The sexually abnormal male asylum-seeker: Regimes of normativities in a context of free-spiritedness
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
The aim of this chapter is to investigate the emergence of the characterological figure of the sexually abnormal male asylum-seeker in Denmark. For this purpose, we examine compulsory courses in Danish sexual morals. With the help of a Foucauldian discourse ethnography, we take a multi-layered approach that investigates media debates about the introduction of this educational provision, as well as teaching materials and classroom interactions in an asylum centre. Through detailed textual analysis, we demonstrate how the Danish national value of frisind, which can be roughly translated into ‘free-spiritedness’, does not lack normativity, as the word might suggest at first glance. Rather, the incorporation of free-spiritedness into the Danish nation-state project creates a rationale according to which this national value requires protection from foreign intruders and needs to be transmitted to anyone who wishes to become part of the nation. As such, free-spiritedness works as a regulatory tool that separates ‘true’ Danes from the Other. Within this logic, the male heterosexual asylum-seeker is not only cast as carrying unhealthy sexual behaviours from which the nation-state must be protected but is also presented as a potentially harmful species that must be socialised into proper behaviour.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Masculinities and Discourses of Men's Health |
Editors | Gavin Brookes, Małgorzata Chałupnik |
Place of Publication | Cham |
Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
Publication date | 2023 |
Pages | 219-247 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783031384066 |
Publication status | Published - 2023 |
Series | Palgrave Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality |
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ISSN | 2947-9169 |
ID: 335682834