- Heads up, this is Sweden, prepare yourself for some topless views!
I keep coming back to the idea my two cities Umeå and Seattle have a lot in common. And that the regions are to a large extent breathing similar air. On two subjects though we are on different planets.
It was 2001 and my friends Matt and Elizabeth and their daughters were here to spend Midsummer with us. The weather was gorgeous and we were heading for a day at the beach. That’s why the heads up. I have to admit we were all kind of disappointed when it turned out the warning was unnecessary. Nothing topless in sight. Sweden was acting very proper and behaved. And I didn’t get to show off the most exotic of the Swedish features.
What had happened? Well, I hadn’t been on a public beach since the late eighties, and it turned out times had changed.
In the seventies we all burned our bras. We didn’t wear them under our clothes and we didn’t wear them at the beach. Indoor pools were the exception, I don’t think I ever saw naked breasts in the public indoor pool. I, for myself, didn’t buy a bra again until 1993, packing for my first stay in Seattle. I had the feeling bras were mandatory in the U.S.
In Sweden swimsuits are not allowed in public saunas, like at the gym or an indoor pool. For hygienic reasons. In U.S swim suits are required in saunas. I don't really know why. For hygienic reasons maybe.
So what happened in Sweden between the eighties and 2001? I am not sure. But it seems like women have grown more protective about their bodies. I don’t know what the situation is in the ladies locker room sauna, but I know it’s become quite common for girls and young women keeping their swimsuit on in the shower - which is not allowed either, for obvious hygienic reasons.
Therefore, the action two young women in Umeå took this spring came as a surprise to me.
The Umeå City public indoor pool is run by a company, Medley. After swimming topless in the pool, offered to borrow swim suites but denied, the young women wrote Medley and argued for women having the same rights as men to swim only in their bottoms. The actions were gender based and interesting in that perspective. Even more interesting is the result. It is now allowed for women to swim topless in the Medley pool in Umeå. The politicians in Umeå (who also are entitled to have a voice since it is a City public pool) however, have postponed their decision until fall, because of the complexity of the subject.
I am thinking my Seattle readers are raising eye brows and maybe shaking heads at this information. As I am, at the fact that 21 stores for selling recreational pot is about to open in Seattle this summer.
The use, sale and possession of cannabis (marijuana) in the U.S is illegal under federal law. However, on November 6, 2012, voters in Colorado and Washington approved to legalize non-medical use of cannabis - the first states in the nation to do so.
The interest in starting businesses in the weed business in Washington has been so big the state Liquor Control Board decided on a lottery for the 1,174 applicants who made it through the initial screening, 191 of them in Seattle. Out of those 191, 21 lucky ones won the lottery and State officials expect to start issuing store licenses by early July.
I often feel like there is an American in me. A part of me feels more at home in the U.S than in Sweden. The part who starts chatting with people on the street and smiles at strangers. The part with an uncontrolled number of ideas popping out of my head and the drive to make them happen - when my body is not stopping me. The part of me that takes up a lot of space and prefers to live unedited. But on the subject of marijuana I feel a 100% Swedish.
I know quite a lot of people in Seattle my age, who grew up and were young on the West coast. A number of them were at that time deeply affected by drugs and alcohol, either by their own use or people around them. I’ve been told stories where all the adults, parents - parents friends - teachers, were constantly stoned. There were simply no grown ups (by definition) around. And those being young in this environment don’t touch neither alcohol nor drugs today.
Seattle is considered a progressive city. And it truly is. But to me, 100% grown up Swede on this subject, I feel a city fogged by pot is moving backwards, not forward. And what makes me worried, for the less grown up Swedes than me, is that the example Washington and Colorado is setting have an impact even over here. There is more room for being pro recreational drugs in an environment con, when there are allowing examples to fall back on.
I doubt it though, that being allowed swimming topless in indoor public pools in Sweden will work it’s way over to Seattle, I don’t think it would even be considered progressive.
But here are some truly progressive news from this week: Seattle will be the first city in the U.S. raising the minimum wages to 15$ an hour! Meanwhile Barack Obama was stopped by the Senate on Wednesday trying to raise the minimum in the U.S from 7,25$ to 10,10$, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray managed to come to a deal increasing the cities 9,19$ an hour to 15$! That’s impressive and truly progressive!
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