Depoliticisation of stigma: the drama series Skam (”shame”) as an instance of public religious education

ABSTRACT

In the final season of the Norwegian drama series Skam (”Shame”) (2015–2017), the protagonist Sana, navigating in a secular, liberal youth culture, is a practicing Muslim wearing the hijab. The series is analysed as an instance of public religious education focusing on the issue of representation. This approach is informed by the ethical turn in narrative studies, warranting and problematising representations of the other. Stigmatisation and normalising strategies are examined and discussed as part of the plot structure with an emphasis on the portrayal of Sana. The series presents a process towards self-determination in a distinct portrait of a young, Muslim woman’s agency. Liberal values are privileged, and the issue of racism is put aside. In the development of the plot, stigmatisation is subject to depoliticisation, bringing forward a utopian vision of a liberal, diverse society. While the series turns out to be a rich, educational resource, Skam calls for critical explorations within a reflexive religious education.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious education
• representation
• stigma
• narrative

Introduction

A major concern in European religious education in the past few decades has been to develop educational approaches that can address and accommodate the growing religious and cultural diversity in societies European societies (Baumfield and Cush 2017; Jackson 2004; Skeie 2006).

In this situation, understanding others’ ways of life becomes a central aim of religious education, as seen within the influential, interpretive approach of British religious education scholar Robert Jackson (2004, 87). The interpretive approach is based on a critique of a phenomenology of religion that did not pay sufficient attention to the plurality of the religious context to be studied and to the interpretive contribution made by the researcher or student in the study of religion (Jackson 1997, 2016). From this follows the emphasis that Jackson has placed on representation of religion, interpretation and reflexivity. In this paper, it is the power in representation that is explored in a study of the Norwegian drama series Skam, which can be conceived of as an instance of public religious education.

In Skam, Muslims are seen as the religious “other” in contrast with a predominantly secular society. In the fourth, final season of the series, the female character Sana is the protagonist, with a family background from Morocco; she wears the hijab, practices prayers and observes the fasting in Ramadan that takes place during the last episodes of this season.

Significant is how certain Muslim norms expressed in the tradition of Islamic law – most important the emphasis laid on same-religion relationships – are interpreted by the characters and negotiated throughout the season. At the same time, in the very making of the drama series, hegemonic imaginaries are brought in and do their work while seldom being explicitly addressed or problematised.

The main concern below, is to explore the issue of representation with a particular focus on Sana, in the narrative’s plot structure. Central is how to be a Muslim emerges as a stigma (Goffman 1968), one ascribed by the majority culture, initiating normalisation strategies. The considerations of Skam as an instance of public religious education are made with reference to the ideal of Bildung, the formation of the self.

The Skam series

Skam was published by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in four seasons, from 2015 to 2017. (The Norwegian word Skam may be translated as ”shame” or ”disgrace”. In the present paper, the term ”Skam” is consistently employed.) The series soon gained popularity among the primary intended group of adolescents while reaching out to adults of various age groups as well. Launched as a web-television series, Skam, without any distributional initiatives, travelled abroad, becoming the most popular show on Tumblr in the last week of November 2016 (Krüger and Rustad 2019). In addition, seven remakes have been made in the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Germany and France (Skamwiki 2023).

The issues that are portrayed in the series involve social inclusion and exclusion, love, violence and sexual harassment, all framed within a pluralistic society, hence bringing up issues of religion, disability and sexual orientation. Stereotyped and stable categories are confirmed but more often questioned and explored, as exemplified below, establishing a complex and dynamic narrative discourse.

The institutional dimension

The conception of Skam as an instance of religious education calls for a consideration of the institutional dimension. In this case, the educational institution is not school, but the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, which is publicly funded and distinguished by having an obligation to the public interest, serving its audience members not only as consumers but as citizens (Sundet 2020, 71). Such public institutions, which are represented by the BBC in Great Britain and similar national broadcasting corporations in the Nordic countries, are committed to the entire population. The project leader of Skam has noted an educational purpose: strengthening self-esteem among youths ”by breaking taboos, making them aware of interpersonal mechanisms and demonstrating the rewards of confronting fear” (Sundet 2020, 75).¹ The presentation of the other that is subject to scrutiny in the following, is determined by this overall purpose that contains hegemonic imaginaries promoted by a state institution such as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation,

Previous studies of Skam

Skam has been studied from various perspectives, including literary theory, media theory and social science (see Krüger et al. 2019; Lindtner et al. 2018; Sundet 2020). The series’ web site (https://Skam.p3.no/) invited the audience to take part in instant commentaries, a material that in itself has been subject to study of empathy as a democratic resource (Dahl and Lindtner 2018). Torill Strand (2021) explores the educational potential of cinema and TV series from the perspective of the French philosopher Badiou, letting the fourth season of Skam become the primary illustration. Significant in Strand’s study is the identification of the ambiguities of shame that come forward as impossible social dilemmas. The employment of Skam in education is also demonstrated and exemplified by Nyhus and Talsethaugen (2018), with an emphasis on literature education. In a previous study (Kvamme 2021), I have examined the ethical dimension regarding education. In the present paper, I further pursue this interest by considering Skam as an instance of public religious education.

