This is a qualitative study about how young men in the age of 16-18 years can construct their masculinity. How do these young men describe a ?real man?? What are their thoughts about themselves as adults? The purpose of this study includes a gender perspective in surroundings that cope with the sport football. To answer this study, six young men in the age of 16-18 years, whom are active football players in different levels, have been interviewed. The findings showed that the young men seemed to construct their masculinity in cooperation with the surroundings and the nearest family members seemed to have a very strong influence of the boy?s development to become a man.

AbstractHomosexuality is surely accepted in today´s society - or isn´t it? Many things have changed, for instance laws, which are in favour for homosexuals, have been introduced, in Sweden that is. As we although know, many things are not only dependent on what laws tell us to do. The society also contains values and norms and they furthermore exist in individuals. Regarding sexuality, the norm is heterosexuality.How much does the norm affect our way of living? In what way is it encouraged? What happens to people who don´t live up to the norm? How is it to be homosexual in today´s society? These are some of the questions that we look upon in this paper.

Den här studien använder sig av en Queerteoretisk utgångspunkt för att försöka reda ut vad som kan sägas om genuskonstruktionen i två välkända religiösa berättelser: den hinduiska Ramayana samt Ruts bok som återfinns i den hebreiska bibeln. Studien använder en hermeneutisk metod och en Queerteori med teoretiska modeller av Judith Butler och Yvonne Hirdman. Det kan ses i båda berättelserna att genuset hos både manliga och kvinnliga karaktärer ändrar sig under berättelsens gång, flera gånger och i relation till varandra. Slutligen diskuteras resultaten och det visar sig att den teori som används i uppsatsen, Queerteori, saknar en förståelse för det slags dynamiska genus som finns att se vid en läsning av Ruts bok och Ramayana..

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this essay is to investigate possible questions generated by theperformance/installation Har hon inget vettigare att göra? Du då. Har du inget annat att hitta på än att ståoch glo på henne? by the artist Elin Wikström. The Constructed Situation invites the spectator to be apart of a continuing process of thought.The subjective feeling makes an important insight to the work through methods of the aestheticsand the performative., mainly from Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlöf.

This essay analyzes three Swedish cartoon artists: Elias Ericson, Lisa Ewald and AmandaCasanellas. The aim is to examine how they construct feminist strategies through their workand how they convey this visually. The issue of whether these Swedish cartoons can be seenas a part of a bigger political platform is central. Through semiotics and post-colonial andQueer feminist theory, some answers to these questions are searched for.The result shows that all three of the artists can be seen in a bigger activist context, even ifthey work in and through different platforms. Casanellas questions the racism in Swedenand how we should prevent it.

The aim of this essay is to analyze how food and meals produce and reproduce values and power relations and how these processes are portrayed in Virginia Woolf?s To the Lighthouse. Using sociological writings in the field of food consumption and production I study the structures that affect our relation to food and eating. This perspective is combined with a phenomenological view, aiming to examine how food is perceived, which is also inspired by Queer theories. Using the method of close reading, the theories are applied to Woolf?s work.

Studiens syfte har varit att undersöka hur transsexuella personer passerar som sitt upplevda kön och om det finns några skillnader mellan hur transsexuella män respektive transsexuella kvinnor passerar. Transsexuella personer beskrivs ofta som en utsatt grupp i samhället som ibland råkar ut för negativ uppmärksamhet genom olika typer av stigmatiseringar, till exempel för att de inte följer heteronormen. Därför valde jag stigma och Queer som teoretiska begrepp för att analysera empirin. Materialet varvas även utifrån de centrala teman som vuxit fram genom tio kvalitativa intervjuer i en abduktiv analys. Resultatet ger sedan exempel av hur transsexuella personers vardag kan se ut genom kopplingar med hur väl de passerar som deras upplevda kön.

