ISSN 1653-2244
From a hashtag to a movement
From MeToo to being rightless in 2020’s Sweden
By Klara Fröberg
Supervisor: Dr Charlotta Widmark
INSTITUTIONEN FÖR KULTURANTROPOLOGI OCH ETNOLOGI DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY
2021
MASTERUPPSATSER I KULTURANTROPOLOGI
Nr 104
Abstract
This thesis investigates the continuance of the MeToo movement in the Swedish context via the digital platform Instagram, collective action and feminist organizations that are engaged to end sexual vio- lence. It illuminates how the sisterhood impacted by the practice of challenging the rape script a con- cept used to describe the discourse on how sexual violence should be like, and how victim-survivors should behave, how the engagement is made among the activists that engage to challenge the rape script and lastly, how since the MeToo movement started a discourse of rightlessness have been ex- posed through the sharing of experiences that the MeToo movement initiated.
The ethnographic study is based on participant observation of feminist actions in real life and on Instagram as well as interviews with 13 activists from feminist organizations and with background as organisers of collective actions.
It is found that the MeToo movement in Sweden is commonly practiced through an engagement in Feminist organizations that serve to keep the movement alive through continuous work to keep sexual violence on the agenda by keeping it visible, and that the engagement is driven by an experience of anger towards the societal discourse that sets the discourse on rape which affects the possibility to be recognized by the legal system. The thesis will overall suggest that there is a sisterhood built on a collective identity, and that the shared identity and oppression between non-men with an aspiration to support one another in the experience of oppression as well as organize safety nets for those who are sentenced for defamation as a consequence of speaking out.
Key words: rape script, MeToo, sexual violence, Rättslösa, radical feminism, Sweden, Femi- nism, political engagement, feminist organization, collective action, rightlessness, movement, patriar- chy, collective identity, feminist separatism, discourse theory
For victim-surviors
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Charlotta Widmark, who has offered me guidance and support throughout the journey that this thesis has been. I would also wish to express the deepest gratitude to the participants, the passionate feminists that made this thesis possible through sharing their insights and experiences with me, and to the organizations that allowed me to follow their work and helped me find participants for this study, it would not have been possible without you.
And a big thank you to my family that has supported me and never stopped believing in me, and to my friends, Johanna who has been my cheerleader and inspiration throughout this process, and to Bim, Frida, Martin, Sara, Kaitlin and James who have offered me their insights, support and study company.
Content
Acknowledgments ... v
1. Introduction ... 1
Aim and Research Questions ... 3
Outline ... 4
Background ... 5
The Origins of the MeToo Movement ... 5
MeToo in Sweden ... 5
Gender Equality in Sweden ... 6
Rape, Sexual Abuse and Sexual Harassment ... 7
The Women’s Organization Context ... 8
Different “Feminisms” ... 9
Oppression ... 9
Academic Relevance ... 10
2. Theoretical Tools and Terminology ... 14
Discourse ... 14
Rape Script ... 15
Vulnerability and Resistance ... 16
Networked Connectivity and Digital Sisterhood ... 17
Reinhabiting the Body ... 18
Collective Identity ... 18
Cultural Sexism ... 19
Non-Men ... 19
Participating in Activism ... 20
Fieldwork Online ... 20
Interviews ... 21
Ethical Considerations ... 23
Position in the Field ... 23
3. #MeToo: Speaking out ... 25
Making sexual violence visible ... 25
Identifying Experiences ... 30
Conclusion ... 36
4. “Somebody has to do something” – Engaging in Feminist Organizations ... 38
Feminist Identity ... 38
Engaging in the Feminist Movement ... 41
Collective identity – non-men welcome? ... 44
Networked Feminism ... 48
Conclusion ... 51
5. #Rättslösa – Without Right to Justice ... 53
Being Rightless ... 53
Engaging in a Collective Action ... 55
Defamation – Speaking out for Redress ... 61
Conclusion ... 65
6. Concluding Discussion ... 67
Conclusions ... 67
The impact of the MeToo movement ... 68
The Rightless Discourse ... 69
Further Research ... 70
References ... 72
Interviews ... 72
Interview 1 ... 72
Interview 2 ... 72
Interview 3 ... 72
Interview 4 ... 73
Interview 5 ... 73
Interview 6 ... 73
Interview 7 ... 74
Interview 8 ... 74
Interview 9 ... 74
Interview 10 ... 75
Interview 11 ... 75
Interview 12 ... 75
Interview 13 ... 76
Observation ... 76
Organizations and Instagram accounts ... 76
Literature ... 77
Electronic resources ... 79
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1. Introduction
I am mostly angry and disappointed after this. I am mad and disappointed over our justice system when it comes to preliminary investigations. I have field a plaint to Stockholm’s district court in order to get better structure of the preliminary investigations. How police and prosecutor work. I am suggesting that it have been way to bad and that the person who is in my position do not have a rule of law (Lambertz 2021).
This is how Göran Lambertz who previously worked as attorney general in the supreme court, an alleged rapist expressed himself after the case towards him was closed due to lack of evidence. He is accused of raping a student at Uppsala University and the woman describes the experience as “I passed out due to the alcohol and woke up by him having sex with me, afterwards he apologized to me for what had happened, and I was near collapsing physically and mentally. He was a person I trusted completely, like a father figure in my life” (Falkirik 2021). During a press conference Lambetz ex- plained that he was sticky (kladdig) meaning he was handsy towards her but explained that she later wanted to have sex with him while referring to her as a liar and a fraud for reporting him (Skoglund 2021). And in April this year the documentary “Persona non Grata” aired at the Swedish state televi- sion (Sveriges Television), a documentary about the alleged rapist Soran Ismail, a Swedish comedian who was called out by three women for allegedly raping and assaulting them, as they reported the crimes their cases were closed, and one of the women who called him out in a closed Facebook group to get support from other women, she later was charged for defamation. The documentary was highly criticized and consisted of Ismail claiming that he had sex with a lot of people and that he has been hurting many, yet he states that he did not assault anyone, and that he should be considered as non- guilty and should get redemption (Åhman 2021).
The two cases from the Swedish media, mentioned above, could be seen as evidence that the feminist movement had a backlash and the MeToo movement was over and done with. But, on the contrary, the media cases were at the time of the writing of this thesis used as examples by several activists to stress why the MeToo movement is still needed and should continue. According to them,
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a consequence of the space given to alleged perpetrators in media is that victim-survivors are silenced, as expressed by the organization Breaking the Silence1:
Is this what responsible to publicizing look like 2021? That women’s voices are silenced? That reported men should have right to airing time where they freely get to give their perspective on the event? Is this the punishment for women who managed to speak out during #metoo? A revolution that has led to more sentences regarding defamation then for rape.
