Sex dolls are a complex phenomenon with several diverse possible emotional, sexual and therapeutic uses. They can be part of a broad variety of sexual practices, and also function as a sexual aid. However, the media discourse on sex dolls first and foremost concerns how we perceive the relationship between intimacy and technology. A critical discourse analysis of the Swedish media discourse on sex dolls reveals six themes which dominate the discourse: (a) the definition of what a human being is; (b) a discourse on the (technological and existential) future; (c) a social effort; (d) a loveless phenomenon; (e) men’s violence against women; and (f) pedophilia. Accordingly, this discourse is very conservative and normative in its view of sexuality, technology, and humanity. Overall, the dominant themes do not provide any space for positive effects of technology on human sexuality, and if they do, it is usually as a substitute for something else.

In this article, two case studies from 1921-1922 and 1971 respectively, are juxtaposed in order to determine change in official attitudes and screening contexts for pornographic films. Focusing in the first case on an exhibitor who in 1922 was cinvicted of screening an obscene film on three occasions the year before, and in the other case on the range of venues for pornographic films in Malmö the month before the removal of the obscenity clause in Swedish law, the authors conclude that public but secret screenings of clandestinely circulated films for all-male audiences did take place in 1921. The question can be raised as to whether women also sometimes attended. In 1971, however, one could see semi-pornographic feature films in regular cinemas and hardcore short films at so called sex clubs which also featured strip and live shows. Referring to a survey published in 1969, in which a slight majority of the informants were against pornography, the authors finally argue that perhaps the authorities had undergone the greatest transformation in attitude, whereas the general public only changed their views slightly between 1921 and 1971.

The article focuses on the advertising for, and reception of, sexually explicit films following the removal of the obscenity clause in the Swedish penal code in 1971. Many films released at this time have gone down in Swedish film history as “more or less” pornographic, although from a present-day perspective they would most probably not be described that way. While pornographic films – so called “stag films” – had been produced since the early twentieth century, it was nevertheless not until the 1960s that sexually explicit material could be shown publicly and not until the 1970s that pornographic films became available to a wider audience. As a film genre then, pornography underwent an important transformation at this point in time. If, prior to this point, it had been clearly defined by its forbidden and clandestine circulation, and more or less exclusively directed towards a male audience, in the early 1970s, those clearly defined boundaries dissolved under a more relaxed attitude from authorities. This led to a re-negotiation of the genre, which is discussed in the article with the aid of film scholar Rick Altman’s theory of how genres are shaped and how they develop, through mutual and complex processes in which producers, audiences, and critics are involved. Mapping the use of generic labels in advertisements, articles and reviews, and censorship records for a few case studies such as for instance More From the Language of Love, Anita – Swedish Nymphet (Anita – ur en tonårsflickas dagbok, 1973), and Flossie (1974), as well as exhibition practices, the article traces the development of the pornographic film as a genre during the first half of the 1970s.

This chapter discusses current changes in how pornography is perceived, consumed, and produced in Scandinavia, with a particular focus on Sweden. Brian McNair argues that the development in liberal democracies that has legalized and facilitated pornography in the past four decades has also enabled various sorts of progress that have been made in the areas of women's and gays' rights as well as the rights to sexual citizenship. The chapter focuses on the producers' perspective, the consumption angle and the changing context for consumption of pornographic images are also taken into account. Two producers of different pornographies are juxtaposed and compared: Mia Engberg, who produced Dirty Diaries; and Mike Beck, who has been producing mainstream porn films. The chapter is partly based on earlier research into the pornographic film in Sweden in the 1970s, but although the chapter provides historical background, the main emphasis is on the contemporary scene.  

This book expands the notion of sexual fantasies from the field of psychology into the realms of cultural studies, anthropology, philosophy, and sociology. So far, much research on sexual fantasies has dealt with issues of gender differences, the effect of sexual fantasies on people’s lives, or how problematic fantasies can be treated in therapy. In this volume contributors from different academic disciplines explore sexual fantasies at the convergence of the cultural and the individual, taking into account that fantasies are paradoxical: highly individualised and private, and at the same time dependent on a world that supplies structures, images, symbols, and narratives.

This essay focuses on UK-based Swedish filmmaker Mai Zetterling's made-for-television documentary Of Seals and Men (1979). Zetterling is known internationally as an art-film auteur, and this examination seeks to broaden her stature in the context of the UK and Europe-based cinefeminsim movements of the 1970s. The authors argue that Of Seals and Men constitutes a significant and overlooked artifact in the history of colonial Greenlandic-Danish relations, as it focuses on the controversy of the Green-landic seal hunt and was financed as a propaganda vehicle by the Danish government and the Greenland Trade Department. The article draws on extensive archival research and references Zetterling's production notebooks and correspondence as well as official communication by the Royal Greenland Trade Department.