'Mitt kön har inget med min utbildning att göra' : En studie av klass, kön och reproduktion av maskulinitet i gymnasieskolan

The purpose of the study is to investigate high school students’ attitude towards masculinity, and whether the attitude differs depending on the students’ class background and gender. The study has been conducted through a quantitative method where paper surveys have been distributed to a school in Norrbotten county. The theoretical framework used in the study is two ideal types of masculinity that I have developed based on both Raewyn Connell’s understanding of the hegemonic masculinity positions and Lucas Gottzén’s description of the two positions that today dominate the hegemonic masculinity. In addition to these, previous research that concerns masculinity and school has also contributed to the construction of the ideal types. This study will name the ideal types as the older masculinity and the new masculinity. The older masculinity places a greater focus on manual work, the body and the distinction to the feminine. The new masculinity can adopt feminine-coded chores without risking losing masculinity. The result showed that class more rarely was a factor in relation to how the respondents related to masculinity, on the other hand, gender more often turned out to be a factor that explained how the respondents related to masculinity. Middle-class and working-class boys often had a common understanding and experience in relation to masculinity, on the other hand, working-class and middle-class girls’ understanding and experience of the importance of masculine traits in boys and girls differed. In several cases, working-class girls considered it more important to maintain a distinction between male and female than boys did, which in this study showed that they were involved in reproducing hegemonic masculinity.