Women like myself posted #MeToo in 2017 followed by the quote by Alyssa Milano "If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote "Me too” as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem”. Going into the fieldwork I was under the impression that the MeToo movement was what happened during the autumn of 2017, as the literature on the movement com- monly refer to the movement in past tense, or as an era that we have passed, Savigny (2020) stresses in the introduction to the book Cultural Sexism that “this book is about working out, how and why, in an era that we might even call post #MeToo, very little seem to have changed structurally” (2020:4).
In the light of that quote, this study was supposed to be on the post-MeToo era, but as the interviews proceeded, I was counterclaimed as I asked the participants in past tense how they had experienced the MeToo movement, one of the participants Amina immediately corrected me as she wrote:
I experienced it as a new demonstration of strength against sexual violence and I still consider the issue as current and highly relevant. We cannot say after MeToo until ALL sexual violence have ended. I was quickly proven that the MeToo movement is still powerful and alive.
And by the statement, she expressed what many of the participants have stated in the interviews, that the MeToo movement is far from being over.
The MeToo movement has alongside pointing out the magnitude of the problem served to shed light on the flaws within the justice system, and how the norms on how sexual violence “should be” is acting to undermine testimonies’ and are acting to minimize victim-survivors’ opportunities’ to iden- tify their experiences and report them to the police. The space given to alleged perpetrators to claim their perspectives in media, is acting as a method to attempt to ensure that women know, that they are rightless. In this thesis I will address how the MeToo movement in Sweden has served to make the norms on sexual violence visible, and how the movement is acting to change the norms. The Rightless movement (rättslösa) came to be an extension on the MeToo movement that pointed out that only 5 out of 100 reported rapes lead to conviction (Brottsförebygganderådet 2019), and as a consequence
1 All organizations mentioned are pseudonyms to protect the identity of the participants in this study.
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actions were arranged in Swedish cities mainly during 2019 where non-men collectively stood outside police stations and courts side by side with their mouths taped shut to symbolize how the lack of sentences towards assaulters is acting to silence women’s experiences. Another aspect that the MeToo movement brought forward was that a woman that speaks out publicly about her experiences can be charged with defamation, the Swedish newspaper Daily News (Dagens Nyheter) shared the story of a woman referred to as K who came to be sentenced for defamation after speaking out:
K has on Facebook under the hashtag MeToo written among other things" The man who raped me is called [NN], born [XX] is white, lives in Solna and has a partner and children "," he is a repeat offender " , "I never reported him because the consent law did not go through" and "the shame that often afflicts people who are abused made it take time before I even understood that I had been raped (Schultz 2018)
K’s story points out what this thesis is about, the MeToo movement, the rape script which is the norm on how a rape should be to be considered real, and to be recognized. The script controls who are to be trusted in their story and how a rape “should be” in order to be legit both in front of the law and to be recognized in the society. The norm has over the years been acting to silence victim-survivors, leaving them with a feeling of being rightless in front of the law. The rape script has through the MeToo campaigns been recognized as a consequence of the non-normative accounts of rape that have gained a space to be heard, as they may not have been recognized by the legal system or been identified as rape before by the victim-survivors themselves due to the script. During my study I have come to the understanding that little scholarly work has focused on how the MeToo movement is affecting the norms on how rape and sexual violence is understood within Swedish society. Therefore, this thesis will make an effort to provide an account of how the rape script is being challenged and are changing as a consequence of continuous efforts of MeToo activists.
Aim and Research Questions
The aim with this thesis is to contribute to an understanding of how the MeToo movement is acting to challenge the normative account of rape in Sweden through collective action and analyze the media debate that is surrounding the movement.
The overall research question I am pursing in my study is: How is the MeToo movement at- tempting to challenge the rape script in Sweden?
The question will be answered through three in depth questions: 1) How is the sisterhood impacted by the practice of challenging the rape script? 2) how is feminist engagement practiced in the movement I have studied? 3) How is the rightless discourse manifested within the groups studied?
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I suggest that the MeToo-movement has two effects on the Swedish feminist movement, 1) a focus on challenging the rape script has been integrated into the feminist discourse; 2) the discourse focuses on rightlessness, as opposed to the earlier focus on the extent of sexual violence 3) the sister- hood that emerged as a consequence of the MeToo movement exists to support and inform victim- survivors.
Outline
In order to introduce the context of the study and introduce the reader to the MeToo movement and gender equality in Sweden the introductory chapter includes the section background. It discusses the origin of the MeToo movement, the MeToo movement in Sweden, gender equality in Sweden and the context of feminist organizations in Sweden. I then proceed to outline the previous research in the area of MeToo and its campaigns, digital activism and experiences of sexual violence. Then, continue with outlining the theoretical and terminological framework applied in the study and the ethnographic methods employed and the ethical considerations.
In chapter 3-5 I will present and analyze the ethnographic data in detail. In chapter three, I will investigate how the MeToo movement is acting to make sexual violence visible and how the feminist organizations in my study are acting to keep to movement alive through continuing the practice of sharing testimonies and articles. The chapter presents the participants the participants personal expe- riences, and how time and context is essential to understand experiences of sexual violence. The chap- ter will include a discussion on vulnerability and resistance (Butler 2016) and how the MeToo move- ment challenges the rape script (Marcus 1992, Loney-Howes 2018) and how the MeToo movement have allowed women to revisit past experiences and identify them for what they are (Ahmed 2017).
In chapter four, I outline the characteristics of the feminist engagement that I have focused on in this study and the feminist identity, feminist rage, on building a collective identity, collective action and a connectivity through belonging to a sisterhood and the practicing of feminism through digital platforms.
In chapter five, I will present the characteristics of the rightless actions arranged during 2019 and 2020 which continued to shed light on sexual violence and the unjust treatment of victim-survi- vors, I will present how the movement was understood by the those who arranged an action and the participants that did not arrange an action. I will provide details on the discourse where feminist sense that they are rightless, as victim-survivors are being charged with defamation and only 5% of reported rapes lead to eviction.
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Lastly, a concluding discussion is presented in chapter 6 where the answers to the research questions will be concluded.
