| 1. |
- Björklund, Elisabet, 1983-
(författare)
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The Most Delicate Subject : A History of Sex Education Films in Sweden
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to present a history of sex education films in Sweden, from their beginnings until the late 1970s, relating the films to the changing historical context of the Swedish welfare society. Within this framework, the dissertation explores two main sets of questions. First, utilizing a contextual understanding of genre, the dissertation analyzes how the films were produced, exhibited, and censored, what position and status they had, and where the borders were understood to be to kindred types of film, such as exploitation and pornography. Second, the norms and ideas about sexuality that the films construct are explored from a social constructionist perspective and put in historical context. Apart from the films themselves, the material used consists of censorship records, archival material, and articles and reviews from the daily press and the trade press.The study demonstrates that the sex education film has always been a delicate genre, and that this delicacy is related to the medium and to the fact that cinema is part of the commercial market. The sex education film came to Sweden through imported films during the silent era and was relatively common at Swedish movie theaters from the 1920s to the early 1970s. Very quickly, it became a contested genre thought to be in need of regulation, which can be seen in the censorship procedures. For instance, until the 1950s, screenings were often restricted through gender segregation. When film censorship was liberalized in the 1960s, sex education films could show more than before, and when the films in the sexually explicit Language of Love series (1969–1972) were released, their relationship to pornography became a central point of discussion. The changing views on using film in school sex education are also examined. Here, it is shown that if film was seen as a potentially helpful tool in the 1920s and 1930s, this view had changed into a more skeptical position by the early 1970s.In the analysis of the content of the films, only Swedish examples are studied. In the first group of theatrically shown films of this kind, which appeared in the 1940s and 1950s, sexuality is represented as problematic through the themes of venereal disease and abortion. Here, casual sex is seen as immoral and abortion is condemned. At the same time, the films display how traditional and modern views on sexuality and gender were under negotiation during this period. While reproduction was the dominating perspective in school films well into the 1970s, the Language of Love films display a radically different perspective on sex, not least because of their focus on sexual pleasure. However, while the films advocate a liberal idea about sexuality according to which science leads to liberation, a focus on romantic long-term relationships can also be noted. Throughout the period, there is an emphasis on rationality and science and on a secular perspective on sex in which love is seen as more important than matrimony. In this way, the films in general reflect a strong belief in modernity and progress that was characteristic of Sweden during the welfare era.
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| 2. |
- Folkesson, Per, 1946-
(författare)
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Katastrofer och män : Explorativa undersökningar av ett komplext förhållande
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present work is a doctoral dissertation in the field of social work with a gender perspective. Three case studies with an explorative approach were conducted, with the following research questions as the point of departure: a) is there a catastrophe-related gender segregation regarding men, and b) if so, what does this segregation look like in terms of related forms and phenomena? The work has its methodological basis in grounded theory, which is designed to generate theory that is firmly grounded in empirical data. Through theoretical sampling, information regarding three catastrophes was collected – the ethnic cleansing in Srebrenica in 1995, the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, and the discothèque fire in Gothenburg 1998. The central finding of the empirical studies suggests that there was a catastrophe-related gender segregation regarding men in all three cases. This was primarily evident in the fact that men collectively organized to defeat the causes and consequences of the catastrophic events that had taken place. Women were evacuated from the scene while men were left behind, or ordered there to help combat the catastrophe. Other phenomena that proved to be related to the main phenomenon, i.e. catastrophe-related gender segregation, were, for example, polarized normative patterns regarding men that pointed toward correctness, loyalty, and maximal performance on the one hand, or incorrectness, cowardice, and treachery on the other, and also altered psychological states as part of a process of mental mobilization in preparation of catastrophe-controlling tasks. The catastrophes conditioned a redefinition of the relationship between men and women where the consistent structural priority given to men was temporarily suspended.To a great extent, men were collectively exposed to deadly risks, and in two of the three cases the actual mortality of men was very high. The findings have led to the conclusion that men are relatively expendable in the event of a catastrophe. This conclusion, which is part of a grounded theory of the relationship between catastrophes and men, is discussed in the final chapter of the dissertation in relation to existing theory regarding sex, gender, and patriarchy, and phenomena like dissociation, civilization, and safety.
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| 3. |
- Scaramuzzino, Gabriella, 1979-
(författare)
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Sexsäljares och sexköpares kollektiva handlande på internet : En svensk "fuckförening"?
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to understand and explain the importance that prostitution forums have for the exercise of power and influence in the area of prostitution. It also seeks to clarify how these forums developed and were able to occur within a Swedish context. Sweden was the first country to legislate to criminalise only the buying, but not the sale, of sexual services. Social work provisions aims to get people out of prostitution. The thesis is based on an ethnographic study of the three largest Swedish prostitution forums during a two-year period. The empirical material consists of both quantitative participant and content analysis and field notes from observation of the interactions on the forums. The theoretical framework is based mainly on A Theory of Fields by Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam. It focuses on the collective action on - and between - fields and how institutions are reproduced and changed. The results show that most of the content was published by a smaller group of actors. The interaction can be divided into the following subjects: social shims; information; negotiations and rules; advice and support; viewpoints on the forum as well as discussion on prostitution and its regulation. Moreover, the study shows that the forums enabled both sex service providers and sex clients to meet collectively, pursue common interests and discuss which rules should prevail in the prostitution market. Providers also pursued self-organised harm reduction social measures. This form of self-help was also sanctioned by a municipal prostitution unit, which can be interpreted as if it acted in a contrary direction to the government’s prostitution policy. The actors in the forums perceived themselves to be stigmatised by society, where sex service providers to a greater extent than sex clients, described a form of stigma. In the forums they could, however, feel a sense of belonging. The actors perceived themselves to be monitored by the Swedish state and they collectively self-regulated the interaction. Sex service providers and sex clients also co-operated, on occasions, with the Swedish state in order to jointly combat child prostitution, human trafficking and organised crime.
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