(DE)CONSTRUCTING SEXUALITY AND VIRGINITY AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SLIDKRANS IN SWEDEN

Sammanfattning: This thesis analyzes how the Swedish organization Riksförbundet för sexuell upplysning (in English, Swedish Association for Sexuality Education) constructs sexuality through the introduction of the word slidkrans. The word slidkrans (vaginal corona in English), was formally introduced by RFSU in 2009 as a replacement for the word for the hymen, mödomshinna, which literally means “virginity membrane.” Aside from the main research question of how RFSU attempts to construct sexuality through the introduction of the word slidkrans, auxiliary research questions explore what sexuality the introduction of this word was intended to construct in Sweden, the word’s resonance with sexual educators as well as the sexual educators experience teaching about slidkrans. The thesis uses feminist collaborative anthropological research tools, including ethnography. The researchers’ own backgrounds are central to the research; one researcher provides a more emic perspective while the other provides a more etic perspective. The primary material for this thesis is depth interviews with nine RFSU personnel in Stockholm and Malmö, including sexual educators. The analytical framework draws from previous anthropological research in sexuality concerning virginity and purity as well as Foucault’s insights on sexuality. The themes of language, education, the Other and silence, are used for the analysis in order to explore the construction of sexuality. In regards to language, slidkrans is an example of how language can affect sexuality. Education is a formal arena in which sexuality is constructed. RFSU attempts to redefine virginity in order to redefine concepts of prestige and purity among young people. When virginity becomes individualized then concepts of purity and prestige lose their power over the individual. The Other’s sexuality was the catalyst for the introduction of the word slidkrans yet does not stigmatize the Other’s sexuality. The word slidkrans and the concepts associated with it can be silencing if not used in a sensitive manner.