Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2023.2207040
Cathrine Bjerknes
ABSTRACT This article explores how two queer narratives in Nordic Sami literature challenge, expand and change norms and stereotypes related to queer indigenous experiences. Characteristic for these narratives is the ambition to highlight taboos and challenge stereotypes in Sami contexts. In the article, I explore the characters’ coming-out processes and relate them to larger narrative traditions. To shed light on the obstacles the characters meet in the process of coming out to themselves and to their communities, and the genres through which the stories are told, I turn to gender scholars Judith Roof, Andrea Gutenberg and Anne Mulhall. I make use of their perspectives to explore whether the coming-out processes take different shapes when the individuals in question are Sami and thus doubly minoritized. Insisting on the importance of coming out not only to oneself, but also to the Sami community at large, they take on an important activist role, transcending the perspective of the individual. The primary texts are the young-adult novel Himlabrand (“Heavenly fire”) (2021) by Moa Backe Åstot and the blog novel The Savior of the Lost Children (2008) by Sigbjørn Skåden.
本文探讨北欧萨米文学中的两种酷儿叙事如何挑战、扩展和改变与土著酷儿经历相关的规范和刻板印象。这些叙述的特点是要突出禁忌，挑战萨米人的刻板印象。在本文中，我将探讨角色的出柜过程，并将其与更大的叙事传统联系起来。为了阐明这些角色在向自己和他们的社区走出来的过程中遇到的障碍，以及故事讲述的类型，我求助于性别学者朱迪思·鲁夫(Judith Roof)、安德里亚·古腾堡(Andrea Gutenberg)和安妮·穆尔霍尔(Anne Mulhall)。我利用他们的观点来探索，当所讨论的个体是萨米人，因此是双重少数民族时，出柜过程是否会有不同的形式。她们坚持出柜的重要性，不只是对自己，也要对整个萨米社群，她们超越个人的观点，扮演重要的行动者角色。主要文本是Moa Backe Åstot的青年小说Himlabrand(“Heavenly fire”)(2021)和Sigbjørn sk den的博客小说《The Savior of The Lost Children》(2008)。
{"title":"Queer Narratives in Nordic Sami Literature: Coming-Out Narratives and Final Exposures in Savior of the Lost Children (2008) and Himlabrand (2021)","authors":"Cathrine Bjerknes","doi":"10.1080/08038740.2023.2207040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2023.2207040","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores how two queer narratives in Nordic Sami literature challenge, expand and change norms and stereotypes related to queer indigenous experiences. Characteristic for these narratives is the ambition to highlight taboos and challenge stereotypes in Sami contexts. In the article, I explore the characters’ coming-out processes and relate them to larger narrative traditions. To shed light on the obstacles the characters meet in the process of coming out to themselves and to their communities, and the genres through which the stories are told, I turn to gender scholars Judith Roof, Andrea Gutenberg and Anne Mulhall. I make use of their perspectives to explore whether the coming-out processes take different shapes when the individuals in question are Sami and thus doubly minoritized. Insisting on the importance of coming out not only to oneself, but also to the Sami community at large, they take on an important activist role, transcending the perspective of the individual. The primary texts are the young-adult novel Himlabrand (“Heavenly fire”) (2021) by Moa Backe Åstot and the blog novel The Savior of the Lost Children (2008) by Sigbjørn Skåden.","PeriodicalId":45485,"journal":{"name":"NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research","volume":"31 1","pages":"195 - 205"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44735947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2023.2192960
L. Allouche
ABSTRACT In this article, I investigate how Shadi Angelina Bazeghi writes about the Iran-Iraq War in her poetry collection Flowmatic (2020). Bazeghi assembles several different kinds of texts in Flowmatic, and one of these texts is a testimony by an Iranian soldier-engineer who worked as a programmer setting up at system to identify the bodies and body parts of fallen Iranian soldiers. Both the words of the soldier’s testimony and the act of programming and data processing have found their way into the poem; as appropriated text and as the poem’s overarching aesthetic mode. Using the soldier’s witness account as a prism, I will look at three aspects of the poetry collection: 1) how the testimony is appropriated, 2) how Bazeghi is witnessing though appropriation, and 3) how she writes about war from a feminine point of view. I argue that Bazeghi through the evasive aesthetics and the heightened appropriation in Flowmatic challenges how women can witness and write about war.
