Tilhørsforhold og danskhed. Debatten om kønsopdelt svømning

Abstract

I 2016 og 2017 skabte kvindesvømning – et tilbud, der tiltrækker mest, men ikke udelukkende etniske minoritetskvinder – intens debat i hele Danmark. Denne artikel fokuserer på den politiske debat i Aarhus Byråd, der førte til en beslutning om, at der i kommunens svømmehaller ikke må være kønsopdelt svømning i den offentlige åbningstid. Formålet med artiklen er at undersøge, hvordan en fritidsaktivitet som kvindesvømning blev til et problem i 2016, som krævede en langvarig debat og et politisk indgreb. Med udgangspunkt i Nira Yuval-Davis’ begreber om politisering af tilhørsforhold viser vores analyse, hvordan forestillinger om danskhed og dertilhørende danske værdier gøres til centrale argumenter i den politiske debat, som fører til politisk regulering af en velbesøgt sundhedsfremmende fritidsaktivitet. Debatten om kønsopdelt svømning understreger, at værdier såsom individuel valgfrihed eller religionsfrihed, som indtil for nyligt prægede den politiske praksis i nordiske velfærdsregimer, afløses af danskhed som den altoverskyggende værdiramme. 
 
 
 ENGELSK ABSTRACT
 
 Verena Lenneis & Sine Agergaard: 
 The debate about gender-segregated swimming: belonging and Danishness 
 
 In 2016 and 2017, women-only swimming – an initiative that attracts mostly, but not exclusively minority ethnic women – caused considerable discussion across Denmark. This article focuses on the year-long political debate in the city council of Aarhus which subsequently led to a ban on women-only swimming activities during public opening hours in the municipality’s indoor swimming pools. The aim of this article was to examine why a leisure time activity such as women-only swimming became a ‘problem’ in 2016, and how it became subjected to political regulation. Drawing on Nira Yuval-Davis’ politics of belonging, our analysis shows how imaginations of ‘Danishness’ and, in particular, Danish values became central arguments in the political debate that led to the regulation of a well-attended and health-promoting leisure activity. The debate on gender-segregated swimming emphasizes that values such as freedom of choice or freedom of religion, which until recently have dominated the political practice in Nordic welfare regimes, are replaced by ‘Danishness’ as the paramount political concern. 
 
 Keywords: gender, ethnicity, religion, belonging, integration

“I think I am a very strong woman”: Arabic-Origin Women Mobilizing Values and Claiming Worth in Denmark

“…A concrete example is how mothers presented the Danish welfare state as embodying Islamic moral teachings. Although these women are often portrayed by politicians and the media as a burden to the welfare state (Integrationsministeriet 2018; Lenneis and Agergaard 2018; Regeringen 2018; Witcombe 2019), they presented themselves as meaningful and valuable members of Danish society because they occupied an important role in the family and in the home and, thus, by extension, in the broader society. As such, they offered an alternative interpretation of “cultural fit” than dominant understandings of the incompatibility of Islam and European societies (Brubaker 2017).…”

“…As discussed in the Introduction and the section on Denmark, dominant political and mediatized portrayals of Arabic-origin mothers suggest that they do not understand or contribute to the Danish welfare state and that Islam is irreconcilable with Danish/Western values (Brubaker 2017; Lenneis and Agergaard 2018; Mouritsen et al 2019; Simonsen 2020). However, mothers interviewed here saw their care for other people and their focus on contributing to the greater good as being in complete alignment with Danish welfare-state institutions, which ultimately, in their view, reflected core Islamic values.…”

“… 1 In using this term ( majority society ), we do not suggest that the Danish “majority society” is homogeneous or that it is normatively superior but, rather, acknowledge the empirical fact that some actors — politicians, debaters, and ordinary people — present themselves and are seen by others as closer to the core of the Danish nation (Simonsen 2020; Lenneis and Agergaard 2018). It is within this discourse that Arabic-origin women are stereotyped and devalued.…”

In Denmark we eat pork and shake hands! Islam and the anti-Islamic emblems of cultural difference in Danish neo-nationalism

“…Furthermore, in neonationalist discourses, mainly articulated by right-wing participants in the debate, these four phenomena have all become emblematic of Danish culture as they are evoked to demarcate boundaries vis-à-vis Islam. My discussion of these emblems of difference is partly based on the work of other scholars (Hervik, 2011(Hervik, , 2012(Hervik, , 2019Lenneis and Agergaard, 2018;Rostbøll, 2010;Vandsø, 2017) and partly on my own readings of Danish media coverage of recent events and of debates on the presence of Islam in Denmark as they have unfolded in the media, among politicians and on the social media.…”

“…In the municipality of Aarhus, the second largest city of Denmark, the Liberal party proposed banning gender-segregated swimming in May 2016 and, after months of debating and reviewing the proposal, the ban was passed with an overwhelming majority of votes in February 2017. In the debates that preceded the ban, arguments against segregated swimming were that it would strengthen the formation of parallel societies in Denmark, that women participating in such swimming were victims of social control of their husbands and that segregated swimming is incompatible with fundamental Danish norms and values, such as gender equality, a tolerant mind-set ( frisind ) and sexual liberation (Lenneis and Agergaard, 2018: 53–54).…”