Abstract
This chapter describes and indicates how our four case study countries—Germany, Italy, Sweden and Poland—accept or resist EU norms and values around gender and sexuality. Focusing on prostitution and rape, it aims to offer some empirical examples of why and how prostitution and rape have become moving targets and sitting ducks between the EU and these Member States. The chapter describes how EU Member States relate to the EU’s desire for ever closer union. It indicates how this creates a hierarchy of ‘Europeanness’ as the EU identifies some Member States as examples of ‘good’ Europeans for other Member States to emulate; while it represents other nations as consistently falling short of European standards in several areas. Then, it illustrates what happens when Member States resist EU harmonisation around gender and sexuality. It demonstrates how these nations’ resistance to EU norms and values around gender and sexuality operate. Finally, it will address how gender and sexuality norms and values perpetuate forms of institutional racism in the context of immigration into the EU.
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Notes
- 1.
Available at: https://eige.europa.eu/publications/gender-equality-index-2020-sweden. Accessed 20 June 2021.
- 2.
Available at: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CEDAW/C/POL/CO/7-8&Lang=En. Accessed 20 June 2021.
- 3.
Full text in English translation can be found at https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2014/02/bishops-attack-dangerous-gender.html. Accessed 20 June 2021.
- 4.
Available at: https://www.sejm.gov.pl/sejm7.nsf/agent.xsp?symbol=ZESPOL&Zesp=276. Accessed 20 June 2021.
- 5.
https://www.politico.eu/article/the-phrase-that-haunts-angela-merkel/. Accessed 24 April 2021.
- 6.
The CDU Party had, up to that point, been resistant to changing the definition of rape. Previously, rape law in Germany stipulated that sexual crimes could not be prosecuted as sexual assault or rape unless the victim could demonstrate physical resistance to the attack.
- 7.
Available at: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_aufenthg/englisch_aufenthg.html#p0023. Accessed 3 October 2021.
- 8.
Available at: https://www.regeringen.se/informationsmaterial/2019/03/en-feministisk-regering/. Accessed 1 July 2020.
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FitzGerald, S., Skilbrei, ML. (2022). Forging National Sexual Politics: A Dance of Moving Targets and Sitting Ducks. In: Sexual Politics in Contemporary Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91174-4_5
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