{"title":"An Evasive Aesthetics: Appropriation, Witnessing and War in Shadi Angelina Bazeghi’s Flowmatic","authors":"L. Allouche","doi":"10.1080/08038740.2023.2192960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2023.2192960","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this article, I investigate how Shadi Angelina Bazeghi writes about the Iran-Iraq War in her poetry collection Flowmatic (2020). Bazeghi assembles several different kinds of texts in Flowmatic, and one of these texts is a testimony by an Iranian soldier-engineer who worked as a programmer setting up at system to identify the bodies and body parts of fallen Iranian soldiers. Both the words of the soldier’s testimony and the act of programming and data processing have found their way into the poem; as appropriated text and as the poem’s overarching aesthetic mode. Using the soldier’s witness account as a prism, I will look at three aspects of the poetry collection: 1) how the testimony is appropriated, 2) how Bazeghi is witnessing though appropriation, and 3) how she writes about war from a feminine point of view. I argue that Bazeghi through the evasive aesthetics and the heightened appropriation in Flowmatic challenges how women can witness and write about war.","PeriodicalId":45485,"journal":{"name":"NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research","volume":"31 1","pages":"139 - 148"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47097500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2023.2214376
Madelen Brovold
ABSTRACT The article examines the thematization of (intersectional indigenous) feminist criticism and activism in the novel Stöld (2021), written by the Sámi-Tornedalian-Swedish author Ann-Helén Laestadius. The novel depicts life in a small town in Sápmi, where reindeer herders are strongly affected by the brutal killings of their animals and the lack of legal security they experience. A central motif in the novel is the resistance to this discrimination through the characters Elsa’s and Minna’s Sámi and feminist activism. The first part of the analysis examines their common Sámi causes and activist strategies; and the second focuses on the critique of gender norms within the minoritized reindeer herding society, and investigates the gendered attitudes towards their activism. Finally, I discuss the ways in which the novel functions as literary activism. In sum, the book shows that it requires the effort of several women acting across generations through various institutions such as the police, the media, and the judicial system to create change.
{"title":"Sámi Feminism and Activism in Ann-Helén Laestadius’ Novel Stöld","authors":"Madelen Brovold","doi":"10.1080/08038740.2023.2214376","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2023.2214376","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article examines the thematization of (intersectional indigenous) feminist criticism and activism in the novel Stöld (2021), written by the Sámi-Tornedalian-Swedish author Ann-Helén Laestadius. The novel depicts life in a small town in Sápmi, where reindeer herders are strongly affected by the brutal killings of their animals and the lack of legal security they experience. A central motif in the novel is the resistance to this discrimination through the characters Elsa’s and Minna’s Sámi and feminist activism. The first part of the analysis examines their common Sámi causes and activist strategies; and the second focuses on the critique of gender norms within the minoritized reindeer herding society, and investigates the gendered attitudes towards their activism. Finally, I discuss the ways in which the novel functions as literary activism. In sum, the book shows that it requires the effort of several women acting across generations through various institutions such as the police, the media, and the judicial system to create change.","PeriodicalId":45485,"journal":{"name":"NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research","volume":"31 1","pages":"184 - 194"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43264719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-20DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2023.2189301
Aino Koskenniemi
ABSTRACT In December 2021, the Helsinki City Council decided to experiment the distribution of free menstrual products in schools and educational institutions. The act follows similar decisions internationally aiming to decrease inequality and destigmatize menstruation. This article draws on poststructuralist policy analysis to examine the construction of menstruation in the Helsinki city decision and the public debates on the policy proposal. The research materials include policy documents, online news articles, and over 4000 comments on news sites, discussion fora and social media. Utilising Carol L. Bacchi’s (2009) “What’s the problem represented to be?”-approach to policy analysis, the article shows that the Finnish public debates on menstrual policy construct menstruation as a problem on two levels. On the one hand, menstruation is constructed as a private, embodied problem experienced by individuals, while on the other hand, it is redefined as a public problem generating inequality and pollution. The article argues that the policy debates both reinforce and challenge the menstrual stigma. The stigma is reinforced by representing menstruation as “the problem” rather than the social structures stigmatizing menstruators. However, the stigma is also challenged by redefining menstrual bleeding as a public issue and defying norms of menstrual invisibility.
