FROM METOO TO BEING RIGHTLESS IN 2020'S SWEDEN - DIVA PORTAL
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ISSN 1653-2244
INSTITUTIONEN FÖR KULTURANTROPOLOGI OCH ETNOLOGI
DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY
From a hashtag to a movement
From MeToo to being rightless in 2020’s Sweden
By Klara Fröberg
Supervisor: Dr Charlotta Widmark
2021
MASTERUPPSATSER I KULTURANTROPOLOGI
Nr 104Abstract
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 theoryFor 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 ............................................................................................................................... 70References ............................................................................................................................................. 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 .......................................................................................................................... 791. 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,
1a 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.
2actions 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?
3I 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.
4Lastly, 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
5(#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
6reported 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
7sexual 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).
8Different “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
9the 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
10and 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
11assault 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
12due 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.
132. 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
14following: 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
15the 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
16to 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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