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“Like the Great Pyramids of Egypt…you can’t talk about Denmark without talking about The Danish Woman”: Immigrant Perceptions of European Gender and Sexual Cultures

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Book cover Immigrants in the Sexual Revolution

Part of the book series: Genders and Sexualities in History ((GSX))

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Abstract

Immigrants’ early impressions of European gender/sexual systems ranged from curiosity to admiration to longing. By the end of the 1970s, many had incorporated liberal behaviors or attitudes about (for example) women’s independence into their own beliefs and practices.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Mahmut Erdem and Ole Hammer, Folket med de trætte okser [“The People with the Tired Oxen”] (Copenhagen: Underskoven, 2008), 62.

  2. 2.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  3. 3.

    Two examples from the 1970s include Jan Hjarnø, Fremmedarbejdere: En Etnologisk Undersdgelse af Arbejdskrafteksportens virkningeri Tyrkiet [“Foreign Workers: An Ethnological Study of the Effects of Labor Export in Turkey”] (Copenhagen: Nationalmuseet, 1971); and J. Lucassen, R. Pennix, L. van Velzen, and A. Zwinkels, Trekarbeid van de Middellandse Zeegebieden naar West-Europa [“Pull-Labor from the Mediterranean Regions to Western Europe”] (Nijmegen: Sunschrift 84, 1974). But economic determinism is also the main factor in this oft-cited book: Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller, The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World (New York: Guilford, 1993).

  4. 4.

    On LGBTQ-idenities (an adjective for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (or trans*), queer, and also pansexual, and intersex) and migrations to the U.S., see Eithne Luibhéid and Lionel Cantú, Queer Migrations: Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2005).

  5. 5.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  6. 6.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  7. 7.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  8. 8.

    Annemarie Cottaar and Nadia Bouras, Marokkanen in Nederland: de pioniers vertellen [“Moroccans in the Netherlands: The Pioneers Tell”] (Amsterdam: J.M. Meulenhoff, 2009), 60–61.

  9. 9.

    Cottaar and Bouras, ibid , 60.

  10. 10.

    Luibhéid and Cantú (n 4), xvi–xxv.

  11. 11.

    Z.H. interview (October 2014).

  12. 12.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  13. 13.

    Mineke Bosch, “The Meaning of a Kiss: Different Historiographical Approaches to the Sixties in the Netherlands,” L’Homme 20:2 (2009): 56–57.

  14. 14.

    Source: Six surveys (1963–1974) cited in Ahmet Akgündüz, Labour Migration from Turkey to Western Europe: 1960–1974: A Multidisciplinary Analysis (Farnham, U.K. and Burlington, V.T.: Ashgate, 2008), 152 (also 42–43).

  15. 15.

    For this first publication, she used the name Gretty Mizrahi Sirazi, but I refer to her as Mirdal for consistency, as she has published under the latter name through to the present day. Born in Istanbul, Mirdal is a professor of psychology at the University of Copenhagen.

  16. 16.

    Gretty Mizrahi Sirazi (Mirdal), “Tyrkerne” [The Turks], in Gæstearbejder I København: en undersøgelse [“Guest Workers in Copenhagen: An Investigation”], ed. Eggert Petersen (Copenhagen: Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, 1970), 25. Mirdal’s chapter is one of three in Eggert Petersen’s book about Turks, Greeks, and Brits working in Denmark in 1970. For international praise of this research, see: Steven Sampson, “Book Reviews,” review of Gæstearbejder i København by Eggert Petersen, American Anthropologist 76 (1974): 583–584.

  17. 17.

    Mirdal (Mizrahi Sirazi), ibid , 25. She interviewed thirty-four Turks: nine in 1969, and twenty-five in 1970.

  18. 18.

    Mirdal (Mizrahi Sirazi), ibid , 25.

  19. 19.

    Mirdal (Mizrahi Sirazi), ibid , 27.

  20. 20.

    Hans van Amersfoort, Immigration and the Formation of Minority Groups: The Dutch Experience, 1945–1975 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 197.

  21. 21.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  22. 22.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  23. 23.

    Fremmedarbejderbladet (Henceforth: FAB) (6 August 1971), 2.

  24. 24.

    For example, Al-Ghad 6 (August 1968), English page 2; Al-Ghad 7 (September 1968), English page 3.

  25. 25.

    Al-Ghad 5 (July 1968), 5; Al-Ghad 7 (September 1968), 9; Al Ghad (1968).

  26. 26.

    Al-Ghad 6 (August 1968), cover.

  27. 27.