Background
The Origins of the MeToo Movement
In 2006 Tarana Burke founded the MeToo movement as a method to raise awareness and understand- ing about sexual assault within underprivileged communities of color in United States. Burke stated that MeToo “was a catchphrase to be used from survivor to survivor to let folks know that they were not alone and that a movement for radical healing was happening and possible” (Shugerman 2017) the purpose of the movement in 2006 was to help young women of color that have survived sexual assault, later the movement took a life of its own according to Burke as she came aware of that adults needed the movement too (Santiago and Criss 2017). On October 17th, 2017 Alyssa Milano called for victim- survivors to use the hashtag #MeToo on social media as she stated that “if you’ve been sexually har- assed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet” and “Me Too. Suggested by a friend: If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote Me Too as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem” (Fileborn and Loney-Howes 2019:3). Twitter ex- pressed that the hashtag had been used 825 000 times within the first two days and Facebook stated that within 24 hours 4,7 million people around the world have used the hashtag and that 45% of the people in United States were friends with someone that have posted Me Too (Santiago and Criss 2017).
MeToo in Sweden
In United States the MeToo movement came to focus primary on the entertainment industry and media, while in Sweden the movement came to have a wider spread as a consequence of the widespread debate on gender equality that already exists, in surveys such as the World value survey Sweden have been ranked as one of the countries with most equality in terms of gender, and that a large number of the citizens are considering that men and women should have equal opportunity. It has been argued that as feminism is highly recognized in Sweden has allowed for more women to break the silence as there is a sense that when speaking out one will be heard, which has been reflected in the reactions within the government, the parties, from the large media houses and from law firms (Börling and Eriksson 2017).
The MeToo movement in the Swedish context came to be characterized by the vast number of campaigns (65 in total) based on separate industries experiences, such as #silencerecording
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(#tystnadtagning) where 703 Swedish actresses described experiences of sexual harassment within the film and television industry in the Swedish newspaper (Svenska Dagbladet). The testimonies came to inspire many more initiatives of similar character within other occupations that created their own hashtags under which they shared their testimonies. The Swedish MeToo movement later came to encourage political action, on December 17th, 2017, the consent law was proposed by the government lead by the Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven, a law which would prohibit non-consensual sex.
The Swedish parliament unitedly voted for the law to pass, and in July 2018 the law came into force (Pollack 2019:186-187). While the MeToo movement initially focused on collective actions within separate industries, the focus later shifted to public outings of alleged perpetrators and the media cov- erage of the individuals involved. As people were publicly named and accused of abuse, one of them was Fredrik Virtanen a reporter at the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet by the Instagram activist (Pol- lack 2019:189-190) Cissi Wallin, who came to be sentenced for grave defamation for claiming that Fredrik Virtanen is a rapist on her Instagram at multiple occasions (Lindkvist and Lenas 2019). Cissi Wallin plays a central role in the MeToo movement calling out her alleged perpetrator gained plenty of media attention, and later she came to be the founder of what came to be referred to as the Rightless movement that serves to point out the how there is an problem with the rule of law when it comes to sexual violence consisting in both how only 5% of rape is reported to the police, and out of small proportion only 5% lead to a sentence and then, those who choose to speak out publicly are charged with defamation (Cissi Wallin 2019). According to numbers reported by Swedish Television News in May 2021 all of the 10 women that have been reported for defamation for speaking out against their alleged perpetrator have been sentenced for defamation (Wanngård 2021).
Gender Equality in Sweden
The overarching Swedish principle for gender equality is that everyone, regardless of gender, has the right to work and support themselves, to balance career and family life, and to live without the fear of abuse or violence (Swedish Institute 2021).
The Swedish government in place 2021 led by Prime minister Stefan Löfven who has been Prime minister since 2014, states that they are the first feminist government in the world, and that gender equality is central to the priorities of the government, as well as claiming that they would ensure that gender quality perspective is bought into policy-making processes at a national and international level (Regeringskansliet 2021). Despite the efforts of the government, Sweden is currently battling high rape statistics, some of the highest in the world, which is stated to be partly because every rape is
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reported as a separate crime, which is not the case in every country (Swedish Institute 2021). In the Gothenburg-post (Göteborgs-posten) Lena Ag director general at the Swedish Equality Agency (Jäm- ställdhetsmyndigheten) and Lena Nyberg’s director general at the youth and civil society (myndigheten för ungdoms- och civilsamhällesfrågor) claims that being a young woman in Sweden is living with circumstances that are not acceptable in the modern society. Almost half of all young women are re- porting that they are feeling unsafe (osäker) walking in their own neighborhood at night, and 23% of women in ages 16-24 declare that they have experienced sexual violence and harassment. And every second girl and young woman up to the age of 29 will at some point in their lives experience sexual violence (Ag and Nyberg 2021). The Swedish Discrimination act applied from 2009 demands that employees should act against harassment in the workplace on the basis of sex, transgender identity or expression, sexual orientation. religion or belief, ethnicity, disability and age. The goal for gender equality is to ensure equality between women and men in all domains, such as equal distribution and to ensure that knowledge and experience of women and men are applied to promote progress within all aspects of the society (Swedish Institute 2021).
Rape, Sexual Abuse and Sexual Harassment
In 2018, the definition of negligent was added to the Swedish laws of sex crime that is commonly described as the consent law led to redefinitions of the laws regarding sex crimes. The definition of rape is described as the following: “Anyone who, with a person who does not participate voluntarily, performs intercourse or another sexual act that, in view of the seriousness of the violation, is compa- rable to intercourse, is sentenced for rape to imprisonment for a minimum of two years and a maximum of six years. When assessing whether a participation is voluntary or not, special consideration must be given to whether voluntariness has been expressed through words or deeds or in any other way”
(Brottsbalken, 2018:618, 6:1, my translation). Negligent rape is further described “Anyone who com- mits an act referred to […] and is grossly negligent regarding the fact that the other person does not participate voluntarily, is sentenced for negligent rape to imprisonment for a maximum of four years”
(Brottsbalken, 2018:618, 6:1, my translation)
Sexual abuse is defined as the following:” Anyone who, with a person who does not participate voluntarily, performs a sexual act other than that referred to in section 1, is sentenced to sexual impris- onment for a maximum of two years.” (Brottsbalken, 2018:618, 6:2, my translation) and here the neg- ligent term is applied “Anyone who commits an act referred to in section 2 and is grossly negligent regarding the fact that the other person does not participate voluntarily, is sentenced for negligent
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sexual abuse to imprisonment for a maximum of four years” (Brottsbalken, 2018:618, 6:3, my trans- lation).
Sexual harassment is defined as the following in the Swedish law: “Anyone who physically assaults someone else or exposes another to disturbing contacts or other reckless conduct is sentenced, if the act is likely to violate the victim's peace in a tangible way, is sentenced for harassment to a fine or imprisonment for a maximum of one year” (Brottsbalken 2017:1136, 4:7, my translation).
