I flera år har jag ruvat på denna text, det har nämligen tagit lång tid för mig att smälta det smärtsamma i att min möjlighet att bli mor gick förlorad för alltid. Och även om jag ännu idag tvekar inför att göra om min golgatavandring har jag beslutat att göra det och på så vis med systerlig innerlighet återgälda en skuld gentemot alla kvinnor som jag vill hedra, kosta vad det vill.

Vi talar om en mycket vanlig men praktiskt taget okänd sjukdom, inte bara för oss vanliga människor men även inom läkarkåren. Då menar jag inte allmänläkare, om det bara vore så, utan också gynekologer, såväl kvinnliga som manliga, vilka om några borde veta allt om en sjukdom som drabbar 176 miljoner kvinnor på vår planet. Hundra-sjuttio-sex miljoner kvinnor. I runda slängar handlar det om 10 % av den kvinnliga befolkningen. Continue reading →

[Some sad reflections about the flop of the #metoo in Italy. Originally published in Italy (in Italian) by “Le Donne Visibili”, “La Poesia e lo Spirito” and “Popoff”. Illustrated by Eliana Como. Translation edited by Cinzia Guerriero and Niko Despopoulos]

A feeling like a point of no return.
Like in H.C. Andersen’s tale – The Emperor’s New Clothes – at one point a scream was enough: so too were the first women in the Hollywood Star System who had the courage to let out and come clean of shame, anger, frustration, fear and uncertainty. From there, a few days later, the first post with #metoo hashtag starts to spread around and in a couple of nights it becomes an avalanche. Figures are updated by the hour to count thousands and thousands western women who have found the strength to tell their story from the multitude. Whether it concerned a harassment on a bus or a rape, so many hands rose, and the river became a flood, an event that was impossible to ignore. Thanks to the social networks, Western women finally met, though without having ever set eyes on each other, and in the sisterly and warm wave of saying “me too” formed a sort of alliance, with the strength that women have when they get too tired to slip anything else thru. Continue reading →

[Äntligen den svenska versionen av min artikel “The lost generation of porn kids”]

Visuell drog – Om barn, unga och nätporr gavs ut av Kalla Kulor Förlag för drygt ett år sedan och blev på nytt aktuell när Centerkvinnorna uppmärksammade frågan om barns och ungas porrkonsumtion utifrån ett hälsoperspektiv. Författarna själva besitter energi som två kraftverk: Ulrica Stigberg, präst som arbetar med ungdomsverksamheten på Fryshuset i Stockholm, och Maria Ahlin, grundare av organisationen Freethem, som arbetar för att motverka prostitution och människohandel.
När Ahlin och Stigberg skulle skriva boken valde de att ta ett steg tillbaka från det moraliska perspektivet på pornografi och att istället koncentrera sig på vilka effekter porrkonsumtionen får på ungas hälsa, på en neuropsykiatrisk, fysisk och social nivå. De intervjuade experter av alla slag: universitetsprofessorer, neurologer, kriminologer, poliskommissionärer, sociologer, urologer, psykologer, forskare och tv-personligheter. Men framförallt pratade de länge med dussintals pojkar och flickor som (äntligen) kunde hitta vuxna öron för att uttrycka problem som de varken ville eller kunde prata med sina föräldrar eller lärare om. Bilden som förmedlas i boken är mycket störande och med starka sociala konsekvenser.
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Sitting in the row in front of me a handsome man in his forties. Fingers tattooed with black letters, silver rings on each, bracelets and dark earrings, leather wrist band, clear blue eyes under golden lashes, hair shaved at the sides and a long ponytail of blond and curly hair that almost reaches his butt, short boots, black jeans and a gray jacket with a dark shirt underneath. And a clerical collar. His name is Markus, he is a street priest: his assigned parish is the streets, at night, and his mission is to help the underprivileged and the exploited. Especially prostitutes. In Sweden, the Protestant Church often works like this, hands on in the dirt, like Christ with the lepers.
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If I could make every adult inhabitant of the planet read one book in 2017, it would be Shadows Law [translated by Selina Öberg and published by Bullet Point Publishing, from the original Swedish Skuggans lag, published by Kalla Kulor Förlag] written by Stockholm policeman Simon Häggström. In just four hundred pages he makes us see a hidden world, one that it would be too easy and self-consoling to call obscene. In the narratives of his experiences of long squalid nights in a car trying to arrest clients of prostitutes, Häggström is able to tell the story of millions of women, of thousands of years of history, of billions of violations. A difficult book, obviously, but imperative, necessary, revelatory.
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I return once more to discussing photography because of a new one-person show at the Elf Galleri in Gothenburg. Under the spotlight the Swedish photographer with the most international recognition Gerry Johansson, with an exhibit called “Antarktis” (“Antarctica”).
It consists of images printed from a negative obtained in analog large format (8 x 10 inches) taken during a long, six-week session while on an expedition in the Antarctic. In prohibitive conditions among polar temperatures and violent winds, which Johansson braved with great obstinacy, he would wait for the right moment to go outside and shoot in all directions. The composition of the images is one of the most rewarding elements of this collection, with images that are always that millimeter different from how we would have photographed them. A millimeter that truly makes all the difference between a sharp, clean image and a work of art. Continue reading →

What distinguishes an artist of photography from a simple photographer? In this age of so much banality and an overdose of photography it should be difficult to find the boundary, and yet it isn’t. Because a photograph has energy, spirit, originality, a disturbing quality, or it doesn’t – despite filters, cropping and other post-production contortions. And the photography of Swede Thron Ullberg – currently with a one-person show called Vilsen (Lost) at the Elf Galleri in Gothenburg – is almost more art than photography. Continue reading →