ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the reception of the well-known Canadian anti-pornography documentary Not a Love Story (Bonnie Sherr Klein, 1981) through a comparative study, focusing on the Canadian and the Swedish reception. The chapter proposes a framework for understanding the cultural and social intersections of the contemporary ‘Sex Wars’, the anti-pornography movements, and debates around censorship and the welfare state in Canada and Sweden. The reception of the film was remarkably different between the two countries. In Sweden, the film was nearly unanimously embraced by critics and the cultural elite. The film spurred contradictory reception in Canada, however: it was banned in Ontario as pornography; celebrated by anti-porn feminists; and criticized by queer as well as some feminist critics. Furthermore, in Canada, the legacy of the film was in part shaped by later statements by the film’s protagonist, stripper Linda Lee Tracey, who spoke out about feeling exploited by the intellectual women who headed the production. In Sweden, however, when the film was released to a general audience in 1983, significant social Agents, such as the Swedish Film Institute, Swedish public television, and the National Association of Sex Education, worked to raise interest in the film. Although Sweden was internationally known for being “sex liberal” and had decriminalized pornography in 1971, official opinion at this time had turned against pornography.
