Editorial

Abstract

In this large volume we are happy to present a number of articles covering the fields of sociology, anthropology, literature, media studies and cultural studies representing four Nordic countries: Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. As feminist and gender studies are being challenged, attacked and even forbidden by law at this time by conservative and right wing populist politicians, a demonstration of the variety and scope of the field in the Nordic countries and in the world is more important than ever. Not only have semi-authoritarian regimes in Eastern European countries like Poland and Hungary seen efforts to fundamentally delegitimize the production and dissemination of gender knowledge, so, too have progressive countries like Denmark. Ironically, these efforts testify to the importance of feminist and gender studies. Thus, on a positive note there is perhaps no better proof of the significance of these academic and political endeavours than to be considered a threat to the existing patriarchal power structures, structures that authoritarian and anti-democratic tendencies often exacerbate. We are, therefore, particularly happy to demonstrate that gender studies is not just alive and kicking; the field is continuously expanding with a variety of research, experimentation and debate across a wide range of academic disciplines. Common to this issue’s very different articles is that almost all of them have intersectional perspectives where gender and sometimes sexuality is connected to ”Norwegianess”, ”Danishness”, ”Swedishness” and ”Finnishness”. The modern Nordic welfare state is typically the main context for these multifaceted explorations. This issue’s opening article, “”Cake is not an attack on democracy.” Moving beyond carceral Pride and building queer coalitions in post-22/7 Norway” by Norwegian sociologist Elisabeth L. Engebretsen, is a critical discussion of the media coverage of the ”pieing” of a far-right wing politician at the Oslo Pride in 2016. The happening not only landed the queer-anarchist band Cistem Failure in jail but also was met with unanimous condemnation by the press across the political spectrum. The incident was generally viewed as a terrorist attack on Norwegian democracy and by implication as ”Non-Norwegian”. Little attention was paid to the political message of the non-binary provocateur and their project. The article questions this massive consensus and how dominant narratives make Cistem Failure’s alter-narratives unintelligible: “An anti-racist, intersectional politics of solidarity and collaborative justice is always already excluded from the mainstay of Pride Politics. In its stead, the one-dimensional discourse of liberal progress within a protective national territory fixes the ministerial pie-throwing as an uncivil aberration with a compulsory carceral consequence.” The next article, ”Gendered care, empathy and (un)doing difference in the Danish welfare state’s care managers approaching female caregivers of older immigrants” by Danish anthropologist Sara Lei Sparre, explores how care managers are often ethically challenged when dealing with immigrant families, especially in cases where daughters, daughters-in-law or young wives are paid by the state to care for older family members. The managers slip in and out of their roles as administrators, health professionals and morally concerned citizens and their empathy is ambiguous: “Although striving to undo difference and include these women in a community of independent Danish female citizens, they also tend to place them and their families in a different category than the majority population and thus risk further marginalizing them”. Swedishness, modernity and gender equality are explored by cultural studies scholars Klara Geodecke and Roger Klinth in their article: ”Selling Swedish Fathers: On Fatherhood, Gender equality and Swedishness in Strategic communication by the Swedish Institute”. Taking as their NORA—NORDIC JOURNAL OF FEMINIST AND GENDER RESEARCH 2021, VOL. 29, NO. 4, 231–233 https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740.2021.2011040