Feminists and Two-Dimensional Power

Yesterday, Swedish radical feminist Linna Johansson wrote a leading article in tabloid Expressen. In the article, she attacked Petra Östergren, a more moderate feminist devoted to sex workers’ rights. The background is that Ms Östergren recently criticised a law prohibiting prostitution in a book that has attracted much attention. An interesting aspect of the Swedish debate on feminist issues is that the far-left, radical elements control the agenda by manipulating facts and discredit opponents. Petra Östergren is one of only a handful of public debaters who dare to give voice to the many sex workers that suffers severely under the law. The anti-liberal prohibitionists control all major newspapers, the parliament, the state television, and the public radio. Still, the only respond to Östergren’s fact-based arguments Sweden’s army of professional feminists can come up with are founded solely on personal attacks. Linna Johansson may think she is clever when she humiliates her opponent by questioning Östergren’s debate acumen, but that’s not smart, that’s only rude.

Swedish radical feminists preserve their own interest with the methods Steven M. Lukes describes as two-dimensional power: they control the decision-making, agenda setting, mainstream media, and all social institutions. Yet, they seek legitimacy by pretending to care about the women whose work situation they have no interest in.