The Women’s Organization Context
In an effort of building on the equality work of the Swedish government a new authority was put in place in January 2018 to ensure the priority of gender equality is being institutionalized, the authority came to be called The Swedish Equality Authority (Jämställdhetsmyndigheten). The new authority is tasked to work closely to other authorities, county councils, regions, municipalities, civil society and the business sector to follow the process and development of equality and act as experts within the area. Another key aspect of their work is grants, they have two major focus areas for grants, one being recently established women’s organizations with at least 75% female members to support women’s organization and support women’s participation in the democratic process and society, the financial aid is to enable women to monitor their rights and process their demands according to the agency (Jämställdhetsmyndigheten 2020). Another grant available is for equality projects, which is handed out to innovative projects that contribute to raising knowledge that is of value for the equality work.
The grant is available for non-profit organizations (ideella organisationer) and foundations (stiftelser) (Jämställdhetsmyndigheten 2021). On the advisory council for the authority is a representative from the non-profit umbrella organization Sweden’s women’s lobby (Sveriges kvinnolobby) an umbrella organization founded 1997, whose purpose is organizing women’s organizations in Sweden. The lobby which currently consist of 50 organizations is requiring that member-organizations must have at least 80% female members in the organization and must be working for gender equality and women’s rights.
The umbrella organization is a member of the European Women’s Lobby and is consulting the United Nations in the economic and social councils’ and is participating on the behalf of the member-organi- zations in the Commission on the Status of Women on a yearly basis. At a local level the umbrella organization is conducting reports to the Swedish government and parliament (Sveriges Kvinnolobby 2021).
9 Different “Feminisms”
Feminism has its foundation in demanding equality between men and women, and to end male domi- nance and the power imbalance consisting in the subordination of the woman. Since the 1920s different feminist groupings have developed as different approaches and focus areas have developed among feminists (Rupp and Taylor 1999:372-376). Here I will define the main feminisms, liberal feminism argues that sex should not determine the value of an individual and that men and women should be considered equally capable of being chief (Weedon 1999:14-15). Liberal feminists are generally fo- cused on women’s access to qualified work and that women’s unequal position in the society is due to women having been excluded from the politics and law in the past. For liberal feminists, there is a focus on that women should have the same freedoms and rights as men already inherit, and that the solution is education, upbringing and change of attitudes (Gemzøe 2017:34). Weedon describes the socialist feminist analysis as;” In socialist feminist analysis, exploitative class, race and gender inter- ests will persist until capitalism as a social system is transformed” (Weedon 1999:147), it is suggested that the socialist feminist agenda is to change the order of society as the class system is subordinating women within the spheres of the workplace, sexuality, family and motherhood (Weedon 1999:146- 147).
Radical feminism, which is the primary focus of this study is stating that women are oppressed due to their sex and that oppression of women is the most common and widespread oppression. The oppression is expressed through men’s controlling of women, sexual oppression, abuse of women and misogyny. Radical feminists have their foundation in the expression of “the personal is political” and are traditionally organizing themselves in groups and are practicing consciousness raising against their common enemy patriarchy which is the societal structure of men’s domination over women (Gemzøe 2017:48-49). To define feminism, and who is a feminist might seem difficult as there are different focuses within the different feminisms. Gemzøe has identified a feminist as a person who consider “1) that women are subordinated men and 2) that this relation need to change” (Gemzøe 2002:13, my translation).
Oppression
A central aspect of the feminist movement is that of ending oppression towards women, and that the oppression is embedded within the societal structure created by norms, habits and symbols, as the oppression is deeply imbedded oppressors commonly act unaware of the consequences of their actions.
Ending structural oppression is therefore a difficult matter since it is embedded in the cultural, political and economic institutions. There are multiple grounds of oppression which are in fact, embedded in
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the structure of the society, this thesis will focus on the oppression of women and non-men in general.
The oppressed group is defined by the existence of a power imbalance where one group is privileged over the other, the benefits that the privileged group attain serves as motivation for the oppression to continue (Young 1990:41-42). In the case of men’s oppression of women, it consists in a power, status and money imbalances which is expressed through the exclusion of women from positions of power which allows for men to practice control over women (Young 1990:50). Another important aspect of the oppression is the aspect of systematic violence that is defined as a directed violence towards mem- bers of a group, simply because they are members of a group, which is an important aspect for this thesis as Young (1990) suggest that every woman have a reason to fear rape, everyone knows that I happen, and everyone knows that it will happen again the author states “the oppression of violence consists not only in direct victimization, but in the daily knowledge shared by all members of the oppressed groups that they are liable to violation, solely on the account of their group identity” (Young 1990:62).
bell hooks define feminism as “the movement to end sexism, sexual exploitation and sexual oppression (2000:33) therefore the feminist movement consist in what has not yet ended (Ahmed 2017:5). Feminists are commonly theorizing the structural oppression of women as patriarchy, patri- archy stands for a political, social and ideological system where men enforce through traditions, rituals, language, education, law, education and labor division the roles women should and should not play within the society. The structure ensures that the women is always beneath the man, thus this does not mean that no women have power, or that all women within a culture does not have power as there are examples of cultures and societies that women are above the male in the power structure (Weedon 1999:20). Ahmed (1998) explains that western feminist may hear the voices of ‘other’ women who are raising their voices against cultural traditions but shall not speak for ‘other’ women and should not use
‘other’ cultural traditions to conceptualize an understanding of a universal patriarchy (1998:57). Which is why, this thesis is focusing on Swedish feminism and western feminism instead of an attempt to universalize and speak for those who I do not have mandate to speak for.
Academic Relevance
Kelly (1987, 1988) have raised perspectives of sexual violence in different forms that take place over a women’s lifetime and feminist thought of the experience of sexual violence, which sets the founda- tion of the theoretical understanding of sexual violence in this thesis. Gribaldo (2019) is an anthropol- ogist that have written an article on anthropological perspective and the study of gender-based violence
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and the MeToo movement where they draw from the concepts of witnessing and speaking out which will be applied in this thesis, the author called for anthropological perspectives on gender-based vio- lence to provide an articulated picture of the issue, which this thesis attempts to do by building on ethnographic material to analyze the experience of violence and the resisting of violence.
