Sorry to hear about this incident, Anna, but it is to be expected in
Sweden, unfortunately. I agree with what’s been said. I hope the university
administration takes a sound approach based on academic freedom. It is not
the purpose of academia or the conference to align with a specific Swedish
policy or that of one singular organization. Organizations who disapprove
of its thematic do not have to attend! It really sucks that any event
trying to further sex work related knowledge has to be sidetracked by
stupid complaints such as these. It takes so much effort to deal with, if
one chooses to engage…
On Thursday, February 27, 2025, Vuolajarvi,N <N.Vuolajarvi(a)lse.ac.uk> wrote:
Thank you Petra and Ines for the great advice!! Anna
this happens to
everyone who tries to organize something around sex work in Sweden. It is
quite unbelievable, we have seen many events cancelled or locations changed
because of this. Let us know if there are any other ways we can support you!
Niina
Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
------------------------------
*From:* Ines Anttila <inesanohni(a)gmail.com>
*Sent:* Thursday, February 27, 2025 3:14:33 PM
*To:* Anna Ratecka <anna.ratecka(a)sh.se>
*Cc:* Charlotta Holmström via Fosme <fosme(a)lists.sunet.se>
*Subject:* [Fosme] Re: please help!
Dear Anna,
I am very sorry that you have to experience this.
Before sharing some points that you might raise in your response (which,
by the way, you are not obliged to provide, nor is the university), I can
put Child X in context by sharing that Swedish Amnesty recently changed
their 'decriminalisation' position thanks to the person who is employed by
Child X, who submitted a motion at their general meeting after becoming a
member shortly before the annual gathering, together with other persons
associated with Child X. Other information is probably not suitable for an
email format, those that I acquired while working at RFSL Stockholm.
Sex 'work' is not used in terms of legality but in terms of informal labor
being performed by persons. This is an academic context where labor and
other regulations are not needed in exploring the phenomenon, similar to
exploring household labor (in Swedish, *hushållsarbete*), which is not
recognized as an occupation and where exploitation might happen as well.
Playing dumb by stating that this is outside of the context of Child X's
work and expertise, which is focused on trafficking for commercial sexual
exploitation of children. You are sorry that they misunderstood that this
is something relevant to their area, as it covers subjects beyond their
competence, such as an academic approach to 'sex work' concept, as well as
what other organizations focus on, the adults who sell sex who are not
children and not trafficked. An example is RFSL, which uses ‘sex work’ in
their *principprogram*, or internationally, the World Health
Organization, Transgender Europe, and ILGA. You are ‘decentering debate’ by
focusing on these queer perspectives as they are, and you approach it as an
academic. You empathize with their struggle and focus on exploitation and
violence within the context where the selling of sexual services is
involved, just as you empathize with those who focus on sexual exploitation
and violence within 'homes' (domestic violence), which, according to
national statistics, is the place where the highest number of sexual
exploitation cases occur.
Playing low, you can say that this exact perspective of theirs is what you
are trying to achieve with this conference—developing and decentering the
debate, partly also outside of the ‘sex work’ context and closer to sexual
exploitation. If it turns out that you have not received applications
focusing on this area, you can always clarify later, if and when they see
the program, that there were simply no submissions of that type. Also, this
is an international conference that focuses on different state contexts,
not just Sweden and the abolitionist perspective.
Mvh,
Ines
On Thu, Feb 27, 2025 at 3:17 PM Anna Ratecka via Fosme <
fosme(a)lists.sunet.se> wrote:
Dears,
the rektor of Södertorn University has received a letter form Childx
organization complaining about the title of the conference I am organizing
in May. They attack the use of sex work as contributing to harms of women
selling sex.
This is a citation form the letter:
*Begreppet sex worker (sexarbetare) har etablerats av sexindustrin och
senare fått fäste inom vissa akademiska och aktivistiska kretsar, och är en
term som rymmer normativa implikationer. Termen kan ge intrycket av att
prostitution är ett arbete jämställt med andra yrken, trots att svensk lag
och policy – genom sexköpslagen och den abolitionistiska hållningen –
tydligt markerar att prostitution inte ska betraktas som legitimt arbete
utan som en form av exploatering och våld. *
My supervisor supports me but I have to prepare a very well formulated
response. You have definitely more knowledge about how the Swedish context
work, do you have any ideas how to best address it?
Best
Anna
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*Ines Anttila*
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Isabelle