This thesis is based on qualitative text analyses of four works of fiction, used as teaching materials in the school subject of Swedish, from a Queer theoretic perspective. The purpose of the study is to examine how sexual identities and expressions are being presented, as well as what positions are offered a reader, in relation to the heterosexual norm. Basis for this thesis are the schools fundamental values, which highlights the importance that intolerance be confronted through both knowledge and active measures, and the syllabus, which states that fiction should be viewed as a tool for identity development as well as an understanding of the outside world.The analyses reveals a distinct connection between the generally accepted heterosexual norm and a professed (or taken for granted) heterosexuality which is being carried out by the characters or the books as a whole. Out of the four titles only one disputes this norm, by offering a wide range of sexual identities and expressions. These expressions, however, are being invalidated ? through insufficient ability to relate to the norm ? or made invisible ? through an imagined heterosexuality which, by superiority over other expressions, excludes them..

In this essay, I make a Queer feminist analysis of four novels written by the Swedish author Sigge Stark. The novels are: Uggleboet, Manhatareklubben, Cirkus Demonio och Baskerflickan. Using Judith Butler's theories I examine the relations between sex/gender and sexuality in the four books and show how the construction of gender is performed and the heterosexual normativity is jeopardized. I also examine whether, and if so how, Sigge Stark uses the romantic and the gothic genres to include transcending gender identities and sexualities in her work. The essay also includes a contextualisation of her prerequisities as an author and the necessity in performing a critical analysis of mass produced romantic literature..

Sammanfattning Gymkultur i förändringKvinnogym Denna uppsats undersöker med hjälp av intervjuer samt observationer hur olika individer ser på gymkulturen och då främst hur kvinnor som tränar på kvinnogym ser på gymkultur. Genom att intervjua fem kvinnor som har tränat på unisexgym men som nuvarande tränar på kvinnogym har frågor om de olika typerna av gym och gymkultur diskuterats. Genom observationer av olika gym har även gymkulturen på unisexgymmen studerats för att närmare kunna se skillnader mellan de båda typerna av träningslokaler. En fenomenologisk ansats har använts och då främst genom Sara Ahmeds ?Queer phenomenology?.Slutsatser kunde dras att kvinnorna ansåg männen som störande och att kvinnorna kände sig uttittade på unisexgymmen.

Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att undersöka ifall det förekommer tydliga mönster i framställandet av islam i tre stycken läromedel. Samt att undersöka ifall den kunskap som förmedlas är ny kunskap eller om det är en reproduktion av gamla etablerade stereotypa föreställningar. Bidrar framställningen/kunskapen i läroböckerna till upprätthållandet av den islamofobi som förekommer i samhället?Undersökningsmetoden har bestått i kvalitativa textanalyser utav tre stycken läroböcker i religionskunskap ämnade för grundskolans senare år.Resultatet visar att de nya läromedlen tar efter de äldre och man bibehåller samma strukturer och samma gamla etablerade stereotypa föreställningar om islam och muslimer förmedlas. Dessa etablerade stereotypa föreställningar om islam har författarna tolkat från ett specifikt perspektiv och det medför att de fördomar som finns om islam och muslimer i vårt samhälle förstärks istället för att nyanseras.

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.

Following the wake of the AIDS-catastrophe in the beginning of the eighties, homosexual men or 'men who have sex with men' (MSM) have been barred from donating blood throughout the planet. In this thesis I look into the different discourses at play in the context of creating the legal framework for blood donation in Sweden. Genealogically tracing the emergence of the category of MSM and mapping how the category is brought to use in contemporary negotiations on blood safety, I scrutinize how scientific truth is established within blood transfusion practice. I argue that the rationality of risk group exclusion is contingent on economical grounds, and that the foucauldian concept of biopolitics could productively be used to understand this rationality. In particular, the concept of the 'biopolitics of blood' can be employed in order to understand the reluctance from the involved actors to acknowledge the heteronormative consequences of the legal framework of contemporary blood donation..

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..