Is Swedish sex for us?
Ferm, Deane William
of the bishops of Sweden reaffirming their stand of 1951 which rejected all outside-marriage sex as contrary to God's law. "The official church position hasn't changed one bit on sex; it is...
...Here I met a radically different response...
...One of their approaches in this regard is "consciousness-raising" camps for men...
...It is precisely at this point of specific norms that the Swedes have failed, I hastily admit that the proposal of specific norms to guide concrete forms of sexual expression is an extremely problematic task...
...My encounter with the Swedish experience of recent years has convinced me that the "to each her/his own" approach to sexuality leads to serious adverse consequences and the "contrary to God's law" prohibition falls on deaf ears...
...Mitterand E.I...
...In a related matter alcoholism has become a major youth problem...
...I A VICTORY INTO A MANDATE...
...The aims and interests of RFSU have changed over the years, from urging the privatization of sex and giving out information and contraceptives in the 1960s to advocating sexual equality and campaigning against rape, pornography, and prostitution in the late 1970s...
...But these guidelines, however noble, can be rationalized to cover onenight stands and close encounters of different kinds...
...A failure of nerve at this juncture will only make our elaborate theories useless and ludicrous...
...Some forms of venereal disease among the young have continued to increase (especially chlamydia) which suggests that in this respect sex education is sadly remiss9 The widespread use of the oral contraceptive has now been curtailed due to adverse health effects...
...Boethius has also been distressed about a recent survey of young people in a section of Stockholm that indicated that the average age for first sexual encounter for girls was down to 14.4 years and that a lat:ge number of these girls report that' 'they get nothing out of sex...
...B UT WHAT about the carefree sex of the sixties...
...Enter Francois Mitterand...
...DIONNE, JR., a previous contributor, is apolitical reporter for the New York Times...
...Pornographic literature is rampant as are dirty movies (mostly American made) and sex shops...
...Mr...
...Intercourse is at its best an expression of love and fidelity...
...Yet this is the area in which many people need the most direction and where the churches can provide effective leadership...
...The 1979 RFSU annual report stated: "Our idea is that many young people are not 'ready' for the sex information when it is given in school...
...I realize that my recommendations will be considered too vague and that I am in for a sound 9 4 scolding from proponents on both sides of each issue...
...Thus, Ronald Reagan's victory, which was largely a rejection of Jimmy Carter's record in office, was said to herald a great move to the right...
...So that question was easily answered...
...DIONNE Ill...
...Can even a government make such a judgment for its citizenry...
...Who am I to decide what is best for most people...
...they're making a judgment about what went on in the past...
...This view was confirmed again and again by Swedish pastors and lay people, many of whom-especially the younger ones--did not go along with their church's teaching...
...The condom is "in" again...
...She believes that children need definite guidelines and constraints for their difficult adolescent years...
...RFSU responds rather lamely: "Could it be that boys, with external sexual organs, are able to reassure themselves more easily than girls with their internal sexual organs...
...What were the Swedish sex leaders of that time saying today...
...In addition, youth contraceptive clinics have been set up to encourage young people to come and discuss their sexual identity with trained counselors...
...Commonweal: 364 standards and styles of behavior, but this does not mean that all such standards and styles are of equal worth or even valid for most people...
...Americans are far less ~. ready than Swedes to give to their government the power to enact laws, for example, that promote sex education in the public schools and prohibit certain kinds of pornography...
...Ninety-two percent of all pregnant girls age fifteen received abortions, which surely indic~ites that abortion has become a leading form of birth control...
...Creative efforts must be directed at this difficult issue, perhaps doomed to be a compromise but nonetheless necessary...
...Eva Hedlund, a social worker, has written extensively on rape and also the need to change existing Swedish laws that continue to discriminate against women...
...Although these are norms for most people, for others the minimal norm should be one-toll CAN THE LEFT TURN ,4 one faithful relationships which promote mutual caring and 6 equality...
...In 1979, ten percent fewer women used the "pill" than the previous year...
...T HE OLDEST RULE about elections is also the most widely ignored, especially by the winning side...
...Young people today have no sense of values...
...We were naive...
...We need...
...There is a spiritual dimension to sexuality which, if absent, renders interpersonal relationships cheap, manipulative, and even degrading...
...It is perh~tps not so difficult to understand this change of views when one notes some of the disturbing consequences of the sexual revolution...
...It is not r easy in a pluralistic society to steer a course between the libertarians who advocate complete equality of lifestyles and 9 authoritarians who are sure that there is only one correct way in 1 all matters affecting sexual attitudes and behavior...
...more governmental control...
...Mitterand ended twenty-three years of centerrigh t government in France, and in the process did great Commonweal: 366...