{"title":"Extremely Private and Incredibly Public – Free Menstrual Products and the “Problem” of Menstruation in the Finnish Public Discourse","authors":"Aino Koskenniemi","doi":"10.1080/08038740.2023.2189301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2023.2189301","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In December 2021, the Helsinki City Council decided to experiment the distribution of free menstrual products in schools and educational institutions. The act follows similar decisions internationally aiming to decrease inequality and destigmatize menstruation. This article draws on poststructuralist policy analysis to examine the construction of menstruation in the Helsinki city decision and the public debates on the policy proposal. The research materials include policy documents, online news articles, and over 4000 comments on news sites, discussion fora and social media. Utilising Carol L. Bacchi’s (2009) “What’s the problem represented to be?”-approach to policy analysis, the article shows that the Finnish public debates on menstrual policy construct menstruation as a problem on two levels. On the one hand, menstruation is constructed as a private, embodied problem experienced by individuals, while on the other hand, it is redefined as a public problem generating inequality and pollution. The article argues that the policy debates both reinforce and challenge the menstrual stigma. The stigma is reinforced by representing menstruation as “the problem” rather than the social structures stigmatizing menstruators. However, the stigma is also challenged by redefining menstrual bleeding as a public issue and defying norms of menstrual invisibility.","PeriodicalId":45485,"journal":{"name":"NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43752909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-07DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2023.2183255
Minna Salminen‐Karlsson, Anna Fogelberg Eriksson
{"title":"Men are Always Better? How Swedish Municipalities Justify Pay Differences in Gender Pay Audit Reports","authors":"Minna Salminen‐Karlsson, Anna Fogelberg Eriksson","doi":"10.1080/08038740.2023.2183255","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2023.2183255","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45485,"journal":{"name":"NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46114236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-27DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2023.2174184
Josefina Erikson, Lenita Freidenvall
Recent research has pointed to the need for addressing gender equality in parliaments in a broader perspective, focusing on “gender sensitivity” in parliaments in relation to structures, operations, methods and work. Up to now, however, the question of what it takes for this work to be long-lasting and sustainable has received limited attention. This article seeks to address this gap through a case study assessing the sustainability of the internal work of the Riksdag (the Swedish Parliament) with regard to gender equality, focusing on the durability and renewal of early initiatives and reforms. On the basis of Riksdag documents and interviews with MPs during the period 1994–2022, we ask: How sustainable is the internal gender equality work of the Riksdag with respect to the three key areas of representation, infrastructure and culture? We find that the Riksdag has managed to conduct sustainable gender equality work over the course of three decades. Major factors in this success are the institutionalization of a Gender Equality Group, the adoption of Action Plans for Gender Equality every parliamentary term and the legitimacy provided by the support of the Speaker of the Riksdag and the Riksdag Board.
