‘Love in Another Country’ - ‘Race’,Gender and Sexuality in Sexual Education Material Targeting Migrants in Sweden

Abstract

This article sets out from the perspective that notions of risk and safety and how these intersect with different gendered, sexualized and racialized representations are central to the HIV/AIDS problematic. With migrants and refugees being singled out as some of the most potent disease carriers in Sweden, the article aims to scrutinize representations of identity and difference in a Swedish HIV/AIDS discourse. Concerning the empirical focus, the article is based on an analysis of sexual education material targeting immigrants/refugees in Sweden. The article reveals how Swedish heterosexuality appears as an image of normality in the material. It also discusses how the concept of gender equality becomes an ‘ethnic marker’ that serves to foment racialized differences between ‘Swedes’ and ‘immigrants’. As such, the theme of ‘pleasure and danger’ is discussed with reference to how the intersections of ‘race’, gender and sexuality appear in a Swedish context.