Bissenbakker and Petersen (2017) examine the connections between minorities in Skam, focusing on queer, crips (disabled) and secularism as critical alliances. Their work is mentioned by Evang (2022) in a study that makes a substantial critique of Skam, exploring the relationship between representations of queerness and the Muslim character Sana. Evang recognises that the series may be seen as an invitation for viewers to resist the most overt instantiations of Islamophobia in contemporary society. Still, Evang holds that the series ”ends up reproducing Nordic homonationalist tropes” (2022, 38).

The focus on religion in the fourth season of Skam, centred on the character of Sana, has been subject to two previous studies (Aarvik 2018; Bekkevold and Kjørven 2020) that both focus on the presentation of Sana, as discussed below.

Theoretical and methodological considerations

The interpretive approach (Jackson 1997, 2004) provides a perspective distinguishing the present study, with its emphasis on representation, hence making understanding the other a central purpose for religious education. This interest connects with a crucial tenet in postcolonial theory, as addressed by Gearon and colleagues:

If the term ‘other’—so much a part of the lexicon of postcolonial theory since Said’s (2003)—Orientalism—has come to prominence with the teaching of world religions and secular worldviews, the problematics of representation are critical, certainly in the frame of postcolonial theory in education. To give the most often cited example, in Christian majority countries, how are ‘other’ religions represented?

(Gearon et al. 2021, 3)

The representation of other religions is of particular interest regarding the narrative universe of Skam. As the protagonist of season four of Skam, Sana, a young, Muslim woman, is portrayed as finding her way and place in a predominantly secular, Norwegian youth culture. She actively orients herself towards this youth culture and experiences both friendships and harassment.

An issue turns out to be how experiences of harassment are portrayed. Here, I bring in Goffman’s classical study of stigma, through which scholars have studied contemporary Islamophobia in different national contexts (Göle 2003; Harris and Karimshah 2019; Naderi and Vossoughi 2017; Toft 2017).

Methodologically, what I present is a piece of qualitative research. Generally, the analyses are carried out with reference to critical hermeneutics (Ricoeur 1981) with a sensitivity for normativity, meaning making and ideology at work. The empirical material is established by the four seasons of Skam, with a focus on the 10 episodes in the fourth season and the portrayal of Sana.² The analytical lens is particularly distinguished by an interest in the drama series as a narrative. This approach aligns well with the ethical turn in narrative studies (Korthals Altes 2005). Within this research field, the quest of the other, as we have seen by Jackson (2004) being brought up as an issue in religious education, is expressed as an ethical concern distinguishing various positions, partly informed by philosophical contributions (Meretoja and Davies 2018). The philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum claims that narrative fiction develops the capacity to empathise with the experience of the other, while poststructuralist critique influenced by Emmanuel Levinas, among others, has emphasised how narratives may involve encounters with radical alterity, hence questioning the very possibility of understanding the other. Critical positions, including postcolonial, feminist, queer, intersectional and ecocritical approaches, have pointed at how hegemonic narratives marginalise experiences from minority groups.

The ethical turn in narratology qualifies and gives nuances to how a drama series like Skam may be studied from the perspective of religious education, placing representations of the other in the foreground. In various ways, the series invites the viewer to imagine the experience of the other, distinguishing dialogues and scenes and determining the development of relationships and characters. Still, as discussed in the current paper, the fourth season demonstrates how this approach may be promoted at the expense of radical alterity, calling for interpretations that open for ideology critique (Hale 2020;, Ricoeur 1981).

In the final part of the paper, I address the educational aspect of the drama series Skam more explicitly, summing up the major argument of the paper, with reference to Bildung, the formation of the self, as an overall purpose of education.

The narrative of the fourth season of Skam

A common distinction within narratology is that between story and discourse, referring to what is narrated and how it is done (Chatman 1978). In the following, I will first give a short summary of the story, and then move on to analyse how the story is presented. I focus on the plot, understood as the combination of the events, impacting the representation of Sana also expressed in key dialogues and scenes, selected on the basis of the research interest.

The story

The story of the fourth season of Skam may be summed up as follows: Sana is a Muslim student in her final year at Hartvig Nissen Upper Secondary School in Oslo. She hangs out with Vilde, Chris, Eva and Noora, who have formed the Girl Squad, a group that plans to celebrate final graduation together. During the fourth season, they decide to merge with another group and buy a second-hand bus to be used for parties during the celebration. Sana succeeds in becoming the leader of the joint group but is expelled in an initiative from the other group, led by Sara. Sana establishes a fake Instagram account in the name of and with a photo of Sara, with factual screenshots of many of Sara’s pejorative chat posts rubbishing other people. The making of the fake account is highly criticised among the students, and suspicion is steered to Sana’s friends, leading the joint group to split up. Sana had taken the screenshots from Isak’s mobile, and he confronts her with the incident. Sana later publicly admits what she has done and returns to her closest friends. Parallel to these events, a mutual attraction develops between Sana and Yousef, a friend of her elder brother, Elias. When Sana realises that Yousef does not regard himself as a Muslim, she first reconsiders the relationship, but later, they date and become a couple.