{"title":"Exploring Sustainability in Parliamentary Gender Equality Work. Insights from the Swedish Riksdag","authors":"Josefina Erikson, Lenita Freidenvall","doi":"10.1080/08038740.2023.2174184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2023.2174184","url":null,"abstract":"Recent research has pointed to the need for addressing gender equality in parliaments in a broader perspective, focusing on “gender sensitivity” in parliaments in relation to structures, operations, methods and work. Up to now, however, the question of what it takes for this work to be long-lasting and sustainable has received limited attention. This article seeks to address this gap through a case study assessing the sustainability of the internal work of the Riksdag (the Swedish Parliament) with regard to gender equality, focusing on the durability and renewal of early initiatives and reforms. On the basis of Riksdag documents and interviews with MPs during the period 1994–2022, we ask: How sustainable is the internal gender equality work of the Riksdag with respect to the three key areas of representation, infrastructure and culture? We find that the Riksdag has managed to conduct sustainable gender equality work over the course of three decades. Major factors in this success are the institutionalization of a Gender Equality Group, the adoption of Action Plans for Gender Equality every parliamentary term and the legitimacy provided by the support of the Speaker of the Riksdag and the Riksdag Board.","PeriodicalId":45485,"journal":{"name":"NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45214301","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-23DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2023.2178503
Emma Lamberg
ABSTRACT Due to social change and gender detraditionalisation, young women in the Global North have been positioned as agentic subjects who can benefit from increasing freedom in education and work. However, there remains a gap between gender equality as a powerful cultural norm and the persistent inequalities that continue to shape people’s lives. Focusing on Finland, this article examines how this gap is negotiated by young women transitioning from post-compulsory education to work in two different fields: care and media. Building on the theories of postfeminism as a sensibility, the article analyses how field-specific conceptualisations of gender equality and patterns of gendered disadvantages in the two fields shape young women’s understandings of their imagined futures in the Finnish labour market. The article develops the notion of “pragmatic postfeminism” to show that young women selectively deploy elements of postfeminist sensibility as a pragmatic resource to manage the persistent gender equality paradoxes of the Finnish labour market.
{"title":"Persistent Paradoxes, Pragmatic Postfeminism: How Young Women Negotiate the Contradictions of Gender Equality","authors":"Emma Lamberg","doi":"10.1080/08038740.2023.2178503","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2023.2178503","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Due to social change and gender detraditionalisation, young women in the Global North have been positioned as agentic subjects who can benefit from increasing freedom in education and work. However, there remains a gap between gender equality as a powerful cultural norm and the persistent inequalities that continue to shape people’s lives. Focusing on Finland, this article examines how this gap is negotiated by young women transitioning from post-compulsory education to work in two different fields: care and media. Building on the theories of postfeminism as a sensibility, the article analyses how field-specific conceptualisations of gender equality and patterns of gendered disadvantages in the two fields shape young women’s understandings of their imagined futures in the Finnish labour market. The article develops the notion of “pragmatic postfeminism” to show that young women selectively deploy elements of postfeminist sensibility as a pragmatic resource to manage the persistent gender equality paradoxes of the Finnish labour market.","PeriodicalId":45485,"journal":{"name":"NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45145552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-23DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2023.2179108
Mikael Mery Karlsson, J. Rydström
ABSTRACT The article gives an overview of Crip Theory, a diverse assembly of critical perspectives on dis/ability, and outlines how it can be used to analyse social relations and intersectionality in contemporary societies. Arguing that Crip Theory is indebted not only to cultural studies but also to materialist models of disability and feminist theory, the authors conclude that it can contribute significantly to gender studies in the Nordic region. Presenting central elements of Crip Theory—such as language, ableism, compulsory able-bodiedness, cripping and normativity—they argue that adapting Anglo-Saxon concepts to Nordic realities potentially adds new dimensions to intersectional and feminist analysis. The article concludes that Crip Theory can be useful in rejecting hierarchical language’s binarisms and claiming the right to name oneself, destabilizing ableist categories, cripping normativity, exposing ableism, and strengthening the political significance of social science research and activism. Finally, the authors indicate how Crip Theory can extend the scope of gender studies and feminist research to deepen the understanding of discursive climates of tolerance, to develop cripistemologies that may bring new perspectives to feminist standpoint theory, and to confront the ideological regressiveness and human costs of contemporary austerity politics and extreme-right movements.
