Skolvardagens genusdramaturgi en studie av hur femininiteter och maskuliniteter görs i år 5 med ett särskilt fokus på benämningar som hora och kärring

Sammanfattning: The aim of the present study is to describe and analyse how pupils in 5th grade are doing femininities and masculinities in everyday school life. A particular focus is placed on how terms such as hora [‘whore'] and kärring [‘hag'] are used but also to some extent on how girls construct femininities in relation to one another through other linguistic and bodily actions. One theoretical point of departure of the study is the social constructionist perspective, in which gender is seen as something humans are doing and that individuals are active agents in this process. Raewyn Connell's theoretical framework is used. Connell argues that schools are both an institutional agent contributing to creating gender and an arena where young people stage, reinforce or renegotiate femininity and masculinity. One important point of departure of the theory is that there exist multiple femininities and masculinities that are constructed both within and between the genders in a hierarchical order. At the local level this can bestudied through different kind of gender relations, which creates prevailing gender regimes. Connell thinks that these gender regimes most often vary and have different forms at the local level for example in different schools, but that they both tally with and deviate from society's overarching gender order. The empirical material of the thesis is based on an ethnographic method where field notes and participant observation were used as data collection method in three classes in the fifth form in three different schools in a medium-sized Swedish municipality. The pupils were 11-12 years old. The three schools are located in different housing areas in the centre of the municipality. One school is in a housing area that is inhabited by working-class families to a great extent and the other two schools are situated in middle-class areas. The principal result of the study shows that gender, femininities and masculinities are doing continuously in everyday school life. The place, the peer group and the activity are of great importance for how terms as "whore" and "hag" are used. In this process power and hierarchy are central components both between and within the genders. Unlike Connell, who thinks that gender regimes most often vary locally, this study shows similarities rather than differences among the three schools.