Abstract

This book presents a close look at the golden age of Swedish pornography in the 1970s, with a specific focus on pornographic films screened in Malmö between 1971 and 1976. How, Mariah Larsson asks, was that one small city’s embrace of the era’s sexual liberation both representative and unique in relation to the rest of Sweden? Combining historical case studies with comprehensive analyses of advertisements, critical responses and censorship records, Larsson deconstructs the complexities and paradoxes of the Swedish porn scene. Looking as closely at the exhibition spaces where porn was seen as at the productions themselves and their audiences, Larsson reveals the conditions and social changes that allowed pornography in Sweden to flourish in the period. Mariah Larsson is senior lecturer in film studies at Linnaeus University in Sweden. She has previously taught sexology at Malmö University and cinema studies at Stockholm University.
‘This careful analysis will have significant resonance across the western world. It also provides a much needed historical background to recent and likely future changes in Swedish policy around commercial sex.’ Emeritus Professor Jill Matthews, Australian National University