"Liksom våldtäkt, typ" : Om betydelsen av kön och heterosexualitet för ungdomars förståelse av våldtäkt : [on the importance of gender and heterosexuality to young people's perception of rape]

Sammanfattning: This dissertation deals with significance of gender and heterosexuality in relation to youngpeople's perception of rape. The main focus is on the relationship between what is regarded as"normal" (ideas about and experience of gender and heterosexuality) and what is regarded as"extreme" (ideas about and/or experience of rape). The empirical material consists primarily of16 interviews with Swedish fifteen-year-olds of both sexes, discussing what they regard asconstituting rape. The author interprets their perceptions of rape in the light of cultural normsabout gender and heterosexuality. The main thesis of the dissertation is that what these youngpeople understand, in principle, to be rape is negotiated and re-interpreted in the encounter withconcrete examples. The author discusses six "conditions" - how no is said, the significance oflove, the effects of alcohol, notions of the whore, notions of the rapist as deviant, and theconsequences of rape for girls who are raped - used by the young people as their tools fornegotiation in the re-interpretation process. The author presents a model according to which theconditions comprise a "space for negotiation" Between what the young people regard as rapeand what they regard as "good sex". In this dissertation, the author argues that when they arerelated to cultural codes for heterosexual interaction, the conditions may be interpreted asexpressions of deeply rooted rules regarding gender and heterosexuality, According to thefindings, the conditions may also serve simultaneously to limit the space for action available toyoung women while extending this space for young men. The dissertation illustrates that whenyoung people apply the conditions, they may affect the "extreme", shifting it in the direction ofthe "normal". In extension, the author argues against regarding rape as a "deviation" from so-called "normal" heterosexual interaction, and for a conception of rape as belonging to acontinuum of cultural codes for heterosexual interaction.