Fantastiska feminister : En genusvetenskaplig studie av medial feministisk historieskrivning

The lack of women in historical writing has long been discussed in Sweden and could be understood as an expression of a bigger discourse of Swedish gender equality. With two existing women’s history museums and media debates about women’s representation in history books, it seems to be part of both a Swedish and a feminist discourse. With a starting point that feminism exist within a popular feminist discourse, this essay asks the question what happens when feminist history is made to be popular. By analysing the two tv-shows ‘Den fantastiska historien med Berg & Meltzer’ and ‘Drottningarna’ as well as debates about them, this thesis examines how feminism, and the female subject is created within Swedish historical media. By using a poststructuralist discourse analysis and the theories popularfeminism, postfeminism and fantasy echo, this study analyses how the media as a cultural product creates feminist values, and how ideas about the feminine and the masculine affects the way we understand history. This study shows how the fantasy of a static female identity creates the historical female subject as someone ‘we’ can identify with. Further it shows how feminist historical writing within a popular science discourse seems to leave out important critique about gender roles and structures. The study also argues how a medial feminist history tends to rely on postfeminist and neoliberal assumptions of individual success in order to become more palatable for a broader audience