Vad är normalt? Vem äger det samhälleliga tolkningsföreträdet av att vara normal? Vad gör och hur formar ett begrepp som normalitet oss som individer, medborgare och medmänniskor i det att vi försöker konstruera mening och betydelse av vår egen vardag samtidigt som vi försöker förstå vår gemensamma omvärld? Det är vad min magisteruppsats handlar om. Hur det blir exkluderat som utmanar normens tolkningsföreträde av vad som är möjligt att beteckna som normalt när det gäller olika sociala uttryck av kön och sexualitet. Vad händer med ett begrepp som gör motstånd mot en normalitet som konstruerar en viss tillhörighet som mer normal än någon annan? Vad blir den sociala konsekvensen av att det s k normala talar om denna utmaning och detta motstånd i ett offentligt samtal? Det är denna diskussion som utgör fokus i min uppsats i vilken jag studerar det offentliga samtalet om begreppet Queer i svensk dagspress och hur det formuleras inom vad jag menar är en heteronormativ samhällelig diskurs, där Queer genom att konstitueras som synonymt med den avvikande ofarliggörs i bekräftelsen och reproduceringen av det normala.

There is an awareness of the importance of gender equality in most western societies, both at the political level and in everyday life. In academia, for instance, gender is nowadays a scientific field which indicates that there is a lot of knowledge about the subject. What we do not have much knowledge about is whether gender knowledge leads to changes in gender relations in practice. The aim of this study is to explore how gender scholars relate to using ? practicing ? gender knowledge.

The public libraries in Sweden has an obligation to serve all of its citizens, but despite of this they often fail to include their LGBTQ-patrons. Since the year of 2008 RFSL (the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights) have arranged a specially designed certification-process based on normcritical criterias that a chosen institution should fulfill to make their work more inclusive for LGBTQ-people. Sollentuna is the first municipal in Sweden to certificate all of their libraries. This study aims to examine what the certification have meant for the public library in Sollentuna and how a normcritical view can contribute to include LGBTQ-patrons at the library. As a method we used a qualitative interview-study to get a full picture of the certification-process and its influence on the public library of Sollentuna.

I min uppsats har jag undersökt Kerstin Söderholms diktsamling Ord i natten, dels kontextuellt och dels ur ett Queerperspektiv. Söderholms lyrik kan utan problem placeras in en modernistisk kontext. De modernistiska uttrycken är i sig intressanta att granska ur ett Queerperspektiv. Den genomgående gemenskapsproblematiken yttrar sig på ambivalenta vis i Ord i natten. Tillstånd av närhet förankras i en materiell diktvärld, medan avstånd från gemenskapen kan kopplas till ett transcenderande tillstånd.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the construction of the norm-breaking characters Saga from the young adult novel Tusen gånger starkare written by Christina Herrström and Pippi Longstocking from the books written by Astrid Lindgren. In order to do this I have applied Queer theory as well as theories of narrative in my analysis.To be able to study the breaking of norms, it has been essential to first examine the way the norm itself is manifested in the books. Because of this I have chosen to begin my analysis with an examination of two other characters who by their normative behavior contrasts against Pippi and Saga, namely Signe and Annika. The understanding of the normative discourse that Signe and Annika represent is crucial in understanding the way Saga and Pippi later turn against it.After that I examine in which ways Saga and Pippi breaks prevalent norms and how they as characters are constructed as being different. Subsequently I study the effects of Saga?s and Pippi?s norm-breaking, taking focus on how it influences Signe and Annika.Finally I discuss the view of Saga and Pippi as subversive characters, and however the books can be said to have a subversive effect.

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.

This essay deals with how young adult literature describes and characterizes young homosexual men. Two novels are analyzed within a framework of Queer theory and cultural studies. The focus is on how sociality enforces heteronormativity. The analyses of the novels investigate how the characters think of themselves and their sexuality, what their view of love and relationships are, and how their closest friends and parents react to their homosexuality..

The purpose of this paper is to do an analysis of the characters and the theater/masquerade motif in C.J.L. Almqvist?s Drottningens juvelsmycke (The Queen?s Diadem), based on Queer theory, by using Judith Butlers?s Gender Trouble. As an alternative to the Swedish, gender determined, feminine pronoun ?hon?, which has been used by earlier critics concerning the main character of the book, ?hen? is proposed.