Savigny (2020) demonstrates how sexism has been normalized in the culture, media, politics and news which have allowed for sexism to be a part of the everyday life, and that #MeToo were a force that recognized that, and Fileborn and Loney-Howes have developed perspectives on the aspects of MeToo activism, inclusion within the movement and the media reporting, but both works lack a perspective of how the movement continues and lacks notion of the MeToo movement in Sweden as well as personal accounts from activists within the movement, whereas this thesis is contributing with a Swedish perspective that origins from activists and organizations that are engaging in the movement.
Uimonen (2019) is an anthropologist that have been combining feminist theory with anthro- pology as they has studied the visual aspect of the MeToo movement in Sweden through the concept of hashtag visuality and has focused on how #MeToo on Instagram is creating a digital archive of pictures and written stories, which is connected to the usage of Instagram material within this thesis which have contributed to an understanding of the contemporary feminist discourses, but the author lacks a perspective on the continence of the movement as well as the perspectives from those who are engaging as the focus is on archive material and what took place during 2017-2018 in the initial stages of MeToo. This thesis will contribute with a perspective of what have happened since 2017-2018 in- cluding the Rightless movement and the challenging of rape norms.
Mendes et al. (2018,2019) have presented a perspective on the characteristics of the digital activism aspect of the MeToo movement which has contributed to the discussion on activism on digital platforms in this thesis, but the work fails to recognize the Swedish context of the movement and how an experience of being Rightless have raised as a consequence of the light that have been put towards sexual violence and the legal system that I will address. Pollack (2019) is an anthropologist that have been combining feminist theory with anthropology in her work on the MeToo movement in Sweden as they write on the movement and its impact on the Swedish society and the different petitions that have been forming the movement, which built a foundation of background information on the move- ment for this thesis but focuses on the media aspect of the movement instead of the perspective of the activist which this study will contribute with.
Perspectives have been brought forward on MeToo campaigns from different Swedish indus- tries such as Jangland et.al (2019) coverage of sexual harassment within the Swedish social services and Bjurwald and Dejemyr (2021) who conducted journalistic research on sexual harassment and
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assault within the Swedish police force, but the books do not recognize how the movement is contin- uing beyond the separate industries as well as current examples of how the movement continues which will be addressed through the ethnographic fieldwork that this thesis relies on.
Anthropologist Ambjörnsson (2001) have over the years been incorporating feminist theory in her anthropological research, as they have been focusing on women’s experiences on misogyny and feminist engagement in Sweden before MeToo in similarity to Eduards (2002) who contributed with perspective on women’s organization, their demands and politics in Sweden. This thesis will contribute with an understanding of experiences of misogyny, feminist engagement and women’s organizations in Sweden from the aspect of what is happening since MeToo was initiated, and how the activism targets sexual violence.
Liinason and Cuesta (2016) provided an account on how feminist activism were practiced in Sweden before the MeToo movement through an ethnographic fieldwork focused on activists and rep- resentatives from feminist organizations, while this thesis will contribute with an understanding of how the MeToo movement is continuing through feminism activism online and in the streets in Swe- den. Sandbekk Nordsted (2021) have provided an account for how the feminist activist community in Stockholm is with aspects of safe-spaces, intersectionality as feminist practice, male feminist’s en- gagement, feminist engagement in class politics and the anxiety within the movement. Doing so, Sandbekk Nordsted have been applying feminist theory in their anthropological writing that I have been taking inspiration from. My thesis will contribute to an understanding of how the MeToo move- ment has impacted the activists understanding of past experiences, and how the movement is continu- ing to address sexual violence through digital platforms and in the streets activism that Sandbekk Nordsted (2021) did not address.
Commonly mentioned in the works on the MeToo movement is the post aspect of it, Savigny (2020) suggested that the current time could be referred to as the post-#MeToo era, Uimonen (2019), Sandbekk Nordsted (2021) Fileborn and Loney-Howes among others refer to the movement as past tense signaling that the movement is over, but my study suggests that in Sweden at least the movement is far from being over. Since 2017 the movement have continued, both in terms of petitions arising such as #wetakethecartridgeout (#vigörpatronur) that were started by female hunters in 2019, and
#itendshere (#härtardetslut) which were initiated by female chefs in 2020. Alongside the continued rise of petitions a majority of the participants in my study have expressed that the MeToo movement have not ended and is not close to ending. My study has brought forward that the movement may only have started, and that the self-identified women that I have interviewed in my study are eager to con- tinue the work. As addressed, the movement that is commonly considered as being over by scholars is
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due to its continuance and development from a movement that have been focusing on the experience of sexual violence to containing the experience of an unjust justice system and the charges of women speaking out during the MeToo movement.
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2. Theoretical Tools and Terminology
Discourse
The thesis will overall consist of a discourse analysis, which will be done in a Foucauldian sense.
Therefore, I will apply the Foucauldian notion of discourse, which is defined as ways of constituting knowledge together with power relations, social practices and forms of subjectivity. The body, mind, thoughts and feelings are given meaning to by the discursive context, but they are always a part of wider network of power relations (Weedon 1987:108). Foucault himself, explains the concept as:
The discourse should not be perceived as all the things that are said, nor as the way of saying them. The discourse exists as much in what is not said, or in what is marked by actions, attitudes, ways of being, behavioral patterns, and spatial dispositions. The discourse is the totality of the delimiting and delimiting designations that pass through them social relations (Foucault 2008:181, my translation).
Foucault introduces the Foucauldian discourse analysis in the book The Will to Knowledge: History of Sexuality Volume I (1976) in a discussion on the history of sexuality and the discourse the produces the meaning of it. Foucault writes the following:
Why has sexuality been so widely discussed, and what has been said about it? What were the effects of power generated by what was said? What are the links between these discourses, these effects of power, and the pleasures that were invested by them? What knowledge (savoir) was formed as a result of this linkage? […] The central issue, then (at least in the first instance), is not to determine whether one says yes or no to sex, whether one formulates prohibitions or permissions, whether one asserts its importance or denies its effects, or whether one refines the words one uses to designate it; but to account for the fact that it is spoken about, to discover who does the speaking, the positions and viewpoints from which they speak (Foucault 1976:11)
Discourse analysis is applied to discuss how there are forces that reinforce norms and structures that are serving to limit victim-survivors ability to get recognition and redemption, how a social movement can through the written and spoken word challenge a discourse and who is to be included in the move- ment. How the debate between the activists, and the critical opponents are carried out and the dynamics of power between the parties, and who is allowed to speak and claim a space within the movement.
