From Flat-Packed Furniture to Fascism: Exploring the Role of the Transracial Adoptee in Fantasies of Swedish Goodness

• Published in: Interventions (London, England) Vol. 22; no. 7; pp. 897 - 915
• Main Author: Wyver, Richey
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Routledge 02-10-2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Adopted children; Adoption; Body image; Critical adoption studies; Criticism; Ethics; Exploitation; Fascism; Furniture industry; Good & evil; Governmentality; Human body; Intercountry adoption; International adoption; Morality; Mythology; Nationalism; Populism; Positioning; Racism; Subjectivity; Sweden; Transracial; Transracial adoption; White governmentality; Sweden
• ISSN: 1369-801X; 1469-929X
• DOI: 10.1080/1369801X.2020.1718534

Despite the international adoption industry's global decline and increased criticism of the ethics of the industry, international adoption continues to be largely unproblematized and celebrated in Sweden. Arguing adoption is central to national myths of Swedish goodness and integral to fantasies of an anti-racist, caring nation, this essay analyses the use of international transracial adoptees in adverts by multinational flat-packed furniture company IKEA and far-right populist party the Sweden Democrats (SD). Building on Ghassan Hage's work on White governmentality, and positioning IKEA and SD as Good and Evil White Nationalists respectively, the essay argues that the transracial adoptee body is used to unite those White Swedish subjects perceived as racists and anti-racists, and is used by both to enact fantasies of complete control over bodies of colour in White national space. The transracial adoptee body is shaped as a "dead ethnic", an objectified body of colour that good White subjectivity can revolve around. The body is used to promote and justify adoption desire, and to cleanse the violent pasts of IKEA, SD and Sweden - as well as the adoption industry itself. Above all, though, the commercial exploitation of the transracial adoptee body enables both IKEA and SD to connect with Swedish national myths of goodness and to stake their claim to a place in the national family, perhaps as benevolent father figures who can reestablish control over the positioning and behaviour of non-white bodies in the White Swedish "home".