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Writing Histories of Pure Swedish Families: Metaphors of Heterosexist Masculinities (Re-)Defining the Family in the Swedish Radical Right Populism
| The present paper investigates the recent history of the Swedish family as a heteropatriarchal matrix for metaphors of masculinity at the beginning of the 21st century, as it is heralded by the main radical right populist party in Sweden, the Sweden Democrats (SD).
Making use of primary sources, such as articles published in SD-Kuriren, the main media outlet of the party, and other SD-related printings, the analysis focuses on a well defined timeframe in the recent history of radical right populism in Sweden, from the Swedish Lutheran Church elections in 2005, through the Swedish Parliamentary elections in 2006, and up the EU Parliamentary elections in 2009.
The issue of reproduction has always played a crucial part in the nation-states, and this is reflected in the party’s appeals to tackle the issue of the family, as a part of a wider attempt to impose a racially pure heterosexual patriarchy. As such, the staunchly restrictive definition of the family, portrayed as the exclusive heteronormative domain of the Swedish male, with a fixity on the nuclear “one father and one mother” formula, has developed across time to proscribe the existence of family narratives including immigrant Others or any other possible family constellations.
The essay accounts for the constant (re-)definitions of the family in a global age so that to accommodate centrally located heterosexist masculinities, and underlines the need for further explorations of the radical right populist histories of Swedish purity.
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