Fact Check: Swedish attitudes toward sexuality and public nudity

by Richard Thornton, Architect and City Planner

In response to the epic saga about my experiences while living in Landskrona, Sweden I received several private questions/comments from subscribers concerning Swedish attitudes toward public nudity and sexuality. In fact, those were the only private comments I received! I brushed on those subjects in the article, but really did not provide the big picture in regard to general attitudes and laws in Sweden.

Most noticeably, was a query from Vivi the French Courtesan, who has not communicated with me in over three months. Methinks that it was sparked by jealousy! However, I am still guilt ridden over disappearing from the face of the earth (actually Northern Virginia) just a few weeks before we planned to move in together at a farmhouse near Frederick, Maryland. So, I will directly answer her questions, while providing the overall perspective.

Subscribers may recall from the article that in response to numerous criticisms of Richard Nixon’s military actions in Southeast Asia by Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme and Sweden’s delegate to the United Nations, the Nixon Team launched a well-funded smear and slander campaign against everything Swedish. Swedes were painted to be an immoral, promiscuous people with no inhibitions. It was said that they were so depressed by living in a Marxist nation that they had the highest suicide and alcoholism rate in the world. The campaign even went to the extent of automobile dealers, who sold Volvos and Saabs, being threatened with IRS tax audits. Eating Swedish meat balls or owning a Volvo was clear proof that someone was a Commie or Librul Traitor.

The Nixonians repeatedly promulgated lies about the national characters of the Nordic countries. These lies so replicated themselves through the various forms of electronic and printed media that still today, many Americans view them as facts. I am going to address the lies related to morality and will answer Vivi’s questions.

Because of complaints from the many Middle Eastern immigrants now in Landskrona, nude and topless swimming is no longer allowed at Borstahusen. The municipal government banned topless bathing at Borstahusen and moved the nude beach northward to Ålabodarna. According to a notice on the website of the Landskrona Recreation Department, Ålabodarna gets so little use that it is no longer being maintained. However, Muslim spokesmen in Landskrona pressed for more concessions.

Scandinavian and Latin American women in the city, responded to these demands by mobilizing and demonstrating against the imposition of foreign values and laws into their community. Muslim residents responded violently then actually rioted and burned municipal vehicles at one point, trying to force the city to adopt Sharia Law in regard to swimming apparel on all public beaches. Women would have been required to cover all of there bodies except their face, when swimming or laying on the beach.

A school was also burned by local Muslim terrorists, but it was not clear if the arson was a response to the demand for fully clothed bathers or the demand for Halil (Muslim Kosher) meals in the public schools. Pork has always been a important part of the diet among Danes, southern Swedes, Finns and Brazilians. Those in Landskrona refused to compromise on this issue.

Swedish women have a very good reason to be now afraid of displaying themselves in public, either partially or totally unclothed. I consulted the Crime Prevention Council (BRÅ) at Lund University near Landskrona on this matter. Forty years after the Riksdag (Swedish parliament) decided to change formerly homogenous Sweden into a multicultural country, violent crime has increased by 300% and rapes by 1,472%. Sweden now ranks number two in the world in terms of the number of rapes per 100,000 residents. The same organization determined that 2020, 64% of the rapes were done by immigrants . . . mostly from North Africa and the Middle East.

Back in the 1970s

While I was living in Landskrona, the county experienced its first murder trial in 12 years. A Turkish man had beaten his wife to death with a hammer, after she wore women’s pants to the supermarket during a snow storm. The majority of immigrants in the city were from Finland, Poland and Brazil. These newcomers eagerly embraced the traditional tolerance of Swedes toward what women wore or didn’t wear.

In 1972, it was quite common to see topless women and naked children on the public beaches, except those near residential and commercial areas of Landskrona . . . where it was forbidden. However, full nudity for those over 12 years old was restricted to one public beach, North Borstahusen. There were no laws against going nude bathing in remote locations along the Őresund, unless someone complained.

The same rule applied to the removal of clothing within the city. It was quite common for the young, Finnish, Estonian and Brazilian women in my apartment complex to sunbathe topless in the courtyard or on their rear decks. Had I photographed them or gawked at them, they could have called the police. In truth, though, on many occasions, if they saw me on my rear deck putting out the garbage, they would sit up, smile and wave at me. In personality, I had much more in common with the Finns and Brazilians than I did the Swedish gals.

In particular, the young Brazilian women would invite me to their apartments in our building for dinner with benefits. I couldn’t dare let them find out I was an American. Sooner or later the info would get to the terrorists on my hall. On the other hand, being a loner, would be a sure giveaway of being a NATO spy. So I told the Brazilian senhoritas that I was a Sami from Faeroe Islands and was engaged to a Mexican señorita.

I showed them Ana Rojas’ photo and said she was my fiancée. They wouldn’t have a clue where the Faeroe Islands were, but knew that I liked Latin American girls. Therefore, I would be considered an intermittent, casual “playmate” until a permanent boyfriend appeared. It worked.

Back in 1972, virtually no buildings in Landskrona had air conditioning. When the summer temperatures rose to 29.4 C (85 F) most of the locals were sweltering. Dozens of teenage/young adult females and males would strip down to their undies and hang around the fountain in the City Hall Plaza. The first time this happened the local newspaper featured a frontpage photo of the almost nude crowd with the headline, “Idag var det så varmt att man inte kunde bära kläder!” (Today it was so hot that one could not wear clothes.) Both the near nakedness in the plaza and the photograph would be illegal now under Sweden’s new laws. I will explain why at the end of the article.

