Kajsa Ekis Ekman

Kajsa "Ekis" Ekman (born 1980) is a Swedish freelance writer. She writes for the pro-Russian and conspiracy theorist[1][2] website Steigan.no and anti-trans website Feminist Current. She formerly contributed to the left-wing online daily ETC, but was fired in 2022 for promoting Russian propaganda.[3] She received the 2020 Lenin Award (Sweden) for her critiques of capitalism. She attracted media attention when several institutions withdrew their invitations of her, citing her anti-transgender views.[4][5] She participated in the Swedish launch of the anti-trans Women's Declaration International group.

Kajsa Ekis Ekman at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney

Work

Anti-transgender views and cancellations

She attracted media attention when several institutions withdrew their invitations of her, citing her anti-transgender views.[4][5] In February 2018, Ekman was scheduled to speak at a conference in Gothenburg. Her talk was canceled, and she was asked to stay away, after she had expressed dissent about replacing biological sex with gender identity in law and in society generally in an article for Aftonbladet shortly before the conference began.[6] In a statement on their website, the organizers of the conference, the National Organisation for Women's Shelters and Young Women's Shelters in Sweden (Roks), declared this inconsistent with their values, and therefore cancelled the talk.[5] Maria Ramnehill argued that Ekman spreads scaremongering propaganda about trans women,[7] while feminist Tiina Rosenberg wrote that the result of Ekman's views is oppression.[8] In 2020 Ekman participated in the Swedish launch of the anti-trans Women's Declaration International (WDI; formerly WHRC),[9] a group that according to Vice promotes conspiracy theories and false information[10] and that according to Scottish Women's Aid seeks "to stigmatise and discriminate against trans women".[11] Ekman has participated in WDI events alongside far-right anti-transgender activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (also known as Posie Parker),[12] who has called for "men with guns" to enter women’s toilets and target women they think are transgender.[13][14]

In 2021 she published the book Om könets existens about the supposed threat from "gender ideology", that was criticized for relying on right-wing "fake news sources"[15] and depicting trans women as a threat.[16] Morgenbladet described the anti-trans rhetoric as "abhorrent" and said that it "it is debatable whether this book deserves any discussion at all."[17] Maria Horvei wrote that Ekman's "onesided" book argues against strawmen.[18] The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights published a book titled 100 fel i 'Om könets existens' that argued that her book contained numerous inaccuracies and dubious sources.[19] In 2021, the Forum for Gender Studies at Mid Sweden University cancelled an invitation of Ekman where she were supposed to discuss her book, with the statement that "the Forum for Gender Studies is not a place for transphobia and anti-trans hate".[4]

Views on Russia

In 2022 she was fired by the left-wing online daily ETC for promoting Russian propaganda about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, by accusing The Kyiv Independent of connections to Nazism and claiming that Russia Today publishes "very solid journalism."[3][20][21]

She has also written numerous articles for the Norwegian conspiracy theorist and pro-Russian "alternative news" website Steigan.no.[1][22] Steigan is described by extremism researcher John Færseth as a platform of Russian disinformation and propaganda,[23] and as an example of "red-brown convergence" with links to the alt-right.[24] The fact-checking site Faktisk.no wrote in 2022 that Steigan is the main promoter of Russian propaganda among alternative media in Norway.[2][25][26] The secretary-general of Norway's most left-wing party Red Benedikte Pryneid Hansen said the party views Steigan as a platform of "onesided Russian war propaganda, conspiracy theories, racism and transphobia."[27] Steigan was denied membership in the Norwegian Association of Newspaper Editors, with the rationale that it is not a journalistic medium, but rather an activist website that disregards accepted journalistic principles.[28]

Views on Israel

She considers Israel to be a country based on "ethnic cleansing and apartheid".[29]

Other topics

She formerly wrote for the left-leaning Truthdig. Her book Being and Being Bought,[30] compares the sex industry and the surrogacy industry, and how they both commodify women's bodies. It criticizes the notion of sex work as being an unholy alliance between the neoliberal right and the postmodern left, used to legitimize the sex industry. She also argues that so-called "trade unions for sex workers" in many cases are funded by pimps, states, and academics, and have very little to do with labor struggle. The book has been translated into French, English, Spanish, and German.

