The porn debate in recent years paints a bleak picture of the consequences of pornography.

But during a period in Sweden's history, between the 60s and 70s, porn was a natural part of the cinema, music and literature offer.

- You have to be clear about what was before.

Abortions were forbidden, if you were young during this time you might not have had sex education in school and the school ordered absolute abstinence, says Anna-Lena Lodenius, journalist and author.

Modern and cool

Together with Martin Kristenson and Fredrik af Trampe, Lodenius has written the book Liberated Times - When Porn Became Culture and Culture Became Porn which depicts the decade in Swedish history when porn was in popular music, in cinema and as literature, sometimes written by established authors.

- There was a vision that pornography would be a way to make the world better.

It was modern, it was cool and if you did it you were a person who was part of your time, says Anna-Lena Lodenius.

Lars Norén wrote porn short stories in the porn magazine Piff, Ingmar Bergman had far-reaching plans to make happy porn films and Bengt Anderberg's anthology Love attracted both readers and established authors.

If the cultural establishment devoted itself to porn, the commercial "ugly porn" could perhaps be kept at bay, they reasoned.

The women's movement says no

- The sex liberals got another and slightly more difficult opponent in the 70s.

In the 1960s, it had primarily been the church that opposed this development.

Then the women's movement began to make its voices heard.

During the 60s, many women had kept quiet with their objections so as not to be branded as sexually hostile nudges, says Martin Kristenson.

When the law on hurting discipline and morality was abolished in 1971, porn was released.

But by then, the idea of ​​porn as a cultural, progressive force had already begun to fall.

- It will be more commercial and it will also be rawer in many ways.

The films that could be shown in cinemas end up in the home cinema market and a new debate shows on the downsides.

The total transparency of the law also led to child pornography being legal in Sweden throughout the 70s, says Anna-Lena Lodenius.