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The aim for this thesis was to investigate how the rape narratives, where men are raped by women, are portrayed in Swedish youth literature to be able to discover whether the discourse of rape has been subjected to change over time. This is done through a comparative analysis of the male victims, the female perpetrators and how power structures determine the credibility of the victims in Glappet (1998) by Christina Herrström and Sebbe sa nej (2019) by Niclas Christoffer. The investigation is done against the context that shows how female on male rape has been constructed and reproduced as unlikely, based in culturally established norms that depict men as sexually active and women as sexually passive.

A model combining Judith Butler’s theory regarding how penetration secures the sexes, with Gayle Rubin’s theory on the sexual value system, is developed and used to detect how the unintelligible rape is made intelligible. In addition to this Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubars’ angel/monster dichotomy is used to explain the construction of the female perpetrator.

Through the analysis it becomes visible that the narratives are shaped in certain ways to make the unintelligible rape intelligible. The understanding of sexual perpetrators and victims is deeply connected to the cultural understandings regarding gender norms and sexuality. In many ways female on male rape is constructed as an exception in the novels, and explained in terms that fit within a heteronormative framework. Despite this, the comparison of the narratives shows that the concept of rape has broadened enough to include female on male rape as a type of sexual violence.