...In spite of the high cost of alcohol in Sweden, young people manage to gulp it down in expanding quantities9 A recent editorial in Stockholm's Dagens Nyheter pointed out that every third thirteen-year-old gets drunk at least once a month and the prediction is that one of every ten youngsters will become an alcoholic...
...Generally, Key said, voters aren't voting about what they want in the future...
...it is totally irrelevant," lamented Carl Gustav Boethius, the outspoken former editor of the Church of Sweden's magazine Vltr Kyrka and former president of the.Swedish Sex Education Association (RFSU...
...Very few have taken advantage of this approach...
...The great political scientist, V. O. Key, put it more elegantly, referring to elections as retrospective referenda on the performance of the party in office...
...Although its present leaders now realize the importance of stressing authentic human relationships in imparting sex information, it is disclaiming responsibility for any leadership role in improving the content of sex education or in promoting any special kinds of relationships as normative...
...9 . The fabric of our society is disintegrating...
...of the bishops of Sweden reaffirming their stand of 1951 which rejected all outside-marriage sex as contrary to God's law...
...This obvious rule is often ignored after the polls close, especially by the victors, who seek in the election returns a mandate for whatever ideological course they wish to pursue...
...RFSU is also beginning to take a more active role to promote sexual equality in all segments of society, with a particular emphasis on reaching men...
...by 1973 the percentage had increased to 28...
...4t" I have suggested specific norms with respect to social legis- ! lation, sex education, abortion, birth control, sexual relation- i ships, marriage, and the family...
...If things seem to be going well--the inflation rate and the unemployI I Ill I E.J...
...A RFSU-sponsored pilot project on the island of Gotland has succeeded, in lowering the abortion and venereal disease rates among young people...
...When times are bad, incumbents usually lose...
...Both marriage and the nuclear family are presently deemed essential to the healthy stable society currently envisioned by most Americans...
...I worry about the casual attitude toward sex these days that puts it in the category of eating and urinating, as the simple expression of a necessary bodily function...
...meat rate always seem to be the most relevant measures here--the voters usually reelect a government...
...Carl Gustav Boethius now regrets the lifting of all restrictions on pornographic literature, for he soon realized how unscrupulous commercial enterprises have misused this freedom, especially in their exploitation of the young9 He has been at the forefront of a campaign to urge the government to enact a law forbidding pornography depicting children, a movement that proved successful this year...
...For example, Boethius says that in the five years (1974-!979) that he was president of RFSU, the role and importance of marriage was never even discussed9 When I asked the present RFSU staff whether their organization took any stand for or against marriage or the importance of one-toone relationships or the priority of male-female relationships for most people, they dismissed my queries as "American questions which we do not understand...
...What about the much vaunted sex educatiofi in the public schools which has been compulsory in Sweden since 1956...
...We went too far...
...The state-appointed Commission on Sex Education recently declared: In the Commission's opinion, the excessively early sexual relationships that occur should be combated by other aspects of teaching than a general recommendation of restraint while one is young.., the Commission contends that it should actively try to combat excessively early relationships...
...In 1966 14.5 percent of new mothers were unmarried...
...of 350 visitors at the Stockholm clinic in 1975 only one was a boy...
...And the dimension of permanence or at the very least the aspiration toward permanence is a crucial aspect of any genuine sexual relationship...
...Mitterand, the architect of France's revived Socialist party, won a startling election victory running on a platform substantially stronger than one often finds with social democratic parties elsewhere...
...The percentage of legal abortions has risen from 32.6 p&ce'nt of all teenage pregnancies in 1971 to 50 percent in 1975...
...The Swedes, while trying to be all things to all people, have refused to suggest specific norms for interpersonal relationships other than the general guidelines of sexual equality, respect for others, and personal honesty...
...These were typical comments from those very individuals who ten years ago were in the vanguard of sexual liberation...
...Elizabeth Wettergren, secretary of RFSU in the late 1960s, now regrets that her organization went too far in the privatization of sex and she now wants the government to exercise more control over its citizenry...
...In our society, permanence means one-to-one faithful sexual relationships usually geared toward ultimate expression in marriage...
...Moreover, Mr...
...Can those who represent the middle ground agree on certain specific norms for sexual morality and interpersonal relationships or are we fated to engage in the kind of infighting that will continue to result in a field day for the extremists on both sides of this perplexing moral and social dilemma...
...It is that most elections are about throwing the bums out, or keeping them in...
...The percentage of bo~s is particularly low...
...She and her associates at RFSU are working hard to change the concept of pornography from primarily "dirty pictures and words" to what sexist and degrading human imagery these words and pictures imply...
...Why this lack of young male interest...
...While one can commend these important new directions for RFSU, this organization is failing to cope with some resttlts of the carefree sexual attitudes which it helped to stimulate in the 1960s...
Vol. 108 • June 1981 • No. 12