    Muhammad Bilak’hal, “The Danish Woman,” Al-Ghad 8 (October 1968). No page numbers.

  28. 28.

    I expand on the connections between virility-taunting and sexually Orientalizing politics in a forthcoming article in Sexualities (special issue: “Sexotic”).

  29. 29.

    Erdem and Hammer (n 1), 65.

  30. 30.

    Drude Dahlerup, “Denmark: High Representation of Women Without Gender Quotas,” in Breaking Male Dominance in Old Democracies, ed. Drude Dahlerup and Monique Leyenaar (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).

  31. 31.

    However, the post-World War II political climate did not necessarily foment sexual liberation. After the War, many men and women fixated on the topic of “female faithlessness” (often in sexual terms) during World War II; in the context of men’s and women’s desire to return to normalcy after the sexual chaos, the 1950s often saw “more conservative sexual mores, and especially toward renewed restrictions on women’s sexual freedoms”; via Dagmar Herzog, Sexuality in Europe: A Twentieth-Century History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 98.

  32. 32.

    Joke Kool-Smit, “Het onbehagen bij de vrouw” [“The Unease of Women”] originally published in The Guide 130: 9/10 (November 1967), 267–281. Among those who cite this source: Pieternel Onderwater, “Wij zijn geen ‘zielige vrouwtjes’! Een onderzoek naar de houding van de Turkse vrouwenbeweging in Nederland ten opzichte van het seksedebat tussen 1970 en 2008” [“We are not ‘Pathetic Females’! A Study of the Attitude of the Turkish Women’s Movement in the Netherlands Regarding the Sex Debate, 1970–2008”] (Masters thesis, Utrecht, Utrecht University, 2008); Vilan van de Loo, De vrouw beslist: de tweede feministische golf in Nederland [“The Woman Decides, the Second Feminist Wave in the Netherlands”] (Wormer, NL: Inmerc, 2005), especially 182–197.

  33. 33.

    Dahlerup (n 31), 149–153.

  34. 34.

    Dahlerup (n 31), 149–153.

  35. 35.

    Al-Ghad 7 (September 1968), 9.

  36. 36.

    Joyce Outshoorn, “The Feminist Movement and Abortion Policy in the Netherlands,” in The New Women’s Movement: Feminism and Political Power in Europe and the USA, ed. Drude Dahlerup (London: Sage Publications, 1986), 65.

  37. 37.

    Dahlerup, The New Women’s Movement, ibid , 221.

  38. 38.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  39. 39.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  40. 40.

    Mirdal (Mizrahi Sirazi) (n 16), 33.

  41. 41.

    Conversations with WD, October 2014.

  42. 42.

    Jeffrey Escoffier, Bigger than Life: The History of Gay Porn Cinema from Beefcake to Hardcore (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2009), 125.

  43. 43.

    Mirdal (Mizrahi Sirazi) (n 16). “Hangs out” was translated from går en tur.

  44. 44.

    Murat Alpar, “Viktoriagade,” Gæstearbejderen Memet [“The Guest Worker Memet”] (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1978), 31–32. Also published in English: Murat Alpar, Memet (Copenhagen: Augustinus, 1980).

  45. 45.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  46. 46.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  47. 47.

    Hanne, “Visit to a Dance Restaurant: ‘Foreigners are too Fresh,’” FAB (16 April 1973).

  48. 48.

    Ibid .

  49. 49.

    Ibid .

  50. 50.

    W. S. Shadid, Moroccan Workers in the Netherlands (Ph.D. dissertation, Leiden, University of Leiden, 1979), 210–212.

  51. 51.

    Alevism is a minority Muslim sect concentrated mainly in Turkey. On drinking in general, see images in the IISG Migrant Photo Archive, e.g. Collection Yozgatlı (Amsterdam, 1973 [on website] or 1975 [on photo]), last accessed October 2016 via http://www.iisg.nl/hbm/toonfoto.php?onderdeel=1&collectie=46&foto=2&source=turken

  52. 52.

    Rup, “No Admittance for Foreign Workers,” FAB (10 June 1973). See also Chapter 4, and forthcoming article in Sexualities. When racism was discussed in the Netherlands, it often focused on Afro-Caribbean communities, and not those from “guest worker” countries, e.g. “Rassenprobleem op komst; Wie doet er wat aan?” [“Race Problem on Arrival: Who is Doing What?”] De Telegraaf (4 September 1971), 7.

  53. 53.

    Mirdal (Mizrahi Sirazi) (n 16).

  54. 54.

    Erdem and Hammer (n 1), 65.

  55. 55.