The plot

In the short account of central events, a young female Muslim is placed in the centre of the attention. Sana becomes the central representation of the other in the fourth season. Here I am particularly interested in the formation of the plot and how the characters in the story are presented, also focusing on dialogues and scenes.³ Jonathan Culler identifies the plot as the most basic feature of narrative, stating that a plot ”requires a transformation. There must be an initial situation, a change involving some sort of reversal, and a resolution that marks the change as significant” (2011, 85). Skam definitely lives up to Culler´s claim, where the transformation evolves in and around Sana. The central plot is driven by the quest of what happens to this character. This plot is further detailed in the unfolding of two central issues emerging as subplots: one concerning Sana’s relationship to Yousef and the other her position in the bus group(s). Both issues raise questions of inclusion and exclusion, stigma and normalisation. Seen together, the two subplots form a narrative about the transformation of Sana that is decisive for how Skam represents and creates an image of a Muslim young woman in current Norwegian society.

Engage in a relationship with a non-muslim

Early in the fourth season Sana informs her friend Noora about the religious norm of marriage within Islam: ”Muslims can only marry other Muslims. It says so in the Quran” (Skam, season 4, episode 2). At this point, Sana presupposes that Yousef, having an immigrant background from Turkey, is a Muslim. However, Yousef turns out to dismiss any divine belief, conceiving of himself as non-Muslim. Sana’s attraction to Yousef is already established and does not disappear. The central concern that drives this subplot, then, is whether Muslim Sana will enter into a relationship with a non-Muslim man. As the relationship between Sana and Yousef develops, the religious norm is subject to deliberations in various dialogues.

Elias confronts Sana with her attraction to Yousef, countering her objection that Yousef is not a Muslim by stating, ”Yousef is the most Muslim guy I know. He doesn’t drink. He is respectful to everyone” (Skam, season 4, episode 5).

Sana´s mother, on the other hand, connects the religious norm to the conception of marriage as a lasting relationship of cooperation:

You give all the love in you to the cooperation. It is also about having a person by your side your entire life. No matter what it brings. You who have such strong faith, I think it might get very lonely for you if you are the only person in the relationship who believes. There will always be times in your life when you doubt everything. Even God. And then it is important that you have someone by your side who reminds you why you are a Muslim and understands what you believe. Do you see what I mean?

(Skam, season 4, Episode 9)

In this warranting of the religious norm, the argument is not heteronomous, appealing to loyalty to the norm in itself, but relational. Sana’s mother points at the value of being acknowledged as a Muslim in a cooperative, lasting relationship. This argument is supported in a dialogue between Sana and the gay character Eskild. Sana tells Eskild about her interest in Yousef, and Eskild senses conflict. He offers some ”guru advising” and tells her about his relationship with a Turkish man: ”Sensitive soul, shared a lot of himself. He had the most finely shaped cock I have ever encountered. And he was Muslim” (Skam, season 4, episode 9). However, the relationship did not last. ”We began talking about important things. Grown up things like life, humanity and stuff. And we disagreed a lot. So the conclusion is: Relationships between the non-religious and religious are hard” (Skam, season 4, episode 9).

Another contribution to this ongoing deliberation of the religious norm is expressed by Noora in a thread on Messenger. Noora appeals to the Islamic belief in destiny: ”So if you believe in destiny and believe Allah is almighty, there has to be a reason why Yousef became a part of your life? It is not necessarily because you should be together, maybe it’s something else, but you won’t find out if you avoid him”. (Skam, season 4, episode 9) The appeal to divine providence makes sense to Sana. In a subsequent scene where Sana prays for her friends and for Yousef, she suddenly hears a song from the outside that has previously been linked to Yousef. Sana looks for him but sees nobody, and conceives of the incidence as a confirmation of her relationship with him (Bekkevold and Kjørven 2020).

In this polyphony of voices the relationship between Sana and Yousef obviously has a particular prominence. The dialogues between them increasingly express understanding across differences, and Yousef demonstrates that he acknowledges Sana’s religious identity. In their final dialogue, during Ramadan, he has brought food to Sana, recognising breaking of the fast. ”I don’t go on a date with someone who’s fasted for 19 hours without bringing food! Of course, I have food! My name is Yousef!” (Skam, season 4, episode 9). The reference to his name gives weight to the Muslim background⁴ and affirms the image of Yousef as respecting Sana’s religious practice and belief.

In these ways, the religious norm that Sana first states as the essential expression of Islam is defended, discussed, questioned and finally transcended in the portrayal of Sana and her relationship with Yousef. Central in Skam’s presentation of this norm is that it is not the firm, heteronomous statement made be Sana – ‘It says so in the Quran’ – that receives primary attention. Rather, it is the deliberations and translations of the norm that are brought to the fore, with an emphasis on sense-making. Sana’s mother and Eskild qualify the religious norm with certain qualities in a relationship. However, when these qualities are fulfilled, the impression emerges that the relationship between Sana and Yousef is in accordance with central concerns of the very norm itself.⁵

Moreover, we have seen how Noora’s reference to divine providence provides a hermeneutic resource. With reference to narrative theory, the story in this way is turned into a plot (Scheffel (2009), referring to E. M. Forster), providing meaning to the events. The story’s contingency of incidences is replaced by an invitation to see Allah as the implicit narrator. Although not explicitly stated, such an interpretation, as mentioned above, seems to make sense to Sana and, potentially, to viewers of the series (Bekkevold and Kjørven 2020).

