Sexköpslagen 2.0 - en kritisk diskursanalys av debatten om en utvidgad sexköpslagstiftning
The main aim of this study is to examine the political debate in Sweden around a potentionalcriminalization of buying sex abroad. A second additional aim is to analyze the debate from anintersectional feminist gender perspective, by bringing attention to ideas about gender, ethnicity andpower expressed in the empirical material.The questions at issue are:What are the arguments for and against the potentional criminalization of buying sex abroad andwhich central discursive battles can be discerned throughout the debate?What impact do ideas about gender and power have on the construction of a general advocatediscourse versus a general antagonist discourse?The methodological point of departure is Critical Discourse Analysis, drawing on the theories ofNorman Fairclough, Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The empirical material consists of 27articles and editorials publicized in Swedish newspapers between January 2011 and November2014.The result shows that the polemics manifested in the debate are based on different ideas aboutgender, ethnicity and power. A crucial discursive battle stands between human rights andinternational law as a superior principle. In this context a general distinction in the debate is theanalytical level on which prostitution and sex purchases is understood and discussed; as a structuralproblem or as a matter between two individuals. The debate can also be seen as an example of howcolonization and imperialism still affect traditional feminist issues. In this context ethnicity alsoemerges as a powerful dimension in the debate.