Ladyfest Sweden: a female cultural initiative

Abstract: Ladyfest Sweden is a cultural festival which aims to create a cultural space of expression for women, thus the artists and the organizers are women. It is organized by three different groups in three different cities: Malmö, Stockholm and Göteborg. This thesis is focused on Ladyfest Malmö, all the field work being realized with this group. We tried to include this phenomenon in a global and a particular logic. Therefore we question the societal context this organization grows in, its influence on the form of the movement and the concrete action and functioning of the group. What is their aim, their ideology in this collective action? How does it start and maintain through time? Why and how individuals get involved? Who are these individuals? Using the theories of Alain Touraine and Alberto Melucci on Social Movements, we see that this type of organization is facing and challenging the technocratic power on a cultural field; they are fighting over meaning. They propose a creative alternative to the definition of gender codes by empowering women and diffusing female art. And we relate this dynamic to the Riot Grrrls movement (90s´) which constitutes the ideological origins of Ladyfest. As a group, they experience what women should be like for them and their ideology is very much based on this concrete experience, it is more pragmatic than political. As a group, they grew out of a small network of relationships based in Lund (Smålands Nation) and this has a direct consequence: the group is socially and culturally homogeneous. This permits them to function smoothly together but it "naturally" excludes women who don't have the same social abilities as theirs or/and who don't evolve in the same network. They don't like this aspect of their group because it contradicts their ideals of democracy and diversity and it has for consequence an obvious lack of cultural legitimacy. They experience contradictions between their ideals and the concrete possibilities for action.