Kajsa Ekis Ekman
Kajsa "Ekis" Ekman (born 1980) is a Swedish freelance writer. She writes for the pro-Russian and conspiracy theorist website "Steigan.no" and anti-trans website "Feminist Current". She formerly contributed to the left-wing online daily "ETC", but was fired in 2022 for promoting Russian propaganda. She received the 2020 Lenin Award (Sweden) for her critiques of capitalism. She attracted media attention when several institutions withdrew their invitations of her, citing her anti-transgender views. Work. Anti-transgender views and cancellations. She attracted media attention when several institutions withdrew their invitations of her, citing her anti-transgender  views. In February 2018, Ekman was scheduled to speak at a conference in Gothenburg. Her talk was canceled, and she was asked to stay away, after she had expressed dissent about replacing biological sex with gender identity in law and in society generally in an article for Aftonbladet shortly before the conference began. In a statement on their website, the organizers of the conference, the National Organisation for Women's Shelters and Young Women's Shelters in Sweden ("Roks"), declared this inconsistent with their values, and therefore cancelled the talk. Maria Ramnehill argued that Ekman spreads scaremongering propaganda about trans  women, while feminist Tiina Rosenberg wrote that the result of Ekman's views is oppression. In 2020 Ekman participated in the Swedish launch of the anti-trans Women's Declaration International, a group that according to "Vice" promotes conspiracy theories and false information and that according to Scottish Women's Aid seeks "to stigmatise and discriminate against trans women". In 2021 she published the book "Om könets existens" about the supposed threat from "gender ideology", that was criticized for relying on right-wing "fake news sources" and depicting trans women as a threat. "Morgenbladet" described the anti-trans rhetoric as  abhorrent and said that it "it is debatable whether this book deserves any discussion at all." Maria Horvei wrote that Ekman's "onesided" book argues against strawmen. The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights published a book titled "100 fel i 'Om könets existens"' that argued that her book contained numerous inaccuracies and dubious sources. In 2021, the Forum for Gender Studies at Mid Sweden University cancelled an invitation of Ekman where she were supposed to discuss her book, with the statement that "the Forum for Gender Studies is not a place for transphobia and anti-trans  hate". Views on Russia. In 2022 she was fired by the left-wing online daily "ETC" for promoting Russian propaganda about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, by accusing The Kyiv Independent of connections to Nazism and claiming that Russia Today publishes "very solid journalism." She has also written numerous articles for the Norwegian conspiracy theorist and pro-Russian "alternative news" website Steigan.no. Steigan is described by extremism researcher John Færseth as a platform of Russian disinformation and propaganda, and as an example of "red-brown convergence" with links to the alt-right. The fact-checking site "Faktisk.no" wrote in  2022 that Steigan is the main promoter of Russian propaganda among alternative media in Norway. Steigan was denied membership in the Norwegian Association of Newspaper Editors, with the rationale that it is not a journalistic medium, but rather an activist website that disregards accepted journalistic principles. Other topics. She formerly wrote for the left-leaning "Truthdig". Her book "Being and Being Bought", compares the sex industry and the surrogacy industry, and how they both commodify women's bodies. It criticizes the notion of sex work as being an unholy alliance between the neoliberal right and the postmodern left, used to  legitimize the sex industry. She also argues that so-called "trade unions for sex workers" in many cases are funded by pimps, states, and academics, and have very little to do with labor struggle. The book has been translated into French, English, Spanish, and German. Her book "Stolen Spring" describes the eurocrisis as seen from Athens, and the way in which it affected the Greek economy. Ekman criticizes the view that the eurocrisis was caused by the Greek workers, and instead traces it back to changes in capitalism. She was given the prize "Swedish-Greek of the Year" 2016 for  her solidarity with Greece. Ekman was one of the speakers at the 2014 Festival of Dangerous Ideas. In her Ted Talk, "Everybody talks about Capitalism, but what is it?", she speaks about the free market as a useful tool, but capitalism as a force unable of moral responsibility, and plan for the climate, the country, and the world. She suggests regulation of the finance sector to avoid crises, and suggests "democracy in all sectors of society, also in the working place".