Kålhuvuden och kopparputs
Läsaren som husmoder i svenska familjetidningar
Domestic weekly magazines in Sweden are characterized by an emphasis on practical editorial material such as cooking recipes and knitting patterns, and also contain a comparatively large share of reader material. This makes it possible to study the readers through texts produced by themselves. The aim of this study of columns of readers' tips on domestic work is to analyze how readers embody a specific femininity centered around the woman as responsible for the home, in the sense of everyday maintenance as well as aesthetic development. The author defines this femininity as "home maker". The theoretical framework for the analysis is the sociological theory of Pierre Bourdieu, and Jonathan Potter's and Margaret Wetherell's model of interpretive repertoire is also used where modality is discussed. The "home maker" femininity is treated as a form of cultural capital which assumes symbolic status within the field of conventional femininity. The texts are seen as reproducing practices and systems of categorization and are also analyzed to ascertain to which level the writers feel confident to represent themselves as possessors of "home making" capital. The author concludes that the "home making" described in the texts contains elements unique to working class femininity. This includes specifically a relationship to the home as "one's own" and an arena for self-expression, but traditional ideals such as economizing, orderliness and cleanliness, which can be traced to the culture of the pre-industrial agrarian proletariat, are also prominent.