Drag story time is ‘nothing but the indoctrination and sexualisation of children’, Swedish Democrat politician says Jonathan Sager during a session of the local parliament in Kalmar, southern Sweden, in 2022. He was reacting to plans to hold a story time at the local library, where drag queens would read to children, questioning gender and sexuality norms. He requested (unsuccessfully) that the event be canceled.
For someone unfamiliar with recent political trends in Sweden, Sager’s views may seem out of place for a country known for its tolerance and progressive approach towards sexual minorities. But just like other countries, Sweden is experiencing a backlash against story time events. Public libraries have repeatedly been the target of hatred and threats from radical right actors, including politicians. The culture wars, often associated with the polarized political climate of the United States, are now firmly entrenched in Scandinavia.
In the United States, objections to drag queen story time are part of a broader wave of protests against LGBTQ+ content in libraries, which has also manifested itself in attempts to ban certain books . Although book bans are not as common in Sweden, tensions have arisen over what children read and who reads to them.
As a result, public libraries, and in particular their activities to promote reading among children, are now at the center of polarizing conflicts between the radical right and its opponents.
Sweden is far from immune to the growing influence of the far right globally. The Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna or SD) became the second largest party in the national parliament after the last elections in 2022. The current government depends on their support to function. The party has neo-Nazi roots and, despite cleaning up appearances, its representatives openly continue to lobby anti-immigration, views of white supremacists.
Like many radical right parties, SD promotes a conservative view of culture, gender and family. So his opposition to drag story time is not surprising. However, a deeper conflict is also at stake over the future of Swedish society.
We examined five cases of political conflict around travesty events in libraries in Sweden, finding common themes of conflict over culture and what constitutes a good society.
“Defend” our children
In Kalmar, as well as in Trelleborg, another municipality in southern Sweden, local democrats tried (unsuccessfully) to block disguised story hours in libraries, arguing that they were “defending” children. In Kalmar, the organizer was accused of “sexualizing children,” as if there was something inherently sexual about a drag queen wearing a dress. Sager argued that “gender-creative, gender-critical, or norm-critical” material should not be used for events involving children.
Historically, activities to promote reading are part of this fear of harmful influences. For example, certain types of fiction have been described as having a demoralizing effect, leading to initiatives encouraging children to read “quality literature” instead. In Sweden, there is less debate around the content of children’s literature, so there are no American-style arguments about banning books. But there are lively conversations around the act of reading, especially with children.
Reading together teaches children to support democratic values, for example by promoting empathy and understanding. Drag story time fits well into this perspective because it promotes the values of acceptance, diversity and positive self-identification. These are values that express the characteristic emphasis on fairness and pluralism in Swedish cultural policy.
But in checking these boxes, storytime collides with the politics of the radical right, making the conflict emblematic of a broader struggle over the direction of Nordic cultural policy.
The safe space dilemma
The debate around drag story time has also ignited debates about the importance of safety in a modern society. Is bringing security to a library the safest option, or does that very security compromise the library as a safe space?
In the municipalities of Älmhult and Olofström in southern Sweden, libraries have decided not to hold disguised story hours due to safety concerns. They felt that bringing in guards was not an option because it would be “totally at odds” with the opening of the library. Visible security measures were seen as incompatible with being a safe space.
In Malmö, story times took place with security guards in place. Here it was decided that security measures would allow the library to be a safe space through story time.
Controversies over drag queen storytelling events in Sweden’s public libraries continue. Recently, a group of drag queen stories filed a complaint against 106 people – including five SD politicians – for hate crimes. At the same time, public libraries in many parts of Sweden continue to report success in storytelling, despite opposition from the radical right.
This article is republished from The conversation under Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Fredrik Hanell has received research funding from the Crafoord Foundation (ref. no. 20210680). He is affiliated with the Swedish Green Party.
Hanna Carlsson and Lisa Magdalena Engström do not work for, consult, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their university appointment.