In this article, drawing on 20 interviews with participants in the #MeToo petitions #deadline and #konstnärligfrihet [artisticfreedom], we explore the significance of sexual harassment in Sweden's cultural and creative industries. Our findings demonstrate how sexual harassment serves as a particularly effective tool of oppression in precarious work situations where individuals rely on informal social networks to secure work. To obtain and sustain work in this environment, an individual must gain recognition as an important — preferably indispensable — part of this social fabric. These dynamics can be understood through a bodily ontology of vulnerability, where vulnerability serves both as the emotional glue holding these networks together and as a source of anxiety, as inclusion depends on the validation of others. Another distinctive aspect of these contexts is the commodification of vulnerability within the professional role, as the value being exchanged is largely tied to the individual's perceived brilliance. Under these working conditions, sexual harassment functions as a form of reification, damaging relationships within the network while simultaneously diminishing the value of participants’ “genius.” #MeToo activism servedas a means of resisting the reification process by recognizing a collective vulnerability.

In Sweden, a relative consensus of liberal and feminist values has long been dominant in public discourse. This could be observed in coverage of the #MeToo movement, which was largely presented in a positive light by legacy media, where critical voices were instead found on alternative and social media. This article contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the impact of #MeToo beyond the mainstream discourse by investigating how #MeToo was discussed on the online forum Flashback during the period spanning October-December 2017. Our findings show how the #MeToo debate in this forum reproduced an anti-feminist discourse from the manosphere but also challenged it, as attitudes towards sexual harassment were negotiated and reframed in dialogue with mainstream media. #MeToo thus also contributed to an increased awareness about sexual harassment in this context. However, while a feminist agenda was being strengthened in legacy media, the anti-feminist views on Flashback became more pronounced. Interestingly, while the dominant feminist discourse around Swedish #MeToo avoided the concept "feminism", it was often used in this counter discourse on Flashback, where it signified a hated, albeit powerful and transformative, force in society.

One of the most exciting aspects of #MeToo is how the movementachieved global recognition for the problem of sexual harassment.In Sweden over 75 #MeToo groups were created during 2017–2019in different sectors of society, establishing a broad recognition ofthe problem as structural. Through interviews with 20 activists, thisstudy highlights how the movement gained strength through inter-connected levels of recognition, with social media playing a keyrole in facilitating collective action and expanding a feminist dis-course. The article also nuances the concept of “recognition” byadapting it to a public sphere transformed by digital media whereheterogeneous groups take connective action through persona-lized action frames. The result shows how recognition was devel-oped on several levels: On a personal level, in admitting to oneselfthat one had suffered from, or been part of, oppression. On a sociallevel, social media enabled large groups to interact in intimatepublics while obscuring the vast heterogeneity of the participants,allowing participants to use their shared differences as a base forcollective action. On a political level, the activism strengtheneda feminist agenda in the public sphere. The movement was alsogiven recognition at a formal level, influencing laws and policies.

To better understand the interplay between digital activism and feminist infrastructure, this study investigates #MeToo activism in the Swedish construction industry and green industry. Both are industries in transition characterized by a dissonance between formal incentives, that encourage women and others to work in environments previously dominated by white men, and the informal power structures hosting a toxic masculinity. Based on media texts and interviews with key persons from the industries, the article situates #MeToo in a local context and shows how it was embedded in a supportive social, cultural, and technical infrastructure. In both industries, at the time of #MeToo this feminist infrastructure was already in place consisting of: an awareness of the problem of sexual harassment and abuse, knowledge of feminist explanatory models, established feminist online networks, and a supportive feminist culture, which together with widespread digital and feminist literacy became instrumental in the organization of the movement. Social media connected activists and created a critical mass by supporting the uniting of conflicting identity positions around shared differences. The established feminist infrastructure meant that the #MeToo activism, by articulating a widespread affective dissonance, pushed open doors that were already half open and forced them wide. This can explain some of the movement's success in Sweden.

In the autumn of 2017, more than 2,000 female and non-binary artists and designers in Sweden joined forces in the group #konstnärligfrihet [artistic freedom] to share experiences of sexism, sexual harassment, and sexual violence, and to write a joint petition. Using a media timeline and semi-structured interviews, this article aims to situate #metoo in a larger narrative and investigate how sexual harassment within the Swedish art industry is explained and understood by 13 activists and representatives of art institutions.

Our results show that there is a strong connection between oppression and economic exploitation. The art industry is characterized by precarious economic and social relations, but also by the idea of the genius and elitist ambitions of standing outside the social order and embodying an unexploitable particularity. This combination is crucial to understanding sexual harassment in the industry. A central theme in the interviews was the feeling of grief and frustration of not being allowed to work freely as an artist but forced to constantly navigate invisible but tangible structures. These structures are maintained performatively through various acts of oppression that are part of a reification process, which systematically limits the livability of the exposed identities. During #metoo, this reification process was counteracted and turned against the oppressors themselves through an objectification of “men” as oppressors. Another finding relates to the interviewees’ understanding of sexual harassment as based upon power. Here, the positions of powerful and powerless were not univocal. As power intertwines with desire and vulnerability, oppressive acts can be multifaceted and ambivalent, and take place as part of a dynamic negotiation of positions in the informal economic system.

Den svenska #metoo-rörelsen samlade under sina första två år (2017–2019) mer än 100 000 deltagare från över 70 olika yrken och samhällsområden. I Maktordningar och motstånd belyser en grupp forskare rörelsen ur olika perspektiv och tecknar en flerdimensionell bild av hur #metoo-aktivismen i Sverige utvecklades i samspelet mellan teknik och kultur, sociala och traditionella medier, och enskilda aktörers initiativ.

Genom nedslag i olika miljöer visar forskarna hur ett strukturellt förtryck i form av sexism, sexuella trakasserier och sexuellt våld uttrycks och förklaras. De visar även hur förtrycket normaliseras och förstärks i sammanhang som kännetecknas av gränslösa beteenden, maskulinitetsgörande och en utbredd tystnadskultur. Inte minst viktigt framkommer i studien att sexuella trakasserier handlar om maktutövning. Förtrycket blir särskilt tydligt i branscher där många arbetar under prekära omständigheter och där bristen på utvägar ökar risken för de som vågar säga ifrån. Forskningsresultaten visar också hur olika diskriminerande grunder, som till exempel kön, ålder och anställningsform samverkar.

Boken ger en överblick över den svenska #metoo-rörelsens utveckling samt ger en större kunskap om särskilda riskfaktorer. Författarna pekar även ut strategier för att motverka förtryck och möjliggöra förändring.