To be a member of a bus group

Sana stands out as a practicing Muslim, wearing the hijab by free choice, joining her mother at the mosque and fasting during Ramadan, with call to worship as a ringtone on her phone. However, she also attends Hartvig Nissen, an upper secondary school with few other Muslims, and takes part in the various social contexts that constitute this life world, regarding everyday situations and social gatherings and parties. The sociality in this youth culture reaches its utmost expression in the student groups that are established the first year in upper secondary school, preparing for graduation in competition and struggle with other groups. Many of them are saving money for their own second-hand bus (“russebuss”), which will be painted, prepared and used in the weeks of celebration.⁶ This social phenomenon is associated with a party culture infamous for a lack of sexual restraint. We have seen Sana be part of the group Girl Squad with her closest friends, and in the final season, she is active in connecting with a competing group, announcing herself as the leader of the joint group. Sana’s ambition obviously involves tension. Her brother Elias warns that, as a young Muslim woman, she should not join a russebuss group, even though he did take part in a similar group.

There are three key scenes in this subplot that are particularly interesting regarding the representation of the other: first is the exclusion of Sana from the bus (episode 5), second a contentious dialogue between Sana and her friend Isak (episode 7) and finally Sana’s message to her closest friends (episode 8) that paves the way for a reunion with them.

In the first scene Sana realises that she is expelled from the bus. Despite being the bus boss, the other group has decided to sign the contract without her. The information is presented in a scene where Sana overhears a conversation between two of the girls while standing in one of the stalls in the public bathroom. In their dialogue, Islam becomes an issue:

- I really don’t get why she bothered joining the bus in the first place.

- Like, isn’t that really disrespectful towards her religion?

- Especially when she wears a hijab. She’s supposed to be a good representative for Islam.

(Skam, season 4, episode 5).

The girls’ imaginary of what signifies a good representative for Islam, supports the exclusion of Sana from the bus. They do not accept Sana’s decision, arguing that joining bus groups is not in accordance with Islam. This is a subtle argument, presumably respecting what Islam is really about in a way that overrules Sana’s self-understanding and judgement. The hijab stands out as the stigma that holds Sana tight to a particular understanding of Islam.

In the second key scene, a dialogue between Sana and Isak (Skam, season 4, episode 7), Sana admits that she has taken screenshots from Isak’s camera when making Sara’s fake Instagram account. Sana explains the fabrication by referencing her experiences with racism and microaggressions in Norwegian society as a Muslim wearing the hijab. Sana will not accept such treatment and responds forthright when she experiences it from Sara and her peers. Isak objects to Sana’s general characteristics of Norwegians being racists. He introduces the possibility that she was expelled from the bus because she is a difficult person and urges her to patiently answer the questions people may have about Islam, even racist ones.

The third key scene in this plot development is presented at a point where Sana feels uncertain of support even from her closest friends. She sends a SMS to them that succinctly expresses her development from lower secondary school up to this point, ending in a devotional appeal of acceptance. Sana acknowledges that she has an anger problem. Sana’s predicament is now connected with who she is, as a person, with her anger emerging from an experience of not being fully at home anywhere.

What happens to Sana – the transformative dimension of Skam

The two subplots examined above, converge in the main plot. Thus, the transformative dimension of Skam is inextricably linked to the portrayal of Sana. We have seen her gradual questioning of a religious norm that she initially claimed by referring to the Quran, acknowledging that the norm obstructs her relationship with the non-Muslim man she is attracted to. And as the plot unfolds, a central moment and turning point is the dialogue between Sana and Isak, where Isak proposes that Sana’s predicament more is conditioned by her personality than by that of living in a society distinguished by racism. It is in the aftermath of this confrontation, Sana publicly admits to stand behind the fake Instagram account, later to state that her predicament is a personal problem with anger. Sana’s transformation leads her to reunite with her friends, inviting both friends and foes to a reconciliatory Eid party in her family’s garden at the end of Ramadan, which also ends the drama series. The party symbolically expresses how Sana now succeeds in bringing together her various concerns and relationships.

This plot, structured as a comedy, determines the representation of the other in the series. It brings together the subplots examined above; Sana ending up in a relationship with Yousef and being reunited with her friends. On the way, she has retained and developed her Muslim identity and practice, and at the same time, being integrated in a secular society. The increasing self-determination and reflexivity particularly connected with the questioning of the religious norm does not draw her away from religion but is portrayed as a part of a spiritual development, as we have seen, exemplified in the suggestion to see divine providence expressed in the plot structure (this aspect is further discussed by Bekkevold og Kjørven (2020) and Aarvik (2018)). The plot structure demonstrates how, in Skam, Muslims are written into the portrayal of a current Norwegian society. This is surely significant for the series’ function as public religious education, as further elaborated below.

Stigma and normalisation

The analysis of the plot structure has shown how the central characters of Skam reach out to each other and move beyond their differences. Recalling the ethical turn in narrative studies, we could say that the series reflects Nussbaum’s claim that narrative structures function as invitations to see the world from the position of the other – ‘”To think what it might be like to be in the shoes of a person different from oneself” (Nussbaum 2010, 95).

Still, as also touched upon, the ethical turn in narrative studies includes critical approaches that examine the role of hegemonic imaginaries and positions that question the possibility of taking the perspective of the other.