AbstractTitle: Dragshow on the seven seasNumber of pages: 51 (56 including enclosures)Author: Therése PlastrougiTutor: Ylva EkströmCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Fall 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: My main purpose with this paper is 1) to study how film as a media can subvert traditional gender constructions and 2) study the character of Elizabeth Swann in the trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean through four dimensions; Gender performance, Class, Desire and Power.Material/Method: My main material is the trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean. I have studied Elizabeth?s character based on semiotic and narratological methods.Main results: Film as a media possesses the full potential to change traditional gender roles, but the full subversion is denied due to the heterosexual matrix. Elizabeth?s character almost completes her subversive journey throughout the trilogy, but since she too is a victim of the heterosexual matrix, a full subversion is not possible.Key words: gender performance, class, desire, power, sex/gender, subversion, narratologic, semiotic, Queer, feminism, pirates of the caribbean, intersectionality, parody.

Socialtjänsten ska vara en myndighet som ger service och hjälp av god kvalitet till alla människor. Det ska vara rättvist och inkluderande. Det är den socialtjänstens ansvar att följa detta och arbeta med en inbjudande karaktär så att alla i samhället kan känna sig välkomna till socialtjänsten. Forskning visar att transpersoner är en särskilt utsatt grupp då de bryter mot de normer som säger att det bara ska vara två kön, och därför tycker jag att det är särskilt relevant för socialtjänsten att arbeta för en inkluderande behandling av alla, oavsett kön, sexuell läggning eller etnicitet. Jag har därför valt att studera enskilda socialarbetares tankar om transbegreppet, ett inkluderande förhållningssätt och sina erfarenheter av hur organisationen arbetar för kunskapen om transpersoner.

Denna studie kom till efter att RFSU hade börjat arbeta med frågor om sadomasochism, och efter att Socialstyrelsen tog bort sadomasochism ur sin diagnosmanual. Syftet med studien är att ta reda på vilka diskurser som används när media talar om sadomasochism.Queerteori är det teoretiska fundamentet i studien. Jag utgår även från Michel Foucaults teorier. Min metod är foucauldiansk genealogisk diskursanalys. Analysmaterialet består av 33 tryckta artiklar från svenska dags- och kvällstidningar.Resultatet visar att talet om sadomasochism i media följer olika diskurser.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how preschool teachers can reach the goal of the swedish educational plan to prevent traditional gender roles for children ages 3-6 through drama in education.This is answered by four hypothesis based on Judith Butler's Queer theory, George Herbert Mead's social psychological theory and Gavin Bolton and Dotothy Heathcotes drama pedagogical theories. The hypotheses are tested against four teachers' examples of their work.The hypotheses areHypothesis 1: By using the expert's mantle and active observation in teacher-in-role indrama educational exercises, we can see how the children internalize the heterosexualmatrix and the outline of the internalized other.Hypothesis 2: By using the "mistakes" that occur when children repeat performativeacts that do not fit with the heterosexual matrix, these other possible behaviors can bestrengthenedHypothesis 3: Through drama exercises that are not normative teachers can widen theheterosexual matrixHypothesis 4: Through drama pedagogical methods like teacher-in-role teachers canprovide possibilities of other performative acts and the creation of a more tolerantinternalized other.The analysis show that the respondents work within all these hypotheses in different ways and thathypotheses 2 is the one with the weakest support in the interwievs. The examples are also weakregarding the use of Boltons drama pedagogical methods, but that there are a number of othermethods in use.Some of the conclusions are that more theoretical knowledge in the preschool drama pedagogics tocounteract traditional gender roles and patterns, as well as the drama of educational theory need tobe linked to Queer and social psychology research. There is also no monitoring of the long term effects of the work..

The aim of this two years master?s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum Studies is to analyse how Swedish cultural history museums work to include LGBTQ-heritage (LGBT is the acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer) in their collections. This work is articulated around three research questions. These interrogate museum practice about collecting and collection management, what it looks like in the already gathered collections as well as the implications such work implies on a broader level. The theoretical framework throughout the paper is gender and LGBT studies as well as Queer theory.

We believed that knowledge organisation of manga and manhwa with homosexual (including lesbian) themes might be a challenge for Swedish public libraries. One of the reasons for this is that these themes in manga and manhwa usually occur in genres not directed towards an LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Queer) audience. To see how Swedish public libraries treat such titles and why they treat them as they do, we examined a selection of public libraries, their collections, acquisitions, cataloguing and shelving of relevant titles. The theory used is mainly Grant Campbell?s binarisms, subject access to LGBTQ literature and critical analysis of knowledge organisation.