Sexköpslagen 2.0 - en kritisk diskursanalys av debatten om en utvidgad sexköpslagstiftning

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to examine the political debate in Sweden around a potentional criminalization of buying sex abroad. A second additional aim is to analyze the debate from an intersectional feminist gender perspective, by bringing attention to ideas about gender, ethnicity and power expressed in the empirical material. The questions at issue are: What are the arguments for and against the potentional criminalization of buying sex abroad and which central discursive battles can be discerned throughout the debate? What impact do ideas about gender and power have on the construction of a general advocate discourse versus a general antagonist discourse? The methodological point of departure is Critical Discourse Analysis, drawing on the theories of Norman Fairclough, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The empirical material consists of 27 articles and editorials publicized in Swedish newspapers between January 2011 and November 2014. The result shows that the polemics manifested in the debate are based on different ideas about gender, ethnicity and power. A crucial discursive battle stands between human rights and international law as a superior principle. In this context a general distinction in the debate is the analytical level on which prostitution and sex purchases is understood and discussed; as a structural problem or as a matter between two individuals. The debate can also be seen as an example of how colonization and imperialism still affect traditional feminist issues. In this context ethnicity also emerges as a powerful dimension in the debate.