When it comes to tensions and discrimination regarding Muslims in society, the Skam series gives voice to Sana’s experiences of harassment, exemplified with pictures of hate comments on social media. Fragments are effectively shown in flashbacks from her previous school that occur during Sana’s prayer that opens episode 6:

- Hope you get forced into marriage and that you get shipped back to Africa so we don’t have to see you

- Why are you wearing that on your head. It’s […] rip it off of you […]

- Walk around with that shit. It’s fucking ugly, shall […]

(Skam, season 4, episode 6).

The experience of suspicion and disrespect expressed by Sana is, in recent research, often linked to contemporary Islamophobia in different national contexts, seeing Muslim bodies and identities as abnormal and errant (Harris and Karimshah 2019). Various scholars examining the social dynamics have found Goffman’s (1968) classical study of stigma helpful, initially published in 1963 (Göle 2003; Harris and Karimshah 2019; Naderi and Vossoughi 2017; Vassenden and Andersson 2011).

Important to Goffman is how, in an encounter with a stranger,

evidence can arise of his possessing an attribute that makes him different from others in the category of persons available for him to be, and of a less desirable kind – in the extreme, a person who is quite thoroughly bad, or dangerous, or weak. He is thus reduced in our minds from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one. Such an attribute is a stigma, especially when its discrediting effect is very extensive; sometimes it is also called a failing, a shortcoming, or a handicap.

(Goffman 1968, 12)

Goffman mentions three types of stigma: physical deformities, blemishes of individual character and stigmas of race, nation and religion, which all position the person outside of the normality of society. Harris and Karimshah (2019) identify how young Muslims in Australia employ various strategies to negotiate their constitution as abnormal. With reference to Goffman’s work, they identify four strategies – performing ordinary Australianness, social distancing, being a ”supernormal” hero of adjustment and defiance. Used as an analytical lens, these strategies illuminate aspects of the portrayal of Sana in Skam.

Sana is portrayed with the strategy of social distancing from other members of the stigmatised group, expressed in a growing distance to Jamilla, a conservative Muslim active in the same mosque as Sana and her family. Sana also defies stereotypical interpretations of herself, claiming the ordinary complexity that distinguishes the “normal”. Sana wears the hijab, but she also applies red lipstick and dark make-up. Furthermore, the normalising strategy of being supernormal or better than the ordinary is part of the portrayal of Sana: being an excellent student, outstanding in natural science helping her friends and taking a lead role in the social group. Decisive is Sana’s drive to enter the bus group as a prime symbol of ordinary Norwegianness in Skam, also mobilising the other three normalising strategies. However, Sana still continuously wears the hijab as a visible sign; she is practicing her religion, and she keeps a distance from the party culture. The tension that emerges between the normalisation strategies and maintenance of a Muslim identity and practice is vital to the plot development, making what happens to Sana the central concern in the dynamic of the plot (Brooks 1992, xiii).

The depoliticisation of stigma

Above I employed the categories of normalisation suggested by Harris and Karismah (2019), to specify aspects of the representation of the other in the fourth season of Skam. Still, the most significant normalisation is seen in the portrayal of Sana’s development. As suggested, the dialogue between Isak and Sana is a turning point in the plot, decisive for the transformation and reorientation of Sana, privileged in the plot structure by paving the way for the happy end. In other words, this is a key to get at the representation of Sana as the other, now to be studied in more detail.

Central to the dialogue is how the expulsion of Sana from the russ bus can be understood. Sana concludes that Sara, her main rival, is ”a racist hag who lied to my face, and she was scheming to throw me off the bus behind my back!” (Skam, season 4, episode 7). Isak, on the other hand, draws attention to Sana and her character: ”Maybe she just wanted to throw you off the bus because you’re a condescending, bossy bitch? Why are you so cold towards people, Sana?” (Skam, season 4, episode 7)

Sana sees the expulsion in the context of harassment that she is continuously subject to in Norwegian society:

Do you know what people think when they see me, when they see my hijab? Which is the first thing they see? They think I have to wear it because I’m forced to, not because I want to. And if I say I want to, then I’m brainwashed, because I can’t form my own opinions. We talk about freedom of religion and so many other freedoms here in Norway, but wearing an extra article of clothing is wrong?

(Skam, season 4, episode 7)

Sana´s conclusion is that most Norwegians are racist, a claim dismissed by Isak:

Most Norwegians aren’t racist. Most Norwegians care about … Freedom, peace, other cultures and they want to learn about them. … But it’s not that weird, that so many people are afraid of Muslims when you’re constantly reading articles in VG and Dagbladet [two Norwegian daily newspapers] about genital mutilation, ISIS, terror, wars and stuff like that.

(Skam, season 4, Episode 7)

The dialogue positions Sana´s predicament in two contrasting discourses.⁷ The discourse expressed by Sana places her problem in a racist society from where she, as a Muslim wearing the hijab, continuously experiences harassment and microaggressions. Within the discourse linked to Isak the existence of racists in Norwegian society is not denied, but this is not where one should orient oneself. First, Sana should consider her own hostile personality, and second, she should take personal responsibility for enlightening Norwegians about what her religion is really about. Isak encourages Sana to continuously promote understanding: ”You just have to stop looking for racism in dumb questions. Even if they seem dumb and racist, it’s so fucking important that you answer them. You have to answer them!” (Skam, season 4, episode 7)

During the dialogue, the discourse encouraging understanding prevails, confirmed by Sana when she concludes that Isak sounds like her imam. In the subsequent message to her closest friends, racism is no longer an issue. Sana identifies her problems in herself:

In the 9th grade, there was a social worker who told me I had an anger issue. I thought: Fuck her, she doesn’t understand shit. Because … She didn’t understand shit. But now I’m wondering if maybe she was right. Because I’m angry. I’m ‘angry because I’m not Muslim enough. And no matter what I do, I’m never Norwegian enough, and I’m not Moroccan enough, and I’m not chill enough. And I’m not pretty enough. I’m angry because I made it so important to fit into a russ bus. I’m angry because I don’t fit in anywhere. Because I always get angry and fuck up. But most of all, I’m sad because it affected you. Because that bus is not important to me. It’s not important to me to be Muslim enough, or if I fit in with Moroccans or Norwegians. As long as I belong with you guys. The biggest losers in school. I’m sorry for what I’ve done, I don’t give a shit if I’m expelled, just please forgive me.

(Skam, season 4, episode 8)

Sana acknowledges her anger issue and positions her problem in inadequate fulfilments of requirements from multiple allegiances. The message unfolds a social demand on the individual to perform fully on every arena, not just related to religion and ethnicity, but even to be chill and pretty enough. References to racism have vanished, not to re-emerge in the series, while Sana, in the final scenes, regains and strengthens her position in the social fabric. In this way stigmatisation is no longer a central issue.

Would it be possible to understand this reorientation as bringing the process of stigmatisation to an end, dismantling the social category of stigma in the individualisation of Sana´s predicament?⁸ At face value the plot development may support this interpretation. When Sana later is well received by her friends, otherness is accepted not as a stigma, but as part of the diversity that constitutes the Skam universe. This shift opens up for a utopian reading of the final episodes of Skam. If so, the transformation that takes place, is not just individual, but involves society, powerfully demonstrated by letting the series end up in the Eid party taking place at Sana´s house.

Such a reading may be informed by theory on utopias. According to Ricoeur (2008) utopias explore the possibilities of existence, in this case the vision of a society where minorities are not subject to stigmatisation. Furthermore, utopias provide a means for questioning the present social order, contrasted by ideology that maintains status quo. One could say that the deliberations of the religious norm in the portrayal of the relationship between Sana and Yousef exemplify the critical function of utopia, exploring the possibility of relationships across religious differences. The promotion of accept for diversity and the questioning of obstacles to self-realisation, turn out to be central concerns in Skam, personified and embodied in Sana´s transformation.

Still, this utopian vision is accompanied by an uneasiness. Significant contradictions and ambiguities that distinguish current Norwegian society are left behind. At the Eid party Sana´s friends give her a speech that opens with ”Dear Sana, this speech is to you. Because what you invite us to today overturns US presidents tomorrow” (Skam, season 4, episode 10). The speech is an appeal to believe in love, not fear, and never to give up. In this vision, racism is not mentioned, neither are versions of Islam that do not frictionless fit into the basic values of a liberal democracy. In the praise of Sana as a positive role model, stigma paradoxically seems to be maintained, in the absence of awareness of diversity within Islam and experiences of racism among young Muslims. In this perspective, the happy end is more about the depoliticisation⁹ of stigma than its dissolution.

Ricoeur (1981, 17) points at how utopias may become a pretext for escape, if ”no connecting point exist between the “here” of social reality and the “elsewhere” of the Utopia.” The drama series Skam definitely demonstrates a sensitivity for tensions distinguishing current, Norwegian society. But with regard to stigmatisation of Muslims, significant problems are put aside. As a consequence, the utopian conclusion serves an ideological function (Riceour 2008), maintaining notions of Norway as an open, peaceful, liberal society.

What here appears to be a depoliticisation of stigma, may be further nuanced by another aspect of the relationship between Isak and Sana: the use of minority experiences as a resource for dialogue across differences. This move is continuously employed in Skam, challenging various stereotypes. In the dialogue between Sana and Isak, the latter’s experience as gay in Norwegian society warrants his appeal to Sana: ‘”I didn’t grow up as a Muslim girl, but believe me, I’ve been where you are” (Skam, season 4, episode 7). Isak’s minority experience supposedly enables him to understand Sana’s situation and provide her with helpful advice. However, the scene also demonstrates limits of this effort. These limits are made distinct when contrasted with the position of the Italian philosopher Adriana Cavarero. In Cavarero´s ethic of relation the distinction between oneself and the other is paramount:

[An ethic of relation] does not support empathy, identification, or confusions. Rather this ethic desires a you that is truly an other, in her uniqueness and distinction. No matter how much you are similar and consonant, says this ethic, your story is never my story. No matter how much the larger traits of our life-stories are similar, I still do not recognise myself in you and, even less, in the collective we.

(Cavarero 2000, 92)

In the dialogue between Sana and Isak, Sana initially insists that their stories are not the same, pointing at how her religious identity is visible everywhere.¹⁰ This comment is, as we have seen, put aside, and not given weight in the plot development.¹¹ There are other instances in Skam where minority experiences reflect each other in surprising and intriguing ways that open up for new insights (Kvamme 2021). However, Isak´s identification with Sana´s story seems to disclose more than it reveals.

