The aim of this essay is to investigate how the author JT LeRoy (a. i. Laura Albert) questions and broadens the concept of authenticity in literature and authorship. My study is based on LeRoy?s novel Sarah [2000] and the collection of short stories The heart is deceitful above all things [2001], as well as articles written about the construction of Laura Albert?s alter ego JT LeRoy.

Groups that are often referred to as being dismissed in society in general is by some aspects also considered being so in political arenas. A recent compilation of existing research over structurally based objections of gaining power and positions within Swedish parliamentary politics highlight a lack of research considering whether sexual orientation could be such a discriminatory basis. Using a queer theoretical approach, and drawing on concepts such as heteronormativity and homophobia, the principal aim of this essay is to illuminate aspects of local parliamentary political areas where discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation become relevant. In order to do so six in-depth interviews with homosexual politicians have been conducted. Finding a queer potential in certain ideological parliamentary political environments that enable homosexual politicians to be open about their sexual orientation, it still relies upon the individual to be confident enough not to interpret the political context as homophobic and heteronormative..

Uppsatsen utgår från syftet att utforska queer femininitet och det sätt som icke-heterosexuella, feministiska tjejer förhåller sig till normativ och queer femininitet. Detta genomförs utifrån samtalsintervjuer, inriktade på hur dessa tjejer upplever samhälleliga och den lesbiska världens normer kring femininitet. Studien har Judith Butlers teorier kring genussubversivitet som utgångspunkt. Materialet tar upp femininitet som begränsande eller subversivt, det hårt reglerade normsystem som återfinns inom den lesbiska världen, butch/femme-fenomenet och bil-den av den icke-heterosexuella tjejen. Slutsatser som kan dras är att normer från den lesbiska världen, den feministiska sfären samt samhällsnormer i stort, alla kraftigt sampåverkar tjejernas förhållningssätt till femininitet.

This study aims to make out, which notions and ideas about gender and sexuality that comes into expression in the description of the deviant youth. This study is a narrative analysis, based on a queer theoretical approach. The queer theory directs attention to the normative frameworks on gender and sexuality. Queer theory also illustrates the relationship between the normative and what is considered abnormal/deviant. The study's empirical basis is 8 legal texts, legal documents formed in a Swedish context, which include the welfare state´s judiciary and social services.

AbstractTitle: Who are you? Who am I? ? Charades in the mediated world of today. A study of the construction of identity at Facebook.(Vem är du? Vem är jag? ? Charader i dagens medierade värld. En studie av identitetskonstruktionen på Facebook.)Number of pages: 58 (66 including enclosures.)Author: Mathilda WahlundTutor: Ylva EkströmCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.Purpose/Aim: The aim is to study how people construct their own identities today.

The aim of the study is to examine which present conceptions of sexuality there are in treatment of substance abuse for men. The intention is to examine how staff members in these environments perceive clients? sex and sexuality as well as studying if and in that case how they work with sexuality in treatment. A qualitative method formed the methodological approach and semistructured interviews were carried out for the collection of data. Four staff members from two different treatment institutions for substance abuse were interviewed.

This essay discusses the students? thoughts about the teacher's response to their gender identity. The students discuss their right to have an intergender identity which means that they don?t identify themselves in the traditional sexes, man and woman, and the gender role each category has. They want to be called with a neutral pronoun and not be seen like boys or girls.

Placing children in foster care is today considered the best alternative for children unable to stay in their biological environment. A nuclear family consisting of a father, a mother and a child is the most common family structure within foster care today. The purpose of this thesis is to gain insight on the family norms that control the foster care system. It's a qualitative study based on interviews with six professional social workers within the field of foster care. This method gave us empirical material, that was later analyzed from two main theories and one theoretical concept.

This thesis emanates from the understanding that it is of importance that transgender-themed literature is indexed in accordance with how people who identify as trans name themselves and interpret the concept of trans. Based on interviews with representatives from controlled vocabularies and LibraryThing users who tag transgender-themed material, existing attitudes towards user influence in controlled vocabularies are described and the significance of tagging for transgender-themed material is looked into. With queer theory and postcolonial theory as its main framework the analysis looks at what possibilities there are for users to influence controlled vocabularies and explores possible strategies for a future library catalog that includes the voice of the Other. The study lands in the understanding that many of the resisting attitudes towards user influence within the systems for subject headings in fact lie in the systems? limitations.

In this essay I examine how identity is created in William S. Burroughs two early novels Junky andQueer. The theoretic starting points are Lacans psychoanlytic concepts ?ideal ego?, ?egoideal? and the ?superego? and also queertheory as presented by Tiina Rosenberg in her book Queerfeministisk agenda.The examination contains an analysis of how Burroughs creates identity in both Junky and Queer with main focus on the second novel. I look at how the desire in the maincharacter Lee is described and what the desire is aimed at.

The study analysis Anaïs Nin's work, Henry & June from a queer theoretical perspective. The purpose is to show what the work makes with text and how it produces ambivalence with sex and gender and thereby demonstrate the queer leakage in heteronormative performativities. The first part analyzes how it is working with self-representation in diary form. In order to view the work historically and linguistically the work has been related to analyzes and essays by other researchers mentioned in the analysis. The analysis shows that the writer Anaïs Nin has a clear agenda with her work.

Purpose/Aim: This study is an analysis of the view on masculinity, male sexuality and creation of identity with the television series Queer as folk as a base. The analysis is partly based on a semiotic analysis of the representation of masculinity and male sexuality from an episode of the chosen television series Queer as folk, and partly based on a thematic analysis of focus group discussions with young men with different sexualities.Material/Method: This study is based on focus group interviews and a semiotic and thematic analysis. The focus groups consisted of three men in three different groups and were chosen on the criteria of gender and sexuality. All groups were presented with an episode of the television series Queer as folk to see how they perceived masculinity and male sexuality. Their discussions were analyzed with a thematic analysis and the television series Queer as folk with a semiotic analysis.Main results: The three analyzed characters in Queer as folk showed different representations of masculinity and male sexuality.

Many reports infer that questions of HBT and homophobia are either poorly addressed or not addressed at all in schools today. This study is based on interviews with teachers of students aged 13 to 15. It is an inquiry to the teacher's thoughts about, knowledge of, and sense of responsibility to inform students of the subjects 'Queer', 'HBT', and 'Homophobia'. Who is responsible for educating the students regarding these subjects and what do teachers think about including these subjects in their curriculum? How do the teachers describe their knowledge of the subjects? Do they require further knowledge themselves in order to educate others in a proper way? The study is grounded in queer theories.

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 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'.