Fear and Loathing in Umeå—Gendered Bodies and Actual Imprints of the Haga Man

Abstract

This study analyses the responses and reactions among women and men in Umeå during the period of threat from a serial rapist, the so-called Haga Man. This article discusses how the increased threat in public space influenced constructions of male and female bodies in space during a period of changing public crime discourses. The article illustrates the importance of context and demonstrates the temporality of how bodies are perceived in space. Public descriptions of the Haga Man focused on characteristics of the perpetrator's body and “normal Swedish appearance”, which constructed an image of the dangerous white body. White male respondents positioned themselves in relation to these descriptions, and were partly challenged with respect to new perceptions and meanings associated with “normality”. In descriptions of the Haga Man's victims, women were presented as vulnerable, but in contrast to many other cases of serial rape there was no immediate focus on their bodies in terms of respectability. A shift of emphasis took place, towards a focus on bodies that frighten, rather than those that are afraid. The findings contribute to a discussion of how gendered power relations can be understood through shifting representations of bodies in space.

Notes

¹ The selection of respondents varied according to what I identified as changes in local newspaper debates and in people's everyday talk concerning fear and safety in the wake of the Haga Man's assaults. The first interviews were conducted in 2001, with eight women aged 17–50 years. At the time of these interviews, a year had passed since the Haga Man's first known attack. In 2005, when five years had passed since the first attacks, I conducted a second series of interviews, and at this time there was an emerging focus on the influence of men on women's fear. Hence, I conducted interviews with ten women and ten men aged 19–26. In December 2005 the Haga Man attacked another woman, and in March 2006 he was arrested. A third and final series of interviews was conducted approximately six months after his arrest. Following the last assault in December 2005, the previous image of potential victims of the Haga Man was modified as the victim, who was brutally assaulted and raped, was a 51-year-old woman. Ten follow-up interviews with respondents who had been interviewed in 2005 were conducted during this last period, and 18 new respondents (nine women and nine men), aged 20–50 years, were also interviewed. As part of the project throughout the period 1998–2006, I performed continuous reviews of local and national media coverage of the Haga Man phenomenon and collected articles about the Haga Man from the major Swedish newspapers. I identified major themes in the media as well as how they changed over time. When I refer to public crime discourses and public discussions in this context, I am drawing on this collected media text material and previous media research (Livholts 2007; Lindgren & Lundström 2010), as well as formal and informal interviews with people in Umeå throughout the research period.

² During the period of the serial attacks (1998–2006), 234 rapes were reported to the police in Umeå. Of these, 62 were perpetrated outdoors. The assaults by the Haga Man gained special attention as a case of a violent repeat offender in public space. Hence, the image of the unknown perpetrator came to overshadow other forms of violence against women (such as assaults in the home) in the local media reports.

³ Expressen is a major national evening tabloid newspaper in Sweden.

⁴ Västerbottens-Kuriren (VK) is a Swedish newspaper published in Umeå, Västerbotten. The newspaper covers regional news from Västerbotten, especially Umeå, in combination with national and international news. It is the main newspaper in northern Sweden.