Skam as public religious education

The drama series Skam is developed as a part of Norwegian Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s obligation to the public interest, and the project leader has explicitly addressed an educational purpose: to strengthen the self-esteem of youths. This purpose, referred to in the introduction, aligns well with Bildung as a key concept within Northern European pedagogy and didactics. Bildung refers generally to the formation of the self, and rests on the supposition ”that there is a link between the individual and his or her (inner) cultivation … and the development of a better society brought about through the fulfilment of each individual that comprises it” (Horlacher 2016, 2). With a foothold in German idealism, the relationship to the other and the recognition from the other has been central to the concept of Bildung (Hegel 1977), aligned with the quest of the other as a key element in modern religious education, as we have seen be emphasised by Robert Jackson (1997), among others. Ricoeur’s concept of refiguration (1990, 77) here provides a bridge between the preoccupation with the narrative of Skam above and the Bildung approach, referring to how the narrative is completed in the world of the reader – with regard to Skam: the viewer.

As a didactical concept, Bildung is particularly connected with the societal mandate of the school to encourage the development of self-determination, co-determination and solidarity in educational practices (Klafki 1996). For teachers, the selection of content then becomes a key, identifying representations of the world that may lead the students into Bildung processes. The task is transferable to the drama series Skam conceived of as an instance of public religious education.

From this perspective, one should not underestimate the importance of prioritising a Muslim protagonist in a drama series like Skam; the significance can be demonstrated by a newspaper comment from 2016 made by the then 18-year-old Norwegian student Sumaya Jirde Ali, with Somali family background. Ali addressed how Norwegian public life did not reflect the ethnic diversity of the population and called for a change. According to Ali (2016, para. 10), seeing people like oneself is ”a recognition of being a part of the society, that you are represented.” Such a recognition is integral to Bildung. The fourth season of Skam, which broadcasted just a few months after Ali’s comment, may be seen as responding to her call.

In Skam, the narrative form enables a portrayal of Sana that goes beyond standardised imaginaries and stereotypes, reaching out to Muslim and non-Muslim viewers alike. The drama series has been studied from a lived religion perspective, exploring how Islam becomes part of everyday life, as seen in a variety of expressions as discussed by Signe Aarvik (2018, 112), who points at how the drama series Skam may supplement the presentations of Islam in religious education textbooks. Aarvik consequently encourages the use of Skam in Norwegian classrooms. Skam exemplifies representations of religion as Robert Jackson (1997) has theorised, bringing up an individual perspective, that tends to be missed out in institutionalised religious education (Vestøl 2016).

However, as produced by the public Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation the portrayal of Sana in Skam is more than just one representation out of many of a young Norwegian Muslim. Sana becomes the bearer of societal values that, in the series, unequivocally reflect a liberal, diverse society, specified and expressed in the transformation of this character, i.e. Sana’s Bildung process. As suggested above, her development emerges as a normalisation process entailing the depoliticisation of her stigma as a Muslim. In that way the portrayal of Sana may be seen as weaved into a trivialisation of racism in Norwegian society.

As such, there are good reasons to emphasise the significance of framing Skam within an institutionalised reflexive religious education, that according to Jackson should include critical explorations of the studied material (2004, 88). Wanda Alberts has advocated for a similar approach within an integrative religious education, explicitly appealing to a critical Bildung ideal (Alberts, 2007, 361). Aarvik who encourages the use of Skam as a resource in religious education, nevertheless states that ”Sana´s Islam is a version that is supposed to contribute to reconciliation and a co-existence as conflict-free as possible between Islam and the Norwegian society” (2018, 129, my translation), concluding with the demand for critical assessment.

In Skam, key scenes, like the dialogue between Sana and Isak discussed in this paper (Skam, season 4, Episode 7), are candidates for critical explorations in institutionalised religious education. Here the students themselves may discuss the two competing discourses on what is Sana´s predicament identified above, also bringing up knowledge about diversity within Islam, the students’ own experiences, and relevant aspects of current Norwegian society. Reports on racism and discrimination are obviously a part of such knowledge.¹²

The potential for such critical explorations is actually demonstrated on Skam´s own blog, inviting the viewers to comment scenes and episodes. In an illuminating study of this material, Hanna Christophersen (2018) documents the plurality of experiences, emotions and opinions expressed among the viewers, establishing a public space for reflection and discussion that goes beyond what is portrayed in the television series. Such processing of central issues and concerns seems to be paramount for the promotion of Bildung provided by Skam as public religious education.

The discussion raised in this paper may also be employed to critically consider the status of religious education conceived of as liberal education. The fourth season of Skam frames as we have seen the celebration of a diverse society, with an emphasis on respect and tolerance. However, the series does not provide an awareness of hegemonic imaginaries inbuilt in liberal democratic societies, where even the ideal of neutrality may cause dynamics of marginalisation of minority groups (Galeotti 2021). In contrast, the series exemplifies the assimilative pressures of toleration linked to attitudes like open-mindedness, being unprejudiced and appreciate diversity. As Ole Henrik Borchgrevink Hansen (2020) puts it, in what he describes as attitude-changing ambitions: ”There is no denying that this [notion of tolerance] conveys the view that having these attitudes is synonymous with what it means to be a progressive liberal citizen” (962). These ambitions are central to the mandating of both public school and public broadcasting, but as suggested in this study, they require reflexivity that accommodates the complexity, frictions and dilemmas distinguishing diversity both as a condition and lived experience.