{"title":"Crip Theory: A Useful Tool for Social Analysis","authors":"Mikael Mery Karlsson, J. Rydström","doi":"10.1080/08038740.2023.2179108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2023.2179108","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article gives an overview of Crip Theory, a diverse assembly of critical perspectives on dis/ability, and outlines how it can be used to analyse social relations and intersectionality in contemporary societies. Arguing that Crip Theory is indebted not only to cultural studies but also to materialist models of disability and feminist theory, the authors conclude that it can contribute significantly to gender studies in the Nordic region. Presenting central elements of Crip Theory—such as language, ableism, compulsory able-bodiedness, cripping and normativity—they argue that adapting Anglo-Saxon concepts to Nordic realities potentially adds new dimensions to intersectional and feminist analysis. The article concludes that Crip Theory can be useful in rejecting hierarchical language’s binarisms and claiming the right to name oneself, destabilizing ableist categories, cripping normativity, exposing ableism, and strengthening the political significance of social science research and activism. Finally, the authors indicate how Crip Theory can extend the scope of gender studies and feminist research to deepen the understanding of discursive climates of tolerance, to develop cripistemologies that may bring new perspectives to feminist standpoint theory, and to confront the ideological regressiveness and human costs of contemporary austerity politics and extreme-right movements.","PeriodicalId":45485,"journal":{"name":"NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42404753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-20DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2023.2176921
Heini Kinnunen
{"title":"Wages for Care Work: COVID-19 and the Public Struggle for Nurses’ Wage Equality","authors":"Heini Kinnunen","doi":"10.1080/08038740.2023.2176921","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2023.2176921","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45485,"journal":{"name":"NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44368156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-03DOI: 10.1080/08038740.2023.2171480
L. Sandberg, Sam Holmqvist
ABSTRACT This article explores imaginings of transgender ageing, and more specifically visions of transfeminine ageing futures, through an analysis of the auto-fictional novel Q by Swedish author Fredrik Ekelund. The novel tells the story of Fredrik, who comes out as transvestite at the age of 60, and subsequently struggles to come to terms with and explore their transfeminine identity as Marisol. Overall, cultural representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer ageing are rare, and often tell tales of misery. As such, Q is a unique example of a complex and relatively positive narrative of transgender ageing. On the one hand, transgender ageing is portrayed as a potential escape from both time and growing old, a form of “rebirth”. On the other hand, failure emerges as a constant threat, including both the failure to perform age-appropriate femininity and failure in the sense of becoming stuck with self-loathing and shame. The protagonist’s struggles to age successfully become intimately connected with pride and standing up for oneself, struggles that are in turn bound to homonationalist discourses of Scandinavian progressiveness and LGBT exceptionalism.
{"title":"“Daring to Be True and to Shine Brightly in the Time That Remains”: Imagining Transgender Ageing in Fredrik Ekelund’s Q","authors":"L. Sandberg, Sam Holmqvist","doi":"10.1080/08038740.2023.2171480","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2023.2171480","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores imaginings of transgender ageing, and more specifically visions of transfeminine ageing futures, through an analysis of the auto-fictional novel Q by Swedish author Fredrik Ekelund. The novel tells the story of Fredrik, who comes out as transvestite at the age of 60, and subsequently struggles to come to terms with and explore their transfeminine identity as Marisol. Overall, cultural representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer ageing are rare, and often tell tales of misery. As such, Q is a unique example of a complex and relatively positive narrative of transgender ageing. On the one hand, transgender ageing is portrayed as a potential escape from both time and growing old, a form of “rebirth”. On the other hand, failure emerges as a constant threat, including both the failure to perform age-appropriate femininity and failure in the sense of becoming stuck with self-loathing and shame. The protagonist’s struggles to age successfully become intimately connected with pride and standing up for oneself, struggles that are in turn bound to homonationalist discourses of Scandinavian progressiveness and LGBT exceptionalism.","PeriodicalId":45485,"journal":{"name":"NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research","volume":"31 1","pages":"292 - 305"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48193496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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