This essay examines the politics of sexuality, particularly the efforts to understand and discipline homosexuality in Sweden during the late 1930s and 1940s. This period was significant as homosexuality was redefined as a sickness and ‘homosexual acts’ were largely decriminalized. So were also contraceptives, and to some extent abortions, which were viewed as eugenic tools to fight so-called degeneration. The study employs a critical ideology analysis in two stages: first, it examines political proposals aimed at implementing a new sexual morality and addressing the ‘harmful expressions of homosexuality.’ Second, it investigates how these ideological statements were practically applied by Medicinalstyrelsen (‘the medicine agency’) in their treatment of homosexual patients.

Drawing on the results and with inspiration from the Marxist feminist Silvia Federici, the essay argues that the body politics of befolkningspolitiken (‘the population politics’) was evident in the new discourse on sexuality. Furthermore, it is argued that these changes can be understood as an expression of what Marxists refer to as primitive accumulation. The increasingly political importance of the body created a highly politicized dichotomy between health and sickness that was applied to multiple aspects, ranging from intelligence to sexuality. Thus, doctors in the 1930s and 1940s could hardly perceive homosexuality as anything other than a sickness. This perception, however, partly led to a more empathetic understanding of homosexuality, as homosexuals came to be seen as helpless victims of a mental illness. Conversely, it also reinforced the notion that it was not only a right but a moral duty to ‘cure’ homosexual patients through medical interventions such as castration.