ABSTRACT
While Chapters 3 and 4 touch on police culture indirectly, this chapter (and Chapter 6) goes into more depth about the cultural context of the Swedish police. The focus is the societal image of the police as masculine – often referred to as “macho” – and how this relates to the exclusion and inclusion of LGB sexuality. The notions of masculinity and femininity are used for analyzing the data, which in this chapter consists mainly of statements about the Swedish police from LGB police officers. The concept of masculinity work is introduced, signifying the phenomenon that those who do not fit into the norm of traditional masculinity might need to do “work” to display behavior showing that they are masculine. This type of work appears to be required especially by gay male police officers. In addition, the chapter uses the concept of the heterosexual matrix – which suggests that a key way of expressing masculinity is to show desire for women – to explain why it seems to be more difficult to be a gay man than a lesbian woman in the police.
