During this seminar we will stay with questions regarding what stories about hormones do to contemporary perceptions of sex and gender. Chemicals rather than organs are crucial in defining subjects and behaviour, where sex hormones are central in debates about boundaries between men and women. More particularly, the aim of this research is to explore hormone narratives as part of contemporary self-help culture, where the hormonal body has become a popular object of discussions and regulatory practices. To get answers the study is anchored in empirical studies: group interviews, individual interviews, media material and self-help literature.
Through examples from the ongoing project, It’s the hormones (the Swedish Research Council, 2021 – 2025) the purpose of this seminar is to invite to a dialogue regarding how hormones are ascribed significance in popular understandings.

About the presenter: Linda Berg is associate professor in Gender Studies at the Centre for Gender Studies, Umeå University. One track in Berg’s research is medical humanities, with a focus on self-help culture and feminist theorizing of popular science. See for ex: Berg & Linander (2023) Hypogonadism. Diagnosis, masculinity, and capital in narratives about testosterone deficiency, NORMA, Berg, Lundgren & Jönsson (2022) Balansreceptet: konsten att hantera hormoner i självhjälpslitteraturens hormonberättelser, Kvinder, Køn og Forskning.