Table Of ContentSexual Politics in
Contemporary Europe
Moving Targets,
Sitting Ducks
Sharron FitzGerald
May-Len Skilbrei
Sexual Politics in Contemporary Europe
·
Sharron FitzGerald May-Len Skilbrei
Sexual Politics
in Contemporary
Europe
Moving Targets, Sitting Ducks
Sharron FitzGerald May-Len Skilbrei
Department of Criminology & Department of Criminology &
Sociology of Law, Sociology of Law
University of Oslo University of Oslo
Oslo, Norway Oslo, Norway
ISBN 978-3-030-91173-7 ISBN 978-3-030-91174-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91174-4
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Acknowledgements
Thisbookistheresultofourindividualandcombinedthinkingongender
and sexuality over the last decade or so. As feminist scholars we have
become increasingly invested in understanding the origins, working and
consequences of sexual politics in our time. While having different disci-
plinary backgrounds, our mutual starting position is the promotion of
feminist critique and we share a research background in studying policy
processes on sex work, human trafficking, migration and rape.
We thank our team at Palgrave for their enthusiasm for the project
andsupport.Thebookemergesaspartofourinvolvementintheproject
‘Evidently Rape’, which is funded as a strategic project by the University
of Oslo. The project and our work has been hosted by the Department
of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo, where
FitzGerald is currently a visiting scholar and Skilbrei a Professor. At the
UniversityofOslo,wehavereceivedsupportinpreparingthemanuscript
from Kamilla Kristiansen and Maja Vestad. We would like to thank them.
Writingabook,evenashortonelikethis,takesalotoftime,attention
and energy. We are blessed with caring and generous partners who listen
to our complaints, rub our feet and buy us chocolate and wine. Thank
you, Rolf and Ove, with love.
Oslo Sharron FitzGerald
September 2021 May-Len Skilbrei
v
Contents
1 Introduction: Reframing the Permissive Moment 1
Drilling Down into European Norms and Values Around
Gender and Sexuality 8
References 15
2 OntheRoadtoLisbon:EuropeBecomingaNormative
Community 19
Establishing an Ever Closer Union Among the People
of Europe 20
HowCanWeUnderstandEuropeanPolicyProcessesAround
Gender and Sexuality? 27
The Role of Civil Society Actors 31
Conclusion: Where to Now for European Gender
and Sexuality Policy? 35
References 39
3 From Sweden to Brussels: Forging a European Agenda
on Prostitution 45
A Genealogy of European Governance of Prostitution 46
The Evolution of the ‘Nordic Model’ 53
Shifting Feminist Prostitution Politics at the EU Level 58
Conclusion: Prostitution and Its Place in Wider Sexual
Politics 65
References 66
vii
viii CONTENTS
4 What Kind of Problematic Is Rape for the EU? 73
Positioning Rape in the EU Political Imaginary 76
Establishing ‘A European’ Position on VAW 81
The EU’s Hard and Soft Approach to VAW 87
Conclusion: Rethinking EU Responses to Sexual Violence 93
References 94
5 Forging National Sexual Politics: A Dance of Moving
Targets and Sitting Ducks 101
Learning from Thy Neighbours 104
Resistance to EU Normative Alignment 111
European and Domestic Responses to the Threat
of ‘the Outside’ and the ‘Outsider Within’ 116
Conclusion: Is an Ever Closer Union on Track in the EU? 120
References 120
6 Sexual Politics in Contemporary Europe: Resonance
and Dissonance 125
References 131
Index 133
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Reframing the Permissive
Moment
Abstract The Introduction establishes the book’s primary focus, namely
the current political ‘moment’ in European sexual politics. The chapter
provides an important vehicle for introducing the reader to a new
theoreticalframeworkandacriticalfeministanalysisofthevariousdimen-
sionsofthepoliticalnatureofgenderandsexualityinEurope.Itdoesthis
by interrogating the gendered and sexual nature of politics and gover-
nance between the European Union (EU) and its Member States. It
beginsbymappingtheEU’spolicyforharmonisationaroundgenderand
sexualnormsandvaluesthatallowsforanexaminationoftheimplications
of changes in European sexual politics for both social debates around
gender and sexuality in general in contemporary Europe, and for femi-
nist critique in particular relative to the complex discursive and material
practices around gender and sexuality, including debates around identity,
cultural politics and citizenship. The Introduction sets out the structure
of the book.