Concluding remark

A concern that has emerged above, is the trivialisation and depoliticisation of processes of stigmatisation. Here, as a final remark I would like to revisit reflections made by Sumaya Jirde Ali, referred to earlier. Since her first newspaper comment from 2016, Ali has become an awarded Norwegian poet and columnist that with a foothold in own experiences, has documented ambiguities, difficulties and burdens related to address racism in Norwegian society.

In her latest book, Ali (2023) recalls a girl with a Muslim immigrant background approaching her when Ali published her first collection of poetry. The girl stated that she didn’t know that ”we also could do something like this” (123, my translation). Ali notes that she suddenly realised ”how transformative representation is – that representation does not just create possibilities, but even forms perceptions of reality” (124–125, my translation). The insight may serve as a concluding remark to this study on public religious education.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ole Andreas Kvamme

Ole Andreas Kvamme is Associate Professor at Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, Norway. In his research he explores the ethical-political dimension of environmental and sustainability education, including perspectives from critical cosmopolitanism and environmental ethics, also exploring contributions from religious and worldview education.

Notes

1. This message is also expressed in the Skam tagline Alt er LOVE (see the front page of Skam English (2023)), quoting from the dialogue between Isak and Even in the third season in portraying their same-sex relationships; even posted by the project leader on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BNjl9erD2q3/?taken-by=julieandem. In English “Alt er LOVE” is translated into “everything is LOVE”, also playing on Norwegian “lov” meaning everything is “permitted”, “allowed”.

2. The series is still available on the series' website (https://Skam.p3.no/) The translations in the quotations in this paper leans on the English subtitles provided by the unofficial website Skam English (2023), sometimes adjusted after consultation with the original Norwegian version.

3. In the analysis below I do not harness the fine-meshed, often disputed terminology of narratology (Chatman 1978). But it is worth mentioning that Brooks (1992, 13) positions plot between story and discourse, holding that the plot “belongs to the narrative discourse, as its active shaping force, but that it makes sense … as it is used to reflect on fabula, as our understanding of story.”

4. In Islam the story of the prophet Yousef is told in Surah 12 of the Quran. The story is a parallel to the versions in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Yousef as the son of Jacob, is subject to envy from his brothers, he ends up in Egypt, turns famous as a dream interpreter, and becomes responsible for the storehouses of the land. When his family arrives Egypt fleeing from famine and hunger, they reunite with Yousef who hosts them and takes care of their needs.

5. In a larger context, this representation may be seen as reflecting the requirement of the political philosopher Habermas to religious statements on ethics – that they, as referred to by Olof Franck, ”have to be translated into “secular” terms to be understandable to other participants in the democratic discussion and allow for a fair and equal right to react to, and deny or accept, the reasoning in question” (2017, 6–7).

6. This social phenomenon influencing, but not regulated by the school, is subject to sociological reflection by Fjær, Pedersen and Sandeberg: ”Groups of students get together many years in advance and buy old buses which they refurbish to become rolling nightclubs that enable them to “transcend space” through partying while on the move. These mobile party spaces provide a material and symbolic centre of communion and a tight space for physical assembly that enhances the production of intense positive emotions. In a cat-and-mouse game with the police, the buses provide a sense of nomadic autonomy, and enable participants to drink heavily for days on end” (2016, 328).

7. Discourse is here employed in a wider sense than in narratology, with reference to discourse analysis, as summed up by Jørgensen and Phillips (2002, 5): ”Discourse is a form of social action that plays a part in producing the social world – including knowledge, identities and social relations – and thereby in maintaining specific social patterns”.

8. This analysis may be further explored with reference to some key elements in Greimas´ actantial model (Greimas, 1996). If Sana´s project – as a practicing Muslim wearing the hijab – is to be fully a part of Norwegian society, what are her chief opponents? Based on Sana’s experiences of racism, a main opponent is a society that addresses her Muslim identity as a stigma. Isak, however, identifies the chief opponent in Sana herself. She is the one who must transform a distant personality, stop searching for racism and hate, be patient and seek understanding. By virtue of Sana´s individual transformation prompted by the encounter with Isak, her inner opponent is turned into a helper, and the project succeeds. Isak is the main helper along the road, and his claim about Norwegians as caring for freedom, peace and other cultures is affirmed in the plot´s happy ending.

9. The concept of politics is famously summed up by Lasswell (1958) as who gets what, when, how. Here, I hold a processual conception of politics that emphasises the significance of power (Leftwich, 2004). In this optic, depoliticisation refers to a process where the distribution of stigma is concealed, but has not vanished.

10. This utterance is supported by research on religion and racism in a Norwegian context. Vassenden and Andersson (2011) point at how stigmatisation of Muslims in Oslo both applies to clothing and skin colour, with reference to Goffman´s emphasis on visibility as a crucial dimension of stigma.

11. Evang (2022, 40) points at how ”Sana´s acceptance into the national collective is conditional upon her ability to realize that “everyone is the same” while at the same time disregarding what she experiences as microaggressions and racism in the name of innocuous ignorance.”

12. A recent example (Sætra et al. 2023) is a research project mapping experiences of racism and discrimination among Norwegian children and youths. According to the researchers more than seven out of ten respondents with a background from Africa, and almost two out of three respondents with a background from Middle East and Asia had such experiences last year. They add that ”people with a minority background also experienced more discrimination based on ethnic background, skin colour, and religion” (Sætra et al. 2023, 4).