Antu Sorainen, Dr.
Post-doctoral Research Fellow, PPhiG
Gender studies
Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies
P.O.Box 59
FI-00014 University of Helsinki
FINLAND
Tel: +358-44-533 1984
Email: antu.sorainen@helsinki.fi
Research Interests
From Decency to Sexuality: History of the Concept of Decency (Sittlichkeit / sedlighet / siveellisyys) in Finnish Criminal Law, from 1889 to 1999.
My postdoctoral research project will contribute to the understandings of the history and politics of decency in the Finnish Criminal Law from the 1889 Penal Code to the reform of the sexual criminal law in 1999. A specific interpretation, introduced by J.V. Snellman, of the Hegelian concept of decency (Sittlichkeit / sedlighet / siveellisyys) was one of the organising principles of the Finnish Penal Code from the 19th century. The reference field of the concept decency has changed across the 20th century almost inclusively from public morality, ethical practices and a general condition of citizenship into sexuality and gendered order. The study explores not only the shift in the meanings of the concept itself but also contemporary decency, which seems to bring together not only law and politics of public order, but also sexuality and gender, underage and adulthood. This question will be tackled by examining decency both as a concept with history and as a target of contemporary politics.
Sub-Study: Politics of Decency and the Figure of the Pedophile in Finland
The research project focuses on the politics of sexual decency in the context of criminal law. A focal part of the research explores the politics of decency invested in the figure of the pedophile. I will explore whether – and in which ways – the figure of the Finnish paedophile is linked with the Hegelian-Snellmanian concept of decency. The figure of the pedophile plays currently an important role in Western countries in upholding sexual and gendered order, from sexual practices to legislation. The specific sexual threat to society of every era has been related to sexual-political issues, to struggles over sexual morals. In the 1950s, the “threat” was sexual psychopath; in the 1980s it was the incestuous father, and in the 1990s it was the child-pornographer. Each of these threats has been constructed as being beyond politics – they only permit one side and impose an ideological limit on political discourse as such. I will analyse in which ways and by whom the consciously politicized figure of the pedophile is surrounded with changing concepts of sexual morality in recent political debates, especially in Finland. In which ways the figure of the pedophile is circulated in current politics and legislation? How and by whom is it used in contemporary political rhetorics as a ground for demands for harsher punishments? The study is multi-disciplinary and method critical in utilising queer theory, history of concepts and post-feminist analysis of power relations. The research project will result in a number of scientific journal articles, a collection of essays in Finnish in 2009 and a monograph in English in 2011.