The discourses identified and analyzed in the thesis is those of the main topics in the thesis is the
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following: the discourse of rape, mentioned as the rape script that consist in how rape is understood due to the norm that is communicated through media and the way it is spoken about in public, the MeToo discourse that is a space for women, and non-men in general is allowed to speak and recognize their experiences and bear witness to other’s experiences. The Rightless discourse is expressed through how women and non-men in general claim that they are rightless due to the experience of not enough rapists get sentenced in court alongside with the defamation trials that are spoken about as a method to keep women silence, the discourse is meeting resistance by counterclaims of that men in fact are rightless as a consequence of the consent law and the MeToo movement. Another discourse that will be analyzed is the discourse within the feminist movement itself, how the engaged activists communi- cate and how the movement that I have studied is deciding on who is allowed to be included. While the discourse analysis tells us that the norms that control to what extent sexual violence is allowed to be recognized, and the way that the media and the movement I have studied communicates around the discourses I have identified, it does not provide an answer of how that happens, and to which extent it is affecting those involved. However, it is meaningful that the theory regardless of its inability to pro- vide an answer to how sheds light on that the discourses exists.
Rape Script
Rape script is a central discursive tool applied in the chapters. And is defined by Marcus (1992) as an
“scripted interaction which takes place in language and can be understood in terms of conventional masculinity and femininity as well as other gender inequalities inscribed before an individual instance of rape […] To speak of a rape script implies a narrative of rape” (1992:390). The author further suggest that the rape scrip involves the portraying of female bodies as violable, vulnerable, penetrable and wounded. The myths of rape are consisting of reinforcing the ideas of how rape should be, such as the idea that women should be afraid outside their homes as there is a risk of being raped, while in reality most rapes occur inside women’s homes (Marcus 1992:398-399). Loney-Howes (2018) contin- ued developing on the definition of rape script as the author brings attention towards the rape scripts impact on victim-survivors ability to speak about their experiences of rape. To speak out on experi- ences of rape one is required to present the testimony within the parameters of what is permissible speech within the discourse if the experience should be considered authentic. The rape scripts serve to govern which rapes are allowed to be articulated. The raped person, generally a woman is supposed to be helpless and vulnerable, and the experience should be terrifying and control her life (Loney-Howes 2018:26-27) and that being raped is an unspeakable experience (2018:29). It is further acknowledged that the rape script act as a force to deny rape in the court of law, that have created a yardstick outside
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the courtroom to measure if the experiences should be recalled as rape which do not fit the actual parameters of the legal definition of rape. Which affects the ability to report crimes, but also in the sense of that it limits the ability for victim-survivors to identify or claim their experiences as rape (Loney-Howes 2018:37-38). Rape script will be applied in the thesis as a discourse, that sets the nar- rative of what rape ‘should be’ that is reinforced by the legal system, media and how it is spoken about in common speech. The rape scripts serve as a tool to point out the limiting norms and structure as well as what the social movement is aiming to overthrow by changing the way sexual violence is spoken about. There are limitations of the theory that should be addressed, and that is that it sets a heteronormative account of rape that does not take into account how the rape script is affecting victim- survivors of gender transgressive rapes, as well as female perpetrators are not taken into account, which is important aspects to recognize. I have chosen to use the term rape script in this thesis as the accounts of rape that are focused on in the thesis is from self-identified women, that have been victimized by men, and that the study has focused on men’s violence against women that have allowed for the theory of rape script to be applied.
Vulnerability and Resistance
Resistance is identified by Hollander and Einwohner (2004) ton include the following components: 1) an active form of behavior 2) an opposition or a challenge of norms, values, structures or roles (2004:538) 3) resistance is understood by the interaction between targets, resisters and third parties that acts to understand resistance (2004:548). Foucault (1978) describes resistance as “where there is power, there is resistance, and yet, or rather consequently, the resistance is never in a position of exte- riority in relation to the power” (1978:95) which leads to a cyclical relationship, where domination leads to resistance that leads to further exercising of power (Hollander and Einwohner 2004:548).
Using a resistance framework when doing feminist writing is forwarded as a method to not further victimize women and consider them as passive objects of a system, instead focusing on their resistance towards the asymmetrical power relations is a method to restore the balance between op- pression and agency (Hollander and Einwohner 2004:551). Therefore, the framework provided by Butler et al will be applied in this thesis, where resistance is considered in a new light, as they propose
“to think about modes of vulnerability that inform modes of resistance and to “resist” those frameworks that seek to underplay or refuse forms of political agency developed under conditions of duress, with- out presuming” (Butler et.al 2016:6). Vulnerability should be considered as what one is firstly and to overcome vulnerability through acting to resist (Butler 2016:12), but also that publicly resisting leads
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to vulnerability and that vulnerability itself leads to resistance. Thus, resisting does not necessarily lead to overcoming, but as a force to mobilize politically (2016:14).
The framework that is combining vulnerability and resistance functions to build the discussion on how the MeToo movement is functioning as an act of resistance of the rape script. Rape victim- survivors have commonly been considered as vulnerable, passive victims according to the rape script, their usage of their vulnerable position of being a victim-survivor, and the possibility of being victim- ize once again or that anybody close to them would be victimized serves as a ground for their reliance.
Through recognizing these aspects, and the notion of the vulnerability that lays in the act of speaking out I will provide an account for how vulnerability acts as a force to resist.
Networked Connectivity and Digital Sisterhood
Networked connectivity is an extension from the notion of social imaginary defined as “the way people imagine their social existence, how they fit together with others, how things go on between them and their fellows, the exceptions that are normally met, and the deeper normative notions and images that underline these expectations” (Taylor 2002:23). The notion of social imaginary focuses on how people
“imagine” their social environment, which may be shared by a large group of people. The social im- aginary is based in a common understanding that enables common practices and a shared sense of legitimacy (2002:23). In this thesis I will use the concept of networked connectivity in Fotopoulou’s (2014) understanding, where it is applied to conceptualize an understanding of feminist organizations, groupings and individuals connect in a social imaginary referred to as a ‘digital sisterhood’ that con- sists in the aspiration of a shared space through digital platforms and an idea of a digital engagement being a necessary tool practice feminism and campaign which has led to organizations adopting to use networked practices as a key feature in their engagement, and that being a feminist is commonly per- formed online as a consequence of the sense of networked connectivity (2014:993).
The theoretical tool will be applied to conceptualize the understanding of a broader network of feminists, connecting in a sense of sisterhood manifested by the feminist engagement in contempo- rary Sweden, but also with a broader network in shape of the MeToo movement where feminists from all over the world connect in a collective action against sexual violence.
