This essay focuses on the press coverage of the riots in Gothenburg 2001. The questions it aims to answer are, How is it that although the media was gender-neutral in its news reports, the lasting memory is one of rioting men, and why did the media simultaneously exaggerate and minimize the importance of the riots?

The material consists of articles and photographs from Swedish mainstream newspapers. The method is text analysis, with a heavy influence of discourse theory. The conclusions are that since the hegemonic discourse on gender does not allow women to be active and violent, all bodies in the riot automatically become men, no matter how female they seem to be in other contexts. The tendency of the press to both enhance and lessen the significance of the riots is because the power balance between the hegemonic discourse (represented by the police) and the challenging discourse (represented by the rioteers) shifted, and perhaps it shifted more than anyone was prepared for. The hegemonic discourse has to re-instate itself as hegemonic, and thus the press has to reduce the impact of the riots. The augmentation of the significance is intended to portray rioting as something normal people does not do, by portraying the rioteers as hooligans and terrorists.