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136 | Sofia Sjö www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/2, 123–140
That films do not directly reflect reality is hardly news, but what the films do
represent and what this suggests about attitudes to religion is still noteworthy.
With their constructions of femininity and masculinity, the films propose that
the Lutheran church represents rather traditional gender norms. However, the
films discussed here also indicate the idea that the religious sphere might open
up alternative gender norms as well. There are different ways of understand-
ing this diversity of gender norms. One can tie it to a lot of research on religion
and gender, for as many studies have illustrated, different religious traditions
allow for many different roles for both women and men30 and this could be ar-
gued to be reflected in the films. One cannot deny that many religious traditions
promote rather traditional gender norms, but these traditional norms can also
be considered alternative in contemporary society and as such make religion a
space that challenges secular gender norms.
However, the films’ use of religious settings to gender characters somewhat
differently may also stem from the fact that in the contemporary Scandinavian
context religion is understood as a largely non-restricted sphere without a set
authority; we are each allowed to imagine religion as we like. In the Scandinavi-
an context religion is generally not understood as a central sphere or a general
space, and the marginality of the space and its possible liminality might open it
up to being a transformative arena.31 If one is not in the center, one is in a sense
not only expected but also allowed to be different, and this might inspire alter-
native ideas of gender, too.
With regard to how religion is constructed and gendered in the films dis-
cussed above, it must also be noted that the form of religion that is associated
with alternative ways of gendering characters is focused on community, and
on community that puts the individual at the center. As has been pointed out
elsewhere,32 it is not surprising that one can find this form of religion in Scan-
dinavian films and that it is constructed as beneficial and inspiring of change
because it fits well with ideas of the individualization of religion in which com-
munity can also play a part as long as it is a community that focuses on the indi-
vidual. It is worth noting that this form of religion is also perceived as allowing
for alternative gender roles, as I have shown above.
Though films always suggest something about the contexts in which they are
made, here we are dealing with images of religion and gender shaped by media
and media logics, in this case the logics driving filmmaking. When we discuss re-
ligion and gender in films, as I see it, the theory of the mediatization of religion
can be very useful. One way of understanding the gendered construction of
religion in The Kautokeino Rebellion (2008) is by taking into account the genre
30 Palmer 1994; King/Beattie 2005.
31 Sjö 2015b.
32 Sjö 2012; Sjö/Danielsson 2013.
JRFM
Journal Religion Film Media, Band 02/02
- Titel
- JRFM
- Untertitel
- Journal Religion Film Media
- Band
- 02/02
- Autoren
- Christian Wessely
- Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati
- Herausgeber
- Uni-Graz
- Verlag
- Schüren Verlag GmbH
- Ort
- Graz
- Datum
- 2016
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Abmessungen
- 14.8 x 21.0 cm
- Seiten
- 168
- Kategorien
- Zeitschriften JRFM