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Reinhabiting the Body
I will apply the terminology brought by Ahmed (2017) of reinhabiting one’s body and the past, sug- gesting that feminism involves finding a new way of living in your body, and allowing space and room for oneself to exist as well as allowing one to revisit previous experiences, that may have been over- looked in the past. It’s about becoming conscious about the injustices that one has been overlooking in your life, and gaining the terminology, concepts and understanding of rape culture and patriarchy to come to terms with experiences as well as identify them (2017:30-31). The thermology of reinhab- iting the body and the past to dwell on how the MeToo movement through the challenging of the rape script, has allowed for victim-survivors to re-visit past experiences, and redefine them for what they are.
Collective Identity
Collective identity is a concept that is central for understanding how actors within a social movement belong to a “we” and how that “we” is distinguished from the “other” that is anchored in an imagined or real shared experiences and attributes which constitutes the collective identity, which is a central part in understanding the social movement and organizations that this thesis is about. Embedded in the collective identity is the sense of a collective agency. Social movement groups tend to produce some sort of identifier or label that those within can recognize themselves in, and at the same time distinguish themselves for those on the outside as well as recruit members that can identify themselves with the group (Flesher Fominaya 2015:65-67). Despite most activists never interacting with one another, they are still able to identify with one another due to shared goals within the collective which allows for the movement to produce elements of a collective identity, a collective identity could therefore be de- scribed as the identity of a person as a member of a group, and not as an identity of the group. The collectiveness of the identity comes from the sharing the source of the identity with a group (Saunders 2015:91).
Applying the concept of collective identity has been a central tool in the analysis of feminist organizations and groupings, and how they build on a group identity where they build on a collective identity on both shared understandings, as well as building on a sense of being safe within the group by deciding on a group that is not considered to be welcome within the group. While critics such as Lichterman (1996) suggest instead that movements are consisting of ‘personalized commitment’ con- ceptualized as personalism which is defined as “shared ways of speaking or acting that emphasize the personal self rather that its relationships to specific communities or institutions” (1996:17). I have
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decided to use collective identity as a theoretical tool instead of personalism, due to the nature of the movement that is based in a sense of a shared identity and shared oppression.
Cultural Sexism
Cultural sexism is a terminology that describes how sexism is constituted by and a part of westernized capitalist culture, the culture acts through silencing women and denying their voice through disciplin- ing women into what they should be like and how they should look like which sets her role in the society. Cultural sexism is functions through violence, at a symbolic as well as a physical level that reinforces one another, which ultimately undermines the legal structures within a society. Cultural sexism stands for how sexism is incorporated in the Western cultural narratives which reinforces the subordination of the woman (Savigny 2020:24).
Cultural sexism is applied as a theoretical tool to conceptualize the systematic sexism that is expressed by the participants as their goal to overcome through their engagement. Cultural sexism is applied as a framework that describe the systematic oppression that is commonly mentioned as patri- archy by the participants and the literature and its various methods of oppression that is practiced.
Therefore, cultural sexism may be understood as a complementary tool to understand the concept of patriarchy and its impact on various levels.
Non-Men
The thesis is using the concept of non-men as a terminology to describe organizations that are wel- coming to everyone, that is not identifying as male. Therefore, the word non-men welcome will be used to describe the organizations that are open for those who identify as women, transwomen, gender queer or non-binary. Instead of naming all gender identities I have chosen to identify those who are not welcome in the organizations by using the term non-men to describe the organizations as their decision is to exclude men but include everyone else, the concept is to describe how the organizations is a space free from men’s influence which is introduced by one of the who describe that “a space to organize themselves and have discussions without men[…]” (Feminist Sisterhood, my translation).
Therefore, the term of non-men is used to describe that everyone, but men is welcome.
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Participating in Activism
As the initial fieldwork begun in 2019, the initial phases of the fieldwork consisted of participation in an activist action, but as the Covid-19 pandemic came along and the guidelines and restrictions pro- hibited the gathering of people in larger groups whereas the activism moved into digital spaces, and I followed. Before the switch of venue, I got the opportunity to participate in one of the collective actions arranged. This took place on the 5th of September of 2019 in Uppsala and was part of the wave of Rightless actions that took place mainly during 2019, the action took place outside the Police Station in Uppsala. In the action, roughly 100 women and I participated by standing side by side outside the police station with taped mouths to manifest the at the time 236 reported sex crimes that were currently being investigated at the Uppsala Police station, according to statistics from the Swedish Crime Pre- venting Council only 5% of them would lead to eviction (Brottsförebygganderådet 2019), the action’s goal was to show that sex crimes should lead to eviction.
Fieldwork Online
In August 2020, my fieldwork on Instagram was initiated as I unfollowed accounts on my private Instagram and created a new Instagram profile that would be used for my fieldwork. This to ensure that the material I saved was gathered from accounts that were open to the public, or that the account had granted me permission to use their content for my study. In my bio I stated that the account was used for an ethnographic study on the Swedish feminist movement, and I published a photo of myself alongside more detailed information on my study and contact details which could be used to contact me with interest or concerns. I decided to mainly follow public accounts that belonged to feminist groupings and organizations engaged in the MeToo movement and Rightless movement. The accounts I selected were at the time all actively engaged as organizations or groupings working for gender equality and to end sexual violence. Cissi Wallin’s account is the exception as her account is private and belongs to a single person. In her case I had her permission to use what she published for my study.
Why I decided to follow her was because she was a person that was mentioned in most of my inter- views and on a large amount of the Instagram accounts from organizations that I followed, as a conse- quence I wanted to see what she posted since her posts seemed to have a large effect on the feminist community that I was studying. I decided to follow only feminist organizations that are posting about sexual violence alongside Cissi Wallin who a central figure in the movement.
My fieldwork on Instagram consists of following 19 accounts over 9 months, including in the accounts are 5 organizations that I have interviewed activists from. I have been documenting my field- work through print screens of Instagram posts and Instagram stories. Boellestorff (2012) describes
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print screens as a source to rich data when it is combined with other materials since they provide us with a picture of what was present, what is going on as well as giving us visual details (2012:115).
Interviews
The participants were selected from their engagement to end sexual violence, in feminist organizations that are continuing the MeToo movement through raising awareness and making sexual violence vis- ible. All of the participants were selected due to their engagement in feminist organizations except from Emelie and Ebba who were selected to participate due to their engagement in the Rightless ac- tions, that is a part of the MeToo movement or a continuance of the MeToo movement. Therefore, all the participants in this study are selected due to their engagement in the MeToo movement, either through engagement in a feminist organization or by participation in the rightless actions that ties together in the act of raising awareness about sexual violence.
