Sexuality and homogeneity/heterogeneity

In Sweden, it comes as no surprise when catching images of men with strollers on the street, women driving bus or tram, and gay/lesbian couples holding hands in public. For the Swedes, those images are not something strange or “geeky”. More or less, they become a stereotype of this country, where women are very dominant and active in society, while men are more responsible for the families and sexuality is more liberal than elsewhere in the world.

In fact, those images above are consequences of the Swedish social welfare system. Wih this model, the state allows the citizens to choose her or his own way of life. This is manifested in the gender equality, sexual liberation, the rights to abortion, parental leave, public childcare and so on. There have been a lot of debates about this model. Some argue that it makes the society better off; people have equal rights and responsibilities, so the country is more democratic. However, some believe that the model has another side to it, such as hetero-normative, nationalistic, and normative moral/ethic values. So in what way this is problematic in Sweden?

Firstly, gender equality and sexual liberalism are the most outstanding characteristics of this social welfare state. The Swedish government believes that men and women should share their responsibilities both in family and labor market. Therefore, in Sweden, it is a common sense that a majority of women do technical and political jobs while men are more family-oriented, particularly who take parental leave when a child is born or adopted.

In the 1960s, Sweden was the first country in Scandinavia to replace maternal leave with parental leave. In 1974, the leave was extended to six months, so not only mothers but also fathers were granted the rights to leave while keeping their job (Borchorst, 2009). And today, the leave is entitled to 480 days per child, with 60 days reversed to each parent. “The principle is that you split it in half, but that the father can donate part of his leave to the mother, or vice versa” (The Local). And in fact, a lot of fathers are happy doing this job, because “Everyone does!” - said Mikael Karlsson in an interview for The NYTimes, while he was still cradling his 2-month-old baby.

Theoritically, the policy of parental leave in Sweden is to achieve gender equality in a democratic society and Sweden has already achieved this goal. But in reality, it causes a problem for a number of people who are not ‘father’ and ‘mother’. Particularly, in Sweden, same-sex partnership is officially recognized and same-sex couples are also accepted to adopt children. However, the parental leave policy is only applicable for families with fathers and mothers, precisely heterosexual couples, but does not mention anything about same-sex parents. Therefore, in some way, it means that the same-sex parents can not have the same parental leave benefits when a child is adopted. It has created a paradox, in which heterosexuality becomes a norm in the society, while in Sweden the term sexual liberalism, in fact, should also include homosexuality.

Because of this fact, many voices raised suggesting that the constitution should be based on a perspective that is critical of heteronormativity, because it is not fair for people who are not heterosexual (AXESS). Therefore, the terms ‘queer’ and ‘queer theory’ also become more popular in gender studies and sexuality discourses.

Briefly, ‘queer’ refers to people who are unusual, strange and having inappropriate social behavior. But in contemporary usage, it is an umbrella term for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual (LGBT) or any non-heterosexual people (ALGBTICAL). However, according tho queer theory, it is impossible to determine what a person really is. The Left Party defines a queer society is “a society in which people have the right and the opportunity to be and develop into what they really are”, and the Green Party believes that queer should be a norm in the society so it “makes all genders equal and does not place emphasis on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression”. Nonetheless, this is still only a theory, and the Swedish government needs to make a great effort to achieve this goal.

In relations to sexual liberalism, prostitution in Sweden is legal, but only selling sex is allowed. Queer theorists say that in this case, prostitution always benefits the liberation of women, and again, the community of LGBTs is invsible. Carol Queen, a queer activist in the US prostitution movement, argues that “there is still a group who really want to sell sex and are not negatively affected by it” (AXESS), so why heterosexuality is still a norm when sexuality has been more liberalized in this society?

This is because Sweden is a very feminist country (as mentioned above, their role is very dominant), the radical feminists are people who challenge the norm to be changed. In their ideolody, sexual intercourse is described as a penetration of a women’s vagina and a men’s penis, and that is natural sexual intercourse. Thus, it implies that two people with the same sex can not have sexual intercourse and that is, probably, unnatural. As a result, it is always a tough work for queer theorists to define an ideal sexuality (Dodillet, AXESS)

Likewise, the issue of abortion in Sweden is also very controversial both inside and outside this country. As one of the earliest social welfare states, Sweden was among the first countries to legalize abortion, and until now, the country is still very generous giving abortion rights to women, as long as the pregnancy is not over the 18th week.

Primarily, the abortion right in 1938 in Sweden was for women who were impregnated by rape or were inherited with some serious condition by the child. But today, even sex-selective abortion is also legal, and becomes an endless debate in the Swedish discourses.

The Local published an article written about a woman from Eskilstuna in southern Sweden who requested an amniocentesis after knowing the gender of her unborn child. It was such a difficult situation for the doctors since the abortion could not be refused. However, the matter of moral and ethical value is highly concerned in this situation.

Usually, the issue of abortion are related to politics and the law. No one can answer if abortion should be treated like the murder of a human person, or it is a legal right to make decision of all women. Because some people argue that the fetus belongs to a woman’s body and she has the right to abort it if she wants. However, some argue that a fetus is like a person and aborting the fetus is like murdering a person. Therefore, the problem is still openly discussed without any solution given.

However, if queer theory is applied to this case, in my opinion, the problem might be more easily solved. Since some women decide to abort their child just because of its gender, it is best not to set any particular gender as a norm. In this case, there will be no discrimination between human’s gender, because everyone should be the same. No one cares if you are a girl or a boy or even a homosexual. As a result, sex-selective abortion will never happen, there is no need to concern about the moral/ethical value.

Nonetheless, this is only a theory. Inspite of the fact that the theory is applicable, there are a lot more challenges in reality that the Swedish welfare state has to face with. And the state has to make more efforts to avoid negative effects of what it has granted in this society. Hopefully, the model of Swedish social welfare state is still the most standard model for all other social welfare states, especially other countries in Scandinavia.

REFERENCES

Anette Borchorst, 2008. `Women-friendly Policy Paradoxes?, Gender equality and welfare politics in Scandinavia. The limits of political ambition? Edited bu Karl Melby, Anna-Birte Ravn, and Christina Carlsson Wetterberg. The Olicy Press, University of Bristol.

James Savage, “How does Swedish parental leave work?”, The Local. Retrieved on 2^nd June 2011. http://www.thelocal.se/14022/20080829/

Katrin Benhold, “In Sweden, Men can have it all”. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2^nd June 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/world/europe/10iht-sweden.html?pagewanted=all

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 804