A Response from Finland (response article)

When it comes to equality between the sexes, Finland and the other Nordic countries have often been referred to as exemplary societies. The Grand Duchy of Finland, which was part of the Russian Empire, was the first European country to introduce women’s suffrage in 1906. Finland also elected the world’s first female Members of Parliament in the 1907 parliamentary elections. There has never been a strong housewife institution in Finland, since the agrarian division of labor engaged men as well as women in household tasks. Political support for combining career and motherhood is strong, due to which the percentage of women participating in the labor market is high. One female president (Tarja Halonen, 2000-2012), several female prime ministers, a growing number of stay-at-home dads, and the public daycare system have given the widely reported impression that gender equality in Finland is “complete.” Still, since last autumn, #MeToo movement voices have emerged saying that the subjugation of women is alive and well, even though it would not seem so in the strict juridical sense. The implicit ob-

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jectification and belittlement experienced by women have been brought to light in Finland as well.

The answer to the question “Why now?” presented by Paul H. Elovitz could be that now women have achieved enough socioeconomic power to speak out against the remaining inequalities. This development could be compared to the French Revolution, which was orchestrated by members of the bourgeois Third Estate who had gained an economic standing sufficiently strong to make a claim for full political rights. Interestingly, what actually triggered Olympe de Gouges to action was the very motto of the French Revolution: liberty, fraternity, and equality. What about sisterhood and women? The same kind of weary frustration that de Gouges must have felt back in the 18^th century was experienced by feminist activists in Finland when the special Law on Gender Equality finally passed in 1987. The Constitution of Finland (1919) states that all people are equal, but another 70 years of hard work and a much later law were necessary to recognize that women, forming half of the population, are included in the definition of “people.” Hence, the question “Why now?” is somewhat misleading: reforms promoting gender equality have resulted from at least a 10-year grassroots struggle by persistent women’s rights activists. All of these reforms have faced strong opposition and prophesies of the decline of Finnish society and national degeneration.

What makes the #MeToo movement revolutionary is linked with the distinction between the emotional and intellectual dominance that Paul Elovitz highlights in the life of Mary Wollstonecraft. There is a difference between rational knowledge of one’s legal rights and the emotional reactions caused by the violation of these rights. Stories about men in powerful positions harassing women and the feeling of helplessness experienced by their victims has brought the emotional side of male dominance out into the open like never before. The inability to resist or report misconduct at the time it was actually happening is a symptom of more complicated power relations than those between two legally equal individuals. Whether anal rape by an army sergeant, a film director forcing an actress to eat her own vomit, a father-figure music teacher requiring occasional oral sex in return for his kindness, or rape by a friend’s friend at a party where your mother told you not to go, feelings of shame, guilt, fear, and an inability to speak are present even though one could rationalize that it was wrong or, as in many cases, illegal. Through social media, people have been able to share their most

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painful personal experiences and stories of misconduct. With a mass and multitude of intimate voices describing similar kinds of experiences, the feelings of a victim’s personal shame and guilt are reduced, while the credibility of the general case of structural abuse is increased.

The fear of being raped or harassed can be experienced as the threat of being undermined or reminded of one’s gender, such as being reduced from a researcher to a woman, from a doctor to a woman, or from an artist to a woman, whose main task is not to worry about the world but to remember her own body and its boundaries. This can happen with a mere choice of words or with a single movement of the hands or eyes. The age-old adage that women are less than men, incapable, weak, and ridiculous is something women still fear. Repetition can become second nature. There is the image of an uptight feminist with no sense of humor who consequently fails to make a distinction between boorish male locker room type talk and rape. For women struggling against the internalized belief of being incompetent and inferior to men, belittling words are humiliating, seemingly proof of one’s hopes as wrong and foolish. Therefore, I can see a postponed shame-rage aspect in exposing perpetrators as well. Revealing past mistreatment—not only one’s own, but that of the whole group—works as revenge for past humiliations as well as a tool both for desirable societal renewal and, most importantly, for preventing them/men from hurting other people in the future.

Many men have reported their total astonishment after seeing that their wives, partners, daughters, mothers, female colleagues, and friends typed “me too” on Facebook. Harassment doesn’t have a place in the everyday lives of most men, and in my experience many men are genuinely unaware that such phenomena exist. Social constructivist theorists claim that sexism is caused by women entering traditionally male dominated arenas. This, however, does not explain why only some men act sexist, harass, and rape. The usual answer is that even though most men don’t rape, all men have benefitted from the culture of rape and fear. Not all men harass, but all men have benefitted from the culture where women are afraid of being harassed, since half of the world’s population can easily be marginalized by the competition of male-dominated resources. A handful of studies by evolutionary psychologists indicate that lower-status males who have the most to lose promote more hostile reactions toward females while perform-

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ing less successfully than those males with higher hierarchical status.

Evaluation of one’s own ranking in the horde by interpreting group members’ expressions is typical for the human species. The minority position is known to produce more sensitive reactions and a more sensitive reading of other people’s behavior. Like the child of an alcoholic or diasporic Jews, women are constantly scanning their environment for potential threats, violators, and for those who are trying to bring them down. Girls are also taught to be afraid because that is the best precaution parents feel they can take in order to protect them. We know that children who have been taken seriously by their parents are more outgoing and develop stronger self-efficacy. As adults, these children usually have better knowledge of their own boundaries and trust that they are taken seriously. Rejected children grow up to be unaware of their personal boundaries and lack the courage to speak their minds freely. Women who are now adolescents or adults and who are participating in the #MeToo movement represent one of the first generations who were typically raised equally with their brothers. They are no longer unpaid servants in their homes and are encouraged to speak their minds.

Mainstream feminism and the women’s rights movement in the 20^th century are based on women’s integration into the world of men as reflected in the labor market, unisex clothing, political and religious leadership, and the professions generally. In the 21^st century, a more feminine and empathic culture seems to be on the rise. In Europe, more and more societal value is given to traditionally feminine features such as care, empathy, and emotionality. This has also become topical in Finnish politics as demands for salary improvements for nurses and early childhood educators as well as a growing anxiety about boys’ comparatively poor performance in a school system that emphasizes reading and emotional skills have attracted public attention. Performing traditional hegemonic masculinity is viewed as more and more ridiculous and fragile, whereas the value of feminine expressions has increased. Little by little, it is becoming possible for credibility and power to be attained through other means than performing traditional masculine features. Still, counter-reactions toward the “feminization” of culture within small but loud groups of people are evident through support for traditional gender roles and, ironically, very openly misogynist online hate campaigns against Finnish actresses who have publicly

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spoken about their experiences of misconduct. It remains to be seen how this gradual societal shift, including concrete developments such as fathers’ increasing participation in childcare, will affect the evolution of the human species.

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