I interviewed women in different stages of life, in ages between 20-60 years old all of them engaged, self-identified feminists, who represent three parts of the engagement in the movement. Eme- lie and Ebba are both activists that are not bound to any organization at the time of the study but are tied to an organization and both took a leading role in the arrangement of rightless actions in their cities. The second group of participants are engaging in women’s sheltering/ support line organiza- tions, Mia and Mona are both engaging in the organization Women Supporters that are acting to sup- port women, men and non-binary that are experiencing or have experienced sexual violence or domes- tic violence through chat, and the organization is acting to raise consciousness on the issues on their social media platforms. Both Mia and Mona are volunteers on the chat function. Amanda is engaging as a board member in the organization Women’s Support Organizers, that is also engaging on digital platforms to raise consciousness on sexual and domestic violence. The third group of participants is women that are engaging in consciousness’ raising and activist organizations, Amina, Beatrice, Cata- rina and Daniella are all engaging in No More Violence an organization that is open for everyone to engage in. Alice is engaging as head of the organization Breaking the Silence, that is acting to raise consciousness’, and is engaging politically for women’s rights. The organization is open for engage- ment from all genders. Paulina is engaging in Feminist Sisterhood that is a local consciousness’ raising and activist organization in her city and Jennifer is engaging in a similar organization referred to as Women United. Both of Paulina’s and Jennifer’s organizations are open for non-men.
The participants were found trough contact with the organizations, a Facebook group, Insta- gram posts and messages as well as personal recommendation. The persons I interviewed were all self-
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identified women as the major focus of my study were women engaging in non-men welcome organ- izations and the Rightless movement which were a non-men welcome movement of collective actions.
The interviews are consisting of 9 interviews in spoken format and 4 interviews in written format. All interviews took place over distance as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic which allowed for different tools to be used to do the interviews as I wanted to use the tool that the participants found being most comfortable for them. Two of the interviews took place over phone as they found it more convenient to do the interview over a walk or while doing errands, one over Facebook call, six over the video call platform Zoom and four in written format. This allowed me to have participants from Skåne in the south to Uppsala in the middle part of Sweden which did not limit this study geograph- ically. All of the interviews were recorded with my personal computer which only I have access to, and they are all stored on the same computer. All of the interviews are all transcribed and are stored on the author’s computer.
I decided to have semi structured interviews as all of the women who participated in the inter- views are all different, the questions and the structure of the interviews were therefore different with every participant. I had prepared myself before the interviews with 10 questions that I had as a basis for the interview, but during the interview other questions often came to emerge depending on what the women told me. With some of the participants only one or two of my prepared questions were asked and sometimes all. As Boellstorff (2012) suggest having a list of question prepared for the in- terview can be a way to check of themes in the interview, but the questions do not necessarily have to come in the same order as it is a matter of being flexible with what is being mentioned in the interview (2012:97). For me having the questions were both a safety net for myself to ensure that I follow the themes I have set out to ask and to have some sort of structure to fall back on.
Coding the Material
In order to identify categories and patterns the researcher can code their material such as transcribed interviews and by identifying the patterns in the interviews we can make sense of the data and ask new relevant questions in upcoming interviews (Cope 2003:441). In my study this came to be a key aspect, as I had identified after the first interviews that some patterns emerged as I was going through the interviews, which gave me a sense of which questions would be relevant to ask in upcoming interviews as well as which questions, I could skip in the upcoming interviews.
Another aspect of coding the material has been printing my transcripts of interviews, and going over them over and over again, something that is encouraged by Cope (2003) as it allows the researcher to identify topics that are reoccurring in the material, as well as finding important insights (2003:444-
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445). In my case this meant printing all transcripts of interviews and print screens from Instagram and sorting them into folders and marking them with index tabs to state from which account or which interview the material comes from. After completing the sorting of the material, I started going over all the material once again with different colors of markers and index tabs with each color representing identified key themes in the material which I stated on a list in the beginning of the folder with each color next to them to keep track of their meaning throughout the writing process.
Ethical Considerations
In my work I have been taking the ethical aspect in consideration therefore I have been following the American Anthropological Association’s Statement of Ethics (AAA 2012) therefore I conducted an informational text that I sent out to the women when I was asking them to participate in interviews so that they would be aware of my motives and what it would mean for them to participate. In this text I explained my research interest, that they are free to withdraw consent to the interview, they are free to decline to answer questions during the interview and choose what they want to tell, that the interview will be recorded and stored on my personal computer, and that I will be using their interview for this thesis and that I will be the only one listening to the actual audio file. I will anonymize the participants and organizations as far as possible this including giving them pseudonyms to avoid connection to their real name. They will all get the opportunity to read the essay as well, to ensure that they feel like they have been represented in a fair way. The information was later repeated during the interview, and they had the opportunity to ask questions and bring up concerns both before and after the interview.
For my internet fieldwork, I have decided to anonymize the names of the accounts that have been included in my research. This to ensure that the participants will not be connected to their organ- ization, since identifying an organization that are in relation to an individual that have participated in in my research may uncover their identity (Boellstorff 2012:137). Therefore, I have given pseudonyms to all the organizations.
Position in the Field
As I am 23 years old and identifies as a woman as well as feminist, me and my participants had a common ground, as most of them were close to me in age and all of them identified as female and feminists. Sharing an identity trait with the participants in my study I am sure affected the results in a positive direction, as we found ground to relate to each other in the interviews.
The dichotomy of outsider-insider perspective has been criticized and discussed among femi- nist anthropologists over the years. López (2013) forwards that there are advantages and limitations to
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belonging to either of the definitions, and sometimes you are both at the same time (2013:144). During my fieldwork I related to López (2013) as I found myself being both and insider and outsider in context to the field, I am an outsider as a master student that are not engaged in any of the organizations that are included in my study, and I have not participated in any demonstration before my research started and I have not organized one either. While I would consider myself as an insider as a person who identifies as a woman and feminist and posted #metoo on my Facebook and are considering the move- ment against sexual violence as important. And I was not completely new to the field as somebody that have been following feminist organizations and different feminists on my Instagram for a few years. The fact that I am both outside and inside the movement has been central in my study and has allowed me to have multiple perspectives on the field.
My identity does not allow me to be completely objective in my field, but as Davies and Craven (2016) forwards the question if anyone would be able to stay completely objective with any research project and that all scholarly inquire is subjective since we decide our questions, how we gather the data and our position in relation to the participants during our fieldwork. But it should be clear that just because you share membership with a group it does not mean that you are automatically the same (2016:60-61).
