Den riskfyllda kvinnokroppen : Könade normer och styrning genom omvårdnad i ungdomsmottagningars förmedling av hormonella preventivmedel

This master thesis sets out to investigate the (re)production of gendered norms through the mediation of hormonal contraceptives to young women. The empirical material of the study consists of interviews conducted with midwifes working in youth clinics around Stockholm, as well as a policy program which is used to coordinate the daily operations of youth clinics on a national level. The study is based on a Foucauldian theoretical framework and employs the concepts bio power, governmentality and gyniatric apparatus to analyse the incentives aimed at young women to promote health through the use of hormonal contraceptives. The study shows that young women are discursively constructed as ”at risk” and that hormonal contraceptives are promoted as a solution for the ”risky”, problematic and uncontrolled female body and subject. Furthermore, the study shows that the promotion of hormonal contraceptives support the discursive ”naturalization” of a binary and heteronormative gender structure as well as the idea that women’s emancipation is achieved through hormonal regulation of the female body