Vivi’s Questions

(1) Is it true that in Sweden the cities operate nude swimming beaches rather than private clubs? Yes, all nude beaches on the ocean are government owned.

(2) Did you go nude swimming with Swedish girls, but never with your Vivi? Yes, but it was not as racy as it sounds.

It should be made clear that it was look, but don’t touch when swimming au naturale with Svenska flickor in the ocean. They would immediately, wrap a towel around their waist, when walking back onto the beach. This was a rule, which I am certain Vivi would not have tolerated. LOL The official purpose of skinny dipping was to build up Vitamin D in their bodies, because of the long nights during half the year, Scandinavians have a chronic problem with Vitamin D deficiency, if they don’t take special vitamin tablets.

The teenage and college age Swedish women were already having to curtail their clothes-less activities for another reason. Sleazy commercial photographers, primarily from Germany and England, were taking photos of nude women on the beach and selling them to men’s porno magazines. They were taking photos of nude straight guys and selling them to gay men’s magazines. My official girlfriend, Britt-Louise, had a special concern in this area. She was going to be a lawyer and politician. It would be disastrous to her political career for her photo to appear in a porno magazine.

The national laws on nudity in Sweden today

I queried a Swedish law website, sponsored by the law school at Uppsala University. Up until the problems with rape and massive immigration by Muslims, there were no national laws regarding nudity. Such things were left up to cities and counties. It said that nudity, per se, is still not illegal in Sweden. Nudity as a form of sexual aggression is illegal. That is if a person . . . most likely a man, since most men would not complain about a naked woman . . . intentionally reveals his private parts as a sexual or psychological threat, a crime has been committed.

The second part of illegal nudity was added to appease Muslims, but has became a nightmare for police to enforce. The law states that if the exposure of any part of one’s body offends a Swedish citizen, he or she may complain to the police. If the offending party refuses to cover that area of their body with clothing then he or she may be charged with what is called a misdemeanor in English/North American law. This put an immediate end to people going topless in hot weather in any location visible from a house, apartment building, office public plaza, road or park. The publishing of a photo in a newspaper, showing partially clothed women, immediately became illegal because Muslims complained about it. When a group of skinny dipping Lund University students were beaten up by Muslim activists, their defense was that these skinny dippers were criminals.

Are Swedes really promiscuous?

No! In 1972, it was already a long tradition in Sweden for young people to live together for at least a year before getting married. The Creek Indians always had that same custom. In the years, since then, living together before marriage has become commonplace in the United States. I certainly wish I had done that. Sooner or later, my ex-wife’s true personalities would made themselves apparent, but I would not have been hog-tied by the tradition of being faithful to a marriage oath.

This morning, I found a letter that I had written to my parents and sister after attending the Midsommarsfesten Dance in Lund, Sweden. I was already complaining about the fact that I met two pretty Swedish girls after the dance, who were “what I called in the letter – so bashful” even though they all take at least ten years of English in school. They had beautiful voices and were lively performers during the dance, but had to drink at least five strong cocktails before they would converse with me. I asked them, “Who wants a girlfriend, who needs to drink a bottle of vodka before they can converse with you?”

Of course, these two bashful, pretty Swedish gals would become quite well known a few years later, after they joined a new band . . . a few months later. The new band was originally named “Bjorn, Benny and the Two Swedish Girls.” Their names were Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad – the two A’s in ABBA. The last time I saw Agnetha, two weeks after the dance, was at Landskrona’s Beach Park, where she dressed for a picnic, in what she thought were American Indian clothes. Ironically, at the end of the decade, this was the last location, where ABBA gave a public concert.

What I really meant was that they found it very difficult to communicate verbally or with body language with men. In other words, they were extremely inhibited. I voiced my dilemma that I really liked the Brazilian and Finnish girls much better, but I didn’t know either language and all of us were just learning Swedish. The Finns knew some English and the Brazilian gals could understand much of my non-fluent Spanish.

I now understand that the reason that Swedes and Norwegians tend to binge drink strong, distilled alcoholic beverages is that they need the booze in order to be sociable or communicate romantically with each other. I can do that just fine with Southern Sweet Ice Tea.

So to be honest with you, if I was told I had to live in Sweden for a long period, I would want to be accompanied by one of those well-educated, smart, logical, but extremely affectionate mademoiselles from rural Burgundy (southeastern France) . . . like Vivi or Yvette de Veaux . . . or Ana Rojas, who had a personality like those ladies, but lived in Campeche, Mexico. I found that . . . like me . . . Yvette, Ana and Vivi had a passion for life and love, which seemed to be missing among many Swedish women. You can’t be promiscuous, if you are an Ice Queen. LOL I am not saying that anybody is right or wrong. We are born the way we are born. Apparently, my soul once lived in Burgundy . . . but the Burgundians originated in southern Sweden.

Tack så mycket folk i Landskrona

My assessment of the Swedish personality sounds negative, but it is only in regard to finding one’s soul mate. I cannot begin to describe how hospitable, sincere, kind and thoughtful the people of Landskrona were to me. Their goodness certainly contrasts sharply with the demonic treatment by the powers that be that I have received in my home state of Georgia since the year 1999 . . . especially in Jasper, GA. Below is the hand-written cover sheet to some going away gifts that the City of Landskrona’s officials gave for me at a farewell party. Of course, the President of the City Council and my boss knew that I had a role in protecting their city from a horrific terrorist attack, but also it was clearly their nature to be sincerely thoughtful.