Maskuliniteter
Genusnormernas inverkan på individers sociala förutsättningar
The purpose of the thesis Masculinities ? Gender and its Impact on the Social conditions of individuals is to perform a critical study of how gendered norms influence the social conditions of individuals. This has been done by a problematization and the attempt to answer the question of how the hegemonical masculinity can be analyzed as a discourse, and how the structural aspects of this discourse inflict on the social conditions of masculinities.The question was divided into the analytical themes: the boarders of the discourse, the institutionalization of the discourse, the actuation of the discourse and the agents of the discourse. The theoretical frame is constituted by the theory of discourse by Michel Foucault, the theory of the hegemonical masculinity by R.W. Connell and a subversive identity theory by Judith Butler. The method used is the abstract discourse analysis built on the discourse theory by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffes. The analysis consists of a problematization of different aspects of the theory of the hegemonic masculinity from different theoretical perspectives, selected due to their accordance with the perspective of social constructions and social integration.It was concluded that the hegemonic masculinity could be described as a social structure and as a discourse with inner and outer demarcations, socially preformed and characterized with the aspects of excluding and including. The institutionalized aspects of this discourse could be identified as: the need of the social construction of social groups, acts and threat of violence, the discourse of compulsory heterosexuality, the institutionalized search for truths and the quest for a gender identity. The gender identity was problematized as one of the fundamental aspects of the construction of masculinities due to its connection to the institutionalized concept of identity and social integration. The structural stability of the hegemonical masculinity and its determination of the social conditions of individuals were ultimately challenged as its existence was concluded to be dependent upon the social constructions of social groups and the agency of the individuals.