1:39 p.m.
Dears
thank you very much for all the support, providing context and hints how to handle this
situation! It is great to have you and not have to cope with it by myself!
I will draft a response and I am meeting the head of the department next week to address
it.
I will keep you updated.
Best
Anna
________________________________
From: Isabelle Johansson <mlisabellejo(a)gmail.com>
Sent: 28 February 2025 08:02
To: Vuolajarvi,N <N.Vuolajarvi(a)lse.ac.uk>
Cc: Ines Anttila <inesanohni(a)gmail.com>; Anna Ratecka <anna.ratecka(a)sh.se>;
Charlotta Holmström via Fosme <fosme(a)lists.sunet.se>
Subject: [Fosme] Re: please help!
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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@lse.ac.uk<mailto:N.Vuolajarvi@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
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________________________________
From: Ines Anttila <inesanohni@gmail.com<mailto:inesanohni@gmail.com>>
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2025 3:14:33 PM
To: Anna Ratecka <anna.ratecka@sh.se<mailto:anna.ratecka@sh.se>>
Cc: Charlotta Holmström via Fosme
<fosme@lists.sunet.se<mailto:fosme@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@lists.sunet.se<mailto:fosme@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
MSc Sociology | Researcher
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Isabelle