Research project Keen on Boys: Young Masculinities in Swedish Children’s Cinema 1990-2020

My dissertation explores how young masculinities and different embodiments of boyhood have been depicted in Swedish children’s cinema. Although film may not be the main cultural influence on boys’ gender identity and sexuality, it does to some extent reflect how adult filmmakers have been influenced by various and at times contradictory ideals and notions of gender and childhood when depicting them on film. Traditionally, masculinity has been associated exclusively with men. In this dissertation, I argue for the fruitfulness of exploring young masculinities enacted by non-male bodies, and see masculinity, like femininity, as a construct that can be embodied by various types of bodies, not only in male ones. This is done by applying queer perspective on the depictions of masculinity along with the concept of cinematic tone.

Principal supervisor: Lucas Gottzén

Supervisor: Todd Reeser, University of Pittsburgh

Second supervisor: Kalle Berggren