Det befriande ansvarets paradox. En studie av jämställdhetsinitiativet #killmiddag

Abstract

Men’s responsibility is currently in focus in much of public debate on gender equality in Sweden and a number of initiatives display an ambition to include men in what has traditionally been regarded a women’s issue. One of these initiatives is called #killmiddag (#guytalk), a call out to men to get together and have intimate conversations in order to free themselves from destructive norms of masculinity. The empirical material consists of conversational guides and instructions for #killmiddag and select newspaper articles published between 2016 and 2018. Using a poststructuralist approach, and theories on therapeutic discourse, this article scrutinizes this initiative with the aim to explore what possibilities and restraints the initiative may give rise to in regards to feminist political change. The analysis explores contemporary ideals about intimacy and focuses on how problems and solutions are articulated discursively, and how a category like “gender equality” is filled with meaning. Furthermore, problems with using personal experience as a source of objective knowledge are highlighted, and the article shows that the use of emotions and intimacy, with their built-in epistemological fragility, may not be suitable when striving for political change.