Keywords Sexual politics · The EU · Harmonisation · Norms · Values ·
Feminism · Foucault-sexuality-bodies-biopower-governmentality
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1
Switzerland AG 2022
S.FitzGeraldandM.-L.Skilbrei,SexualPoliticsinContemporaryEurope,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91174-4_1
2 S. FITZGERALD AND M.-L. SKILBREI
There is no necessary connection between political decision making and
moral change: politics is not a simple reflection of changes in society. But
the political context in which decisions are made—to legislate or not, to
prosecute or ignore—can be important in promoting shifts in the sexual
regime and these have to be analysed both in terms of long-term shifts
and in conjunctural terms. The law of unintended consequences can be as
decisive as careful legislative intervention. (Weeks, 2012: 19)
Jeffrey Weeks in his seminal book, Sex, Politics and Society, explores
how the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s appear as a ‘permissive
moment’ in Western Europe (2012: 321). His assessment resonates with
shiftsinwidersocietalattitudesaroundgenderandsexuality1 throughout
WesternEuropeatthetime.Hesuggestedthatinthepost-worldwartwo
era, young people rejected what they perceived as previous generations’
moral conservatism and, as a consequence, they rose up and challenged
whattheyidentifiedastheirilliberalnormsandbehaviours.Weeks(2012)
understoodthisframingasparadigmaticofwesternsocieties’assumptions
about the sexual revolution as being liberating for all. He suggested,
however, that this discursive shift did not happen overnight, but rather
it was due to a ‘long, still unfinished, revolution in erotic and intimate
life that saw radical change in laws, attitudes and personal behaviour’
(Weeks,2012:321).Weeks(2012)arguedthattheseshiftsingenderand
sexual mores contributed to but were not the principle driving force that
made this social transformation possible. Put simply, they were entwined
with,butwerenotdriving,widersocietaldevelopments,includingdemo-
graphic shifts. Some feminists have argued that the permissive moment
didnotcrystalliseintoliberationforall,butratheritwassexualliberation
on white men’s terms, and that it ‘contributed less to women’s freedom’
and more to their continued oppression’ (Vance, 1992: 302). Western
societies continue to interpret these changes as victories for all, including
the women’s and the gay liberation movements.
Sexual Politics in Contemporary Europe explores the various dimen-
sionsofthosewider ‘developments’.Beforeproceedingwewant tostress
that we do not claim to offer the definitive answer to the progress of
European sexual politics. But rather we view this book as a spring board
to develop a unique feminist theoretical framework that can open the
1Following Dunphy (2000), we understand ‘sexuality’ as the performance of sexual
acts (having sex) and sexual identities. We apply both meanings.
1 INTRODUCTION: REFRAMING THE PERMISSIVE MOMENT 3
doortoawiderdiscussiononwhatisapressingissueacrossEuropetoday.
With these parameters in mind and throughout the book, we will apply
the concept of ‘sexual politics’ as a discursive framework to define and
encompass the political nature of gender and sexuality and the gendered
and sexual nature of politics in Europe. We use this discursive framework
to question the implications of changes in European sexual politics for
both social and political debates around gender and sexuality in general
in contemporary Europe, and for feminist critique in particular relative
tothecomplexdiscursiveandmaterialpracticesaroundgenderandsexu-
ality, including debates around identity, cultural politics and citizenship.
Toassessthesituation,wewilldrilldownintowhy andhow theEuropean
Union (EU) uses notions of ‘appropriate’ gender and sexual norms and
values to push particular policy agendas and how, in turn, EU Member
States and other actors, including feminists, adopt or resist these policy
agendas. This is a subject about which scholars have written extensively
(Bell & Binne, 2000; Knill & Preidel, 2015; Mepschen & Duyvendak,
2012;Stychin,2003),anditisnotourintentioninthisbooktoexplorein
any great detail the technicalities of policymaking at the EU and national
levels.Instead,ourapproachispredicateduponacriticalfeministanalysis
that uses, as an entry point for analysis, the argument that the permissive
momentinEuropeansexualpoliticsisnottheresultofsocietiesbecoming
‘less’ moralistic and ‘more’ tolerant, but rather that it is a consequence
of why and how these societies are re-organising their understanding of
gender and sexuality relative to wider cultural and national identity poli-
tics and agendas. As Herzog observes, during the twentieth-century,
sexuality has become ‘burdened with enormous significance’ (2011: 2;
see also Foucault, 1980). The importance of this interpretation for our
objectives is that it draws attention to how EU law and policy-makers
implicategenderandsexualitynormsandvaluestoinstitutionaliseaEuro-
peanpoliticalidentity.ItisthismorenuancedreadingofEuropeansexual
politics that allows for a recognition of the manner, in which EU policy-
makersinvokediscoursesofgenderandsexualityinthepursuitofgreater
harmonisation around law and policy across the Union.
In this book, we focus on how governance occurs in the interac-
tions between different levels of European governance. We submit that
how nation states collaborate or disagree over issues of gender and
sexuality is meaningful because these are issues of both supranational,
national and personal importance. What draws us to study European
sexual politics is that 40 years after the so-called sexual revolution, we
