Capital of Sex: Porn Tourism and Retailing in Stockholm, 1960–80

As film historian Eric Schaefer has put forward, there was a shift in the US imagination of the “sexy nation” in the 1960s, from France to Scandinavia. This was a result of two interrelated developments. First, the reputation of the “Swedish sin” emanating from discussions in the 1950s about Swedish relaxed sexual regulation in the context of the Cold War (Sweden being symbol of a western country with a socialist welfare state), depicted in international best-selling movies like Summer with Monika (1953), and I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967). Second, the ‘sexy nation’ was boosted by the large influx of porn magazines and films to the US in the 1960s and 1970s. But if porn publications were exported westwards to find consumers, consumers also travelled eastbound to see the Swedish sin with their own eyes.

This paper has the dual aim of analyzing, first, how Stockholm was portrayed as the capital of sex internationally and how the city responded to this reputation (marketwise and municipality-wise), and second, how retailers made sex into capital. It maps the development of porn retailing in general and focuses especially on the infamous porn street Klara norra kyrkogata. This street was not only known for its concentration of porn retailers and sex clubs, it was also one of Stockholm’s meeting spots for men seeking sexual relations with other men. And, while the reputation of the Swedish sin centered around young female heterosexuality, the porn shops offered magazines and 8mm films for “all tastes”. The conclusion is thus made, that the porn market was far more mixed than previously acknowledged in the 1960s and 1970s. With time, however, a more segmented market evolved, when specialized retailers directed to the LGBT consumer group emerged.