    Erdem and Hammer (n 1), 65.

  56. 56.

    Mirdal (Mizrahi Sirazi) (n 16).

  57. 57.

    Amal Rassam, “Women and Domestic Power in Morocco,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 12:2 (September, 1980): 171–179. See the (male) discussion of bridewealth (sdaq) and Moroccan vs. European traditions.

  58. 58.

    Karen Andersen, Gæstearbejder Udlænding Indvandrer Dansker! Migration til Danmark i 1968–78 [“Guest-worker, Alien, Immigrant, Dane! Migration to Denmark, 1968–78”] (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1979), 48; see also 57.

  59. 59.

    Leo Lucassen and Charlotte Laarman, “Immigration, Intermarriage and the Changing Face of Europe in the Post War Period,” History of the Family 14 (2009): 65.

  60. 60.

    Self-collected data via http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/ in May 2010

  61. 61.

    FAB, “A Pakistani Charged,” FAB (10 August 1972). The context, explained more in Chapter 4, was that the man told this to the press after being charged for the murder of the Danish woman.

  62. 62.

    Shadid (n 52), 156–157. On the relatively high divorce rate in Morocco, see Rassam (n 59).

  63. 63.

    Unattributed, undated cartoon [in Turkish]; IISG, HTIB Collection, Folder 573 (Pieces of and on the HTKB 1976–1989).

  64. 64.

    Gretty Mirdal, “Stress and Distress in Migration,” International Migration Review 18:4 (1984): 984–1003; here, 993.

  65. 65.

    C.S. [Camilla Skousen], “Most Choose to Divorce!” [Interview with Rosa Labarca], Kvinder 32 (June/July 1980), 16–18.

  66. 66.

    Ibid .

  67. 67.

    Interview M.U. (April 2015).

  68. 68.

    David Bos, “Gewurgd door taboes” [“Strangled by Taboos”], in Steeds gewoner, nooit gewoon, [Increasingly common, never ordinary] ed. Saskia Keuzenkamp (Den Haag: Sociaal and Cultureel Planbureau, June 2010). Interviews conducted and transcribed by Naïma Bouchtaoui.

  69. 69.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  70. 70.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  71. 71.

    Saskia Keuzenkamp (ed.), Steeds gewoner, nooit gewoon [Increasingly common, never ordinary] (Den Haag: Sociaal and Cultureel Planbureau, June 2010), 362.

  72. 72.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  73. 73.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  74. 74.

    Vera Illes, “Niets Mogen, Nergens Heen, Analfabetisme, Onderworpenheid” [“Nothing possible, Going Nowhere, Illiteracy and Submissivness”], NRC Handelsblad (21 February 1976); via IISG, HTKB Collection, Folder 573 (Pieces of and on the HTKB, 1976–1989).

  75. 75.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  76. 76.

    M. Kiray, “The Family of the Immigrant Worker,” in Turkish Workers in Europe, ed. N. Abadan-Unat et al. (Leiden: Brill, 1976); G. Kosack, “Migrant Women: The Move to Western Europe—A Step Towards Emancipation?” Race & Class 17 (1976); and A. Kudat, “Structural Change in the Migrant Turkish Family,” in Manpower Mobility Across Cultural Boundaries, ed. R. E. Krane (Leiden: Brill, 1975); all cited in Mirdal (n 66).

  77. 77.

    Mirdal (n 66), 990.

  78. 78.

    Herzog (n 32).

  79. 79.

    “Labarca,” Kvinder (n 67).

  80. 80.

    Mirdal (n 66), 997.

  81. 81.

    Shadid (n 52), 214–218.

  82. 82.

    See e.g. IISG, Migrant Photo Archive, Collection: Öcal-Altay (Zaandam, 1970), last accessed October 2016 via http://www.iisg.nl/hbm/toonfoto.php?onderdeel=1&collectie=43&foto=4&source=turken

  83. 83.

    Shadid (n 52).

  84. 84.

    Shadid (n 52), 214–218.

  85. 85.

    Arranged marriages were customary at the time in many of the cultures from which immigrants arrived (e.g. Morocco, Pakistan). See Rassam (n 59), 174.

  86. 86.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  87. 87.

    Anonymous interview (October 2014).

  88. 88.

    Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000).

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  1. Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Andrew D J Shield

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Shield, A.D.J. (2017). “Like the Great Pyramids of Egypt…you can’t talk about Denmark without talking about The Danish Woman”: Immigrant Perceptions of European Gender and Sexual Cultures. In: Immigrants in the Sexual Revolution. Genders and Sexualities in History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49613-9_3

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