state-run pharmacies began to sell over-the-counter sex toys this summer

Sweden is famous for breaking sexual taboos, so barely an eyebrow was raised when state-run pharmacies began to sell over-the-counter sex toys this summer, alongside the more conventional headache pills and hot water bottles. Now the shops are being hauled before the Equal Opportunies Ombudsman, the government referee on sexual discrimination, after two men complained that the erotic toys – the bestselling are vibrators and vagina balls – discriminate against males.
The pharmacy chain, Apoteket, had a “misguided and untrue view of sexuality whereby a woman with a dildo is seen as liberated, strong and independent, while a man with a blow-up plastic vagina is viewed as disgusting and perverted”, said one of the petitioners. Apoteket has made a spirited defence. Eva Fernvall, its head of retailing, said it was simply a matter of maintaining standards.
“As I understand it, there are no products of good quality on the market for men,” she said. “Should there be such products specifically for men, then there is nothing stopping us from selling them.” The men were exercising their rights under a 2005 amendment to the Equal Opportunities Act, which was supposed to right the balance in a society in which women were seen as winning more and more ground.
It is unlikely that the pharmacy chain will end up in court, but men are resorting increasingly to the law to fight for their rights across a wide spectrum of issues.
Hairdressers and taxis are no longer allowed to offer preferential rates to women. Young Swedish men were upset at the sight of even younger women wafting past club doormen while they were turned away as minors. “Bars tend to use women to attract more male customers and thus lower the age restrictions,” said Magnus Jakobsson, of the ombudsman’s office. Now the entry age has to be the same for men and women. Dating services also have to charge the same for males and females.
Male prison guards last week protested against what they saw as a discriminatory regulation: that at least one male officer had to be present in the exercise yard while convicts had their fresh-air break. The rule meant that women staff had more generous holiday schedules than men, said the complaint.
Lesbians too are feeling the brunt of the new be-fair-to-men laws. A current court case pits a lesbian couple against the Uppsala health authority. After three unsuccessful attempts to get pregnant by insemination, a lesbian then demanded that her female partner should be inseminated. The heath authority refused – on the ground that a heterosexual couple would not have the additional opportunities. Males, after all, cannot become pregnant. The couple are demanding £20,000 compensation. At the upper ranks of government there is almost complete equality between men and women. One exception is the foreign service, where there is still a disproportionately high number of male ambassadors and senior diplomats. This is under review. Swedish companies in particular are vulnerable to complaints from women who feel underpaid. The telecommunications group Ericsson – with 17,000 employees in Sweden, 25 per cent of them women – has had to raise the salaries of 115 women by up to £400 a month. The equality ombudsman found that they had lower salaries than men with the same job requirements and levels of responsibility.