says "no" and a boy still ignores her sexual integrity.The study was based on six qualitative interviews.The interviewees considered non-verbal communication about both "yes" and "no" to sex in a sober condition superior to verbal communication. The study also showed that the sexual responsibilities for girls increase during intoxication, while the responsibilities for boys decrease. A majority of the interviewees considered that a girl who didn't want to participate in sex must be very explicit when expressing her "no", and if not, there was an understanding that a boy can misinterpret or ignore a "no". Rape was by some defined as an act done against one's will, while others claimed that several explicit "no"s had to be infringed to classify it as rape..

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.