CHAPTER 13

• Jurisdiction: United States

CHAPTER 13

Over 75,000 Voices Raised in Sweden

Laura Carlson¹

The disintegration of the Swedish Academy and the subsequent decision not to award the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature² are perhaps the most palpable fallouts of the Swedish #MeToo movement. Manifestations in Sweden against sexual harassment had begun already in October 2017, triggered by the renewal of the American #MeToo movement due to the Harvey Weinstein allegations³ A cascade of over thirty different Swedish hashtags from different sectors followed, signed in total by over 75,000 individuals sharing their own experiences of, or witness to, rape, sexual assault, and harassment. The first Swedish hashtag included over 800 women working in film and theatre (#tystnadtag ning—lights, camera, action). The three largest hashtags to date cover more than 15,000 female teachers (#ickegodkänt—failed), 12,000 women in law (#medvilkenrätt—by what right), and 10,000 physicians and medical students (#utantystnadsplikt—without a duty of confidentiality).

Other entertainment industry sectors came out with hashtags: over 600 female opera singers (#visjungerut—we're singing out), 2,000 female singers (#närmusikentystnar—when the music stops), 600 dancers (#tystdansa— dancing in silence), and 1,600 backstage employees (#metoobackstage) gave accounts. Other cultural sectors joined as well, with over 1,600 women, transand non-gendered persons in the art world (#konstnärligfrihet—artistic freedom), 2,000 women and non-gendered persons in the restaurant industry (#vikokarover—we're boiling over), and 400 women and non-gendered persons within the night club industry (#listanärstängd—the queue is closed).

Women in other branches also came forth with examples and calls for change. Two concerned political power, with over 1,300 female politicians (#imaktenskorridorer—in the corridors of power) and 1,400 women in the Swedish Church (#vardeljus—let there be light). Other sectors included more than 2,400 female academics (#akademiuppropet—academic appeal), 7,000 female journalists (#deadline), 2,000 women in the PR sector (#sistabriefen— the last briefing), and almost 400 women within archeology (#utgrävningpågår—excavation underway). Women in male-dominated sectors also participated, with more than 4,000 women in the construction industry (#sistaspikenikistan—the last nail in the coffin), 1,600 women in the tech industry (#teknisktfel—technical error), 1,500 women in the labor union movement (#inteförhandlingsbart—non-negotiable), and 1,800 women within the military (#givaktochbitihop—salute and be quiet).

Voices outside of the employment sectors were raised under hashtags encompassing more vulnerable groups, including seventy women and girls living with drug addiction, criminality and prostitution (#utanskyddsnät— without a safety net), 400 women in prostitution (#intedinhora—not your whore), and 133 women living under honor oppression (#underytan—under the surface). Five hundred persons within the temperance movement (#nykterfrizon—sober free zone), 630 hearing impaired persons (#slådövörattill—turn a deaf ear), and between 50 and 100 individuals reporting health care patient violations (#vårdensomsvek—the healthcare that failed) also responded. Two hundred schoolgirls (#tystiklassen—quiet in the classroom), 2,300 women in sports (#timeout), and 1,089 women in the horse world (#visparkarbakut—we are bucking) also signed. The accounts given included not only reports of individual acts but also revealed widespread institutional acceptance and even facilitation of rape, sexual assault, and harassment in many different sectors. By way of example, one woman in military officer training gave an account of returning to her quarters after leave to find her bathroom mirror covered in the dried sperm of several men.⁴

The Fallout in the Swedish Academy

The Swedish #MeToo movement had its most notorious effect on the Swedish Academy, the institution that among other things awards the Nobel Prize in literature. Criminal charges of unlawful sexual conduct were brought against a few high-profile Swedish actors and persons in the "culture" business, but the most public case involved rape charges against Jean-Claude Arnault, a well-known Swedish photographer referred to as kulturfiguren, the "culture figure." These charges raised questions concerning both the passivity of, and the facilitation by, the Swedish Academy, common themes in the #MeToo movement worldwide. In November 2017, eighteen women published their experiences of sexual harassment and repeated sexual assaults by Arnault beginning in 1996 and up to 2017 in the daily newspaper DN.⁵ One of these women had informed the Academy in 1996 of Arnault's sexual harassment of several women. A series of articles focusing on Arnault's conduct was written by Niklas Svensson in 1997, published under the heading, "Sexual Terror in the Cultural Elite" in one of Sweden's national daily newspapers, Expressen. The Academy decided not to investigate the claims.

Many of Arnault's alleged assaults occurred at his club, which was supported by funds from the Swedish Academy, or at the Academy apartments used by Arnault. Even after the 1996 reporting of Arnault's conduct to the Academy, it continued for two decades to provide generous funding and support to Arnault. This Academy support can further be questioned as Arnault during this period was (and still is) married to one of the Academy's directors, Katarina Frostenson, raising issues of corruption. Arnault's use of the Academy's apartments (to such an extent that he even put his own name on the door) directly violated the Academy's rule that only Academy directors were permitted to use the apartments.

The Academy Secretary, Sara Danius, hired a law firm in 2017 to investigate the relationships of the Academy Directors to Arnault and related matters such as leaks regarding the Nobel laureates in literature. The law firm's recommendation was that the Academy file police charges against Arnault's club, which the Academy declined to do. Several directors stopped being active Academy members in protest either to Danius's investigation, viewing it as disloyal, to the Academy's failure to act on these recommendations, or to the conflicts of interest that existed in the situation.

Danius was voted out of office as secretary by the Academy due to her initiation of the investigation and the fact that the situation was made public. The Academy decided to not award the 2018 Nobel Prize for literature that year, citing as its reason the fact that the general public confidence for the Academy was too low. The Academy published a 2018 commentary to...