Sexual Harassment as Reification: #MeToo in the Cultural and Creative Industries in Sweden

ABSTRACT In this article, drawing on 20 interviews with participants in the #MeToo petitions #deadline and #konstnärligfrihet [artistic freedom], we explore the significance of sexual harassment in Sweden's cultural and creative industries. Our findings demonstrate how sexual harassment serves as a particularly effective tool of oppression in precarious work situations where individuals rely on informal social networks to secure work. To obtain and sustain work in this environment, an individual must gain recognition as an important—preferably indispensable—part of this social fabric. These dynamics can be understood through a bodily ontology of vulnerability, where vulnerability serves both as the emotional glue holding these networks together and as a source of anxiety, as inclusion depends on the validation of others. Another distinctive aspect of these contexts is the commodification of vulnerability within the professional role, as the value being exchanged is largely tied to the individual's perceived brilliance. Under these working conditions, sexual harassment functions as a form of reification, damaging relationships within the network while simultaneously diminishing the value of participants’ “genius.” #MeToo activism served as a means of resisting the reification process by recognizing a collective vulnerability.