A new wave of #MeToo sweeps over Denmark

Morten Østergaard when he was Minister of Research, in 2012. (archives) -

Thousands of women who denounce pervasive sexism, harassment and inappropriate behavior, a party leader forced to resign over a touching affair: the #MeToo movement is reshuffling the cards in Denmark.

Morten Østergaard, dashing leader of the self-proclaimed paragon of anti-sexism social-liberal party, resigned from his post on Wednesday evening.

In question, his failed attempt to hide that he had bothered a colleague by placing a hand on her thigh ten years ago.

“Morten apologized and I forgave him.

The problem is no longer what happened but the management of the case (…).

What is important to me is that the culture changes, ”wrote on Facebook, Lotte Rod who had previously revealed the incident of which she had been the victim without naming her offender.

In 2017, in the middle of #MeToo, several women denounced the harassment mainly in Danish cultural circles but the movement had not taken off.

Ambivalence of Danes

“There was also the idea that it was a minority issue, something that wasn't really 'Danish'.

And the media treatment was of the order of the debate of ideas ”, notes Camilla Møhring Reestorff, of the University of Aarhus.

This time it's different.

Today, the multiplicity of testimonies, from doctors to the university through the music industry, is snowballing, believes Christian Groes, anthropologist at Roskilde University.

“More and more women from a variety of sectors are sharing their experiences, which creates a domino effect and makes people aware of the need for collective change.

In 2017-2018, it was a debate, now it is a movement of social justice ”, summarizes this specialist in the study of genres.

Why this slowness?

The fault is undoubtedly the ambivalence of the Danes vis-à-vis feminism in a country where equality between the sexes has canon value, argues Camilla Møhring Reestorff.

In 2019, an international study carried out by YouGov showed that only one in six Danes considered themselves a feminist, compared to nearly one in two people in their Swedish neighbor.

“We live with the idea of ​​being a progressive, free and equal nation.

It can make us a little blind to sexism ”, notes the researcher.

"We're going to change that"

The spark came in late August.

The host, Sofie Linde, surprised the audience of a televised gala by recounting, more than twelve years after the facts, how a senior official of the public television had offered to him to promote his career in exchange for a fellatio.

Some 1,600 women then sent him an open letter of support, denouncing that they had all suffered from sexism at some point in their careers.

“We clearly need a culture change.

We have not succeeded in creating workplaces with equal relations.

We're going to change that and it's starting now, ”Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen assured Instagram.

The social democratic leader, however, reiterated her confidence in her Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jeppe Kofod, who admitted in 2008 to having had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl during an event within the party.

The apparatchik, now 46, had temporarily relinquished his responsibilities after what he called a "lack of judgment" and a "morally inappropriate relationship".

He apologized again.

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Culture

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• Violence against women

• Sexual violence

• MeToo

• Sexual harassment

• Bullying

• Denmark

• World

• Sexism