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Sexual Liberalism in Sweden

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Sexual Revolutions

Part of the book series: Genders and Sexualities in History ((GSX))

Abstract

Stockholm, October 1964: college students discuss the issue of sex education in school, listen to lectures on jurisprudence, sociology and the moral views of the Church, they watch a pornographic movie, listen to contributions about discrimination against homosexuals, and hear testimony from two women who have had applications for abortion turned down.

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Notes

  1. Sex och samhälle (1965) Stockholm: Bonnier, 7. See also Lennerhed L (1994) Frihet att njuta. Sexualdebatten i Sverige på 1960-talet. Stockholm: Norstedts, ch. 7.

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  2. Expressen (22.5.1962); Sveriges television (27.9.1962); Sydsvenska Dagbladet (20.5.1962); Dagens Nyheter (5.6.1962); Skånska Dagbladet (2.6.1962); Asklund L (1962) Frihet för tonårsflickorna. Röster i Radio-TV 36. Jungfrutro och dubbelmoral was also published in Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

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  3. Ahlmark-Michanek K (1962) Jungfrutro och dubbelmoral. Malmö-Lund: Cavefors, 30.

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  4. Cf. Joe David Brown’s article ‘Sin & Sweden’. Time (April 1955) was followed by many others, see Lennerhed L (1994) Frihet, ch. 4 ‘Den svenska synden’. See also Glover N & Marklund C (2009) Arabian nights in the midnight sun? Exploring the temporal structure of sexual geographies. Historisk tidskrift 3.

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  5. Swärd S (1984) Varför Sverige fick fri abort. Ett studium av en policyprocess. Stockholms universitet, 36; Lennerhed L (1994) Frihet, 142. For a more thorough study of the Swedish abortion debate in the 1960s and 1970s, see Lennerhed L (2013) Sherri Finkbine’s Choice. Abortion, sex-liberalism and feminism in Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s. Women´s History Magazine 73, 13–18.

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  6. Ullerstam L (1964) De erotiska minoriteterna. Göteborg: Zindermans, 84.

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  7. Ibid., 35.

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  8. Lennerhed L (ed., 2002) Riv alla murar! Vittnesseminarier om sexliberalismen och om Pockettidningen R. Samtidshistoriska frågor 3. Samtidshistoriska institutet, Södertörns högskola.

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  9. Pallesen H (1964) De avvikande. Stockholm: Bonniers, 10.

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  12. Sex och samhälle (1964), 28–43; Lennerhed L (1994) Frihet, 195; Arnberg K (2010) Motsättningarnas marknad. Den pornografiska pressens kommersiella genombrott och regleringen av pornografi i Sverige 1950–1980. Lund: Sekel bokförlag, 163–64.

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  16. The reactions of the press are summarised in Svensk filmografi 6 1960–1969 (1969) Stockholm: Svenska filminstitutet. See also Lennerhed L (1994) Frihet, ch. 10. The film 491 was based on Lars Görling’s novel of the same name.

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  17. Collmar L (1964) 491 som skriftermål. Vår lösen 3.

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  20. Lennerhed L (1994) Frihet, 197.

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  21. See, for example, Herzog D (2011) Sexuality in Europe. A 20th Century History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 133ff for a discussion of the sexual revolution.

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  25. Australian feminist Sheila Jeffreys (1990) claimed in her book Anticlimax. A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution. London: The Women’s Press, that the 1960s revolution offered new ways of oppression, aimed at retaining men’s power over women, and that the movement originated in Sweden and Denmark. Similar ideas have been expressed in Sweden. Levin H (1986) described the 1960s revolution as a counter-revolution in Testiklarnas herravälde. Sexualmoralens historia. Stockholm: Akademilitteratur, and she especially emphasised the role played by Ullerstam.

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  26. Isaksson E (2007) Kvinnokamp. Synen på underordning och motstånd i den nya kvinnorörelsen. Stockholm: Atlas, 86ff.

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  27. Ibid.

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  28. Dodillet S (2009) Är sex arbete? Svensk och tysk prostitutionspolitik sedan 1970-talet. Stockholm: Vertigo.

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  30. Eman G (2000) Klänningens betydelse för mänsklighetens frigörelse. In: M. Andreasson (ed.) Homo i folkhemmet. Homo- och bisexuella i Sverige 1950–2000. Göteborg: Anamma.

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  31. Hallgren H (2008) När lesbiska blev kvinnor: lesbiskfeministiska kvinnors diskursproduktion rörande kön, sexualitet, kropp och identitet under 1970- och 1980-talen i Sverige. Göteborg: Kabusa Böcker.

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© 2014 Lena Lennerhed

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Lennerhed, L. (2014). Sexual Liberalism in Sweden. In: Hekma, G., Giami, A. (eds) Sexual Revolutions. Genders and Sexualities in History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137321466_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137321466_2

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-45804-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-32146-6

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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