Her book Stolen Spring[31] describes the eurocrisis as seen from Athens, and the way in which it affected the Greek economy. Ekman criticizes the view that the eurocrisis was caused by the Greek workers, and instead traces it back to changes in capitalism. She was given the prize "Swedish-Greek of the Year" 2016 for her solidarity with Greece.[32]

Ekman was one of the speakers at the 2014 Festival of Dangerous Ideas. In her Ted Talk, "Everybody talks about Capitalism, but what is it?", she speaks about the free market as a useful tool, but capitalism as a force unable of moral responsibility, and plan for the climate, the country, and the world. She suggests regulation of the finance sector to avoid crises, and suggests "democracy in all sectors of society, also in the working place".[33]

Awards and honours

References

  1. Færseth, John (2021). Fyrtårnet i øst: Putins Russland og vestlige ekstremister [The lighthouse in the east: Putin's Russia and Western extremists]. Humanist forlag. ISBN 9788282821704.
  2. "Slik spres russisk propaganda i norske alternative medier" [How Russian propaganda is promoted in Norwegian alternative media]. Faktisk.no. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  3. "Ekis Ekman om ETC: Utkastad efter tio år". Skånska Dagbladet. 12 April 2022.
  4. "Universitet ställde in seminarium om Kajsa Ekis Ekmans bok". Sveriges Television. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  5. "Uttalande angående Kajsa Ekis Ekmans deltagande på Roks konferens 20 februari". Archived from the original on 18 March 2018. Retrieved 18 March 2022.
  6. "Könet i knoppen"
  7. Ramnehill, Maria. "Ekis Ekman sprider skrämselpropaganda om transkvinnor" [Ekis Ekman spreads scaremongering propaganda about trans women]. Göteborgs-Posten. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  8. Rosenberg, Tiina. "Kajsa Ekis Ekmans feminism blir till förtryck". Expressen. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  9. "Swedish Launch of the Declaration of Women's Human Rights Campaign". Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  10. "The Anti-Trans 'Gender-Critical' Movement Is Overflowing with Bullshit". Vice. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  11. "Feminists warn of blurred lines 'between free speech and hate speech' on trans people ahead of parliament event". Source. Common Weal. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  12. "Surrogacy: The Harms and the Humans". Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  13. "'Gender critical feminist' Posie Parker wants men with guns to start using women's toilets". PinkNews. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  14. "Transphobic feminism and far-right activism rapidly converging". Freedom News. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  15. Samuelsson, Sanna (28 April 2021). "Recension: Fake news-källor i Ekis Ekmans nya bok" [Review: Fake news sources in Ekis Ekman's new book]. Göteborgs-Posten.
  16. Sandberg, Linn. "Om transkvinnan som hot" [On trans women as a threat]. Respons. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  17. "Kan diskuteres om boken i det hele tatt fortjener omtale" [It is debatable whether this book deserves any discussion at all]. Morgenbladet. 16 July 2021.
  18. Horvei, Maria (10 September 2021). "Å vere eller ikkje få vere". Vinduet.
  19. "100 fel i "Om könets existens"". RFSL. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  20. Carlsson Tenitskaja, Alexandra (11 April 2022). "Dagens ETC avslutar samarbete med Kajsa Ekis Ekman". Dagens Nyheter. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  21. "Köper man rysk propaganda ställer man sig på fel sida". Ttela. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  22. "Kajsa Ekis Ekman". steigan.no (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  23. "Flere norske alternativmedier fungerer som «kanaler» for russisk desinformasjon og propaganda" [Several Norwegian alternative media act as 'channels' for Russian disinformation and propaganda]. Journalisten. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  24. "Bonzo goes to Oslo: Christian fundamentalists and the far-right strike a new pose". Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  25. "Hevdes å spre russisk propaganda: Kari Jaquesson medeier" [Accused of spreading Russian propaganda, Kari Jaquesson a co-owner]. Dagbladet. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  26. "Ap-Raymond om Rødt-bråket: Kast ut Steigan-tilhengerne!". Verdens Gang. Retrieved 30 April 2022. Faktisk.no skrev i mars i år at steigan.no skiller seg ut som den aktøren som sprer klart mest russisk propaganda blant norske alternative medier. [Faktisk.no wrote in March this year that steigan.no stands out as the outlet that is by far the largest promoter of Russian propaganda among Norwegian alternative media.]
  27. "Ikke alle liker at Moxnes tar oppgjør med Steigan.no". Aftenposten. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  28. Simonsen, Endre (2021-10-05). "Steigan.no fikk avslag på søknad om medlemskap i Norsk Redaktørforening: – Patetisk". M24 (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  29. "Elvander saknar exempel på antisemitism inom vänstern". Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  30. Ekman, Kajsa Ekis: Being and Being Bought - Prostitution, Surrogacy and the Split Self. Melbourne: Spinifex Press, 2013
  31. Ekman, Kajsa Ekis: Κλεμμένη Ανοιξη Athens: Kedros Publishers, 2014
  32. "Årets svensk-grek"
  33. "Everybody talks about capitalism, but what is it?" TedX Athens 2014
  34. "The Lenin Award". Retrieved 22 March 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  35. "Leninprisen til Kajsa Ekis Ekman". Steigan.no. Archived from the original on 8 April 2020. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
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